The Three (39 page)

“When did you tell her?”

“The next night. We were kissing again, and she put my hand on her breast.” Rumbling with quiet laughter, Kael said, “I nearly passed out when she did. I wanted to touch her everywhere, but I felt so dirty and guilty.

I felt no better than any of the men.”

When Kael trailed off, Anna asked, “What did you say?”

“I told her that we needed to stop. That I needed to tell her something. And she…” Kael snorted. “That sweet girl, she told me not to worry. She told me that she knew who I was. She knew I was worried about showing her my body because I thought she was expecting something else. She leaned in really close to me and whispered, ‘I know you’re a woman. I also know that I’m in love with you.’ My heart almost stopped.”

Anna grinned at the story. She could picture her lovers in her head: Kael shy and frightened, Elin brave and determined. She tilted her face so she could kiss Kael’s jaw. “That must have been a relief.”

Kael laughed out loud. “Relief doesn’t even begin to describe…I was walking on air. I was invincible. If Elin hadn’t been genuine, if she’d turned around and hurt me…I think it would have destroyed me. I gave my heart to her that night, completely. She took a piece of me that I’m never getting back.”

“Elin told me she was nervous her first time with you. Could you tell?”

“A little bit, maybe. I was a lot more nervous than she was, that’s for sure. But I knew it was her first time, and that she wasn’t quite sure what we were doing, either, so that made me feel better.”

Anna pulled back so she could look at Kael’s face. “So?” she asked with a goofy smile. “How was it?”

Kael’s face was red, but she couldn’t stop her shy grin. “Amazing, of course. I was clumsy and nervous and shaking, but I made her come.” She flexed her fingers where they curled around Anna’s shoulder. “I felt it on my hand. It was fucking incredible. At first, when she told me what she wanted me to do to her, I couldn’t believe it. I’d thought about those things, of course, but…I don’t know, I thought it was sick, in a way. That I should feel horrible for even thinking it. Watching how it made Elin feel, how much she enjoyed it, I realized that it wasn’t. It wasn’t disgusting at all.”

For a moment, Anna was lost in a memory of making love with Elin. “No, it sure isn’t.”

“I didn’t know that before Elin.” Kael’s voice was hushed. “I didn’t know a lot of things. She’s taught me so much.”

“Me, too. My life changed completely, and it started with Elin.”

Kael beamed. “Exactly.” Grin fading, she traced Anna’s eyebrow gently. “She made it possible for me to love you the way I do.”

“And how is that?” Anna trailed her fingers over Kael’s shaven scalp.

“Wholly,” Kael murmured and took Anna’s mouth in a deep kiss. She stayed close when she broke away, pressing her forehead against Anna’s. “I know I don’t tell you enough, but the love I feel for you…consumes me. What I’ve found in you, it’s just as important as what I found in Elin, but it’s different.

It’s something all its own, and it means so much to me.”

Anna blinked at Kael’s eloquent words. Tears fell from her eyes, surprising her. “I feel the same. I love you so much it hurts me sometimes.”

Kael captured one of Anna’s tears with her thumb. “That doesn’t sound pleasant.”

Anna caught Kael’s hand in her own and pressed her lips against the strong palm. “And yet it is.” She guided Kael’s hand to rest against the swell of her hip. “I want to make love with you before we go tonight.”

“I want that, too,” Kael murmured. She closed the distance between their faces, and gave Anna a brief kiss.

“How about we make this little guy a bed somewhere?”

Anna grinned at the puppy, who wrestled with his toy on Kael’s lap. She scooped Zep into her arms, then carried him and the knotted rope to the far corner of the bedroom. After settling him down with one of her old T-shirts, she returned to bed smiling.

“He just asks that you give him extra attention tomorrow.” Anna kept the smile on her face.

“That can be arranged.” Kael beckoned her closer. “But tonight…is for you. Elin can help us love on Zep tomorrow.”

Anna straddled Kael’s hips and eyed the closed bedroom door. “You think Walter and Kate have gone to bed yet?”

“I don’t know.” Kael settled her hands on Anna’s hips. “Probably not. But I can be quiet. I promise.”

Waggling dark eyebrows, she added, “Though I guess I can’t promise the same for you. I know that you can be pretty…vocal.”

Anna slapped at Kael’s chest. “I can be quiet.”

“We’ll see.” Kael ran both hands up Anna’s sides, then palmed her breasts. “I’ve been wanting you all day.”

Anna rocked against Kael’s stomach. “I want you. I want to feel all of you.”

“You will,” Kael said and tugged at the hem of Anna’s T-shirt.

Anna didn’t move to help. “Kael,” she said in a hesitant voice, “I want…”

Kael stopped her hands and pressed them against Anna’s stomach. “What, baby? Anything.”

Anna raised onto her knees and slipped her hand between their bodies. She pressed her palm against the crotch of Kael’s blue jeans. “I want you to wear…I want to try—”

Kael’s eyes flashed with unmistakable hunger, but her words were quiet and restrained. “Sweetheart, are you sure?”

Blushing, Anna managed a shy nod. “I’m nervous about it, but I’ve thought about…well, I wondered—”

“You don’t have to do that for my sake.” Kael pulled her down against her body. “You know that, right?”

“I know.” Anna nervously toyed with the collar of Kael’s T-shirt. “That’s not why I’m asking.”

“Then why are you asking?” Kael didn’t break their tender gaze.

“Because I want to be with you like that. And I know how much you enjoy it.”

“I enjoy it because Elin enjoys it.”

“Yeah.” Anna gave Kael a shy smile. “But you enjoy it, too.”

Kael waited a beat, then said, “Yes. I love feeling her body against mine when I’m inside of her. I love being inside of her. But you know, even if I never made love to Elin again, I wouldn’t want to be with you that way unless you really wanted it. I don’t need that from you. Knowing that she wants me like that, that’s what satisfies me.”

“I want you inside of me.” Anna traced the hard line of Kael’s bicep with her fingertip, and lowered her eyes.

“I’m a little afraid, but I know how much I love Elin’s fingers. I know how much Elin loves being with you like that. I want to be that close to you.”

Kael tangled her fingers in her hair and waited until Anna met her eyes before she spoke. “Okay, sweetheart. But we go slow, okay? You’re in control.”

“I’m in control?” Anna started a deliberate grinding with her hips and smiled cautiously. “That’s a little different than you’re used to, isn’t it?”

Kael blushed, then pulled Anna down into a firm hug, pressing their upper bodies together. “I like being in control, yes,” she whispered. “I could never completely give up control. But the only reason I take control with Elin like I do is because she enjoys surrendering it to me. I don’t need it to be that way, especially when we’re trying something new like this.”

“Okay.” Anna rolled off of her lover and watched Kael rise from the bed and kneel down by their bags. “I trust you.”

“I know you do. It’s a gift I treasure with everything that I am.” Kael pulled her flesh-colored dildo from the bag, along with the black leather harness. “Let me just get ready, okay?”

“Okay.” Anna placed one hand behind her head and laid the other on her belly. “Hurry.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

When Kael disappeared into the bathroom, Anna exhaled shakily. She slipped her hand beneath her Tshirt, fingers cold against the heated flesh of her stomach. Sliding her hand up, she touched her right breast through her bra. Her nipple was tight with arousal. She pinched it between her fingertips, then reached up to touch the slope of her breast, enjoying the simple eroticism of caressing her own soft skin.

“You’re so beautiful, you know.” Anna turned to find Kael leaning against the bathroom doorframe. She was naked except for a pair of dark green boxer shorts. Hard pink nipples topped small breasts, and lean muscles flexed under Anna’s gaze. “I could watch you all day.”

Anna’s eyes locked onto Kael’s shorts. Voice shaking, she asked, “You’re…ready?”

Kael pushed away from the door and crossed the room to stand beside the bed. “Baby, I want you to relax.

We’re going to work up to that part. First, I just want to love you.”

“I’m not sure that relaxing is an option right now.” Anna’s heart thumped at the heat in Kael’s gaze. “Not with the way you’re looking at me.”

“I can’t help it.” Kael removed Anna’s T-shirt and bra and pressed her back against the bed. “You have wonderful breasts.” She trailed licking, sucking kisses across brown skin until her mouth covered an erect nipple.

Anna gasped and fell back against the pillows. Kael followed, licking and worrying at the hard nub with gentle teeth. The room fell quiet as Elin’s CD ended and the stereo stopped; contented murmurs and heavy breathing were the only sounds that remained.

Thoughts of the mission ahead receded to the back of Anna’s mind. Her body still hummed with an acute sense of danger, a knowledge that this could quite possibly be her last chance to touch Kael, but rather than mute her desire, it drove her arousal to breath-stealing heights. She arched her back as Kael switched breasts, licking a trail from the left to the right, then dragging her tongue in lazy circles around Anna’s right nipple, now painfully hard.

Anna groaned at the way Kael’s mouth was making her throb and ache. Wetness trickled out of her, soaking her panties, and she squirmed beneath Kael in excitement. “Take my jeans off,” she gasped.

Kael released Anna’s nipple with an audible pop. She pulled back and worked on the button of Anna’s blue jeans with steady hands. “Fine idea.”

Anna studied the strong lines of Kael’s body. Her arms were muscled and smooth, her collarbones well-defined. Her stomach was flat, almost concave after the events of recent weeks, but a healthy glow had returned to her skin since they’d arrived at Kate’s house. In fact, Kael looked better than she had in weeks.

He’s gorgeous.

“Lift up,” Kael said, urging Anna’s hips into the air. She took off Anna’s jeans and panties and inhaled deeply. “I can smell you, baby. You’re excited.”

Anna allowed Kael to press her thighs apart on the mattress. “After the way you kissed me earlier? Of course I’m excited.”

“I’ve been wanting you all day.” Kael slid her lips up over Anna’s ankle, her calf, her knee, her thigh. “May I kiss you here?” She trailed a fingertip through Anna’s wetness.

“I may go crazy if you don’t.” Anna lifted her hips. “Use your tongue.” She grinned when Kael looked up at her with a wry smile.

“You seem pretty comfortable giving orders.” Kael eased her hands beneath Anna and cupped her buttocks, bringing her close. “Don’t you?” She dipped her head and dragged the flat of her tongue up over slick folds. When she pulled back, Anna could see a shiny string of wetness connecting Kael’s lower lip to her center.

“Yes.” Groaning in pleasure, she urged Kael nearer. “Lick me, baby. Please.”

Kael allowed Anna to guide her face to her wetness, this time covering Anna’s swollen clit with her whole mouth. She swirled her tongue over and around the sensitive, distended flesh. Anna bit her lip to stop the loud moan that threatened to explode from her mouth when Kael gripped her buttocks and flattened her tongue over Anna’s clit and across her labia. Anna stared down, entranced by the sight of the shaven head moving between her legs.

Kael pulled back, face shiny with wetness. “I love how you taste.” She licked her lips, then bent so she could drag her tongue up the length of Anna’s sex once again. Closing her eyes, she asked, “May I make you come?”

Anna’s breathing picked up at the question. He’s really letting me have control. She squirmed when Kael’s fingers flexed on her buttocks. “I want to come in your mouth.” Her clit twitched as she gave the command.

Kael lowered her head, and Anna’s eyes slid shut as she concentrated solely on Kael’s lovemaking. She thrust her hips against Kael’s face, though her movement was largely restricted by the fierce grip Kael kept on her bottom. Still, she felt a heady rush of power, and it pushed her close to the edge.

“Don’t stop.” She kept her voice low, afraid of being overheard. “Don’t stop, baby, don’t stop what you’re—”

Her words died in her throat, and she clapped one hand over her mouth to stifle the cry that nearly burst out when Kael’s tongue drew a quivering, shaking orgasm from her body. Whimpering, she squirmed away from Kael’s relentless mouth as she struggled to recover from the shattering pleasure. Her thighs trembled next to Kael’s head. “Stop, baby,” she pleaded. “Oh, baby…please, I can’t…stop, baby, stop.”

Immediately Kael pulled back and ran her wet tongue along her shining upper lip. “Enough?”

Anna gasped. “Give me a few seconds to catch my breath.”

Kael rested the side of her face against Anna’s warm inner thigh. “That was nice.” She stroked lightly over her slippery labia. “You’re so pretty down here.”

Anna flushed in pleasure at the compliment. Thighs spread, she caressed Kael’s head as her lover traced patient designs over her slick folds with reverent fingertips. “Thanks. I kind of like having you look at me.”

Kael’s eyes flitted up to meet hers. “I love looking.”

“How about touching?” Anna groaned as Kael’s fingers increased their pressure.

“I love touching, too,” Kael husked. She eased her left hand from beneath Anna’s body, then slid it up over her abdomen until her fingers grazed the underside of Anna’s breast. “You’re so soft.”

“Do you want to be inside of me?” Anna felt a surge of wetness at her own cautious words.