Summary
**SHARED TOO is a sequel to Lily Harlem's popular menage a trois novel SHARED.** Ten years on I’m still convinced I’m the luckiest woman on earth. Two devastatingly gorgeous husbands committed to my satisfaction—phew!—life doesn’t get much better or much sexier. But as though the mere concept of a perfect existence was created to be shattered, one day Quinn turned to me and said, “Shared too. I want to be shared too.” Add in the monster that haunted my nightmares and I was struggling to keep a grip on my sanity. I soon realized the path Quinn wanted us to travel would stretch not only his experience of giving and taking, but also mine and Liam’s. In a whirlwind of desperate emotions, dark desires and erotic fantasy, we were all so distant but also so sublimely close. Sharing had never been as sweet as it was bitter, or as depraved as it was heavenly.
Chapter One
I’d never come alone before. In the past Liam had always come with me.
In fact, I’d just driven past the turnoff for the boutique hotel he’d booked us into for an entire afternoon this same day last year. I smiled at the memory and my heart did a little skip of pleasure.
We’d been about halfway home, the horse trailer light and empty and the car oddly quiet after we’d delivered the twins and their ponies to Standford Equestrian School for Girls. He’d leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Baby, I can’t wait until we get back to the farm. Detour through Little Mickelton so I can get us a room and bury myself deep inside you for a few hours.” His eyes had twinkled naughtily and he’d covered my hand with his as I’d held the steering wheel.
Remembering that afternoon sent a shiver of desire snaking up my spine, and my nipples tightened beneath my sweater. He’d been so desperate, so urgent. We’d done it up against the door the first time, without even glancing at the exquisite room we’d been given. Fast and furious, we’d raked at each other—shoes and jackets still on, my legs clamped around his hips. He’d pressed his palm over my mouth as I’d orgasmed, my yelp of satisfaction loud and obvious in the deathly quiet hotel. Though he’d done nothing to dampen the sounds of his own long, hard release—calling out my name and groaning loudly against my neck.
I concentrated on the traffic and took the road toward Monmouth and Cardiff. Soon I’d be home. My stomach gave a rumble and once again I thought of The Cotswold Hotel.
Along with a pot of tea, Liam had ordered scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam. Then as I’d lounged naked on the delicate brocade of the duvet, he’d proceeded to use my stomach as his plate, licking and swirling the cream into my navel, pressing sticky red jam to my skin and finally spreading my thighs and feasting on my pussy.
Squirming on the seat of my Range Rover, a fizz of pleasure tugged at my clit. The man was beyond talented when it came to using his mouth on me and I missed him so much when we weren’t together. Today especially. Not just because we could have stopped off for a repeat of those delicious few hours, but also because the two-hundred-mile round-trip and saying farewell to the girls was always easier with Liam’s reassuringly solid presence in the passenger seat.
But today he couldn’t come with me. No way. He had a commitment to Yoni Commercial that had to be the priority. The girls understood. Of course they did. They always understood their fathers’ responsibilities.
I, however, was struggling.
If only Quinn could have switched around his meeting with Barratts Medical International and accompanied me just this once. But he was asking for two million pounds. Two million was the amount he needed to continue his pioneering research into treating brain tumors with immune suppressants. He’d been working specifically on astrocytoma for three years. The research was in its infancy but still, it was a meeting he had to attend and the meeting just happened to be today.
So now, driving down the M50, I took a swig of my latte and blinked back a tear. I would miss Sophie and Rebecca like I would miss my limbs over the coming few days. It was always the way. Then the hollow would become bearable. I would chat to them on the phone. Hear how their ponies Bramble and Jasper were getting on with their dressage and jumping. How Sophie was coping with the dreaded math and whether or not Rebecca had managed to overcome her obsession with the cafeteria’s hot chocolate.
The first few days were always the worst, then I’d be looking forward to the Christmas break. Counting down the days until our daughters and their beloved ponies were back at the farm, clattering around the yard and filling up the laundry with mud-caked jodhpurs.
Finally I turned onto our tree-lined drive and began the half-mile crunch up the gravel to the farmhouse. The autumn sun was low and the huge oak trees that circled the paddock were like something from a children’s fairytale—thick ancient branches and long shadows darkening the toadstool-flooded floor.
I parked next to the barn, banged my wellington boots onto the cobbles and unhooked the horse trailer with a well-practiced yank. Drake and Billy came charging over. Tails wagging, tongues lolling, thrilled I’d returned after a day away. I patted their heads, cooed words of welcome and headed across the yard to the main house. Several hens scattered out of my way clucking impatiently, then resumed pecking at stones in hope of finding seeds left over from their morning feed.
The kitchen’s stable-style door was half open and I let myself in, hurriedly shutting it so the dogs didn’t follow. Liam had no problem with the dogs in the house and neither did I, but their hairs drove Quinn crazy. He couldn’t bear flopping onto the couch and finding Drake’s blond Labrador hairs sticking to his sweater or Billy’s curled terrier hairs clinging to his behind when he stood. “Unhygienic,” he always moaned, rubbing his hands over his lean legs and pert butt.
Dogs and boots safely outside, I lifted Betsy, our fat black cat, from the huge pine table in the center of the kitchen. She knew she wasn’t allowed up there but made a habit of flouting the rules on a daily basis. Flicking on the kettle, I glanced at the clock. The girls would just be going for dinner. They usually had burgers and chips on the first night back, a treat. After that it would be good wholesome food, prepared to keep them at optimum fitness for the grueling routine of schoolwork and acquiring equestrian skills.
Pouring hot water over a raspberry tea bag, I heard heavy footsteps on the flagstone floor behind me. I didn’t turn. Instead I poked at the water, which was rapidly staining a deep pink.
“Hey, baby,” Liam said into my ear. His breath was hot and smelled vaguely of coffee.
I leaned back against his broad chest as he wound his arms around my waist and pulled me close.
“You okay?” he asked, planting a warm, lingering kiss to my temple.
I swallowed. “I guess.” I pressed my hands over forearms coated in thick blond hair and rubbed at the hard cords of muscle and tendon holding me firm. “I hate leaving them.”
“I know you do,” he murmured. “But it’s what they want. It makes them so happy to be living, breathing and learning with Jasper and Bramble.”
My eyes moistened. A lump grew in my throat.
“So don’t be sad.” He slid a hand up my front, over my breasts until he cupped my jawline in his palm. “Don’t be sad when it makes them so happy.” He turned my head to his and sealed his lips over mine. “They’ll call tomorrow,” he said quietly onto my mouth. “Tell you how fabulous it is and how their ponies are in the field being greeted by their four-legged friends and you’ll relax, you always do.”
“You’re right. I know you are.” I turned within the circle of his embrace and melted into him, thrilled to be in his arms after wanting to be there all day.
He was tall and solid and scooped me against his body as if I were no more than a feather. Being pressed against Liam, having my head tucked beneath his chin, always made me feel safe and secure, as though my life had reached a point where nothing could hurt me―as long as he was there I would always be okay. The constriction in my throat eased and I pulled in his divine, fresh, slightly citrus scent. It was like a breeze coated in surf, as if he’d just rolled in on a wave—alive and vibrant.
“Besides,” he whispered, smoothing my hair back from my face and gently touching his lips to my damp eyelids. “If the girls were here we couldn’t…”
Suddenly he hitched me sideways and upward. I gasped as my feet lifted off the floor and my butt landed on the hard table.
“Couldn’t what?” I asked, locking my hands around his neck.
He reached behind me and shoved a breadboard and a half-eaten loaf farther up the surface. The board scraped, a knife clattered. The thing I loved about Liam was he could switch from strong protector to determined lover in the blink of an eye. Once he had his mind set on making love to me, like he had on the way home last year, nothing—not even an earthquake—could distract him. He became a man possessed, a man intent on his mission. Oh, and I always enjoyed his missions.
“This. If the twins were here we couldn’t do this.” He curled his hands into the waistband of my pants and yanked them down my thighs. He grunted and shoved my pants completely over my feet, leaving me wearing nothing but my underwear, my sweater and my yellow woolen wellie socks.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t?” I asked with a grin and glanced at my sun-kissed thighs dangling over the edge of the table.
“No.” His voice turned deeper. “And definitely not this.”
Another yank and my knickers hit my knees. The black curls of my pubic hair sprang out and a buzz of excitement whooshed to my clit.
“Gonna have to do something about that,” he said, swiping his hand over my intimate hairs and pulling, just a little. Enough to make me squirm in part pleasure, part discomfort. “Later, with the razor. I’m gonna make you pretty and smooth and then I’m gonna lick you from top to bottom, savoring every tiny bit of you.”
“Mm,” I said on a lusty giggle. “I’m already looking forward to it.”
Kicking off the knickers, I reached for his belt buckle. I fumbled with impatience and my heart pounded in anticipation. Liam was right. If there was one consolation to our daughters going to boarding school it was that my husbands and I could get down and dirty whenever the mood took us. A summer break of muffling our groans and padding the back of the headboard had gotten old. We’d lost time to make up. Lots of lost time.
Another tug freed Liam’s leather belt and I yanked at the fly buttons on his jeans. His mouth caught mine in a hungry, open-mouthed kiss, his tongue delving in fast and urgent—a wild, frantic, breathless tango of tongues.
I tugged his hot, thick cock from his boxers and gripped it in a tight fist.
He groaned and pressed his body forward, forcing me to lie back.
As my head hit pine, I dragged my fist up the solid length of his shaft and smoothed my thumb over the broad head. A small drip of moisture sat in the slit and I spread it over and under the ridge, delighting in the texture and warmth and the fact I could get him producing pre-cum so quickly.
“Ah baby, I love your hands on me,” he said, dragging my sweater up so he could suckle my nipple through my thin satin bra. “Always so sweet.”
“Liam,” I gasped, angling my hips upward and wrapping my legs around his body, twining my feet in their fluffy socks together in the small of his back. I was greedy for him, desperate for penetration. Liam’s cock never failed to fill me, satisfy me, make me thankful for him being alive. “Please, Liam, now,” I begged and positioned the head of his cock at my wet entrance. I rubbed over his engorged veins with my fingertips and tried to stuff him into my pussy, swallow him with my quivering, wet lips. But he held himself just out of reach, just high enough so I couldn’t quite impale myself on him.
“You really want it?” he asked in a voice that sounded as strained and desperate as it did teasing.
“You know I do.” I squirmed, crawling up him and practically lifting myself off the table. “Do your duty. Love, honor and...” I paused, searching out his eyes, then deepened my voice, “and obey.”
He stared down at me, the dense navy of his irises glistening with lust. “I can’t remember any obey, baby, but on this occasion I’ll make an exception.” He sucked in a breath and his nostrils flared. “You ready?”
“Yes, yes, god, yes, now.” I curled my fingers into his biceps. “Please.”
He rammed forward and his cock surged into me, stretching and filling my pussy to the limit. I cried out as air was knocked from my lungs, the sound mingling with his shout of pleasure bouncing around the kitchen.
Full and stretched, I clenched around him. His tongue plundered into my mouth again and he began to pump in and out of me. Our hearts and lips sealed, our bodies as one. I locked my feet in the small of his back and shut my eyes as he transported me to a place where only he and I existed.
His pubic bone rocked against my clit and his thick cock took ownership of my body. I broke the kiss and buried my head in his neck. All I could concentrate on was where we joined so intimately. He upped the pace and increased the intensity. The first wave of an orgasm careened toward me.
“Liam, oh Liam, yes, yes,” I cried into the soft wool of his sweater. “Oh god, don’t stop.”
He didn’t answer. Instead he shunted his hips all the harder. He got up onto the table with me, his weight falling heavier on my chest and his knees nudging the back of my legs.
“Come, baby,” he murmured hotly into my ear. “Come for me, let me feel how much you need me.”
I split apart, greedily clenching and pulsating around his cock as I fisted his sweater. I groaned long and loud and abandoned, not holding anything back, rejoicing in being able to let him hear how fantastic he made me feel.
“Oh fuck, that’s it,” he grunted, and then he too was coming, flooding me with his love and desire. I clamped my pussy around his rigid, pumping cock. Another pleasure-soaked groan erupted from his chest as he pounded in one last time and froze at the hilt.
Our breaths were hard and fast, our hearts beating hard only inches from one another. After a few moments I slid my hands over his broad shoulders and down his back, my soul swelling with love for him. Every time was so special with Liam. Every time was a moment we wouldn’t have had if it hadn’t been for Quinn.
Pulling up, he looked into my eyes. A flush of pink had risen on his cheeks. “I hate seeing you sad,” he said breathlessly. “Was that good distraction therapy?”
“Perfect,” I said, gently smoothing his flopping blond hair over the deeply ridged scars on his skull. I reached up and kissed him. “I love you,” I whispered, trying to steady my breaths.
“I love you too.” He cupped my face in his hands and returned the kiss. Deep and passionate, our lips and tongues confirming the emotions we shared. On and on we kissed until his cock softened inside me and my sweat cooled the surface of my skin. An autumn breeze fluttered into the kitchen, carrying with it an oak leaf that floated onto my forearm. I couldn’t suppress a small shiver.
He broke the kiss, slid from inside me and shifted off the table. “Come on.” He tucked his cock into his boxers and did up his jeans. “Let’s get you dressed.”
I brushed off the leaf and took his offered hand. He supported me as I planted my feet on the floor and picked up my discarded clothing. I glanced at the messy table. It wasn’t the first time it had seen action like that. Thank goodness our nearest neighbors were nearly half a mile away so it didn’t matter if the top half of the door was open.
“When is Quinn due home?” Liam asked, walking to the sink and running his hands under the tap.
“I thought he’d be here by now,” I said, looking at the clock and making no move to put on my pants and knickers.
“What time was his meeting?”
“One and he didn’t think it would last more than three hours.” I shrugged. “He must have called in at the ward and got caught up in something.”
“Yeah, he did dawn-’til-dusk surgery yesterday so there’s bound to be lots of follow-ups today.”
“Mm.” I frowned a little. I didn’t like Quinn’s new surgical hours. Until several weeks ago he’d operated every day but only half days. Okay, his half day could last ten hours if that was how long an operation took, but still, it was a surgeon’s half day. But now he was operating for three long days—ridiculously long days. I was no doctor but it seemed better to have surgical time diluted with clinics and ward rounds. Less intense, less mentally and physically exhausting. I couldn’t understand why theatre management had changed it, something about saving time shifting specialist equipment around, Quinn had muttered angrily when I’d asked.
“Here.” Liam pressed my now heavily infused raspberry tea into my hand. “Sorry, it’s gone a bit cool.”
“It’s fine.” I smiled and took a sip of the rich, fragrant liquid. “I’ll go and freshen up.” Thick moisture seeped between my legs. “Then I need to get the stables cleaned and locked up.”
“Tonight?”
“Yes, it feels like they’ll soon be coming home once the stables are ready for the ponies return.”
He smiled. “Sure, you do that and I’ll make a start on dinner.” He pulled open the huge fridge and began dropping ingredients onto the counter.