Free Spirits Shared by Jory Strong

the truth.
    Hell, now that the brass ring was almost in
their hands, he and Tekoa could put off kissing if that's what it
took for her to feel completely secure. She was worth suffering for
because life without her would be bleak.
    "I love you, babe," he said, aware of Tekoa
up and moving around but too drowsy and comfortable to roll away
from Jess.
    Tekoa padded silently to the bathroom then
slipped into the shower. Was it the drink he'd passed on to Clay
and Jessica that had given them the stamina for a long night of
lovemaking? Or maybe this was normal for them?
    They were going to kill him with pleasure if
the latter was true. Jerking off in the same room with his two
mates was better than the intercourse he'd had to date. Not that he
wanted to make a habit of substituting his hand for the real
thing.
    He turned on the shower and hot water struck
his chest and stomach and cock. Lathering his hands, he made a
purely functional pass over his balls and along his shaft.
    His mates.
    The wry smile returned. When Clay was
unknown and unconscious it'd been easy to think of him in those
terms. But now the word partner was a better fit.
    Clay's personality was too big, his attitude
too dominant to be anything other than an equal. Not that Jessica
was less, she was everything. She was the one who would hold them
all together.
    This reality was so different than the one
he'd anticipated when Jess passed between the totem poles and drew
his Thunderbird spirit home.
    He closed his eyes and tilted his face
upward. Rubbed a hand against his heart, massaging away a sudden
tightness. They had a life elsewhere. They weren't free spirits
looking for a place to relocate.
    If he couldn't convince them to stay, to
make their home here…
    The thought of leaving brought a
knife-strike of pain.
    He pressed his fingertips to his heart,
fought pain with pain, fear with the belief that it would work out,
that they wouldn't have been chosen as his mates otherwise.
    He rinsed, left the shower and towel-dried,
then silently moved to the bed. Clay's chest was pressed to
Jessica's back. His arm was draped possessively over her side.
    In the firelight their faces were chiseled
perfection. Clay's strong, as fiercely masculine in sleep as he was
awake, while Jessica's was exquisitely feminine, vulnerable.
    They were both beautiful. Breathtaking.
    He lightly stroked Jessica's cheek and her
smile swelled his heart. He cupped Clay's upper arm and the hard
strength beneath his palm sent a shot of pleasure straight to his
dick.
    Jessica first. Then later, when they were
sure she accepted it fully, he and Clay would become lovers.
    * * * * *
    Jessica woke with Clay's warm chest
plastered against her back and his hard cock cushioned by her
buttocks. Above them rain pounded against the roof in a steady beat
but it didn't outpace the sudden racing of her heart.
    Heat rushed into her face. And that heat was
followed by a hotter rush of it to her pussy.
    They'd had sex with Tekoa listening,
probably watching.
    She pressed her thighs together but that
made her more aware of swollen lower lips and slick arousal. She'd
known what would happen when she got into bed. And she didn't
regret it. She just had to face it.
    Thunder rolled above them. She turned toward
Clay and opened her eyes.
    Tekoa was standing in the space that served
as his office, engrossed in something either on his computer or on
his desk. He was in jeans and a navy blue flannel shirt with black
stripes, his feet bare, dark against the pale blue of a small area
rug.
    His hair was braided and it was too easy to
imagine undoing the braid and combing her fingers through long
strands of black hair. To imagine that hair draped over her thighs
as he put his mouth on her pussy.
    Even in profile he called to her with his
innate strength. He was a man who could be trusted, counted on. He
was a man whose protective nature and sense of duty had led him to
become a sheriff.
    Liquid heat swirled in her stomach