Elemental Pleasure Read online

  “You left us.” Lance wasn’t sure where the words came from or why it hurt so much to think about. His gut had been tied in knots ever since he and Preston woke to find her gone two days ago.

  “Yes. I left.” Her gaze focused on him. Lance wanted to grab her and kiss her, but he didn’t think that was wise. He couldn’t be sure, but he suspected the look on her face—eyes narrowed, lips curled—meant she’d as soon bite him as kiss him back.

  “Carly, you need to talk to us, not just walk away.” Preston slid one hand into the pocket of his suit pants.

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t be a part of this.” Carly’s words were cool. “I plan to ask the Grand Master for different partners. You two shouldn’t suffer any repercussions.”

  “So that’s it? You’re backing out?” Lance felt as if she’d punched him in the stomach. What the hell had they done to make her so angry?

  Her cool blue gaze settled on him. “You’re damn right I am. I won’t be some plaything the two of you use to mediate your interactions. I told you I didn’t want that and you ignored me.”

  “We didn’t,” Preston insisted, “or at least we didn’t mean to.”

  “That woman…the woman I was in Boston is not who I really am, not who I want to be.” She licked her lips and looked away. She took a deep breath. “I’m not weak.”

  “That’s not what I, we, thought you were.” Jesus. Weak? Is that how they’d made her feel? Lance ran a frustrated hand through his hair. One of the biggest perks of the Trinity Masters was that he didn’t have to think about this relationship shit. Math was black or white, right or wrong. Anything like this—that fell into the gray area—left Lance at a loss for answers.

  “I’m sorry if we went too fast. I think we were caught up in the moment,” Preston said.

  Luckily for Lance, he had Preston. Right now, he needed to fall back and trust that Preston could get them on solid ground with her.

  “Exactly. And in that moment, I became some mindless sex toy who couldn’t think or speak for herself.” She shook her head. “All I cared about was the sex, the pleasure.”

  “I don’t understand why that’s a bad thing.” Lance looked at Preston, hoping for a clue as to what the problem was, but the other man was watching Carly carefully.

  “You don’t?” She turned slightly and crossed her arms. It was a protective act, laced with irritation. “You don’t understand why I’m upset that only hours after saying I didn’t want to be put between the two of you that’s exactly what happened, and it was so fucking sexy and hot that I didn’t even care?”

  Silence fell. Lance knew he shouldn’t be, but he was thinking about how she’d looked as she knelt over him, her pink lips wrapped around his cock.

  Mercifully, Preston was there to respond correctly. In a straightforward, one-man, one-woman relationship, Lance was doomed to failure. With Preston as a buffer, there to run interference when Lance fucked up, he might just stand a fighting chance in this threesome.

  “So you enjoyed yourself?” Preston asked.

  “Of course I did. I’d have to be dead not to.”

  “Then don’t walk away. Because we,” Preston motioned between them, “are about more than sex. Do you know what Lance does for a living?”

  Carly raised a brow, and then shook her head.

  Lance took a chance, stepping closer to her. He was relieved when she didn’t move away. “I work for DARPA.”

  “The military R&D? What do you do?”

  “I’m a mathematician.”

  Carly’s lips pursed as she looked at them. “A mathematician for the military, a private sector chemist working on nanotech and a game developer.”

  Preston shook his head. “And a woman who created a program that thinks and reacts.”

  Lance didn’t understand the point Preston was trying to make. The facts weren’t adding up. “There’s no obvious connection between those things.”

  “Yet,” Preston said. “But just imagine what we might discover, might do, if we follow through and accept the Grand Master’s bidding.”

  For the first time, Lance understood the magnitude of who they were and what they could be together. The air grew thick with the weight of it.

  “What are you suggesting?” Carly asked.

  Preston smiled slightly. “Dinner tonight, at my house.”

  Carly looked at Lance. “All three of us?”

  “Yes,” Lance said. “I’m cooking.”

  Carly looked between them, eyes narrowed. “You’re cooking at his house?”

  “Yes.” Preston smiled at both of them.

  “Something’s different about the two of you.”

  “Lance and I had a chance to get to know and understand each other. We’d like to learn more about you. If you’ll let us.”

  She fell silent for a moment, glancing out the window.

  Lance looked at Preston. He wasn’t sure, but Lance didn’t think this was going well.

  Preston took a step closer to her. “Give us a chance, Carly. You have every right to be angry with us. We behaved badly, but that doesn’t mean you should leave us.”

  “Us?” She looked from Lance to Preston.

  Lance nodded. “Us.”

  An odd little smile crossed Carly’s face. For the first time since they’d entered the room, Lance felt a spark of hope. Maybe all was not ruined. Perhaps they could salvage this yet.

  “Dinner?” Preston motioned at himself and Lance. “With us?”

  Finally, Carly nodded. “A woman can hardly turn down that offer.”

  ~~~~

  Chapter Seven

  Carly laughed, holding out her wineglass so Preston could refill it. He lived in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights district in a two-story condo. It was tastefully decorated with bold colors and dark wood. She’d expected steak and potatoes from Lance, but he’d surprised both her and Preston with salmon en croûte, grilled bok choy and a strawberry and goat cheese salad.

  Carly had eaten more than she should have and drunk far too much of Preston’s excellent wine.

  After dinner, they retired to the L-shaped lipstick red couch.

  She felt comfortable, happy. These men were at ease with each other, the competitive streak that had led them to treat her so rudely apparently gone. It was hard to believe that only two days ago their interactions had pushed her into fleeing, but tonight there was no tension, only good company, stimulating conversation…and the electric thrill of sexual attraction.

  Carly sat in the middle, and when Preston claimed the corner, she lay back against him as if she’d done it a million times before, as if he really was her lover or boyfriend.

  After two days of turmoil and panic over leaving Preston and Lance, and what would happen if she asked the Grand Master for new partners, it felt as if a cable had snapped. The tension in her neck was gone, her shoulders suddenly loose, and the tightness in her chest had abated, allowing her to breathe again.

  She still wasn’t sure this would work, wasn’t sure she could really trust them to care for her, but if this wonderful evening had happened the first night in Boston, she suspected she never would have left. Lance and Preston were delightful company, each charming in his own way. Though they were very different, Carly imagined that in the real world she would have accepted an invitation for a date from either of them.

  Lance, a tea towel tucked in the waistband of his jeans, brought over a beautiful meringue pie.

  “My god,” Carly breathed. “That’s beautiful.”

  “I would do soufflé, but Preston doesn’t have a pan.”

  “I don’t cook.” Preston raised his glass and winked. “But I can pick nice wine.”

  Lance snorted. “I can tell you don’t cook. Who doesn’t own a garlic press or a cheese grater?”

  “Lance, no offense,” Carly said as she sat forward, accepting a slice of the pie, “but I would never have guessed you were a gourmet at heart.”

  “Recipes are math.”

 
“I suppose they are.” Carly took a bite and the sweet, light meringue melted on her tongue. “No, this is more than math. This is a gift.”

  Preston took his first bite. “I have to agree.”

  Lance smiled, then took a seat on the other side of Carly, plate in hand. Leaning against Preston once more, she threw one leg over Lance’s knees. He slid his fingers under the cuff of her jeans, kneading her calf with strong fingers. It felt good. It felt…right that they were both able to touch her. They enjoyed dessert in companionable silence before Preston put down his plate. The click of china against wood was loud in the suddenly quiet room.

  “Is everyone ready to talk?” Preston asked.

  “Yes,” Carly said, setting her plate down. By tacit agreement, they’d avoided discussing their relationship over dinner. Instead they’d talked about their work, their families, places they’d traveled—anything but the dilemma facing them.

  Carly rose, stepping over Preston’s legs, and took a seat in a chair on the other side of the coffee table. She wanted to be able to see them…and it was probably safer to be out of touching distance. The wine wasn’t simply relaxing her, it was loosening her grip on her libido as well. One night with Preston and Lance—despite her fear of losing control—left her desperate for another touch. Hopefully the physical distance would allow her to rein in those desires before tonight dissolved into a repeat of their first night together.

  “So…what do we do?” she asked.

  Carly and Lance both looked to Preston.

  “How we do this is entirely up to us. I don’t want to dictate things just because I have some experience with threesomes.”

  “I’d rather start out with a model we know works,” Lance said. “We can recalculate in the future.”

  “Leaving aside the sex,” Carly waved her hand in the air, “the logistics of this are pretty complicated. How and where would we live? What would we tell people? How do we live in a committed ménage while maintaining the secrecy of the Trinity Masters?”

  Preston looked between them. “Let’s take it one step at a time. Carly and I both live in the Bay Area, and Lance, you’re on the east coast, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can you move?” Carly asked. “I’m sorry, but I can’t. My whole company is here.”

  Lance shook his head. “Not right now. I need the processing power at DARPA for my current project. Maybe in the future I’d be able to work remotely.”

  “Then for now Carly and I will live together here in the Bay Area and Lance, you’ll make regular visits. Just to be fair, we’ll come to stay with you sometimes too.”

  “Is that really fair? I mean if you and I are living together, doesn’t that exclude Lance?” Carly’s question didn’t fit her thoughts, but she tried to remain poised. Lance and Preston had gone to a lot of trouble for her tonight. She didn’t want to ruin it with her fears and anxieties. The gaming troubleshooter in her leapt to the forefront, taking over. She could deal with problems such as logistics. It was the emotions that were kicking her in the ass. Carly took a deep breath and shut that part down.

  “Lance will only be excluded if we let that happen, and we won’t.” Preston’s voice was calm. He genuinely believed they could make this work. For some reason, that thought began to burrow its way inside her. Foolish as it seemed, Preston’s belief in their success was giving her hope as well.

  “Are you okay with this?” She tried to imagine the shoe on the other foot. What if the Grand Master had paired her with Lance and another woman? Would she be okay if they lived together while she lived somewhere else?

  Lance nodded. “It’s logical, given where we are in our lives. Obviously the Grand Master doesn’t take geography into account when forming his little triads.”

  Carly fell silent for a moment, but his response left her uneasy. She recalled the power struggle between Lance and Preston at the hotel in Boston. They’d acted like dogs fighting over a bone. His sudden capitulation didn’t ring true. “That doesn’t exactly answer the question.”

  Lance shrugged. “I’m fine with it.”

  Carly shook her head. How could he be?

  “So we’re moving in together?” she asked Preston, the words coming slowly. She’d begun this conversation in a hypothetical sense. Now…it was starting to feel too real.

  “Yes.” Preston’s answer was short, simple, concise. And laced with that damned self-assurance.

  Lance wasn’t helping either. He was so different tonight from the man she’d met in Boston. Suddenly, he seemed to be all-in. What had changed? “Why don’t we buy a place? Something that’s new to all of us with enough space for three.”

  Preston sat back. “That could work. I’d need to sell this condo.”

  “Wait. I need a minute.” Carly stared across the room. No one had ever called her stupid, but she would swear her brain was trying to process all these changes and possibilities at the same rate and capacity as the Nexus Six servers. “You have to understand…I thought we were over. I was ready to go to the Grand Master.”

  “Carly.” Preston sat forward, his dark gaze focused on her. “The Grand Master doesn’t make reassignments.”

  “So it’s you or I risk losing everything by disobeying the Trinity Masters?”

  There was a moment of silence in which Lance’s easy expression turned angry, and Preston looked away, trying—and failing—to hide how much her words hurt him. That was the last thing she wanted.

  “You know, we’re not that bad.” Lance’s words were a low grumble.

  Preston’s lips twitched. “I must agree. I think we’re a rather good catch.”

  Carly considered banging her head on the table. She was a grade-one bitch for making these two gorgeous men—who’d gone to a lot of trouble for her—feel bad.

  “I’m very sorry. I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.” She looked between them, making sure she had their attention for her next words. “You are both amazing—smart, fun, nice and gorgeous. The problem is that together you’re too much.”

  “We worked that out.” Lance said firmly, then he looked to Preston, who also nodded.

  It seemed the boys were on board and playing together nicely. The only one holding out was her.

  Carly took a deep breath, then released it. It was time to commit to her partners, her husbands, her trinity.

  “I just rent, so I’d be able to buy pretty easily.” There was a flutter of panic in her belly as she spoke, but it felt good.

  They grinned at her.

  “You rent? You own a company.” Preston’s brow furrowed.

  “Exactly. Most of my capital is tied up there. I have some paychecks I wrote myself, but I didn’t cash them. If I do, I’ll have plenty for a down payment.”

  “If we can get the right kind of space, I might be able to move sooner rather than later,” Lance added.

  “Good,” Preston said. “I’ll call my realtor.”

  Buying a home and deciding who would live where was the simplest problem to solve. Carly needed some harder questions answered. “What do we tell people? About us?”

  Lance snorted. “It’s none of their business.”

  “That sounds great, but it’s not realistic. Right now Nexus Six is still a private company. When it goes public, my personal life will be examined. Extensively.”

  “And we don’t want anyone to guess what’s really going on,” Preston said. “If they did, it might risk the Trinity Masters.”

  There was a beat of silence before Lance said, “You two should be the couple.”

  So much for Lance being all-in. Suddenly Carly began to understand. He would play the part. But only so far. “Lance…no.” Carly’s heart clenched, though she wasn’t sure why. Preston was charming and poised, while Lance was rougher, untamed, as if he wasn’t fully civilized. It made her want to shelter him, which was ridiculous, since the big man clearly didn’t need protection.

  “I’m serious. When I was in the service, I attended too ma
ny friends’ funerals. I watched the widows grieve, the kids cry, and I promised myself I would never do that to anyone, that I would never make someone cry for me.”

  Preston and Carly exchanged a look. Oh god. He’d missed the point entirely. If they went through with this, there was no way she would be able to hold on to her heart. Much as it pained her to admit, both men had begun staking tiny claims on it their first night together. Now…Lance had just stolen another piece.

  Carly got to her feet. She put her hand on Lance’s shoulder and knelt next to him. “Lance, we’re supposed to be equal in all of this. It shouldn’t be…I don’t want it to be Preston and me, with you here only sometimes.”

  Lance cupped her chin. “What I’m trying to say is, even if I hadn’t known that someday the Grand Master would call me, I never imagined myself having a wife and kids. Everyone in my life knows that. No one will think it’s odd that I don’t marry.”

  “To outsiders we’ll say that you and I are research partners. That’s plausible enough to work,” Preston said.

  Tears filled Carly’s eyes. Building a family based on credible lies felt like a shitty way to start a lifetime together. That thought caused more tears to flow.

  Oh my God. I’m going to do this. I’m going to stay with these men.

  Lance released her. “Why are you crying?”

  “I don’t know.” There were too many reasons and she wasn’t sure she could put most of them into words. Instead, she latched on to the most obvious one. “I guess it makes me sad thinking of you always on the outside.”

  “He won’t be.” Preston reached over, rested his hand on Lance’s shoulder.

  Lance’s brow was knit and his next words came slowly, as if he wasn’t sure where they’d come from. “I may not always understand people or how they feel, but I do understand grief. I never wanted anyone to grieve for me.” His eyes traced Carly’s face, then Preston’s. “That’s why I was so angry I’d been called by the Grand Master. Now I don’t have any choice but to let people into my life, people who might come to care about me. I didn’t know it would be like this.”