“He’s right,” Jake jumped in. “We don’t need to have sex with each other. Not when we can have it with you. And now we know we’re going to see each other again—”
“That’s not going to happen,” she said, pleased that her voice sounded steady when inside she was falling apart.
“But—”
“Seth! Jake!” she snapped. “Enough. I understand. I do. The sex
is
mind-blowing. I’ve never known anything like it.” She held up a hand as Seth took a step toward her. “No. Hear me out. I
could
have had a relationship with you. I could. If you were gay and wanted to add a woman to the mix every now and then, I think I could do that.”
Oh yes
. She could do it. The thought of them fucking each other, of Jake’s cock inside Seth, aroused her so much she could barely think straight.
“But I can’t have a relationship with anyone,
anyone
, who is hiding from their sexuality. Not again.”
“We’re not hiding,” Seth began, but he trailed off when the tears she couldn’t hold back spilled onto her cheeks.
She swiped them away furiously. They believed what they were saying. Just as Marc had no doubt believed his wedding vows. But Kayla had been that third person in the bedroom, ignored while the other two got it on. She wouldn’t be that woman again, surplus to requirements and not welcome even to watch.
“Kayla, please.” Seth sounded as distressed as she felt. “How can we prove we’re not gay?”
Deep down, Kayla knew proving such a negative was impossible, but she was running on emotion rather than logic. “Have you even given your relationship a chance?” she demanded.
Two pairs of baffled eyes looked back at her. “We’ve been friends for years—” said Jake.
“Stop that!” Her voice sounded like a pistol crack. “You know what I mean. A physical relationship. An emotional one. You two, living as lovers.”
Jake’s face wrinkled in apparent consternation, but Seth answered quickly. “And then you’ll give us a chance? If we give it a go and we still want you, you’ll give us a chance? Done! How long? A week?”
They had no idea how serious she was. Kayla suspected she was already a little bit in love with them. She could not, would not open herself to that kind of pain.
“A year. Look me up in a year. If you still want me, then we’ll talk. Now I’d like you to leave.”
SETH DROVE. THE journey back to the camp was mainly silent. “She’s serious,” he said eventually.
“I know.”
“Shit.”
“Shit, indeed,” Jake echoed glumly.
“No offense,” said Seth, “but I’ve roomed with you before. You, my friend, are a slob.”
“And you are a neat freak. No one makes a bed these days.”
“I suppose I can put up with you,” said Seth. “For Kayla. We just have to live with each other and not have sex.”
They exchanged nervous looks.
“Sleep in the same bed?” asked Jake, his expression suggesting the idea held little appeal.
Seth knew how he felt. “That’s not doing it for me. At least, not without Kayla in the bed too. Besides, you snore.”
“But we can do it,” said Jake resolutely.
“Yeah. We can do it.”
Jake broke the next silence. “We need to try. I know we’ve only just met her, but this feels right, Seth. If we have to be straight to win her, then so be it.”
Jake’s jaw was set, and he stared ahead at the dark road. Seth badly wanted to agree with him. He wanted to agree and bring the conversation to a close. Instead, he took a deep breath. “Why haven’t you ever married?”
“What?” Jake frowned at him.
“You heard me,” said Seth, giving the deserted road more attention than it needed. He knew Jake’s background, knew his friend’s childhood had been a miserable series of ever-changing foster and care homes after his parents died when he was a baby. “You’ve told me often enough that you want a family. Kids. So why don’t you have them?”
“With all the traveling I do? My job is hardly conducive—”
“Are you suggesting there are no married archaeologists?” Seth was sweating worse than on any battlefield, but having started this long overdue conversation, he was determined to see it through. “Is it because of me?”
“You? Yeah.” Jake’s lip curled. “You’ve spoiled me for everyone else.”
Seth clenched his jaw and waited him out.
“Maybe I just haven’t met the right woman,” said Jake belligerently. “Ever think of that?”
“You mean a woman who isn’t jealous of our friendship?” asked Seth. They’d both had them in the past, girlfriends who had tried to get between them. “I’m not talking about sex, and you know it,” he said when Jake opened his mouth. “I’m just asking why neither of us have met a woman we like enough to make us stop fucking each other.”
“Maybe we have,” said Jake. “Kayla.”
Seth wished he could leave it at that. But he couldn’t. “Maybe we don’t have to give up fucking each other for her.”
“What do you mean?”
Seth gripped the wheel. “It turned her on.”
“What did?”
“The thought of you blowing me.”
“For God’s sake, Seth, no, it didn’t! If two men blowing each other turned her on, don’t you think she’d still be married?”
“It turned her on,” Seth insisted. “Her nipples swelled. And her eyes were all over the place. She couldn’t look at us.”
“That’s because she was embarrassed.”
“No. She was aroused. You’ve seen the sketches she did of the gay scenes at Ma’ K’âaba. She’s into guys having sex. Providing they are into her. What if we don’t have to convince her we’re not gay? What if we just have to convince her that we want her too?”
“Bullshit,” snarled Jake. “I’m not having you ruin this with your amateur psychology. We show her we’re not gay. Which we’re not, so it’s easy.”
Seth didn’t dare look at him. “You’re the longest relationship I’ve ever had,” he said quietly.
The silence stretched until Jake thumped his fist against the door in frustration. “Holy shit, she’s right! We’re gay for each other. What the hell do we do now?”
Chapter Nine
Ten Months Later
The hotel bar was busy, and it took Jake a moment to locate Seth, but when he did, the tight knot of tension he lived with when Seth was away on a mission slowly began to loosen.
Seth wasn’t alone at the bar. A brunette with fake breasts sat on the barstool next to him, flicking her hair and chatting animatedly. Good luck with that, thought Jake, knowing Seth was never one for small talk this soon after returning from a tour of duty.
Jake’s phone rang as he weaved through the crowd to the bar, and he smiled when he saw who was calling. “Kayla. Hi,” he said warmly.
“Have you seen him? Is he okay?” she asked anxiously.
“Why don’t you ask him yourself?” Jake said. “Seth?”
Seth looked up, and Jake felt a pang of concern when he saw the pallor beneath his friend’s desert tan. But as their eyes met and locked, some of the lines of tension eased from around Seth’s eyes.
The woman looked from one to the other and sighed. “Like that, is it?” she grumbled, picking up her drink and moving away.
Jake held out the phone to Seth. “It’s Kayla. Want a quick word?”
Seth smiled, for a moment looking like his old self. But when he took the phone and moved away from the busy bar, he walked stiffly, favoring one leg.
Seth came back a few minutes later and handed Jake the phone. “It wasn’t much of a line. She says hi.” He perched carefully back on his barstool, but Jake knew better than to ask about his leg.
“She’ll be pleased to hear your voice. She was worried about you,” Jake said. “We both were.”
“I’m fine.” Seth waved away Jake’s concern and signaled the bartender to bring two beers.
Jake wanted to touch him. He wanted to touch him so badly he had to place his hands on the bar to keep from doing it. Which was ridiculous. Before the whole “gay” thing he’d have thought nothing of hugging Seth. Now just thinking about it felt awkward.
“How’s your love life?” asked Jake. He indicated the beer mat on which the woman had scribbled her phone number before realizing she was wasting her time.
“I think my complete disinterest is making the women less tenacious,” said Seth. “Yours?”
“My experiment in dating other men has been a complete disaster,” Jake reported with a shudder. “And I can tell you right now, I have no desire to continue with it.”
“And your sex life?” asked Seth casually.
“Nonexistent considering you’ve been gone for months and Kayla is on another continent. Yours?”
Seth took a pull on his beer. “It’s looking up since you got here.”
Jake grinned. “Wanna go somewhere and fool around?”
“I’d rent a room right here, right now,” Seth told him.
“Then it’s your lucky day.” Jake showed him the key he’d picked up from the front desk on the way in, and they downed their drinks and walked out of the bar, straight to the elevators. Jake still didn’t ask about the limp.
“So, do you and Kayla talk a lot?” asked Seth as they rode to their floor.
“Every day while you were away.”
“Oh?”
“Relax.” Jake nudged him teasingly. It was their first physical contact in three months, and excitement jolted through him. “We talk about you. Because you are the center of the universe.”
“No,” said Seth quietly. “Kayla is. I really missed her.”
“Yeah. Me too. Talking to her is great, but talking’s not what I want.”
The elevator arrived at their floor. When they found their room, Jake pressed the electronic card against the pad. Seth walked in first, then turned so abruptly Jake barely had space to come in behind him and close the door.
“Take your clothes off,” Seth growled.
Excitement quickening his pulse, Jake began to strip. “Used to giving orders, soldier boy?“ he teased.
Seth’s gaze clouded, and Jake immediately regretted his flippancy. He yanked his shirt over his head without bothering with the buttons, desperate to pull Seth back to him and out of the dark place where his mind often dwelled after a difficult mission. And Jake had the impression this one had been particularly difficult.
As he kicked his pants off, Seth’s gaze dropped to Jake’s crotch, and just like that, he was once more fully present. Jake was already hard, but his cock continued to thicken and rise in response to the hunger in Seth’s eyes.
“Aren’t you going to undress?” Jake asked.
“Not yet.”
Seth dropped to his knees, grunting in pain, presumably from his injury. He nuzzled into Jake’s groin, breathing deeply, and his powerful body shuddered. Seth licked Jake’s balls, using his tongue along the whole length of his cock before closing his eyes and greedily searching out the first salty drops of cum from his slit.
Then, with a sigh, Seth clamped his lips over Jake’s cock, stroking the sensitive underside with his tongue.
Jake groaned. “I should be doing this for you. You’re hurt—”
“No.” Seth tore his mouth away, his voice thick. “I need this. Don’t make me explain how much I need this.”
Seth closed his mouth around Jake again, sucking him deep. His approach was almost brutal in its intensity, but Jake had no complaints. He loved this first fuck whenever Seth had been away, loved the wildness he brought back with him.
He ran his fingers through Seth’s hair, free now to touch him as much as he liked. Seth sucked Jake deeper, and he sighed happily, thrusting into Seth’s mouth.
Cupping Jake’s buttocks with his hands, Seth kneaded and spread them at the same time, yanking Jake toward him, forcing him even deeper into his throat. He ran a finger along Jake’s crack, massaging his tight hole. Jake cried out in pleasure and staggered slightly, feeling the cool wood of the door against his back, realizing they were barely in the bedroom, that anyone walking along the corridor could hear them, but he didn’t care. He braced himself against the door, widening his stance, inviting Seth to do what he wanted.
Seth released Jake’s cock long enough to wet his finger with saliva, then pushed his finger deep into Jake’s ass. Jake bit down on his lower lip, fighting the sudden sweet surge in his balls, trying to make it last, but Seth was relentless, using his fingers and his mouth to devastating effect.
Jake’s orgasm hit hard, with so little warning there was no question of him pulling out. He held Seth’s head, spurting deep into his throat, savoring the incredible sensations of Seth sucking and swallowing, sucking and swallowing.
WITH THE TASTE of Jake’s cum on his tongue, Seth rose clumsily to his feet, cursing his injured leg, his hand already on his belt buckle. “Get on the bed,” he ordered, wondering if he sounded as desperate as he felt.
Jake hurried to obey and was on his hands and knees in the time it took Seth to undress. Jake glanced back, and his eyes widened at the bandage on Seth’s thigh. “For God’s sake, Seth, what happened?”
Jake tried to scramble up, but Seth splayed his hand on Jake’s back and held him in position, the sight of Jake’s upturned arse driving him crazy with need. “Tell you later,” he said, knowing he never would. Then he hesitated. “This is going to be fast. And it might be rough. But I need you, Jake.”
Jake’s eyes glittered, and he nodded as if he understood, but Seth knew he didn’t. He himself had had to face death to fully learn what Jake meant to him.
“Give it to me,” Jake begged. “As hard as you like.”
The way Seth felt right now, that was going to be pretty hard. “Tell me you want this,” he snarled.
“I want it,” said Jake. “Make me come again.”
His words heated Seth’s blood. Squeezing some lube directly onto Jake’s crack, Seth massaged the gel into his hole, pushing one, then two fingers inside him, knowing he should take more time, but for the life of him, he just couldn’t.
“Fuck me, Seth,” Jake moaned, and Seth’s heart swelled with, what? Love? Of course he loved Jake. Jake was part of him. Thoughts of Jake and Kayla had been the only thing that had kept him alive when he’d lain injured behind enemy lines. The memory of that dark time broke his concentration, and he faltered.
“Fuck me,” Jake said again, pushing back on Seth’s hand, his actions and enthusiasm mercifully bringing Seth back to the present. “Fuck me as deep and as hard as only you can.”