When Magnus jerked his mouth free, Trey was panting. More so when Magnus pressed his mouth to his ear. He could feel the warmth of his breath, but it was the words that nearly undid him.
“I need you, Trey,” Magnus whispered, his voice so soft it could’ve been Trey’s imagination. “I need to feel you inside me. Filling me. Stretching me.Fuckingme.”
A raspy groan escaped him despite his best efforts.
Magnus’s hips pumped as Trey continued to stroke him. He managed to slow things down, tightening his grip and taking back the control Magnus was working to strip from him.
Magnus shoved his shorts down his hips, freeing his cock and giving Trey more access.
It wouldn’t be nearly enough, but for now, he was going to settle for getting this man off. Once he did that, he’d go home, take a shower, and let his hand and his imagination sate him enough so that, hopefully, he could sleep tonight.
***
Ava curled up silently on the couch, feigning sleep. It was a skill she’d honed many years ago, starting first when she was dealing with her mother. Then it had become second nature after she’d married a monster. It didn’t get by her that two of the most influential people in her life had refused to give her any breathing room.
These days, she did it for a similar reason, but not because she felt suffocated. While Magnus hovered like a mama bear protecting her cub—a fact she reminded him of constantly—Ava didn’t purposely avoid him for her benefit. It was more for his. She appreciated everything he’d done and all he was continuing to do, but she hated that she’d become such a burden on him.
The man she considered her best friend and one of the only people she trusted implicitly had become her caretaker. Magnus spent every waking hour, and even some when he should be sleeping, ensuring she was fed, hydrated, and comfortable. She wasn’t sure how he had any time to simply be, thanks to all his efforts to look after her. Worse than that, she didn’t need a flashing neon sign to notice that her presence had done some serious damage to his love life.
At this very moment, she could hear Magnus in the kitchen with Trey. They were speaking in hushed tones, so she couldn’t make out what they were saying, but it sounded like every other conversation they’d had as of late. Kinda friendly but with a hint of desperate undertones. She related it to her relationship with ice cream. There were those moments when you craved it so much, but you knew by giving in, you’d be required to do some extra walking to burn it off, so it was easier to resist. But the longer you did, the more intense that craving became, until you snapped and gobbled down an entire pint.
Yep. That was Magnus and Trey. One was the pint of Ben & Jerry’s, the other the spoon. Both were necessary to satisfy that craving, and at some point, they would make contact.
Like they were doing right this minute.
Through slitted eyes, she watched the open doorway, waiting for one of them to appear. She didn’t care which of them stepped into view, because they were both delicious to look at. Magnus and his ridiculously hot body, all those muscles covered by sun-bronzed skin. She appreciated the fact he liked to walk around the house without a shirt on … because eye candy, anyone?
Then there was Trey … oh what she could say about Trey Walker. Six feet, three inches of lean, succulent man. There was so much about him that she found hot, but mostly it had to do with the hair and the beard. Something about the long hair set her girly parts aflame. While on the outside he looked like a bad boy, deep down, she knew he had the heart of a kitten.
They were both yummy.
Doubly yummy when she could catch a glimpse of them making out when they didn’t think she could see them. Those instances were the highlight of her day. Seeing two fine-ass men lip-locked and groaning … she needed a fan.
Hence the reason she found herself feigning sleep so often. It helped that she no longer whiled away hours in a daze, numbed out by pain medication that worked wonders on her physical pain but did nothing for her mental anguish.
Of course, Magnus was still convinced her broken bones were never going to heal, that she would forever be walking around with a limp due to the multiple fractures she’d sustained to her tibia and fibula in her right leg, plus the shattered ankle the doctors had surgically repaired. Or she’d never carry her purse again because her clavicle had been fractured and they’d surgically repaired it with screws. Or she’d never write a love note to anyone since her wrist and elbow had been busted.
But the fact was, she was healed—her shoes, purse, and those future love notes had nothing to worry about. Her stamina had returned, and the pain had diminished. Her bones had knitted back together thanks to the magic of surgery and modern medicine. She could walk, talk, think, and probably even drive if Magnus would stop hovering long enough for her to steal his keys. Her hair was even growing out, a cute little pixie cut she was starting to like.
And fine, she still limped when she didn’t consciously think about walking. And there were twinges in her shoulder from time to time. Usually, only when she lifted her arm over her head, which she rarely did. And once in a while, there’d be an ache in her wrist or a pain in her shin. She wasn’t without the scars as reminders, but for the most part, she was as close to one hundred percent as she was going to get. Considering what she’d been through, Ava preferred the termhealed.
More importantly, from a mental perspective, she wanted to be normal again.
The problem was Magnus wasn’t ready for her to be healed. Ava was sure he needed a reason to hover, and insisting that she wasn’t one hundred percent was his way of keeping her on this couch. She knew if Magnus had his way, she’d be on bed rest—or couch rest as was the case now—for the foreseeable future.
So not happening.
Although Magnus babied her like she was still broken and battered, she couldn’t keep going on like this. One of these days, she expected to wake up to find her mind was also on the mend. When that day came, she would have to leave, have to go back to the life she’d abandoned and stop pretending it hadn’t happened. She wasn’t ready for that yet, which was the only reason she continued to humor Magnus, allowing him to dote on her.
Ava thought for sure he would stop when the doctor had released her from his care, signing off on her physical progress even though he’d left her with a parting suggestion that she seek therapy to deal with the mental damage she’d incurred from the ordeal. She’d promised him she would, because somewhere deep down, she knew it was necessary, but the day she accepted that, it would mean she was ready to move on to the next phase of her life. Whatever that might be.
Right now, it was easier to pretend this was her new life, and Magnus and Trey were part of it.
It was selfish on her part, but she wasn’t ready to let them go. She wasn’t prepared to spend her life alone, to start over, to figure out what the next steps were.
“Trey … oh, fuck … let me touch you.”
Ava’s body flashed hot, but she pretended the air conditioner was broken and that she wasn’t having a thermonuclear reaction to him and Trey getting down and dirty in the kitchen. There was something extremely hot about those two sexy men doing wicked things to one another. And, boy, did they. She’d witnessed one particular moment when Magnus had been on his knees in front of Trey…
