Indulgence (248 page)

*****

A buzz from the oven timer interrupted and let everyone know
dinner was ready. Their arms and hands tangled a bit as Graeme pulled away to
take the lasagna out of the oven. Michael kept his hand casually on Elizabeth’s
waist and watched as wine was poured and the food set out on the table. He knew
he should offer to help, but was unwilling to let go of the soft warmth of her
skin before he had to.

Food and cleaning up together after dinner put things back
into a more normal perspective and conversation turned to discovering common
interests. They all enjoyed the outdoors, baseball was their favorite sport,
and surprisingly enough, each of them cooked. Somehow talk about cooking turned
to a competition, and since Graeme already cooked, they’d agreed that Liz would
cook tomorrow’s dinner, and he would cook the next day. They each swore to
judge the meals fairly, and the winner was exempt from dish duty for a week.
None of them mentioned it was unlikely they’d still need to be together in a
week. It was a very enjoyable dinner between friends.

When Elizabeth excused herself for a trip to bathroom,
Graeme looked at Michael.

“Want to tell me what’s going on, Michael? What was that
kiss about?”

He thought of a lot of smart ass answers, but what came out
was the simple truth. “I don’t know. Being with… Liz… it’s just… Aww, fuck it.
I don’t know, okay?”

“I won’t let you hurt her. You know that, right?” Graeme
said, his voice barely above a whisper.

Michael jumped to his feet, hands clenched by his side as he
stared blindly out the window. “I don’t want to hurt anyone. I don’t treat
women like that. Hell, I can’t even remember the last time I was on a date. I
don’t do anything but fucking work. I work twenty hour days and then sleep at
the office! I finally decided to make a change, to experience life, and two
hours later I run into her. To you. Fuck it! I’m going to bed.”

He brushed past Liz on her way back to the living room,
stooped abruptly to kiss her on the top of her head, and then retreated for the
night.

*****

“What happened?” Liz asked, coming fully into the room.

“I’m not sure. I think our Michael might be having conflicts
of his own.” He repeated their conversation.

“What about you? Are you still having conflicts, Graeme?”

“No, I know what I want. I want you, Lizzie,” he said,
reaching his hand to stroke her face.

“And what about Michael, Graeme? We both know you want
Michael, too. I saw the look in your eyes.”

“It’s okay, little bit. I love you, and I don’t want to be
without you anymore.”

He leaned in, as though for a kiss, but she stopped him with
a hand to his chest. Her own pulse beat a tattoo, and she knew she was poised
on the edge of an emotional cliff. With a deep breath, Liz stepped closer and
slipped her arms around Graeme’s waist.

“What if I want more, Graeme?” she asked.

Christ, three fucking times. No man should have to listen to
that three fucking times! They couldn’t be making any effort at being quiet.
Goddamn headboard pounding against the wall. How was he supposed to get any
sleep? Lizzie’s moans got louder the closer she got to coming. Graeme’s grunts
and growls ran through him like a constant current of low-level electricity.
Fuck!

Weighing his options and knowing the pillow over his head
was useless, Michael stormed outside and stood on the front porch. The cool
night poured over his hot skin, raising goose bumps, but he refused to go back
inside for his clothes until he was sure they were finished. Tomorrow night
he’d stay out here, make it a part of the surveillance plan. They wouldn’t need
to know it was an unnecessary part.

Once he stopped being pissy, he found himself smiling. The
sheriff finally got his woman. Michael was happy for him. Graeme seemed like a
genuinely nice guy. Despite their initial animosity he thought they could grow
to be good friends. If he survived listening to their nightly exercise.

The door behind him opened, and the heavy footsteps told him
Graeme had joined him on the porch. As he came nearer, Michael found himself
surrounded by the smell of sex.

“Sorry we woke you,” Graeme said, coming to stand too close.

“You got your girl.” Michael smiled. “She needed your loving
tonight. It’ll help her heal.”

Graeme turned and rested his back against the railing, his
weight on his elbows. He was looking up into Michael’s face. “What about you,
Michael? What’ll help you heal?” he asked softly.

Michael felt an unexpected wave of emotion at the question.
What did he want? How had he not noticed the emptiness of his life? The answer
came with a swiftness that surprised him. He wanted to belong to someone. When
he looked at Liz and Graeme, he thought he knew better than they knew
themselves how well they fit together. They’d been apart for nearly ten years,
but they belonged together, and he had no doubt that they would figure that
out. He wanted to belong to someone like that.

He cleared his throat. It was one thing to think something
so sappy in the privacy of his own head, but it wasn’t something you could
share with another guy. Graeme looked at him with his big dark eyes and Michael
found himself staring into them, getting lost for the longest of minutes. With
a jerk he broke the eye contact and turned his head away.

Strong fingers grabbed his arm. “Don’t turn away from me,
Michael. Please.”

That one word stopped him, and he turned back to face
Graeme. “What do you want from me, Graeme?” he said, his voice a harsh whisper
in the night.

Graeme stood, cupped his face, then tilted it up slightly,
as if he were memorizing every feature. Then he slowly lowered his mouth.

Michael knew this would be no mere brush of the lips. He
should pull away. This wasn’t him; he didn’t kiss men. If he let this happen it
would change who he thought he was. He needed to stop it. God help him, he
needed it.

He raised his mouth and met Graeme’s kiss, lips closed, and
eyes wide open.

Graeme’s eyes closed, and he hummed faintly in a sigh.
Michael started to pull back, but Graeme kept his face cradled and rubbed his
lips gently, and the kiss spun out. Firm lips giving gentle kisses and the
scratch of beard where there’d never been roughness before.

Michael had a moment of clarity, and he wondered what in the
hell he was doing. Then Graeme pulled back, ran a tongue over Michael’s lips.

“Open for me, Michael,” he said, breath a whisper against
his mouth.

As if compelled, Michael’s mouth relaxed, and Graeme thrust
his tongue inside. Their tongues met in a clash of wills, hungry to taste each
other. Michael could taste Elizabeth there as well. His mind felt far away, no
room for thought, only room for feeling, only room for this kiss. Graeme’s arms
wound around his waist, and slid up his back, to wind into his hair.

A groan of desire rent the night, Graeme’s or his own, he no
longer knew. He sucked on Graeme’s tongue, pulling him deeper into the kiss.
Graeme plundered, seeking, giving. Finally, Graeme pulled back and, with a
small moan in the back of his throat, he began to nibble and nip at Michael’s
lips.

Christ! He pushed away from Graeme, breathing hard, unsure
where to look. He’d felt the telltale wetness on his stomach from one of their
cocks and realized he’d been pressed intimately against Graeme. The thoughts
swirled in his mind, a confused tangle, with no beginning, no end. I’m naked, I
kissed him, I’m fucking hard as stone.

*****

Graeme watched Michael, judging his reaction to the kiss. He
looked ready to both run and bury his cock into a warm mouth. Graeme remembered
that feeling well from his own first time with a man. He judged he’d pushed
Michael far enough for one night. His fingers absently traced his own lips,
still feeling the molten heat lingering there. God, he wanted Michael. But not
tonight.

“Come with me, Michael. Lizzie is waiting for us. She wants
to feel you, to taste you.”

“I’m not ready for that,” Michael said. His voice was raspy,
harsh with suppressed desire.

“Not with me, just her. I promise, I won’t touch,” he said
and walked toward the door.

He closed his eyes in silent supplication, willing Michael
to follow him to the bedroom, to Lizzie. He heard the brush of bare feet
against the porch deck and knew Lizzie was about to get her wish.

The room was dark, except for the single candle placed in
front of the dresser mirror. It reflected a soft glow over the room. His sweet
Lizzie had showered and pulled the covers down, revealing clean white sheets.
He would need to think about decorating with her in mind. Maybe something in a
soft sage to highlight her eyes. With a shake of his head at the lunacy of the
thought under the circumstances, Graeme stood aside and motioned to Michael, telling
him without words to go to the bed.

“Michael,” Lizzie said, her voice coming out low. “Please,
come hold me. Let me feel you against me now.”

Graeme watched as Michael crossed the floor and, trancelike,
knelt on the bed. Then he quickly looked over at Graeme, clearly unsure of what
was happening.

Graeme climbed on the bed on the other side of Lizzie. “We
realized something while we were talking tonight,” he said.

Michael snorted. “Is that what you call it? There was a hell
of a lot more than talking going on in here, judging from the sounds the
headboard was making.”

His comment made them all laugh, and the mood lightened
perceptibly. “Maybe we did a little more than talk,” Graeme conceded with a
happy smile, “but I promise, we did talk, too. None of us know exactly how
things will work out, but Lizzie nearly lost her life yesterday, and so did
you. Lizzie and I found each other through a purely bizarre circumstance. It
feels to us as if life was passing us by and this is our big wake-up call.

“So now we find ourselves thinking about being together and
maybe the love we’re feeling right now can turn into a lasting love and just
maybe we can give each other the happiness we each deserve.”

“I’m happy for the two of you, really I am. That’s exactly
what I was thinking before you came outside and…” Michael trailed off.

“Before I kissed you. And you kissed me back. It was a great
kiss, and I’m not going to lie, I want you. I want you bad. Lizzie knows that,
and she’s okay with it, because she knows I love her.”

“Let me try to explain,” Liz said with a gentle push against
his hip. “Graeme and I were trying to figure out how to fix all the things we
each felt we’d screwed up in the past, how to make up for lost time. Then we
realized something. Those days are forever gone. All we can do is start fresh
from today. Graeme and I have memories of the children we were, but we don’t
know each other as we are today. So that’s where we’ll start. Learning each
other, talking, touching, loving,” she said.

“I’m happy for the two of you, really,” Michael said again,
“but you two need to be alone. You don’t need me here, and you don’t need to
apologize for loving each other.”

“Is that what you think we’re doing?” Graeme asked, letting
his amusement show. “Michael, Liz and I aren’t apologizing. We’re inviting you
to take the journey with us. We want to get to know you while we’re getting to
know each other. We want to hold you while we’re holding each other.”

Michael’s head started to shake, but Graeme cut him off. “We
kissed. So what? If you don’t want to go any further with me physically, then
we’ll find a way to deal with that. For now, hold on to Liz. Make love with
her. Let me be here with the two of you. I promise not to do anything you don’t
want me to. Once this thing with Ashford is over, we can see where we all want
to go from there. But I can tell you both, I’m in this for the long haul.”

*****

Liz sat up and gave Graeme a gentle kiss and then turned
toward Michael. He was still kneeling on the edge of the bed, not committed one
way or the other. She rose to her knees and pressed the length of her body
against his and raised her mouth. “Kiss me, Michael,” she said.

His kiss was hot and fierce. He took her face in his hands
before threading his fingers into her hair and deepening the kiss. Her hands
slid along the velvet of his golden skin. She traced each ripple of muscle,
each chiseled ridge from his collarbone, across his pecs, over his abs. She
needed to taste him to touch his honey skin with her tongue.

Michael closed his eyes and moaned as she nipped and licked
down his chest. He hissed in air as she mouthed the hard pebble of a coppery
nipple. When she started to work her way down, he lowered himself to the bed,
as if unable to stay balanced on his shaky knees. Graeme stretched out along
the length of Michael but kept his word and didn’t touch.

Liz licked the underside of Michael’s cock, then over the
velvety tip. She loved the feel of him, the taste of him. He was thick and
hard, and she tasted the salty pre-cum. She worked the tip, rolling her tongue
over the heavy ridge, flicking his slit.

When Liz looked up and found Graeme watching, a look of
hunger on his face, she opened her throat and took Michael deep, hard, and
fast. Three moans filled the air, and Michael’s hips bucked as he fucked her
mouth. Inspired, she took him deeper, faster. He slid, slick and wet and she
thought she could taste him all night. When his rhythm faltered, she cupped his
balls and shortened her strokes.

“God, Liz! I’m going to come.” Michael’s hands flung out to
his sides as his back arched and his head pressed into the pillow. One of his
hands landed on Graeme’s, and Michael grasped it as Liz brought him over the
edge.

*****