Beck & Call (36 page)

Life wasn’t so dark when you had people worth opening your heart to.

“I should be skedaddling too.” Hillary smiled at Mia as she got up. “Don’t forget lunch next week. I know you have things you’ll want to hash over without all these male ears around.”

Mia went to hug her goodbye. Hillary didn’t miss the emotion in her eyes.

“No more thank yous,” she scolded. “I suspect I don’t make close friends any easier than you do.”

There were a few more farewells and backslaps to get through, but soon enough Jake and Damien and Mia stood together in the small parking lot behind the warehouse.

“Well,” Damien said, jingling his keys nervously.

Mia put her hands on his shoulders, rose onto her tiptoes, and frenched the hell out of him. Jake rubbed a smile as he watched Damien’s stiffness inevitably unkink. He knew how passionate Mia’s kisses were, how they sank straight into a man’s bloodstream and hardened him like iron.

By the time she dropped back onto her heels, Damien’s arms had surrounded her.

“Thank you for coming,” she said. “Thank you for giving me … for giving
us
a second chance.”

Damien glanced at him, his eyes cautious but also hot. Jake suspected the other man was thinking of kissing him as well.

“I wanted to.” Damien’s chest lifted with a breath. “I missed both of you.”

Mia sighed happily. “Can we go to your place to talk? Or Jake’s, if you’d rather. Mine is too squishy for three people.”

“My place is good,” he said, rubbing her back gently.

His and Mia’s hips remained close together, and—perhaps without thinking—his caresses strayed onto her ass. The sight aroused Jake, the suggestion that Damien was tempted to fuck her then and there. Jake very much liked that he didn’t have a single reason to look away.

Damien must have felt a few sparks over the situation too. He cleared his throat. “We have a lot to talk about.”

Jake lowered his head and grinned. For his part, he hoped
talking
wasn’t the only activity on their agenda.

SO
many feelings bubbled up in Mia—nerves, excitement, love—that she could hardly sort them out. When Damien preceded her and Jake into his bedroom, she assumed rational discussion would be delayed. Though she didn’t mind that, it turned out not to be the case.

Damien’s bed platform had a drawer on its side that she hadn’t noticed before. He leaned down to open it and pulled out a large paper sheet. Mia shivered. She recognized what it was.

“I’m sorry,” Damien said, catching her reaction. “I don’t mean to bring up bad memories, but I’d like to ask you about this. It’s been preying on my mind.”

“Okay,” she said. If she were him, she guessed she’d have questions.

He spread the copy she’d made for Raeburn on his bed and sat down beside it. “You understood what I designed, didn’t you?”

Jake’s head jerked back. “If she did, I wish she’d clue me in.”

“I
thought
I did,” Mia said. “It popped into my mind while I was taped to the chair. My memory works like that sometimes. I don’t know where the knowledge comes from, because the clues add themselves together in my subconscious.”

“And?” Jake prompted, his eyebrows raised humorously.

“I don’t know what Damien calls this, but I think it’s part of a quantum/not-quantum computer, a hybrid system for running navigation software with encryption that can’t be cracked. That’s what the quantum part does. Because of the observer effect and the Schrodinger’s Cat whatsis. The minute someone tries to hack the encryption—observing it, you could say—the 1’s and 0’s stop being an indefinite quantum blur. Suddenly they’re 1’s
or
0’s, which screws up the data string that’s being spied on, making it useless to the spy and probably triggering a warning.”

She looked at Damien, who rubbed his jaw in bemusement. “That’s the general idea. I’m working on making the quantum side do extra calculations, but that’s not germane to this.”

“It’s for missiles,” Jake guessed. “And drones. So enemy agents can’t hijack them.”

“People can still be hacked,” Damien said. “But not the program. My question is how did you come up with the substitutions you introduced? They almost would have worked.”

Mia could only shrug. “They’re probably bits and pieces of things I read in magazines or saw on science shows. I tried to tell my subconscious what I needed and prayed it would deliver.”

“Why would you do that?” Damien asked softly. “Raeburn was threatening you. You knew he was serious. Why not give him what he asked?”

“Because he couldn’t be trusted with something that important. And because it seemed like he’d kill me once he got it anyway. I figured trying to fool him was worth a shot.”

She’d have thought this was obvious, but Damien shook his head. “You say that as if anyone would have done the same, as if anyone but you would have had the strength of mind.”

“I knew Jake and Curtis would come for me. It was only you showing up that was a surprise.”

Damien laughed and she wondered if she shouldn’t have added the last bit.

“I surprised myself,” he said. “Though maybe I shouldn’t have. Part of me must have known you were worth enduring Sawyer’s mockery of my combat skills.”

“You did all right,” Jake said. “And if it makes you feel better, he covets your spy drone.”

Damien rubbed the lines his grin formed around his mouth. “It’s ridiculous how much I love the pair of you right now.”

Mia’s heart thumped at that. “If I say
I love you
back, will you assume I’ve gone bonkers?”

Jake’s long fingers caressed her nape. “I thought we established you being in love with me safeguards your sanity.”

“You think you’re being cute,” Damien said. “But I’ll thank you not to let her fall out of it.”

“That’s the plan,” Jake agreed. “At least if it’s up to me.”

Damien hesitated a moment before continuing. “Zoe Raeburn seems to be rational. I saw her in the course of trying to hammer out a deal with Uncle Sam. Maybe you were right about why I’ve been afraid to allow people close to me.” He shifted his gaze to Mia. “I want to change that. I want to let you in.”

Mia went to him and took his hands. She was a bit dismayed by his humility. “You’re not a beggar. We’re all afraid to trust sometimes. While I’d really like you to let us in, please don’t forget Jake and I fell in love with you as you are, eccentricities and all.”

“Exactly,” Jake said. “Make changes if they feel right to you. We love the weirdo you already.”

For once, Mia had been the diplomatic one. Damien smiled anyway, bringing her left knuckles and then her right to his mouth to kiss.

His eyes took on a heat that made her insides melt.

“If I’m not a beggar,” he said, his voice deeper than before. “Perhaps Jake would be kind enough to remove your adorable mini-dress. It’s been a long time since I was inside a woman. I’m really looking forward to changing that with you.”

Mia shivered and went wet.

“That would be my pleasure,” Jake responded.

A moment later, he was a tall heat behind her, his dexterous fingers sliding the dress’s zipper down. She was very glad she had on nice underwear. Damien’s slow smile when she stood in nothing but the electric blue bra and panties was wonderfully wolfish.

He was still sitting on the bed. With quick absentminded motions, he rolled up the plan and stowed it in the drawer again. Despite the copy being flawed—and the fun they were about to have—Mia absolutely
knew
Jake was planning to move the schematic to a more secure location at the first opportunity.

Because she trusted him to take care of it, she let her worry float away.

Damien leaned forward to kiss her navel, his fingers skating over the slippery satin that stretched across her rear. The whispery touch was exciting. Her pussy heated more, her arousal running out to dampen the panel. Damien slid both thumbs forward, feathering their pads up and down the tip of her clitoris where the cloth covered it. Every nerve inside her clit shot sparks. When she gushed again, he rubbed his face across her pubis and let out a growling noise.

“This is my favorite perfume in the world,” he said.

That was pleasant to feel and hear, but a second later, Mia twitched. Jake had just worked the back of her bra free. He drew the garment off her arms and stepped right up to her.

He replaced the silky cups’ support with his hard warm hands. The situation was too delicious. As Jake squeezed her breasts and pulled out her nipples, Mia squirmed between the men’s caresses.

“That gets you, doesn’t it?” Jake murmured in her ear. “Both of us hard up and touching you.”

He
was
hard up. The ridge of his big erection nudged her back unmistakably.

Damien stood without warning, increasing her sense of being sandwiched between powerful male bodies. Needing to steady herself, she set her hands on his ribs. His dress shirt was warm and smooth, and she couldn’t resist rubbing it. Damien tipped her face up toward him. As if she were precious, his touch traced her jaw and throat. His hazel gaze seemed to bore into hers.

“We could take you together,” he said softly. “Me in front. Jake behind. He’d make you enjoy it. He certainly made me.”

Tropical heat flashed through her. Jake’s hands tightened on her breasts, so she guessed he liked the idea too.

“That’s what you want?” she asked breathlessly.

Damien’s eyes crinkled. “It’s what I’ve been fantasizing about ever since he did it to me.”

That robbed her of the power to speak. Damien’s grin intensified. He pulled her dampened panties down her legs.

She stepped out of them and then held her breath as Damien began unbuttoning his shirt. Why was watching a man do that so damn sexy? Belt unbuckling was good too. And trouser unzipping. And toeing off fancy loafers before shucking the aforementioned.

He sat on the bed to pull off his socks. Ridiculously, she liked watching that as well. His legs were so nice with their solid muscles and dark gold hair. He stood up and skinned his briefs down them. His chest and shoulders invited her gaze to run over them, but she couldn’t quite resist the distraction of his hard-on. It was yummy—thick and flushed and pulsing with eagerness. She hoped it and everything else she liked about his body would soon be hers to appreciate.

Without realizing she’d done it, Mia curled both hands together and pressed them to her mouth.

Damien laughed at her reaction. “Thank you. That’s very flattering. Jake?”

When she turned to glance at him, she got a start. Jake was naked too, his lean, ripped darkness a lovely contrast to Damien’s light.

“Oh boy,” she said. “If you two were any sexier, I’d have a heart attack.”

“Please don’t,” Jake said. “We prefer you healthy and squirming.”

“Especially squirming.” Damien offered her his hand so she could climb onto the low bed. His confidence seemed to have returned full force. “Kneel in the center of the mattress with your thighs spread apart—unless Jake would like to recommend another arrangement?”

“That should work,” Jake said agreeably. “Do you have supplies in this table’s drawer?”

“I do,” Damien said. “Feel free to make use of anything you find.”

The men were teasing her with their politeness. “You must think you’re both the boss of me now.”

If her voice hadn’t broken huskily, she’d have had a better chance of passing this off as a complaint. Jake smiled at her with hooded eyes. Somehow he managed to convey love
and
knowingness with the look.

“You’re the boss of us,” he said, “even when we’re bossing you.”

Her breath caught inside her throat. He meant this. They wanted to please her.

“It’s true,” Damien said, his eyes as warm and affectionate as Jake’s. “You’re the magic ingredient.”

“You’re a science guy,” she protested. “You don’t believe in magic.”

“When I see you naked in my bed, I do.”

Let go,
she thought.
Let go and enjoy this.

“I love you,” she said. “I want to give myself to both of you.”

“I believe we can arrange than,” Jake said.

He swung onto the bed behind her. His palms molded to her shoulders and then dragged down her arms. He whispered kisses up her nape, nuzzling her hair aside. Nerves tingled everywhere his lips and fingers brushed.

Finally, he slid his hands to hers. “I’m going to hold you for Damien while he slides into you.”

Mia’s lashes had drifted closed. When she lifted them, the spellbound expression on Damien’s face told her something she’d already suspected.

He was always going to like watching.

She smiled and held out her arm to him.

He shook himself from his daze and moved onto the bed in front of her. “Sorry. You two make quite the picture.”

Mia skimmed her hands up his muscular chest. “No need to apologize. Jake and I get off on you playing voyeur.”

Damien took her face in his hands and kissed her. Being kissed was different from kissing him. He let out his hunger slowly, deepening the kiss, hardening it, gradually catching her against him with his arms. Jake shifted closer too, his hands sliding up and down the places Damien left bare. When Damien broke free of kissing her to kiss Jake, the ache inside her tightened impossibly.

The men’s cocks pressed her naked body, hot and urgent and just short of grinding her. Damien wasn’t holding back. The sound of the men kissing was very intimate, but she couldn’t feel overlooked. She was too intertwined in what was happening. Their strength seemed to buffet her, their greater heat and weight causing her to feel simultaneously thrilled and safe. As Jake’s body jostled her from behind, his hand found and cupped her mound. He slid one finger between her folds and into her pussy, using his thumb to polish her swollen clit.

Considering they’d spent the last two weeks having lots of sex, he was expert at fondling her. Sharp sensations shot deep inside her. She couldn’t hold back a groan. Damien switched to kissing her for a last long probe.

“Pass me a condom,” he gasped as he ended it.