Deep 6 (Multiple Love)

And man, does he want to get inside.

It’ll be warm in there. And comfortable. I know before I even get my fingers inside Sandy that I would lose myself in her body.

Fucking this pristine woman would be like washing myself clean. All the mistakes I’ve made, the wrong decisions, the other women I’ve used for release, all gone.

She’ll cleanse me of every wicked thing that life has extracted from me and make me better.

Tyler thinks his idea is good for Sandy, but it’s better for me.

I told her it wasn’t a good idea for her own good, not mine.

And now I’ve tasted her, I’m weak. My resolve to put her interests in front of mine is gone.

“I could change that,” I say, pulling her tighter against the iron bar of my cock. Her eyelids droop with arousal, and I’ve got her. I know I have. Right where I shouldn’t want her, but I do.

So much that I want to throw my head back, bare my teeth and growl like a bear.

My bed is thirty paces away. Thirty paces to get Sandy where I want her. Naked. Spread open for me. Begging me to soothe the ache I know is building between her legs. Thirty paces, and I’ll give Tyler what he wants.

But can I take them?

12

DAMIEN

There’s something going on with Tyler. He’s wired and jittery, like he’s high on meds or strung out and stressed. I can’t put my finger on what it is, but as I work on the engine of Mr. Doncaster’s old truck, I’m half focusing on the oily mess and half on Tyler.

“How come you left Sandy with Greg?” Andrew asks, and I’m glad someone is trying to get to the bottom of what’s going on. We’re not busy today, and Tyler’s spent most of the morning with his feet up, reading something on his phone.

He could have stayed home with Sandy. He could have been trying to fix things between them if that’s what he wants. We all know he fucked her last night. Andrew made sure to share that with us on the ride to work.

I told Tyler he’s a lucky bastard. Sandy’s a real peach. I expected him to warn me off even looking at his girl. Men can be territorial like that, but he didn’t. Instead, he grinned at me like he just hit a hundred on a scratch-off.

None of it stacks up.

Or maybe it does. Maybe Tyler’s lost the sense in that pretty head of his. Perhaps he’s gotten used to the single life, and he doesn’t want Sandy the way he used to.

I’ve heard him shout her name in the night many times before she showed up out of thin air. I didn’t think that four years have dampened down his feelings for her.

But maybe I know shit about what’s between them.

“They’re bonding,” Tyler replies, and I go from hunched over the engine to back straight as an arrow. Bonding. What the fuck?

“Why the hell is Greg bonding with Sandy?” Andrew says.

Arden chuckles behind me. The guy has got a permanent grin on his face and finds just about everything in life amusing—especially my occasional inability to cover up what I’m really thinking. As soon as I open my mouth, I’m an open book. It’s why I’ve learned to keep it shut, watch, and listen.

Except when I hear crap like what just came out of Tyler’s mouth.

“I want her to like you guys,” Tyler says.

“Like us? Why the fuck would you care if she likes us or not?” Able asks, wiping his hands on a rag, his eerie ice-blue eyes scanning over everything. I swear that guy has another level of perception – matrix-level shit.

Andrew mutters something under his breath, and Able raises an eyebrow. “You got something to say?”

“This is Tyler’s bullshit,” Andrew says. “I’m not wading into it.”

Tyler shifts on the stool, dropping the phone onto the messy counter where we keep everything we can’t be bothered to pack away: receipts, free calendars featuring half-naked big-breasted women, empty bottles of soda and half-finished packets of chips. This place is a mess.

“What, T? What’s Andrew talking about?” Able tosses the rag, and it lands on the counter next to Tyler, who focuses on it more than he should. What’s he avoiding here?

“You ever heard of poly relationships?” he asks.

“Poly what?” Able takes a step closer, his hand rubbing over the tattoos on his arm.

“For fuck’s sake,” Andrew mutters. “You’re seriously going to do this?”

Tyler tries to ignore him, but the way he scratches at the skin around his thumb tells me that Andrew’s comments have knocked some of the certainty out from under him. “Poly relationships basically involve more than two people.”

“You mean like one dude and two chicks?” Arden asks. “I didn’t think that was about a relationship. I thought that was porn.”