The Strength of Love_Happily Ever Menage Page 6

  Josh grimaced, then shivered when Luke bent over to press a kiss to his chest and then licked around the areola of his nipple. He slipped his hand down to grab Josh’s shaft as he began to suck the small nub. He’d admit to starting to relax at the touch, and after a few minutes when Luke stopped jerking him off and began to play with the pucker of his ass, he didn’t tense too much.

  The problem was, Josh liked being in charge. Even here. Luke was usually on the receiving end of a good fuck, not him.

  With fingers up his ass, more lube being spread over the rosette, and a pinkie starting to rub at his prostate, any complaints soon disappeared. It was usually the way, but still, it took a lot to persuade him to assume the position.

  He reached out to cup Luke’s head, to run his fingers through the corn-colored locks that were like silk against his palms. He rocked his hips, reveling in his lover’s intimate touch. A cry escaped him when Luke’s explorations grew bolder, enough that the muscles in his stomach clamped down, almost jerking Luke off his nipple.

  Apparently, that was the sign he was looking for, because Luke stood again, a smirk on his face and his hand now gripping his shaft. “Ready?” he asked.

  “You know I am, prick tease.”

  “I learned from the best.” Luke grabbed Josh’s legs and dragged him closer to the edge. It was a perfect alignment, and within seconds, the tip of Luke’s shaft was prodding at his rosette.

  Josh sucked in a breath and forced himself to relax as his ass slowly began to accept the invader. A shudder racked him as the thick length forged a path inside him, raking nerve endings to life with its heat. Both men groaned when Luke finally sank home, his whole cock buried deep.

  “Damn, that feels good,” he whispered.

  Luke nodded. “Good is an understatement.” His voice was reassuringly hoarse.

  When Luke started to pull out and carefully began to thrust once more, Josh started to see stars. The caution was probably more for his own injury, because he was usually rougher, but the care he took added an extra element to the event. It was intimate, tender somehow.

  Tenderness was usually left to their interactions with Gia. The pair of them were too strong, too aggressive to take each other with gentleness. It in no way diminished the love they had for each other; it was simply how they rolled. Their dynamic was unique and completely separate to the one they shared with Gia. It was why their ménage worked. They were individuals amid the triad, and they never forgot that.

  This, however, he found difficult to forget. There was a sense of vulnerability in this position that he’d never cared for. On his back, legs splayed, his gaze caught by Luke’s… In a sense, he could pity women for having to do this. Baring the most intimate areas of their body, being plundered by an outsider. They were just two of the reasons he disliked it and preferred to top Luke.

  He felt his concentration, his focus on the differences between sex on the bottom and sex on top, start to fade away when Luke grabbed a hold of his shaft and, in time to each thrust, began to tug at his cock.

  A garbled moan escaped him when Luke rounded the tip with his thumb and began to circle the slit where precum was gathering, and his ass clamped down on the cock buried inside.

  That triggered a chain reaction that had Luke’s hips picking up speed, making each thrust rub that little gland deep inside him, which sent fireworks raining at the periphery of his vision.

  His back arched when Luke clamped his hand down on his shaft and nudged his prostate at the most beautifully, perfectly wonderful angle. The fireworks gave way to an explosion that sent his nerves into meltdown and had cum spurting from his dick to coat both his belly and Luke’s. And the cherry on top?

  Well, it was Luke’s hoarse cry. The juddery final thrusts as he worked his own orgasm for all it was worth. The harsh, panting breaths of a man satisfied with his lover.

  His limbs felt shaky with the power of his climax—even the aftermath was momentous, and it wasn’t over. They were still connected, but he reared up, using his feet to gain traction and support on the mattress, bringing their torsos closer together.

  “The only thing that spoiled that was you not being able to get closer to me,” he whispered, reaching for Luke’s chin and bringing him forward so their mouths could join.

  Luke’s chuckle was weak. “Damn knee. A kiss from you would have sent me over the edge five minutes earlier.”

  “I’ll remember that next time,” he promised. “Come on. We have another thirty minutes or so before we have to get ready. Let’s relax, eh?”

  “That sounds nice,” Luke replied, a sigh of pleasure to the words. “We haven’t done this in a long while.”

  “No. Things have been busy.”

  “We should never be too busy for this.”

  Josh blew out a breath. “I know you’re right.” He shivered when Luke pulled his shaft free, then took a few seconds to relish the sensations that one simple move had caused. Damning the mess, preferring to retain the intimacy of the past few moments, he moved across the bed to make space for Luke and watched, ready to help, if aid was needed.

  It wasn’t. Luke made it onto the mattress fine and lay back. He was out of breath by then, though, and considering the pair of them were more than fit, it was a testament to how much work it required not to strain his injuries.

  “It’s unlike you to admit to being wrong, Josh.”

  “I didn’t say I was wrong, only that you’re right. Once the appeal is over, things will change.”

  “You say that now.”

  “Yeah, I do. I know it’s going to go in your favor, Luke. Why do you think we haven’t done this in a while? I’ve been busting my balls to make damn sure you’ll come out of this spotless. After, things will revert to the way they’ve always been.”

  “Exactly. You’re always busy.”

  “It’s my job. I can’t help the demands it places on me.”

  “I’m not complaining, not really. I’m just saying, you need to prioritize. Lexi’s growing up, Josh.”

  “She’s nearly six. Don’t exaggerate.”

  “Two minutes ago, she was one. It seems like hardly any time since she was in diapers, and now she’s learning about the Acadians for fun.

  “What if Gia gets pregnant again? Do you want to be distant? A father figure if not a dad?” He shrugged. “All I’m doing is raising the questions Gia wants to ask but never does. She lets us both get away with murder because she wants us to be happy, but what about her?

  “I’ve been thinking about this ever since you told her she needed to hide out during the appeal. She makes a lot of sacrifices for us, and we…well, we take advantage of that.”

  Josh scowled, rolling onto his side to focus his glower on Luke. “I love her.”

  “So what? I love her too, but that doesn’t mean we don’t take advantage of her.”

  “I’ve asked her if she’s happy here.”

  “She is happy. I know that. It doesn’t mean she can’t be happier, though, does it? And isn’t her being the happiest Gia she can be what we should focus on?”

  “No, I guess,” he eventually replied, a grunt to the admission.

  “She’s used to playing second fiddle to the army. So used to it, it’s a part and parcel of life with us, but that doesn’t make it fair. You should think about that when you start thinking about your schedule after the appeal.

  “Family first, Josh. We both forget that, but we shouldn’t. Because without family, we’re nothing. Just bags of bones and meat, fodder for a war we can’t win.”

  “Now you’re being gloomy.”

  “I’ve got a death knell clanging at my back, Josh. You try not to be gloomy. Over the next couple of days, my reputation, my honor, my career…it’s all going to be pulled apart, shredded to pieces, and all because some schmuck of a colonel thinks he can get away with murder, literally, and stack the blame on me because I dared to stand up to him and refused to be absorbed into his racketeering.

  “Li
fe isn’t fair, but we’ve been handed a golden egg with Gia. I’ve always known it, but when I got back, the things going on in my head… I started to forget it. Now she’s not here, it’s the reminder we both needed.

  “Any flower starts to wilt without appreciation.”

  Josh sighed. “I’ll think about it.”

  “That’s all anyone can ask of you.”

  The two of them settled into silence as they stared at the sun as it made mottled bubbles dance across their ceiling. It wasn’t an uncompanionable silence, but they were both thinking as dawn broke, and surprisingly, neither’s thoughts centered on the upcoming events but on the woman who should have been lying between them yet wasn’t.

  Chapter Five

  “She sounds adorable, Gia.”

  Gia couldn’t help but smile down at the pictures she was showing Sandra. “She really is. Don’t get me wrong, because she can be a little monkey. She’s absorbing schoolwork like a sponge, and I’m running out of the stuff that’s appropriate for her age. Which means the research I already did for her education needs to be done again, and quickly before she starts to get bored—”

  “Better to have an inquisitive child than a boring one more interested in video games and the like,” Sandra butted in.

  She wrinkled her nose. “A mixture of the two would be nice. At least the video game would give me a break.”

  Sandra chuckled. “You mark my words, you’ll regret saying that someday.”

  “I’m sure I will, but at the moment, I can say it with ease.” She looked at the video on her laptop, and warmth filled her at the sight of her mother. Neither of them wanted to risk a visit, though they’d have killed to be able to hug and hold hands and chat over a cup of coffee.

  This was the next best thing, and the guys’ video calls had given her the idea. She could see her mother, show her things, talk to her about her life, and have all that done in return. Gia could learn who her mother was again, come to know the woman as well as the maternal figure, and all without causing Sandra any danger.

  It was the latter that filled her with relief. Sandra’s safety was of the utmost importance to her. It was why she’d only dared start to communicate with her now. Truth be told, these past few months had been tough. Tougher than she’d like to admit and probably never would admit to the guys.

  The weight of their world had been on her shoulders, and she’d had to keep it together for the family in more ways than the usual bustling around, being mom of the year.

  Luke had been a pain in the ass.

  It was the truth though she felt guilty saying that, and though she understood and empathized, he’d been hard work.

  Gia had been snapped at, growled at, been on the receiving end of glares and glowers, harsh shouts, and demands. He’d been in the downstairs bedroom, underneath them, and every time he’d cried out in the middle of his sleep, she’d awoken.

  Mourning for him, grieving with him as he endured the horrors over and over again. As if it wasn’t bad enough that he’d had to experience war itself, he’d had to see it in his dreams.

  It was no wonder he’d isolated himself from them all, but it hurt her more than Josh, even Lexi. She was used to her papas being busy and away, used to them behaving a certain way, and while yes, she’d noticed a change in Luke, she was only five.

  With a five-year-old’s perception.

  If her mommy told her everything was okay, then she tended to believe it. For Gia, she’d felt the distance between her and her lover, and it made her ache.

  In the end, Josh hadn’t been much easier to handle. If he’d been at home, he’d been in the office, focused on Luke’s case. It wasn’t that she didn’t commend him for what he’d done. It was that she’d never felt so alone in an overfull house.

  Trying to keep things normal for Lexi, to make pretty when everything was ten shades of ugly, it had been hard work. Talking to Sandra, chatting about everyday stuff, catching up… It was a step away from the pressure of maintaining that facade. She was the little girl again, the one looking up to her mom. It came as a relief not to be the role model. Not to have to be the glue.

  And boy, that admission made her feel guilty as hell.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Sandra’s voice broke into her gloomy and shameful thoughts. “Nothing,” she tried to pass off, a brave smile bolstering her words.

  “You never could lie worth a damn, mia piccola.” She quirked a brow. “Tell me, what’s wrong?”

  “Don’t you have to go out?”

  A huff was blown Gia’s way. “No, I don’t. I wouldn’t have called you if I did. Harold’s at the florist’s, and Jason is in class. The house is mine for the next couple of hours.”

  “Have you told them about me?”

  Harold was Sandra’s husband, and Jason, her stepson. He was at a state college, while Harold owned a flower shop where the married couple worked together.

  Sandra had always had a head for business; she’d managed a restaurant throughout all Gia’s childhood until they’d been shoved into the care of the state while Giuseppe Lusardi awaited trial with Sandra as the key witness testifying against him.

  “I know what you’re doing, changing the subject, but no, I haven’t told them.”

  “Did they know you had a daughter?”

  Sandra sucked in a breath. “They do, but they think we’re estranged.”

  “Well, we were, I guess.”

  “I suppose so, but it wasn’t over a falling out.”

  Gia bit her lip. “It kind of was.”

  “You were too young to have to think about hiding out for the rest of your life, Gia. I understand why you did what you did.”

  “That choice has haunted me.”

  “It’s only natural it did. We were always close, sugar.”

  “If I hadn’t made the decision to go off on my own, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

  “Which, from my point of view, is a very bizarre place to be.”

  She couldn’t help but grin at that. For all her ways, Sandra was still as traditional as ever. She was only coming to terms with the fact her daughter lived in a fully functioning ménage relationship because distance and time had separated them for so long, she was willing to put up with Gia’s unorthodox lifestyle choices.

  At eighteen, had Gia decided to stay with her mom, not to be shepherded off into the new name and identity the Witness Protection Program had offered her, she would most definitely be married with God only knew how many kids. The husband would be Italian, and they’d live an Italianate lifestyle.

  Church on Sundays, all the festivals and such, as though they were still in the homeland. A homeland that hadn’t even been Sandra’s. The last antecedent of theirs who had actually touched Roman soil was Sandra’s great-grandmother!

  “Bizarre, yes, I’ll agree it might seem that way, but I’m happy.”

  Sandra grimaced. “Well, that makes me happy too, I suppose.”

  “You’d like them.”

  “Your men?” She rubbed her cheek with fingers that were tipped with neatly French-manicured nails. Sandra still took care of herself. Her bob was the same chestnut as ever. Her face was lined, sure, but her eyes were bright, her lips painted in a natural gloss, and she was trim. “I doubt I would, honey. They’re the ones who corrupted you.”

  “They’re not aliens, Mama. They’re good people who love each other and who love me and our daughter.” Gia held up a hand to stall her mother’s next words. “I understand. I don’t expect you to approve or to condone my choices, but I have no regrets about being with Luke and Josh.

  “When I left, college didn’t work out for me. No matter what I did, I couldn’t keep my head above water. I was drowning in debt. If I could have had the scholarship I was offered under my birth name, it would have helped like crazy. Instead, I had to do it on my own.” She shook her head at the memories. “It was bad, Mom. Really bad. I-I went to the guys because they were looking for a surrogate. They like
d me, and I liked how much they were willing to pay me.”

  “You’d have given up your baby?”

  The shock and, Gia heard, disgust, in her mother’s voice would have made her wince once. But the decisions Sandra had made had directly affected her daughter’s life. Her poor choice of men had seen Gia abused by one such boyfriend, and that particular lover couldn’t have been a regular Joe. Oh, no, he’d had to be the next in line to one of Chicago’s biggest mob families.

  Sandra couldn’t just run away with Gia, get away from the Lusardis and all they represented. No, her rage at Giuseppe’s treatment of her daughter had seen her go to the police with vengeance in mind, to hand them so much information—details she’d picked up thanks to running a restaurant the family used to launder money—the cops had thought they were dying and going to heaven.

  Sandra’s testimony hadn’t simply sent Giuseppe down. Around fifteen people were rotting in jail thanks to her and the testimonies she’d provided in court cases that had spanned a handful of years. She’d made a lot of enemies, and she’d made them for her daughter as well.

  “Don’t think you can judge me, Sandra. At that point, I was so desperate I couldn’t even think about the baby. I just thought about the money. The amount they were going to pay was enough to cover my tuition fees for the year, my living expenses for the next two, and help me pay some of the debts I’d incurred.

  “I was so relieved to have met them, so relieved when they agreed to go through with it. They were saving me, and they didn’t know it.”

  “No woman gives up their child unless they’re desperate. They’d have known that. Don’t make them out to be saints.”

  “I never said they were. They’re anything but. However, they’re not bad people, and you can’t twist this around. I wouldn’t have been in that position if you’d…”

  She pulled in a breath, restrained her anger, and stopped herself from snapping out words that later on she’d wish unsaid.

  “Go on, say it.” Sandra’s voice was cold. “Say it. I know you want to.”