Devil's Own (Palm Island Book 6), page 20
Aside from yesterday when I caught him off guard in Devil’s lounge clothes, Angel is always dressed very nicely. It looks like he’s put in a little extra effort tonight though. His curls are tamed, and his khakis are pressed. Instead of a polo, he’s wearing a light blue button-up shirt, with the sleeves rolled up just below his elbows.
I’m expecting him to go straight to Devil first, but he closes the space between us in two long strides and pulls me into his arms. His lips are soft against mine, the mildly tangy taste of some kind of sauce lingering on his mouth.
“You’re home.” He wasn’t talking to me, was he? My heart flails wildly, thumping against my ribcage hard enough that Angel can probably feel it against his chest. I can certainly feel the steady, even beat of his. If he was, that’s insane. It’s way too fast. So why did it sound so damn nice?
He breaks the kiss, but he doesn’t let go of me. Angel keeps one arm around me, reaching out for Devil with the other, dragging his husband close to welcome him home with a kiss too. They’re so close that I can’t look away, and I don’t think they want me to. The butterflies that exploded in my stomach when Angel kissed me react just as wildly to watching their lips slide against each other. Their passion for each other is so palpable it could easily suffocate me, but instead, I breathe into it. I fill my lungs with it, and saturate my soul in it.
Devil smiles against Angel’s lips and then swipes his tongue along the seam of them.
“Mm, making your dad’s honey barbeque chicken?” he guesses, and Angel grins. “Have I told you I love you lately?”
Angel chuckles, leaning out of the kiss and looking at me again.
“It’s Devil’s favorite,” he explains.
“Oh, that’s so sweet.” I glance over at Devil, who looks smitten with his husband, which really isn’t anything new, but I’m guessing this must be some impressive chicken.
“Come on inside. Everything is almost ready. I even pulled out a bottle of wine I’ve been saving for ages, just waiting for a special occasion.” Angel’s smile turns shy, like it’s just occurring to him that it might seem like he’s trying too hard.
“No one has ever opened a special bottle of wine just for me before. Thank you.” I kiss his cheek, and he blushes.
“Careful, sweetheart. Next time you come over, he’ll open a whole case of wine for you,” Devil says.
“Oh right, like I’m the only one with no chill.” Angel rolls his eyes at his husband. The oven timer sounds from the kitchen. “Perfect. Go take a seat in the dining room, and I’ll be right in with dinner.”
He waves us towards the dining room and hurries back to the kitchen.
I’ve only been in the dining room during their massive annual New Year’s Eve parties. It feels different without a dozen people all crowded around the table. It feels huge actually, with high ceilings and the long table in the middle of the room. Angel has managed to make it feel intimate and cozy though. The lights are dimmed and a candle is flickering at the end of the table where three places are set. As promised, there’s a bottle of wine open so it can breathe. There’s a Billie Holiday album playing on the record player in the corner of the room to add to the ambience.
Devil hurries over to pull out a chair for me, and I raise my eyebrows.
“Wow, you two really take the date thing seriously,” I tease, my heart fluttering frantically again.
“Too much?” He pushes my chair back in as I sit down.
I purse my lips. Part of me wants to say ‘Yes, way too much. Let’s ease it back to the part where this was just casual sex, and my panic attacks were from worrying I was going to get hurt instead of about how easy and natural it feels to let go and just fall.’ I shake my head instead though.
“It’s not too much. It’s nice,” I say around the tightness in my throat.
“Good. And don’t worry, we’re not always this formal. We eat at the kitchen island more often than not. We’re just trying to impress you tonight.” He winks.
“Good to know.” I laugh. “Although, I think you’re lying about Angel. He’s very comfortable with the whole formal thing.”
Devil throws back his head and laughs.
“Yeah, you’ve got him there. His upbringing was stuffy, to say the least, and he has trouble shaking it sometimes. I’ll tell you a secret though…” He crooks his finger, beckoning me to lean in closer as he drops his voice. “When he’s feeling really wild, he leaves all of his polo buttons undone.”
I snort.
Angel bustles through the swinging door that separates the kitchen from the dining room, carrying two serving trays. Devil jumps up from his seat to help.
“Sit, I’ve got it,” Angel assures him, giving me a smile that says ‘silly, doting man,’ like the two of us are sharing a little secret about Devil. Angel sets the serving trays down on the table, and Devil immediately starts to dish food out onto our plates.
Just so I don’t feel completely useless, I reach for the bottle of wine and fill all three of our glasses. As Angel goes around to the other side of the table to take his seat, it strikes me how easy it is to find their rhythm, to fall into place without even trying, passing out full wineglasses while they navigate the food and plates, like a well-oiled machine.
Once everyone has food and drink in front of them, Angel holds up his wineglass and looks across the table at me.
“To first dates,” he says, and I almost laugh at how hard he’s trying to make it extra, super clear that this is in fact a date, lest I get the wrong impression. Then, he taps his glass to mine.
“Oh, is this a date?” I say with mock innocence.
Devil chuckles, catching my eye and holding up his own glass. “To keeping Angel on his toes,” he says with another wink, tinking our glasses together too.
I laugh and take a sip of the wine.
DEVIL
I can hardly take my eyes off either of them long enough to worry about my own dinner. Angel’s jittery, excited energy simmers to a more natural level while we eat, and Raven’s smiles go from tight and panicked to relaxed and genuine.
“This chicken is incredible.” Raven moans, licking a bit of stray sauce off his lip. I’ve teased Angel over the years that the honey sauce is so good I want to cover him in it and lick it off. That idea is sounding twice as good now. I can lick them both, or Raven can help me map Angel’s sticky, sauced body with nothing but our tongues. I’m not a picky man.
Angel’s foot nudges mine under the table, and his smile widens. He’s such a praise slut. It might have been one of the first things I fell in love with about him—how sweetly he always blushed and wordlessly begged for more with frantic kisses in response to any and all compliments.
“Second best thing I’ve ever had in my mouth.” I wink at my husband, then turn my smirk on Raven. “We’ll see if we can make it the third best before the night is over.”
Raven sputters into his wineglass. He reaches for his napkin to dab at his nose and then straightens his shoulders and pins me with a playfully haughty expression.
“Bit presumptuous, don’t you think?” He flutters his eyelashes. “I’m a classy man, you know. I don’t just fall into someone’s bed on the first date.”
Angel cocks his head and flashes a predatory grin. “How about the floor then?”
Raven laughs again, then feigns a perfectly demure look that’s completely at odds with the fact that I’m almost positive he’s not wearing any underwear. “We’ll see how the night goes.”
The flirtation in his voice strokes my cock to life, and the smolder in Angel’s eyes tells me he’s feeling the exact same way.
My husband dabs his mouth with his napkin, then clears his throat.
“So tell me, little bird, what’s your favorite meal?” He tries to sound casual, but I can hear the hope in his voice, the plans already forming to have Raven over again so he can impress him with whatever his favorite dinner is.
“Jambalaya,” Raven says with a wistful smile. “I asked Storm to make some for me once, and it was good…” He trails off, poking at his vegetables with his fork for a second. “But fancy good, not jambalaya good, if that makes sense?”
“It does,” I say.
Angel nods. “Well, if the chef couldn’t get it right, I doubt I can. But maybe you could teach me?”
My heart beats hard, imagining the three of us in the cavernous kitchen, the spicy smell of sausage and shrimp simmering on the stove… almost like a family. Angel meets my eye and the longing shining back at me reflects the feeling in my chest. I know he’s picturing the same thing.
Raven’s lips twitch and he gives a single nod. “That would be nice.”
“It’s a date?” I raise an eyebrow and nudge his foot under the table, just wanting a little bit of subtle contact.
“It’s a date,” Raven echoes, just like he did last night when Angel asked.
Once we’re finished eating, I clear the table while Angel tops up the wine in our glasses to finish off the bottle, then drags Raven into the living room. I take my time washing the dishes to give them a few minutes alone. The music is still playing softly from the dining room, so I can’t hear if the two of them have turned on the TV, if they’re talking, or if they’ve gone quiet. But that’s fine. They deserve some alone time to enjoy each other’s company.
I stack the last dish in the drying rack and then dry my hands on a towel. My heart is still beating harder than usual, my stomach twisting itself into eager knots. This isn’t just sex anymore, and I think we all know that. Raven might still be tiptoeing in with caution, but he feels it too.
I turn off the kitchen light and make my way to the living room. I find the two of them on the couch, with Raven’s legs over Angel’s, his back resting against the arm of the couch, their lips occupied in a slow kiss that’s full of heat I can feel from across the room. As soon as they sense my presence, they break the kiss and both look over at me, their lips damp and their cheeks already flushed.
Raven lifts his hand and crooks a finger at me.
“Did you decide you are that kind of guy after all?” I tease.
“For you two?” He bites his lip and looks from me to Angel. “I think I’d be any kind of guy.”
Angel cups his jaw and draws him in for another soft kiss “We just want you to be you, pretty thing,” he murmurs against his lips. “Always.”
Chapter 17
ANGEL
“So, what’s it going to be?” I ask with the softest nip of Raven’s bottom lip. “Do you want to see our bedroom, or do you prefer to be ravished right here on the floor?”
My pretty little bird shivers and meets my gaze. Up close like this, with our noses bumping against each other and our lips brushing, I can see the heat in his eyes, the last tendrils of fear and trepidation barely hanging on. He wants to trust us to catch him if—when—he falls, but he’s not quite there yet. It’s okay, little bird. We can be patient until you’re ready to see how serious we are about this.
He licks his lips. We’re so close that I can feel the wet drag of his tongue along the seam of my mouth, and I part my lips to taste him. My cock throbs and I hear the soft rumble of Devil’s suppressed needy sound, his hand coming to rest on the back of my neck with a gentle weight.
“Take me to bed,” Raven whispers.
My heart explodes into a gallop, and I kiss him again, slow and deep and full of so much hunger that we both moan. Devil’s grip on the back of my neck tightens, but beyond that, he doesn’t do anything to intrude on this brief moment of Raven and I doing our best to devour each other in the sweetest way possible.
Raven breaks the kiss first, his chest heaving with panting breaths. He tilts his head to look up at Devil standing over us. He drags his tongue over his wet, kiss-swollen lips again, and Devil chokes back another eager, horny noise. A slow smile stretches over Raven’s face, and he holds out a hand so Devil will help him up.
Always a pleaser, my husband does him one better, stooping down and lifting him off my lap. Raven shrieks and then laughs as Devil tosses him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, playfully grabbing his ass with one hand to keep him steady.
“Coming, love?” Devil quirks an eyebrow and grins, offering me his free hand.
“Not yet.” I give him my hand and let him pull me up off the couch. “But it looks like we all will be soon.”
“Talk, talk, talk.” Raven’s voice is muffled in his upside-down position over Devil’s shoulder. “You two really love your coy innuendos.”
I bark out a laugh and run my hands up the backs of Raven’s exposed thighs, not stopping when I reach his shorts, but sliding under them to squeeze the bare globes of his perky ass.
I hum thoughtfully. “How about this, little bird, we’re going to take you upstairs and then I’m going to shove my tongue in your ass and eat you out until you’re crying for my cock. Then, Devil and I are going to take turns wrecking your sweet little hole. Still too coy?”
He gasps and squirms, and the look in Devil’s eyes intensifies.
“Please,” Raven whispers.
“If you’re going to ask so nicely…” Devil murmurs, twisting his lips in a sultry grin. I slip my hands out of Raven’s shorts and lead the way up the stairs to our bedroom.
It’s hard to say how many times over the past handful of years I’ve daydreamed about showing Raven our bedroom. I imagined the way his eyes would widen at the size of our custom bed, adorned with Egyptian cotton sheets and a padded headboard. I’ve thought about the delight he would get from the pair of doors that open onto our private balcony with a breathtaking view of the ocean. But tonight, all I want is for him to be so distracted by the two of us that the setting is the last thing on his mind. There will be other nights for me to enjoy his reaction to the suite… and plenty of mornings too, if he allows them.
I open the door and flip on the light, using the dimmer setting on the switch so it’s not too bright, but still enough for us to see each other. I never understood making love in the dark unless it’s part of a kinky game where you’re playing at being strangers. I want to see the passion in every flutter of my lovers’ eyelashes and the flush on their skin as I take them apart.
Devil lowers Raven to the bed and crawls on top of him, hovering over him on his hands and knees. My heart stutters and swells at the sight of the two of them, pausing for a few seconds and just staring at each other. Raven puts his hand right on the center of Devil’s chest and my own palm pulses as if I can feel his heartbeat too, thundering wildly with the thrill of anticipation.
“Am I allowed to say sweet things to you yet, kitten? Or is that still too much?”
Raven’s fingers clench around Devil’s t-shirt and he arches up underneath him with a helpless look written all over his pretty face.
“Only things you really mean,” Raven whispers.
My heart clenches for him. I want to crawl onto the bed next to them and cover Raven’s face in kisses, fill him up with every compliment I can think of until he believes every last one. But it feels like this moment is for them. And I know without a doubt that Devil has it covered.
“Oh, sweetheart,” he murmurs, sinking deeper into Raven and nuzzling their noses together. “I haven’t said a single word to you that I haven’t meant. You’re beautiful.” Devil pecks Raven’s lips gently. “You’re sweet.” Peck. “There’s something so real and raw and magnetic about you that’s had my head turned around since the day we met.” The next kiss isn’t just a brief touch, but a full, claiming kiss.
Raven lets out a muffled moan and arches up against Devil’s body again. He rolls his hips to meet him, and they both make more needy, muffled sounds. Devil fists a handful of the bedspread with one hand while he tangles the other in Raven’s hair, his ass flexing in his jeans with every thrust.
My whole body vibrates and pulses, from the roots of my hair to my achingly hard cock, all the way down to my toes. I can’t bring myself to look away from them while my fingers work on autopilot, unbuttoning my shirt. Watching them grapple with each other’s clothes while trading stifled sounds around their sliding tongues is better than any porn. I carelessly toss my clothes vaguely in the direction of the hamper, for once not caring that they’ll wrinkle or that I’ll have to pick them up later.
Devil’s jeans and underwear end up crumpled next to the bed, and I fist my cock as I watch Raven lift his hips so Devil can tug his shorts down. His cock springs free to slap against his belly.
“I knew you weren’t wearing any underwear,” Devil says with a chuckle.
“Are you the psychic now?” Raven teases, and then they both look over at me. “Are you planning to just watch?” He drags his hungry gaze up and down my naked body, lingering on my hand wrapped around my cock. A string of clear, sticky precum leaks from my slit and my balls are already aching.
“I didn’t want to interrupt.” I finally climb onto the bed next to them, laying myself out right next to Raven.
He reaches for my cock, using one finger to catch the rope of precum. He brings his glistening finger to Devil’s mouth and smears my precum over his lips like he’s applying lip gloss. Devil’s eyes flutter and he moans from deep in his chest, his cock jerking hard enough that it bumps against Raven’s in spite of the space he’s still keeping between them.
I can’t even bring myself to drag in a breath as I watch them, waiting to see what’s going to happen next. Devil’s lips are parted and his eyes are dark—apparently, he’s holding his breath for the same reason.
Raven tangles his fingers in my hair and then Devil’s, dragging us both forward until all three of our mouths meet at once. I shiver at the flash of heat that races down my spine. The salty flavor of my precum on Devil’s lips mixes with the taste of the wine that’s still lingering on all of our mouths, and the distinct sweetness that’s natural to each of them. It feels like all the pieces fall into place at once as all three of our tongues stroke and slide against each other, our lips finding a rhythm that’s frantic and desperate and so fucking perfect I almost want to cry.
