Beyond the Edge Page 5

  Anando echoed the words back at her, and they were another caress he was offering her, this one to her soul rather than her body.

  They still had hours until they needed to get ready. It was all the time in the world.

  CHAPTER 5

  “Okay, for the record? I hate this.”

  Grinning, Lisa glanced at the rearview mirror. The blindfold covered a large part of Brett’s face, but she could still see his discomfort. His hand rose to the black bandana, no doubt to tug it off, then stilled. Lisa didn’t need to turn to the back seat to know Leo must have stopped him. A quiet little sound, like the lightest of kisses, told her how.

  “Duly noted,” Leo said in a very serious tone. “We will not blindfold you, tie you to an armchair, and make you listen to us all night long. It’s a promise.”

  Brett let out a strangled laugh. “Well, when you put it that way…”

  “You perv,” Leo said in a dead serious tone.

  Lisa snickered. “Pot, kettle.”

  “Says the woman who blindfolded me.” In the rearview mirror, Brett’s face turned toward her as if he could see her right through the bandana. “You do remember I don’t like surprises, right?”

  “What surprise?” Lisa replied, deadpan. “We’re going to your birthday party. Did you have any doubt about that?”

  Brett let out an exaggerated sigh. “Seeing how I asked for a no-thrill day, I was kinda hoping I’d escape the party.”

  “Oh, come on.” Leo’s words came out muffled, and Lisa struggled to keep her eyes on the road rather than look back again to see where his mouth was. “You didn’t really expect us to let your birthday go by unnoticed.”

  Brett’s soft gasp sent a shiver through Lisa like a hand running down her body. She pressed her thighs tighter together. Her panties were getting damp, and they hadn’t even arrived at the party yet… This was going to be a long night.

  “I thought…” He groaned. “I thought being attended to all morning and afternoon was… a very nice party.”

  “Nah, that was just an appetizer. You didn’t get your surprise yet.”

  Lisa shifted again in her seat, this time for a different reason. She knew Leo was talking about the party, not the ring that was still at the very back of her underwear drawer, but even so she couldn’t help but imagine an edge of reproach in his voice.

  Brett had been close enough to hear them at all times, and Leo had yet to ask her why she hadn’t given Brett his present. She was sure he would, though. At the first opportunity, he’d ask… and she had no idea what she would answer. She didn’t know why she hadn’t pulled the ring out as planned. She only knew that, when the moment came, she froze.

  There’d be time later, she told herself. Maybe when they returned home after the party.

  Maybe in a few days.

  It had been a long time since she had gone to Anando’s house, but she drove there with no trouble. When she reached the right street, it was lined with cars. No doubt the guests had found the place, too.

  She parked right in front of the house where a spot had clearly been reserved for them and shut the engine. Stepping around the car, she opened the back door for Brett and helped him out, with Leo right behind him. They each took one of Brett’s arms and led him to the gate, which opened to reveal Anando.

  Anando smiled but did not say a word, inviting them to walk through with a wide sweep of his arm.

  “All right, this is getting annoying,” Brett groused. “Can I take the damn thing off, now?”

  “Just a few more seconds,” Leo cajoled. “We’re almost there.”

  They walked around the side of Anando’s house to reach the backyard. Tall torches scattered through the yard illuminated almost three dozen excited faces, all watching Brett approach.

  Lisa had met most of them at least once or twice. A few she knew only by name, but they were Brett’s friends, and she had wanted to get to know them for a long time.

  She reached for the back of the blindfold while Leo, on Brett’s other side, raised his arm. He dropped it as she tugged the blindfold off, and the assembled guests intoned in a loud, cheerful chorus, “Surprise!”

  The expression of bewilderment on Brett’s face, soon followed by beaming joy, was the best reward for all of Lisa and Leo’s scheming.

  * * * *

  Brett wasn’t prone to tears. He had no problem showing what he felt, but tears had always seemed overly dramatic to him. However, when he saw all his friends gathered there, some of which he hadn’t seen in a couple of years, his eyes prickled and his throat closed.

  He reached for his lovers’ hands, taking Lisa’s in his right hand, curling his left over Leo’s, a silent thank you for ignoring what he had said and organizing this party for him anyway.

  “A toast!” a voice called.

  Brett blinked several times, clearing his vision to find Mike in the group of familiar faces. He met Brett’s gaze and smiled, the same easy smile he’d always reserved for his closest friends.

  Both their lives kept them busy, and Brett hadn’t done more than talk to him over the phone in far too long, but he still considered Mike his best friend. There was no doubt in his mind how Lisa and Leo had managed to contact so many people, some of whom they didn’t even know.

  Mike waited until Anando and Virginia had passed glasses of champagne to Leo, Brett, and Lisa. Brett had to let go of her hand to hold his glass, but she immediately wrapped her arm around his waist.

  “To Brett,” Mike said. He raised his glass, and everyone followed his lead. “The man who can make this town dance every night, but who hasn’t thrown a party for himself in more than eight years!”

  Laughter erupted through their friends before they repeated, “To Brett!”

  That first sip of champagne steadied his nerves, but not quite enough, and when Mike added, “A speech!” Brett shook his head ruefully.

  “I’m gonna need more than one drink for a speech,” he said, and his assembled friends laughed. God, but it felt good to see all of them here.

  Music rose from somewhere near the fence, and a few moments later Virginia called out from a table set on the grass, “Warm canapés are over here if anyone’s hungry.”

  There was a general movement toward the food. For a few seconds, Brett watched his friends, catching a grin here, a glass raised in a toast there. He’d go and talk to them soon, but before that…

  He turned to Leo first, leaned in to brush a kiss to his smiling lips; Lisa next, and her mouth tingled from the champagne.

  “I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve the two of you,” he said, choking up a little. “But I’m a very lucky man to have you both in my life, and I know it. I really do.”

  He knew it even better today, after the promise the three of them had made to each other. This would be his last birthday as a human, and somehow it seemed even more fitting that all his friends were here, all the people who had been his family ever since his parents had passed away.

  “Come on,” he said. “I need another drink, and there’s a few people you two should meet.”

  * * * *

  The party ended in the small hours of the morning, Brett’s friends offering him hugs and renewed wishes on their way out. Anando didn’t think Brett had drunk that much. He’d been too busy going from friend to friend, catching up with each of them throughout the night.

  Nonetheless, he seemed a little punch-drunk when he came into the house, flanked by Leo and Lisa as he had been for most of the night. Was he excited by the whole party or had one of his lovers confided that there was still one present left for him to enjoy?

  Leo had approached Anando and Virginia earlier, thanking them for the party and inquiring if they’d made a decision about an eventual after-party. Virginia’s blush when she had nodded yes had been lovely—and she blushed again now as Brett approached them, managing to look both excited and awkward in that way that seemed usually reserved for younger, inexperienced humans.

  It was no
secret that Brett found Anando attractive. It was probably a large part of why Lisa had asked for the party to be held at his and Virginia’s place. Anando was one of Brett’s gifts, he was sure of it—and he had no problem with it.

  Things would have been different if Virginia had had more of a jealous streak, but they’d talked about it after the first time they’d done this, and she was okay with it as long as she was there and Lisa didn’t get too close to him.

  She hadn’t mentioned that last part, but Anando could read between the lines. Sharing him with a man was a spectacle she had admitted she enjoyed; sharing him with a woman was an entirely different proposition. Anando understood that, and it suited him fine.

  However, when Brett approached them, he did not reach toward Anando. Instead, he leaned in toward Virginia, his obvious hesitation fully reflected in her gaze. She glanced at Anando before closing her eyes and allowing Brett to kiss her.

  Anando was surprised at the pang of possessiveness he felt when seeing her mouth part against Brett’s lips. As close as he was to them, he couldn’t miss the peek of entwining tongues, or the low hum rising from Brett’s chest. The possessiveness receded, dulled by the thought that they looked very nice together.

  Before Anando could do more than wonder if this was what Virginia felt when she watched him with someone else, Brett already pulled away.

  “Thank you,” he told her with a small, self-conscious smile. “It was a lovely party.”

  “You’re welcome.” Virginia’s cheeks were flushed; Anando wanted to touch that heat and burn himself on it.

  “Don’t I get a thank you?” he asked, tongue in cheek, drawing Brett’s eyes to him. “I helped too.”

  Brett passed a hand through his hair and laughed softly. He glanced back to where Lisa and Leo had stopped three feet behind him, arms around each other’s waists, and something seemed to pass between the three of them.

  His voice was a little rougher when he said, “I was keeping my thanks for after I get my gift.” His eyes shifted back to Virginia. “I mean, if that’s okay.”

  He didn’t ask for her permission in so many words, but that was still what it sounded like to Anando. She must have heard the same thing, too, because she gave a small nod and pressed her side against Anando’s. She stayed against him, close enough that she could have joined in when Brett kissed him.

  His lips were a little chapped but warm, and champagne lingered on his tongue. It stroked Anando’s with a hint of tentativeness. So much time had passed since they’d last kissed that they needed to get reacquainted. Anando let him do as he pleased, hyperaware of how close Virginia was, watching them with her arm curled around Anando.

  When Brett pulled back, flicking his tongue against Anando’s bottom lip, his eyes were darker than ever, his pupils fully dilated and full of desire.

  “Do you want to know how devious these two are?” he said in that same rough voice, tilting his head toward Leo and Lisa.

  “Devious?” Leo repeated with outrage that might not have been entirely feigned. “You ungrateful—”

  “They tried to tire me out,” Brett continued as though he couldn’t hear Leo. “All day long. When they knew full well what they had planned for tonight.”

  “Absolutely devious,” Virginia agreed with a little laugh.

  “Maybe you should make them sit it out,” Anando added, refraining from laughing himself when Lisa and Leo offered mock protests.

  “An excellent idea,” Brett said, his eyes gleaming like his smile. “They can watch us.”

  More protests rose, but they didn’t sound all that convincing. Clearly Leo and Lisa did not mind this development. Anando wished he had known where that left Virginia; was she part of ‘us’ or ‘they’?

  When he looked at her, she didn’t seem concerned. They’d figure it out, Anando decided. He gestured toward the back of the living room.

  “This way,” he said, and, with Virginia at his side, led the way to the guest bedroom.

  The bed in there wasn’t as wide as the one in their bedroom, queen size rather than king, and no one had ever slept in it. He’d furnished the room soon after buying the house in prevision of an eventual visit from his Sire, like he had made a habit of doing at every place he had lived throughout the years: a simple courtesy.

  He couldn’t have said why he had put fresh linens on the bed earlier that day and told Virginia that their room was off limit to their guests. After all, Leo had been in there before, and he, Brett, and Lisa had welcomed Virginia and Anando into their own bed in the loft above the club. Still, even the sight of the smaller bed didn’t change his mind. It would work just fine.

  CHAPTER 6

  The first few moments in the dimly lit guest room passed in a burning flash of need as clothes fell to the floor. Virginia wasn’t sure who helped her out of her dress; she thought it was Anando, but those cool fingers might have been Leo’s.

  Clad in nothing more than her underwear, she did help remove Brett’s shirt—of that much she was sure—and soon she was sitting at the foot of the bed, watching with avid eyes as Anando pushed Brett onto his back, quickly prepared him, then surged inside him under the quiet encouragements of Leo and Lisa. Virginia herself couldn’t say a word, too caught up in the vision that the two men made together.

  Her heart was pounding to the same rhythm as Anando’s thrusts. When he glanced at her across the bed and flashed her a smile, she returned it on pure instinct. He was gorgeous. They both were. Her hands clenched on the sheet.

  She’d watched them once before. She had done more than that: she had directed them, told each of them where to place their hands, mouth, and cock. The experience had been a heady one, and she had enjoyed the power they had given her then.

  She had thought about what it would be like to do it again, to be offered a say in what they were doing, but at that moment it was the furthest thing from her mind. Watching them, the way Leo and Lisa were doing from the loveseat by the wall, was enough.

  Or almost.

  Last time, Leo had answered her own need with touches and soft words while she directed their lovers. But he was with Lisa now, and Virginia wouldn’t have dreamed of intruding on them, or on Anando and Brett.

  But still…

  She pressed her thighs together. They felt wet and slippery from her own wetness. Her nipples, so tight in the confines of her bra, ached for a touch.

  She could have touched herself, sneaked a hand to her core or pressed it against her breast, but it wasn’t her own touch she craved. With four people around her, it’d have felt a little desperate to resort to her own hand.

  Before she knew what she was doing, she had shifted a little closer to them on the bed. This time, they both looked at her; both smiled. That small encouragement emboldened her, and she moved closer still, rising to her knees beside them.

  She raised a tentative hand toward where Anando gripped Brett’s hip and covered his fingers with her own, squeezing once. Anando turned a fiery gaze toward her.

  “Want… to… touch?” he asked, each word timed with a thrust.

  Virginia’s throat was too dry for her to answer. Instead, she caressed up Anando’s arm, feeling his strength in the play of his muscles as he continued to move inside Brett in long, smooth motions.

  Their bodies were mirrors, both subtly buff, but Brett’s skin seemed paler than it truly was against Anando’s dark flesh. She reached Anando’s shoulder and remained there, caressing, before gliding back down Anando’s arm, to his hand, and beyond.

  Brett’s skin felt burning hot in contrast to Anando’s. Virginia stroked his side, then his back, brushing her fingers along his spine as Anando slowed his rhythm. After a second of hesitation, Virginia reached lower still, caressing Brett’s ass before her fingers came to rest against Anando’s shaft where it slid in and out of Brett.

  Anando bucked at her light touch, and both men moaned. As she pulled her hand away, Virginia could barely keep from moaning as well, though not from pl
easure, but from the deep, aching emptiness she felt. Touching was so far from being enough…

  Without warning, Anando curled an arm around Brett and drew him up to his knees until Brett’s back was tight against Anando’s chest. Virginia’s gaze dropped to Brett’s cock, thick and hard as it bobbed up and down in front of him, flushed a deep red and with a long, thin trail of precome running from the tip.

  “Do you enjoy the view, Virginia dear?”

  The hint of a swallowed laugh thickened Anando’s words. Virginia looked up, and found that both he and Brett were grinning. She smiled in answer, too needy to feel even remotely abashed at being caught staring at Brett’s dick. After all, it was a beautiful dick. Not quite as long as Anando’s, maybe, but very nice nonetheless.

  “Do you want to join us?” Anando asked next, and he wasn’t laughing anymore. His eyes were intense, burning as they considered her, though he never stopped jabbing his hips forward into small thrusts that shook Brett’s entire body.

  Virginia’s breath caught in her throat. She didn’t let herself think, didn’t allow herself to hesitate. She was so aroused just from watching them that her panties were soaked through, and her entire body screamed for a touch—or a lot more than that.

  She hooked her thumbs under the sides of her panties and pushed them down her legs. Her hands were shaking when she reached behind herself to undo the clasp of her bra, and she was about to give up when cool fingers brushed against hers, then easily unfastened the small hooks.

  She glanced over her shoulder to find Lisa there. Her eyes were burning with the same fire as Anando’s.

  Virginia wondered whether Lisa would join in too before Leo appeared behind Lisa and pulled her dress over her head. Turning back to Anando, Virginia started to say in a breathless voice, “How—”

  “Lie down in front of him,” Anando said, his raspy words giving away the depth of his arousal.

  That tone never failed to send shivers down Virginia’s back. She fumbled a little as she did what he had said, shimmying into place with her legs on either side of them.