Boston Avant-Garde 6: Chiaroscuro (30 page)

Owen paused at a point where an old tree had fallen across the little path they’d been following. He sank down onto the trunk and put his head in his hands. His long hair curtained his face from view, but Lars didn’t need to see his expression to know he was torturing himself for something that wasn’t his fault.

“Owen.” Lars gazed meaningfully at Mattie and settled next to Owen on the impromptu log bench. “It was meant to be this way. You were right about the ritual, as hard as it is for me to admit because I still think the whole thing is bat-shit crazy, but still.” He grinned at Mattie, who looked on the verge of an eye roll. “Still, we were going to have to deal with Hyde. He wasn’t going to give up just because we fucked with his plan.”

“He was totally psychotic, Owen,” Mattie agreed. “It couldn’t have happened any other way.” She took his hand in her own and brought it to her lips for a kiss. “You kept me safe. You both did.”

Owen inhaled a ragged breath. “And the violence?”

Lars ground his teeth, thinking of the moment when he’d considered ending Hyde’s worthless life just to make doubly sure they were done with the man. “I can’t believe you stopped yourself. You have every right to do what you did and more. We live in a violent world. It’s how we conduct ourselves that counts. You defended your life and the lives of your loved ones. Even if you had killed Jason, there’d be no darker motives. Give yourself a break, Owen.”

Owen glowered. “When I saw him slash Mattie, I just lost it. I can’t… I can’t imagine losing her.” Owen looked up at them. “Or you, Lars. I need both of you to breathe. When we were in the cottage…”

Owen let his statement hang, and Lars knew what he was getting at. “I felt it too. I think we all did.”

“I just…” Owen growled and reached for Mattie. “I know it’s wrong, but I need to be inside you, Mattie. I need to know you’re all right.”

She made a little noise and unfastened Owen’s jeans. Lars felt his own desire spike at the sight of his lovers so desperate to be together. Mattie had only to drop the blanket and lift Owen’s T-shirt to give Owen access to her pussy. He settled his hand beneath one shapely thigh, bringing her leg up and letting her foot rest on the log.

Lars moved in close as Owen began stroking Mattie’s open slit. Lars cupped his body around hers, wrapping one arm around her and using his free hand to dip between her legs. Her held her open with two fingers and shivered as he felt his partner tracing her slick contours.

Mattie moaned, and Lars took her full weight against his body to keep her from collapsing. Her sounds mingled with the forest, and Lars wondered if this hadn’t been what nature intended for them from the beginning.

Owen slid two fingers inside her heat, and Lars teased her clit. Lars rubbed tiny circles while Owen vigorously fucked her wet pussy. Her hips jerked with each stroke. Lars could feel her orgasm building in her limbs. The threads of her arousal bound the three of them all together as one. When she reached the precipice, Lars couldn’t look away from the sight.

Mattie came with a cry of delight that made Lars weak with desire. Owen rode out her climax with his fingers buried in her softness, and Lars kept his pressed against her clit. He could feel every electrical impulse centered there at the core of her pleasure. It was as though he were connected body and soul to these two people.

“Help me, Lars,” Owen said.

Owen pulled out his swollen cock. Lars helped Mattie wrap her legs around Owen’s waist. She moaned and sank down onto his shaft. “It feels so damn right to be here with you both, like this.”

Mattie reached up and linked her hands behind Lars’s neck, bracing herself against his chest as she ground her pussy on Owen. Lars wrapped his arms around her curves, drinking in the feel of her skin to skin and the sight of her and Owen making love.

Owen gripped Mattie’s waist in both hands and arched into the contact. The worry of becoming obsolete in their relationship had evaporated completely from Lars’s brain. He got nothing but deep satisfaction in watching the two of them enjoy each other. His dick felt as if it would claw a hole in his pants, but he relished the sensual torment and knew there would always be more.

Mattie’s movements grew frantic. She whimpered and dug her nails into Lars’s neck. He cupped her breasts through her T-shirt and murmured soft encouragements in her ear, urging her to wait, to slow down, to enjoy and be enjoyed. She exhaled a ragged sigh and then let go. It was the most exquisite thing Lars had ever seen.

Owen’s facial muscles were taut, and his pupils fully dilated. Lars watched his lover close his eyes and give himself over to his climax. There was a damp spot on Lars’s belly from the precum spilling out the tip. He loved watching his partners, but his body needed more than a show.

“Your turn.” Owen’s voice was hoarse. “Mattie baby, I’m going to turn you around so Lars can make you come again.”

Owen’s powerful forearms bunched as he lifted her away from his spent shaft. She wriggled on his lap, helping him resettle her with her back to Owen and her splayed pussy facing Lars. He groaned at the sight of Owen’s thick white ejaculate spilling across her pink folds.

Unable to resist, he ran his fingers through the mingled fluids. Mattie quivered at his touch. Her flesh was warm and resilient. He stroked her lovingly. He could feel the aftermath of her orgasm still lingering in her feminine core. The intimacy of it all was changing him. On this day of death and rebirth, the three of them were bound by some power he didn’t understand. Yet right here and right now the only thing that mattered was the woman who moved so sexily beneath his hands and the man who shared her love.

Lars withdrew his fingers and sucked them clean of the sweet salt musk of his lovers. The taste lingered on his tongue and permeated his senses until he couldn’t resist any longer. He needed to be joined with them so badly his hands were shaking as he opened his slacks and withdrew his painfully erect cock. Mattie reached for him, leaning back against Owen as she fitted the head of Lars’s erection to her creamy opening.

It was like sinking into bliss. She was so wet and tight. Her inner muscles were quivering from the orgasm she’d had with Owen. Lars moved his body in slow motion, savoring every second. She grabbed his hips and pushed herself hard against his pelvis. He could feel the root of his penis rubbing against the hood of her clit with each stroke. Lars stilled, lost in the sensation of her rhythm and drive. His nerves buzzed with the intense stimulation, and he knew his climax was coming fast.

Mattie fucked Lars as though her entire being was focused on that one interaction, the one thing that could bring her what she needed. She clung to Owen with her fingers tangled in his long, loose hair, and when she finally came, Lars thought he would die of the pleasure.

Her pussy squeezed him so tightly he couldn’t hold back any longer. Orgasm made his ass clench tight and his back arch. His ejaculate spilled from his cock to join his partner’s seed inside the woman they’d claimed as their own. Nothing else mattered. His past was wiped clean, any perceived infirmities washed away, and Lars was reborn.

Chapter Twenty-Six

“This is stupid. I should
not
be this nervous.” Mattie shifted from one foot to the other. With one hand gripping Lars’s, and the other wrapped in Owen’s, she was as fortified as she knew how to be.

Lars glanced down as they climbed the front steps at the Aasen’s Brookline estate. “I’m nervous. I think you’re perfectly normal to be nervous. Mr. Stoic over there is the only one who’s unaffected by paltry human things like nerves.”

“I’m just better at hiding them,” Owen retorted.

“Maybe we should’ve dressed up and pretended to be trick-or-treaters,” Mattie suggested ridiculously. “I would’ve felt less conspicuous in a black dress with a pointy hat and a green face.”

“So if you’re the Wicked Witch of the West, does that mean Lars puts on a pink dress and goes as Glinda?” Owen managed to keep a straight face while Mattie dissolved into giggles at the mental image he’d painted.

Lars wasn’t about to let that go. “I’ll wear the froufrou dress if Owen goes as a flying monkey.”

Mattie was counting her blessings as the luckiest girl on the planet when the front door swung wide open. Mattie drew back, but it was Selena who bounced outside as though they’d just rung the bell and shouted,
Trick or treat!

Selena was grinning like she thought her matchmaking attempts were responsible for world peace. “Malachi and I thought you might need some moral support.”

Mattie let go of her men and gave her best friend a grateful hug. “Thank you.”

Owen frowned. “Where’s Demon?”

“He’s supervising Alisa and her friends while they trick-or-treat our neighborhood in the city.” Selena’s nonchalant announcement was the most ironic thing Mattie had heard all day.

A slow smile spread across Owen’s face until his dark eyes were positively glowing with mirth. “So you’re telling me he’s spending the evening trailing around after a bunch of teenaged girls?”

Selena bobbed her blonde ponytail. “Yep, and you know he’ll rip out your tongue without breaking a sweat if you mention it. Now hurry up and come in. Aunt Caroline has been beside herself since you guys left the reception at Hampshire House.”

Mattie stepped inside the familiar foyer with its grand sweeping staircase and marble floors. She expected Selena to lead them to the formal parlor where the visits were usually done, but she headed toward the kitchen instead.

Selena seemed to guess the direction of Mattie’s thoughts. “You’d be surprised how low-key we are around here these days. I thought it might be nice to talk in the kitchen. Mrs. Tinsley and Mom are making treats for the Halloween party we’re having for Alisa’s friends tomorrow night.”

Mattie could not reconcile the image of Selena’s overbearing mother throwing a children’s party, but she shrugged it off and followed her friend into the warmth of the estate kitchen.

“Come in!” Annaline Aasen gestured to the stools positioned around the center island. “Have a seat. Would you like something to drink?”

Lars seemed at ease with this newer, gentler version of his aunt. “Thanks, but I think we’re fine.”

Annaline picked up a glob of gooey popcorn mix and began making it into a ball. “Your mother should be down any moment, Lars.”

As if on cue, Caroline Aasen burst into the kitchen. “Don’t you ever disappear like that again!” She ran over and nudged Mattie aside as she wrapped her son in a hug.

Mattie couldn’t help but feel miffed by the slight, but Owen put his arms around her and shook his head. She took that to mean she should let it go for the moment. Unfortunately Caroline wasn’t done staking her motherly claim on her son.

“I talked to poor Isabel and explained that you are
not
in a relationship and just have cold feet about settling down—”

Mattie had never been more thrilled than when Lars cut his mother off midspeech to pull bodily away from her embrace. “Why would you do that?” he demanded. “I meant every word of what I said. I
am
in a relationship.”

Selena gestured nervously to the island. “Why don’t we take a seat?” One glance at her aunt had her backing gratefully toward Malachi’s reassuring bulk. “No? All right then.”

“Don’t you dare try to tell me you’re planning on spending your life with this—woman!” Caroline gestured emphatically at Mattie.

“Actually, I am.” Lars was utterly calm. “And not just Mattie. I’m with Owen too. We’re committed to each other. You should be happy for me. For the first time in years, I finally feel like I fit somewhere.”

Caroline’s face softened. “If this is about being bisexual, I read somewhere that testicular cancer can affect your hormones. Maybe you just need hormones or therapy or hormone therapy. I don’t know. Something!”

Mattie felt a rush of indignation on Lars’s behalf. How dare his mother not even acknowledge her son’s ability to know his own sexuality? She opened her mouth to speak, but Owen squeezed her shoulders, and she bit back her angry words.

“Mother.” Lars took a deep breath and stepped closer to Mattie and Owen. “I don’t think you’re listening to me.”

She waved her hand as if to brush him off. “Lars, I—”

“No.” He didn’t even let her get going. “I love Mattie and Owen. They love me. This isn’t some phase or a mental breakdown. I will never be able to live the life you wanted for me. Not just because I’m incapable of fathering children. It would’ve never made me happy. I can’t be that man, Mother.” He was trying so hard to make her see, but there was resistance on her face.

Caroline rallied, putting her hands on her hips and staring up at her son as if she thought she had laser vision capable of convincing him to see things her way. “You have a responsibility to our family and to the company, Lars. You’re an Aasen. You belong in a boardroom.”

Lars made a frustrated noise and rubbed a hand down his face. “I hate working for Aasen International,
hate
it! It’s mind-numbingly boring, and I don’t know how Erik stands it!”

Caroline looked incensed. “He stands it because it’s his duty!”

“Yeah, well, it isn’t mine,” Lars shot back. “I’ve made the decision not to go back to Interpol either. I’m going to turn in my resignation.”

It was Mattie’s turn for shock. “What? When did you decide to do that?”

Lars half turned to give her a smile and then saw the expression on Owen’s face. “Oh, don’t even say it, you smug bastard.”

Owen released Mattie long enough to hold up his hands. “It was only a suspicion. I just quit my job at Triptych, if it makes you feel any better.”

Mattie was over the moon with joy. She put her hands on her hips and gave them her best glare. “Are you telling me I’ve shacked up with two unemployed mooches?”

“Owen, no!” Selena was practically hyperventilating. She glared at Malachi over her shoulder. “When the hell were you planning on telling me?”

Malachi looked as though he found the drama very entertaining. He gave his wife a shrug. “I figured it would come up sooner or later. It isn’t like I got the text days ago. It was an hour or less.”