Boston Avant-Garde 6: Chiaroscuro (6 page)

“Mattie—”

His words were lost when she took his mouth in a potent kiss. Fueled by desperation, she sank into the contact as if she were clinging to a raft in a storm. He didn’t disappoint. Owen pushed her onto her back and slid his tongue into her mouth.

They grappled on the bed, and she let her hands roam over his sleek skin. She traced the powerful arms and scored the skin on his ribs. His sensitive belly shrank away from her fingertips until she finally wrapped her hand around his thick cock.

He was fully erect. He thrust his hips, and his shaft pushed against her mound. She left his mouth in favor of laving her tongue down the column of his throat. He groaned, and she quivered at the vibration of the rumbly noise against her lips.

She squirmed beneath him, arching up and telling him what she wanted. Her core was wet and needy. He’d been inside her not a half hour ago, but she wanted him again. His thick cock stretched her achy pussy in all the right spots. She wanted that. She needed it.

“Patience,” he murmured. “Where are your condoms?”

“I’m on the pill, and I’ve been tested.” She hoped she didn’t sound like a completely irresponsible freak. “Tell me you’re clean.”

He drew back, gazing into her eyes. “I am, but are you sure that’s what you want?”

She ran her tongue across the dry surface of her lips. “I want your dick in my cunt, and I want it now.”

Lust heated his expression with the promise of fulfillment. He pushed her legs apart and wedged his hips between them. She undulated, urging him on. It wasn’t enough to feel the press of his hot cock barely teasing her entrance.

Creamy juice dampened her thighs. Her clit was pulsing, and she felt as if she would die without a climax. She spread her legs farther, and the crown of his prick prodded her pussy lips.

“Fuck me, Owen. Fuck me!” she panted.

“Slow down, Mattie. We have all night.”

Frantic for completion, she gripped his shoulders until her nails were buried in his copper skin. “There’s time to slow down later. I need it now. I want you inside me.”

He groaned, and she knew she’d won. The round end of his penis penetrated her slick core and gained depth an inch at a time. She sighed at the sensation. Satisfaction suffused every cell in her body, and Mattie cried out with the joy of it.

She arched her back and moved against him. Every hip thrust ground his shaft against the sensitive walls of her sex. She was lost to the rhythm of it, reveling in the sensation, and spiraling toward her orgasm. Above her, Owen was rigidly bracing his weight on his forearms.

“Wait, Mattie. Wait,” Owen soothed. “Relax.”

“No!” She worked harder and faster, fucking him with everything she had. It felt so good. She couldn’t get enough.

She clenched her eyes tightly and hung on to Owen as her climax began unraveling inside her body. It was a sweet, sweet release just beyond reach. He shuddered, and his cock grew harder inside her. She slammed her pussy against him, writhing against him with all her strength.

He gasped and flung his head back. “I’m coming!”

“Yes!” She let go with an agonized shout. Undulating muscle contractions shook her from head to toe. “Don’t stop, Owen. Don’t you dare stop!”

It was over as soon as it’d started. She trembled as mingled frustration and desire made her want to scream with agony. It had been incredible, but it wasn’t enough. She wanted to do it again. Suck on Owen’s gorgeous cock until he was hard once more and ready to impale her for another round of fabulous sex.

Except I’ll still need more. I always need more.

OWEN SHOVED AWAY the notion that he and Mattie shared a potent bond because they were both hopelessly linked to Lars. He couldn’t allow himself to see it like that. Her confession put a new slant on the way Owen viewed the lover who’d always run so hot and cold. In fact, Owen was starting to suspect he and Lars both carried around a list of secrets that rendered them unsuitable for long-term attachments. He couldn’t offer anyone a future. The only thing he could give was right now.

He lowered himself to the mattress beside Mattie and cuddled her close. His heartbeat was thundering in his ears, probably a close match for the pulse he saw throbbing in her neck. Still, she didn’t seem satisfied.

She was so frantic, so harried, so determined to go hard and fast and get to the climax before she’d really savored the journey. Owen castigated himself for getting swept along in her sensual wake. If right now was all he had, he should be slowing down, forcing her to make it last.

He was making a personal vow to do just that when a noise downstairs made every hair on his body stand on end. His instincts took over, and he leaped from the bed.

“Owen?”

“Hush,” he urged. “Do you have a roommate?”

“No.”

He crept toward the bedroom door. “Expecting anyone? Anyone with a key?”

“No, why?”

Owen reached for his jeans and hurriedly pulled them on. “Because there’s someone downstairs, and I don’t want to kill a friend of yours.”

* * * *

Breaking into Mattie’s house hadn’t been one of Lars’s better ideas, but she hadn’t responded to his knocking. He’d been too worried about her welfare to even consider other possibilities. Hell, she might have a guest.

I’ll kill the son of a bitch. No loser is going to take advantage of Mattie.

He didn’t stop to think about whether or not he had the right to decide whom she did or didn’t take as a lover. He just couldn’t stand the thought of her being with anyone else. Especially when some other man would be all too willing to take what she offered and not spend any time giving her what she needed. She wasn’t like other women. Mattie’s needs were far more complex.

Lars ground his teeth when he spotted her clothes in a pile on the kitchen floor. He’d driven out here to make sure she was okay. He’d do that, and then leave. That was all.

The sound of rain on the old roof grew louder as the light shower outside turned into a downpour. His loafers were making wet tracks on her kitchen floor. He paused, wondering if he should take them off.

A split second after his internal warning bell went off, a shadow stepped out of the stairwell. In the darkness, Lars couldn’t glean any details. Then a voice drifted across the kitchen. “I don’t know why you’re here, but I suggest you leave now before I make you.”

Disbelief made Lars stagger. He reached out and grabbed the back of a kitchen chair to keep from collapsing. “Owen?”

“Shit, Lars, what are you doing here?”

It was so much to process. Owen was in Mattie’s house, had been up in her bedroom most likely. Lars felt twice betrayed. Something painful squeezed his heart. Owen was apparently screwing Mattie. Hours before, Owen had been with
Lars
, had enjoyed
Lars
, had been angry with
Lars
for regretting their frequent liaisons. Lars couldn’t stand the thought that this meant things were over between him and Owen, much less that Owen had moved on to Mattie.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Owen asked, voice low and tense.

Lars’s composure collapsed. He strode forward to close the distance between them. “What do you mean what am I doing here? Selena asked me to come check on Mattie, and this is what I find? What the hell?”

Lars didn’t care about his tone or his volume. He wanted answers. He wanted to know how he’d managed to lose the two people he gave a damn about—to each other.

“Some crazy-ass bastard wanted to look at her art,” Owen said calmly. “Selena sent me to keep an eye on things, and it was a good thing I did.”

Lars’s emotions were tangled into a knot of self-doubt and regrets, but deep down he knew Owen was a good choice for a bodyguard. The inclination to protect came naturally for him. Not to mention Owen could be a mean son of a bitch when he wanted to be.

Lars swallowed back his anger and tried to think rationally. “Is she okay?”

“He didn’t get a chance to do more than intimidate her.” Owen shifted, and what Lars could see of his expression was grim. “But I’m not sure that’ll be the end of it. My instincts tell me this guy has some other angle he’s working.”

“And that’s why you stuck around?”

Owen sighed and crossed his arms over his broad, naked chest. “She asked me to stay.”

The sudden realization that Owen was half-naked with his jeans undone hit Lars like a ton of bricks. Agony ripped through his gut. The contour of Owen’s body was familiar. The narrow rendering of interlocking circles decorating his collarbones, the cut planes of his abdomen, the sweeping copper expanse of belly, and the fine dusting of hair leading from his navel to his groin. Lars knew every inch of this man. He had tasted that skin and knew the generous length and girth of his lover’s cock. Owen had been his even though Lars had no right to claim anyone for more than a few hours of pleasure.

Lars staggered, his shoulder catching on the doorjamb before he could collapse. “You screwed her.”

“I didn’t do anything different than you did. We’re both adults. We had fun. End of story.”

Owen was moving closer. Lars could smell his distinctive male spice. “I guess I deserve this, huh? I’m the one who kept saying that you and I had to stop. Now you’ve found someone else.”

“Is that what you think?” Owen grabbed Lars and hauled him closer. “You think I’m
replacing
you?”

Owen’s touch burned Lars’s skin. Lars wanted more. The agonizing warmth of his lover’s grasp brought home all the things Lars would never “grow out of.” Mattie, Owen—Lars just wanted to feel whole.

Abruptly Owen stepped back, breaking the contact. “I told you to go because I’m sick of you regretting the time you spend in my bed, not because I found something better elsewhere.”

Chapter Five

Mattie put both hands over her mouth to stifle a gasp. She’d crept down the stairs to find out what was keeping Owen. She’d never expected to discover him and Lars having what amounted to a lovers’ spat in her kitchen.

The idea that the two of them had become lovers after Lars walked out on her was mind-blowing. She wouldn’t have expected that kind of sexual flexibility from Lars. He was the most skilled and voracious lover she’d ever had, but she never would’ve pegged him as being bi.

Heat lanced through her entire body, making even her fingertips sizzle with warmth. Owen and Lars. What a dynamic combination. Her brain began matching them together in all sorts of erotic positions. Who was dominant? Or did they grapple for control like animals? She wanted to know what it was like to sandwich herself between the two of them.

She’d thrown Owen’s T-shirt on before creeping downstairs. Now her nipples stabbed the soft cotton as they grew hard and achy. Her pussy was wet and slippery. The longing that was never quite satisfied began thrumming between her legs. Lars had once called her insatiable. It was true. Though she found no reason to apologize for how nature had made her.

Lars spoke. “Maybe it’s better this way. You’ll treat her right.”

“And you can clear your conscience about walking out on the both of us,” Owen shot back.

“I didn’t walk out on you. You told me to go,” Lars said.

Mattie wanted to see their faces. Their expressions would tell her so much more than their words. She carefully avoided a loose step and stood in the narrow space at the bottom of the stairs. Gripping the wall, she leaned around as far as she dared. They were not men she could typically sneak up on. The only thing keeping them occupied was their argument.

“I only told you to get your shit figured out or leave. The choice was yours,” Owen said bitterly. “You showed up in my bed almost every night for five months. Every fucking time you’d get up in the morning and regret it. It was exhausting.”

A note of helpless anger entered Lars’s tone. “I told you I have responsibilities. I’m only here for another two weeks. Once Erik is back behind his desk, I’m gone.”

Lars had said the same things to Mattie. They’d been good together. So good. But it wasn’t enough. Every day he’d told her over and over that she needed to find someone else. That he couldn’t give her what she wanted. That he was only in town for a short while.

Owen crossed his arms and took a step back. Mattie knew what he was doing. His posture reeked of self-protection. It was the only way to keep from reaching out to Lars. She’d done it a thousand times herself.

Owen’s guttural words made Mattie’s belly clench. “This isn’t a solution. You can’t just stick Mattie and me together and expect us to be whole. Relationships aren’t created with emotional duct tape. Besides, I’m not that kind of guy, and you know it.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to throw them both out. Her heart felt raw with what she’d learned. Wouldn’t it be better to say good-bye to both of them, retreat, and then start over with someone else? Why couldn’t she find someone who wanted the same things she did?

I’ve never told another soul that I love them.

She’d given Lars the key to her existence in that statement, and he’d thrown it back in her face. There was no getting around that pain. Yet something about Owen gave her hope. Meeting Owen had been like discovering someone she’d known intimately in a past life. She knew most people thought it nonsense, but Mattie believed it was true. There were souls that always managed to find each other as they were born and reborn. And sometimes there were souls that were destined to meet when the time was right.

She sucked in a deep breath and gathered her courage. This was the height of stupidity. She’d never been a bold risk taker when it came to going out on an emotional limb, but sometimes a girl had to try to hang on to what she wanted.

“Are the two of you going to stand around in my kitchen and argue? Or are you going to come upstairs to bed?” she called out.

Owen chuckled. “I wondered if you were going to say something or just hide there all night.”

“You knew she was there?” Lars shoved Owen aside and strode toward her. “How long have you been listening?”

Owen braced one shoulder against her cabinets. “Long enough to know the three of us have a fucked-up love triangle going on here.”