Beyond Jealousy (22 page)

Nothing had ever been more real.

The only thing better than watching Rachel shake her way to orgasm was doing it with the words
I love you
echoing in his head.

Ace was usually enamored of the visuals. The sweaty glory of sex and how it got messier as things heated up. Parted lips, swollen from sucking cock, and slick pussy, swollen from a firm fucking. Smooth flesh, pink from fingers and stubble and teeth, or bisected by artistic welts.

You could reconjure all the most beautiful depravity of any night by tracing the marks left behind. A carnal detective, recreating the scene of the crime.

But God, tonight the sounds were
killing
him.

I love you.

She had said it before with hate in her eyes, riding hurt and a broken heart. Now she'd said it with drunken passion, riding Cruz's dick.

Maybe someday she'd say it with nothing between them but quiet truth.

Not that he was complaining. Fuck, no, not when Cruz finished with a final thrust and another sound that shook through Ace. Tortured relief--not just an orgasm, but true fucking release. An entire adult life of denial, spent in one fury of wild-eyed passion, and suddenly it didn't matter that Rachel's words were still bouncing against the inside of Ace's skull. That his jeans were crushing a dick that had flown by
too hard
ten fucking minutes ago.

Cruz needed him right now, more than he ever had.

Ace coaxed a final shudder from Rachel and eased his hand away before he could wind her back up. "Don't you go flying again yet, angel. I don't care how good his cock felt." Words spoken to her but meant for Cruz, a reassurance of Rachel's enjoyment before doubt could close in.

She collapsed against him with a laugh, trembling, her cheek and temple damp on his shoulder. "I can't stop shaking."

"I know, Rae." Ace cupped the back of her head and smiled at Cruz. "You did a number on him, too. You should see the look in his eyes."

Cruz frowned. Well, he
tried
to frown, and Ace felt his smile widen to a grin when stone-faced Cruz stroked Rachel's hip with a soft look in his glazed eyes. "He never shuts up, does he?"

"Never." She kissed the side of Ace's neck with a pleased hum. "And his words are just like him. Every time he opens his mouth, something filthy and gorgeous comes out."

"Can't help it, lovers." He liked that word, the way it rolled off his tongue to curl around both of them. It let him pretend he wasn't gate-crashing a couple this time, a tourist in someone else's torrid love affair.

For now, at least, they were his. A matched set of filthy-minded innocents who wanted to get dirty, and he wasn't about to waste a goddamn moment of it.

Cruz and Rachel were both dazed, so Ace slipped into the driver's seat. It wasn't hard--he'd had years of practice at nudging a situation without seeming to have taken control.

He eased Rachel upright, letting her fall back against Cruz's chest, and rocked to his feet. "If you two are all worn out, I'll have to take care of my own dick."

Rachel laid a hand on Cruz's cheek, then turned her face up to his with a questioning look.

Fuck if Ace knew what that question was, but Cruz's lips tilted up in a secret smile, like they had their own silent language. He made it look easy, and jealousy might have stirred if Cruz hadn't turned that smile toward him. "Get naked and get on the bed."

A command, without prompting. Halle-fucking-lujah.

Ace tore open his belt and damn near tripped in his haste to shed his jeans. Rachel laughed again, soft and hot, and tugged the denim down his legs. It put her mouth close to his neglected cock, and he spent a few seconds imagining her with those swollen lips around him, swallowing him with the same eager moans she'd given Cruz.

Patience.
He had to fight the urge to grasp for everything, to exhaust them all in his quest to check off every fantasy on a list so long, Sector Four probably didn't have enough paper to contain it. If he wanted to make the most of every moment, he had to silence that mental countdown, the one that whispered to make the most of every hour, every minute, every second.

Fear lied. Rachel and Cruz weren't slipping away from him--not yet, anyway. So he stepped back, sprawled across Cruz's neatly made bed, and let his newly corrupted lovers come to him.

Cruz nudged Rachel forward, urging and permitting, all at once. She knelt over one of Ace's legs and braced her hands beside his hips.

That sweet little smile remained. "It's my turn, you know. Are you ready for all those dirty ideas you don't think I have?"

He'd never imagined her pure. Sweet, yeah. Trusting, sure. Maybe inexperienced, but not wide-eyed and innocent like Noelle had been in her early days. Only her endearing eagerness had saved Noelle from being a high-maintenance Eden virgin, and Ace had had his share of those.

But he wasn't dumb enough to admit as much to Rachel, not when a challenge could spur her to reach for extra-filthy heights. So he tugged at a strand of her hair with a teasing smile. "You? Dirty? I'll believe that when I see it."

She was on to his game--she had to be--but she played along. "It depends, of course, on what Cruz lets me do to you." As she spoke, she leaned down, just close enough for one hard nipple to graze the head of Ace's cock.

Hell, she had nice tits. Smooth, full. He could imagine pushing them together and fucking up between them until he came all over her throat, her collar. But that wouldn't help her flex her sexual power, and Christ, he wanted her to get real comfortable with that. So he dropped her hair and gathered the chain on her collar in his hand. "Yes, brother. What does she get to do to me?"

Cruz slid to the bed on his knees. A subtle position of dominance, towering over them as he stroked Rachel's back. "What do you want, sweetheart?"

She ran her thumb across Ace's lower lip, and then pushed deeper, into his mouth. "He spends so much time talking about his clever tongue," she whispered. "I want it."

Oh, that was even better than having her ride his dick. He bit her thumb before sucking on it, just like he'd suck on her clit.

If Cruz let him at her.

He flicked his gaze to the other man, but Cruz's expression gave no clues as he caressed Rachel. Her hair, her shoulders, one of those big hands disappearing down her back until Ace heard the distinctive
thwack
of an open palm against soft flesh.

Rachel jerked with a moan, and Ace's pulse sped, even faster when Cruz spoke. "Ace hasn't gotten to spank you yet. You can slide on up and ride his tongue. But if you do, he gets to do whatever he wants to your ass. Spank it. Flog it." He leaned down, his lips brushing her ear. "Fuck it."

Her long, surprisingly dark lashes fluttered over hungry eyes. "Anything."

Cruz smiled his satisfaction, close enough to permission for Ace to lock his hands around Rachel's waist and drag her up. Her knees landed on either side of his head, and she gasped and arched her back as he swept his tongue over her.

She swayed above him, her tits bouncing, her nipples tight, and for a heartbeat he wished he'd remembered to fish out her new nipple clamps. He'd gone overboard with the jewelry, throwing money at Stuart hand over fist, but it would be worth every credit when he got her spread out, jeweled chains dancing from her nipples and tugging on the sweet little piece that would hug her clit.

Next time, when he wasn't too busy licking her. He closed his lips around her clit and sucked. She cried out, falling back to brace her hands on his rib cage as she shook and trembled.

Too fast. He backed off, flattening his tongue to stroke, slow and soothing as he clutched her ass and pulled her closer. She relaxed, her tension melting away as she began to roll her hips against his mouth in a languorous, liquid rhythm.

The bed shifted, and Cruz dipped into Ace's field of vision. He caught the beribboned chain trailing between Rachel's breasts and wrapped it around his fist, its length growing shorter and shorter until he tugged it taut. "Look at me."

Her head fell back, blonde hair sliding over her pale shoulders as well as Cruz's darker skin. She met his eyes, a pretty pink flush spreading over her face.

Ace thought life couldn't get any damn hotter. But it did. Cruz drew the chain up--not hard, just enough to urge Rachel to stretch her body, and lowered his mouth to her ear. "You wanted to ride him. Tell him where you want his tongue, and what you want him to do with it."

Her hips jerked. "I want his tongue on my clit, just like this--" The words hitched, and her voice dropped, low and husky. "And I want more. His tongue inside me, so he can lick the taste of you out of my pussy."

Jesus
Christ
. If he survived the night, he'd engrave the words on a fucking plaque for her. The perfect filthy moment of utter abandon, and as Ace speared his tongue into her, Cruz let out a choked noise.

That's right. Think about coming in my mouth. Think about coming inside her. Revel in it, even if it makes you feel dirty. Get fucking drunk on how much we don't care, how much we like it--

The only downside to having his tongue inside Rachel was that he couldn't say any of it now. Maybe later, after he'd jerked off all over the marks he was going to leave on her smooth ass. Or hell--he squeezed it, pushing his hands together, listening to her broken noises as the plug shifted--maybe she could take his cock tonight.

She'd take it if he wanted her to. She'd try anything, because she was perfect. She was fucking
perfect
.

And she was getting close, writhing above him as Cruz pinched her nipples between his fingers. Tight, and then tighter, and her inner muscles clenched as he dragged her right up to the edge of pain--and then over it.

She looked down at Ace, her eyes glazed with pleasure and more, with that dreamy look she got every time he laid her ink.

He licked his way back to her clit. Light, soft, flicking his tongue in a careful counterbalance to the roughness of Cruz's hands. Rachel cried out, quaking through an orgasm too fast to last long, but too hard not to leave her limp in Cruz's arms, dazed and spent.

Ace met Cruz's eyes, and they didn't need whatever secret, silent code the other man shared with Rachel. He lifted her, and Cruz figured it out fast enough, gathering her up against his chest as Ace rolled to his knees.

He'd brought plenty of options. Too many, maybe. Floggers that would caress, ones that would fall deep and hard, ones that would sting. A strap, too, wider than his belt and just as severe. His brain took a mental inventory as he watched Cruz ease Rachel to the bed, boneless and liquid and still so eagerly obedient that she sank into the ideal position, her cheek against the blanket, her knees under her, her ass in the air like an offering.

His hands itched to touch her. So he ignored that fucking anxiety, the taunting voice rising again, whispering for him to take everything now because there might not be another chance.

He eased into place beside her, smoothing both hands over the curves of her ass. "You with us, Rae?"

She smiled, slow and relaxed. "I'm not flying yet. I promise."

She would be soon. He jerked his head at Cruz, motioning for him to retrieve the abandoned bottle of lube, and pressed his thumb to the jewel nestled between her ass cheeks. "You look so pretty like this, angel. Decorated."

"I see what you like." She stretched gently, arching her back even more. "Dress me up and make me scream, huh?"

"You know it." Her skin was still a little pink from where he'd grabbed her. He rubbed the marks, massaging his fingers from her hips to the tops of her thighs. Rubbing, squeezing, watching the color rise as Cruz returned to the bed.

Impossible not to savor the moment. Rachel, stretched out between them, her ass lifted, her expression blissful. It was easy like this. Easy to urge her arms up to the small of her back for Cruz to hold, easy to guide the other man's hand to settle between her shoulder blades. Ace liked chains, sure, but chains couldn't think or adapt, couldn't shift their leverage and move her into position, or turn steely at just the right moment to drive her wild.

"He's going to hold you here," Ace said quietly, brushing Rachel's hair back from her face. "You like that, don't you? Being helpless?"

She tried to stretch again, but Cruz's fingers tightened, and goose bumps rose on her skin. "Yes."

He knew. He'd always known, in his gut, in his
bones
. The reckless abandon that infuriated him when she flung herself at the world was beautiful like this. Trust, simple and pure, and it could only be better if they could convince her to save it for them alone.

Soon, Santana. Soon.

She was shivering beneath his touch now, her body tensing in anticipation. He shifted his hand lower, slipped between her legs to stroke her pussy. Once, twice, teasing up to circle her clit with just enough pressure to make her moan.

The sound still hung in the air when he raised his hand and brought it down the first time. Rachel cried out, arching away for a heartbeat before relaxing with a ragged breath.

Ace liked those sounds, too. So much that he did it again, on the opposite cheek, savoring the crack of his palm and the hitch in her breathing as much as the way her skin turned pink. The flush grew every time he struck her in a different spot, and Rachel squirmed in Cruz's grip as her cries and moans grew lower, more intense.

Her movements changed, too. Instead of tensing every time his hand fell, she arched into each blow. She rubbed her cheek sensuously against the bed, as if seeking more contact, more touch. More sensation.

"Hungry girl." He let the next land a little harder, pushing her toward the blurry edge of pain. "Holding you while you wiggle is getting Cruz hard."

Her hands flexed in the man's grip, and she licked her lips. "Tell me."

Cruz opened his mouth, but Ace forestalled him with another series of smacks, each hard enough to rock her body forward. "You want to see his cock, angel?"

"
Yes
. I want--" She wiggled again. "Let me."