Ben swore softly as she exposed her pu**y to Todd, waiting for him to fill her.

Todd tested her readiness, groaning when he found her wet. The fat knob of his c**k brushed against her and pressed inside quickly. The pleasure at being filled by him shot up her spine.

“Doesn’t matter when you took me last, Erin. I always want you.”

She looked into his eyes, eyes that held only her, and the swell of love nearly made her cry. “I love you,” she whispered.

“Thank god,” he said as he f**ked into her body fast and hard. It wasn’t finessed, it wasn’t slow and seductive. He wanted her and he took her. Nothing was sexier.

She held on to the edge of the counter. Ben stepped forward and reached between them, finding her clit, and she sucked in air at how wonderful it felt.

Todd turned and Ben leaned forward. As always when she watched them together, she wanted to melt into a puddle. They kissed each other differently than they kissed her. With each other they were harder, rougher and yet neither tried to dominate the other. They saved that for her. Wheee!

The kiss broke and Ben was on her in moments, her hair in his grasp, pulling her head back to kiss her neck. She had to let go of the counter as he bent her back, his fingers still working her clit.

Overwhelmed, she held on to his shoulders and wrapped her legs around Todd’s waist. Shivers wracked her as she came, and a few breaths later, Todd’s c**k jerked inside her as he followed.

Ben stood and Todd helped her upright and down off the counter. “I just got all cleaned up and you’ve sullied me again,” she joked, and Todd didn’t look abashed in the slightest.

She pulled on her skirt, zipped up the side and turned back to Ben, who leaned against the counter where Todd had just f**ked her.

“Hmm, what about you?” she asked in her best purr.

Todd moved close and pulled the front of Ben’s jeans apart. Erin blinked. Todd was easy enough with kissing and the occasional fondling with Ben, but he hadn’t initiated sexual contact in this way, at least that she’d seen.

“Bring me the lube, honey. Let’s take care of this.”

Erin moved quickly to the drawer that held all manner of things, condoms and lube primarily, and pulled out the Boy Butter. “He likes to get jerked with this,” she said in Todd’s ear, but loud enough for Ben to hear.

She didn’t do anything other than watch, not wanting to break into the moment between them. She caught Todd’s eyes in the mirror every once in a while when she could tear her gaze from his hands sliding, one after the other, up and off Ben’s cock, over and over. Ben’s eyes went half-lidded and his breath quickened and shal lowed.

“Harder,” Ben said to Todd, his voice desire-rough.

The muscles in Todd’s arms corded as he angled his wrists differently to fist over Ben’s c**k harder. Ben leaned back and began to thrust up into Todd’s grip and the sounds of male grunting and groaning made her sway as a flush built from her gut outward.

When Ben came, she was transfixed by his facial expression, feeling like a voyeur.

She moved slow like honey to clean Ben with a warm, wet washcloth.

Todd smiled as he looked her up and down. “I’m a really lucky man. A woman wearing a tight sweater and a short skirt with thigh-high stockings is going to bake bread for me. A hot man to share her with. It’s good to be me.” Todd winked as he dried his hands off.

32

Lorie oohed and aahed over the bread and other things Erin had brought, and Annalee studiously avoided her. It made Erin want to throw up, but there was nothing to be done about it.

The Keenans’ home was filled to the gills with people, absent, thankfully, the neighbor girl Annalee wanted to fix Ben up with. At least she’d listened on that.

Joe brought home his new girlfriend, and Liz had a date too. It was warm, the air smelled good with food and spices, and the sound of family filled the air. Erin surveyed it all with a smile, happy to belong to something so wonderful.

Todd came up behind her and wrapped her in his arms. “Hey, gorgeous. You doing all right?”

“More than all right. This is good. The best Thanksgiving I’ve had in a really long time.”

“Good. God, you make me happy.” He kissed her cheek and she snuggled back into him, watching the Wii boxing match taking place in the family room.

“Must make your dad happy to whack the crap out of Joe like that.”

“God knows I’ve wanted to more than once,” Todd murmured into her ear.

She laughed.

“Erin, your bag is ringing,” Mercy called out from the other room.

“Crap, should have turned it off,” Erin said, extricating herself from Todd’s hold and heading to her phone.

But a 213 area code on the number stopped her in her tracks. She took the phone and went out on the front porch.

“Hello?”

“Erin Brown?”

“Yes,” she answered warily.

“It’s Detective Emery.”

And just like that her legs gave out and she slumped to the deck.

“I’m sorry to bother you on Thanksgiving, but”—he sighed—“I was notified late yesterday that Charles Cabot is getting a parole hearing next month.”

She shot up from where she’d been crouched. “What?” she yelled. “Parole? He had a twenty-seven-year sentence. How can he possibly get parole? He killed my daughter. Goddamnit!”

“I’m so very sorry, Erin. You know I am. If I had anything to say about it, he’d be dead. But I don’t and he’s getting a hearing. They’re going to want to hear from you. Can you come down to testify?”