Not when I could be with them.
He snapped off the water and stalked naked into his room to find clean clothes.
And froze at the sound of voices. Muffled, but loud enough to recognize as Dara and Kane.
“Like that?”
“Oh hell, yes, right there. So good, Kane. More, please, more.”
The words trailed away but the sounds of their lovemaking continued. Jack searched the room in a frenzy to find where it was coming from. The moaning and grunts of pleasure were driving him mad by the time he found the walkie-talkie. It was tucked into the side of his backpack, the listen button jammed in the “on” position. Fuck it. Somehow the two at the other end must have accidentally triggered theirs as well.
Jack smacked the casing to try to get the button to release. It had been bad enough to be imagining them having sex without him, he didn’t need a live play-by-play.
“Kane, would you…spank me?”
Oh my God. The image of her bare butt glowing pink flashed to his mind and his dick went instantly rigid.
“I’m not sure.”
“I loved it when you did it the other day. You and Jack, it was so good. Please?”
No. Fucking. Way. Jack couldn’t stand it any longer. He cracked open the battery compartment, ready to break the connection when he heard a loud slap and a sharp answering gasp from Dara.
Another slap.
She cried out in pain, not pleasure, and Jack swore.
“Ouch, no. Stop, that hurts.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to…fuck that. I can’t. It’s not my thing and I think it’s for freaks anyway. Jack should have known better than—”
The walkie-talkie fell unminded to the floor, the batteries rolling two different directions as Jack saw red. For freaks, hey? What happened to the little lecture about not feeling guilty about things that brought pleasure? He yanked on a pair of boxers and stormed through the apartment. Just because the bastard had no finesse didn’t give him the right to hurt Dara.
He let himself into Dara’s apartment with her spare key and shouted a warning.
“Get your hands off her, you bloody idiot. You were all high and mighty a little while ago, feeding me back my words—”
He thrust open the door to her room, fully expecting to see them naked and tangling the sheets. Or Dara rubbing a sore butt cheek, eyes filled with tears. Instead the bed was covered with a Monopoly board, and Dara and Kane, fully clothed, fists full of popcorn, reclined on either side of the game.
“Hey, just because she asks me to sell Park Place doesn’t mean I’ve got to.” Kane snickered as he glanced Jack up and down. “Nice choice of attire, man. You wander the halls of the apartment like that and Santa’s going to put you on the naughty list for sure.”
“Jack? You okay?” Dara slipped off the bed, concern filling her eyes. “You look upset.”
What the hell was going on? Jack glared at them. “How did you do that?”
“Do what?” She frowned before slipping a few popcorn kernels into her mouth.
Was he going insane? He could have sworn he’d heard them. He scrambled to recall the actual words, but there was no way he could have misinterpreted the sexual sounds for people playing a board game. Kane turned his face away, but not before Jack caught a glimpse of a smile.
Kane…smiling? Even though Jack stood ready to pound the shit out of him for hurting Dara? What the hell was going on? Understanding broke over him, and for a second he wasn’t sure if he should leave, slug Kane like he’d planned in the first place, or burst out laughing.
“It wasn’t real. What I heard wasn’t real. How the fuck did you… Damn it, you set me up.”
Dara approached cautiously, as if concerned he was going to growl at her again. “Kinda?”
“Hey, no ‘kinda’ about it,” Kane gloated from the bed. He leaned back, hands crossed behind his head, wiggling his brows at Jack. “That was a damn good ruse. He fell for it—hook, line and sinker.”
She turned slightly and put her finger to her lips. “Shh, he doesn’t need to hear that yet. We can taunt him later.”
“It’s more fun when it’s immediate.” Kane reached beside him and pulled away a pillow to expose a walkie-talkie and his laptop computer. The open screen revealed a shot of Jack’s bedroom from a high angle.
Jack jerked in disbelief. “You set up a camera in my closet? If you wanted to see me naked, you could have just sat on the bloody bed.”
“It’s my cell phone, and yeah, well, you tell me this didn’t get your attention right where it hurt the most.”
Jack glanced back and forth between the two of them. On his right, his best friend grinned openly. On his left, stood the woman he cared about the most in the entire world. Only these two would have the gall to pull him out of a funk before he could wallow in it, because they were the only two that knew him, inside and out.
To hell with caution, it was time to take a chance. But they needed to know what cards he was laying on the table. If they’d take him, the real him, he was willing to try.
He held his arms out and Dara’s face lit up in the split second he had to see it before she threw herself at him. She burrowed in like a nesting animal, tucking tight to his side. “Please, Jack…”
“Spank you?”
From across the room Kane shouted in dismay. “Hey, none of that.”
Jack offered a smirk. “I wasn’t volunteering to spank you.”
“Thank God.”
Dara wiggled in his arms with her laughter, and he arranged them so he could look her in the eye. “Please what, Dara?”
She took a quick breath and held it for a second before blurting the words out. “Give us a chance. It might not work, but it might. It’s worth a shot.”
Jack waited, watching the emotions roll over her face. He imagined she saw the same kind of things in his. Some fear, tons of need. Rising hope.
Falling in love?
“Sweetheart, it’s not as easy as that. All weekend I’ve been thinking about how right it felt to be with you. When I wasn’t feeling jealous, I even loved watching you with my best friend, even though he does have a serious issue with exhibitionism.”
“Hey!”
Jack flipped Kane the bird, never taking his eyes off Dara’s face. Kane laughed out loud and she smiled as she lifted her hand to his face. Her touch was infinitively soft against the stubble on his jaw.
“But, Dara, I’ve got to tell you the truth. I like to be in charge in the bedroom.”
“I noticed.” She flushed hard. “I liked it.”
He paused. “What if I get even more bossy? Could you still enjoy it? I toned it down a lot the last couple of days, and if we do this thing, I’m not going to do that again.” Jack glanced at Kane who was sitting at attention, listening to his every word. “And you. What if I start ordering you around as well? Especially when it’s the three of us together?”
Kane grinned. “I’d say hallelujah and pass the plate for more.”
Fuck.
“Seriously?” Jack asked. Could the whole issue be solved this easily?
Kane nodded. “When it’s the three of us together, having you call the shots was pretty incredible. I didn’t mind at all. Of course, if you interrupt Dara and I when we’re alone, or try to touch me yourself, I will break your face.”
Dara laughed softy. “Jack, we’ve got a lot of things to figure out while we work through this, but I loved how you had such power over me. The restraints, the spanking you made Kane give me, even making me wait for release… I’ve never felt more loved and cared for than when I let you take charge.”