Torn from Two (Taken and Torn Book 2) Read online

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  The wedding that night was beautiful—Maddie and Chad were so happy they might explode at any second from bliss. I’m not proud to admit several times during the touching ceremony I wanted them to explode—I was jealous. Every girl imagines her wedding, and the knot deep in my gut told me I’d never have anything as public as my cousin’s declaration of undying love. My melancholy faded as I looked to the audience and saw my two gorgeous men sitting next to each other at the end of the third row. Their eyes weren’t on the bride, but on me, and full of love. I had everything, and felt guilty for coveting a big wedding witnessed by family and friends.

  The reception was a huge party with hundreds of guests, hosted and paid for by my father. His only sibling, my Aunt Sophie, had married a tournament Poker player, whose fortunes seem to rise and fall with the latest hand, but she was provided for by a hefty trust fund. But, as the first-born, my father had inherited the bulk of the family money and had sole control over Sedgewick, Incorporated, which owned several casinos and resort properties across the globe. Some of his business-dealings were dicey and involved money laundering, but despite his shadier practices, he was a successful businessman.

  I was standing between Rex and Nate at the bar as he walked up to the three of us, leaning in to hug me. “Uh, Dad, this is Nathaniel Slater, I think you’ve met. And, this is R—” Rex interrupted abruptly, his right hand extended toward my father, the gold band he wore on his ring finger gleaming in the artificial lights of the ballroom.

  “Doctor Roger Renton,” he said, shooting me a glance that reminded me that “Colonel Rex from Colombia” was someone my father might recognize as a former enemy. They’d run up against each other’s interests in the past while Rex was involved in anti-narcotics special ops in the Air Force.

  My father shook his hand energetically. “Doctor? Now that I can get behind. I understand you love my Penny? You’re quite a bit older than she is.”

  Rex nodded, pulling his hand from my father’s grip. “Yes, sir, I am. And I do love Penny, she’s my Princess,” he said with a wink to me.

  “And Nate here, you all share?” My father’s question was to Rex, whom he clearly saw as more of an equal than Nate or myself. Rex bit his lip for a split second before standing up straighter and leaning in closer to look my father square in the eye.

  “I don’t know about the word share, Mr. Sedgewick,” Rex said, “but the three of us love each other. Can you handle that?”

  My father looked to me, then to Nate, and back to Rex before breaking out into a grin. “I think it’s fabulous—what people do in their own bedrooms isn’t my business. Shit, I have a great friend who’s as gay as the day is long, it’s all good. As long as you both love my girl and treat her well, I’m fucking ecstatic. And, there is the matter of an heir,” he said, signaling to the bartender to get him a drink. My eyebrows rose as I wondered what he was up to. Both Rex and Nate went silent, Nate’s arm slipping around my waist as we waited. My father took several long sips of his gin and tonic before continuing. “Let’s sit,” he shot out as he turned and walked toward an empty table at the far side of the room.

  We followed, sliding into the plush chairs at my father’s table. The crowd around was busy dancing, socializing, and drinking as the night wore on. Finally my father spoke again. “Listen, this bombshell my girl dropped last night is great news. Two roosters in the henhouse are better than one,” he said with a wink to Rex, “Right Doc?” Rex flinched, his hand instinctively reaching for mine.

  “Roosters?” Rex finally asked, his dark blue eyes leveled at my father, whom he wasn’t fond of. Rex and Nate had taken me from Las Vegas in the first place to protect me from a kidnapping plot aimed against my father.

  “Well, sorry, maybe that was crude. I just mean I really need Penny to produce an heir, male or female, legitimate or not, it doesn’t matter. Penny will inherit this empire, and my legacy only continues if she has someone to continue the line. Otherwise, it passes to my sister’s child, the air-headed bride Madison over there, and I won’t have that. I figure two men, greater chance of an heir and at least a spare.” My head snapped to my father, my hand still cradled in Rex’s, Nate’s palm on my thigh.

  “Daddy!” I exclaimed. We weren’t close, but he’d just made me feel like a breeding mare.

  “I’m sorry Penelope, I didn’t mean now, I just meant I approve of your unique relationship here. You have my blessing,” he said with the toss-back of the rest of his drink. “This wedding is costing me a fortune,” he mumbled, “I don’t know why her shit-hot poker playing husband couldn’t have chipped in.” He laughed at his own pun as he waved toward my Aunt Sophie with a strained smile. Nate made a show of looking at his watch before pushing back from the table. “Mr. Sedgewick, we need to get going. I have a meeting tomorrow and we need to get back tonight. Thank you for your hospitality,” Nate said, pulling me to my feet. Rex stood up next to us as my father answered, “Oh, glad to do it. My daughter is my pearl,” he said unconvincingly. He turned to Rex as we walked away, “Dr. Renton, do we know each other? You seem familiar to me, were you at the Mayo before…”

  “No,” Rex answered flatly, dragging me toward the door. Back in our suite, we packed up quickly, anxious to escape the suffocating cloud of the real world.

  Chapter Four

  We’d been back in Colombia for two weeks after my cousin’s wedding when I heard music one evening. I thought maybe our housekeeper was listening while cleaning, but as I turned the corner, Rex was the only one there.

  “Oh my God, what are you listening to?” I asked, staring at the blaring speaker in our living room.

  “Prince. So?”

  “It’s just I’ve only heard you listen to hard rock, and that weird Colombian stuff.”

  “This song,” he explained, walking over toward his iPhone resting in the speaker, “means the world to me.” He pressed a button, starting the song over again.

  “Purple Rain?”

  “Purple Rain. Dance with me, Penny. I’ll explain after.”

  I fell into him, his hulking body more graceful than it should be as he wrapped around me, pulling me close to him. His lips were at my neck as we glided across the smooth hardwood of the living room, the dim lamp light flickering as I inhaled the scent of the man I loved. He was right—the song was magical. Prince was far before my time, but the sound was timeless.

  We molded into one another, hanging on as if it were our last few breaths together, as if when the song ended so would we. I’ll never forget that night, that dance. I had no idea then how important it was. As the song faded to a crescendo, Rex whispered in my ear, “I love you so much, baby girl. My heart beats for you.”

  My perfect Rex, our love was invincible . . . then.

  The sound dwindled to the crackling silence of the speaker, and yet we stood there, swaying together. “I’m taking you to bed,” he whispered finally, his strong arms lifting me into the air.

  “Wait, tell me first,” I begged as his strong body tried to walk me toward the bedrooms.

  “Later, I need you now.” His growing erection rubbed against me—I wanted him to share with me, open up, but I knew he was far too turned on to slow down, so I gave in.

  “Your room? Nate is asleep.”

  He continued to carry me down the hall, toward Nate’s room and the bed the three of us usually shared.

  “No, I need him too, we’re waking him up. I need you both,” he grunted, kicking Nate’s door open with his foot.

  “You’re telling me about the song after, Rex, no pretending to be asleep,” I whispered into his ear as he carried me into the moonlit room.

  Nate was awake, reading in the chair as we opened the door. “I love you,” Nate said, as Rex leaned down to kiss him, Nate’s palm on the side of Rex’s strong jaw. A satisfied smile crept across Rex’s lips.

  “I love you, too, Nate.”

  Their lips met, soft and loving at first, but hard and eager by the time I tappe
d Nate’s shoulder.

  “My turn,” I purred, the love I had for these two men so complete, so perfect, that nothing could ever compare.

  Nate’s lips found mine, soft and fluid, as Rex’s warm lips caressed the back of my neck. My tongue stroked Nate’s, our kiss deepening.

  “Bed,” Rex growled against my neck.

  Nate’s strong arms lifted me, carrying me to his bed. Nate pulled at my clothing, desperate to feel my skin, as I opened his shirt. My lips fell onto his hardening pink nipples as he deftly stripped me naked. Rex’s hard body slid behind me—his bare skin brushing against mine, the electricity from our chemistry maddening.

  “Shit,” he moaned as his thick cock brushed against my soaked pussy, “I need you, both of you.”

  Nate fell into me, his lips seeking Rex’s kiss as Rex’s cock plunged deep inside me. My head fell back over Rex’s broad shoulder, my eyes savoring the elegance of their kiss as Rex filled my tightness. Wrapped between the two men I loved, watching them love each other, drove me over the edge even before Nate’s fingers parted my swollen sex, caressing my clit until I could take no more.

  I pulled myself off of Rex and rolled onto the bed. He was still hard, his mouth frantically kissing Nate’s. Rex’s strong grip brought Nate down on top of him, their solid bodies next to mine on the cool sheets. My eager eyes drank them in—bodies intertwined, lips melded together.

  Rex’s cock was slick from my climax, the barbell piercing on the underside shined as my tongue found it, slowly caressing it—cleaning it of my own sweet fluid as it twitched. Nate rolled to the side, his eyes meeting mine as Rex’s lips pulled away. In a quick flip, Rex had Nate on his back, Nate’s long cock erect against his belly.

  “Suck him, slowly, while I fuck him,” Rex growled, his large hand seeking the clear bottle of lube from our bedside table.

  “Uh huh,” I nodded, my own clit stirring to life once more.

  “What do you want?” Rex barked at Nate, his slicked up cock positioned at Nate’s tight backside.

  “I want you,” Nate answered, his soft voice needy, almost begging.

  “And?” Rex prodded, the fat head of his cock slowly opening Nate.

  “And her—I love you both,” Nate answered as my lips caressed his throbbing cock.

  Rex’s breath hitched as he slid deeper into Nate’s tightness, slowly making love to the man he adored as my mouth mimicked the motion on Nate’s hard cock.

  “More, harder,” Nate begged of both of us as we picked up speed.

  Nate’s fingers laced through my long hair, pressing me harder onto his needy cock as Rex plunged into him, harder and harder, time and again until the three of us shook from ecstasy. Rex’s agile fingers reached down to find my clit, swollen and ready to explode as the three of us joined in a way that was entirely our own.

  With a thunderous roar, Rex released his seed into Nate, Nate’s own salty essence coating my tongue, my own release rolling through body before we collapsed into each other—three lovers flush with a passion that I could never convey with words—it was perfect and entirely our own.

  In the ethereal glow of the moonlight streaming through Nate’s skylight, I lay cuddled between the two men who were my world, absorbed in the afterglow of our lovemaking. Rex yawned and pulled both Nate and me close to him.

  “You promised to tell me before you went to sleep,” I reminded him. He yawned again, and with a sigh, began.

  “It was our sophomore year of high school. We’d just started dating, and Evelyn asked me one day in the hall after third period if I was going to the dance. I didn’t get it then, but she was hinting that I was supposed to ask her to the dance.”

  “Did you ask her?”

  “No. I said I wasn’t sure. The truth was, I was living with my third foster family that year, and I couldn’t even afford tickets to a school dance. I tried to work an after-school job for spending money, but the family I lived with used me more for labor than as a child. Evelyn just winked at me that day in the hall and said, ‘I’m your girlfriend now, Roger, and I’m taking you to the dance. There’s no one else I want to be wrapped around.’ I just…it was so incredible to me, Penny—no one had ever wanted me like that, certainly not someone like her. I didn’t know what she saw in me.” His fingertip ran down my bare spine, sending chills across me.

  “I know what she saw,” I answered as he pulled the fluffy comforter over us. “So the Prince song?” I prompted, fighting tiredness to get him to finish sharing his story with me.

  “We danced to it at that dance—it was the first time I’d ever slow danced. I had no idea what I was doing, but we just swayed, tangled in each other. It was magical. I knew that night, at that moment, that I loved her.” His lungs filled with air, letting the breath out slowly as he remembered the night. Lying there with him, my heart filled with sadness remembering Evelyn pointing a gun at Rex, shooting into his torso, trying to kill him barely a year before. She would have killed me, too, if I hadn’t have grabbed Rex’s gun and shot her first. I didn’t understand how he could still remember good times with her.

  “Do you still love her?” I asked into the night, my jealousy clawing at me like a wild animal.

  “Now? I mean, no—not…I’m in love with you, Penny, and Nate. The two of you have my whole heart. But I did love her, and love doesn’t die just because people do. Nothing that happened after can taint that night, can change what we had at that time. I don’t see life in the revisionist way that you do, Princess.”

  “Evelyn changed, I changed—our love didn’t last, but that doesn’t mean that it didn’t exist, that it wasn’t real,” he continued. “What I am, what I have right now, the two of you, and anyone else to come, is a product of all of those experiences. Same with you and Nate—the three of us are what we are because of the past.”

  “Or in spite of it. What do you mean anyone else?” I asked, my jealousy flaring again.

  “I didn’t mean others like that, I never want anything more than the three of us in that way. I meant…” he took a deep breath before continuing, “if we ever had a child, or something like that.”

  The next afternoon, I couldn’t shake thoughts of Rex mentioning having children. I wouldn’t let the questions go, asking him about logistics, what he knew about fertility, and other endless pesky questions until he finally got annoyed with me.

  “Penny, I don’t even know if I can father a child.” Rex said the words with finality, his long fingers snuffing out the cigar he’d given up puffing on. He reached for his crystal tumbler of bourbon, and took a long sip of the syrupy amber liquid.

  “But you want one, right? A baby?” I asked, not willing to let the topic go.

  He sighed, his midnight blue eyes seeking mine in the early twilight of the cool Colombian night. “Yes, but there’s plenty of time. You’re still young, baby—so young.”

  His words hung in the humid air. Rex was right, I was barely twenty-six, but deep inside I knew I was ready.

  I could hear Nate, the other love of my life, rustling in the pool cabana. He’d gone for a swim after dinner.

  “But you can father a child,” I argued.

  His large hand reached toward me. “Come here.”

  “Don’t get mad, I’m just trying to understand—”

  “I’m not mad,” he interrupted, “I just need you closer.”

  I slid from the low lawn chair and curled up into Rex’s lap. His large arms wrapped around me, pulling me close, as his lips nuzzled into my hair. “I love you so much, baby girl.”

  “Was she ever on any birth control? Your ex-wife?”

  “Fuck, Penny, you are like a dog with a bone—let it go.”

  We sat in silence as Nate walked around the corner, a towel wrapped around his torso. “Room for me on your lap?” Nate teased Rex.

  “Drop the towel and hop on, Bro,” Rex flirted back.

  Nate flopped into the empty chair and reached for the bottle of bourbon. “After a drink,” he said, fil
ling an empty glass.

  “What are you guys so deep in convo about?” Nate asked, leaning back in his chair.

  “Penny won’t stop talking babies,” Rex sighed, his face turning toward Nate.

  “Ah, yeah—I got the baby talk earlier. So what, are we just going to impregnate her Russian Roulette style? Whoever’s sperm hits the—”

  “That’s not fucking funny, man.” Rex was pissed. Nate was over ten years younger than Rex, and often around us he felt those years.

  “Sorry,” Nate gulped. “What’s the plan then?”

  Rex glared at him. “To answer your question, Penny,” Rex said dryly, “No, she wasn’t on birth control. She wanted a kid from day one. I was gone a lot, but still—she should have gotten pregnant. I offered to go to a fertility specialist with her, but she had this huge phobia of doctors.”

  “But, uh, you’re a doctor, dude,” Nate interjected. Rex spent his military career as a special ops combat medic in the jungles of Colombia.

  “You’re a master of the obvious, Nathaniel,” Rex snapped. “We fell in love before medical school. Anyway, I don’t know why the difficulty in conceiving. The one time, that’s all I know of.”

  I squeezed his hand—Rex’s ex-wife, now dead, had lost their child during delivery. The cord was wrapped around baby Noah’s neck. The infant’s death sent his wife, Evelyn, into a deep depression. The child’s name, and hers, was tattooed in the sea of ink on his golden skin.

  “I need a shower, don’t have any babies while I’m gone,” Nate teased. His words were playful, but there was something wrong; I could see something dark in his steel blue eyes. Worry, maybe, or could it have been resentment?

  After he left, I pushed the topic again. “So you tried for years, but you were gone so much. Could that be it?”

  “Maybe. I think she might have miscarried once,” Rex said quietly. “Her girlfriend, Sherry, lived next door to us in base housing at Fort Bragg—she hinted at a party that Evelyn should tell me about something, and from the little bits I could hear, it seemed to point to that. But, by then we’d drifted pretty far apart, so I let it go.”