Rough and Ready, page 15
Down, girl.
Turning off the light, she climbed beneath the cool cotton sheets and glanced at the alarm clock on the nightstand. It was three a.m., and it had been one hell of a night.
She closed her eyes and willed sleep to come, willed her brain to shut down.
She wasn’t exactly sure when she stopped tossing and turning, but apparently, she had for a little while. Because when she jerked awake nearly two hours later, she was bleary from a restless sleep.
She was also freezing.
Like, shoved-naked-into-the-Siberian-winter freezing.
She shivered violently, and her teeth honest-to-God chattered. She tried to burrow deeper beneath the sheets and the duvet, but it didn’t help. Unfortunately, it was so cold in the room that the idea of peeking even one little finger from beneath the covers in search of another blanket—or twenty—or more clothes was unthinkable.
She lay there for a few minutes, caught between that half-awake, half-asleep state, aware of only one thing. She was going to freeze to death if she didn’t do something.
The room was still dark. Pitch black, in fact. Rafe’s haunted mansion was on the outskirts of the city on a fairly large parcel of private land. As such, there were no streetlights, and given the utter blackness from the window, the moonless sky wasn’t going to provide any help either. In an hour, dawn would break, but for now, there was no reprieve from the unnatural darkness.
She pulled the duvet over her head, burying herself beneath it. Perhaps her trapped breath would provide some level of heat.
Her shivering grew worse, and she realized she was being stupid. There was no way she could fall back to sleep when she was this cold. She needed to find more blankets.
She took a deep breath and gave herself a pep talk. Then she threw back the covers, stood up, winced when she put weight on her still-sore ankle, and darted out of the room to the hallway—which felt like a sauna compared to her bedroom.
“What the hell?” she murmured, shocked by the extreme change in temperature.
She glanced back to the open door of her room, wondering if a window had been left open or something. Although, that shouldn’t have mattered. It hadn’t been cold outside. She hadn’t even worn a jacket to dinner. Even though it was late September, the weather had been quite balmy for the past few days.
One moment, she was still looking through the open bedroom door, and the next, it slammed shut with a loud bang.
Keeley jerked, yelping loudly in surprise.
“Jesus!” she cried out, placing her hand on her suddenly racing heart.
Gio and Rafe emerged from their rooms quickly.
“What’s wrong?” Gio asked.
“Are you alright?” Rafe stepped closer, grasping both of her hands. “Why are you so cold? Your hands are like ice.” Then he looked at her more closely. “Jesus, your lips are blue.”
“It was f-freezing,” she said, her teeth still chattering. “I thought maybe a w-window was open or the AC was cranked down too low. I came out to look for more blankets. But then…I didn’t slam that door. It just did it on its own.”
Rafe looked over his shoulder at her closed bedroom door. “Tonight’s not the first time random doors have slammed shut for no apparent reason.”
“I know I said the haunted house thing would be a cool feature for the inn, but I think I changed my mind. I’m not going back in there. You can’t make me.”
“No one’s making you go back in. Come on. Let’s get you warmed up.” Gio wrapped his arm around her waist, guiding her to his bedroom.
“I’m not taking your bed,” she argued. “I can sleep on the couch. All I need is about thirty blankets in case it’s cold in the living room too.”
He ignored her, leading her to his bed. Rafe had followed them to the room, but he stopped before entering, leaning on the doorframe and watching them.
As Gio pulled back the duvet, she realized she was basically half naked. Her T-shirt just barely came to the top of her boy-cut panties.
“Get in,” Gio said. “And slide to the middle.”
She climbed in, doing as he asked.
Gio glanced toward the doorway, where Rafe remained. “Care to join us?”
Rafe gave Gio a look that could have been a warning or exasperation. She couldn’t tell which.
“Us?” she asked, before Gio crawled into bed beside her and drew the duvet over them.
Then she felt the mattress give way on the other side, and Rafe slid in. He turned her onto her side, away from him, before slipping closer so that her back was pressed against his warm chest.
It was at that point that she realized both men were also half naked. Only they were baring their top halves, wearing nothing more than boxers in Gio’s case and lounge pants in Rafe’s.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Getting you warm,” Gio replied, as if the three of them crawling into bed together was perfectly normal.
Rafe spooned her as Gio twisted onto his side to face her, grasping her still-cold hands, blowing his hot breath on her palms in an attempt to warm them.
“I’m sorry,” Rafe said quietly, once she’d managed to stop shaking. It didn’t take her long to warm up, not with two large male hot-water bottles flanking her. “I wouldn’t have put you in that room if I’d known it was so cold. I’ve never noticed the temperature in there being drastically different. I’ll get someone in tomorrow to check the AC.”
“My room is clearly fine,” Gio said. His and Keeley’s rooms were right next door to each other, so it made no sense that hers would be unnaturally cold, while his stayed normal. “Looks like Marta and Albert were having some fun at your expense,” he added.
“I don’t know how to make them like me,” she sighed, realizing the fact she felt hurt by two ghosts was a stupid reaction to have.
Gio grinned and shifted nearer, his face so close to hers on the pillow they shared that she could feel his breath on her face. “I’m pretty sure they do like you.”
Rafe snorted. “And how did you come to that conclusion?”
Gio placed a soft kiss on her forehead, but he didn’t stop there. His lips slid along her cheek until they were right beside her ear. “They knew she belonged in here with us. I think they were doing a little matchmaking. Which means you’ve got their blessing.”
“Jesus,” Rafe muttered. “You’re as bad as Grandpa Albert was with the ghost stories.”
Keeley shivered, but this time, it wasn’t because she was cold. One of Rafe’s hands had slipped beneath her shirt and was now sliding along her stomach…upwards.
Keeley lost the ability to breathe by the time his large palm cupped her breast, squeezing it firmly.
“Rafe,” she whispered.
“Just helping you warm up.”
“Is that what you’re doing?” she asked with a breathy laugh.
His fingers found her nipple, pinching it with more force than she was used to, making her squirm against him. She’d learned through Rafe’s kisses that he wouldn’t be a gentle lover. And she’d read enough erotic romance to know the idea of dominance turned her on. Regardless, she had no experience with it. Her past lovers had been guys around her age, their skill levels about the same as hers. As such, she hadn’t branched out much beyond missionary, doggie, sex in the shower, and sixty-nine.
Rafe and Gio were older, and she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt they could teach her a hell of a lot more.
Rafe pinched her nipple again, tight enough that she gasped.
“You went away there for a second,” he murmured. “Care to tell us what you’re thinking?”
“Or do we need to find more creative ways to keep your attention on what we’re doing?” Gio asked.
She bucked slightly when he ran his fingers over the soft cotton of her panties.
“She’s wet, so I’m going to go out on a limb and guess she was thinking about this…about what we’re going to do to her.” Gio backed up that pronouncement by slipping his fingers beneath her panties, sliding them along her slit until he found her clit. She’d never had a guy find it that fast. Hell, she’d had to draw a map to it for at least half her previous lovers.
Gio began to rub her clit, Rafe still playing with her breast, and she closed her eyes, sparks of electricity shimmering along her spine in response.
“Gio,” she whispered, “Rafe.”
“We promised you a night to think about this.” Rafe, ever the sensible one, stopped pinching her nipple, though his palm still covered her breast possessively.
“I don’t need time,” she said.
“Keeley,” he said, and it was clear he intended to stick to his guns. “There are some things we need to talk about before we—”
“No, we don’t.”
Gio, God bless him, was in the same boat as her—hot, horny, ready to roll. Which wasn’t the least bit surprising. She and Gio were definitely kindred spirits, the impulsive, throw-caution-to-the-wind types, while Rafe never leapt without looking, measuring, analyzing, and then contemplating outcomes.
“How long has it been?” Gio asked, one finger sliding deeper, teasing her opening.
“A year or so,” she admitted. “JT was the last.”
Gio growled, and she wondered how such a threatening sound could be such a huge fucking turn-on. “We’re going to make you forget about that asshole once and for all.”
She gave him a mischievous grin. “You’re welcome to try.”
Gio had yet to resist one of her dares. Given that she was completely out of her depth with them in so many other ways, that one small bit of power felt like it gave her at least a chance to grab the upper hand from time to time.
Gio increased the pressure on her clit, and she trembled with need.
Yeah. So much for the upper hand.
“How many times do you want to come?” Rafe whispered in her ear, his hot breath reminding her she’d been freezing just a few minutes earlier. Lying here between them, the heat was so scorching, she was certain she’d never feel cold again.
“How many?” His question drove home exactly how out of their league she was. Because she was a one-and-done girl. Once a guy got her there, he typically saw that as the signal that it was his turn, and he could wrap things up. Not one lover in her past had ever made her come twice.
Her nonresponse was telling. Gio shook his head in disgust. “You’ve been sleeping with the wrong men.”
She grinned. “I think, given the stories I’ve told you, that should be obvious.”
Dawn was finally starting to break through the blackness of the night, the sky lightening to gray. They’d left the bedroom door open, light from the hallway streaming in, also helping to illuminate the room.
Gio glanced over her shoulder and exchanged a look with Rafe, one that seemed to be the equivalent to striking the bell at the beginning of a boxing round. He removed his hand from her panties.
Rafe released her breast, reaching for the hem of her shirt. He whisked it over her head, quickly, skillfully.
She felt herself blushing, something she rarely did. She wasn’t shy, but there was something about the way Gio’s eyes slid along her body that felt almost as sensual as if he was touching every inch.
He reached up, his fingers sliding along her side. “You’ve got a tattoo.”
Rafe shifted away slightly and pulled the covers farther down, she suspected to get a better look.
“It’s a Joshua tree,” she said. “I got it after my parents died. I was sixteen, so I used an older friend’s ID since I was underage. Managed to hide it from Kayden until the summer between my junior and senior year in high school. Forgot about it and wore a bikini to a pool party we were both going to. He lost his shit. But then…when he realized what it was…”
“Why a Joshua tree?” Rafe asked.
“My dad and I had this goal to camp in all the national parks. We had a book that we got stamped whenever we traveled to a new one. A few months before he died, we went to Joshua Tree, just the two of us. It was probably the best time we’d ever had camping. I remember roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire. We sang songs where we’d always say the lyrics wrong.” She broke into her Annie Lennox impersonation, singing, “Sweet Dreams are made of Cheese.”
Rafe and Gio both chuckled.
“The night ended with him telling me about a million stupid dad jokes that had us laughing so hard, we were doubled over. I swear to God, I thought I was gonna pee my pants. He was…” Keeley stopped talking when she realized tears were flowing down her face.
This was why she never strayed from the parent script on first dates.
“Oh my God. I’m so sorry. Talk about killing the mood.” She swiped at her cheeks, swallowing hard to dislodge the lump in her throat.
Rafe wrapped his arms around her once more, and Gio wiped the tears from her face with his thumbs before leaning closer to kiss the lingering wetness away.
“Don’t apologize for something like that,” Rafe said gruffly.
“We love hearing your stories, Keeley. Love listening to you talk and learning things about you that we never knew,” Gio added.
“Although, I could have done without the rundown on Big Brother. That’s two hours of my life I’ll never get back,” Rafe groused.
Keeley laughed, and she turned her head to kiss Rafe on the cheek, grateful to him for finding a way to ease the sadness with humor.
“I love your tattoo,” Gio said, running his fingers over the ink. “Love that you honored your father that way.”
She smiled. “Yeah. Kayden was pissed at first, but he understood why I got it. Two weeks later, he got a tattoo to honor our parents too. Of course, that just started the ball rolling because now, he’s as tatted up as you are,” she said to Gio, running her hand up and down his muscular arm, covered with an elaborate entwined serpent and dog. And then, because she’d always wanted to, she bent toward him and ran her tongue along the black ink seductively.
Gio’s eyes narrowed with a hunger that had her pussy clenching. “Slide your panties down. We’re about to get serious, little one.”
She’d never felt particularly little. At five foot eight, she was the tallest of her friends. But right now, with them, she felt almost tiny.
Gio overshadowed her with his too-broad, muscular shoulders, his tall frame, his chiseled-in-steel-chest. While Rafe was leaner—his desk job no comparison to the heavy manual labor Gio did day in and day out—he still had her by a few inches and probably thirty pounds.
She shimmied out of her panties, a tricky act, since neither man seemed willing to move away and give her some room.
She inhaled loudly when Gio’s fingers immediately returned to the magic button. “Jesus, you’re good at finding that.”
He chuckled, but Keeley couldn’t share the sentiment. Not when Gio started stroking it faster, harder. She gripped his upper arms as he drove her to the edge of climax within moments. She couldn’t even get herself to this point so quickly, and she had some awesome toys.
“Gio,” she cried out. “God!”
“Come for us, Keeley,” Rafe murmured in her ear. “Let us see you fall apart.”
Her back arched as lightning struck, but through it all, Gio kept stroking, kept up the pressure, drawing the orgasm out until she begged for mercy.
As she started to land, he gentled his strokes, then pulled his fingers away as she lay there between them, fighting for air.
“What. The. Fuck. Was. That?” she asked in awe.
“When you say stuff like that, I can’t decide which track record is worse—your first dates or your lovers,” Gio mused.
She struggled to regain her wits. “I never come that quick. Not even when I do it myself. And I know how to masturbate.”
Rafe closed his eyes and shook his head at her confession. “Keeley, baby,” he murmured, running his lips along her cheek as his hand sought her breast once more.
Joel’s comment about her small breasts flashed through her mind, and because her brain still wasn’t fully functioning, she said, “Not quite a handful, huh?”
Rafe pinched her nipple hard, and she squeaked with pain…or, well, it started as pain but ended as whoa.
“Say something else disparaging—and wrong—about yourself. I dare you.” Obviously, Rafe hadn’t intended the whoa part. His tone said he thought he was punishing her. More the fool him.
Keeley closed her mouth and tried not to grin because she didn’t feel the slightest bit threatened. Actually, she was wondering what he’d say if she asked him to pinch the other nipple the same way.
“You might want to tread lightly,” Gio warned. “My hand is still itching to spank your ass for lying to us about staying in tonight.”
Well, hell. Now she really did have a dilemma. Keeley launched into a huge mental debate over what she could do to provoke that punishment. Because that sounded hot too.
“Shit.” Gio chuckled.
“What’s wrong?” Rafe asked.
“Roll onto your back, Keeley,” Gio demanded. “Let Rafe see your expression.”
She did as he asked, even as she said, “I would think it would be more useful if I flipped to my stomach.”
That time, the curse came from Rafe. “Fuck.”
“We’re going to have to get creative with our punishments,” Gio said to Rafe before looking at her. “We can see you want it—and believe me, I’m fucking tempted. But not tonight. Tonight, we’re going to take things slow. It’s been a long time for you, and you’ve never been with two men. Let us ease you into it.”
She crinkled her nose. “Sounds boring.” She meant her words as a dare, but this time, Gio didn’t take the bait.
“Say that afterward.” He shifted, his thighs straddling hers. Bending his elbows, he caged her beneath him, kissing her senseless.
How was he making her this hot, this horny, from just a kiss?
After what felt like several breathtaking days, he lifted his head, grinning at her like the cocky, sexy bastard he was.
She reached for his waist, drawing his boxers down until his dick sprang free. She wrapped her hand around it, fighting to keep her face impassive. But holy wow…
