Chapter Seven
They missed the ferry. They’d gotten caught up at their house on Dune Street. Apparently, their last tenants hadn’t left the place in pristine condition. It was obvious that they loved the place. Jack mentioned they were going to move in someday when they were ready to start a family, but Dean just shook his head.
It didn’t have any power, so Paige offered to let them stay at the inn. She wasn’t sure if she was relieved, terrified, or anxious. Probably all three. Jack and Dean acted like it wasn’t a big deal, but she was sure they’d rather be on the mainland. Storms on the island weren’t much fun.
They managed to put a few boards up in her front windows to protect the glass from the winds, just in case. The ocean was rolling, and they had to drag Dean away when he made a comment about wishing he had his surfboard with him.
They made it inside before the rain really started coming down. Jack set up the game board while Dean did some last minute things around the inn. Paige swore they were more nervous about the storm than she was. It was just a squall, nothing too serious.
Of course, they lost power a few hours later. Luckily, the steaks and baked potatoes had finished cooking, so they had dinner by candlelight while the wind howled and shook the house.
“She’ll stay together,” Jack said after one particularly hard rattle.
“Sorry about the lights,” Dean said. “It’s not the wiring. It’s the island’s power grid. The generator should have kicked on, though. I’ll make that a priority tomorrow morning.”
“I hope we don’t have to buy a new one,” she said.
“I’ll make it work.” He winked at her and Paige flushed, remembering Caillie’s words. She was dying to know about the child Stephanie had, but in all their conversations about friends, family, and life in general, they never brought up that they were bisexual or that they had a kid. Had Caillie been lying to her? Or didn’t they trust her with that information?
After dinner, they helped her with the dishes and then brought another bottle of wine into the living room. Dean made a fire in the fireplace while Jack lit every candle they had and placed it around the room. It made everything cozy and warm. The fuzzy edges from the candlelight blurred further on the second bottle of wine.
Jack, who had a one-track mind when it came to Monopoly, had set up the board on her leather ottoman and tossed pillows on the floor so they could sit around the board and finish their game. As per usual, Jack and Dean were losing. Paige wouldn’t give them a break, even as they tried to wheedle their way out of paying rent by offering free passes on their properties or trading her a utility. She’d gotten all three light blue properties early in the game and put hotels on each of them. It wasn’t a game winner, but it was a hit in the pocketbook almost every time they passed Go.
Leaning back on the couch, Paige happily watched the two of them take their turns. Jack’s long blond hair hung loose on his shoulders, and his T-shirt showed off his biceps and the koi fish tattoos on his arm. Dean scowled at the board. His shirt clung to his chest, reminding her that he had six-pack abs hidden under there. Her mind wandered a little about their Stephanie, wondering how to bring her up.
Thunder boomed and Paige jumped, spilling her wine over her blouse. “Shit,” she said.
Dean took her glass out of her hand while Jack quickly unbuttoned her shirt. “We need to get some seltzer on this,” he said.
As his fingers made quick work of the buttons, she swallowed hard. She had a moment of sheer embarrassment and a flash of lust when his finger brushed over the cups of her bra. So this was it. Jack was going to strip her and make wild love to her. Paige caught her breath in excitement. But then, he was whisking the shirt away into the kitchen.
She was an idiot.
After removing his shirt, Dean popped it over her head. The fresh scent of clean laundry and lime citrus cologne tickled her nose.
As he helped her get her arms through his sleeves, she tried not to be aware of how great he smelled or the slight darkening of hair on his cheek as his five o’clock shadow grew in.
“You’re such a klutz,” he said.
“It’s not my fault. It sounds like World War Two out there,” she grumbled. In the kitchen, water was running. “Just leave it, Jack. It’s an old shirt.”
“He thinks it’ll give him some brownie points if he lands on Connecticut Avenue.”
Paige snorted. “Then he hasn’t been paying attention.”
Leaning back against the couch next to her, Dean’s arm brushed against hers.
“Can I ask you a personal question?” she said, feeling if she didn’t ask him about Stephanie she would burst.
“We should be playing truth or dare if we’re going to do that.” He grinned at her.
“Okay. Truth or dare?”
“Dare.”
“Seriously?” Paige rolled her eyes. “Fine. I dare you to answer my question.”
“I think that’s cheating.”
It probably was, but the only other dare she could come up with was “I dare you to French me,” which was a little too high school for her taste. “I dare you to tell me about Stephanie. It’s all in the wording of the question. Like Jeopardy…” Paige trailed off when she saw his expression. “Look, forget about it. It’s stupid. I shouldn’t have been listening to gossip.”
“No, that’s all right.” Dean rubbed his hand over his face. “I just wasn’t expecting that. What do you want to know?”
“Do you or Jack have a child with her?”
Dean went slack jawed. “Uh no. Why do you ask?”
Paige sighed. “You know Caillie Berns, the potter, right?”
“Oh her.” Dean’s lips tightened.
“She said that you guys were swingers and got her pregnant.”
Jack barked out a laugh from the doorway. “Stephanie wasn’t pregnant, and we’re not swingers. I got the stain out and hung your blouse over a chair to dry.”
“I’m so embarrassed.” Paige put her hands over her cheeks. “I should never have believed Caillie.”
“Stephanie was our girlfriend,” Dean said.
“You both went out with her?” Paige asked.
“At the same time.” Jack sat down next to her.
“Did you know about each other?”
It was Dean’s turn to laugh. “Yeah, we were a threesome.”
“Oh.” There went her blush again.
“But she was worried about what her parents would think. At the time, I lived down the road from her parents on Dune Road. We met while I was jogging. I was dating Jack at the time, but he lived on the mainland. We hit it off, so I introduced her to Jack.”
“We hit it off also.” Jack grinned.
“So we all dated for a bit. All three of us.”
“At the same time,” Jack added again.
“I get it,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“One thing led to another, and eventually we spent every night either at my house or Jack’s. She decided that my place was too close to her parents, so we were going to move into Jack’s house, and I put mine up for rent.”
“But she got cold feet,” Jack said. “She was worried what people would say about her living with two men.”
“Then her family started issuing invitations. They wanted to meet her boyfriend. She didn’t want to tell them we both were. Then her best friend, Allie, got married.”
Jack groaned.
“She asked Jack to stay home so she could introduce me around as her man.”
“The tattoos again.” Jack nudged her.
Paige nudged him back. “I love them.”
“Do you?” he asked.
“Take off your shirt and find out.”
Jack whipped it off his head.
Smiling, Paige traced the koi fish on his bicep, catching a faint hint of his aftershave. It was a sensual amber fragrance that smelled exotic and sexy. It made her want to roll all over him. “Were you hurt about not going to the wedding?”
“Shit no. It wasn’t even an open bar.”
But she could tell it still rankled. She reached down to hold his hand. The thunder boomed again and the pieces on the board jumped.
“We should probably get back to the game,” Paige said.
“I’m not done with your dare yet,” Dean said. “If people are starting to talk, I want you to hear the full story from us.”
“Okay,” she said. “But you don’t have to tell me if it’s too painful. I’ll just tell people to mind their business.”
“Like that will work,” Jack said with a sneer.
Paige rubbed her cheek on his arm. He kissed the top of her head. Warm desire coiled in her stomach and she refused to think about all the delicious possibilities this could bring up.
“Allie’s wedding was the beginning of the end for us,” Dean said. “Stephanie didn’t want anything to change, except she wanted to get married. Preferably to me.”
“What about you?” she asked Jack.
“I was the side piece.”
Paige frowned. “That doesn’t seem fair to you.”
Jack shrugged. “If it meant I could have them both, I was fine with it.”
“I wasn’t,” Dean said. “And I told that to Stephanie. And then I married Jack.”
“Of course, it wasn’t an official marriage,” Jack said. “That came later once the laws allowed it. But Stephanie saw that she would never be our Mrs. and she left—without a bun in her oven.”
Paige sighed. “I’m sorry.”
Jack shrugged again. “It wasn’t meant to be.”
“That’s the Stephanie story,” Dean said. “Truth or dare?”
“I thought we were playing Monopoly,” she said, her heart sounding louder than the thunder outside.
“We will, but we have to even out the score.”
Paige wasn’t sure if she wanted to go with the safe choice of truth. There wasn’t anything she wouldn’t tell these guys. Or did she want to tempt fate instead, and see what dare Dean could come up with? She bit her lip in indecision.
“Tick tock,” Jack murmured.
“Truth.” She chickened out.
Jack chuckled.
“Would you ever consider having sex with two men at the same time?” Dean asked, rapid fire.
The breath whooshed out of her lungs. “Hell yes,” she whispered.
“Good,” Dean said. “Now, let’s get back to the game.”
She blinked at him.
Jack and Dean returned to their positions around the board while Paige tried to gather her scattered wits. Was that just a question or an offer? She tried to control her breathing while they rolled the dice. Things got back to normal after a few rounds, even as the storm raged on around them.
Jack even got lucky and scored all three of the orange properties. Now, things were going to get cutthroat. Dean was down on his luck, having to pay Paige for Vermont Avenue and then getting caught on St. James.
“A thousand smackeroonies,” Jack crowed. “Pay up, bitch.”
Dean riffled through his dwindling stack of cash. “How about five hundred dollars and a kiss?”
Jack scoffed. “Can you believe this guy, Paige?” He jerked his thumb at his husband.
“How about you, Paige?” Dean asked. “If you give me five hundred dollars, I’ll kiss you.”
Paige’s eyes went wide and she immediately looked at Jack. “Is that all right with you?”
Jack shrugged. “I think you’re overpaying.”
“Oooh, snap,” Dean said.
“Especially when he uses phrases like that.” Jack rolled his eyes.
Paige held up an orange five-hundred-dollar bill and fanned herself with it. Did she dare? It was just a kiss and Jack didn’t seem to mind. “Okay.” She laughed, handing over the money.
“Payment up front, huh?” Jack said. “I would have waited until after, just to make sure he doesn’t cheat you on that kiss.”
She was pretty sure it was going to be worth the fake money no matter what happened. However, rather than leaning over the board and giving her a quick peck on the lips, Dean stood up and came around to her. Pulling her to her feet, he whispered, “I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time.”
Paige clung to his shoulders as his head dipped down. Exhilaration met with panic in the brief moment when she looked up at him, but his smile was familiar and his eyes full of warmth. Dean’s mouth was hot and wet on hers, kissing like he was on a mission to make her come with just a kiss. Parting her lips, he swept his tongue inside her mouth. Her breath caught. This had to be a dream.
She kissed him back with equal fervor when he hauled her against him. Straining up on her tiptoes, she pressed against every inch of his hard body. She was so hungry for him it was almost comical. The kiss could have lasted minutes or seconds. Paige lost all sense of time and reason being held tight against his muscled body.
“You should probably come up for air,” Jack said sardonically.
Paige startled and would have pushed away, but Dean tightened his grip and continued to plunder her mouth. Clamping his hand on her ass, he ground into her. The blissful surge of desire made her melt against him. She wanted to ride that hard bulge until she came. Eventually, Dean eased up. He gradually let her go, helping her back down to the floor when her knees wobbled.
“Your turn,” he said to Jack.
“Yes, it is.”
Touching her puffy lips, she looked up at Jack. He winked and rolled the dice. They went around the board a few times, while she felt like she was in a daze. Her entire body was buzzing. Jack and Dean acted perfectly normal and Paige would have thought she had imagined the whole thing, except they were both hard and not hiding the fact at all. As for herself, she felt like squirming. Her bra was too tight. Her panties were soaked. She didn’t know what to do with herself.
Then, Dean landed on St. James Place.
“You’re in luck,” Jack said. “It’s only nine hundred and fifty dollars.”
Paige had her last five-hundred-dollar bill in her hand already.
“But you can blow me instead.” Jack unbuttoned his shorts and pulled them completely off. He hadn’t been wearing underwear. It was so unfair that Paige had seen his cock so many times without being able to touch. Up close, he was thick and large. She licked her lips, desire pooling into her core.
Crawling over to his husband, Dean licked up his shaft.
“See,” Jack said to her. “You should have held out for more.”
Dean gripped his lover’s cock and then slid it in his mouth.
Paige let out a startled gasp.
Jack groaned. “He’s really good at oral.” He ran his fingers through Dean’s short hair. “You would have liked him between your legs. Remember that for next time.” Jack winked and then threw his head back. “Fuck, that’s fantastic.”
Dean’s mouth made loud sucking sounds as he bobbed his head faster on Jack’s cock.
Paige’s throat was dry. Her nipples were painfully hard, and her thighs were damp with need. She was going to start whimpering in a moment. If she thought it was fantastic watching them in the pavilion, having them up close and personal in her living room was a dream come true.
Jack shrugged out of his shirt as Dean yanked down his pants.
A little moan did escape her this time, and Dean made a growling noise in his throat.
“You like what you see?” Jack asked huskily.
Paige nodded.
“Why don’t you come closer?” He crooked his finger at her.
Without another thought, she moved around the ottoman. Jack’s hips twitched up to meet Dean’s mouth.
“Lose the shirt,” Jack said gruffly. “And the bra.”
Paige’s breath caught in her throat, but she did what he said. She cupped her breasts in her hands; they felt heavy, and her nipples were taut and aching to be played with.
Jack moaned, his eyes half closing. “Come here,” he invited.
She moved closer, and he tugged her the rest of the way. His kiss was fierce and rough, with no hint of Dean’s playful teasing, but she didn’t care because Jack’s hands were busy on her breasts. Sharp pleasure hit her clit. He tasted like wine and her head spun as if she’d drunk an entire bottle.
“Let me suck on them,” Jack said, and kissed down to her chest.
“Yes.” She sighed shakily.
Thumbing one of her nipples, he caught the other and sucked hard enough that she cried out. It had been so long, and it felt so damned good.
Dean started to come off Jack’s cock to say something, but Jack pushed his head down and kept him there. Paige covered his hand on Dean’s head and shuddered as desire hit her low. She watched Dean pleasure Jack while he grazed his teeth against her nipple.
“Yeah,” she moaned when he went to the other one and gave it equal treatment. Jack hit every pleasure button she had. She was lit up like a pinball machine.
She looked down as Jack fucked Dean’s mouth with savage thrusts of his hips. Jack tightened the suction on her nipples with each thrust until she was panting, then he let go of Dean’s head and reached up to pull her mouth back to his.
Sucking on his tongue, Paige tried to mimic what Dean was doing on his cock, and Jack roared into her mouth when he came. His body shook against hers while his mouth ravaged her lips. Her wet nipples dragged against his chest when she lost her balance and sagged against him.
“God, that was good,” he muttered, kissing her sweetly a few times before stretching.
She blinked at how aroused they all still were. Jack looked like he didn’t want to move, and Dean looked like he would pounce on her next.
“I forfeit that game,” Dean said.
“Me, too,” Paige replied.
“I win.” Jack pumped his fist.
“We all do,” Dean said, and lunged for Paige.