Ménage Material [La Belle sans la Bete Ménages] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (42 page)

“You say that now, but you don’t know what made me
me
, Bastien.”

“I know the man sitting here today. I don’t necessarily understand him, but I know, deep down, I
know
.”

“I was raped. As a child.” The words blurted free and Alex’s eyes clenched down, blocking out Bastien’s reaction. “Not a week passed where he didn’t come for me. Where he didn’t touch me. For years, Sebastien,” he breathed out the word, his eyes fluttering open. He saw his lover’s face through a blur of tears. “Years.”

He gulped. “I’d just lie there. Every night. Waiting. Mother always used to leave the hallway light on. I can remember her always doing it. Even when I was really young. But the light would shine under the door, and I’d wait to see his feet making shadows on the floor. I’d wait for the little creak on the floorboard outside my bedroom.

“The door would always open without a sound. Not even a whisper. His socks would slide against the floor, then he’d be standing there. Over my bed. Every part of me would freeze, praying tonight would be different. But it never was.” His voice was hoarse when he continued. “That is what turned me into the man you see before you. A man scared of his own shadow. Terrified to leave his own home, too cowardly to be with the man he loves. I don’t deserve you. And I certainly don’t deserve, Devvy.”

His eyes closed again, but he felt the warm brush of Bastien’s breath on his lips, before he was kissed. Gently.

“Are you going to move into
Les Fenêtres
, Alex?”

The question, after his confession, stunned him. He was silent, unsure of how to answer.

“Are you going to let Devvy and I love you, free you from the past?”

The soft words had a sob building in his chest. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be free. I can’t stop thinking about it. Every day, it’s with me. No amount of therapy, nothing, takes it away. I’m in a prison up here!” he yelled, banging his temple with a fist. The dull thudding ache he caused was nothing to the agony deep inside. “I’m broken, Bastien. Nothing will fix me. Nothing.”

“You’ve shared the truth with me, Alex. That’s the first step. Do you think it doesn’t kill me to know that someone abused you? Do you think I’m
okay
with it?” Alex looked at the fierceness on Bastien’s face and shook his head. “Do you think I don’t want to kill the fucker who touched you? Avenge the little boy who would become the man I love?”

“He’s dead. He died a long time ago.”

Bastien sucked in a breath. “I never believed in heaven or hell, but I do now. Simply so that bastard can rot in hell.” His top lip curled in a sneer. “I would kill for you, Alex. That’s how much I love you.

“Bruised, battered, broken, I need you, and Devvy does, too. We can’t fix the past, we can’t change the present, but we can work on the future.

“Be with us, Alex. Not tomorrow, maybe not in six months’ time, but get used to the idea. You can’t heal, darling, until you accept what happened to you, and know that I love you more for telling me something so painful to you.”

Alex swallowed. “I don’t deserve you.”

“You do. And you deserve Devvy.”

His chin wobbled again. “Are you my reward, Bastien?”

Bastien smiled. “We’re whatever you need us to be.”

The word “salvation” whispered through Alex’s head, but he didn’t repeat it. He leaned forward and whispered, “I need you to love me. I need you both to love me.”

“We do. We always will. Don’t pull away from us, Alex. Don’t push us away because you’re frightened. When you’re ready for Devvy to know, tell her. It won’t change a thing, except make her understand you better.”

“I—I will. I swear. I don’t know when, but I will. I just needed to tell you. It was the only way, the only real way I could apologize to you. You’re right. I have pulled away from you, and I’ve pushed. I won’t do it, ever again. I swear.”

Bastien’s eyes grew moist with tears, and Alex realized that was one of the first times he’d ever seen him cry. Molding their mouths together, they kissed for endless, timeless moments. They sat there, awkwardly holding each other, imbuing the kiss with regrets soon to be forgiven, and the need that was always there.

When Devvy’s amused voice broke them apart, their eyes were dry, but the connection still held fast. “You two starting without me?”

Alex’s lips twitched into a wide, cocky grin. For the moment, he would hide behind his mask, until he was ready to share that side of himself with her. It would come, and it wouldn’t take the two decades it had taken him to reveal the truth to Bastien. But not yet, not yet. He couldn’t stand for the love and trust, the lust and the need he saw in her eyes, to turn to pity. Or horror.

In time, he told himself, in time. “Want in on the action?” he teased and laughed as she strode over to them both, a pout on her lips.

“Am I invited? Or a gatecrasher?”

Bastien shook his head. “What the hell is a gatecrasher?”

Devvy grinned. “Never mind. I don’t care if I am one. Keep on kissing, you two.”

Noticing her slight tremble, Alex cocked a brow and asked, “Getting you hot and bothered, is it?”

“Always, babe. Always.” She sat beside him on the sofa, knelt on the cushions and watched the two of them expectantly.

Bastien laughed at her. “Do you expect us to kiss to order,
chérie
?”

“Well,” she mumbled, nose crinkling. “Not to order, exactly. But now. Yes, please.”

Before Bastien could tease her anymore, Alex connected his mouth to his. With his hand, he reached for Devvy’s leg and squeezed, touched when her fingers pried at his grip and made a bridge with his own. As Bastien’s tongue twined with his, he felt her move closer until she was inches away, and her breath was brushing his chin.

Her lips suddenly connected with his cheek, her tongue slid down over the curve of his jaw and to his throat. His skin prickled in reaction and the tiny moan that escaped was swallowed by Bastien’s kiss.

Suddenly, two sets of hands worked at his shirt, the buttons popping free of the holes as hungry hands sought to caress his chest. A hand slid down to his crotch and, while Devvy’s confidence had increased, the slight hesitance told him it was her burrowing into his fly. Bastien was always sure of his each and every caress.

He pulled away to catch a breath and saw the heavy-lidded look on Bastien’s face, the one that spoke of his need. He saw the lift of Devvy’s chest, the quick breathing that told him of her excitement.

He reached for her, pulled her to him by clasping a hand behind her neck and tugging her forward. “I want you both. I need you both,” he admitted hoarsely. “So badly, so much you’ll never know.”

Devvy’s lips twitched. “The feeling’s mutual, Alex. It might be crazy and unusual, fucked up and weird. But it’s my kind of weird. It’s my kind of crazy.” Her gaze flickered over to Bastien and, whatever they shared with that one glance, it urged her to stand. She reached for Alex’s hand and said, “Come, there are better places for what we want to do to you.”

He accepted the clasp of her fingers to his, and allowed her to lead him from the room, down the hall, and toward the bedroom all three of them had been sharing the last few nights.

It might have happened in a blur. He could have passed countless members of staff. At that moment, his head was abuzz. Relief, fear, need, unease, love. They battled for supremacy. The huge hole inside him, the hole created out of the young Alex’s despair was nowhere close to being filled, but having shared it with Bastien, the black hole seemed to lose its power over him. It made him feel less empty inside.

The bedroom door closed the instant Bastien crossed the threshold. Immediately, without a word being said, they methodically stripped. This wasn’t frenzied need, but a clinical baring. Exposing themselves to the other. Devvy, in her T-shirt that she considered baggy and showed a delectable amount of tit, and the shorts she thought were comfortable and cupped her ass to perfection, stripped off first.

She climbed onto the bed, giving him a delicious glimpse of glistening pussy. He licked his lips, mouth salivating with the need to taste. He followed her onto the mattress as she spread her legs and began to touch herself. Her eyes were on his, no shame hidden in the depths as she strummed her clit. Cock in hand, he stroked himself in time to her movements, as he crawled over to her. Only stopping when she was between his thighs and he was looming over her.

Her mouth opened, her eyes on his cock, but he didn’t want that. He wanted
her
. He needed to be inside.

His head turned to the side, wanting to make sure Bastien was behind him, and what he saw made his heart shudder in his chest. Bastien’s cock was gleaming as he stroked himself, and the lube he’d poured over the shaft made a squelching sound with every touch.

Alex’s ass quivered with the knowledge of what was about to happen, and his body reveled in the idea. He bent down and pressed a kiss to Devvy’s mouth. His tongue speared deep and she groaned as he fucked her mouth, sliding the flexible muscle against hers, inciting and exciting her.

Her hands gripped his hips, her nails spearing into the sparse flesh there. They raked upward, making him shiver as his spine tingled at the touch. His cock bobbed with the need to be inside her, and with their mouths joined, he pushed her legs open, settled himself between them, and then grasped for his shaft and nudged it against her opening.

The sweet, hot, clean depths of her called to him and he pressed himself deep, groaning with delight as her pussy swallowed him in one go.

He thrust, slightly, getting as deep as he could go and enjoying the delicate little ripple of her inner muscles as they quivered at his intrusion. Apart from that, he didn’t move. His blood was hot, boiling with the knowledge that Bastien would soon be at his back, fucking him and helping him fuck Devvy.

He wouldn’t have to jerk himself off as Bastien took him. Devvy’s muscles would pull and tug at him, drag him to the point of no return.

He shuddered at the thought.

With a few inches between them, he pressed one hand against her breast, cupping it and teasing the nipple, pinching it and then rubbing softly. He quivered against her, his lips pausing for a second as the bed shifted with Bastien’s arrival.

Hands gripped his hips, fingers pulled his cheeks apart and probed at his ass. Wet digits touched and caressed, jerking every single nerve ending awake as he rubbed the pucker before spearing him with a finger. He cried out and into Devvy’s mouth. Her chuckle was naughty and satisfied, as his hips had rolled forward in reaction to Bastien’s touch and he’d thrust deep.

His eyes clenched shut, his mouth unable to focus on kissing Devvy as Bastien’s fingers devastated him. He felt the little gland deep inside quiver as it was rubbed and touched, knew it wouldn’t take much stimulation for him to burst inside Devvy.

The thought had him pressing his forehead against hers. He felt her breath as it landed against his lips and she whispered, “I love you, Alex. I need you, Bastien needs you. Stay with us, never leave us, never.”

The words penetrated his brain, but he couldn’t respond. Feeling the hard nudge of Sebastien’s cock at the pucker of his ass, a keening cry escaped him as the shaft pressed deep, forging into welcoming tissues.

When the thick girth filled him to bursting, his eyes once again grew moist with tears. As Bastien began to move, overloading him with a sensation that was only trebled as the jerking thrusts pushed him in and out of Devvy’s warm, welcoming pussy, Alex whispered, “Never, never, never.”

Six months later

As Tiesto’s
A Beautiful World
pumped from her stereo, Devvy’s butt shook and wriggled to the beat. The beauty of soundproofing. She could have it as loud as she wanted, so loud it hurt her ears, and not feel guilty about annoying anyone else.

Not that the staff would have complained about their employer’s sudden desire to play music loud enough to wake the dead. But still, she didn’t have to be a total pain in the ass, just because she could.

Through the window overlooking the garden, she saw Bastien on the terrace. He had a tray of coffee at his side, as well as his briefcase and a stack of papers. Some kind of weird hybrid takeover was happening at
La Belle sans la Bête
. It meant that Bastien was still CEO of the company, but he could work from home. He could take things slower, and as a result, he was happier.

She thought he’d be bored. Staying at home, away from the office and the fast pace. Instead, he was thriving.

She hadn’t realized, until he’d started going to the office only twice a week, how drawn he’d been. How taut and pale.

As she watched, he tilted his head up to the sun and absorbed the rays. She’d always loved her view from the lab, but now it was even prettier. He had this lovely tendency of working on his papers shirtless. Sometimes dressed only in a pair of boxers.

Yum.

It was a shame that would change now that fall had taken hold, but Bastien was making the most out of today’s surge in temperature.

Sighing with pleasure at the glimpse of his bare chest, she strode over to the sink and just stood there for a second. Watching him work.