The Naughty List (16 page)

Ry held her clit firm, not caressing, not stroking, ensuring she felt every echoing beat of the bullet whizzing inside her. “Doing what?”

“Fucking me.” The orgasm crashed into her, ripping a startled cry from her that fortunately became quickly muffled by Bram’s devouring mouth. Her body shook and convulsed. If not for the security of Ry and Bram’s strong arms surrounding her, keeping her steady and upright, she would have melted into a mindless puddle on the floor of the wagon.

The bullet shut off and the quakes ebbed. Ry removed his fingers and licked them with a hungry groan before zipping her jeans. By the time the wagon shuddered to a halt, Bram had straightened her bra and buttoned her coat back up. Other than her breath wheezing from her a little too fast, no one would be the wiser of what they’d been up to. But the realization of how close they’d come to being caught only ratcheted the exhilarated thrill racing through her.

Holy crap.
Never in her wildest imaginings would she have believed she’d have the guts to do something like that. She blinked at Ry and Bram as they stood and offered their hands. Still dizzy from the orgasm, she curled her fingers over theirs and let them help her to her feet. She was grateful to have them to hold on to as she stepped down from the wagon, otherwise there was a good chance she would have ended up sprawled face first on the snow-covered parking lot. Talk about a potential embarrassment. Her knees shaky, she leaned against the side of the wood railing, too satiated by her climax to care that she was probably wearing the dopiest grin ever.

While Bram and Ry carted the spruce the short distance to the station where it would be tied up for easier transport, the driver tipped his wool cap to her and smiled, flashing some seriously bucked teeth. “Come again now.”

Somehow she stifled a giggle and instead kept a straight face as she repeated Ry’s earlier sentiment. “Believe me, that’s a given.”

Up until that day, she couldn’t recall Ry ever breaking any traffic laws. From the moment they left the tree farm and screeched into Bram’s driveway, Ry broke at least ten. Not that she was counting. Or complaining, since the end result meant her being able to rip off their clothes that much sooner.

Ignoring the Christmas tree bundled and waiting in the bed of the pickup truck, Ry and Bram hustled her from the vehicle and inside the warm comfort of the house. Bram tugged her coat from her while Ry worked on her jeans. Equally busy, she wrestled with their jackets. Clothes went flying everywhere. With each inch of skin revealed, her hunger for both men quadrupled. Her fingertips skated over washboard abs, grazed over hard, masculine nipples. She trembled, the ache inside her overwhelming. Finally everyone was blessedly naked, and she dropped to her knees and reached for the thick, stiff cocks bobbing in front of her.

The only thought in her mind was giving them even a fraction of the intense pleasure they’d shown her in the tree wagon. Delirious with that need, she sucked Ry into her mouth first, her tongue coasting along each rigid vein before swirling over the swollen head. She reveled in his taste. So addictive. So divine.
So good
. She pumped Bram’s shaft, keeping it nice and firm for when she’d take him inside her mouth. The groans tumbling from both men only spurred her desire to see them fly off the edge.

Transferring her attention to Bram, she bobbed frantically on his cock, her cheeks hollowing as she concentrated on the taut, satiny head. He staggered, his fingers sifting through her hair. “Lace…
God
.”

Her suction intensified and Bram quickly disengaged from her mouth. Shifting her focus to Ry, she attempted to lick the drop of precome pearling from the slit of his cock, but he thwarted her efforts by stooping and sweeping her into his arms. Without saying a word, he carried her into the bedroom and tossed her onto the mattress. The carnal, almost predatory gleam in his eyes brought a renewed surge of moisture between her legs.

She’d thought she’d seen Ry at his most primal. That didn’t hold a candle to the possessive, sexy man leaning over her. Fisting his shaft, he held it to her lips. “Five seconds, baby. That’s all you’re getting before I bury myself inside you.”

Intent on spending her time wisely, she gripped Ry’s knuckles and squeezed as she flicked her tongue over the glossy knob of his cock. The mattress dipped, announcing that Bram had joined them. His lips closed around her clit, sucking with soft, gentle pulses. She writhed, her pussy tightening around the bullet still lodged within her. Bram’s fingers wedged inside her slick channel and easily slipped the vibrator free. “Christ, you’re fucking wet, Lace. The bullet really worked you over.”

Without warning, Ry wrenched himself from her mouth. She gasped in protest. “That wasn’t five seconds.”

“Close enough.” A nerve ticking in his tensed jaw, Ry yanked the drawer open on the nightstand and snatched two condoms, one of which he passed to Bram.

After sheathing himself, Bram bracketed her face between his hands and crashed his mouth over hers, stealing her breath. And her last shred of sanity. His tongue plunged deep a fraction of a second before his cock followed suit. Giving her the barest moment to register his penetration, he rolled onto his back, reversing their positions. His hands tangled in her hair, holding her hostage to the continued lush invasion of his tongue inside her mouth. It was as if he wasn’t merely kissing her. No, this was hunger at its most consuming peak.

Ry’s knee nudged her and Bram’s thighs, spreading them. An instant later, the heat of his chest blanketed her back. Sandwiched as she was between the two strong, sexy men who’d breathed her fantasies into life, she couldn’t contain the shiver that trembled through her. Ry kissed her neck, stoking her pleasure higher. His cock slid along the crease of her ass before coming to rest at the juncture where she and Bram were already joined.

His thumb pressing down on Bram’s shaft, Ry eased his way inside her pussy. A sharp intake of breath hissed between Bram’s teeth. “
Jesus.
”

Dazed, she felt her channel stretching to accommodate both Ry and Bram. Impaled on so much cock, she shuddered, the overwhelming fullness threatening to make her climax without much effort on Ry and Bram’s part. “
Oh. God.
”

Bram’s gaze locked with hers, his gorgeous features a study of agonized pleasure. “Lace.
Fuck.
”

“I—I don’t think I can. Too tight to move.”

His laugh gusted free, the sound hoarse and strained. “Shit, you’re telling me.”

Ry’s bristly jaw buffed her cheek. “So you two are saying
I
have to do all the work? Typical.” He flexed his hips, his cock retreating slightly before surging deeper. The friction against the sensitive walls of her pussy filled her with a dark, decadent pleasure. The sensations skyrocketed when Ry straightened his arms, his fingers digging into the bedding as he balanced his weight, and slammed forward, grinding her and Bram into the mattress.

Bram’s mouth went slack, his pupils dilating and becoming unfocused. Tiny beads of sweat dotted his forehead. The tortured sound that tore from his chest made her nipples tighten.

“Not…” Ry pumped once, “…before…” twice, “…Lacey.” His third thrust pinned them tight to the mattress again.

Bram’s pleading gaze bore into hers. It was all the invitation her body needed to explode. She arched with a strangled scream, her inner muscles clamping down on the two cocks buried deep within her. The emotional avalanche decimated her, reducing her to a sobbing, quivering wreck. It wasn’t until the raw, scratchiness of her throat became noticeable that she even recognized the fact that her screams had morphed into actual words.

Words that even then were spinning in the air with horrible, alarming clarity. “I love you. Oh God, I love you.” The echoing shouts of completion from Bram and Ry hardly drowned out her damning confession.

Chapter Fourteen

Her heart thundering, she rolled off Bram the second Ry dismounted. She started to jump off the bed, but Bram’s fingers cuffed her wrist, stalling her short.

“Lace, look at me.”

Despite every internal defense mechanism warning her not to do it, she obeyed his soft command. His eyes held an overflow of tenderness. “Don’t be freaked out because of what you admitted. We love you too. Have for a long time.”

His unexpected words hammered into her. Pulse speeding out of control, she jerked her gaze to Ry, who was watching her with an expression identical to Bram’s. “
What?
”

“That’s right, baby. We’ve been madly, hopelessly in love with you for going on damn near fifteen years.”

“But…” The panic bells began tolling in her head. “You never said anything. Never so much as hinted…” Her eyes narrowed. “You were going to let me marry Dan.” And look where that had gotten her. Further proof that love was only a heartache she couldn’t afford.

Ry and Bram both grimaced, but it was Bram who ultimately addressed her accusation. “If we’d known what a cheating prick he was, we would never have let you go out with him in the first place.”

She plunked her hands on her hips. “
Let
me go out with him?”

Bram’s cheeks reddened. “Shit, that didn’t come out right.”

Ry scooted off the mattress and walked toward her. “What Bram’s trying to say is that we wanted you to be happy. Obviously Dan didn’t feel the same way. But we can change all that now. You, Bram and I, we can forge our happiness together.”

Like a taunting ghost that’d been waiting for the perfect moment to feed her insecurities, Olivia’s voice popped inside Lacey’s head.
You know why Dan left, don’t you? Because you’re boring. A goody-goody who doesn’t know the first thing about how to please a man. Or keep him happy. Or should we say keep him period?

Ry moved to hug her, but she stumbled out of his reach and hurried down the hallway. She could hear him and Bram following after her, but she forced herself not to look at them as she stopped in the entryway and tugged on her jeans.

“Baby, what are you doing?”

She pulled on her sweater, despising the way her fingers shook. “Going home.”

“Why?”

“Because I can’t be here right now.” Not when the walls were closing in on her and she felt like she was seconds away from throwing up.

Before she could stop him, Bram stepped in front of the door, blocking her exit. “Whatever’s scaring you, Lace, don’t listen to it. We’re here for you.” He cupped her face, forcing her to meet the sincerity in his gaze. “Always.”

“Please, I—I just need to be by myself for a while.”

Ry’s hands settled on her shoulders. “Don’t shut us out, baby. Not now. Not after everything we’ve been through.”

She swallowed, the agitation sticking in her throat. “I told you this would end up being a mistake.”

A flash of pain flickered in Bram’s eyes. “Don’t say that. Loving each other isn’t a mistake.”

“It will be when this doesn’t work out. And how can it? For God’s sake, Bram, there are three of us in this equation. Not exactly the norm.”

“We’ll figure it out. Hell, it’s not like this place isn’t big enough for all of us.”

She gaped at him. His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Or…we can move into your place. I’m not averse to selling my house. And Ry’s lease is almost up on his condo.”

Danger. Danger. Danger.
This was how it all started. Talk of a future that would ultimately crumble into shattered illusions. She’d been down this road before and recognized a devastating oncoming collision when she saw one.
“No one is moving anywhere.” Jerking out of Bram’s and Ry’s grasps, she bent and swiped her purse from where it’d landed earlier. Straightening, she sent Bram a resolute stare while inside she trembled. “Don’t make me beg you to step away from the door.”

Bram’s face fell. “Lace—”

“Let her go.”

Bram glanced at Ry in surprise. Taking advantage of his distraction, she scooted under the arm he had braced on the doorframe and reached for the knob.

Ry’s voice wrapped around her with tenderness. “Baby, we love you. Just remember that.”

She stumbled out the door. Halfway to her car, she realized why she was shivering spastically. She’d left her coat back in the house. Not even chilled bones would convince her to risk repeating the painful scene she’d just left. Stomach lurching, she jumped in her Pathfinder and somehow worked her shaking fingers enough to fumble the key into the ignition and steer the vehicle out of the driveway.

The real miracle was keeping down her breakfast until she made it home to her bathroom.

Chapter Fifteen

Sitting through a second grade Christmas pageant with a heavy heart and an awful sickness churning in her stomach wasn’t exactly Lacey’s idea of a good time. Unfortunately, she didn’t have much choice but to grin and bear it since she’d promised her aunt Eliza weeks ago that she wouldn’t miss Jamie’s big debut as one of Santa’s elves. Being a single parent, Eliza counted on all the family support she could get. And with Lacey’s parents already down in Florida, Lacey was pretty much all Eliza and Jamie had. She couldn’t let them down.

Somehow she managed to smile and clap when her niece and the rest of the eight year olds took their bows before giggling and scurrying toward the auditorium wings of Hofferton’s Elementary School. Clutching her purse like a lifeline, Lacey turned toward her aunt with a smile that she prayed didn’t look half as pained as it felt. “Well, give Jamie a big kiss for me and tell her I think we have a star in the making.”

Aunt Eliza’s lips hitched into a frown. “I thought you were joining us for dinner.”

“Thanks, but if you don’t mind, I think I’ll skip it this time. All the hours I’ve been putting in at the restaurant have really tuckered me out the past few days.” That and trying to cope with the turmoil inside her heart.

“But, hon, it’s the holidays. Plus I know how much Jamie would love getting to have her most favoritest person in the whole world brag on her performance.”

The woman was a freaking pro at wheedling people into going along with her plans. Lacey sighed softly. “All right, count me in.”

“Fantastic!” Eliza hugged Lacey tight, enveloping her in a gardenia-scented cloud. The strong potency of her aunt’s perfume increased Lacey’s queasiness.