Beautiful Triad (13 page)

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92

Kate Watterson

Jeans off, his brain instructed frantically. Or was it his dick calling the tune, he wasn’t sure.

Get rid of the nightgown, pronto
.

Insistent hands explored his bare chest and he made a low animal sound of approval. Somehow he managed to unfasten his pants while still kissing her, his fingers clumsy on the button and zipper.

Where had his intention gone to make slow sweet love to her?

“Rob.” The erotic quiver in her voice made him want to explode.

“Off,” he ordered, with effort pulling away so he could disentangle himself from his jeans and underwear. The curt instruction wasn’t exactly romantic but she didn’t seem to mind, grabbing the hem of her nightgown and pulling it up over her head in a flurry of fabric and silken hair.

There was more to Lauren than her centerfold body, but at the moment, it was his main focus. He stepped free of his clothes, his erection prominent and throbbing, before he crawled on the bed and tumbled her to her back. His mouth went to one breast, licking the tip in a wicked sweep of his tongue before he took the nipple.

Deep. So deep she gasped as he sucked hard and her hands flew into his hair.

A crack of lightning was punctuated by the sudden darkness as they lost power. He barely noticed, his mouth ravenous as he suckled her, not sure if he’d ever been so out of control in bed. She arched, her breathing ragged, the lashing of the deluge against the windows adding an elemental edge to his need.

“Yesss…” It came out as a low hiss, her pelvis suggestively lifting against him. “Oh…yes.”

All right. If the lady didn’t mind his wild approach, he’d be more than happy to fuck her, and maybe later they could make love.

He slid a hand down her stomach, found her pussy, and one finger sought entrance. Hmm, nice and wet, soft and slick, incredibly hot and ready…

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Beautiful Triad

93

Drew had been right. Lauren loved sex. Not all women were built for it in the same way, and it was beyond arousing to hear her breathless pants as he finger-fucked her in a slow rhythm. He added a second finger to the first, pushing into her vaginal passage as his thumb massaged her clit until she started to arch wildly against the motion.

He loved she loved it.

He loved
her
.

Nuzzling her neck, he drifted his mouth to her ear. Her nails grazed his back and he asked hoarsely. “Do you want something else inside you?”

Her hips rotated. “I…think…that’s…obvious.”

That he could make her so breathless she couldn’t speak gave him a great deal of satisfaction. The fact he wanted the same thing was gratifying also. Rob shifted and she opened for him, the warm cradle of her thighs a perfect fit.

Her welcoming pussy was exactly right, too, tight, slick, gripping him as he pushed inside the very core of her body and they became one.

He wasn’t usually poetic, but the realization that the primal joining of their bodies made them as close as any two human beings could be was moving, even in the moment of the most excruciating sexual need he could ever remember. As he began to thrust and she moved with him in open acceptance, he found not only acute pleasure but also a sort of bewildering introspection.

In and out. Hard and fast. Pleasure rolled over him in enveloping waves. Between jagged bolts of lightning, it was pitch dark but he could feel her, feel the communion of their bodies, and it was beyond incredible and somewhere into exquisite or something equally sublime.

“Touch me.” Lauren moaned. “Rob, I’m so close…please.”

The words registered in his brain but weren’t apparently necessary. Even as he reached a hand between their undulating bodies Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.

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94

Kate Watterson

she gave an inarticulate cry and he could feel the first ripple of the tremors of her release. The sudden squeeze of her inner muscles clenched his cock and he was gone, lost in a flash of white hot light that wasn’t the result of a violent summer storm sweeping through the area. The force of his ejaculation made his entire body shake.

When he could move again, he shifted his weight to the side, keeping her close against him. The storm was either losing force or moving away for the flares against the windows were less frequent and the thunder dimming.

What did one say after sex that amazing? He was surprised he was still breathing.

It was Lauren, her head resting against his shoulder, who murmured, “If you were just trying to convince me about moving in with you, that was a pretty persuasive argument for your case.”

He laughed at the dry note in her voice, an interesting sensation since his still fairly hard penis was inside her. “I can argue again, if you like, but you’ll have to give me a few minutes.”

“Uhm…I might pass out.”

He laughed again. “I think I did just a few minutes ago.”

“Most of the time it would be just you and me.” The statement was made without inflection and he knew she was thinking out loud and maybe even testing him a little.

His fingers drifted through the softness of her hair. “That’s very true. Drew is gone all the time. You’d have to be comfortable with that.”

“Roommates with benefits? Isn’t that the phrase?”

He wished he could see her face. Very slowly, he said, “I don’t think you can define this relationship, Lauren, and I’ve already told you this is different for me. I’m confused as
hell
as to why I’m all good with the idea of a three way love affair, but somehow I seem to be. In a lot of ways it blows my mind.”

“That’s an understatement for me.”

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Beautiful Triad

95

“Drew is very okay with all of this. I think what happens next is up to us.”

“I believe you’re right there.” She lifted her head and one hand rested on his chest, right over his heart. He could tell she was peering at him in the darkness. “I keep telling myself parents have different numbers of children, and whether it is just one or ten, they love them all. And that’s okay. People get married more than once, so they’ve fallen in love multiple times. If I’ve just done it at the same time, two different men…it’s okay, too.”

The inner struggle was no surprise to him. He smiled, whether she could see it or not. “Yes, I agree, but keep in mind I’m not unprejudiced in this situation. If you want my take, I’ll give it. I think Drew loves this idea because he is never going to be a nine to five guy, but he believes deep down that’s what you want. Maybe he can give it to you anyway, through me. He obviously guessed pretty easily my feelings toward you, so to him it makes perfect sense. I’m so nine to five-computer geek-suburbs-two-point-five kids that it’s scary.”

Lauren laughed. The sensation was interesting since they were still intimately joined. Maybe he could get an erection again faster than he thought. He was still pretty hard—considering he was sure there wasn’t a drop of sperm left in his balls after that explosive orgasm. She said in a husky tone he found very hot, “Rob, I don’t think any woman would see you and think geek. You know what you look like. I assume you use a mirror at least to shave.”

He didn’t care what other women thought of him. But he did care—to a sobering extent—what
she
thought. “If you find me attractive, I’m glad, but you know it’s going to be more than this.” He moved a little, a shift of his hips, pressing his stiffening cock a little deeper inside her. Moving his mouth to her ear, he nibbled on her earlobe and felt the resulting shiver of reaction with satisfaction. “It’s going to be whether or not I leave the seat up or down, a newspaper in the driveway, the color of the couch, what’s for dinner…”

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96

Kate Watterson

“Trying to scare me off?” There was just the right breathless note to her voice that told him she knew he was catching his second wind and getting his erection back.

“I’m just being practical.” He nuzzled her neck. “Fair warning, I do that. Analyze things to death on a regular basis.”

“For God’s sake, I’m an actuary. I use calculus every day. Give me a break, Hanson.”

“So we’re both practical.”

Lauren gave a brief exhale he understood was pleasure. “Let’s be practical tomorrow, okay?”

He agreed without saying a word.

This time he’d make love to her, long and slow.

Unless another storm rushed in. And he wasn’t thinking about the weather.

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Beautiful Triad

97

Day five.

With each day that passed and no sign of Regina, surely the police would become more and more concerned and involved.

Right?

He wasn’t going to think about it, or at least keep it out of his mind as much as possible. Ben walked out across the deck and adjusted the expensive telescope his wife had given him one Christmas, the tripod permanently mounted on the deck off the upstairs master suite. A spotting telescope, ostensibly it had been so he could bird watch even across the lake—which had never happened—but at the moment, it served very well as a tool so he could spy on his neighbors.

He was actually working.

The two choices he had right now were to worry, or gather information for his work in progress. Since the topic was unconventional sexual practices and how they fit in modern society, having three healthy young subjects so close by seemed too good a chance to miss. It had been a coincidence—but only to a certain extent since there were few decent restaurants nearby—to see them the night before at the Italian place where he and Regina ate regularly when they were down for a weekend. His wife didn’t cook at home, much less on vacation, and neither did he, for that matter. Under the circumstances, he wasn’t about to start, so when he found himself drinking scotch alone at five o’clock and realized from the burning in his stomach he hadn’t eaten anything all day, he’d decided to go out.

When the trio was seated at a tabled near his, he’d at first felt as if fate Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.

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98

Kate Watterson

was toying with him, not giving him even a brief respite from thinking about the young woman vacationing next door and what she’d seen the morning after his wife disappeared.

His boat.

A blond man, cropped hair, slightly prominent nose, blue shirt, patterned tie…he was a little surprised she couldn’t tell him the color of the guy’s eyes. Miss Hanes
was
an observant person.

So was he.

The couple plus one had proved to be an interesting distraction instead of ruining his enjoyment of his Veal Marsala.

In an abstract way, he’d wondered when he’d talked to the three of them just which young man was the girl’s boyfriend, but it had been a passing thought, his absorption more on getting as much information as possible. Their body language had been a little on the confusing side, and as a trained psychologist, he prided himself on being able to read actions and weigh them more than words. Briefly he’d considered private practice as a therapist, but it didn’t really interest him and he felt more at home in academia anyway. Still, during the course of getting his PhD he’d done clinical stints and learned quite a bit about how the mannerisms of the average person could tell you a great deal.

People lied on a regular basis. But their actions rarely did and he couldn’t help but notice that
both
the men sitting with his pretty witness seemed to exhibit proprietary behavior toward Lauren Hanes.

A hand at the small of her back, pulling out her chair, touching her arm during conversation, a wink, a long look…

Two males. One attractive female.

Fascinating.

On a purely professional level, of course.

His cell phone rang then, and he took it out, flipped it open, and registered the number with a twist deep in his stomach. “Hello?”

“Dr. Heaton?”

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Beautiful Triad

99

Who the fuck else would it be
, he thought in unwarranted irritation due probably entirely to stress. “Of course.”

“This is Sheriff Barker. I have some news about your wife. It isn’t encouraging, I’m afraid.”

It was about time. He needed
something
to tell him what was going on with the investigation. “What is it? Just tell me.”

“Her purse has been found in a state park in Georgia.”

“Georgia? Why would it be there?”

“Well, sir, we were kinda hoping you might help us figure that one out.”

“As far as I know, she had no reason to go to Georgia.” It was true.

“No friends or family there?”

“None, Sheriff.”

There was a small cough on the other end of the call. “The Georgia State Police are searching the area. The purse was dumped near a campground and the terrain is forested—”

“Good God, she really was abducted, wasn’t she?”

Barker said heavily, “It is a possibility, sir.”

* * * *

Lauren looked over the shimmering expanse of the lake, her arms wrapped around her knees, and shook her head. She couldn’t help but think about whatever the man had dumped in the boat. “I don’t feel very much like getting in the water.”

Neither Rob nor Drew argued with her.

The evening storms the day before had left everything lush in the aftermath, the air was warm and humid, and the sun shone in a brilliant post-front sky.