The First Time is the Sweetest (11 page)

“I wanted to kiss you and I wanted to kiss Jimmy.” He glanced up. Jimmy hadn’t moved. “When you opened the door today, it was all I could do to stand there, trying to be professional. You looked so beautiful, and then Jimmy stepped out from behind you and I almost swallowed my own tongue.” Jimmy huffed a laugh and moved closer. Sabrina shivered as Gabriel’s hand moved over her hair, pulling some long strands gently out from under her shoulders and curling them around his fingers. He was silent for a long minute.

“I still want to kiss you both, and I want it more than I’ve wanted anything since I last walked away from Jimmy all those years ago.” Gabriel looked almost vulnerable. Carefully, she sat up, not wanting to scare him away. She gestured to Jimmy, who moved closer and sat down next to Gabriel.

“We don’t have to figure this all out now,” she murmured, looking from one man to the other, both so strong and self-assured but still wary when it came to the softer emotions. “All I know of you, Gabriel, is what Jimmy’s told me.” She rubbed her hands up Gabriel’s thigh soothingly. She took a deep breath, gathering her courage as both men listened. “And I’m just getting used to the idea that anyone could be attracted to me at all—”

“No, Sabrina, you’re beautiful.” Jimmy interrupted her and reached out to smooth his hands over her head as Gabriel nodded his agreement.

“How could anyone think you unattractive?” Gabriel stroked Sabrina’s hair back from her cheeks. The two men bumped hands on her hair. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever set eyes on.” She shook her head in denial at this. “Yes. Between you and Jimmy, I felt like I’d been hit by an axe when I opened that door!”

She couldn’t speak. She didn’t know what was more astonishing: that these two men had kissed each other in front of her without any sign of embarrassment, or that they both desired her, too. She was burning up, just from sitting between the two of them. Jimmy nodded his agreement and moved even closer, putting his arm around her shoulders. She soaked up their attention, almost fully awake now.

“You don’t believe me,” Gabriel stated, looking closely into her face. Then, seeming to forget his earlier hesitation, he suddenly reached out, trapping Jimmy’s hand against her neck as he leaned in.

Sabrina gasped in surprise just before his mouth touched hers. This time there was nothing tentative about it. His tongue licked over her lips for the briefest moment before he pressed harder and her mouth opened. Immediately, his tongue swept inside. She tasted mint and heard Jimmy gasp into her ear. Gabriel pulled Jimmy closer as he kissed her, multitasking at its best, and the next thing she knew, Jimmy was mouthing up the side of her neck. When he reached her lips, he gently nudged Gabriel aside to kiss her. Her head spun. Both men pressed closer and she gasped, feeling so overwhelmed she couldn’t hold still. Gabriel’s hands slid into her hair to hold her head while Jimmy kissed her breathless. Then, as Jimmy gently pulled back, Gabriel moved in and captured Jimmy’s mouth not an inch from hers, startling her when all three of them touched tongues for a brief moment.

“Oh my God,” she breathed, tilting her head and watching the two men kiss each other again. Their hands were buried in her hair, and she couldn’t move. Jimmy clenched his fingers against her nape and Gabriel opened his mouth wider, letting Jimmy’s tongue inside. She clutched the sheet, trapped between them. When they finally broke apart, Gabriel turned to her for another brief kiss before pulling back, breathing heavily. Jimmy wasn’t much better. His hair was tousled, and his eyes were so dark they were almost black in the low light. She didn’t even want to guess how flushed she looked. She couldn’t catch her breath.

“Whoa,” Jimmy croaked, staring at Sabrina, then back at Gabriel. He thought he remembered how gorgeous Gabriel was, how his lips felt, how he tasted, but nothing in his memory compared to this. Knowing Sabrina was there the whole time, watching, participating, made it even hotter. He swallowed as Gabriel nodded and took a deep breath, then relaxed his grip in Sabrina’s hair, smoothing it down over her shoulders. Jimmy did the same on the other side.

“Well,” Sabrina said, “so much for taking it slow.” Gabriel laughed and stood up, straightening his pants. It didn’t do much to hide the arousal pressing against the fabric. She licked her lips, and he shuddered.

“I think that pretty much sums it up,” he stated, visibly pulling himself together. When Jimmy stood, Sabrina caught him staring at Gabriel, too; then he turned to her, his expression mischievous.

“I told you he was hot,” he smirked, and she chuckled as Gabriel protested.

“You totally are,” she stated, then blushed, moving off the bed to gather her pajamas, feeling suddenly shy. “Look, I’m going to go to sleep now. We can figure this all out tomorrow.” Sabrina wondered what had happened to her world. The two men hesitated and she thought Gabriel was going to protest, but then Jimmy nodded and agreed.

“You’re right. We’ve got a lot to deal with, and I could use a good night’s sleep to clear my head.” Jimmy leaned over, pecking her on the cheek before moving toward the door. Gabriel looked at her, then leaned over and kissed her, too, nipping her lips affectionately before walking out of the room. Jimmy laughed from the doorway as she stood there, mussed and exasperated and not at all sleepy anymore.

* * * *

The next few weeks passed in a blur as Gabriel settled into the house. After a brief discussion and over her protests, the men decided that the three of them ought to keep their distance from each other while trying to track down the shooter. Sabrina was disappointed, though she understood their reasoning. The danger she was too tired to comprehend fully that first day was brought into clear focus as she watched Gabriel prowl around the house and confer with the local police and FBI. Nobody wanted to take risks with her safety, and getting romantically involved would be a huge distraction for them.

Still, she’d just begun to entertain the idea of being Jimmy’s girlfriend and she didn’t think putting the brakes on her feelings was going to be easy. Maybe it would be simple for the men to ignore the passion simmering between them, but she knew she couldn’t. She could hide it, probably, but she wouldn’t be able to deny how she felt to herself. She didn’t
want
to deny how she felt.
And Gabriel might prove to be just as dangerous as Jimmy to my emotions
, she thought. He was quiet and strong and had a wicked sense of humor that only grew more attractive to her as the days went by. Almost every night she found herself remembering the kisses they’d shared, and every time Gabriel smiled at her, or helped her in the kitchen, or made her laugh, she felt herself falling for him. Watching Jimmy tease Gabriel and make him feel welcome only made her love for Jimmy stronger. Yet, despite her yearning, both men kept their distance.

Sabrina needed to do something to take her mind off the gorgeous men living in her space, so after a few weeks, she immersed herself in her photography, shooting some still-life compositions, rereading books. At odd moments, she would find herself remembering what it felt like to kiss them. Unfortunately, using photography to take her mind off them did the opposite as she slowly came to realize how desperately she wanted to photograph them together. She rarely did portraits because she felt like something inside her needed to really understand a person before she could imagine how they would look on film. She needed to internalize an essential understanding of what was beneath the skin, and it surprised her how badly she wanted to capture the two men after such a short time living in the same house. She dreamed about what they would look like in the sunlight, wondered how she could translate all that masculine beauty into two dimensions without losing the heart of who they were. She often found herself staring at them, somewhat surprised at the intensity of her feelings.

As she grappled with this need, she grew to love Gabriel’s sly sense of humor, how he often teased Jimmy unexpectedly, making them all laugh hysterically at dinner or at night when they watched television together. She learned that she wanted to hear Jimmy’s laugh as much as possible. She delighted in hearing the stories about Gabriel’s undercover assignments, and to her astonishment, Gabriel even convinced Jimmy to open up about Afghanistan. Neither man treated her like a kid, instead talking to her and asking her opinion seriously.

For the first time, she was able to talk to someone about photography. Her father indulged her and encouraged her and didn’t argue when she pursued it, but he didn’t really understand how she felt about it. Jimmy and Gabriel both seemed to realize that she had an instinctive need to record and shape what she saw. They understood her obsession for visuals and questioned her over and over about the shootings and her impressions of the people involved in both incidents, using her eye for detail as a tool to help with the case. Sabrina was happier than she’d ever been, except for one thing: neither man seemed to feel for her or each other the intense desire she had for them, an attraction she still wrestled with every day. Had she imagined everything?

She would have despaired completely, except after several weeks, she caught Gabriel looking at Jimmy, once in the kitchen and once in the hallway, where Jimmy stood in a shaft of late afternoon sunlight. His brown hair was lit with the gold, red, and darker brown colors that she loved so much. He looked beautiful. He was reading something on a piece of paper just as Gabriel turned the corner from the kitchen. Sabrina lounged in the den, trying to concentrate on a new photography magazine, not easy with Jimmy standing there looking amazing. When Gabriel suddenly stopped, a look of such naked longing passed over his face, she gasped. He glanced sharply at her, and to her shock, the heat in his eyes grew even stronger as he glanced from her face down her body before he abruptly turned on his heel and walked back to the kitchen. Jimmy never noticed, but not an hour later she caught him sneaking sidelong glances at Gabriel’s hands when the other man joined them in the den.

After that, she knew the arousal simmering just under the surface was breaking loose. She’d be making breakfast at the stove and turn around to find Jimmy staring at her, his face tight with desire. After eating lunch one day, she walked into the den to see if Jimmy had taken a break from his latest article and found the two men staring at each other in silence. As soon as they noticed her, Jimmy went back to writing on his laptop and Gabriel fumbled with his phone. Another time she woke from a nap in her room to find Gabriel standing in the doorway, his eyes tracing their way over her body. The look on his face scorched her. She couldn’t breathe. She didn’t move until he blinked and turned away, stepping hurriedly down the stairs. After that, she walked around perpetually flushed. She knew it was just a matter of time before something happened or she went stark, raving mad.

Finally, three weeks after Gabriel came to stay, she told him and Jimmy that she had to go to work. Sabrina knew neither man was going to be happy about her leaving the house, but by then the sexual tension was so high she couldn’t function. She needed a break. And she needed the money for grad school in the fall since she wouldn’t be living with her father anymore. Every summer, she worked at a local portrait studio, from the last week in June until the last week in August. And each year, the local community group commissioned photographs of the Fourth of July parade queen and her court. The job was too difficult for one person, and she didn’t want to abandon Joy, her boss, after all she’d taught her the past two summers.

This particular shoot wasn’t her favorite because she didn’t like the people they’d be photographing, but she promised she would be there. Unfortunately, this year’s Fourth of July queen was also spring fling queen from Sabrina’s college, and the court was the queen’s date from the dance and all the runners-up. None of them had been very nice to her when they were in school, and she was under no illusion that this would change now that they’d graduated.

“Absolutely not!” Jimmy retorted after she’d mentioned the job to him. They were in the kitchen.

“Jimmy, I can’t let Joy down.” Sabrina crossed her arms and watched him butter his toast. She’d already eaten but wished she hadn’t. She felt her morning coffee slosh uncomfortably in her stomach as she glared at him.

“What’s ‘absolutely not’?” Gabriel asked as he walked into the kitchen. He carried his gun and holster and set both down on the table as he pulled out a cloth and small bottle from his jeans pocket. Sabrina glanced at him, then turned her attention back to Jimmy.

“I need to go to work today. Joy can’t handle this shoot alone.”

Jimmy shook his head as Gabriel sat down next to him and began taking apart his gun, setting each of the pieces in a row on the table atop the cloth he’d spread out.

“It’s too dangerous for her to go,” Jimmy said, finishing his toast and wiping his face with a napkin. To her disgust, he still looked gorgeous, even when she was angry with him. He was wearing blue again, one of her favorite colors. She sighed, trying to wrench her eyes away from his nicely muscled chest, and tried again.

“I need to go to work. Nothing has happened in nearly three weeks. Maybe the shooter has given up.”

“Maybe you want a convenient way to commit suicide?” Jimmy glared at her, pouring himself more coffee from the pot on the table.

“Jimmy—”

“We’ll go with her,” Gabriel interrupted, looking at Jimmy as he paused in his cleaning.

Jimmy set down his coffee. “What? She’ll be completely exposed!” he insisted angrily. Gabriel shook his head slowly, thinking it over.