“We got you heat blockers, too.” Caleb gestured at the pill bottle. “Those should be good, right? They’ll take care of things?”
“Yeah.” Jayne popped the first pill out of the blister pack. It was small—not even the size of a lentil—and white. Jayne popped the pill into his mouth and swallowed, then unscrewed the cap of the bottle and chased it with two heat blockers, which were larger in size, and much more benign.
As if knowing Jayne’s dastardly plan to defeat it, his heat began to swell in intensity again, drowning out the rational man he liked to think he was in favor of his biological imperative. Overheating, he cast his shirt into the tub and emptied his lungs with a deep-reaching sigh.
“It’s going to be okay,” Everett promised. He sat next to Jayne and slipped a hand onto his thigh. Jayne, unable to resist, moaned and pushed against his body, craving further contact. “We’re in this together. All of us. We’re not going to let anything happen to you.”
“I mean, nothing you don’t want, at least,” Caleb teased as he slotted into place at Jayne’s other side. He slid his hand over Jayne’s thigh as well, but was bolder than Everett with his touch—his fingers brushed Jayne’s bulge, setting off fireworks of desire all along the length of Jayne’s spine. “How long is it going to be before the blockers kick in and you’re you again?”
Jayne, heat-fueled and horny, wanted to say that he was totally himself, and that he was more than ready to hop into bed with both of them, but Caleb and Everett had given his rational mind grounds to fight, and with their assistance, it persisted. Until his heat was under control, consent was a moral gray area at best, and the three of them knew it. If Jayne didn’t struggle against his nature for himself, he did so on behalf of Caleb and Everett. If he ever did something to hurt them after all they’d done for him, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to forgive himself. “Half an hour.”
“Fuck.” Caleb took his hand away, then stood and paced the bathroom like a man incensed. “Just… fuck.” He punctuated the sentence with a sigh of resignation. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to hold out half an hour if I stay in here.”
“Why don’t you and Everett take a shower?” Jayne prompted. “I’ll go wait for you in the bedroom. The running water should help mitigate some of the pheromones I’m putting off, and with any luck, it’ll clear your heads. Plus, you know…” Jayne bit his bottom lip as he pictured Caleb and Everett, nude and wet, stroking each other to climax. “You can work off some steam.”
“You’ll be okay alone?” Everett asked cautiously. He removed his hand from Jayne’s thigh, seeming sold on the idea, but reluctant to follow it through.
Jayne tried to laugh, but the sound was too thin, and the noise was lost. Pleasure spiked in his gut, and he squirmed and closed his eyes, but allowed it to happen. Soon enough, it let him be. While the blockers wouldn’t take full effect until the half-hour mark, they were already making a difference.
“Yeah,” Jayne said when the latest wave of pleasure smoothed itself into nothingness. “I’ve got enough of my mind left that I won’t do something stupid. The blockers are doing their job. Just give it half an hour, okay? Have fun with each other, then after, come have fun with me.”
Caleb, whose pacing had become almost frenzied, stopped in front of Jayne, squatted before him, and kissed him fiercely. Craving his touch, Jayne kissed him back, matching his passion. It was a mistake. Need ripped through him like wildfire, devouring the oxygen in Jayne’s lungs. When the kiss broke, they were both breathless. Eager to put distance between himself and Caleb, Jayne rose to his feet on wobbling legs and took a few steps toward the bathroom door, but no matter how far he went, he couldn’t escape the lust scorching the dark depths of Caleb’s gaze.
It was easy to forget that Jayne wasn’t the only one struggling with his heat—Caleb and Everett were fighting against it, too.
“I’ll see you soon.” Jayne felt the next swelling surge of lust encroach, and he knew he had little time left before he lost himself again. “Have fun together, then come back to me.”
“Always,” Everett promised. He’d come to stand at Caleb’s side. While he hid his desire better than Caleb, Jayne saw it glint in his eyes.
In another universe, Jayne stayed with them in the bathroom. Overcome by lust, he’d shimmy out of his pants and peel off his slick-soaked boxer-briefs, then push Everett down onto the edge of the bathtub and ride him to orgasm. Exhausted, but still in need, he’d then give himself to Caleb in the shower, letting the showerhead soak them until the water went tepid, then cold. Jayne would take, and take, and take, until they had nothing more to give, exactly as he’d done to the one-night stands and temporary hookups he’d crossed paths with since leaving Bastian.
But relationships, Jayne had learned, weren’t only about take—in order to make it work, there had to be some give as well.
So Jayne gave.
As difficult as it was, he left them in the bathroom and went to wait for his blockers to kick in.
* * *
Half an hour later,Caleb and Everett left the bathroom entirely nude and joined him in bed. When they did it, they came for Jayne—not for his heat. It made all the difference in the world. No longer enslaved by biology, Caleb and Everett slipped beneath the sheets and came to Jayne, and Jayne, who was himself again, greeted them with long, passionate kisses that turned into more.
Neither of them would take his heat. Neither of them would use him.
They were equals, the three of them, and Jayne wouldn’t have it any other way.
41
Everett
The perfect, pale curves of Jayne’s ass sank over Caleb’s cock, and Everett watched in awe as his lover pushed inside. The moment it happened, Everett knew—Jayne gasped and panted, then perked his hips and let his head fall back until the base of his skull rested between his shoulder blades.
Gorgeous.
Need shot through Everett, demanding that he take, touch, and taste, but Jayne had made his choice, and Everett would respect it. Caleb was first, but all that meant was that Everett would get to watch while his lovers pleasured each other. Only a handful of seconds into it, and Everett was already eager to see more.
While Jayne panted and gasped, Caleb bit off a moan and bucked upward, burying himself as far as he could go. With each lift of Jayne’s hips, inches of Caleb’s slick-soaked cock appeared, then disappeared just as quickly when Jayne dropped back onto his lap. The rhythm they set was fueled by the urgent sexual energy between them. It sizzled in the air like grease on a pan—the hiss and pop unpredictable, but lively. Everett craved it, devoured it, and longed for more.
“Fuck,” Jayne whispered, his voice so strained, it almost snapped in half. “Oh fuck,yes!” He rode harder than before, his hips setting a desperate pace that pushed Caleb deeper into him. “More.More!”
