Embracing the Fall (23 page)

That evening after dinner, the three of them were at the girls’ apartment. Evan was
seated on the couch in his favorite position with Cami and Z tucked under each arm.
Ziporah was riding pretty high at the moment. She had won a big case that was close
to her heart and one more bad guy was off the streets. Her best friend, Cami, and
she had never been closer, and she was in love with a handsome, successful, southern
Dom. In her mind, life was just about perfect.

“So yeah,” Ziporah finished with deep satisfaction, “he got fifteen years and he won’t
be eligible for parole for at least six. That’s pretty good; that’s more than I’d
hoped for.”

“Well, I’m proud of you,” Evan said with sincerity in his voice. “You worked hard,
you dug out the facts, and you pushed those witnesses to get their details straight.
That DA is lucky to have you, and so are the people in this city.” He leaned over
and kissed her with simple undiluted affection. “And so am I.”

“God, I love you.” She hadn’t meant to say that. But the feeling just filled her so
much that if she didn’t let the words out, she would burst. She didn’t take her eyes
off his face, so she had the pleasure of watching the truth of those words sink in
and take root. The look on his face reassured and warmed her from head to toe.

“I’m in love with you, too.” Evan’s head whipped around and he stared at Cami while
she looked back at him in complete seriousness. “We talked about this the other day.”
Z tried hard not to laugh as Cami’s inner-brat came out to play. “We plotted for hours
about how we would tie you up and torture you until you agreed to let us keep you.”

“Oh ladies, my beautiful, sweet ladies.” Z felt Evan’s hand shake as he reached out
and laid it gently on her cheek. He did the same to Cami looking from one to the other
of them with his heart and his eyes.

“You went and ruined all of my big plans. See, I was going to take you out on a little
trip to see my spread back in Texas. Because, even though I’m up here for the long
haul, Texas will always be my home and we’ll be spending a lot of time there over
the years.”

Z felt joyous emotion gathering like a storm in her chest as she guessed where this
was heading, and from the tears coursing down Cami’s cheeks, she saw that she wasn’t
the only one who knew where this was going either.

“When I got you both there, I was going to take you out into the moonlight under the
stars, because New York has a lot to offer, but it’s got nothing on Texas when it
comes to the night sky. Then, when I had you both there, drenched in moonlight highlighted
by fireflies, I was going to tell you that I was in love with you. I was going to
tell you that I wanted to marry you both. And I was going to ask you to do me the
honor of spending your lives with me.”

That storm inside Z broke. Tears poured forth hard and fast and as Evan gathered her
close, she could hear the same thing happening with Cami. He loved them, it didn’t
make sense to the rest of the world and she knew it never would, but he loved them.
For her and for Cami it made sense, though, and that was all they needed, really.

With the gentlest of kisses, Evan soothed away the tears. With two big palms, he cupped
Ziporah’s face and brought her up till they were nose to nose and he looked straight
into her eyes with his burning gaze and told her, “I love you Ziporah. I love you
so much it clouds my mind.” Then as tears fell even faster, he kissed her like it
was the first time and the last time.

Evan pulled back and laid a gentle kiss on her nose then turned to Cami next. One
hand cupped her chin and the other he placed along her cheek. “Cami,” he started,
his accent rich and deep with his emotions, “my sweet, sweet brat. I love you. I love
everything about you and I’m going to keep loving you till the day I die.” Then, even
as she burst out into full blown bawling, he sealed his mouth to hers and kissed her
with all the passion he’d just shown Z.

He touched them both with reverent tenderness after that and built the passion with
soft slow strokes of his hands and his tongue. Ziporah tilted her head back on a dreamy
sigh as those warm lips coursed down her neck, while Cami whimpered with budding arousal
when he turned and did the same to her.

With no rush at all, his hands brushed her clothing out of the way, piece by piece
until she was naked. She was so lost in his lazy lovemaking that she wasn’t even aware
that he’d gotten her naked until she noticed he’d gotten Cami naked, too.

His touch was so confident and sure as he swept his hands over her body, that Z felt
branded, marked as his. With insistent hands, he urged her to her back on the couch
and lowered that beautiful head. He lapped softly at the flesh between her legs with
that same slow tenderness and the effect was galvanizing. Evan lifted his head and
Ziporah opened her eyes to watch as he turned his mouth to Cami next.

He had placed her sitting on the back of the couch, with her legs on either side of
Z. The erotic view turned the fire within her into an inferno. She could clearly see
Evan’s chin working as he lapped and drank between the other woman’s legs, and it
was an incomparable thrill that while doing that, his hands never stopped moving on
either of them.

That was one of the miracles of being with Evan; neither she nor Cami ever felt neglected
or left out when the three of them were together. When they were alone, Cami and she
often joked that the man was, in reality, Dionysus, the Greek god of sex. As Ziporah
lay there watching him devour Cami while his hand was pumping between her own legs,
she almost believed it.

Ziporah felt Evan crook his fingers up and change the direction of his thrust from
in and out to up and down and her hands started scrambling. Faster he stroked, faster,
while still lapping at Cami, and Ziporah felt that wonderful weight building and gathering
force deep inside of her.

Z groaned, the climax so close that she was teetering on the edge and the sound spurred
Evan on. With a growl, he plunged faster within her and sucked greedily at the pussy
in his mouth, and Cami came at the same time she did. Both of them crying out while
their bodies thrashed in the throes of their peak, and still Evan continued. Insatiable,
starved for them both.

Ziporah was nearing peak again, and she could tell Cami was too when Evan pulled back
with a growl. With impatient hands, he yanked his clothes from his body and sat on
the middle cushion. His rumbled commands were barely discernible as he positioned
Cami in a straddle over his lap facing him and pulled Z until she was sitting on his
face with his head braced on the back of the couch. When that talented and amazing
mouth went to work on her, Z leaned forward and nuzzled her head in the crook of Cami’s
neck and shoulder and felt Cami do the same to her. Evan’s hips thundered into Cami,
jolting her body in hard thrusts, while his mouth had Z’s hips grinding against his
face. And as he devoured them with mouth and cock, they clung to each other and came.
Endlessly.

Z felt, as well as heard, Evan’s shouted,
“Oh fuck
!” And then the body beneath them began to tremble and quake as he lost himself in
his own magnificent climax that filled their whole world with light.

Z laughed like a drunk as she and Cami toppled to the side, where Cami then tumbled
to the floor and Evan lay sprawled where they’d left him, destroyed.

“Oh my God, Z!” Cami said in mock horror, “I think we killed him.” Z laughed then
nudged Evan with her toes against his hip. “And that, Cami,” Evan’s smile was more
than a little lopsided as he and Ziporah said in unison, “is why we call you the brat.”

Friday night at Haven was a happening time. The mood was lively, the food and drink
were plentiful, and Cami was in love. All was right in her world. Her business was
booming, her bank account was healthy, and so was her body. But the two best things
about her life right now where the people she was in love with.

Cami was so euphoric and happy, for a full thirty seconds she didn’t believe what
her eyes were telling her she saw. Mark Wahlberg had just walked into her tavern.
He looked exactly the same. Blond and charming, thick of build, with a boyish grin
that used to make her heart flutter, but now made her skin crawl. She had no idea
what to do. Cami had never prepared herself for this moment. Her skin was covered
in an instant sheen of icy sweat and she felt as though she were paralyzed. Not one
of her muscles would move. It was a living nightmare; she was frozen as he drew closer
to the bar and inside her head was a distant roaring scream of denial.

She knew a lot of victims dreamed of facing their attackers one day. They had dreams
of being able to say all the things that they never had the chance to say before.
Some of them had hopes that their attackers would offer words of sorrow or remorse.
But that wasn’t Cami; she prayed to God that she would never have to see this man
again. Yet the answer to that prayer was a big fat
NO
apparently, because as nonchalant as you please, her own personal bogeyman was making
his way toward the bar.

The last time Mark had laid eyes on her, his had been drenched with remorse and tears
as he begged her to forgive him. When he looked up and caught sight of her now, there
was nothing contrite about the look he gave her. His face was filled with smug derision,
and he even had the nerve to look her up and down as he leaned against the bar.

“Well, well, well.” How could she have ever found the snake before her charming, Cami
asked herself. “Should have known a little tease like you would end up a barfly.”
The glass in Cami’s hand shattered to the floor at his callused words. “Careful doll,
you’re gonna get yourself fired. Even a rack like yours ain’t worth losing money over.”

Cami couldn’t believe what she was hearing. His heartless words and sneering expression
was the stuff of nightmares. What happened, she wondered, to everything being all
a big tragic mistake? The man before her now hadn’t a shred of regret.

The edges of her vision started to go black, and echoes of that night were ringing
through her ears. Her screams, the sound of her clothes being ripped to tatters, the
unconscionable thud that his fist made as it connected with her flesh. And worst of
all, the angry snarling grunts as he’d raped her. It was closing in on her, obscuring
her grasp on reality and unleashing years of frustration, fear and anguish.

“Get out.” Her voice was unrecognizable even to her own ears. “Get out now and get
out fast.” If possible, his sneer became even more defined.

“All those years ago you ran me out of school because you were a little cock tease.
You ain’t running me out of anywhere ever again.”

Everything went black. Cami didn’t know how it happened, but from one heartbeat to
the next, she went from behind the bar to on top of him. She didn’t think, she couldn’t
see, she couldn’t even feel anything. It was like those horrible nightmares where
you’re swinging as hard as you can, but your fists seem to be moving in slow motion
and not making any impact at all. She was pounding with as much strength as she could
summon, screaming as loud as her lungs would allow, and still it wasn’t enough.

Evan vaulted from his seat in the back of the Tavern as soon as he heard that now
familiar sound of Cami’s scream. He rounded the bar and took in the scene in a millisecond.
Cami was a woman possessed as she wailed and beat on the person beneath her. Evan
raced forward to pick her up and was enraged to see the man he’d considered doing
business with swing out with his fist at the woman he loved.

Even as he lifted Cami and began to pull her out of reach, Mark stood and lashed out
with a leg that Evan deflected just in time. As that bruising kick connected with
his own hip, Evan looked at Mark in furious shock.

Evan had already had Cami in his arms and was moving her away when Mark had come after
them to kick at her. Evan didn’t know what had happened to start this, but he did
know that as soon as Cami was safe, he was gonna wipe the floor with the other man.