
MENAGE ROMANCE
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Copyright © by Destiny Blaine
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To my husband Brent, who knows dinner can wait on Monday Night and lunch is seldom served on Sunday --at least during football season
LUST KNOW
NO BOUNDARIES
Sports Wives
DESTINY BLAINE
Copyright ©
I'm Cassie Teller. I love two men. They both know it. One is my husbandand the other is my lifelong friend and bed buddy. Things really aren't ascomplicated as they seem. They're worse---much worse.
My husband is PFC Quarterback Corby Teller. The 'other' man in mylife isn't a part of my world anymore and that's the cruelest factor of myreality. Steve was my best friend with explicit sexual benefits but he is alsothe father of my unborn child.
Unfortunately, even after Steve and I said 'I do' to other people we stillfound cause and reason to 'do' each other. Yes, I'm talking about the dirtydeed---and what went on behind closed doors didn't go unnoticed.
Case in point, my untimely pregnancy.
I threw down another smut-filled tabloid. "This is never going to go away." I played with the straw sticking out of my diet coke and stared straight ahead. "Are you listening to me?"
Suzy looked over at me with still eyes and a blank expression. "You know. I hate I'm in this situation. I really do. I'm Mark's wife. We're Corby's best friends." She let out a long sigh.
Leave it to Suzy to make this whole episode all about her. Of course, she made a valid point. She floated around at the core of my love triangle---
and it was one that gained more attention than the Bermuda Triangle, only there was a significant problem with mine---Suzy and I couldn't disappear.
The paparazzi refused to let us. We considered it the nature of the business.
It came with the territory when a woman married a football player in the Professional Football Confederacy. When one of the PFC wives stepped out of line, the cameras were in place and they were most definitely rolling.
I walked over to the sink and looked out over the back lawn. "I know you have every reason to be mad at me. I understand."
"No, I don't think you do. That's something I need to clarify for you."
Suzy tossed a newspaper aside before she flipped her gorgeous new red locks over her shoulder. Suzy's new hair color complimented her typical attitude---redhead or not, Suzy never ran from an opportunity to make a strong statement.
I knew what she felt compelled to tell me. I also realized my entire relationship with Steve, my part-time lover---as he was dubbed by the media--- weighed heavy on her mind.
I saw Suzy four or five times a week. We became fast friends after I married her husband's best friend and I quickly understood her better than she knew herself. She tried to remain loyal to her husband and abide by his expectations but she thought of me as a close friend too. I think she
cherished our friendship. Still, my actions on her so-called watch put her in the middle of a public fiasco. She didn't want to be there because she had her own load of dirty laundry. She didn't need mine too.
"Cassie, when we went to Cincinnati, I believe your mind was made up.
Sure, the sudden ice storm made it a little easier for you and Steve to find your way back to one another but admit it, you left Cleveland knowing all along you were headed straight into Steve's arms. He was the only reason you wouldn't let Corby ship your stuff from Cincinnati." She took a drink of her cocktail and continued. "You knew what, or rather who, you were going to do before you left."
I wasn't going to confess anything. In the first place, it was hardly necessary. The story of my affair with Steve unfolded in front of God, the PFC, those who thought they were gods of the Professional Football Confederacy, the media, and yes...pretty much the entire world. Suzy enjoyed front row seating and backstage passes.
I was painted as the gold-digging slut who married America's favorite quarterback only to rush right back to my old flame's bed. Some of the tabloids captured telling photographs. They told a graphic tale regardless of who chose to paint the larger picture. The headlines hit pretty close to home too.
Corby Teller's Wife Bends over for a Sure Thing or Corby Teller's Wifeis Down on Her Knees kept the newsrooms across the globe busy. It spiraled out of control from there.
Suzy was right, my plans existed from the get-go. Evidently, the right reporters snooped in the appropriate places to ensure they were waiting at The Cincinnatian when we rolled into town for a girl's weekend. If the ice storm hadn't trapped Mandy and Steve at our hotel, it wouldn't have mattered, he would've found a way to catch me in a hallway somewhere and I wouldn't have denied him. I never turned sex with Steve down. No woman in her right mind ever turned him away.
"Cassie, look hon," Suzy began with her voice-of-reason act, "This was bad enough from the very beginning. What made matters worse was how you responded to it. You could've stayed silent rather than retaliated like you did."
"I wanted to protect Steve." I told her. "And Corby."
Suzy's eyes batted quickly as if she remained totally confused. "Excuse me?" She moved closer and I knew she wanted her voice to be heard when she changed her tone altogether. "Cassie, explain to me how it helped Corby or Steve when you went on Live Sports at Nine and told the reporter that not only did you drop to your knees but, yes, you did suck and you inhaled every inch!"
"I didn't put it like that."
"Would you like to see the tape?"
"I'm sure Corby has it." I sneered. It was something I wasn't in the dark about in the least. Every detail of my dirty little affair was documented in one way or another. My husband saved every piece of evidence just in case he ever needed to use it against me.
"You're missing the point," Suzy continued, "Cassie, we're vulnerable here. When you went home to pack up your belongings, the media was ready. You were the woman who landed the hottest man in professional football, never mind the wealthiest. I don't want to preach here, so help me I don't, but it's been several months and the press would move on if you would only play good little wife and refuse to comment now."
"It's tough. You don't understand what it feels like to have the media turn your life inside out and upside down over something so...so
....personal."
Suzy's mouth dropped. "Well, it wouldn't have taken that turn if you weren't so hell bent to make a joke out of your intimate details. You decided to become the best comic-relief show in sports history. I mean, come on Cassie. When the newspapers ran that article from National about a sure thing, you could've let it slide."
"I did! I should have sued their ass."
"No, instead you embarrassed yourself and Corby."
"I did not. You obviously didn't listen to the ricochet of questioning.
Someone asked me if I was a lonely housewife since Corby had such a hectic schedule and I tried to laugh it off.
"When that didn't work, I said, ' If that were true then what woman would blame me? Women are sexual creatures just like men. I don't know about you but if I'm going to bend over then I want the sure thing---the long shot might leave me in a compromising position with so many cameras
around' and who could blame me for saying it? The creeps were everywhere with their cameras and microphones."
"Oh, for the love of God! Do you not see the problem with that statement?" Suzy opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something else and then she closed it again.
"No, I don't. If these people are going to pry, then they'd better be ready for my smart-ass replies. I'm not going to let them turn what Steve and I have, or once had, into something down and dirty. Furthermore, I refuse to let them tear my relationship with Corby apart. It's not going to happen."
"See, that's exactly what you are doing. You're allowing the media the opportunity to rip your marriage apart by leading you into saying things you shouldn't say."
"Like..."
"For starters, the snapshot of you with your hands on Steve's belt would've gotten a no-comment from me---but not you. No, you said if you were down on your knees at The Cincinnatian Hotel, it was a safe bet you weren't there to scrub the floors."
I snickered. "Yeah, that one was kind of off the wall. Oh Suzy, what can I say. I retaliated and I didn't do it in a way that I'm proud of but consider the history I have with Steve before you judge me. I'm not going to go around apologizing for the past we've shared. I hate this happened the way it did. I'm not happy you were involved but then again, Suzy be smart here.
You were only invited because Corby feared this sort of thing might happen. He sent you to baby-sit me and bribed you with shopping."
"Yes and you made me look like I failed."
"And that's really what this is all about, isn't it?" I stared back at her then.
I decided to let her off the hook before she took an opportunity to answer. "Listen. You don't have to tell me anything. I know what I've done and I know where you stand. I'm okay with it." I gave her a sincere smile.
I patted my stomach and started to wonder why my belly wasn't beginning to take on the slightest pooch. I watched Suzy's eyes scour over me. I realized the thought of motherhood sent her flying in another direction. It wasn't a big secret that she thought I was totally nuts for wanting a child conceived from a very public affair.
Her jaw set as I patted my stomach and I wasn't surprised by her next confession. "Cassie, I told Mark everything." The act of betrayal seemed to flip off her tongue without one hint of regret.
I swallowed hard. I once hoped she might decide to leave some details out.
"Did you hear me?" She looked really disgusted with herself but I tried to focus on the words spoken. The tone used to deliver the ultimate double-cross among friends.
"Hell, I wasn't expecting the all or nothing confession." I turned my back to her as I tried to gain some measure of self-composure before I said anything more.
"I hate myself for doing it," she continued, "but Mark required it."
It was the icing needed to crumble the cake. "He required it?" I questioned.
"You know how he gets. Demanding and condescending as hell." She whined as she complained about her husband.
"Suzy, what I know is what you told me a long time ago. The guys on these teams stick together. They put girls like you and me out on the streets if we do things to embarrass them in public. I did exactly what you warned me about and I'm still here. I'm not sure why." I wasn't sure of anything anymore. Even with everything Corby and I seemed to go through, he didn't ask me to leave and instead he only held onto me tighter. "Now, if you've told Mark everything I've told you..."
She nodded too eagerly.
"Then I have to ask a thousand times, why Corby wants me here." Each time I tried to search for the answer, I came up with the same one. I didn't have a clue.
I waited for her response and that's when it hit me. Suzy wanted the truth to come out and she wanted it to be heard loud and clear. I quickly thought back to the day she'd told me about her infatuation with my husband. How he'd more or less regarded her as used merchandise. Could it be she played me from the very beginning? Sure---anything seemed possible.
She moved closer to me with her afternoon martini in hand. "You don't know why?" She took a sip before she answered her own question.
"Because you're Cassie. You're the exception and not the rule. You're the
chick who landed the most desirable man in the PFC and for some reason, no matter what you do, it's like Mark said..." She stopped herself from revealing hidden truths.
"Like Mark said? Finish what you were saying." I really didn't give a shit what Mark said, what I wanted to know was what Suzy thought. It would come out if she just kept talking. It always did.
"Never mind." She gulped her martini and then teased me. "Bet you miss these about right now."
"More than you know. What did Mark say?" Changing the subject didn't work with me.
"Hell Cassie, you have Corby right where you want him. If you were anyone else, you'd be out on your ass and so help me, we still can't figure out why you're here. Not that I'm complaining."
"I imagine you're not." I was the only woman Mark wanted his wife to befriend and the harder slap of reality happened to be a bit more realistic.
None of the other wives in the Professional Football Confederacy liked Suzy, and for good reason.
She always searched for some additional attention and loved to find it from the other players. One or two of the wives accused her of getting into bed with their husbands on more than one occasion. Mark always defended her because I was always her alibi---even when I didn't know it.
Suzy shrugged. "You can get pissy with me if you want but the fact is, you screwed around and you were busted--publicly too, I might add. Which sucks, by the way." Her flip attitude never flew anywhere with me. We weren't dealing with a first class broad here and she was often the one to admit it.
"I suppose if you were in my position, you wouldn't have been caught with your thong around your ankles." I always suspected the rumors held some validity and the hot ones seemed to follow her around which is why I thought Suzy cheated on Mark. She never confessed to it. The woman was too smart and far too cautious.
Suzy trusted me to an extent and I often believed she wanted to share her secrets. I wouldn't tell her tales publicly and I wouldn't have shared the information with my husband because I tend to be loyal to my friends but that's not why she kept her distance. I believe in an eye for an eye and it's the very reason Suzy guarded her skeletons.
"You were too new to the scene. You didn't know that your every move might be captured on tape at any given time. I hate it for you. I do. But just because you made a seriously stupid mistake, don't expect me to wallow in the gutter with you. If you don't start playing your cards right now, you may end up there." Her hand rested too comfortably on her hip as she sipped her drink with swollen lips and eyes batting some measure of forced innocence.
I wasn't captivated by them---something she'd never believe.
Besides, I translated everything she meant. Corby and I once enjoyed a very active sex life. Now, it was non-existent. Not that I blamed him. I looked like a bag of bones and soon I'd look like a scarecrow carrying around a pumpkin. Not the sexiest of women and I was reminded of it when I caught Corby looking at Playboy magazine---day in and day out.
Something he never did prior to my pregnancy and a fact he often brought to my attention.
Suzy propped up on her elbows and leaned over the counter. "Tell me something. Do you love Corby?"
My eyes watered and I dabbed at the corners of them. "Yes. I do."
Emotions ran rampant the closer I came to my due date and unfortunately, it was still months ahead instead of the day after tomorrow.
"Do you love what's his name?" She knew his damn name. Everyone in the country knew it after the media made him public enemy number one.
"Steve."
"Yes, him." She acted disgusted as she waved a dismissive hand. She actually liked Steve and I think she liked him a little too much.
"I guess I'll always love him." My senses came alive with the acknowledgement.
"Who?" Corby's voice filled the room as he strolled in with the daily reminders of my infidelity.
"You tiger." Suzy covered for me. This time.
Corby walked over to the table, dropped another run of tabloids into the center and turned around to kiss me on the cheek. "Hope so. Is that the truth or are you just telling my best friend's wife what she wants to hear?"
"It's the truth." I locked eyes with Suzy.
She moved her hand back and forth as if to say, this was a freebie all on her. What a pal. Now, I owed her one.
"What's for dinner?" Corby looked at me and then Suzy.
"Don't look at me." Suzy laughed before she added, "You better hang on tight to her. She's at least unpacked you guys. Mark is still digging into boxes trying to find this or that. I told him I didn't do the moving thing well.
I think he wants to wife swap for a day to see if Cassie can get our place in order as well as she brought this one together."
"I don't plan to let her go." He grinned at me before swatting me on the ass. I think it was the first time his palm touched my backside since before the whole ordeal with me and Steve made headline news. I nearly froze under his touch.
"Ditto." I shot back in a playful attempt to respond to the flirtation. He was lucky I didn't simply bend over and shake it too. Yes, I missed his attention.
He began to look around in the refrigerator. "You know, I'm beginning to believe you need your own room over here." He turned around and nodded toward the door. "I just dropped your husband off if you want to go join him for a swim. That's what he said he had in mind."
Suzy jumped down off the bar stool. "Okay you two. The heat is rising here. I think the hormones are raging or something. I can take a hint. I'll go."
"Who was hinting?" Corby laughed. "I all but told you to either move in or move the hell on and I'm pretty direct when it comes to finding time alone with my wife."
I was stunned. Alone time with Corby sounded like heaven right now.
Suzy called over her shoulder as Corby placed his hand on her back and ushered her to the door. "You two have fun cooking."
"We'll at least have something to cook. If you need help unpacking, call me tomorrow. I know Mark is ready to find your playthings!"
"Mark nothing! Do you know how bad I miss my dildo?" She laughed as Corby gave her a final push out the door.
I moved the stack of newspapers and magazines off the kitchen table.
Out of sight and out of mind. At least, I hoped for as much.
"What did you do with the papers I brought in?" He questioned me as soon as he rejoined me in the kitchen. His rugged good looks were beginning to undo the best of my intentions and I didn't want to talk about my affair with Steve.
Several weeks ago I agreed that I wouldn't push him but looking at him then, forced seduction came to mind. His jet black hair was ultra-shiny and set off his emerald green eyes. Everything about his six-foot-three frame called out to me with the most carnal intentions.
"Corby, can't we just have one day without starting our afternoon with smut and lies?"
"Those reports aren't all lies and you know it." He snapped.
"Do we have to do this?"
"Yes, I'm afraid so." His eyes darkened and he moved away from me.
"Okay fine. Have it your way." I grabbed the new stack from under the cabinet and scattered them across the countertop. "Go ahead, there they are.
Get your jollies. I've had enough of it. This really isn't going to work." I slammed my palm down on the table and glared at him.
"The hell it isn't." He leaned over the table. We were nose to nose.
"What are you going to do, Cassie? Walk out on me?" Venom drove the question but his upper jaw twitched and he quickly looked away. I knew Corby Teller and he wasn't going to let me skip out on him because he wasn't going to quit on me. We weren't quitters. We fought things out if we needed to but we did not quit on those we cared about.
I took a deep breath and slowly released it. "Corby, I can't...I can't do this anymore." I was playing the card I held---pity. It sucked but it was the last card I squeezed tightly in my hand.
"You can't or you won't?" He fired back.
I felt my lips tighten and about the same time, my jaw set. "Fine. I won't. How's that?"
"You don't have a choice now Cassie. You're six months away from delivering a baby. Now, you don't get to go back and make a decision about things. You just have to get along with me until we can go back to the way things were."
"What do you mean the way things were? Things will never be the way they were."
He quickly moved closer to me and his gaze gave the warning. He didn't want to hear Steve's name. "You know what I mean." He kissed me softly on the lips. "I mean everything. You, me and the life we were living before you went off and decided to get knocked up. That life. The way we were supposed to be and will be again."
"You wanted a baby." I reminded him of another time in our marriage when pregnancy seemed to be an exciting topic and why I didn't keep my mouth shut was the fifty million dollar question.
"I wanted my baby. Not another..." He stopped himself and I saw the hurt flash across his face.
"Corby, please don't do this to us."
A burning glare warned of retaliation. "Don't do what to us?" His eyes locked in on my stomach for a number of seconds. "From what I can see, the damage is done. We just have to find a way to work around these minor...complications."
"Complications?"
"What would you call it?"
I didn't know. I moved onto a suggestion. "Why don't you start by holding me again?" I needed some kind of human interaction.
"I can't."
I reached for him and he moved away. "Don't... Please don't go."
He kept his back to me and quickly shrugged off my attempted touch. "I remember asking you for the same consideration. Remember?"
I did. He wanted to send for my things in Cincinnati. He realized if I met up with Steve, I'd end up in his bed again. We were both right.
"You went anyway."
I nodded behind his back. What else does a woman do on the rare occasion when her husband is right? Corby hit the nail right-on. I went back home without any respect for his feelings. The whole time I realized, I was headed back into the arms of the man I left behind.
"I...don't know what to say." I really didn't have any excuses or answers.
"You don't have to say anything. Like I said, the damage is done. We'll work on rebuilding our life after you pop out that watermelon you're carrying around as a constant daily reminder of your affair." He walked into his office and slammed the door.
I immediately looked down at my flat stomach. "What watermelon?"
When I didn't see the evidence he referred to, I gasped with acknowledgement. If he looked at me and saw a daily reminder of my affair, what would happen when the child I was carrying was born? Would he then resent me more or worse---would he hold my affair against a small helpless baby? I refused to think about it, but the answer lingered in the air and it nearly suffocated me.
I didn't have one single person to talk to about my pain. Not one. Corby only existed in my life for the time being. He was a warm body in a cold marriage. He planned to father a child he only wanted to use for a little retribution---just a tad of sweet revenge. It happened to be the truth and with each passing day, I realized it more and more. Corby would forgive me but I wasn't sure he was going to forget the past and the more I thought about it, the more I didn't want forgiveness or even understanding.
Steve and I were the cute kids on the block when we were growing up and everyone in high school thought we'd eventually end up together. We were just beginning to explore some very misunderstood feelings when Corby came into my life like a runaway storm with too many high winds.
We met, dated a short period of time, he offered me the world and then he carried me into the center of his before I even had the chance to see what I was leaving behind.
Now, I knew. Oh how I realized with each passing day, how much I missed Steve all the more.
I couldn't talk to Suzy. Her loyalties stayed with the man who shared her bed and she liked everything he did for her there---never mind the bank account it earned her. Mark and Corby took care of their women financially and even though I was quite possibly the most hated woman in the world, my husband still spoiled me with things---credit cards, jewelry, an endless flow of grotesque amounts of money and other luxuries. But it didn't buy me the alone-time with Steve and I was beginning to think I would never see him again.
Even though Mandy, Steve's wife and I were quite different, I even missed her friendship now. Steve had tried to reassure her of his love for her and I believe he did love her on some level. That is, if it was remotely possible to love a woman who preferred shopping to sex. We really didn't have a lot in common, other than the fact she accepted my sexual past with her husband, something she often made light of in inappropriate places.
Often, I wondered if my first assumption of her was right-on. She wasn't the brightest of brunettes. In fact, Steve, her own husband, told more dumb-Mandy jokes than blonde ones. Sadly, those about Mandy were typically true.
Since I left Cincinnati, Steve had been off limits. I tried to separate myself from him once and for all because when I left, I did something really stupid. Leave it to me to not only leave but to go out with a bang. I went in for the kill and said things in front of him with one focus---to tear, no... rip his heart apart. I did it for Corby because he more or less required it after the show of unfaithful events reared its ugliness for all to see and I did it well.
I succeeded in destroying my first love and myself in less than two minutes and I was very believable. Steve didn't call and he didn't email. For all I knew, he'd forgotten about the love we once shared.
I sat down at the computer and started to type out a letter to my unborn child. I wanted the baby to know everything about my pregnancy so every morning, I typed. I wrote about the day's weather and the events going on in the world. I included celebrity news and sports data. My child would know how much I wanted to be a mother and he or she would also one day read my words and reach a decision. I lived a pretty dull life.
After the last words were written, I sent the document to a file folder and quickly went to my email. I stared at the empty in-box. "Maybe I'll sign up for some sort of home business or something and then I'll at least have email." I stared at the empty folder and then left the land of the virtually ignored by closing out the window.
"I used to send you e-mail." A steady voice moved closer.
Startled, I jumped up and turned around to face Corby. "Yes, you did."
His eyes softened with the memory and just as quickly turned to stone.
"I'm going to go out with Mark and Suzy tonight. Don't wait up."
"So, I'm not invited?"
Almost snarling, his response came in the form of a facial expression long before he vocalized it. "No, where we're going isn't the place for a pregnant woman."
I felt my insides throb like a punch in the gut. "A pregnant woman or one you think isn't carrying your child?"
"I know and you know that damn bubble inside you doesn't have a child with my blood."
"Corby! You don't know for sure. You don't!" I rushed over to him with my finger wagering a war of words. "Don't you dare walk away from me. Corby!" He didn't stop and I was raging with madness. "You arrogant piece of ..."
"Watch yourself Cassie." He grabbed my wrist in a tight hold and moved me away from him taking a step back as he did.
Hurt, I whispered my true feelings to thin air knowing that even though he would hear them, he would not care. "I made a mistake and you're going to make sure I pay for it even if you upset me to the point that I can't eat or sleep. All because you think, and you sorry bastard, it is only an assumption," I paused before I went on, "this baby isn't yours."
He stared back at me. Ice ran through his veins. I couldn't chip away at it. I tried. I continued to fail. Suzy told me months ago and reminded me more and more frequently, when a woman crossed one of their husbands, the PFC players and wives took the player's side. They were family. Blood, sweat and tears mixed together to form an unbreakable bond among men.
The women who shared their beds always stood by the man who gave them the opportunity to be there in the first place.
On the outside looking in, I understood everything now. I wasn't going to be allowed back into the inner circle but Corby had too much pride to let me go which only hurt us both.
"Are you having an affair?" I wanted him to tell me yes.
"It's none of your business." He didn't flinch.
"Are you?" I suspected it but I also knew if the man cheated on me publicly, the media would inform the world. At least I had the security in knowing he wasn't trying to make a public mockery out of our relationship.
Yet.
"Corby, I want a divorce. I love you but if you can't forgive me for something I truly will never be able to control, this is something we need to consider. It will be better for everyone." To my surprise, I was relieved I finally asked for one. I never really thought that much about walking away from Corby because in truth, I loved him with an unconditional love, only it was different from the love I shared with Steve. I just wanted him to love me right back with the same kind of love. It was kind of a tough thing to do since I wanted him to accept the fact I loved two men.
"You do?" He moved forward almost stalking me with his pace.
"Yes, I do."
"That's too damn bad. I'm not letting you go." He didn't show any emotion. He wasn't enraged or condescending, only matter of fact, as if I should've expected the precise reply he gave.
I did this to him. I made him incapable of expressing his feelings. I longed for him to let go of whatever he felt and I really needed him to show the true face of man's rage.
Moving closer, I decided to provoke him into releasing everything he kept all bottled up inside. With a grin, I taunted him. "You don't own me.
You can't keep me here and you can't continue to ignore me and expect me not to find someone who won't." A woman knows what buttons to push when she's looking for a word tumble.
"Is that right?" He gritted his teeth and moved fast to grab me around the waist. "Tell me something Cassie, who the hell do you think wants to fuck a bag of bones? Hmmm? Who wants to screw a woman who is so frail that the only meat she has is the weight of a bastard's child?"
The tears threatened to spill. I choked them back and fought harder. "Do you want me to say it? Do you?"
His words chilled me to the point I truly believed my heart possessed tiny little icicles dangling with every grief-stricken word.
Set-jaw, clenched fist, he expected to hear it because he recognized the truth when he saw me with Steve. Corby realized with complete certainty that Steve would have me back if he had to drive to Texas and pick me up.
Even now, after months of nothing---no contact, no words exchanged, nothing---I believed that the love I shared with my lifelong lover would be there regardless of the minute-hands of time or the cruelty of circumstances.
Or at least, I hoped. Doubt entered my mind once more.
Visibly shaken, he spoke softer. "Then go ahead, say it. It won't make me want you and isn't that what this is really about? You need to be in my arms twisting your little body around my waist and telling me your lies." He stopped himself for only a moment, "Well Cassie, I didn't come into this
relationship blindly and since we started with dishonesty, we can continue just as we began."
He walked over to the phone on the wall, picked it up and barked at the driver. "Go pick up Mark and Suzy and bring them back here. Don't come in. Call me and I'll be ready." He slammed the phone down and pulled his belt loose at the same time.
"What is this? Now you're ready to fuck? Oh, I don't think so." I moved away from him.
"That's exactly what we're going to do because as your husband, it's my duty. Maybe it's yours too since you seem so hell bent on basing a loving relationship on sex." He kicked his loafers to the side, unzipped his pants and let them fall.
I pushed him back. "No, Corby. Not now and certainly not like this." I walked over to the computer and clicked the log-off icon. When I turned back around he was behind me.
His hard cock pressed up against my thigh and his hot breath was at my ear. "It's time to make up for lost time." His pain was there. It existed in a raspy sound of need mixed with true agony and the expectancy of twisted pleasure.
I moved away again. "Put your pants on Corby. I'm not going to have a romp with you. If you're looking for a fast fuck, then I'm sure there are a lot of women in the clubs that will be more than willing." I snapped at him over my shoulder as I left the room. I actually wanted him to follow me as I started up the steps to our bedroom because I wanted him to grovel almost instantly with an apology he most assuredly owed. I only heard his empty threat.
"Baby, that was a mistake because I'm here to tell you a fast fuck is something I'll have tonight, one way or another. The best thing you can hope for is that it doesn't intrigue me enough to become an indulgent slow screw because with the right woman behind it, you might find yourself out on your pretty little ass!"
I slammed the bedroom door. "So much for an apology." I lashed out.
He didn't bother to make things right before he left and I wasn't all that surprised. The arrogance found in fame typically forbids a humble heart---
even when it's breaking.
I didn't know how long I'd been asleep by the time I heard him. It seemed like days but then again I slept heavier than I used to sleep. The doctor had warned of depression but with everything I'd done to sabotage my own life, sleep not only invited my broken heart but paused the rapid beating.
Prior to my infidelity and pregnancy, Corby and I enjoyed a healthy and very active sex life. In fact, very often, we fell into the bed with our lips locked and hips securely fastened to one another. Now, he typically slept on the sofa. Tonight, he sat on the side of our bed.
Shaking off sleep, I tried to sit up. I knew he was there and just held my breath because I wasn't sure why he'd wake me in the middle of the night unless he really wanted a good man-woman fight. Maybe he had his fling with a cocktail waitress or someone from the inner circle. If so, he'd want to rub it in my face and let me know we were even.
. My eyes focused on the bedside table. It was only eleven o'clock.
"You're home early."
He tugged his shoes off, tossed a couple of pillows up against the headboard and smiled gently. "A damn thing happened tonight. I just realized that without you beside me, I kind of get lost in a crowd. I always did. Oh sure, this one or that one wants an autograph but other than the women who are..." He stopped himself and then continued in a different---
wiser---direction, "The women there in the clubs don't hold a candle to you, Cassie."
I felt my breath hitch in my throat. "Corby..." I sat up and turned around to look at him in the dim light. I felt my lips turn up in a smile when I saw the sincerity that I loved to find in his face. A gorgeous man, Corby was actually one of the good guys. He really always had been. I just brought out another side in him and it was one I realized he shouldn't have been forced to experience because of my lack of self-control.
His hand went to my cheek as he spoke his apology. "Cassie, I don't deserve you."
"That's not..." I started to protest.
"No, listen to me," his eyes suddenly watered showcasing a glistening emerald tint, "I haven't been fair to you, or honest." Tortured words were going to follow. I felt them before he ever managed to speak them.
"Corby, let's not dwell on things as they should've been. Let's just..."
"No, not this time. Something has been eating at me and you're going to hear this because if you don't then hell's fury is going to engulf this relationship and so help me, it will pull us apart forever." He stood up and walked over to the door and turned on the overhead light too.
I blinked and tried to adjust to the bright light as I focused on his expression. He looked tormented.
"Cassie, it's time you know why I wanted to marry you so quickly."
"I know..." I tried to stop him. I gave him a true out.
"No, you don't."
I put my hands over my ears like a spoiled child. "I promise I know and I just can't do this right now."
He sat down in front of me and gently moved my palms away from my ears. One at a time, he removed the barriers and held my hands in my lap.
"You're right, you can't do it right now. Not by yourself but together, we can do this because we have to get this out in the open, sweetheart."
"Corby..."
"It's time Cassie. It's time to leave all of this behind so we can truly live together as man and wife."
I wanted to tell him, I needed to explain to him, the truth didn't set you free. It only shifted the pain in another direction, and the reality it often brought didn't necessarily make up for past mistakes---or indiscretions.
We held onto one another with fingers entwined. He wanted a clear conscious. Maybe he thought he owned the blame for our deteriorating marriage or perhaps he thought if he confessed his so-called sins, it would earn him a fast requital. I didn't need a pardon. I didn't want one. If he began to spill his heart, he would expect the same in return.
While I wanted to work on my marriage, I wasn't sure I could apologize for loving Steve. After all, what kind of woman makes excuses for an absolute love? What kind of wife lies to a husband who wants to right all the wrongs in a marriage?
It didn't matter what I wanted. Corby needed to heal and in order to do it, I was going to listen.
He cleared his throat, released his hands from mine and stood up again.
"I heard you and..." it pained him to say his name; I'd witnessed it before and wondered if he could even say it now, "I...heard you with Steve."
Relief washed over him with the acknowledgement. I saw it in his eyes and noticed his beautiful mouth turned up in a gentle, if not accepting, smile. He practically let go of the anger and the resentment he'd carried in one simple statement.
Surprised he said his name; I wasn't completely in the dark. I knew what he was talking about because I realized our rush to get married was due in part because Corby heard my last romp with Steve. We'd briefly discussed it once before. Then, he simply beat around the bush with insults and accusations, and now, here he stood before me, ready to tackle the truth and put the complications it caused to a permanent rest.
He watched me closely and his jaw twitched a couple of times before he continued. "I know, and I've always known, all about you and Steve and the history," a painful grunt slipped from his lips before he finished, "you
shared." He turned away from me as he began to unfold his reasons for a rapid run to Las Vegas and a lightening fast marriage ceremony.
The room seemed to still with the pain his words brought to light.
Corby's movements were in slow motion. At times, I thought he deliberately wanted to place certain emphasis on various acts just to add to the heartache I felt. He would start to say something, lift his hand and then stop the words from forming.
"Corby, we still don't have to do this."
"No, we do. You need to know everything. We can't move on until I understand everything you feel and you hear what I have to say." Mobilized by the underlying reason Corby needed to talk openly, I know my eyes closed for a few minutes. I didn't want him to know everything about my relationship with Steve. It happened to be sacred ground and not even my husband deserved to tread there.
When I looked up at him again, I saw the acceptance flicker across his face.
The fear in his eyes danced with true apprehension but a man like Corby Teller would never want to play second string to Steve or any other. It was why we needed to talk. Corby wanted to know if I planned to go back to Steve---or maybe even if going back was an option.
"Cassie, he loved you. You loved him. Maybe the two of you will always have an inseparable bond." He glared at my stomach but only for a second. He immediately softened before he continued. "After I heard you in the hot tub that night, I wanted to kill him. All the way from Cleveland to Cincinnati, I had one goal in mind, murdering the man who had the tightest hold on your heart."
"Then what stopped you?" I wanted to be sure it wasn't a possibility now---given my current state and all.
He chuckled. "Killing a man who possesses a woman's mind, body and spirit doesn't guarantee he'll become the obvious or automatic replacement.
Besides, I've never stained my hands with anything more than mud."
"I know you Corby Teller, I know this about you."
He continued to speak in a low voice and moved around the bedroom as he did. He paused at an oversized chair in the corner of the room and sat down for a second only to take to his feet once more. "Cassie, by the time I pulled into your driveway last year, I had all but figured out how to beat him. I couldn't play on the same playing field with you because of your past. The only thing I could do was use my money and resources to show you I was the better man for you."
The thump in my chest wasn't there because I felt honored but because I felt manipulated and it pissed me off. "And you thought I could be bought?"
Hell, I was bought and because of it, I paid an even heftier price than the going rate.
"In a sense..." his voice broke into a challenge, "you were." He released fighting words.
"You arrogant son-of-a-bitch." This time, I stood quickly and paced around the room like a raging lunatic. "You think---hell, all of the PFC
players think---you can buy women."
They could. They'd been doing it for years.
"You believe because you play professional football that you are entitled to anyone you want at any given time you want them."
"We pretty much can have anyone we want but Cassie, listen to me..."
He tried to stop the wheel he put into motion but he had a slight problem once my mind went spinning out of control. "I'm trying to apologize and I'm trying to understand here."
"Fuck you Corby."
"After you get this anger out, maybe we can."
"You egotistical prick!" I marched over to him and stood in front of him with all of my anger and all of my glory. My nipples perked just at the pure mention of fucking. I mean, it had been over three months. "You have some nerve." And one helluva an idea but I didn't tell him as much. I was so unbelievably turned on by the word, that I almost shut down the anger but knowing that he truly manipulated me using money just did a number on my temper.
His face spread into a regretful smile. "I do have balls of brass." He smirked then with his further hint of sexual flavor and then he wrapped one arm around my waist and pulled me closer. His eyes were warm and truly full of love. "Cassie, listen honey, please."
I shook him loose with my head shaking so much in denial that it should've shook right off my shoulders. "I don't want to hear another word!"
"You can keep pushing the truth away but it's not going to matter because I realized something tonight. You do love me. You love Steve and you love me too. We both have what you want. Together we form the perfect man and you can't help but crave us both."
I couldn't fault him there. He brought up a topic for discussion. Heaven only knew how many times I'd thought about it. "Then if you had that much confidence then why the rush back then---hmm? Why not wait to get married?"
"Because..."
"Because why?"
"Because damn you! He would've won out in the end." He moved swiftly. Before I knew what hit me, he had my right wrist clasped tightly.
I still felt like a chess piece manipulated by one who deliberately mastered the game no one realized they were playing. Labored breathing, a struggle in motion, an inner battle and war of words too harsh to be spoken didn't stop me from saying them. "You're right. I do love you both but you've known it since the very beginning so now what? Tell me where we go from here." I wanted some advice. Hell, I needed it.
"We go here." He stepped into me and tilted my chin up. "We go here."
He said it again with passion and fire misguiding us both. His lips found their way home to mine before I could part my own in acceptance. Maybe my soul fought against it. Perhaps the betrayal I always felt when I made love to my husband prevented me from crossing into the realm of lust now that I thought my baby belonged to another man.
"Oh Cassie, I need you more than I've ever needed anyone in my life."
His tongue scraped over my bottom lip before he kissed me again with fervor and then he let me go. "I will do whatever it takes to keep you. Even if....even if it means sharing you."
A sudden gasp fell from my lungs but before I could question what he really meant by a communal concept, his lips assaulted mine again.
Corby believed everything he said. He truly thought I was the only woman for him but I wanted so much more for him---for us. For Steve.
I decided a long time ago; men were often the last to know when they were fighting a losing battle for a woman's heart. Their egos get in the way.
A perpetual hard dick refuses to stand down for another man with similar intentions. Then, there are the matters of the heart. When a woman loves, she loves with her soul as much as anything else. When a man loves, genuinely loves, he would sell his.
Corby loved me enough to lose his heart and soul forever. And he would. I knew it and he realized it in the very second he granted permission for something neither of us understood and the more he kissed me, the more I recognized the tolerance he was going to have. He was going to allow me to bring Steve back into my bed...our bed.
I didn't put on the breaks to stop our reunion now. I wasn't going to ruin the moment for the pleasure I deserved to take. I didn't want to stop our bodies from meeting in an age-old rhythm established to protect and guide a marriage momentum. I needed him. Just as flowers needed soil and the earth beneath the garden, I depended on Corby to heal my heart and make me whole again. It was our time, our season.
We stood locked in an intimate embrace as his hands caressed me. His kisses covered me from forehead to chin and back up again. When he finally slanted his lips over mine one last time before moving us to the bed, his intentions were fully understood. He'd growled enough of them into my parted, hungry lips stroking me with a carnal tongue that I knew pleasured only the best of body parts, hidden or otherwise.
Corby Teller was a man's man on the football field but in the bedroom, behind closed doors, he was a woman's man, and a skilled lover. Sometimes I wondered if his abilities, never mind his size, drove me to say 'I do' before I really knew why I should've said 'I don't' but in the heat of things, who cared. I didn't.
His hands moved slowly, at first. His guided fingers pulled at the pearl-embroidered camisole until the pearls scattered and my breasts were fully exposed. Corby didn't bother to notice but his mouth watered all the more with each passing kiss.
"Oh heaven help me." He moaned as my lips drifted from his mouth down his neck.
Losing a fitted shirt in record time, Corby never had a problem with ripping away clothing. His buttons flew about as quickly as the snaps parted from his Levis.
"I need you baby. I need all of you Cassie. Everything you have to give." He stepped out of his pants and boxers. His stiff erection left me without the ability or the desire to say no.
I never denied him when he was ready just like I never refused Steve.
And there he was again. Just as easily as I pushed him aside, I brought him back to me and held on tight. Just for a minute, for a few passing seconds and ironically, a chill seemed to ease its way across my spine. Corby was offering to bring Steve to our bed because he was already there with us.
"I'll warm you baby." He spoke into my flesh and the hot heat from his breath did heat and soothe. It drew me closer and closer until I had no other choice but to let go.
My body began to move with his as my hands went to his broad shoulders and then worked their way around his neck to form a hold and clasp I didn't want him to break. I wanted his kiss then, worked to find it more fulfilling than ever before.
Taunting my pleasure with just the right amount of seductive nips, Corby licked his way into each kiss. Tongue in and tongue out, he stroked with satisfaction and with a certain amount of contentment.
We found our way to the bed, like old times, without any problem and there before him, I became his wife once more. My legs naturally fell to the wayside as his mouth worked a magic that women deserve to find with their spouse.
Corby was everything a woman wanted in her bed but he had also changed. I'd changed him. His soft touch now waited for more calloused desires and I recognized it most once his finger lingered too close to another intimate opening.
His mouth hovered just above my mound. His sweet breath made me crazy with need as the night ahead began to strum with everything we'd already said and the excitement of what he agreed to offer. Could I go to bed with Corby and Steve? Could I take one in front of the other? My heart raced forward and my legs spread only wider as the thought of loving them both only fueled my immediate desires.
Damn him! "Corby!"
He blew a slow whisper of promises over me. "Tell me baby. Tell me all about it."
My hips rose just by the erotic impact of feeling his hot mouth speak to me so intimately. His lips stayed close but even with my feet firmly planted parallel to his butt, I couldn't push up high enough to capture his mouth.
"Not yet baby, not now." He licked his lips and dipped a fingertip into my pussy.
"When...oh God, when?" Damn it to hell. It had been long enough. I needed to be fucked into the following day, maybe even the next week or the one after.
"Patience." He blew again as his finger moved deeper and soon one was joined by another. His smirk proved carnal, potentially deadly as he lowered an open mouth to cover me fully with the darkest of intentions beginning to unfold.
Delicious came to mind once he held me against the strength of oral pleasures delivered. I fought to keep my hips on the bed but I couldn't do it successfully. It just wasn't meant for a woman like me to hold still for sex.
I'm a participant---I wanted to partake and revel in every act, all sensual strokes.
My heat connected with every emotion left in the room. Love, disappointment, heartache, lust, and betrayal, oh yeah---it existed as the thickest element of all. The betrayal I felt when I slept with Corby would always be there because my heart first belonged to another.
I forced myself to forget Steve and to work on my marriage in the more appropriate mending of ways. Corby didn't make it difficult, at least, not at first.
A very personal and different intrusion shocked me. He went from my gentle, effective lover to an intimate paralyzing force that I never once saw headed my way. I stilled against his palm and hand which only forced him to confront me for answers. My hips, after all, stopped in motion, trapped in mid-air from the stunned nature of the progressive activity Corby exploited.
His look frightened me for a minute, really just a split second. He wanted to know it mattered. He wanted to know if what he did actually earned him a reward of sorts. It did, or rather---it certainly would.
We locked in a gaze as time froze for us and it seemed to be a perpetual moment. "You've never been touched here." He moved his fingers in just a bit.
My breath hitched smothering out the possibility of speech. It didn't matter, my face told the tale because he let me know he took the time to quickly translate the meaning behind the expression.
"Never? Never with anyone?"
I shook my head. "Never with anyone." The fact didn't escape me. I suddenly wondered why this actually would be a first-time moment. It was, in truth, because Steve didn't take me into the realms of kink but Corby wanted to explore them and right now, I wasn't opposed to anything.
Two fingers began to stroke another entrance with a gentle solution leading to forever change. "I want nothing more than every inch of you."
His teasing was intrusive and brought with it an element---just a small degree---of pain.
Swallowing hard, a genuine moan escaped my lips as his hand moved closer with daunting fingers promising to live up to any once-forbidden expectations. His mouth covered me again and the way he loved me with his fingers probing both entrances wasn't anything I could've expected or later explain.
Pleasuring a woman the way Corby demonstrated he could was something I considered a magnificent talent. The way he tried and tested the lengths to which I would go with him was what I suppose he thought must be a learned skill--- but heaven help me it wasn't an acquired taste to enjoy it. No, the man took us to a new kind of understanding. The one where love and lust separate and divide against the forces or ties that might one day bind.
His mouth never failed to give and his hands, Lord help me, his hands never quit moving us both closer to an explosive ending that only locked me to him permanently. I felt the moisture puddle and form as he lapped and licked every inch clean before my body supplied only more. He took me to the gates of ecstasy but then refused to let me go forward into fulfillment without him.
"Selfish lover." I teased him but didn't want to be teased.
"You know it." His hands and tongue promised but never fully delivered.
Grasping the sheets until my knuckles were white, I called out to him.
"Please. Finish me here! Let me find..."
"Pleasure?" He watched, oh sweet mercy how he looked on as he continued to finger fuck me with a steady beat programmed to undo the best of women
"Yes...so much pleasure."
"So much that you'll let me take you here?" Three fingers parted and met. Parted again and met once more. My ass fell into the giving strokes.
"Oh Corby, no...you can't. We can't..."
"Why baby? Tell me why." His eyes danced with mischief but a dark passion sealed his innermost feelings far enough away from me that I'm sure he felt protected.
He shouldn't have been so bold.
I knew he expected denial but to deny him would bring questions and I didn't have the answers since the element of pain and pressure mixed wonderfully with pleasure and release. I wanted to take it---all of it.
His lips played havoc on my hardened nipples. He took one in his mouth but his lips fell away as his teeth seemed to dominate and control the right amount of adoration---the perfect spice and stimulation.
My hips spread wider and to keep myself contained and willing, I bit down on my own forefinger hoping against every seed of passion that my child was safeguarded from the acts of a man loving a woman into another global experience.
"Let me feel you like no one else has." He raised himself over me and every inch of common sense I had, left me in two point eight seconds.
Before I protested, before I agreed, he flipped me over and raised my hips to meet him. His cock burned to the touch. I felt the heat and the slick moisture his precum provided. He seemed to move over, retrieve something, open a container, and return it all within a short little window of opportunity. Perhaps he feared he'd lose sight of the goal or end result he hoped to find. His finger ran over the seam of my ass with a cold moisture oozing right along with it.
"Sweet heaven." He sank in and he did it without warning or permission. He just moved past the point of entry into the position of total access.
"Hell's fury." My breath caught in my lungs. "You're so hard...harder than I remember." Of course it would feel differently because no other man had touched me there much less slid into my world --rearview.
Before I could adjust, he apologized for something I didn't immediately understand. "Oh baby, forgive me, please forgive me."
His hips gave, his thighs bunched and his muscles drove us to a place where no man takes his woman without a guaranteed lock for life. "That's it Cassie, give me what you want, let me take you, let me have you---always."
His hand cupped my pussy with a hard caress one minute and a thrust inside the next. Corby made an art out of finger fucking my cunt while his dick buried deeper inside my ass. To say he delivered good sex would've been sorely wrong---he mastered a whole new way of doing it to perfection and he made sure he inspired every nerve ending. .
"You feel so good, Cassie, so perfect for me." He used some level of force and displaced passion yet I knew I had to have him and all of his fury in order to feel the true impact of this wild ride and sexy new experience.
"Corby!" I screamed as my juices not only threatened but spilled.
"More!"
"Yes more, baby. So much more." His hands secured my hips and he pushed and caressed his cock into a tight space of intimate security.
One stroke, two, three, four....quick thumps and faster paces took me to another realm of ecstasy. Whatever source of pleasure he found, he tapped until I was blinded by it all. "Corby! Now!" My ass only rose higher to him.
My back arched while my head dropped forward and I moved...God, how I moved... for him, with him, to him, against him.
"Yes, more." I whispered out in exasperation as my building climax finally took me with a new wave of gratification. Ripples...ahh yeah, I felt them as the tides mixed with waves of the unfamiliar and unrehearsed groans and moans passed over my lips.
"That's it Cassie. Damn you, woman! Don't move. Hold still." His hands clamped tightly to my thighs and he smothered out his own building orgasm by meeting it with a cry of emotion. "That's it, sweet baby! Sweet, sweet Cassie. Hold on baby, just a little more. I've gotcha baby. It's all right. Now---everything is good again."
He had me and he held me right where he wanted for an all out thrashing romp. It wasn't slow and tender or sweet and giving. We fucked until I swear I almost blacked out from pure satisfaction.
After his growls subsided, he slowly withdrew from me and that's when the promises came. He didn't waste any time and his tone guaranteed the inevitable. He wanted his assurances to be met with a rebuttal, one that pledged equal satisfaction.
I stared straight up at the ceiling. "Wow."
I'd never felt or lived through such an intense orgasm and in that moment, realized without a doubt, I never would again, not even with Steve.
Corby worked hard to give me something new and adventurous. I had to hand it to him. He knew how to keep his woman in check.
He clasped his hand in mine for a split second but quickly rolled over to stare down on me. "Are you okay?"
"I'm perfect."
"You're right, you are." His eyes drifted over me with a leisurely glare.
"You're simply flawless."
Giggling, I remembered the little one. "I won't be flawless for long."
A solemn look washed over his face but as quickly as his eyes told one story, his mouth moved into another one altogether. "I love you Cassie. We have to make our marriage work." He stroked my hair away from a sweaty brow. "If I didn't have you waiting for me at home, playing football would be for nothing. It would mean nothing if I didn't have you here waiting for me. You're my family. No one else baby---only you."
Smiling back at him, I told him what he wanted to hear. "I know Corby, I know. Only me." And I did know. In my heart of hearts, I recognized the meaning behind the syllables spoken. The baby wasn't his. He knew it and he didn't care. He had what he wanted and all he ever needed ...in me.
The next morning, rewards ran rampant. I woke up to breakfast in bed and soon after Corby served up a refill of coffee, he wanted more of the same. A repeater of the night before really wasn't what I had in mind with my ass burning as a continual reminder of the abuse my body handled with inappropriate acts.
Blushing, I made the confession. "Corby, I'm not sure I can do that anymore."
"Why not? Didn't you like it?" His tongue licked his swollen bottom lip. "I think you loved it---maybe even too much." He moved closer and removed the breakfast tray from the bed as he did.
He smelled all manly with a fresh scent of soap combined with aftershave. My stomach immediately reminded me of the flaws found in early pregnancy. I wanted to hurl. I guess it showed.
"Honey, are you okay? You're pale."
"No. I'm not. I need rest."
Corby slid in beside me. "Okay, get some sleep. I'll be back before three and we'll pick up where we left off."
Without another concern or care in the world, Corby kissed my head and left the room. I guess if I didn't want to give it up for a quick morning romp, there were better things he could do with his time. I had better ideas for mine too but of course, acting out on them wouldn't be possible with sleep taking me into the throes of dreams and a churning stomach determined to keep me in the bed for a few hours more.
The phone rang and rang and rang. I slipped back into a deep sleep but I heard it chiming in the distance. Earlier in the day, I managed to get up and
take a hot bath but even though it soothed my aching body, it didn't stop the nausea so the bed lured me back without any effort.
"Hello?"
"Are you asleep?" Suzy's chipper-happy voice came pouring through the receiver.
"Yes. Well, at least I thought I might have been before some persistent woman refused to let me take a nap."
Suzy brushed me off. "Oh don't even bother. I happen to know that you have been in the bed all day. I peeked in on you earlier."
"You did?" I didn't like the idea of someone checking in on me while I slept.
"Yes ma'am, I did. Corby asked me to check on you."
"How'd you get in?" I wanted to know. It irked the hell out of me that Suzy came and went in my house without a second thought. Something I quickly decided wouldn't have bothered me if it wasn't for the pregnancy emotions getting the best of me.
"I have a key." She informed with an all-too-smug tone.
A key. But of course she does. I didn't know why but suddenly a twinge of jealousy hit me square in the face.
She went on about her reason for calling. "So, are you going to the game tomorrow?"
"Shit, I forgot all about it. Pre-season opens tomorrow."
"You forgot about it?" Suzy seemed appalled. "Tell me something Cassie, do you and Corby talk at all now or do you just fuck and tell your friends you don't?"
"What?" I couldn't believe my ears.
"Well, from the evidence I saw in your room, you had a helluva night last night. I'm glad to know you're getting fucked by your husband because that makes my life easier."
"How's that exactly?" I sat up in the bed and listened closely.
Suzy didn't miss a beat, or a chance to get involved in a relationship where she wasn't welcome as an invited guest or otherwise. "Look hon, I don't care what you and Corby do in the bedroom. The thing is, when you aren't doing him, you are making my life tough because I have to put up with your 'I haven't been fucked in this century' attitude." She took a dramatic breath and then continued, "And then of course, Corby doesn't come off as an arrogant ass at practice which makes Mark's life easier too."
Typically, I didn't cross Suzy. We were friends because I didn't buck her. The truth was, if we had been married to anyone else and I casually met her in another lifetime, I wouldn't have been particularly fond of her.
"Suzy, my sex life isn't any of your business and it damn sure doesn't belong in the locker room of the Dallas Rascals."
She snorted out her laughter. "Then baby girl, learn from my mistakes.
Don't air out your dirty laundry with a brazen affair and if you have to screw around, keep it behind closed doors."
Silence separated girl chatter for a second or two and then she continued. "And Cassie, if you have to close the doors with Steve behind them again, you damn sure better make certain Corby isn't closing them with another woman. I have a feeling he's running out of patience with you."
My heart suddenly hurt. Maybe it was a panic attack. I wasn't sure and to make matters worse, after the connection Corby and I just reestablished, I didn't want to think about where we'd been before we were able to put our differences aside. Then there was the power of suggestion and Corby made enough of them in one delicious statement. He was willing to share me and I understood how a man like Corby shared---with a steady hand shaping the whole allotment of divine time.
The trouble with my truths as they slapped me across the face once more happened to be a realization that ran deep---I still wanted them both. I wanted to love them both. I wanted to want them both and yes, I wanted to fuck them both. What a hell of a life I'd created for myself and those I loved.
I stood in the kitchen in my own daze. Not only did my body provide a continual reminder of what happened the night before, but the looks Corby shot my way more than ensured there would be more of the same. We were back to normal and Suzy and Mark noted it as I placed the hamburger trimmings and condiments on the kitchen counter.
Corby stepped inside with a tray of burgers in his hands. "Gorgeous woman." His eyes twinkled and his lips curved into a seductive, if not appreciative smile.
"Hunk of a man." Suzy batted her eyes and flirted openly with my husband.
Mark laughed. "I swear man, I'd kill you if you weren't my best friend."
He swatted Suzy on the ass. "Behave yourself."
Suzy twisted her little ass around the kitchen like she so ultimately belonged there as much as I did. "I will," She teased back before whispering in my ear, "If you will."
I turned around to steal a good look at her face. Sure enough, the evidence of alcohol existed in her eyes. I let her taunting pass. She could drink herself into another world but she wasn't going to tug me there with her.
Mark pulled out a chair for both of us as we all sat down for dinner and he immediately looked from Corby to me and back to Corby again. "It's good to see you both looking so great again."
Suzy took a sip of wine and then noted the obvious. "Yeah babe, it's amazing what a little sex will do for a man."
Mark rolled his eyes and I caught it. "Oh I don't know baby," he began to slur in mockery of his wife, "sometimes living without it is better than living with it. Just depends on the partner I guess." His eyes quickly drifted over to me and he ran a slow tongue over his bottom lip. "What do you think Mrs. Teller?"
Corby shot him a warning. "You and Suzy behave. This conversation is off limits at the dinner table."
So the real truth begins to unravel. Suzy's happily ever after with Mark must've hit a snag. It was something I wouldn't know anything about since the three of them ran around town now without me.
One thing I learned early on, Mark didn't take a lot of shit off of his wife. After a few glares and stares, Suzy made the mistake of opening her mouth.
"So you had a good night last night, hmm?" She looked at Corby with nothing more than pure lust in her eyes. I should've kicked her out of my house or at least asked her if she wanted to fuck him now or later.
Corby took a bite of his burger and after a chew or two, he swallowed and took a gulp of his beer. "Not bad, Suzy. How was your night?"
Throwing her head back over the chair, she laughed out loud. "Probably not near as exciting as yours." Her eyes darkened and her lips formed a smile most women would recognize.
She had something over on Corby and he damn near choked on it. He squirmed in his chair and a first bead of sweat bubbled on his forehead.
She should've shut up while she had a good piece of meat to place between her pouty lips but she didn't. "Why don't you two lovebirds just spill all of your dirty little secrets."
Mark became agitated on command. "Suzy's rubber man lost his dick in the move so she's not having a good week. You two just ignore her. She'll sober up by morning."
Corby almost sprayed his beer forward and had to get up from the table to keep from losing it. I snickered and Suzy's eyes met mine. She reached for the bottle of wine and poured herself another glass.
"What's so funny Corby?" She directed her question to him but held me in her gaze.
Corby grabbed a paper towel and sat back down wiping at his mouth.
"The rubber man thing always gets my attention. Sorry, I just don't see the thrill."
Smugly, Mark sat back in his chair with his arms crossed. "I didn't either. It's a sad day when a rubber doll with a shaft smaller than mine gets more rides than the real thing. So I fixed the problem."
I felt my face heat as the embarrassment flooded over me. I really didn't want the true visual but I imagined we were getting pulled into the privacy of Suzy and Mark's matrimonial bedroom whether we wanted to be there or not.
Corby nearly foamed at the mouth. Sometimes, depending on his mood, he really liked to poke fun at his best friend's wife. "So, hmmm..." he chuckled and his eyes twinkled with amusement, "how did you resolve this issue?" He stood up again and started to clear the plates from the table.
Mark cleared his throat and Suzy beat him to the punch line.
"He took a damn ax to it and whacked it off!" She wasn't happy about it. She stood up in a huff.
We all roared with laughter---with the exception of one. The one who seemed clearly distraught that she wouldn't be riding a rubber cock into ecstasy anytime soon wasn't amused in the least.
"Don't worry baby, I ordered you another one." His eyes danced as he gave her the news. "Hell, I should've ordered you three or four of those guys because after all, you prefer all different shapes and sizes. Isn't that right?"
Corby held up his hand. "Okay, you two. It's over. Not here. Not now.
Not ever. Cassie and I don't want in this. Keep it at your place." He nodded at me and then reached his hand out for me. "Come on baby, let's go for a swim."
It didn't sound like a bad idea---at least, not at first.
By the time Suzy and Mark joined us in the pool, she was toast. She really would've served herself well to go home and well, stay there for as long as it took to sober up but I didn't see it happening.
"Whelp, she sure as hell didn't lose her figure." She teetered over to the side of the pool, kicked off her high heels and then threw down her wine glass. Shards of destruction shattered to the concrete before she turned her ass around and then plopped it right down in the water like there might have been a chair there waiting for her.
"Holy shit!" Mark shook his head and nodded to Corby. "Get her out of there"
Suzy resurfaced with a bleeding hand high above her hand. She waved her palm around in front of her face like she didn't understand. "Well how in the fuck did that happen?"
"Come on lovely one, let's get you out of here." Corby's tone held but I could see the smoke and fire in his eyes. It seemed rather misplaced but existed all the same.
Suzy tilted her head and cocked an eyebrow in his direction before tossing her head away from me. "Do you really think so, Corby?" Slurred words purred from her tainted lips.
"I think so. Yeah, I think so. Mark does too." He held her around the waist and began to slowly pull her out of the water.
She enjoyed it. In fact, she liked it far more than she should have, I thought.
Corby held onto her from behind and Suzy rested her head on his chest as he inched her toward the shallow end of the pool. Suddenly, it seemed as if they were the only two people there and frankly, Corby was lucky Mark didn't just kill him. .
Suzy, on more than one occasion, tried hard to divulge her truths about my husband. Mark won her hand because he was the consolation prize, not the front runner. The man Suzy wanted happened to be the one in my bed. I always understood it, to an extent but for some reason, I'm not sure Mark caught on as quickly as I did or perhaps he didn't care. Mark was quite a catch and most women considered him sexy-hot but Corby was a dream.
There were differences in appearances but with Mark's ego, I doubt he ever noticed them.
In order to move Suzy to the side where the steps would make it easier to help the drunk and delusional woman out of the pool, Corby had to move about twenty steps. If they were agony for me---and they were because for some unexplainable reason, I was suddenly jealous---it's safe to say the steps Corby took played hell on Mark. Suzy made sure of it.
"You know, I wanted you. I wanted you first." Her confession fell on deaf ears. Corby didn't give a damn. I saw the blank I-don't-give-a-shit expression. He didn't. He had me and I felt secure in my position as his wife and after the night we had, I didn't worry about anything or anyone. Still, her actions pissed me off enough for the green-eyed monster to appear in the form of envy. Corby should've been smart enough to see her motives too.
He wasn't. It must've been a man thing---male ignorance is the most blissful of all stupidity when a man has one beautiful woman trying to make another woman jealous.
"I loved you and you were going to love me too..." She drawled as Corby quickly tried to hand her off to Mark. His first and second attempts were anything but successful as she deliberately fought the exchange with childish acts of splashing water and a pure act of drunkenness.
Mark didn't turn the other cheek then. "Suzy, damn you, shut the fuck up!" He screamed from the side and since he seldom blatantly yelled at her, Corby and I looked at one another in shock.
I must admit, I was floored. I was stunned by Suzy's love-spill and dumb-founded by Mark's reaction but it went from good to better or maybe the more appropriate explanation---from bad to hell.
"Oh she didn't know." Mark's sarcasm targeted Corby's ears. "You two didn't tell her." He shook his head. "Unbelievable. Fucking unbelievable."
Tell me what? I wondered but kept quiet. I felt confident everyone would spill their guts now anyway. See, I had a theory concerning this crowd and practiced it all the time with the PFC players and their wives. In the circles where we existed, there's always somebody doing somebody's wife or husband or girlfriend or sister. Around here, if you hand someone enough rope, not only do they hang themselves but they make sure everyone, and I do mean everyone, sticks around long enough to watch them swing.
It's like a soap opera really. I decided a long time ago to stay out of private affairs of the heart. Only, the way Mark, Suzy, and Corby exchanged fiery glances, it seemed as if they might have a horrible secret. It was potentially one that ultimately tied us all together in more ways than I imagined.
Suzy continued to whine one minute and flirt the next. "Mark, don't start this now. Cassie's pregnant or did you forget that?" She laughed with an almost sickening bellow. "Oh but you couldn't forget that could you?
No! Heaven's no. It's my fault the little tramp ended up knocked up in the first place."
My mouth dropped.
"That's enough," Corby began again with his warning, "Stop it now, Suzy."
I felt like she took her best shot and then empowered it with a hand grenade before she tossed it forward. Immediately I felt the hard blow right in the gut.
Mark reached for her once more and Corby handed her off this time without much effort. She became a limp dishrag on command but yet her right arm remained fastened around my husband's neck.
She cooed into his ear but loud enough for all of us to hear. "She takes it up the ass for you doesn't she Corby? Does she baby?"
Corby shot me an apologetic glance. I still kept a tight upper lip even though my tongue was dying to retaliate with enough venom to spray around some of the poison my dear friend seemed to like so well. After all, I had the gossip to go on and I had a few distorted facts. Somewhere in between, the opportunity to dish dirt dwelled there, and it looked pretty damn inviting.
Mark suddenly yanked her completely out of the pool. "We're going home." He grabbed a towel and then glared at me. "Cassie, I'm sorry you had to find out like this."
It proved to be the straw that invaded the kangaroo's pouch. I didn't care if I was pregnant and needed to stay calm. Over the last few weeks, I'd walked through hell and back and paid a hefty price. If they had their secrets, then I wanted to know about them.
I swam to the side and without a word, hoisted myself up to the concrete. Then I faced off with them. I really felt like it was going to be three against one. Corby didn't wait in the water. He quickly jumped out and ran over to the side where we all stood ready for a confrontation.
"There's something going on here and I want to know what it is. We're all friends here but if there are going to be a lot of secrets and whispers behind my back, I see no reason for me to remain in the dark about this thing you and Corby seem to have or may have had." I spoke to Suzy but locked stares with Mark.
Suzy's eyes seemed to plead with her husband then. She had a miraculous sobering moment. "I don't feel so well. I think we need to go."
She wrapped her arm around Mark's waist and cocked her head in my direction.
"No you don't feel well," I began, "You haven't felt well for quite some time and I'm pretty certain you have a very bad drinking problem but that's not what I'm asking about or concerned with right now. I want to know...."
"You want to know something that you don't have the right to know."
Mark cut me off with a flash of ice running over his glassy eyes. "The issue at hand involves something that happened before Corby knew you or Suzy married me. It's not going to be discussed." He moved by me with Suzy in tow grinning from ear to ear.
She thought she'd won.
I turned around on my heels and fired back at them. "That's fine Mark but tell your wife that I'll have the locks changed because I don't think it's fair for an ex-lover of my husband's to come in and prowl around whenever she wants."
Mark, always the defender of poor little Suzy, turned around slowly.
Her eyes condescendingly draped over me on a dare.
Corby stepped up to stop me. "Ladies, now come on. Too many hormones are kicking in and the booze is clouding your better judgment now, Suzy."
"She has a key?" Mark asked.
"How the hell do you think she knows I took it up the ass last night?"
My chin gave way to a peculiar expression. I know because I'd practiced the precise look of take-that for quite some time. I did some really strange things to entertain myself since I wasn't invited out with the rest of the gang now.
Mark's hand instinctively ran over the front of his pants. "Holy hell man."
"Guess you like the idea too." I quipped.
I felt Corby stiffen beside me. "That's enough, Cassie.
"No baby, it's not enough. I'm just getting started. You gave her a key without so much as telling me and I want to know why."
Suzy smirked. "Are you jealous?"
My eyes drifted over her in a sweep that would've heated hell's fury.
"Hardly."
She glanced back at Mark and then Corby. "I didn't spy on them if that's what you think." She finally said to Mark.
"Really?" I chuckled. "Well, then darlin, how did you know what went on in my bedroom last night?"
The exchange of glances between Corby and Suzy told quite a tale. One that I wouldn't forgive or forget and heaven help Suzy because the reality that Mark faced was one that truly flashed signs of a betrayal he'd never accept.
"You bastard!" I screamed in his face once more. "You fucking prick!" I marched to one side of the bedroom and yanked a suitcase out of the walk-in storage space before crossing the room to my closet.
Ten or twelve hangers in one hand held clothes that would be packed just as-is. Hangers holding the garments and plastic covering each piece were shoved into travel-ready Vera Bradley bags. "You are nothing more than a true son-of-a-bitch."
"Watch it Cassie." He sat on the bed with his hands on his thighs and a look of death shadowing his face.
I kept bringing clothes and shoes and handbags out of the closet. First one suitcase was packed and then another and then another.
"You have some double standards. Really, you do." I walked over to the bedside table and then walked back over to where he stood to show him I retrieved his little tube of lube. "Here, you may find that Suzy will bend over for you just as easily. Hell, now that she can't fuck her life-size toys, she may have a need for a half-cocked man."
I felt confident my insult would burn him because it remained an ever-present issue for him since he found out about Steve and he'd admitted it several times. He claimed my betrayal made it difficult for him to find an erection given the anxiety he had when he discovered the truth about my affair. He didn't have noticeable problems the night before. The minute I remembered the evening, I ached because of the memory and the physical reminder.
"Does Mark know about this?"
He nodded.
I swallowed hard. "Then you're fucked." I continued to pack my clothes.
"Cassie, please don't go. I can explain everything."
"How do you explain screwing your best friend's wife?"
He continued to stare at the floor but when the accusation slipped from my mouth, he immediately stared back at me. "I didn't fuck her. I haven't been with Suzy since I met you."
"Oh, that's nice, that's just beautiful. You were with her before you knew me but somehow you forgot to mention it until now---now when you think it will help save you, then you can tell me your version of a new truth." I tossed a few more items into a Vera Bradley tote shaking my head in disbelief.
"The truth is I don't know how she knew about the anal sex thing."
"Bull shit! You do know. I saw you. I saw both of you look at each other with knowing eyes and you have less than ten seconds to tell me why and how."
"She was here." He admitted.
So much for time limits. He confessed immediately.
"I guess." He quickly added.
So which was it, an accusation or estimation?
"I got that part you arrogant piece of shit." Actually, I felt a surge of relief. I really thought maybe he told her all about our private affairs during pillow talk.
"Well then why are you so upset?" His eyes gave nothing away and that's when it hit me.
"Oh no you didn't..." I was enraged. I began zipping the bags and throwing them on the floor. "Wait a minute---you knew? You invited her here?"
He looked back down at his hands.
"You bastard!" I lost it. I ran over to him and started to hit him with my fists. I was completely out of control. "What are you doing to us? Why would you do this to us?"
He stared hard at my stomach.
I shook my head as the tears fell. I walked over to the phone quickly and dialed the driver Corby recently employed. "I need to go to the airport.
Now! I don't give a damn what he wants. Get over here." I slammed the phone down. "If you try to stop me, I'll give the media the juiciest piece of gossip they've ever had. I promise you. I'll destroy us all without a second
thought and Corby, make no mistake about it---after what you've done, I'll do it with a smile."
By the time I rented a car at the airport, it was after midnight. I called Steve from a pay phone right outside of Dallas. I told him where to meet me and he agreed to be there within the next day or so. It took eight hours to drive into Memphis. I felt like it would be an excellent place to meet and almost a halfway point for both of us.
I drove all night and pulled into The Peabody Hotel at eight o'clock Memphis time. I had my choice of suites. Money wasn't a problem but I knew when Corby and his possy began to look for me, they'd expect to find me in the best. I decided against the Presidential Suite but didn't give up luxury entirely. The loft suites dubbed the Romeo and Juliet seemed all too appealing to turn down. Besides, I checked in under an alias. No one would suspect anything at all.
The call didn't come in until about ten o'clock that night. I'd slept most of the day and had time to dress up for my reunion with Steve. I wanted to rediscover him with a renewed impression.
After the call, it took him ten minutes to find his way back to me. They were the longest six hundred seconds of my life. When the knock came, I just stared at the door in disbelief.
He's here.
I couldn't believe it. I needed him more than I'd ever longed for anyone or anything in my life. More than sex or drawing breath, more than life or food or any other basic need, I simply required him. I needed him because he was and always would be my addiction.
Another knock rang out against the door. This time it was a bit harder and still, I couldn't move. Three months passed without so much as a word from Steve and now I was paralyzed. I realized the only thing separating us was my inability to answer the door.
"Cass, open up baby." His voice proved what I already suspected. He forgave me for the parting words he heard me say when I was in Cincinnati.
Corby forced me to send Steve away then and Steve never heard me when I told him Corby was the love of my life. He didn't hear me because it wasn't the truth. The acknowledgement of a love for a man I married in front of the only love I'd ever really known may have slipped from my mouth only to fall on deaf ears.
"Steve." I whispered the words and moved closer one step at a time.
"Cassie? Are you in there? Are you all right?" He knocked again.
"I am." I whispered the words again. "I'm all right now -- just now that you're with me." Quiet syllables continued to drift from my lungs, precious thoughts spoken that he would never hear. I touched the door with my palm and the first tear fell to my cheek. My face was moist. Maybe it prepared itself for more of the same since my heart struggled against all of the emotions I kept locked away. Steve held the only combination to my heart and he was there ready to take care of me.
I opened the door sighing with relief once I saw him. His natural blond hair and sweet dimples were as perfect as I remembered them.
He moved by me quickly. We'd been to this place before. The sneaking around and the hotel cameras allowed for bought employees and the media circus. It couldn't happen this time. We both knew what was at risk.
I slammed the door behind him and locked it quickly. My back stayed to him for a minute longer.
"Turn around Cassie." He spoke to me in a tone I recognized. Soothing, careful, lust-ridden, love inspired.
I looked down at my belly and noticed that it finally had a little pooch to it. I wiped away a few tears. The little one wants to meet his or her daddy. I smiled wider with the thought.
Suddenly, I became aware of another truth and with it came the declaration. "I haven't been touched by true love since the last time we were together." The tears begin to stain my cheeks and I slowly turned to face him. Sure, Corby touched me---once. It wasn't with tenderness and love but with passion and need as well as possession and while I thought some love existed there, it was all for show, a sexual performance one twisted bitch watched and witnessed. "Everything is so screwed up right now." I whispered.
Steve's expression proved timeless as well as priceless as he gently reached for me. His love for me stood on a solid foundation and it never came with conditions. "Because the baby is mine."
He touched my hair. "Because you're mine." He nodded his affirmation.
"Cassie. I'm going to lose it right here. I've missed you so much." He looked down on my belly before he dropped to his knees in front of me.
Tears took over and consumed us both. "Oh God, Cassie, how I love you, how I always love only you." He rubbed his face and cheek over my stomach and he wept.
I remembered another time when his tears fell freely. When his mother passed away, he found comfort and solace in me. Looking back now, it was another time and place when Steve and I should've recognized how much we belonged together because of how much we shared. My love for his mother was as real as his. She'd been like a mom to me.
My hand moved into his hair massaging his scalp just enjoying the feel of him under my touch. "Steve, I've missed you..."
"Shh...shh now." His ear went to my stomach and pressed. "Everything is going to be okay now. I'm here. I'm here now." One palm stayed on my stomach while the other went to my lower back and held on tight.
His words were so softly spoken that I wasn't sure if he wanted our baby to hear them or me. I smiled through the tears as I looked beyond the ones filling his sea-blue eyes.
His hands moved all around my stomach. It was the most intimate moments I'd ever experienced with any other person outside of a sexual encounter. He seemed to treasure every motion, every solitary second he spent loving me with his caresses.
He took my hand and led me to the sofa. His smile tried to run interference with the tears. He casually looked around at our accommodations. "So much for trying to keep a low profile." He shrugged.
"I guess you don't care if he finds you now?"
"No. I don't want him to find me right away but he will come for me."
"Then we should be staying in a lower-end room. Where I'm from, they call them standard rooms." He laughed before running his hands over wet eyes.
Our hands and fingers locked, entwined. For us, it was second nature.
"Come here and let me see you."
"Steve." I objected by tone alone.
"Don't you dare Steve me. I want to see the perfection in imperfection."
His face spread into a wide look of approving love. The one I think I always knew I would find when I found him again. "Since you pride yourself on a great body, I can't wait to see a little pooch and know it's because I helped you achieve it."
I watched him carefully for several seconds before his smile turned into a knowing smirk.
"It's not funny!" I exclaimed. "This kid is going to ruin my body." I teased but then my voice lowered, "Steve, I didn't show at all. Not at all, until now." Swallowing hard, the truth nearly knocked me over when I saw the tiny expression of pregnancy.. "You think it's ugly?"
"Not a chance." He slowly lifted my shirt over my stomach. His hands propelled over me with calculated moves. Rotating circles around the skin before planting kisses here or there. "Oh baby. My beautiful Cassie." He stood up in front of me and took my head in between his hands. "I have to have some time with you. Time to just..."
"I know. I know." I felt the same way.
"It's mine. Tell me you know this baby is mine." He pleaded with me through still eyes more than words.
I swallowed and fought back another runaway train of tears. Slowly, I shook my head in denial but then I stopped. There were already too many lies and too much time lost. Too many lives were altered because of me and because of Steve and our choices. Now, this baby would change everything.
I slowly began to nod in confirmation because yes, the child I carried was Steve's baby as much as mine.
"You don't know but you think so." He waited. "Or you know?"
"I'm ninety-nine percent sure. It appears, after months of testing, that Corby can't father a child." I gave him what he needed to hear what I only just discovered when I left for the airport. Suzy called me with a parting gift just to let me know some of the things she'd openly discussed with myhusband.
"Oh baby. Sweet, sweet baby." His eyes locked with mine and we kissed. It wasn't a kiss full of the age old passion we always had but something else. Love like I'd never known before weaved its way through one emotional meeting of mouths. In one kiss, it went from the love we'd always shared to the most unbreakable bond two people ever experienced.
Sure, I always believed we owned it but now everything in our world seemed so different.
"I'm breaking my vows and betraying him again." I whispered.
His fingertips pressed against my lips. "The only person you ever betrayed was yourself---and maybe me." I watched his Adam's apple tighten and then release. A darkness came into his eyes and then his tone changed.
"Look at me Cassie."
I did. I typically did what Steve told me to do. It never occurred to me to do anything else.
A firm voice hit a new pitch of anger. "Don't ever talk to me about your vows. Not now and not ever. You didn't break your marriage vows because you didn't make the promises Corby wanted you to make in the first place.
The wedding vows you took, the pledge you made in that chapel wasn't from your heart. They were his words and only what he wanted to hear.
Your heart has always been in another place. It's always belonged with me."
His lips parted mine with his tongue swiftly in place to swipe away any worries from my mind. "Steve..."
"What is it baby?" His hand went to my neck to stroke back a piece or two of stray hairs from my skin.
"I love you."
"I know you do." He patted my hair down like he would pet Mandy's mutt. I ignored it and pushed the woman far away from my mind. I felt like it was the least I could do if I planned on fucking her husband.
I had every intention.
He kissed me again. Pressing in with leisurely strokes of tongue, I thought dying from need seemed possible. "I've missed you." I sipped the words back for as long as I could but they slipped from my mouth into his.
"Not as much as I've missed you." He sat down again pulling me to him.
"I'm going to love you into tomorrow because I know he's coming for you. I know he'll take you away from me again." His gentle fingers smoothed back my tears. Yes, they fell again. Maybe the truth drew them out. It seemed like a possibility.
I started to protest but the truth slapped me in the face. He might have a point. Corby could come in and promise me the world and maybe I'd go.
Maybe I'd stay. I loved them both enough to swing the pendulum either way. I reminded myself of the betrayal and shoved it out of the moment. It didn't have a place in this relationship. Only us, Steve and Cassie---without the Mandy and Corby elements around to screw things up again.
"I'm so tired, Steve. So, so tired." I rested my head on his shoulder and his arm draped leisurely over mine. "I needed to get here and be with you and when I arrived I was so exhausted but anxious too." I wanted to hold him but my body wasn't going to let me stay aware of it for long. I was going to fall asleep and rest better than I ever had in my entire life.
"Then go to sleep, baby. I'm here. We've got all week. I'm going to be here with you until you're ready to go home or ready to go back to him.
Whichever way it ends up, we don't have to think about it tonight. Right now, rest. Tomorrow will be here and we'll make the most of it then."
The room filled with the smell of coffee. I almost forgot all about where I was or who was there with me. I called out to him in my mind but I didn't have to want for him long. He slid in beside of me and with all the love I remembered, cradled me with accepting arms.
"You're awake?" His hard-on pressed into my leg.
"You know it." I whispered out before turning over to face him. Slowly I opened my eyes to stare into the most beautiful sea of blue waters a man possibly claimed for eyes.
"Good." His hands went to my breasts and slowly began to massage.
That's when I realized I didn't have a stitch of clothing on. "I see you still like to undress me when I'm dead to the world."
"I'm not going to apologize for watching you sleep all night. I'm certainly not going to say I'm sorry for wanting to see the woman I love sleep naked with my child inside kicking up a storm."
I felt the smile spread across my lips. "You did, did ya?"
His hand went to my belly and rubbed in tenderness. "I did."
"I think you're seeing things." I knew how an active imagination ran wild. Right now, I only saw a knight and shining prince. My prince.
"No, not a chance, this kid is an active little one. You said you were tired and I believe it because that child didn't stop from around four am until around six. You snored right through it." His bottom lip suddenly moistened. Sex definitely empowered the man's dirty mind. He all but gave away his thoughts with the sexy gaze and his moist mouth waiting for more me.
I stared up at him. "I've missed you and all of your humor." In case he really was unaware of the obvious, I informed him too, "Your kid is a lot of things but not super-baby and he isn't kicking yet.
"He?"
"Yeah. I think it's going to be a boy because that's my luck. I need another man around to drive me nuts."
His fingers drifted over my stomach. "I love you."
"I've missed you." I told him again.
"You said that already. Now, it's time to come on over here and show me how much?" He really wasn't suggesting as much as asking.
I knew he probably worried that sex might be out of the question given the current state of my slightly plump belly.
"I can't wait." I closed my eyes and moaned with the thought. It had been too long. So many sleepless nights left me wanting for a man I couldn't have and yet willing to take the one I should've had. Only Corby didn't offer until he gave one night of unforgettable, earth shattering sex, a night that would forever be etched in another woman's mind as much as my own.
They both should've been imprisoned for such an act.
"Can we?" His hands moved over me with precise placement.
Squeezing my nipples with thumbs and forefingers before rolling them both in some kind of tempo, he peered over at me. "Can I?"
"Don't waste a second doing it." I moaned against his skin.
"Baby, not to worry. I know what I'm doing."
"Do you ever." I pushed my head deeper into the pillow and closed my eyes. It wasn't just the familiarity that made relaxing into Steve's arms possible but it was also comforting to know I found my way back to my heart's home. Steve's hands started their magic. It easily compared to a sexual healing, an experience that I felt sure only Steve's body had the ability to do for me.
And then the world I knew spun out of control and darkness consumed me.
I'd been in a similar place so I knew where I was even before I opened my eyes. There's something about the smell of hospitals that kind of jar a gal like me into a state of shock and awareness. I discovered, on my last trip, that I really didn't fit in among those typically found in hospitals. For starters, I didn't like the needles and I certainly didn't like the confinement of a hospital bed. Then there was the fact that I typically didn't have a clue how or why I ended up there in the first place.
I rolled over to the side of the bed and my hand instinctively fell to my stomach. I felt different and panic set in quickly. My eyes flew open with the sudden fear striking a chord of destruction violently against my chest.
"Steve?" He was there with my hand in his and his lips were covering my knuckles.
"Rest, Cass. Just rest." He didn't look at me.
"The baby?"
He kissed my hand again and I felt someone else in the room with us. I turned my head slightly to the other side and there was Corby. He stood at the window with his face full of tortured regret. Sorrow and pain consumed a man who undoubtedly loved me even though I wasn't sure I wanted it.
"Steve?" I turned back to look at him once more. "What happened?
Why is Corby here?"
His head was bowed but he slowly raised his eyes to look at me. Dark circles were embedded there. "Cass..." Tears stained his cheeks but he couldn't say it. Whatever he needed to say, wasn't something he wanted to tell me and I instantly understood. I already grasped the concept. My body was one again. Nothing more than the whole of one person, my baby was gone.
His dry lips returned to my hand and they melded to my skin. "I'm so sorry, baby."
I snatched my hand from his and glared at the ceiling. "Get out." I snapped the words so violently that both men moved closer with their worried brows gathering the concept more than their minds. I didn't want either of them for comfort because they both were reminders of the pain.
"Cass..."
"Cassie, Steve can stay with you. I'll leave." Corby offered.
"No!" I looked from one man to the other. "I want you both out!"
The monitors began to hum with an irritating buzz and I felt like I was going to have a heart-attack right there.
"Get...the...hell out. I want you out and I never want to see either one of you again!" I wasn't angry at either of them but I was mad as hell for reasons I didn't have to deal with right then.
A couple of nurses came in quickly with what I presumed was a sedative. "I want them out!"
One of the RNs there began to insist too as she politely placed a hand on Steve's shoulder. "She needs her rest. She lost a lot of blood. We must insist that you wait in the lobby."
I heard Steve's voice first. "I'll be right outside the door. "
"If she needs anything at all, let me know." Corby added.
A nurse removed the cap from the IV tube and began to inject the medication. I looked at her but I don't recall seeing her, not really. Right then, I only had one question I wanted answered.
"Why? Tell me why!" I shouted out in agony and one of the nurses quickly tried to console me as much as her professionalism seemed to allow.
She placed a gentle hand on my forearm. "Mrs. Teller, your doctor will be able to answer your questions better. Right now, it's important for you to rest."
"Rest?" I remember my eyes began to droop then. "I want to die!"
And I did. I wanted to die and never come back to life. I wanted to live with my unborn child and find him or her in a land where it didn't matter who loved who or who belonged where. I wanted to see his little face or her little fingers and know that one pure love was most definitely unconditional---the love a mother holds for her child. The child I was never going to have.
Corby returned to Texas because he didn't have a choice. One of the pitfalls of being a professional football player was in the way the PFC
controlled a man's life---even when his family needed him most. Lucky for him, I didn't need him. I had Steve.
After nearly two weeks in the hospital---because Corby insisted and paid enough to ensure it happened---Steve and I returned to the suite at The Peabody and it was there when I realized I was going to remain in Memphis until I was completely healed.
Once Steve helped me into bed, he sat down next to me and my gaze began to drift around the room. I saw the evidence everywhere. My lingerie was on the chair. Corby's sweatshirt was on the sofa. Steve's luggage was in the corner. I tried to understand, really comprehend what I'd missed as I studied the 'Property of Dallas Rascals' outerwear.
"Corby was here?"
"Yes. He's been staying here too when he isn't on the road. We've tried to take turns at the hospital."
"I don't understand."
Steve took a deep breath and then he went to the wet bar and poured himself a drink. "Maybe not but I do."
I had a lot of questions and Steve had every one of the answers and since he did, he didn't wait for me to start asking them.
"Cassie, we need to talk." Steve watched me from across the room.
"I think it would be better if we don't talk about the baby." I felt incapable of talking about the loss because right now, there were few tears left to cry. I'd released enough of them over the last few weeks.
He quickly turned his back to me and refilled his drink. I understood.
Steve wasn't ready to grieve our loss together. We'd talked about it briefly at the hospital and it was unbearable. Discussing it again wouldn't serve any
practical purpose. After a few sips of a strong, straight-up liquor, he turned around again.
"How would you feel if I went back to Dallas with you?"
My heart raced forward with enough pounding in between the beats to ensure he heard each thud. "Don't do this to me Steve." I finally whispered.
He sat the drink down and joined me again. Taking my hands in his, he questioned me with loving eyes. "Don't do what to you again, Cass? You walked out on me. You let me go and now, I don't think I can do it again. I can't watch you leave with him when you belong with me and I'm not sure I'm going to have to this time."
"Have you talked to Corby about this?"
"Yes." He watched me digest the information and then he continued.
"He believes what I've known for a long time. You love us both."
"I love you, Steve. I've always loved you and..."
His forefinger went to my lips. "Cass, you love us both."
I shook my head as I thought about Corby's act of betrayal. I closed my eyes as I imagined Suzy's expression and the mockery she enjoyed as she told me how an act of intimate pleasure was ruined by the silent invasion of one manipulative woman.
As if the name burned my lips, I asked the obvious question. "What about Mandy? You love her too, don't you?"
"It's different with you Cass. I love you. There's nothing I wouldn't do for you. I tolerate Mandy but the truth is, I always resented her because she isn't you."
"Oh Steve." I felt so guilty. I felt bad for Mandy. She deserved so much more in life and I just didn't want to take Steve completely away from her. I only wanted to borrow him four days out of seven. "I guess Mandy isn't going to move with you?"
"I asked her for a divorce and believe it or not, she's more than willing to give it to me with one stipulation."
"Let me guess..." Mandy knew our history. "She wants you with me."
Tears welled up in Steve's eyes and he nodded. "I guess she's known all along no one would ever take your place."
"Steve, no one can take your place in my heart." I touched his cheek and he pulled my hands to his lips.
"I know that, but no one is going to take his place either. You love him and I think there is enough love to go around."
"What are you saying?"
He took my mouth in one easy sweep and left me with a misunderstood kiss. He pulled out his cell phone and hit one number before touching the speaker phone option.
"Great. Let me guess. Corby is on speed dial?"
Steve didn't answer but Corby did---on the second ring.
"How are you?" He asked gently.
"Fine." I replied. I still wasn't over the Suzy ordeal.
"Steve, did you talk to her about Suzy?" He questioned.
"No, I thought you might want to explain that yourself." He kissed me on the forehead and went over to retrieve the ice bucket. "I'm going to grab some ice. You two go ahead and chat."
"Thanks buddy." Corby responded.
"You betcha." Steve responded.
"Swell." I added. Once the door slammed behind Steve, I listened intently,
"Did Steve tell you he was moving to Texas?"
"Yes, he mentioned it."
"I think it's for the best," Corby began, "And I'm really anxious for him to bring you home, Cassie."
"Corby, this isn't going to work. What will everyone think?"
"Why do you care?"
"I don't care for me but I do for you. What will Mark and..." I stopped short of saying her name.
"Suzy and Mark are getting a divorce, Cassie."
"Imagine."
"You didn't see it on the entertainment shows and sports news?" Corby questioned.
"No, I've been rather sedated for the last two weeks, no thanks to you."
"Cassie, come home to me. Come home and bring Steve and let's all sit down and work this out."
"I'm not ready."
Steve slipped back in the room about the time I made my feelings known.
"Are you afraid?"
"Hardly." I glared up at Steve and then I returned to the conversation dragging them both into the heart of it. "How do you two think it's going to work out with three when we obviously failed with two?"
Corby laughed. "It worked beautifully until you missed one of us and that's when you had a problem."
"And Corby and I have worked out our differences. I know enough from talking to him that he loves you and Cass, you love him too. Why keep bouncing back and forth between the two of us when you don't have to do it?"
"I think it's going to be awkward, that's all."
"It's going to be uncomfortable for all of us, in the beginning but I think..." Corby allowed his voice to trail off deliberately.
Steve winked playfully at me as he waited for Corby to finish.
"Help me out here Steve. I think it will eventually be the right thing for all of us. It doesn't matter what anyone thinks."
Steve agreed. "If he's ready to share then I'm willing to give it a shot too. How about it, Cass? Will you at least try?"
My gaze narrowed at Steve and I turned my conversation back to Corby.
"There's still the Suzy factor. You're not off the hook."
"Cassie, Suzy was...a weird chick."
"That's an understatement but it doesn't change the fact that you brought her into our bedroom and allowed her to watch a very intimate moment."
Steve's eyes widened as if he couldn't believe I was going to shake an accusing finger at anyone, especially right then.
Corby chuckled. "Darling, you really have to work on your double standards and maybe I need to clarify all of this for you a little bit. I'm not just inviting Steve into our bedroom, I'm telling him to make himself at home in our bed."
Steve left me in Memphis for a few days while he went home to pack up his belongings. I talked to him every day while he was away. Every night, I talked to Corby. It didn't take me long to understand that Corby was blackmailed by Suzy.
She had a very explicit video tape of them that she threatened to leave for me if she didn't get the chance to watch us in bed together, just once.
While I was most definitely angry, I understood why Corby never told me about his relationship with Suzy. Mark was his best friend and once Corby discovered a tape existed, he wanted to protect me and Mark. He didn't want anything to upset the two people closest to him.
That night, we talked about the baby and the miscarriage. "Cassie, you'll have other children." He assured me.
It was so ironic talking about children with a man who wasn't going to father any woman's child.
"I know." I whispered and I understood the underlying meaning and the acceptance found there in his softly spoken words.
"What time is Steve going to be there tonight?" He asked. There wasn't a hint of jealousy or resentment. "I'll feel better when I know you aren't alone."
"I'm not alone, Corby." I reminded him.
"No, Cassie. You're never going to be alone or lonely and Steve and I will always take care of you. This is going to work out." He promised.
"I think so."
"I love you Cassie."
"I love you too."
"I'll see you in a few days."
"A few?" For some reason, I really missed him. He'd been so great and so understanding and I was incredibly homesick to see him after all of our differences had been worked out.
"After Steve gets there, I'm going to meet up with you and bring you home."
"Home?" I'd wondered how weird it would feel to bring Steve home with us, and then keep him there.
"It's taken care of, Cassie." He laughed. "I'll see you soon."
"Corby, then come tomorrow." I pleaded.
"Honey, I can't."
"You can and I want you to hurry. Please come tomorrow. I'm anxious to see you."
He chuckled. "I'll just bet you are."
I heard the key in the door after one o'clock in the morning and I looked up from my book. I'd stayed up waiting for him and tossed the erotic novel to the wayside when I heard him.
"Hey Cass." His voice was quiet as he entered the room.
"Hey yourself." I pulled the sheets back and let him see I was waiting for him just as naked as the day I was born.
"Are you sure it's okay?"
I crooked my finger back and forth. "Just get over here and kiss me."
He practically brought sexy back into the art of undressing as he stripped off every stitch of clothing with each step he took and his mouth moved across my aching nipples before his lips massaged over my belly. As if the art of kissing my stomach held too many recent memories, he moved fast to the place where he was most able to bring sensational pleasure.
That's when he found where I happened to like him best.
His tongue locked into my body with a force so strong that I really wanted to come on impact. Maybe emotions played an important role, far more than hormones, but it didn't matter. One intimate kiss and I was wet with a drenching purpose driving me to rise and fall against the most familiar lips I knew. It was more than a simple act of oral gratification. It was Steve taking care of me.
"I love you." The words were easy for me to say. Natural. Why wouldn't they be? I did love him. With all I had to love and all I would ever have to give to another, I certainly loved him.
Sexual pleasing didn't slow down just because of a simple revelation. It only made for a better meeting of endless soul dancing. Our intimacy never questioned our desires. We always loved to the fullest---always.
His strokes were gentle and sweet, far different than anything I remembered. Maybe he was trying to remind me of the sweet way he pampered my body whenever he knew my heart was breaking.
Before he gave more as a true familiar lover, he broke. I knew he would.
One taste of me on his lips and it all came rushing back. His mouth worked toward my stomach and he began kissing my stomach in one complete circle.
"Cass, I'm so sorry."
My hands fell to his head and I stroked his hair away from his eyes.
"Steve, it isn't your fault."
"Come here, please." I pulled his arms and his mouth was over mine in an instant. His tongue was soft and warm as he kissed me deeper than he ever kissed me before.
My hands framed his face and I kept him there with me, loving him, craving his taste, for as long as he would allow until the tears that threatened us now spilled together. When it was too painful to continue the short walk into the heartache we shared over the loss of our child, he slipped back between my legs and reminded me of every physical comfort I had to gain.
My hips moved off the bed and with every loving lick he gave, my legs tingled. His hands pressed down on my upper thighs but released them whenever my body instinctively rose up to meet the pleasure he masterfully stimulated.
"I need you to..." I couldn't finish a sentence. There wasn't any reason to say anything now. It wasn't like he needed instructions and he really didn't want an interruption.
Rather than coax him out of the space he lavished with a tongue granting the sweetest of gifts, I pressed down on his head. Pleasure stood back as if to wait for permission to wrack my body with a climax that moved mountains. And once it hit me, I think we did. In fact, I'm sure of it.
Memphis might be flat but the rocks lying around shifted with the ground.
I tried to grab onto something and instead knocked everything off the bedside table. The crashing of glasses and the phone falling to the floor, didn't deter him. He continued his mission with the lapping, licking and sucking. It was heaven but I knew the sins we were committing stirred all sorts of inner animosities for both men who shared my love. I felt it at my back like a strong wind whipping out of control and it drove me, inspired me, and yes...oh yes, it possessed me.
That's when the orgasm took me. Maybe my body refused to let my mind interfere. I didn't object. One hand slid closer to Steve and tangled into his hair while the other anchored me against a very slow and sensual sexual beat.
I pressed against him with each ripple consuming me, pushing me close.
"Oh Steve, please don't stop."
He didn't. He gave everything and then he wanted more.
After the first orgasm subsided, I released a sigh before his hips moved into place. It only took a minute for Steve's cock to find a perfect tempo. He moved closer, harder, and faster. Deliciously swift, hitting the spot every woman wants their man to know exists. Steve and I never had a problem finding it together.
"Don't stop this...never stop loving me like this." I was breathless. I was sated and yet insatiable. I was happy and content yet missing another all at the same time.
"Never, Cassie. Now that I have you, I'll never let you go." His mouth covered mine as he slid out and pulled me against him.
I felt like no other love in the world was even comparable. Often bodies that truly belong together find no other pleasure in the world can compare to the one they alone share. Steve and I possessed that kind of love and there was only one other love that existed for me. I was going to experience it without the strain and heartache of missing another. When Corby was in my bed too, then it would be for all the right reasons. This time, it would be with the only audience I wanted---the one shared between the two men I loved more than myself or the life I would soon spend with them.
PFC Quarterback Corby Teller left the Dallas Rascals Stadium headedfor Tennessee tonight. Rumor has it he will be joined with his estrangedwife, Cassie Teller. Mrs. Teller has been recuperating after a recentmiscarriage and is said to be in Memphis waiting to be reunited with herhusband.
"The National Gossip Loop on the internet proves Corby decided he's not going to let the press get the best of us." He smiled over at me.
"Somehow, I don't think Corby has the press on his mind, right now."
"I know if I was in his shoes right now, I'd be on the fastest jet the friendly skies could handle. The man has a right to enjoy his wife the way I have."
I laughed. "I'm glad I met your approval."
"Me too." He tossed a pillow at me. "I was beginning to wonder more about this little arrangement we had. I was curious if details were worked out without my knowledge.
I wasn't sure it was necessary but I was beginning to believe that speaking my mind was going to be unavoidable because Steve and Corby had the tendency to tell me what to do and then they expected me to follow through with a smile. "Steve, I'm not going to shake off nature's call if the urge hits, whether it's with you or Corby or both."
Steve's eyes caught mine and held on for dear life. "I never thought for a minute you would. I know you better than that, Cassie and I know you love him. It's just going to take some getting used to, at first. Don't you think so?"
"I don't know." I took a deep breath and just spilled it. "Are you going to look at me differently?"
"Hell no."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure." He moved away from his laptop and looked down at the street below. "Cass, we both realize we've been sharing you all along. The only difference now is that sometimes we'll share you together and other times, we won't. It's not that complicated really."
There was something else on my mind. Call it a conscious clearing or just a girl thing. I wanted to make excuses and I wanted Steve to hear them.
"Mandy technically started this whole thing with us. You know this, right?"
He stared at me in disbelief.
"If you married her before I met Corby then things would've been different. If she'd only satisfied you enough to keep you out of my bed, perhaps we would've never loved one another enough to realize we actually craved each other more than..."
"Cassie, our relationship started a long time ago and Mandy can't carry the blame here. I loved her enough to stay with her but I couldn't stay away from you. I was already planning a visit to Dallas when you called me.
Three months was far too long." He walked over to me and kissed me softly on the lips. "Cass, I love you with a passionate flame that only burns higher when I play in the fire. It's not something I ever want to contain and it's nothing I'll ever be able to explain in words."
"I think you just did." I hugged him tightly and laughed. "We're going to make this work, aren't we?"
"We are." He assured me.
"And you'll never leave me now, will you?"
He looked hurt that I even mentioned it. "Don't you know better than that? Don't you know how long I've waited for you to come home to me?
Don't you think that we've been through enough hell because of feelings we've denied and pushed aside?"
"Yes, and I also think I'm incredibly selfish."
"Mandy will be all right." He confirmed what I pretty much suspected.
I smiled and nodded. "You're absolutely correct. She's always going to be just fine isn't she?"
"She's quite the woman."
"I know she is. She's pretty special, Steve." I couldn't help but feel guilty. Even though she had the ring and the name to prove she won Steve's hand in marriage, I didn't resent her. Why should I? I won out in the end.
Mandy just had the bad luck to fall for the wrong man---my man. We had ample opportunity to marry each other, plenty of time to stop the wheels Corby set in motion, but we didn't. We just went along with what Corby wanted and Mandy needed. Somewhere, our desires were put to the wayside. Now, they were anything but ignored.
Cincinnati took us back to a place we couldn't deny---to a love that refused to wait for another lifetime. Corby realized it. If you love someone, you don't free them when they really don't want to leave altogether. Instead, you make it right so they'll want to stay. Corby and Steve were working together to ensure everything was going to be perfect for a lifetime.
Steve and I went out on the town. We wanted to visit Beale Street and it was everything we hoped to find. The festive music discovered in the streets gave true meaning to dedicated blues clubs. There, talent seemed to find its way onto the stages and regardless of the club we entered, the music lured us in and welcomed us for a bit longer than we planned to stay.
We dared fate just by being there and of course, the consequences of not only denial but also bold betrayal, couldn't go unnoticed for long. Leaving the confines of the room and going out into public meant, I suppose, that we both knew the beginning of the end of our private matters would start to make the headlines in Memphis.
By the time we returned to the hotel, the press was waiting. Cameras flashed and clicked in the lobby of The Peabody. I told Steve to smile for them. As the elevator doors closed, I stared straight ahead and whispered what Steve didn't need to be told. "We will be the eleven o'clock news.
Corby will be here later tonight so it's okay. We've made a statement and he won't be flying in blind.
"You're quite the pro at working the press, huh?" He mused over the obvious.
"Life is short. Corby says he doesn't care what anyone thinks and if he doesn't, I'm not going to worry about it. I have enough to think about.
Keeping two men well satisfied won't be without its challenges." I winked as I looked over my shoulder before stepping off of the elevator. When the door opened in an indication we'd arrived on our floor, the hallway lit up like a display of fireworks.
"Mrs. Teller! Mrs. Teller! Are you and PFC Superstar Corby Tellercalling it quits?"
"Mrs. Teller, a moment of your time please!"
Click....click...snap....click. The cameras rolled forward.
"Mrs. Teller, is this not the man you were accused of having a longstanding affair with just several months ago?" My heart thumped as I thought about the last time the media captured me in their headlines. If I thought the coverage unfolded too much of the truth then, I must've been somewhat delusional now.
Steve placed his hand on the small of my back and kept us moving through what seemed like a triple layer of people and reporters. When we stood in front of our door, I fumbled for the key and quickly used it to gain access to solace once more.
We quickly made our way inside the suite but not fast enough to block out the camera lens and the birds eye view of pending plans and past experiences. Toys and creams were on the nightstand, something I specifically asked Steve to retrieve before we went out for the night, along with other evidence of what already occurred there. Tangled sheets were well captured along with everything I left in the floor after it was knocked there during the romp.
My lingerie provided enough tales on its own. A woman typically didn't wear an uncomfortable bustier with stockings to bed without some kind of sexual foreplay in mind. Never mind the evidence gained when the cameras easily zoomed in on a pair of Steve's boxers. Leave it to a man to mindlessly leave the proof that he stepped out of his shorts and into bed without a second to spare.
I didn't care.
Steve sat down on the edge of the bed after we closed the doors. "Now what?"
"Now we play." I nodded at him and then the lubricant next to the bed.
He licked his lips and reached for me. "My little Cassie is ready to get nasty."
"I hope so." Corby's voice filled the room as he stepped out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist. I immediately dropped Steve's hand and ran into Corby's arms.
"You're here!" I kissed his mouth completely with a peck here or there.
"Not the greeting I was expecting after interrupting." He kissed me back and then moved me to the side. He walked over to shake hands with Steve.
"Good to see you, Steve."
"You too, man. Did you have a good flight?" The small talk began and before I knew what happened, I was lost in the middle of a good 'ole boys'
conversation but it didn't feel as strange as I thought it might. Steve and Corby became fast friends when Corby and I first dated and seemingly, even after all of their differences, they were going to be able to let bygones stay in the past. We were all anxious about the future and it was obvious the beginning was in our grasp now.
When the room finally stilled, Corby glared at the same evidence the reporters now had. "You two have...um..."
My mouth covered his immediately. "Stop it before it starts. Love me.
Let me love you." I whispered the words into his mouth and my tongue tapped his.
Steve fumbled around with all of the do-dads I requested. I decided he did it in an effort to lighten the blow for Corby. Yes, it was obvious I was going to have sex---a lot of it---with Steve and Corby.
Steve made a casual reference. "Cassie is um...different now. I think you had the first shot there at something I never dared." He laughed.
"Stop it, Steve. Don't you two start the guy-thing." I went to him next and brought him in for a tight hug. My hands settled on his ass. "Mmmm..."
I moved past them both and inched my way to the wet bar where Corby joined me and patted, rubbed actually, my ass. "Cassie loves taking it up the..." He stopped his crude remark and simply added. "Steve, trust me.
You'll thank me for it later." He then winked at me.
"Now Steve, you aren't going to be jealous here. Mandy gave you her virginity; you took mine, now you can't be the first in line to eat all the time." I giggled as I moved closer to him undressing as I did.
He didn't bother to move. He just watched and waited.
"You always loved to watch and I want you to see me...watch me."
He was hard as soon as I mentioned it. "What do you want me to watch, Cass? Tell me."
"I want you to see me love Corby and I want him to watch me love you." I whispered it more to Steve than Corby but they both heard the declaration.
"I don't like to just watch Cass." He reached for me then and I moved between his legs. Standing casually in between his knees, he began to undress me with his eyes long before his hands finished what I'd started. "I like to feel."
Corby moved in behind me as soon as I approached Steve. His hard cock flexed, oh yeah it did, as soon as he was there. The towel fell to the floor and two men greedily worked to please an insatiable woman---me---
the one who belonged to them.
One button fell away from the material and I noticed how his hand trembled slightly. My hand went to his. "Let me." Corby's came right over mine. "I want to do it." His lips were at my ear and he moaned as one hand began to tweak my nipple. Steve's arm moved around my neck and he brought my lips to his for a soul-ripping kiss.
When he released me, his gentle smile stopped the world, at least the one I lived in but I had to ask before everything between us changed. "You look at me differently now." I'd noticed it when we met in Cincinnati and it was similar, only darker now. Our circumstances changed us into very different people and this particular act would change us as lovers.
"I look at you with nothing but love." Steve said.
Corby removed another barrier and another. Snapping the thong with two hands and dropping to his knees to kiss my thigh, hip, and leg.
Steve moved his hands to my hips and pulled me down to sit on his knee. At first it was a peculiar move, as if he was pulling me away from Corby but then he moved his legs together, closed them against my butt. He pushed me up on his knees and gave his instructions. "Open up for him, baby. Let him taste you." He pulled my hair back with his fisted grip and he held onto me as I stretched out for Corby's willing mouth.
Corby's hands were under my ass in just another second and his mouth was as hot as the fire he brought with each willing kiss. "Corby...oh...help me..."
Steve's mouth hovered over mine. "I'll help you baby. I'll help ruin you for anyone but us." His tongue ran over my lips and his hands stayed positioned gently below my breasts, lifting them up a bit before truly working my nipples into a throb so perverse I didn't know how to ask for something more soothing but it didn't take long.
I froze in time as Corby's tongue now dipped deeper and took more. His slurping was downright sexy and his lapping was maddening. I damn sure didn't want to move and spoil the moment but I was going to move.
I felt my ass work with the exposure and it clenched against Steve's knee. I wanted to reach for his cock and stroke it but because of the way he held me against him, I couldn't move at all.
Corby's kisses covered my belly and then finally, my mound. "I want you to come for me Cassie." His lips were there again...kissing, loving, puckering up to take me into the deepest sense of pleasure and then he nibbled the little button I wanted him to find. I couldn't wait. The intimate ride was there and I was going to take it because they both were helping me find it.
Steve's hands settled on my waist then and he seemed to angle me toward Corby's tongue. "God, I can't...don't Steve...Corby...stop...no..."
"Yes, Cass, oh yeah you can, baby. That's it. Let him have you." His raspy voice delivered carnal instructions.
His hands were everywhere then. I felt his cock pressing against me while Corby's mouth greedily consumed my body. He fisted his cock and I felt him rubbing it up against me as he continued to sip and lick.
"Oh Corby! Don't stop now!" I knew my orgasm came straight for me but because of the two men inspiring it, there was a certain amount of self-control that held me distantly at bay waiting until the perfect wave came in for us all. Both men stroked against me. Both were harder than I ever remembered. Steve's hands clasped over my breasts and continued to caress with working fingers and a throbbing need angled at my back. Corby finished what a man never leaves. I was a woman in need and both men were there to pleasure and satisfy. They did it with more skill than I ever imagined.
"I have to feel you baby." Corby rose over me and Steve understood. He took my hand and pulled me to the bed. Corby's hand still worked with a perverse rhythm as he thread his cock between his fingers.
"That's it baby. You're safe with us." Steve positioned me perfectly next to the edge of the bed. My legs draped over the mattress and I was able to simply turn my head and take him in between my hungry lips. He stood there waiting for it. "We're going to take care of you." He reminded.
I started to giggle, I couldn't help it. Steve forever believed he protected me with sex. Now, he was going to take care of me with his cock while Corby did the same. It seemed comical, not that I was complaining.
"What? You're laughing now?" Steve questioned.
"I know, it sucks doesn't it? Leave it to me to ruin such a precious moment."
Steve's eyes narrowed. "Fine, you'll pay for that little miss smart ass."
"I hope so." I looked at Corby and then Steve.
"Has she ever been spanked until she begs for cock?" Corby asked Steve. I guess he kind of assumed if anyone knew, he did.
"It's been awhile." Steve laid a few playful hands on me and I missed it more than I cared to admit.
Right when I thought I was going to get fucked, in more ways than one, plans changed. Corby tugged me from the bed and pointed to the plush sofa in the corner of the room. Steve's mouth turned up in a wicked grin and I could almost hear the swatting sound as I was pulled, tugged, kissed, and touched all the way to the place where the most wonderful carnal acts were about to begin.
Steve's eyes held me in a blaze so hot that I swear they turned from deep blue to a fiery red just ravenous enough to burn straight through me.
The controlled hunger he possessed ignited blue-hot passion. My mouth watered, oh but it did, as I realized what he had in store.
I watched Corby as he moved the lubricants to the coffee table taking care to remove the lids as he did. "Are you scared?"
"No." I hadn't thought about it but Steve and Corby didn't frighten me in the least.
"Even a little bit?" Corby asked.
"No, not even a little."
"Let me see," Steve growled as he moved closer. With his foot, he quickly parted my legs before moving straight for the proof he wanted. His fingers just dipped. They didn't twirl or slide into place. They were just there in my pussy stroking and probing until...they weren't.
"Oh God." It slipped from my lips as my thighs spread in an effort to help me weigh in on a certain level of desire.
His mouth found my neck. My hand found his. I tried to move him lower, where I needed him most. "Not yet." He whispered into my flesh backing away from me before grasping my wrist and pulling me across the sofa with him. He stepped on one cushion before both feet landed on the other side of the furniture. My ass was fully exposed.
Deep kissing never seemed to appeal to Steve prior to our marriages to other people but it became the first thing I noticed when I thought about the changes in our relationship. Arching me to him, his teasing lips allowed playful teeth to bite and nibble at my lips as he held me against him. He glanced at Corby as if he granted permission or something. At times, I thought Corby allowed him to take the lead because he knew I trusted Steve.
At other times, it was obvious who was in control.
Corby stood behind me. His hands squeezed my butt cheeks. They caressed my back and hips and fell to my sides where his fingertips lightly touched the fullness found in my breasts, first at the sides and then across my puckered nipples.
Steve never stopped kissing me and his lips promised to deliver so much more than a woman ever deserved to feel. The emotions found with an attentive tongue always undid me and he most definitely had the kissing thing down to an art now. For a second, I thought of Mandy. Maybe I had her to thank for his new skill. No, it wasn't fair to bring her into my thoughts now, not when the man she wanted to love only loved me.
"Come here." After minutes passed of touching and kissing, Steve pulled me closer and held my forearms with closed hands. "Are you comfortable, baby?" he asked me the question before his cock touched my lips. Relaxed didn't come to mind. Not right then.
My excitement peaked and I took the first lick of pre-cum from Steve's cock. His fingers rolled my nipples and I don't think I'd ever wanted two men more. My ass clenched as I felt Corby's cock against the seam. I remembered the last time we were together and God help me, I needed him to revisit time. I wanted it."
"That's it baby. Take it all." Steve was ready to come before he ever stroked the back of my mouth but he was the most disciplined lover a woman hoped to have and I didn't want him filling my mouth with his spill yet. No, I wanted his cock sliding back and forth between my lips for as long as he wanted to fill my cheeks.
His cock slipped from my mouth. "Oh heaven help me." I cried out when he left me and right as he did, another sweet sensation took me.
"I'm here Cassie," Corby's hand started to smooth over the shape of my ass.
"We're all you need. All you're ever going to need." His hands massaged deep into the flesh taking the time to knead the skin with a deep tissue-type sensation. "Tell me. Tell me it's never going to change. This is enough."
"Oh God. I can't think." Did he enjoy this as much as I did? Was he willing and ready to accept sharing me with another lover?"
Steve fisted his cock and moved his dick to my lips once more. "That's it sweetheart. Suck it all."
This time, his strokes were borderline vile when he parted my lips. He was after the release one minute and the next minute, he stopped moving into my throat and just played with my nipples.
I was going to die from the attention, from this kind of love.
Corby's touch immediately changed from a squeezing motion to a circular rub with the balls of his hand. It was rougher and with it came a wave of unexplainable vibes. From my ass to my pussy, the sensation felt better than sex. Well, almost---maybe my mind allowed for slight exaggerations---blame it on the two men who clouded my judgment all the way around.
Before I knew what came next, Corby's left hand moved under me and cupped my pussy in a loving protective-like cradle. At the same time, his movement over my bottom increased. "Such a pretty little ass. How is it possible for one woman to have a perfect tail like this?" His palm smoothed over the area I knew he planned to spank with just enough heat applied to the right spot.
Yes, it's possible. Hours a day with a trainer guaranteed it. I opened my mouth wider and Steve took the hint. His fingers closed around my nipples again and he rolled them forward and back again before his hands moved to my head. Using a firm grip, I most definitely wanted, he guided me and with his help, I bobbed up and down and forward and back. Wherever he wanted me to go, I was there. Within seconds, we had a sensational tempo and I was hungry for his taste. I wanted to drink him, feel him drizzle his sweet come over the back of my tongue.
"That's it baby. Keep sucking, Cass. Keep taking it." His hands continued to maneuver the act and he undoubtedly controlled the blow job he wanted.
Corby didn't give a warning but I liked surprises After today, I wasn't sure who had more of them, Steve or Corby, only one thing seemed obvious, they were both willing to deliver the best of them.
With a finger fuck in progress, Corby leaned over my back. He kissed me softly before his fingers plunged once more. "I love this pretty little pussy." He let his dick press into my ass and then he quickly stood again.
The first smack came down on my ass at the same time his fingers fell back into another momentum.
I sucked Steve's cock only harder with a more defined purpose as a true agonizing moan left my throat. I wasn't sure I was even capable of drawing air then. Corby knocked it out of me and now I longed for more.
"That's it baby. That's right." Corby massaged the place he struck and then his tongue licked away the hot sting. "I have more to give you sweetheart, so much more to do here."
Steve slid out and rubbed his dick along my lips. "No. Please don't leave me. I need you. I need both of you."
"You've got us baby." Steve moved back again and this time when his thighs bunched, his ass clenched and he fucked my mouth with the full intention of getting what he wanted.
Corby's hand came down again and again. My mouth closed tighter and tighter. Corby's fingers were back at my center one second and spanking me, truly smacking my bottom the next. We didn't have so-called safe words, like they had in the BDSM communities. We made up our rules as we played and they could change anytime we wanted them altered as long as we all found fulfillment. I quickly understood, this was going to work for us---all of us. .
Corby's hand smacked again and his fingers fucked me silly with just a few rippling moves forward. I sucked harder and harder with my fingers working Steve's balls into what seemed like pure tight heat. He withdrew then and walked around the sofa.
No one needed to guide Corby to the other side. He was eager to change positions and I wanted Corby's cock now. I was ready for Steve to finish me and I felt confident Corby wanted the blow job he felt he'd just earned.
Steve's cock fell into the crack of my ass but he didn't cross the line.
"Let me feel of you, Cass. Are you wet, baby?" His breath was hot against my ear as three fingers fell into my core. Hard and then soft, Steve tapped his fingers at my entrance before he twirled---oh yeah, that's what it was---a true scissor of ecstasy. With a skilled hand, one I personally trained when I was only a mere teenager and the same one I continued to perfect with age, Steve kept me writhing under his touch.
"Like that don't you baby?" He growled, something I wasn't used to hearing. "I know what you like, don't I, Cass?"
With a slow sip of Corby's cock. In and out and in again, I finally released my answer in a voice I never recognized as my own. "Do I like it?
Hell, I need it."
"Damn straight you do." He bit his lower lip and his hand came down with a little more force than what Corby used but Steve never worried I would break. In all the years we'd romped all over one another, I never had to account for broken bones during rough sex. I also realized the smack-smack sound jolted him forward. He now had a need for relief.
"Shit!" Yes, it happened to sting like hell but I did exaggerate a bit in hopes I would earn a loving massage. It worked like a charm. The vocal expression happened to be a product of my exaggeration but it certainly earned a loving pat and that was anything but a figment of my imagination.
His lips went down to my ear and his cock pressed harder against my thigh. "What do you want baby?" He rubbed his dick over the crack of my ass. "Tell me right now. Tell me what you can't live without."
I pushed up and forward as Corby moved his hand around his shaft.
"Come on baby. Give me all you have. Take it all now sweetheart. Don't leave me disappointed." His hands cupped the sides of my face and oh heaven help me, I felt loved and cherished for every carnal act I was giving the two men I enjoyed most in this world.
I pushed down on my palms again trying to raise up for a better position, an advantageous angle. Trying to show them I was ready to be fucked. I opened wider and sucked deeper. I was too high to be left unattended. I needed to reach my climax and then slowly come down. They needed to let me take it.
Steve's mouth came closer with a warm steady breeze of whispers. "Let me feel you Cass. Let me have all of you. Let me fuck this pretty little ass."
I wanted to give him all but I didn't want it from manual stimulation. I wanted Steve or Corby or both of them to fuck me. It didn't matter. Steve's hand was under me pushing me over with one finger, no two and then...yes, another one joined too. Three fingers worked for and achieved a manual orgasm. At some point, I lost the man in between my lips and he didn't complain. Corby only looked deeper into my eyes as his fingers lightly scraped back and forth over my nipples. "That's it Cassie. Come for us.
Look in my eyes and come for us."
And I did it---beautifully too, I might add because I was completely lost in Corby's eyes but I never stopped moving for Steve---the way I knew he wanted me to move for him. My legs crossed and I held his hand to me for as long as I could and he took me higher and higher until he probably believed he took it all.
He didn't. I had more to give.
I craved the connection. The deep-rooted place where I wanted his cock wasn't something I felt compelled to explain but it was something I felt the need to explore.
I crawled over the couch more. In part, I wanted closer to Corby's cock and also because I was already anticipating Steve's invasion. I watched as he lubricated his fingers, knowing he wouldn't last at all once he crossed into the realms of the tightest space he'd ever find with a woman. His jaw dropped before he ever moved behind me.
My eyes searched Corby's and his hands locked behind my ears. "I want to come with you, Cassie. Let me feel you come." Corby's cock slid over my tongue and to the back of my throat. Oh God, he tasted like one hundred percent salty man.
Steve's breathing was labored and damnation his cock dripped with more precum than I'd ever noticed before. I wanted my mouth around it but I'd settle for it anywhere and besides, I had cock. Damn did I have cock.
Corby was moving faster and faster. He was going to come if I didn't postpone it. I moved him slower, in and out. I took my hand and wrapped it around the base refusing to let him guide the action and then on impulse, I twisted away from them both.
"Cass?" Beads of sweat formed over Steve's brow but a wicked smile curved Corby's lips. He moved over to the bed and laid down on his back with his legs parted and waiting.
"Ah....you know what she wants?" Steve looked at me waiting for my approval.
I felt the air hitch in my lungs. I wasn't sure if my body could handle them but I knew without a doubt, I was going to try it.
"Come on baby. Come make love to me." Corby's head moved to the side. He held his cock at the base, stretched it straight forward and Steve
placed his hand on the small of my back as he walked with me toward the bed.
With Steve's giving hand, he helped me onto the mattress, as if I needed it or like I was a fragile little woman who deserved a careful hand to guide her. I straddled Corby's hips and the tip of his cock locked into place but he didn't push forward in a greedy attempt to take me then. He waited because he understood what we all wanted to share.
Steve's swollen mushroom tip gave a new independent impression and the head of it only inspired me to open up more as he moved it over my ass.
I spread out more for him, as much as possible as I waited for him to enter me. I saw the jar of clear lubricant and shivered as he dipped his forefinger, middle and ring finger and then heaven help me, his thumb and pinky too.
Corby wrapped my neck in a sudden embrace and brought my lips to his. He kissed me with a lover's kiss and pressed into my vagina more.
"Feel me, Cassie. Take us both but always feel me." He whispered before he released me and his fingers tweaked my nipples.
When Steve moved over me then, he might have held onto some ripe forbidden intentions but after his first finger ran down the crack of my ass, I knew he wouldn't wait for entry. I arched my back more and raised my hips to invite the invasion. And God help Corby then fucked me with his whole existence.
"Ah..." I felt him all the way to the barrier wall.
Steve didn't need precise instructions and I didn't want to wait for a hard dick to please me. I was riding one and barely holding on for the other.
"Hang on baby." Steve wanted my hips to stop moving but Corby fucked on. He was almost there.
"Now, damn it!" He cried out for me and maybe even to rattle Steve into place.
Steve's hand came down in a sudden slap and my pussy twitched from the hit as Corby's lips turned up in an appreciative smile. Steve slid in then and it only took him a second to start the grind. "Oh, Cass. My sweet Cassie." His hands caressed over my back as his hands locked at my thighs.
His voice twitched with each moan and growl and he couldn't voice his needs right then. Holy hell, not right then and there. It felt too good to voice commands so I just met them before he asked. I pressed forward and back. I squeezed them both with my pussy and ass trying to feel the pleasure and truly consume the first experienced pain.
I tried to absorb both with as much eagerness as they both seemed to find. I wanted to shout the release that found all three of us at the same time and yes, I wanted to cry out because I loved and enjoyed the act of sinful pleasures. I wanted these men pounding into me without worrying over the damage done. My body would heal from this but this kind of ecstasy couldn't wait...shouldn't have been postponed in the first place.
"Faster, damn you both! Faster." I wanted to be thrashed around and I wanted...no, I longed for...more cock.
Sharp pains were unavoidable as a sensation of pleasure shot through my ass before my pussy clenched around it all. When the jets of Steve's release crossed up in a stream of lust and love, his cock only pressed harder and deeper inside. He pumped every last drop of a hard-earned spill into my ass without a second thought. He didn't care, at least not right then, if I wanted it all. In fact, he just didn't ask. He pressed forward, fucked harder and harder. And wow...what a calculated screw he delivered.
I imagined Steve's tight ass clenching as it drove him forward and the whole image just drove me to the brink, only the edge, of insanity. As it did, I clenched tighter and consumed the strength of another good man, a hard thick cock I always loved stroking me into an orgasm. Now, I had two and with both, came the familiarity of their bodies. A woman didn't deserve to love like this, never this much.
Corby's requests were hungry as one hand continued to play with my nipple and the other grabbed greedily at my waist. "Don't stop baby. Keep taking it. That's it. Oh Cassie."
Steve held onto my hips and he spoke with what sounded like true authority. "That's it. Don't move, Cass. Raise up. Scoot down. Give it all to us. Now!" Mixed signals were obviously our new specialty but why mention it then---right when it mattered most to a woman and holy hell, it made a difference. I came. They came and we indulged in simple pleasures that only complicated our lives more, only we didn't care. Right now, we only loved, lived, and experienced.
Once their cocks slid deeper and closer, four hands gripped the sides of my hips and they fucked me like they meant to break me. Maybe they did.
Maybe they thought if they reminded me with every stroke what they felt,
what they wanted, maybe then it would seem real because right now, at least for me, it seemed like a fantasy. And it was a beautiful dream indeed.
It wasn't a knock. It sounded like a fucking locomotive ramming into the door. Rage existed on the other side. I didn't have any doubts who stood there waiting.
Steve jumped up and went to the door. He peered out. I didn't have to ask and Corby didn't really need to look. Steve took a double take as Corby and I searched for our clothes. "Mark?" He looked back at us and shrugged.
"What is he doing here?"
"Man, I think you need to calm down before you come in here." Steve sounded pretty sensible as he called out to him. I actually liked the idea of a wise meeting of the minds too. It sounded like a good plan to me especially since I wasn't sure why Corby's best friend was banging on our door in the wee hours of the morning.
"Open this door you sorry son-of-a-bitch!"
I heard the hotel manager outside the room trying to calm him down.
"Sir, you can't be here. We'll have to call the authorities. You need to settle down and let us know what we can do to help you. I'm sure if you'd like to go downstairs..."
"My wife is in there with Corby Teller!" Mark was obviously misinformed.
"Sir, if you'll just back away from the door, I'm sure your wife will do the right thing and let you in because obviously, no one here wants to assume damages."
Steve shook his head and then set his jaw. "Damn him. He's just going to make this worse on all of us." He reluctantly opened the door and allowed him inside. Corby was waiting for him with his arms crossed and his jaw set in stark anger.
After I assured the hotel manager that I was Mrs. Corby Teller and that Mark's wife had misinformed him, I closed the door to the hotel room and stared into the faces of three lust-ridden men. Obviously, a lot of information was shared with Mark in a short period of time and I wasn't happy about it.
I glared at Corby. "You just couldn't keep your mouth shut."
Mark looked around the room. "Cassie, come on. It's not like you can deny what's been going on in here. I'm just glad I didn't find Suzy here. I would've killed these two if she'd been here and left me out of something like this."
"So you and Suzy are back together?" I was disgusted at the notion, really. Mark deserved better.
No, we're not together but she told me she was going away with Corby and I..."
"Believed her?" I chuckled. "I don't want to talk about Suzy." I looked around the room at the delicious reminders of a sex romp gone wild and my lips curved in a meaningful smile.
Mark locked eyes with Corby and then moved toward me. "Are you taking turns with these two Cassie?"
Steve stepped forward, as if he needed to protect me. Corby took my left hand and Steve took my right. It was a sign, a significant meaning they wanted Mark to understand. While I didn't want to give any of them an upper hand now, I damn sure didn't want Mark to think he'd earn a chance too. This wasn't about sex---it wasn't about the sinful things we all were able to do in the bedroom. It was about a relationship that was going to work because we didn't have any other options but to make it work.
"I'm not going to talk about this with you, Mark and we both know why." Corby dropped my hand and patted Mark on the back.
"You think this is going to work for you all?" Amusement danced across his face. "Come on, Corby. This is crazy. You've gone too far to hang onto a woman who doesn't want you."
"I do want him." I informed him.
"Let me guess," he paused as he looked first at Steve and then at his best friend. Corby was all smiles. You want them both on your terms, right?" He questioned me but his eyes pierced through Steve's.
Steve spoke up then. "I don't know, Mark. It seemed to work out pretty well. Come here, Cass. Let's try this again." He pulled me closer and soon I was firmly gripped against his side.
I forgot how Steve had smart-ass down to a creative art when it came to me and apparently, he stepped it up a notch with Mark there to give his glare of true disgust. Mainly because, it wasn't a hidden fact, Mark thought I was the hottest gal in the country and I was always more than willing to give him a wink when no one else was looking but that was as far as it went. Still, my bed was big enough for two but the thought of three...I stopped my wicked little mind from running rampant. Then, I allowed myself to admit it. Three would be the best of all worlds and I damn well realized why. Mouth, ass, pussy---three might work rather well.
The tone in Steve's voice quickly gained my attention.
"I don't see where this concerns you or Suzy, if you want to know the truth." Steve had the opportunity to spend time with the odd couple on more than one occasion and he didn't particularly care for the way Mark looked at me. I'd noticed before. Mark always stared at me like he could finger fuck me in a crowded room. Sometimes, I thought he'd make a move but he never did. We flirted, exchanged heated stares but beyond that, it never went anywhere.
Mark stood back and glared at me in disbelief. "Well, isn't this cozy.
You got a pretty good deal here, didn't you?" He sneered. "So you've both been declared the winners?" His eyes lingered back and forth between men.
"This isn't about a game, Mark and I'm tired of everyone who has implied it is one. That includes you and Suzy. I don't think it's any of your business." I didn't care what they thought.
Corby locked gazes with Mark. "Don't, man. Don't even think about it."
But he did.
Mark turned to me and he let me know something I'd known all along because Corby shared his suspicions with me on more than one occasion.
"Well, if it had been a game, lover, I would've been the first in line to play."
A suggestive twinkle in his eyes allowed his focus to remain on my chest.
After an uncomfortable silence, he shook hands with Steve and patted Corby on the back. "So where do you go from here?" Mark couldn't keep his eyes from drifting to the sofa where the tubes of lubricants were and then
to the bed. He stooped over at one point and picked up the remains of my thong. "Nice." He bit down on his lower lip and held it under his teeth.
Corby felt sorry for his friend and I understood it but I had my hands full with two men. I hoped like hell he didn't want to share me with a third.
And then again, I hoped like hell he did.
"Where will you go from here?" Mark questioned again.
"Home." I told him.
"Where?" Mark asked.
Steve answered. "To the one she will always find in me."
"Same here." Corby replied.
"I see." Mark rubbed his chin. "The media is going to eat the three of you alive."
Corby narrowed his gaze and glared, damn near saw through him as he stared. "Not if they don't know about it."
"She loves us both. You know this, don't you?" Steve acted like he might even expect Mark to understand it.
He looked away from Steve and focused on Corby again.
Corby stuck his hands in his pockets. "What can I say. I love football. I love to bet on a horse race. I love a lot of things but man, Cassie is...different. You've said it yourself. I'm a lucky man. So what if she loves us both? I'm not asking her to choose."
"This is mighty convenient for you, isn't it Steve?" Mark questioned.
Corby continued, "I used to ask myself what Steve could give her that she didn't already find with me and now I know it's more than who the better man is or who can give her most of what she needs. Just because doesn't mean love doesn't exists within the realm of them. Sexual hunger allows us to cross certain barriers but love, man love does things to a man that you can't even imagine."
"I think I have an idea." Mark's eyes locked on mine.
"I gave lust far too much credit---love can easily exist where lust first originated and that's honestly what worries me most about the way you look at Cassie too. It always has and now I don't have to worry about it alone---
Steve can help me keep an eye on you two." Corby's lips formed a tight line as he looked over at me and then at Steve, who was ready with a reply.
"The hell I will."
We said our goodbyes to Steve and I boarded a plane with Mark and Corby. I immediately felt the loss and the sudden replacement. I knew we'd only be a few hours ahead of Steve by the time we made it through the airports but it didn't matter, I missed him. I ached for him in ways a woman shouldn't ache for another man but as I held tightly to Corby's hand, I was also hopelessly in love with my husband. More than I ever thought was possible.
Somewhere between Memphis and Dallas, Mark leaned over and carefully explained to me the way he interpreted our new living arrangements. My palm rested in Corby's open hand as I listened to his best friend make his final judgments. Corby's light snoring proved he wasn't aware of our conversation.
"Cassie, Corby didn't care why you chose him, or how---only that he came out the winner once again." His lips curved up in a peculiar smile.
"Corby Teller always wins, Cassie. Always."
I settled back into my seat and closed my eyes. I felt him watching me and I pressed my hand into Corby's and held it tight. He seemed to clutch it more than before. My head instinctively fell to the right side a few minutes later as I tried to fight off sleep. I opened my eyes to Mark's seductive gaze.
We stayed that way for longer than what I imagined Steve or Corby would've liked.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes again. I felt his hot breath on my lips and I didn't try to stop him. I let him plant a simple kiss on my mouth and never parted my lips to accept it but I never denied it by pushing him away.
"Mmmm..." I took a deep breath and let it out before I looked into the eyes of a man who'd craved me since the day he'd met me. "Mark, just for
the record, Cassie Teller always wins too." I allowed my lips to curve in a deplorable but meaningful expression.
"Always?" He asked.
"Yes." I responded.
"I'm glad to know it...because I'm the next prize."
A few hours later, I stepped into the limousine at the airport, I sank into the rich leather and thought about everything that had happened to me over the past twelve months. I'd had one hell of a year. I'd become quite the screw-up but heck, life needed to be lived. I just chose to make it complicated. I swiped away a tear as the limo backed away from the concrete curb. Corby pulled me close to him and held my head tight against his chest. "Welcome home, baby." He kissed the top of my head.
"Corby, things are changing so fast now." If he only knew.
He smiled and kissed me again. "You have me and you have Steve.
We're going to take care of you. I promise. You'll never want for anything more." He pulled me in for a long sensual kiss and then gave the driver instructions before he pressed the button and the divider window separated us from the limousine chauffeur.
I swallowed down, no choked on it really, the declaration he made.
Around the same time, I saw Mark walking toward the car. He tapped on the glass.
Corby opened the door. "I hope you don't mind. I told him I would give him a lift."
Since we lived on the same street, I expected it. Typically, I didn't see Corby without Mark when we were in Dallas. They were inseparable.
As soon as he slid inside, I felt like I was under the scrutiny of both men. Corby pulled me against him and rested his palm against my ass. "I have one well satisfied lady." He told Mark.
Mark smirked. "Is that right?"
"It is." Corby swatted my ass with a playful smack.
Mark's dark eyes carefully watched as Corby's fingers ran back and forth over my hip, thigh, and leg. "I wasn't asking you Teller. I'm asking the sexy lady next to you." He licked his lips and his gaze settled on my chest.
Corby stared blankly at his best friend before he released me. "Tell him how I make all of your dreams come true, baby."
"Yes, he does." I agreed.
"Tell him how anything you want, you get."
I had to agree again. "It's true."
The men laughed as Mark pulled a beer from the icebox.
Corby reached for a drink too and kissed my knee in a playful gesture before pulling me in for a deeply satisfying kiss. As he released me, he added something more. "If you ever want anything, all you have to do is ask."
"I know." I looked at Mark and then back at Corby. "And I'm asking."
Corby didn't have a clue what he'd missed and I was sure Steve would be mad as hell but I did have an insatiable appetite to consider.
"Then ask. Whatever it is you want, just name it."
"Mark." I looked at the man seated across from my husband and I crossed my legs in a fashion that left nothing to the imagination, after all panties were so over-rated when a woman wore a solid white dress. As my knees parted, I licked my lips and offered Mark the best view a gal had to give. "And I'd like to have him soon."
My name is Cassie Teller. I'm addicted to a man I am now permitted to love, a man who left me forever marked by an everlasting seed of consequences entwined only by his love. After I lost the child we conceived, everything changed in an instant. And now, I want another unconditional love and there are three men---not two---who can and will offer me everything.
THE END
WWW.DESTINYBLAINE.COM
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Destiny Blaine lives in Tennessee with her husband and two teenagers.
The family is sports-oriented and spends a lot of time in sports complex centers around the country traveling with various high performance teams.
Destiny's favorite pastime is still reading and playing casino craps or watching football games ties for a close second. She always enjoys spending time with family and friends. She has plenty of family to arrange outings whenever she isn't working---a nice blessing and she counts each of them whenever she's able to find all family members under one roof.
Destiny has various novels and novellas due out in and . You can find out more about these works of fiction and non-fiction by logging on to her website at www.destinyblaine.com. Destiny also has an active MySpace site where she interacts with readers daily. Check her out at www.myspace.com/destinyblaine.
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