Chapter Eight
Jackson
I thought that I was going to fall asleep, but I was too excited, too filled with adrenaline after my experience with Gabrielle to let myself drift away. She cooed happily as she slipped beneath the covers, rolling onto her stomach and stretching out against the sheets. She seemed completely relaxed, in tune with herself in the unique and indescribable way that came with this new discovery of herself. I kissed between her shoulder blades and climbed off of the bed.
"I'll be right back," I said. "Just relax."
I got dressed and reluctantly walked out of the room, heading for the bedroom that I usually used when I wanted to stay the night at the Club. I didn't want to be away from Gabrielle. I wanted to curl up around her and sleep until I had my energy back and then go for round two. But I was hungry and I knew that she would be, too. I could have called for the kitchen to send whatever I wanted to me, but I didn't want anyone coming into the room. I felt a strong sense of protectiveness over that room and over Gabrielle. It was better for me to go get food and bring it back to her so that no one came into the indulgent space that we had created and disturb her.
Once I was in my bedroom I changed out of my suit and into more comfortable clothing before heading for the concierge. The restaurant was closed for the night, but the kitchen itself was always open for those who were at the Club late. I made my order and took a seat in one of the large open lounges to wait. I had been reading my way through one of the old hardback books that filled the shelves lining the walls when Lucas dropped down into the seat beside me. He was still wearing his suit from the gala and he looked tired.
"Everyone's finally gone," he said. "I have a feeling, though, that every bedroom in this place is going to be seeing some serious use tonight. And maybe even a few of the rooms that don't have beds."
"Then I would say that our idea for the gala was a success," I said.
"It certainly was." My brother looked at me with a smirk on his lips. "Speaking of which," he said.
He didn't have to say anything else. I knew exactly what he was asking me. But I wasn't sure how I wanted to respond to him. I had never had any hesitation talking about my exploits with any of my brothers. In fact, normal breakfast table conversation generally revolved around our companion from the night before. This time, though, it seemed different. Considering the circumstances that we were in, I didn't want to just spill everything about what had happened earlier or start trying to assign an evaluation to her. I had been given the honor to be the first, not just the first of the four of us, and I wanted to keep that to myself. But I also wanted to give the rest of my brothers a chance to experience her without anything that I said hanging over them. If she was going to be a part of our lives moving forward, she needed a relationship with each of us as well as all of us.
"Hopefully you'll be finding out for yourself soon enough," I said.
Lucas grinned at me.
"Hopefully I will."
A waiter came toward me with a cart full of food and I stood.
"I'll take it," I said.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Absolutely."
I handed him a generous tip and started back toward the bedroom.
When I got back I was disappointed to see that Gabrielle had gotten out of bed and put on pajamas. She was propped up against the pillows reading and looked up at me with slight surprise in her eyes when I came back in.
"You're back," she said.
"I told you that I would be."
She smiled and put the book on the table beside the bed.
"What's all that?" she asked, gesturing toward the cart
"I thought that we could use a little snack," he said. "I didn't get much to eat today before the gala."
"Neither did I," she admitted.
I brought the cart up to the platform and start carrying plates up to the bed, resting them on the comforter with her. When I was finished, I climbed up to her and rested back on the pillows as we ate.
"Tell me more about yourself," I said after a few moments.
She shrugged.
"There's not a lot to tell."
"Somehow I doubt that," I said. I reached out and picked up a few olives from one of the trays. "Tell me about your family. Do you have any siblings?"
"Well," she said. "You know I have a sister. Skylar. That's it. She has three children and is pregnant, which, of course, my parents love. She's the good sister."
"What's that mean?"
She shrugged again.
"I haven't exactly lived up to what they wanted from me. I worked at a consulting firm for a few years, but that ended really badly, and that's when I just kind of said screw it and opened my shop. My parents think that I'm way too old to be single and childless and chasing what they think is a silly dream making chocolate rather than having a real career."
"Owning a business is a real career," I argued. "That's where success begins. Working at another company is just working on someone else's dream and building their success. You're doing the right thing."
She smiled.
"Thank you. I've always wanted to hear that from someone." She looked away and shook her head slightly. "That's pretty embarrassing to admit."
"Why is that embarrassing to admit? Everybody needs validation every now and then. It sounds like you haven't been getting very much from the people who should be giving it to you. You deserve to feel like you are important and that you're doing something that's valid."
"I don't think that they would agree that making chocolates matters," she said.
"Look what you accomplished tonight, Gabrielle," I said. "Look what you did. In the last two weeks, you have made sure that my brothers and I had corporate gifts for our clients, sweets for Talon's birthday, and incredibly decadent desserts for this gala. I would say that that matters. Wouldn't you?"
Her eyes were soft and her lips curved up into a bigger smile. She leaned forward and kissed me softly, then sat back down, picking up a piece of fruit.
"Tell me about you and your brothers," she said. "Is it just the four of you?"
I nodded.
"Yes. Our father died about five years ago and our mother died when Aiden was a baby."
"I'm sorry to hear that," she said.
I shook my head, feeling like we were drawing closer to each other. It felt like the opportunity to tell her about the will and the arrangement that we needed was coming sooner and opening in front of me. I had to take my time, though. I had to make sure that the rest of my brothers were completely sure.
We talked for a few more minutes before Gabrielle yawned, ducking her head and covering her mouth. I smiled at her and brushed the hair that she had loosened from its complex style away from her face. It framed her face, making her look softer and younger.
"Are you tired?" I asked.
She nodded.
"Yeah. I feel like the whole day just caught up with me."
"Let's get a few hours of sleep," I said. "Unless you have another pressing chocolate emergency to handle tomorrow."
She laughed.
"No," she said. "No chocolate emergencies. I would be perfectly happy to not see any more chocolate for a while."
I cleaned off the bed while she finished getting ready for sleep. When she was finished, we slipped under the covers and I tucked her up against me, reaching to turn the lamp beside me off.
Gabrielle
I woke up to the feeling of fingertips tracing down my spine and the blanket moving off of me. I could still feel Jackson sleeping beside me and when I opened my eyes I saw that it was Lucas kneeling beside the bed. The moonlight coming in through the window was enough to let me see the warmth of his eyes and I immediately remembered the touch of his lips and the taste of his kiss. Without a word, he brought his head forward and caught my mouth in another kiss. It was exploratory, almost cautious, at first. He pulled his face back and looked at me, then kissed me again, his tongue touching my lips to coax them apart. I complied, willingly accepting his tongue into my mouth so that we could explore each other more thoroughly. He slid his hand across the mattress toward mine and picked it up, pulling on it to guide me to a sitting position. I swung my legs off of the side of the bed and Lucas tucked his arm under my knees and around behind my back to scoop me up out of the bed. He continued to kiss me as he carried me off of the platform and across the room toward the bathroom. I had only stepped into the small first section the night before, but he continued past this portion and toward a mirrored door. Opening it, he revealed a much larger bathroom that seemed to be designed specifically for luxury and relaxation.
A sunken tub was set in a windowed alcove on the side of the room and a series of marble shelves lined the wall on either side. Each shelf held bottles and containers, and a basket set on the bottom shelf contained soft-looking sponges. Lucas set me on my feet beside the tub and turned on the faucet. The sound of the water rushing into the tub broke through the silence that we had maintained since I first saw him in the bedroom, but thoughts of it left my mind when Lucas wrapped his hand around my waist again and drew me up against him. His body was hard and chiseled beneath his clothing and I wanted to feel it without the clothes between us.
Lucas began to undress me, slowly removing each article of clothing and brushing his lips across each expanse of newly exposed skin. His tongue along the swell of my breast caught the breath in my throat and I bit down on my bottom lip. Finally, I was completely bare and he stepped back from me to select one of the bottles from a shelf on the wall. The water was still rushing into the deep tub and he poured some of the shimmering purple liquid into the cap of the bottle and then under the stream. Almost immediately, the tub began to fill with lush, iridescent bubbles. A sweet, warm smell filled the air and I breathed it in, feeling it both relax me and sparked a sultry feeling within me. Lucas took my hand and guided me up the two marble steps beside the tub and then down into the water. I settled onto the bench integrated into the side of the tub and moaned happily as the water rose up over my breasts and washed across my skin. I rested my head back against the side of the tub and let my eyes flutter closed. I listened as Lucas undressed beside me and I turned my head, opening my eyes to watch him. His body was as sculpted and irresistible as Jackson, and I sat up slightly to get closer to him.
His cock was already deliciously hard and I watched as he wrapped his hand around his shaft and stroked it a few times. I looked up into his eyes and he reached forward for my head. He curled his hand behind it and drew it forward toward the engorged head. I brushed my lips across it and then parted them, taking the tip into my mouth. I sucked on it softly and, drawing some of the salty droplets from the slit. I rose up slightly higher so that I could take more of him into my mouth. The pressure of his hand around the back of my head guided me as I let my lips and tongue glide along him for a few moments. He withdrew from my mouth and picked up one of the soft sponges before stepping down into the water with me. Still not saying anything, he dipped the sponge down into the water and ran it across my skin. The bubbles burst on my chest and along my arms, dancing across my tightened nipples.
I arched into the attention, seeking out more of his touch. In a matter of hours, I had gone from being completely inexperienced and knowing nothing of what lay before me to an unquenchable hunger. I had already given myself to one brother that night and I was eagerly seeking another. It was beyond anything that I could have ever imagined doing, yet there was nothing in my life that had ever felt so right and so intensely needed. He bathed me for several minutes and then placed the sponge on the side of the tub. He sat down on the seat beside me and I felt his hand squeeze my thigh beneath the water. It ran up to my hip and he applied slight pressure with his fingertips to guide me up off the seat and around so that I straddled his lap.
I felt my breast brush against his chest and my breathing slowed and deepened. The combination of the water and the bubbles had made our skin slick and warm, and it moved across each other freely. Though I knew that he was right there in front of me, the bubbles had risen up around us to conceal our bodies from one another. This had only intensified the excitement as I added even more, compelled to reach out and touch him in order to compensate for not being able to look at the beauty of his skin and sculpted muscles. Lucas leaned forward so that he could take his head into the curve of my neck and shoulder and hold me close with one arm wrapped around my waist. He held me tightly while the other hand stroked along my back and shoulders, occasionally sweeping forward to just barely touch the upper swell of my breast. The tip of his tongue touched my collarbone and I rocked my hips forward to show my willingness to him.
"Is there room in there for me?"
I looked toward the bathroom door and saw Jackson standing there, leaning against the door frame. He was already undressed and one hand was wrapped around the base of his cock as his eyes explored my body that was visible over the surface of the water. I licked my lips and nodded. He smiled at me and walked across the room, stepping down into the water so that he was behind me. His hands ran along my back and then found my hips below the water. He squeezed them and subtly eased them forward so that I felt Lucas's erection nudging at my opening. I stood up and turned around, settling into Lucas's lap again so that I was rested back against his chest and facing Jackson.
Lucas's mouth immediately found my neck and his hands slid around my hips and onto my stomach before settling on my inner thighs. Jackson reached forward and rested his hands on my breasts, kneading them until I let out a sigh and leaned back to settle my head onto Lucas's shoulder. I reached down into the water and found Lucas's cock between my thighs. I brought it up to press it against my belly. I used one hand to stroke it into my skin, savoring the feeling of its thick, hard length and tucking my hips forward to cradle the base with my core. Lucas tightened his grip on me and lifted both of us up so that he was perched on the side of the tub. Jackson slipped forward in the water and tucked his mouth between my thighs, sweeping his tongue through me again to awaken tissues still sensitive and tingling from his attention earlier in the night.
Lucas leaned back and reached onto one of the shelves on the wall beside the tub. When he came back to sitting straight up, Jackson sat up and caught the condom that Lucas tossed him. I turned to watch Lucas tear the package of the condom in his hand with his teeth and pull out the condom. He settled it onto the head of his cock and then pulled his hands away. I knew what he was encouraging and I wrapped my hand around his cock, rolling the condom into place. Jackson had stood so that he was no longer in the water and rolled a condom onto himself. He leaned forward and sucked on one of my breasts before looking me directly in the eye.
"Can we bring you back into the bedroom?" he asked.
I shook my head.
"No," I said.
Jackson looked startled and a hint of worry seemed to flicker across his eyes.
"No?" he asked.
"No?" Lucas asked, his voice overlapping with his brother's.
I shook my head and reached up for Jackson. He leaned down so that I could take hold of his face and kiss him deeply. I pulled back so that I could look into his eyes the way that he had looked into mine.
"Here," I said.
I rolled my hips against Lucas and felt his cock twitch in response. He gripped my hips tightly and lifted me up off of his lap enough that the tip of his erection touched my opening. Jackson caught my mouth, kissing me as Lucas lowered me down onto his lap so that he filled me completely. I moaned into Jackson's mouth and reached forward to grasp his cock. It already seemed familiar in my hand and I stroked it hungrily.
After a few moments, Jackson grabbed me by my upper arms and pulled me up so that I stood in the bath in front of him. He crushed his mouth over mine and as we kissed I felt Lucas shifting behind me and taking off the condom. Jackson turned me and in an instant, I was on my hands and knees on the ledge of the tub. I cried out as Jackson's tongue slid across me, slipping between my folds and immediately focusing in on the throbbing bud at my peak, bringing it forward with a promise of more of the intoxicating pleasure he had already provided. He repeated the lick and I arched my back, crying out at the waves of pleasure he sent through me and seeking Lucas. He stepped up in front of me and I filled my open mouth with his stiffened cock. I felt Jackson immediately, pushing all the way inside me with one intense thrust that created a shock of pain that immediately melted away into warm, filling pleasure. He buried his hand in my hair and the other gripped my hip to hold me steady as he pounded into me. I relaxed, giving myself over to his control. This allowed my mouth to glide over Lucas at the rhythm and pace that Jackson created. I whimpered with each deep stroke, the intensity of the sensation that he was creating, and the combination with Lucas's erection in my mouth making it difficult for me to support myself on my shaking arms.
Jackson's hand moved off of my hip and dipped between my thighs so that his fingers could play across me again. It didn't take long for the feeling to overwhelm me and I screamed out, pressing back against Jackson so that I could find more of the pleasure of his body. He slammed forward in a final thrust that made his cock throb. And at the same moment, Lucas growled and came into my mouth, feeling me in a new and enrapturing way. Jackson bent forward, his arm coming up around my waist to support me and guide me up onto my knees so I now leaned back against him as he kissed along my shoulder and Lucas did the same down the center of my chest.