The Home-wrecker (The Goode Brothers)
The Home-wrecker: Chapter 52

Briar’s hand in mine is like an anchor. It’s holding me to the earth so I don’t float away into space, light enough to drift off on a breeze. I’m not made of enough at the moment for gravity to keep me down.

I’m weightless. Empty. Void of life or feelings or sense.

Right now, I’m made of nothing.

My eyes burn as we drive home. Briar sits with me in the back seat. Letting me lay my head in her lap as she holds my hand.

Her touch is my existence, and I need more. I want to bury my face in her hair, wrap my arms around her waist, and tether myself to her so she can never let me go.

I know shock and grief are behind the wheel. My mind has shut itself off to protect me from the pain. I watched my father take his last breath. I stood with him one moment, and the next, I was just…alone. It was just me and his lifeless body in a room.

Now, I am officially nothing to no one. No one’s son. No one’s husband. No one’s father.

I should have felt this coming. We had warning. I knew he was dying, but there is nothing that prepares you for the moment they’re just gone.

Maybe that’s why I’m holding so tightly to Briar. I want to be something to her. And to Caleb. In the life-filled array of things that matter to them, I desperately want to be listed as one.

The caressing touch of her hand tells me I am.

I matter to them.

They want me.

But I need to feel it.

I don’t even realize we’ve reached the house until the door opens and Caleb reaches for me. The moment my feet are on the ground and he’s standing in front of me, his arms around me, he’s squeezing me so tight I can hardly breathe.

Please don’t let go.

I’m crying again, more tears streaking down my face, and when he lets me go, I feel myself drifting away again, so I link my hand with his, and I let him guide me into the house. Briar is in front of us as she leads us up the stairs to the second floor. We go directly into their bedroom and then into the bathroom.

“It’s not big enough for all three of us,” she murmurs.

“I’ll get in with him,” Caleb replies.

Their voices sound far away, but I distantly register that they’re speaking about me. I’m too busy staring numbly at the floor, trying not to absorb anything they’re saying. I want to feel as little as possible. I don’t want to see anything, hear anything, feel anything—but them.

The water in the shower starts, and Briar holds my face as I stare into her eyes. Angel.

“Let’s get you in the shower, okay?”

“Okay,” I mumble. She pulls my shirt over my head and wipes her thumbs across my cheekbones. Then, with sympathy in her eyes, she leans in and kisses me softly on the mouth. Then on each of my cheeks.

She pulls down my pants, and I don’t even have the mental capacity to be self-conscious. My dick hangs lifelessly between my legs, and nothing about this is as sexy as it usually feels when I’m naked with them. I’m just this sad, vulnerable thing they want to take care of.

And I let them.

“We’ve got you,” Caleb’s deep voice whispers in my ear as he tugs me into the shower. The water is hot, but I wish it were hotter so it would burn.

Caleb presses his bare chest against mine and holds me tight against him, stroking my back as I rest my head against his shoulder.

As I stand there and focus only on the sweep of his hand and the feel of his heartbeat, I let him slowly bring me back to life. The contact between us is everything to me in this moment. My entire world.

I press my lips to his neck. At first, it’s a soft peck. Then I open my mouth and lick the moisture from his Adam’s apple up to his jaw. The prickle of his cropped beard against my tongue stings with just enough friction to awaken my senses.

When I reach his mouth, I lick the seam of his lips, and when he parts for me, I plunge my tongue into it, searching for the familiar give-and-take exchange of our kisses. He kisses me back with hesitancy, so I grab the back of his neck and force him to give me more.

There’s a twitch of life in my dick, enough to remind me that I have one. That I’m alive.

“Bite me,” I mumble against his mouth.

I can’t look him in the eyes, but he pulls back enough to stare at my face for assurance. This is really me talking. Please, just give me what I need.

Then, he brings his mouth back to mine, forcibly kissing me before sucking my bottom lip between his teeth and biting until I whimper in pain.

Yes. More.

As I’m gasping for air, I mutter with need, “Again.”

This time, his teeth clench around my jaw. And then my neck and my shoulder.

Every time he brings me to the brink of pain, I feel my blood grow hotter and my heart beat faster. And suddenly, I’m not trying to blink out the world, but I’m rushing headfirst toward him.

I almost don’t register that my cock is now hard until my hips rut of their own volition against Caleb’s.

“Let’s slow down,” he whispers in my ear.

I don’t want to slow down. I desperately want to keep going. But I don’t feel like myself at the moment. My head is a mess. So when he pulls away, I let him.

Shutting my eyes, I force my brain to focus on nothing as he lathers up my hair and rubs soapy bubbles all over my body, running the washcloth under the pits of my arms and between the crack of my ass. My cock begins to deflate, and I slip back into a mentality of nonexistence again.

I’m not here. I’m nowhere.

When he finishes rinsing my body, he goes to turn off the water, but I stop him. “Please,” I croak, sounding pathetic and helpless.

“What do you need?” he asks.

“I need you,” I reply, hearing my voice crack.

He closes the distance between us, holding my face in his hands. Caleb’s eyes are so genuine. They don’t hide secrets or lies. They are as real and as pure as his soul. It’s why he keeps them so guarded. And why it feels like such a gift when he lets me in.

“I’m here,” he replies. “You’ve got me. As much as you want.”

My heart aches as I run my hands over his hip bones, tugging him closer. “Just distract me.”

His expression turns sad as he plants a kiss on my forehead. “Come on.”

After turning the water off, he opens the shower door and reaches for the towel hanging on the hook. First, he wraps one around me, delicately drying my head and face, working down to my feet. Then he grabs another for himself and does the same, tying it around his hips when he’s done.

As I step out of the shower, Briar comes into the bathroom. I spot a folded pile of my clothes on the bathroom counter. She must have retrieved them for me from my apartment.

“You need some rest,” she says.

No. My mind refuses the idea of rest. Rest is not distracting enough. It’s too much free space in my head to think and feel.

When she opens her palm to reveal two blue gel pills, I glance up at her face. “They’ll help you sleep.”

I shake my head. “I don’t want to sleep.”

Looking concerned, she closes her hand. “What do you need, Dean? Tell us what to do.”

I feel like a fool for what I’m about to say. Why is it so hard to be vulnerable? To ask people to take care of me. To expose my deepest, most personal wishes.

“I just want you two to be with me,” I say, my voice sounding so sad and lifeless. “Just fucking hold me.”

In a rush, Briar tosses the sleeping pills in the sink and wraps her arms around me. “You don’t ever have to ask for that.”

Stepping on her tiptoes, she presses her lips to mine, and I focus on nothing but her kiss. The softness of her lips. The hesitant way she licks into my mouth. The delicate friction of her tongue against mine.

It was only a week without them, but it was enough to leave a chasm of doubt in my heart. How could I think I could live without them? Was I really so stubborn I thought I could walk away from this?

Her kiss comes to an end, and she lightly peppers my jaw and then my chest with more. My grip on her arms turns desperate.

Caleb comes up behind me, pressing his chest to my back.

“I don’t want to feel anything but you two,” I say. Staring down at Briar, I kiss her face again. First on the forehead, then on the lips. “If I asked for your body, would you give it to me?”

Her pupils dilate as she stares up at me, and there is no hesitation in her voice. “Yes.”

In a needy rush of desire, I run my hands down her back to her thighs and I hoist her off the floor. Her legs wrap around me, and I press my face to her chest.

This. This is what I want.

Her body in front of me and his behind, so they are the only things that exist.

I carry Briar to the bed, dropping her on the mattress. I don’t waste a second. I’m not savoring or being cautious. I’m throwing myself into the only place I love.

Tearing off her shirt and tugging down her pants, I need her naked in my hands.

When I feel Caleb’s absence behind me, I reach for him. He answers the call, his fingers sliding down my spine and ripping off my towel.

We’re all naked, and they’re giving me everything I need. Just them. Just us. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Leaning down, I rub my face down the length of her perfect body, covering her in my scent as if she’s territory I can claim. My tongue finds her breasts, and I bury myself between them. As I lick a circle around her left nipple, I feel Caleb spread my cheeks with a growl. Then my mind practically shatters when the warmth of his tongue prods my asshole.

“Fuck,” I groan out before biting Briar’s tit. She squeals, and it’s like we’re all animals, ignoring the complexities of being human with heavy thoughts and feelings. We just want to be wild with each other, indulging in the sensations only our bodies can give us.

Caleb licks circles around the tight ring of muscle as I move my way down Briar’s body. Lifting her thighs, I wrap them around my head as I dive into the heady scent of her cunt. Spreading her lips, I lick the sweet length of her pussy, driving her to pleasure the same way her husband is doing to me. When Caleb reaches around and finds my cock, I groan against Briar’s body.

We are in a frenzy of hands, mouths, cries, and screams. He takes his fill of me as I take mine of her. There’s no end. No racing toward a climax. We settle comfortably into the place between arousal and orgasms when sex is not just a means to an end but literally heaven on earth.