Fevered Hearts (6 page)

The deep heat in his belly grew.

Tearing his mouth away, he stared into her eyes. The dark depths were blurred, her long lashes half-mast with desire.

“I want to give you this gift, baby. You know I love you more than my life.”

A sound broke from her, so close to a sob but sweet with want. She threw a glance at Ward, who stood close, his cock straining against his jeans and his hands in fists.

“He wants you,” Liam said against the side of her throat as he licked a path upward to the spot on her ear that made her writhe. “He wants to strip off this skirt.” He caught the zipper on her lower back and tugged. Exposing an inch of skin, he slipped a fingertip inside and traced a circle.

She squirmed against him, but his useless cock didn’t rise to meet her. Still, he warmed at the knowledge that he could make her pant again.

“Look at him while I kiss you, Ivy.” He pressed on her lips with his tongue. She opened to him immediately, and he swallowed her moan. Her eyes were huge and glassy, fixed on Ward.

Between kisses, he plucked at her clothing, opening the first few buttons of her blouse and unzipping her skirt all the way. She twisted her fingers in his hair but never removed her gaze from Ward.

Liam kissed her again, aware of her straining toward the man she was looking at while accepting Liam’s devouring kisses. Trailing a finger down her throat to her collarbone, he moved it lower. He hooked the lacy cup of her bra and pulled it down to expose her ripe, straining nipple.

Ward swooped in and dropped to his knees. Having him so near, and in that position, nearly made Liam roar with want. He and Ward exchanged a look that said
I’m sorry, I wanted you, I still want you.

All was healed between them.

Reaching around his neck, Liam clasped Ivy’s hand and guided it from his hair. She sucked in a sharp breath when he placed her hand on Ward’s shoulder.

With a cry, she clenched her fist on the fabric of his shirt and slid from Liam’s lap into Ward’s arms.

Ward scooped her up and gained his feet in one smooth motion. The sight of his strong muscles and ease of movement speared Liam with regret and joy. How he wanted to be that whole man again, but he was glad it was Ward. So glad.

Sweeping a look at Liam, Ward silently asked for permission.

Liam jerked his head in the direction of the hall leading to the bedroom. Ward tightened his arms around Liam’s wife and bore her off to the bedroom. Liam followed, that flicker of heat in his groin driving him.

Sinking to the bed, Ward continued to hold Ivy. She perched on his legs stiffly until he cupped her face. “I won’t hurt you,” he murmured a scant second before capturing her mouth.

The hard caress was possessive, all-consuming. Ward locked her to him and bowed her with his kiss. He took big, gulping bites of her. When Liam spotted movement in Ivy’s cheek, he realized it was Ward’s tongue, and wild happiness tore away the last of his hesitation.

This was right—Ivy in the arms of the man who had loved Liam with such thorough abandon. Liam gripped the mattress and swung himself out of his chair, barely registering the familiar pangs of nerve damage. Under him, the bed nearly vibrated from Ward and Ivy’s lust.

Ward lapped at her lips until she released small squeaks. Then he yanked his mouth free to kiss a path down her throat. Liam cradled her head, and Ward lowered her upper body into Liam’s hold. Staring into his wife’s beautiful eyes, Liam whispered, “I love you.”

“Love you,” she gasped as Ward sank his teeth into the swell of her breast. Liam fumbled with her bra clasp, springing it. When it loosened, Ward took immediate advantage.

Using his jaw, he pushed the cloth away from her breasts. Every hair on Liam’s body rose at the memory of that coarse jaw blazing a trail over his own skin. And the sight of that dark head moving over Ivy’s bared breasts made him groan.

“Kiss me, Liam.”

He did, skating his tongue against hers while staring at Ward’s mouth on her tits. When Ward took her taut nipple into his mouth, all three of them groaned. Ward bathed the rosy tip with long licks then switched to the neglected bud.

Unable to help himself, Liam closed his fingers over the wet nipple Ward had left. The moisture from his mouth and the heat of Ivy’s skin did brand new things to Liam’s insides. Something broke in his mind and he lost himself to the moment, to the knowing that at some point, he was going to regain his virility and love both of them in this bed.

Liam caressed her breasts while Ward stripped her skirt down her hips. Ivy’s gaze was locked on Ward, those sparks leaping between them.

“Fuck, you’re more perfect than I imagined,” Ward breathed.

“Glorious,” Liam added.

Ivy gasped at their words. Awareness washed through Liam. He’d forgotten this about Ivy—that she could so easily be undone by words alone. At one time, he’d talked dirty until she’d come without him laying a finger on her.

When Ward hooked his fingers in the elastic of her panties, she stiffened.

Liam leaned over and kissed her softly, lingeringly. Against her mouth, he whispered, “Let him see you, baby. Let him see how wet you are for him.”

“For both of you,” she said and lifted her hips to allow Ward to pull off her hot pink panties.

“Sweet—” Ward scrubbed a hand over his face but couldn’t wipe the bald lust from his features.

Liam followed the trim line of Ivy’s warm brown curls to her bare pussy lips. Turning his body for better access, Liam parted her blouse and stripped it off one arm, then the other. He tossed it and her bra to the floor.

For a long minute, he and Ward simply stared at Ivy’s curves. Bronzed, toned skin but a soft belly, hips a man could grab on to, and full breasts rising and falling under her labored breaths.

She looked up at Liam, pleading in her eyes. “I need—” She seemed to struggle to find words.

“We know what you need, sweetheart,” Liam said.

Ward reached up her body and cupped her breasts, leaning over her body until his mouth was inches from her. “I can smell her arousal, Liam.”

“Fuck, yeah,” he growled in answer. Darting glances between his wife’s body and Ward’s hard chest, he urged his cock to work. If ever there was a time in his life he wanted a miracle, this was it. To share Ivy then reveal to her the passion he still held for Ward would be the ultimate gift.

How would she react to such an admission?

She’s gone along with this. Maybe there’s hope.

Ward clamped his lips over her right nipple. Following his lead, Liam angled his body to claim her left. Ivy cried out, bucking madly. Liam planted a hand on her lower belly to hold her down and found Ward’s warm one beside his. For a brief moment, they tangled fingers.

Ward moved his hand downward to cup her sex.

Ivy shuddered under their hands. Liam took one look at her flushed face and cherry red lips and knew she was on the verge of release. He smoothed his palm up the flat of her belly and strummed her nipple.

Ward slid a fingertip down the seam of her wet pussy.

“Oh, God!” Her cry had a frantic edge, as if she were frightened of the sensations rippling through her body.

“It’s all right, love. Let it happen.” Liam thrust his tongue into her mouth and stoked the flames of her passion. While kissing her, he squeezed her nipple firmly, just the way she liked.

Ward positioned himself between her thighs and drew a deep breath of her feminine scent.

“I can’t think straight.” She twisted her fingers into Ward’s hair, drawing him near even as she arched upward for Liam’s kiss.

“We’ll take care of you, baby. Let him taste your delicious pussy.”

With a groan, Ward dropped his mouth and engulfed her sex in one big bite. Ivy rose up so far, Liam thought they’d have to peel her off the ceiling. Ward locked his hands around her thighs, digging in as he swiped his tongue through the glistening folds once, twice.

“Liam! Ward!” She came apart, trembling as the wave of her release struck. Her broken cry resounded to the pit of Liam’s soul. Joy flooded him.

Ward buried his tongue deep, gathering the cream Liam now hungered to taste. Ivy sank her fingers in Liam’s hair and dragged him back to her mouth, alternately gasping and swirling her tongue against his.

She continued to quiver as Ward expertly brought her down from her high. But they were nowhere near finished with her. Especially since Liam had just felt that twitch of excitement in his cock.

Chapter Four

If this was wrong, Ward was willing to take the twenty-five-years-to-life sentence. “Jesus,” he groaned as Ivy’s come coated his tongue. He pressed tender kisses all around her overly-sensitive clit, tasting her inherent musk and a desire so heady, he didn’t know if he could survive it.

And the way Liam was looking at him—damn, it was as if they were making love to each other again.

Ward’s cock wept pearls of precome and soaked his jeans. Need yelled at him to strip off his clothes and plunge deep into Ivy’s tight body, but he couldn’t do it yet. She needed more, deserved more, and Ward wanted to be the one to give it to her.

He nibbled the juncture of her body where her thigh met her pelvis, and she came off the bed again.

He slid his hands down her shapely calves to her ankles and squeezed lightly before hitching her legs over his shoulders. Up the length of her body, he met Liam’s smoldering gaze, then Ivy’s needy, pleading one. “Again, sweetheart. Ride my tongue.”

Her thigh muscles convulsed and her belly rolled. Ward licked the juices off his lower lip, and holding Liam’s gaze, lowered his mouth to Ivy’s pussy once more.

Running his tongue from her hard pearl to the hot, wet core of her, he gathered her flavors. Tantalizing, mind-blowing.

“More!” She bucked, and Liam pinioned her arms to the mattress, high above her head while he fucked her mouth with his tongue.

Ward longed to take his place and kiss her too, or hell, to take
her
place under Liam’s mouth.

In time.

He parted her folds with his tongue, plowing through them roughly and dragging his jaw over her skin in the process. Her body tightened under his mouth, and he savored the tight squeeze of her pussy that brought more juices to his tongue.

“Mmm,” he rumbled against her.

She rocketed off the bed, thighs clamping around his ears. He wagged his tongue back and forth across her clit, light and teasing. With each stroke, he eased the pressure, until he barely skimmed the bundle of nerves.

“Nooo. Please, Ward.”

“How’s his tongue feel, baby? Hot, slick? Want him to slip a finger into your channel?” Liam’s voice was a rough stroke of its own to both Ivy and Ward.

“Yessss.” Her belly dipped violently.

Ward circled her clit, then found the hard center and forced it into her body with the tip of his tongue while gliding one finger deep. Scorching heat enveloped his finger and ricocheted up his arm, through his body and straight to his cock. With a mind of their own, his hips rocked into the mattress, bringing his erection against the bed. Rubbing. Rubbing. Wishing it was Ivy’s tight walls.

Or Liam’s.

Wild with need, he pumped his finger in and out, adding a second when she loosened for him. He curled his fingers to find the soft inner spot that would drive her crazy.

Instantly, juices spilled over his hand. He pressed harder, out of his head with the knowledge that he could find that secret spot as easily as he’d once found Liam’s.

“Stretch her, Ward. Ready her for your cock.” Liam’s tone was gritty with arousal. Oh yes, Ward knew that voice so well.

Ward obeyed, scissoring his fingers apart, opening her neglected body. When he added a third finger, she came again.

Ruthlessly, she fucked her pussy into Ward’s face and fingers while grappling at Liam like a drowning woman. Her husband kissed her wildly, driving her higher. Ward speared her with his fingers and sucked her clit with firm yet tender pressure. Her sex pulsated around his hand, on his tongue.

Before she’d come down all the way, he straightened to his knees and tore his shirt over his head. With quick movements, he yanked his jeans open and withdrew his shaft. The thick head was an angry purple, the veins riding under the skin distended more than they likely ever had been.

“Take her, Ward. She’s on the pill.” Liam’s green eyes were bottomless pools of forest green. For all the emotion in the man’s eyes, he might have been asking Ward to take
him
.

“Yes,” Ivy whispered.

“I’m clean,” Ward ground out.

Ward kicked off his boots and shed his jeans and socks completely. No underwear, because he was out of clean ones and Juls refused to do his laundry, saying he knew well enough how to wash a pair of boxers but was too lazy.

When Liam saw Ward wasn’t wearing underwear, his eyes hooded, his lips tightened.

I want you too, man. Always have. Suspect I always will.

Ward positioned himself between Ivy’s round thighs, his erection bobbing toward her juicy folds with a will of its own.

Ivy twisted. “Free my hands. I want to…touch him.” Her request came softly, hesitantly.

Liam released her hands with a nod. When she lay still, staring up at Ward but making no move, Liam stroked the pulse throbbing on her wrist. Then she slowly moved her hand to Ward’s chest.

She tossed her head back, eyes closed, as she navigated the swell of his pec. He and Liam locked gazes while she explored his spattering of chest hair and the tight centers of his nipples. She lightly scratched her nails down the ridges of his abs, and he sucked in on a laugh.

Liam’s low rumble of mirth knotted Ward more tightly.

Ivy opened her eyes.

“He’s ticklish,” Liam said.

If she wondered at how her husband knew this intimate bit of information, she didn’t say. She only fanned her fingers low, her pinky ruffling Ward’s pubic hair. His cock bobbed upward to meet her hand.

Her eyes widened and sudden fear glittered there. Before she could allow it to consume her, Ward braced himself on his arms and hovered over her. Liam remained where he was, the man’s scents fisting Ward in the gut. Mix that with Ivy’s seductive notes and Ward was mush.

“Beautiful woman, let me steal a kiss.” Without waiting for her agreement, he swooped in. Her lips were softer than he’d ever imagined. She opened to him at once, and he fed her his tongue. Small, squeaking gasps left her. He collected each, his burn barely controlled.

When she spiraled her arms around his neck and her hips rocked up to meet his, he sank into her body in one swift, smooth move.

He fell dead still, enclosed by her tight heat.

She didn’t move, muscles locked.

Fuck, he hadn’t meant to slip inside her without giving her time to adjust to him, but his body had reacted to the softness beckoning him. Breathing hard, he dropped his forehead to hers.

Struggling to remain still, dying to move, he stared into her eyes. Confusion and lust battled there.

Briefly, he felt Liam’s hand skitter across his shoulder. Reassuring him. He wasn’t going to beat the hell out of Ward for being inside his wife.

Ivy’s silken walls flexed around Ward, and he growled.

She tightened her hold on his neck. “I’m afraid.”

“Of what, baby?” The question came from Liam. At some point while Ward had been kissing Ivy, Liam had removed his shirt. His upper body had been defined by hard work and maintained by his physical circumstances. Blond hair dipped into one blazing eye.

“Liam, I don’t want to…hurt you. I love you.”

“I’m giving you this because I love
you
.” Liam lowered his mouth to her ear. “Tell me how he feels inside you, baby. Is he filling you? He’s a little bigger than me. Does it hurt?”

Flames of lust licked at Ward. Fuck, his old lover was getting off on this even though his cock lay dormant in his jeans. Good. Ward wanted to foster that in Liam—fuel it. When Liam got going, there was no stopping him from giving and receiving as much pleasure as he wanted. And Ivy deserved to have that again.

“Nooo,” Ivy cooed. “He doesn’t hurt.” Her voice rose a little as she shifted, riding along Ward’s cock.

“Jesus,” he groaned, barely leashing himself.

Liam shot him a knowing look. “Does it feel good, being stretched again, baby? You want him to move, don’t you?”

“Yesss,” she hissed without hesitation.

Ward caught her gaze, tumbling into the dark recesses of her eyes. Something sweet inside him broke open and wept gooey stickiness—that same something that had lost Liam to him years ago.

Maybe I can get him back. And have her too.

He churned his hips against hers. She cried out, lifting her thighs. The act tipped him over the edge, and his control snapped. Wildly, he withdrew and slammed into her again. She split around him, juicy and ripe as an exotic fruit.

He gripped her ass and yanked her up to meet his thrusts, devouring her blissed expression. Ward’s balls drew up tight against his body, aching to blow.

Ivy rose and fell under him more frantically. Ward flicked his gaze upward to Liam. As he jerked against Liam’s wife, Ward stared at him boldly, daring him to get aroused. Wanting to feel Liam’s thick cock sinking into him as Ward fucked Ivy.

The corner of Liam’s mouth twitched upward. Gathering Ivy’s long hair around his fist, he yanked her head back. She cried out with the tug on her scalp but seemed to know what he was seeking. She opened her mouth at the same instant Liam moved in to kiss her.

Their harsh play sent spikes of need through Ward. He sank into Ivy’s moist pussy, leaning forward to capture one rosy nipple in his mouth.

Her walls convulsed around him, contracting slowly. A long moan burst from her. Liam tangled his tongue with hers, deliberately mimicking Ward’s motion. Ward moved faster, squeezing his eyes shut at the insane feel of this experience. His heart and body fused for the first time since Liam had left him.

With a shattering cry, Ivy came. Her pussy clamped on Ward’s cock tightly, milking him to perfection. And he couldn’t hold back anymore.

Pounding into her urgently, his eyes popped open and he roared. Her body hugged him. She wrapped an arm around his shoulders and the other around Liam, who still kissed her like a starving man.

Ropes of come filled Ivy’s body. As each left Ward, so did part of himself.

Lost, so lost. But I don’t want to be found.

Tingles chased up and down Ivy’s spine and settled low in her belly. Ward fell forward, covering her completely, and Liam continued to kiss her tenderly, bringing her down from her high.

Her body hummed from her releases, but her mind spun. What had she done? Given herself to another man.

But hadn’t Liam really been the one to give her to Ward?

She reveled in Liam’s kisses, which she’d longed for. Ward softly stroked her upper arm with his rough jaw, and she was unable to deny she’d wanted that too.

“Why?” she managed to ask at last.

Moonlight cast a glow across the bed, outlining the chiseled planes of Ward’s back and Liam’s chest.

Liam maneuvered himself to lie beside Ivy. He stared into her eyes and brushed the hair from her temple repeatedly. His touch was soothing, but she needed a balm to her soul. What had happened was too much to understand, and if she couldn’t understand it, it would be too much to live with.

“Talk to me, baby. What’s going on in that pretty little head?” Liam rubbed her lower lip with the pad of his thumb. With lightning speed, she bit him. He growled at the rough but playful act that used to be part of their regular lovemaking. Just like the hair-pulling. She ached to feel that sweet pain again and again, if only to let her know that she had her husband back.

Ward rolled to the other side of her, throwing one hard thigh over hers and pinning her.

As if she wanted to move. Lying between two rugged men gaining pleasure was the stuff of fantasies. She just never believed she’d have a chance to experience it.

“I want you to tell me why you did this, Liam. You say you wanted to give me pleasure, but you could have…” She searched his eyes, recognized the wounds he bore, but plowed forward anyway. “You could have given me orgasms without your friend.”

“Hell, she’s blushing, Mattson. I hear it in her voice.” Ward’s cock jumped against her thigh as if her blush turned him on.

Liam smiled, his face splintering into that of the handsome man she’d married. Her heart rejoiced.

“You needed a man to show you how beautiful you really are.”

“You could have done that too. But why Ward? Have you…shared women before?”

Above her, something passed between Ward and Liam.

She placed a palm on each bare chest, linking all of them. Patiently, she waited for one to speak. Finally, Ward opened his mouth.

But Liam’s voice projected, his words tumbling out in a rush. “I’ve never told anyone this, Ivy, but Ward and I were lovers.”

Shock sliced through her sexual haze. She jerked into a sitting position, staring at her bare feet and those manly feet beside hers. Suddenly, everything fit together. Times her husband would glance at the picture of him and Ward and grow solemn, and his refusal to speak of his friend.

“Ivy…” Liam sat up and touched her shoulder, but she remained sitting, processing everything.

“Ward, did you…sleep with me because you wanted to sleep with him?” she asked in a small voice.

Ward eased upward, sitting shoulder to shoulder with her. He sighed heavily. “Partly, yeah.”

The bed quivered with Liam’s shudder.

Ward gently molded his fingertips to the soft place beneath her chin and angled her head to meet her gaze. “I will always have a flame in me for Liam. In many ways, he was it for me.” He looked at Liam over her head then yanked his gaze free. Ward searched her face. “But when I saw you, Ivy, there was that old familiar electricity I’d only known with Liam. I told you about it. Maybe you felt it too.”

“I did,” she admitted quietly.

“I would have been honorable. I never would have pursued you if Liam hadn’t wanted it.”

She pivoted to look at her husband. He wore a dumbstruck expression, as if Ward’s words had dug low and unearthed a passion he hadn’t remembered owning.

“Did you want Ward to have me so you could get something out of it?” she accused, and Liam flinched.

Scuffing a hand over his face, he fought to answer her. “If I’m honest, and I always have been, baby, then yeah. Ward has made me realize I’ve been a dumbass and a shitty husband. I should have listened to the doctors—listened to
you
—and done the therapy a year ago. But I’ve been too hung up in the things I might have lost to see what I still have.”