Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

JESSE

B y the end of the day it still snowed, although not as heavily. The temps climbed above freezing before dropping again as the evening slid in to steal the anemic daylight.

She sat at the entrance to the tent with the men and stared out with them. All around them the snow quickly grew deeper. Trudging through it, even for only a few yards to use the bathroom, grew difficult. That little bit of exertion at this altitude wore her out.

She could only imagine how difficult it’d be trying to make their way through it on a trail.

“How long do you think we’ll be stuck here?” she asked. “Realistically? Assuming we survive.”

“At least another day or two,” Chris said. “We can’t risk moving. None of us are equipped for deep snow. And we’ll burn too much energy if we try.”

“It’s safer to stay where we are,” Mark added. “They’ll see you set up the last sensor, and they know our planned trek from there. So they’ll have an area to start searching. Once it stops snowing I’ll build a signal fire. When they start searching for us they’ll spot it.”

“If,” she said. “ If they start looking for us.”

“ When ,” Mark insisted.

“Guys, stop,” Chris said. “We can still survive a couple of weeks if we run out of food.”

“ Weeks ?” She snorted. “I disagree with your premise that we’ll survive that long without food in this climate, but I’ll humor you.”

“He’s not wrong,” Mark said“It won’t be comfortable, but it’s doable, as long as we conserve energy.”

“If I die first you can eat me,” Jesse darkly joked. “Donner, party of two, your corpse is ready.”

Chris laughed, the sound bouncing off the tent walls while Mark looked shocked. “I’d rather eat you while you’re alive, sweetie,” Chris teased back.

From the playful arch of his eyebrows, she suspected what he meant. “Oh, reeeeally?”

Mark finally found his voice. “Chris?—”

“Really.” Chris stared into her eyes. “Mark and I have shared women a few times in the past.”

Mark groaned but Jesse focused on Chris. This wasn’t the most professional of conversations but she loved the distraction.

“When the circumstances were right…how?” she asked.

“When we both found her attractive. And intelligent. She has to be able to make me laugh. And, obviously, only if she was into both of us. We’re a matched set, you know.”

“Is that what you meant by that comment at the bar?” she asked.

“It’s what I was angling for.” He glanced at Mark. “Until Ranger Powell got the wrong idea about you and borked it. Had he not jumped the gun, I would have happily jumped you . If you were into us, of course.”

Mark flopped back, his hand over his face, muttering what she suspected was, “Fucking kill me now.”

She ignored him. “I thought you guys are gay?”

Chris shrugged. “It’s…complicated. Long story about how we settled down with each other. He’s been with more women than I have. I prefer to have fun with a woman when it’s with Mark.”

“Would I have made the grade?”

“You absolutely do,” Chris said. “It’s been well over a year since the last time. I mean, I can count the number of times total on both hands with fingers to spare.”

She poked Mark in the side. “What about you?”

He didn’t move his hand. “What about me?”

“Do I make the grade with you, too?”

He finally looked at her. “Yeah, you do.”

She was attracted to them, even more now that she’d gotten to know them. “Well, while I still have all ten fingers and toes, a nose, two ears, and both nipples, do you want to give it a shot before I lose them to frostbite?”

“Give what a shot?” Mark asked while Chris laughed.

Chris nudged Mark’s leg. “Idiot. She’s propositioning us. How come I’m the clueless one and even I get it?”

Mark sat up. “What?”

“You got anything better planned for tonight?” she asked. Then her face uncomfortably flushed as a tsunami of doubt washed in and her RSD tried to take the wheel.

She quickly backpedaled. “I mean, won’t hurt my feelings if you say no?—”

Chris grabbed her and kissed her, effectively silencing her.

He was a damned good kisser, too.

“None of that brain weasel garbage right now,” he finally said when he gave her a chance to breathe. “I saw the RSD trying to jump in. Believe me, I’m no stranger to that. You’re beautiful, and brilliant, and yes we’re absolutely interested in you.”

Mark sat up, wrapping his arms around her from behind, and nibbled the nape of her neck. “But only if you’re interested,” Mark said. “Please, say no if you don’t want to. We don’t want you to think that just because we’re?—”

She turned, grabbed his head, and kissed him while Christopher laughed. “Yeah, sometimes that’s the easiest way to shut him up.”

Mark cupped the back of her head, threading his fingers in her hair as he took control of the kiss. It was different than with Chris but equally good. Both men sported scruff on their cheeks from not shaving over the past couple of days. She’d never been with a guy with facial hair before, but she was happy to jump that hurdle with these two.

She draped her arms around Mark while Chris nuzzled the nape of her neck and found a sensitive spot behind her right ear that practically melted her in a way she’d never felt before.

Okay, I’ve been missing out and I didn’t even know it. She loved the way their scruff felt against her cheeks as they kissed her, the warmth of their bodies pressing against hers helping banish her worries for this magical moment.

They ended up stretched out over the sleeping bags with her between them, the men taking turns kissing her, their erections firmly pressing against her through their pants. Their hands roamed her body and she knew maybe it was because of the situation, her fear—and her dry spell—but she desperately wanted relief.

She took the initiative to pull up her top and unfasten her trousers while Mark took a turn kissing her.

Chris smiled down at her. “You look like a lady who needs a little help.”

“I need a lot of help,” she said when Mark let her speak again.

Chris had ended up on her right side. He propped himself on his left elbow while she grabbed his hand and shoved it down the front of her pants.

He nuzzled her nose with his. “Give me some pointers,” he said.

“I won’t fake it, so if I start speaking in tongues you’re doing something right.”

Mark dipped his head to her left breast, grazing her nipple with his teeth while his other hand cupped her right breast and his fingers gently plucked at that nipple.

She wasn’t sure what to do with her own hands. She ended up cupping their erections through their pants, loving it when both men moaned in unison and started grinding against her.

Okay, then.

And they were both generously endowed.

Helllooooo!

This wasn’t exactly the most romantic of circumstances but considering this was a situation she’d never experienced before she was well past getting caught in a feedback loop of overthinking it. Her brain had accepted the “throw the plan out the window” order she’d crammed into it from the moment she landed in Spokane, and her now her body was completely on board.

Besides, if she was going to die—and despite the men’s assurances that their chances of survival were…not horrible, but they weren’t great, either—like hell would she waste this opportunity. Despite their rocky start, these two men earned their way into her heart. She’d been able to unmask and be herself around them from the start of their trip, and that meant worlds to her.

It was obvious Mark was a caring partner to Christopher. She and Chris had a nearly uncanny rapport that she suspected was partly due to the off-the-charts pattern recognition abilities their neurospiciness endowed them with, and despite his act Mark had taken pains to be accommodating with her.

She felt like she’d known these men for years and not just days.

I can’t imagine a better way to end my life, if this is where it ends.

Christopher’s fingers slipped between her legs and when his fingers found her clit, she sighed with relief that he knew where and what it was. She pulled his mouth back down onto hers and held his head, kissing him while he grew used to the territory and began to slowly build her up.

The men continued to grind against her thighs as Mark’s hot mouth helped drive her passion higher. Chris gained confidence as he started matching her noises and bucking her hips to his movements and adjusted course accordingly.

When he slipped lower, sliding first one and then two fingers inside her, his hand still rubbing against her clit, she came undone.

“That’s it,” Mark said. “Fuck, you’re beautiful.”

She highly doubted that, considering she hadn’t had a full bath in several days, but she was beyond feeling self-conscious about that as wave after wave of pleasure rolled through her.

When she finished, she grabbed Christopher’s arm, stilling his hand. “Okay,” she gasped. “That was great!”

That wasn’t a lie, either—it had been great, even without taking their current circumstances into account.

“What about you guys?” she asked.

“What about us?” they parroted, making her laugh.

“You know what I mean.”

Mark looked at Chris. “No offense, and you know I love you, but I’m not going down on you, and don’t think you want that right now, either.”

“Hell, no,” Chris said. “Got any lube?”

“I’ve got lotion in my pack,” she said. “Unscented.”

“Perfect!” they parroted.

And that’s how she found herself in the middle, being kissed by both men as she held their cocks, their hands over hers as they thrust. All she had to do was lie there and enjoy it.

Which she did. There was something so tender and sexy about them that made her wish this could go on forever after they returned.

If we return.

She banished that thought and tried to stay in the moment, to enjoy it. Mark came first, followed by Chris, both falling silent for a long, relaxed moment.

“Goddammit, now I have two of you to wrangle,” Mark playfully groused.

“Warned you,” Chris said.

“Warned him about what?” she asked.

“I told him it’s easy to collect sparkly unicorn vampires when you speak their secret language. Now he’s in double trouble.”

“ That’s the fuckin’ truth,” Mark muttered. “Now I got me not one, but two pet sparkly vampire unicorns.”

She didn’t expect to giggle, because the situation wasn’t funny and she damned well knew it.

But…

She couldn’t help it. There was something so charming about Mark and his fake brusqueness, the cold, crunchy shell hiding his warm, gooey center and his love for Chris.

And how he talked as if he had no desire to get rid of her once they were rescued.

Please let us make it out of here.