Marrying Mari by Elyse Snow Page B

twice, three times and then he was coming too, and she could feel her channel milking him as he held hard inside her.
    She was limp, her body trembling from aftershocks, when Ethan pulled out of her. He gently lifted her and kissed her lips. “Oh, baby,” he crooned.
    Gabriel collapsed behind her. She was cradled against Ethan’s chest, too spent to look up when Gabe climbed off the bed. She cuddled against Ethan, exhausted as he laid them both down in the bed.
    Moments later, a warm, wet cloth pressed gently against her sensitive pussy and she protested weakly.
    “Hush. Just want to make you feel better. Relax.” Gabriel’s voice was rougher than usual. He kissed her hip. “Bloody hell, little one. I’m done for.” The cloth was gone and Gabriel’s big, solid body lined up against her back. Mari sleepily turned her head and looked at him out of one eye. He looked done for, she thought, and closed her eyes. And fell into sleep, immediately.
     
    “Bloody hell.” Gabriel said again.
    Ethan looked over Mari’s sleeping head. His best friend looked stunned. Ethan grinned at him. “I’ve never seen that expression on you.”
    “Hey, man, back at you.”
    Ethan quirked an eyebrow. “Oh, I look like I’ve been hit by a fist in the face?”
    “No, you look like you’re in love,” Gabe retorted.
    Immediately, Ethan shook his head. “Sexually satisfied, heavily in lust, pleased and satisfied with the woman between us, yes. In love?” He shook his head again. “No.”
    Gabriel shifted to look at Ethan. “Why not? I am.”
    Ethan stared. “It’s been four days. Don’t kid yourself.”
    The bigger man settled back, rested one hand on Mari’s back. “I know what I feel, man. I can’t believe it either, by the way. This is a first for me.” He smoothed his hand over the woman sleeping between them, gazing into her face, then up at his best friend and partner. “You know me. Since I was sixteen, I’ve been with lots of women. Been with—hell, fucked, sucked and played with. I love women in the plural. The smell, the feel, the sounds they make. Getting them undressed and wet and eager to do what I like, when I like, how I like. And I liked pleasing them. I knew how to please them, and I did. And it was great. And it was nothing like this. Mari is the one, and I mean I love her. I’m in love with her. So if she’s not the one for you—”
    “She is, Gabe. She is the one. This is right. I like her. The sex is great. She’s easy to be around. But I’m not in love with her.” Ethan shrugged. “I’m glad you think you are.”
    Gabe released an amused, frustrated breath. “Y’know, I would have put money on the fact that this discussion would go entirely the opposite way. That you’d be advocating happy married life and I’d be talking ‘satisfied’.” He studied his friend. “What’s wrong?”
    “Nothing.” Ethan shook his head. Again. “I’m glad we’re in agreement.”
    “Sure.” Gabriel relaxed back, turned his attention to the woman between them. “Yeah, we’re in agreement.” He closed his eyes and scooted closer to her. “Total agreement.”

Chapter Eight
    Mari woke again to the feeling of two big male bodies sandwiching her between them. And her own body aching slightly. She shifted and winced. New muscle groups made themselves heard. Opening her eyes, she stared directly into Gabriel’s whiskey ones. He had been watching her sleep. The corners of his beautiful mouth kicked up into a smile.
    “You look like a big, self-satisfied cat,” she muttered.
    He laughed softly. “You look like a grumpy kitten,” he teased.
    “Hmpf.”
    “I rest my case.”
    She moved her hand to his broad, muscled chest, resting it there. Feeling the warmth that was Gabriel. Behind her she could feel Ethan’s body spooned against hers.
    “Sugar?”
    She opened one eye. Sort of.
    “How are your bumps and bruises this morning?”
    She closed her eye. “Fine.”
    “Then maybe you want to