Braided Lives (15 page)
"I'm sorry I lost it and hit you," Peter whispered. His fingers grazed across Danny's mouth, and Danny felt the warm electric tingle of the healer's talent begin.
"Don't," said Danny, pulling Peter's hand away from his bruised mouth.
"I hurt you. The least I can do is fix it," Peter said.
"No. I don't want you blowing what little energy you've gotten back on something so insignificant."
"It won't take very much…" Peter protested a little.
"No. Just let me hold you, and feel like you're safe."
***
Another forty-eight hours passed before Peter returned to his duties. Even then, the rest of the medical staff kept a watchful eye on him. Stephen Benford returned from his trip to Memphis and the funeral. The psychologist spent a couple of hours in his office with Peter that afternoon.
It had been nearly a week since Peter's near miss. As she walked from the residential wing across the open courtyard to the office wing, the mid-afternoon heat of the day made Jennifer think about the beach. Having gone to the Virginia Beach oceanfront once with Danny, she knew the drive wasn't a particularly long one.
Maybe she could convince Peter and Danny to go there.
Peter would probably benefit from some hours away from the complex. She had an hour before her shielding session with Sumiko, which should be time enough to swing by Danny's office.
The interior hallway was cooler and darker. She found Danny in his office. He was tapping away at the keyboard of his computer.
"Do you have plans for this evening?" she asked.
He looked up. "Not really, just probably dinner with Peter."
"Let's go to the beach, the three of us. We could probably even do dinner there."
Danny looked thoughtful and she skimmed the images of them walking on the beach in the dusk from his head, followed by something she assumed might be a hotel room. The gaze he gave her made her know he was very aware of what she was doing.
"Pack a change of clothes and I'll coerce Peter," he said.
***
As far as bribery and coercion went, it didn't actually take much to convince Peter that a night away would be a good thing. Finding an available room in a decent hotel, though, took Danny a good half dozen phone calls.
They found a tolerable restaurant facing the boardwalk, and went walking in the surf on the beach. In the light of the setting sun, the number of people on the beach was diminishing. They ambled a mile or so in the direction of Rudee Inlet before Danny's forays into the edge of the surf splashed a surge of water up the leg of Peter's shorts. Danny caught the flutter of aggressive amusement from Peter and a moment later Peter was chasing him through the surf, seeking revenge. Jennifer rolled her eyes and followed at a slower pace. Dashing in and out of the water's edge, Danny managed to stay mostly out of reach of Peter's splashes, not that he was trying all that hard. He hadn't anticipated the tackle from Peter however, and they landed in the sand, Peter's arms fastened around his hips.
Peter rolled Danny over, crawling up his body and straddling his waist, pinning Danny's wrists to the sand.
They were both still breathing fairly hard as Danny stared up into Peter's hazel eyes. He felt suppressed laughter and a hefty dose of lust from Peter. God, this was so much closer to normal for Peter that Danny felt a sense of relief. Peter's face dipped toward his and a soft kiss was placed on his mouth.
"Gotcha," Peter said.
Danny gave him a grin, and bucked up under Peter's spread legs grinding his groin against Peter's balls. "You can have me any way you want me," taunted Danny.
"Oh? Is that a fact?"
"Well, buck naked out here on the beach might pose some problems…"
Peter laughed and gave Danny a hand up as Jennifer was catching up to them.
"Are the two of you done with the rough housing?"
she asked.
"Maybe," replied Danny. "I was thinking maybe we should head back to the hotel and stress test the mattress." He grabbed Jen and flung her over his shoulder so her torso hung down his back. She let out a squeal of indignation and beat her hands against his butt as he began walking down the beach. He barely caught the devious revenge thought before she implemented it.
Suddenly, he was being given a serious wedgie as she yanked hard on the waist band of his briefs.
"Jesus God damn it!" he shouted, as his nuts were being squeezed between the fabric and his body.
"Put me the fuck down! Or I'll pull harder!" Jen shouted.
"Okay, okay!" he yelped, noticing that Peter was doubled over in laughter. Danny let Jennifer's body slide down his back slowly as he kept hold on her legs until he could see her hands hit the sand behind his feet.
"What is this? Gang up on me day?"
"Oh hell, that was priceless," Peter snickered. Danny grabbed his shorts and adjusted himself to relieve the pressure.
"So says the guy whose nards are still intact,"
groaned Danny.
"Oh come on, I could have pulled a lot harder,"
replied Jen, sticking her tongue out.
"Don't stick it out unless you intend to use it," Danny said.
"What makes you think I won't?" she taunted. Oh, that got Danny's attention.
Peter was laughing again. "How 'bout I kiss it better when we get back to the hotel?"
***
"Those are some awfully literary images," Jen said.
Her fingers were making little circles on his chest. She was obviously seeing the images in his head.
"You're being pretty quiet after all our joking around out on the beach," said Danny. His teeth nipped at the corner of Peter's jaw.
"Sorry, I'm just… the past week was…" Peter couldn't find an adequate description, so he settled for,
"bad."
Jennifer placed a kiss on Peter's mouth. There was a lot of care invested in that simple gesture.
"I think you offered to put your tongue to good use,"
Peter suggested, trying to lighten his own mood a little.
"Mmm, and I seem to remember something about kissing my balls all better," Danny followed up.
"In that case, we all have way too many clothes on,"
replied Peter.
It took no more than a few minutes for all of them to strip. Peter noticed that Danny had fished lube and condoms out of a suitcase and put them within easy reach on the bedside table, along with a towel.
Danny, horny bastard that he was, slouched against the headboard, legs spread and pointed at his crotch. He was already half hard.
"Somebody needs to kiss them better," Danny said, giving both Peter and Jennifer a leer.
Peter glanced at Jennifer, and she smiled. They both began a slow assault. Lips, tongues, a hint of teeth…the two of them executed a delicate torture of Danny's cock.
Soon he was moaning and twisting, and thrusting against either mouth as the opportunity permitted. One last lick up the side of his prick was all it took to tip Danny over the edge and he blew his load up his belly with a harsh groan. Peter reveled in the wash of pleasure from Danny's mind. It mixed with the softer emotions from Jennifer and sent an electric tingle through Peter's body. The rush of psychic sensations left him achingly hard, and he was torn between wanting to hump Danny's leg and grinding against Jennifer's hip just to get some relief.
Danny groped for a towel and mopped up most of the stickiness, then he slid down from the headboard to curl himself along Peter's side, one arm draped across Peter's back and Jen's leg. Peter squirmed around until he was face up. Jennifer began kissing along his collarbone up toward his throat. God, he wanted to be in her, in Danny, on top of her or Danny or… or…
"Slow down," Jen whispered. Her hand glided along his chest. Danny's long arm was pulling all three of their bodies tighter together, and the increase in skin pressure was somehow calming. Peter took a deep breath. Why had he felt so close to flying apart?
"You're safe," murmured Danny, "And you can have anything you want."
"I… I want both of you… together at the same time, I think," Peter managed to say.
"Mmm, that might require a certain amount of acrobatics," commented Jennifer.
"It might work best if you start with Jen and then I join in, otherwise I think this is going to require more planning than any us want to bother with. Okay?" Danny had released his hold on Jennifer and he skimmed his hand down over Peter's belly to brush across his erection.
A condom on and a certain amount of body rearrangement, and Peter snugged his hips between Jen's legs and began to kiss her, hands caressing her face and shoulders and moving lower. Danny lay on his side, one arm under Jennifer's neck, the opposite hand running along Peter's back and side. Peter happily found it easy to twist just a little and kiss Danny, too. Oh wow, that was such a delicious contrast.
As Peter pushed into Jen's body, her legs flexed and curled around his hips. Danny scooted further down and his face was now awkwardly out of reach to Peter. Oh but hell… a cool slick fingertip pressed between his butt cheeks, circling his entrance and sliding in.
It was an amazing combination of sensations, thrusting forward or pulling back. He could feel the arousal of both lovers' minds as well as all the physical sensations. Fuck, this wasn't going o last anywhere near long enough.
The climax tore through him like a runaway avalanche and Peter collapsed limply on top of Jen.
Danny's hand petted Peter's back.
"Any brain cells left?" Danny murmured.
"Huh-uh," was all of Peter's response. He slid off of Jennifer and flopped bonelessly onto the far side of her.
***
"
Some
of us are not as fast as you two," groused Jen.
Her hand gripped the back of Danny's skull and pulled him down toward her hips. "Mouth, tongue, fingers, damn it,
do
something," she ordered.
Danny snickered. "Demanding little wench aren't you?" He slid further down the bed and buried his face between her thighs. Oh hell, she smelled good, and tasted even better. He drew his tongue along her slick wetness. There was a hint of latex in the flavor from the condom Peter had used but that was inevitable. He slipped a couple of fingers into her and she shuddered.
Danny found himself grinning with her pleasure. There were no shields between them at this point, and he was fully aware of her simmering arousal. He intended to ramp that up as high as he could take her.
Long laps with his tongue and twists of his fingers soon had her writhing. The wash of pleasure from Jennifer’s climax was filling his cock again.
"Hey, glove me," Danny mumbled to Peter who was satiatedly nibbling at Jennifer's fingers.
Danny rolled over and pulled Jen with him so she was sprawled on top of him. It took a moment to draw her knees up so she straddled him, and she sank slowly down, taking him in. Fuck, she felt good. He gripped her hips and guided her up and back down. Her breasts bounced a little with the motion. Peter began sucking at Danny's nipple and Danny bucked hard up into Jen, body responding to the dual stimulation. Jennifer moaned and met Danny on the next stroke, their bodies crashing together. Closer, closer, Danny felt the impending explosion and he came hard enough to steal all his breath away along with most of his vision.
He felt Jennifer slump down over his chest, her pulse pounding at least as hard as his own. Peter's head lay on Danny's shoulder.
With bare minimal shifting they all drifted toward sleep.
July
When Danny read the request, it was pretty obvious that this was exactly what Jennifer specialized in. After all, she'd done the same sort of thing for the Baltimore police department and occasionally the FBI office located there.
The Nevada Highway Patrol had a missing man.
Another officer, who had responded to the same call, was now in a Las Vegas hospital. He was still alive but in serious condition. That officer was expected to survive, but among other injuries, he had been shot in the face and was incapable of talking.
Danny agonized a little. Jennifer wasn't finished with her training yet. She still had two weeks to go. On the other hand, she had completed most of it. He knew her hand to hand combat skills were primo, having been on the receiving end. Her firearms proficiency, not so much.
What if
he
was the one who went with her on her first assignment? Despite thin numbers of available and trained psi, as a whole, the administration was leaning more and more toward sending agents out in pairs anyway. Too many things were prone to go wrong. If an agent was alone when things went bad, the situation could quickly spiral out of control, as they had for Isabelle Rea. Maybe this was just another piece of the overall puzzle that Peter and Stephen Benford were bent on solving. Those two were heavy backers of encouraging all forms of emotional bonding. Danny had to smile just a little. After a lifetime of first denying his bisexual desires, then acquiescing to a long series of very temporary relationships, he was falling hard for Peter and Jennifer. Jennifer was definitely the one responsible for making him realize just how deep his feelings for Peter ran. Jennifer was a volcano of emotion all on her own -- blunt, passionate, aggressive at times and apt to blow if the stress level got too high.
Danny also grudgingly acknowledged the possibility that any assignment she was given could place her in danger. That thought positively tied knots in his gut.
God. He was just going to have to suck it up and let her do her job. If she found out he was coddling her or being overprotective, she'd rip him a new one. That made him grin a little, too. She was way cute when she was mad.
***