A Pair of Jacks (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (8 page)

Bright sunlight spotlighting her face through the sheer bedroom curtains woke Marie from a restless, dream-filled sleep. She was dreaming of Jack and Reno, unable to make a choice between them. In her dream, they had agreed to share both her love and her bed.
Keep on dreaming, Alice.
Wonderland is right around the corner.
She grinned, stretching languorously like a cat. Blinking a couple of times in the bright sun, she thought of her Parisian friend, Giselle Reynaurd.

Both beautiful and cosmopolitan, Giselle was excessively French, down to her penthouse with a view of the Eiffel Tower, and her ménage a trios lifestyle. She had often told Marie she needed to take two men into her bed. “It
ees
the spice of life, darling,” Giselle often said when Marie protested she could never consider a ménage. And here she was in mainstream USA thinking about just that, two lovers. If Giselle could see her now, she would laugh delightedly at Marie’s predicament.

Unable to stay in bed with her wayward thoughts, Marie got dressed and wandered downstairs to find Reno at the stove frying eggs and bacon, while Jack sat at the table drinking coffee. He had his feet propped up on a chair watching a news program.

“Nothing on the DC incident,” he commented. “It was contained before the reporters could get a story. Now it’s only a rumor that no one dares substantiate.”

“Do you think Yuri will know what happened?”

Jack nodded his head, taking another sip of black coffee. “The shooter was probably ex-KGB. He’ll report back to Yuri that the mission failed. Not to mention, someone inside GSA is working with Yuri. There has to be a traitor. He couldn’t have broken into the data base without inside help.”

“We have to presume he has someone influential on his payroll,” Reno agreed. “By now, he’ll know you’re on the run and he probably knows you’re under government protection. The biggest problem facing Yuri at the moment is how to locate you.”

“That won’t take him long.” Jack took his feet off the chair. “We think he’s going to try to make a hit on you here. That’s a little tougher. He’s not familiar with this terrain and he’s got the added burden of trying to keep out of sight. A foreigner in this neck of the woods still stands out. People talk.”

Marie grinned, knowing what he meant, but she had to ask, “By foreigner you mean…?”

“Anyone that’s not local.”

“So, I’m …”

“A foreigner,” both Reno and Jack said in unison.

“And that’s why you flew us to the ranch? You didn’t want the locals to know I’m staying out here?”

Reno shoveled what looked like half a dozen scrambled eggs on a plate, handing it to Marie. “Partially, but it also beat the long drive.”

Marie raked half the eggs off, splitting them between his plate and Jack’s. She sat down at the table, scooting her chair over so Reno could join them. “Do we just wait for him then? That seems anticlimactic.”

“It won’t when he gets here,” Reno answered. “We figure it’s easier to take him on our turf, away from civilians.”

“Yuri won’t show, he’ll send an errand boy,” Marie said. She couldn’t imagine Yuri leaving his deal with the Iranians unfinished while he hunted her down. He’d send another one of his specialized killers, maybe a whole team, if necessary.

Reno glanced at Jack. “We think he’ll show.”

Marie put her fork down, staring at the two of them intently. “What aren’t you telling me? Why do you think Yuri will leave Europe and his arms deal to come after me when he can send a skilled assassin?”

“Because we baited him.” Jack pushed back from his plate to return her stare. “We let him think you want to talk to him, that you have intelligence he needs to know before he finalizes the deal.”

“Then why didn’t you just give him a map and tell him how to find me? That would have made it so much simpler for all of us.” Marie felt her cheeks flush.

Jack hit the remote on the television, sending the room into instant silence. “He has to think you’re doing this on your own, without our knowledge. If he has to search for you, he’ll think you’re going behind our backs.”

Marie lost her appetite in a hurry. The food she ate turned into a hard lump and now lay like a stone in her belly. Yuri was not a man to bait for any reason. She didn’t doubt Jack and Reno’s abilities, but they were limited by working within the law. Yuri would have no such limitations placed on him.

Both men watched her expectantly while she wrestled with her anger. Finally, she controlled herself enough to speak in a low measured tone that belied her inner turmoil.

“I’m going to need a tour of the property.” Marie looked from one to the other of the men. “I’ll need to know how to get into town if things go down wrong. And I want someone to take me to the arrowhead ridge that Walter told me about, so I know where the supplies are without wasting time looking for them.”

“You don’t think we can protect you?” Reno asked. His dark eyes narrowed with what might be considered disappointment.

Marie sighed. “I think you declared war with one of the most dangerous men in the world. It’s best we be prepared for anything, and I do mean anything, because he’s got it all at his fingertips and he’ll use it.”

Jack’s easy confidence said he didn’t think Yuri Yanukovich would be a match for them on home territory. He pulled his plate close again and began eating. “We may have a few tricks of our own,” he said between bites of scrambled eggs and bacon.

“I hope you do, Jack.
I really hope you do.
” She got up from the table.

* * * *

Reno took a sip of coffee, watching Marie’s angry stride as she left the house to stand on the front porch. “That didn’t go so well.”

“What did you expect? She’s out of her element here. She’s never seen us in action, but she’s seen Yuri, and knows what he’s capable of. I’d be pissed, too, in her situation. If someone were using me for bait, I’d want a fighting chance.”

“So what do we do to distract her? It’s going to be pure hell if she’s pissed off until Yuri gets here. That could take a while.”

“You’re right,” Jack agreed, shooting Reno an uncharacteristic brotherly grin. “Got any ideas?”

Reno thought his brother should get laid more often. He was positively mellow this morning. “Yeah, I got an idea, but if I tell you, you’ll be more pissed off than she is.”

Jack looked from his brother to the woman standing on the porch, letting the cool morning breeze blow her hair around her small shoulders. He snorted with amusement. “Yeah, I bet I know what your idea is, Reno, and it won’t fly.”

“Listen to me, Jack,” Reno said. “Remember when we liked Anna Thompson in school? She liked both of us, and you said we outta give her what she wanted. I asked what you meant and you told me in great detail what you were talking about.”

“Fuck, Reno. We were kids. I was showing off. I’d seen a book that had a ménage scene and it was weighing pretty heavy on my mind.” Jack chuckled. “I can’t believe you still remember that.”

“Hell, Jack, I stayed awake at night for weeks just thinking about the mechanics of that,” Reno admitted, causing them both to laugh. “When you got hold of a copy of that magazine and brought it home, I thought it was the most seductively forbidden act I’d ever seen in my life. I never dated a woman after that without thinking about a threesome.” He gave a slight grimace. “Thanks, bro.”

“What are big brothers for?” Jack pointedly looked out the screen door at Marie. “And now we have our own sophisticated Parisian, straight from ménage a trois territory, standing on the porch, pissed as hell at both of us, and you want us to go out there and tell her we both want to fuck her?”

“Well,” Reno hesitated, “yeah. Basically. We might work on the wording a little, and polish the delivery.”

“She’d take our heads off.”

“Maybe not,” Reno insisted. “Come on, Jack. You got to admit she would be a sweet little morsel between us. Ummmm.”

“And when this is over?”

Reno sighed, giving an impatient shrug. “She’ll go home. Wherever home is. You know she’s not going to stick around, Jack. She’s been on the move since she was born.”

To Reno’s surprise, his brother seemed to be giving it some thought. It was a piece of brilliance on his part bringing up the memory of Anna Thompson. He and Jack had spent a teenage summer talking about what it would be like to get in her pants in every conceivable way possible. The two of them had finally digressed to lurid fantasies involving Anna pleasuring them simultaneously, because in those younger days, it had been all about what they wanted. The pair naively assumed if it pleasured them, the woman was bound to enjoy it.

Reno’s way of thinking had changed since then. He knew without a doubt he and Jack could satisfy Marie Maxwell. She was a woman who needed physical comfort and attention. Hadn’t she shown that by reaching out to both of them already? The woman needed loving like a flower needed sun.

* * * *

Marie was lost in thought when Jack and Reno came out to stand on either side of her. They hemmed her tightly between them, standing close enough she could feel their hard bodies down the length of her own. She became immediately aware of the subtle difference in their attitude toward her. It seemed almost as if a new layer of awareness had settled around them, something territorial, male, and vaguely aggressive.

Reno put his hand on her back, slightly above her hips, his hand massaging her with a lover’s familiarity. Jack put his hand at the back of her neck, gently wrapping his fingers around her throat, kneading the tense muscles with firm strokes of his powerful thumbs.

Marie jerked back from the two of them so quickly that she stumbled and would have fallen if the rail hadn’t been there to support her. “Okay, stop now.” She put her hands out to ward them off. “I’m still upset with both of you and you’re not going to distract me. What’s going on?”

“A ménage. Up for it?” Reno arched one eyebrow in challenge. “One time offer only, two for the price of one. Take it, or leave it.”

Surprised, Marie looked up at Jack and he lowered his face to kiss her, holding her trapped within his grip. Reno’s hand slid over the curve of her butt again, taking intimate license to explore her ass as his brother’s kiss deepened. Reno’s teasing fingers made Marie eagerly open her mouth to Jack. She trembled excitedly with the forbidden thrill of both men touching her.
Oh, my God, am I really going to do this?

Unconsciously, Marie widened her legs to give Reno access to the throbbing core of her femininity. She wished he would breach the barrier of her clothing and put his fingers deep inside her pussy. Instead, he stroked her clit through the layers, putting just enough pressure to make her weak kneed and trembling.

Jack’s hand left her neck and his fingers found her breasts. Now, she had two pair of hands touching her, playing with her nipples, stroking her clit, and leading her to a dark fantasy filled with pleasure she’d never experienced.
Yes, I am so going to do this.

“Guys,” she whispered breathlessly.

Jack drew back to look at her face. “Yes or no. That’s all you have to say, Marie. Yes or no.”

“Yes, oh God, yes.” She breathed. She slumped against Reno’s body as he ran his hands up her sides and slightly under his brother’s hands giving her the feel of two men supporting her, touching her, paying attention to her needs.

One of Jack’s hands swept her hair away from her neck, allowing Reno to lower his face to her skin, breathing hot kisses on her neck and shoulder while their hands roamed her body, touching everywhere, teasing, pulling, stroking, and eliciting such a need in Marie, she thought she would faint from the sensation.

“Let’s go inside,” she pleaded. She reached out to touch both of them with her hands, gripping their shirts in her fists.

“Uh, uh.” Reno reluctantly stepped back from her. “Walter and Sallie will be over today. We don’t want to be interrupted, now do we?”

Jack glanced up at the craggy bluffs in the near distance. “We could take a picnic out to the arrowhead rock. Tell Marie how we baited Yuri and show her where the supplies are stored. Then we should check on the cabin while we’re up there.”

“Cabin?” she asked hopefully.

“Not really a cabin, baby, more like a few rough boards and pieces of tin nailed together, but it’s shelter in a storm,” Reno explained. It was also where he and Jack had hid the magazine with the enticing ménage photos and talked for hours about the technicalities of both of them doing Anna Thompson at the same time.

“And it does have a single bed.” Jack cast Reno a glance that confirmed the memories were on his mind, too.

“You saddle the horses,” Reno said. “I’ll pack the lunch.”

* * * *

“Her name is Myst.” Jack leaned down from the saddle to hand Marie the reins of a dappled gray mare that looked sleek and fast. “Do you know how to ride?”

“Of course.” Marie took the reins from him and easily mounted the horse, settling herself into the saddle like a pro. She’d had riding lessons over the years, including a year at the exclusive Spanish Riding School of Vienna, training on descendants of the famous Lipizzaner Stallions during her mother’s tour of duty in Europe.

Marie sat gingerly on the saddle, she was still aroused by the touch of Jack and Reno. Her clit seemed so sensitive that a light breeze of air could send her into an orgasm, and now she sat mounted on a horse, sure to feel the rocking sway of the saddle caressing her swollen nub through the jeans she wore.

Holding her weight off the saddle until her legs couldn’t take the pressure any longer, Marie settled against the leather, letting her body rock with the gentle motion of the horse’s gait. Her clit bounced lightly against the seat with every step. It was an exquisite sort of torture, building a need in her belly that couldn’t be denied. She gave a low sound of frustration, causing Reno to look at her with a knowing grin.