“Leave him alone,” Everett growled. The sound was a low rumbling command rather than a suggestion. The power in it made Jayne shiver, and he glanced at Everett to try to read the situation.
Caleb wasn’t the only one who could help Jayne through his heat. Physically, Everett was stronger, and the rigid way his jaw was set suggested that if Caleb did or said the wrong thing, Everett wouldn’t hesitate to step in and deal with it. Where Caleb was talk, Everett was action. Jayne would trust his care to them both.
“Both of you are acting like you’ve been body-snatched,” Caleb said. He glanced momentarily at Jayne, then locked his attention on Everett and scowled. “What the hell has gotten into you?”
“Nothing’s going on,” Jayne said quickly. If he didn’t beat Everett to an explanation, Everett might try to keep Jayne to himself, and that wasn’t what he wanted. Even addled by heat, Jayne knew that he needed them both. “I just… you know. I think we should go to bed. Right now. Immediately.”
No!an insistent voice in his head protested—the last shred of his rationality.This isn’t what you want. This is theoppositeof what you want.
But Jayne couldn’t take back his words, and he couldn’t stop from thinking that slipping between the sheets with two handsome men who could knot him all night long wasn’t just a good idea, but thebestidea.
No, no, no.
Everett shook his head, and all at once, the expression on Caleb’s face went slack. His eyes rounded with surprise, and he looked at Jayne in what appeared to be horror.
Thanks, dickwad,the rational sliver of Jayne’s mind quipped from the dark, unruly corner his biology had stuffed it into.
“Caleb, c’mon.” Everett stood, unfolding from the couch with effortless ease of movement. Most of the time, such a simple gesture wouldn’t have caught Jayne’s eye, but right now, his attention was hyper-focused on small details. He noticed the way Everett’s shoulders rolled as he pushed himself up from the couch and imagined the elegant strength of his toned thighs and calves beneath his jeans. He saw the slight bulge behind Everett’s fly, and the way the tendons of his hands protruded as he clenched his fists, doing his best to resist taking advantage of the fertile, soon-to-be nympho in front of him.
Fuck,was he hot.
Jayne let his gaze linger. Heat flooded his cheeks, then crept down his neck and spread along his collarbone before tumbling down his chest. Unable to tolerate the thin sheen of perspiration spreading across his skin and sticking his shirt in place, he undid its top button and fanned the material, seeking relief. It was little help. The longer his heat went on, the more unbearable it would become.
Unless he took heat blockers.
Fuck, where were they?
And his contraceptives?
In anticipation of this moment, Jayne had made sure he had them in the condo. Were they in the guest bathroom? The bedroom? The details were hazy. If they were in the bedroom, he was shit out of luck—with Shep so recently having popped a knot, Jayne wasn’t going to go anywhere near him while he was in heat. Caleb and Everett would have to find them, and Jayne got the impression that they wouldn’t be interested in looking.
Which meant they were going to conceive.
Jayne’s dick twitched at the thought. Without preventative medication, Caleb and Everett would fuck a baby into him. The rational part of his mind screamed in protest and rattled at the bars of its cage, but the heat smothered it and downplayed its importance. It made Jayne want to be unsafe. It made him want another child.
Caleb got up next, and Jayne’s gaze swiveled in his direction, observing the sleek, able way that Caleb moved and all of the finer features of his body. Sophistication and class. Old money in a new body. Scathing humor. Eyes that sparkled like they hid unspoken jokes.
Jayne’s cock throbbed. They could make a pretty baby together—a dark-haired troublemaker with a mouth that wouldn’t quit.
Don’t let them do it. Don’t let them take you. This isn’t what you need.
Caleb held out his hand, and Jayne didn’t think twice about taking it. The thrill of being pulled to his feet by a strong, capable hand rushed through him like ice, putting a momentary damper on the fire burning within.
“Take me to bed,” Jayne whispered, fitting himself to Caleb’s chest. “Make me yours. I want you. I want you both.”
“And we want you, too.” Everett took Jayne’s free hand and tugged gently, and Jayne, more than willing to be led, left the shelter he’d found with Caleb to cozy up to Everett. Once he’d settled, Everett ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back from his forehead. He placed a tender kiss on the spot he’d just cleared, then led Jayne away from the living room in the direction of the bedroom. “Caleb and I are here for you. Let’s go make this right.”
40
Jayne
Heat.
The word curled as it left Everett’s lips like paper exposed to moisture, and the sound of it alone doused Jayne with need. All he wanted was to be knotted. Knotted, filled, and bred. If it happened, the fire burning beneath his skin would be extinguished, and the fog in his mind would clear.
Caleb and Everett could do that for him.
They loved and cared for Parker—they could love and care for a baby they’d helped father, too.
