Coal to Diamonds Read online

  The scent of fresh coffee filled the room, and the fire warmed Cole’s back. But Cam’s chill felt like it could freeze Cole’s skin and tear it off if he pulled away.

  “Gods,” Cole panted, out of breath from infusing Cam with his heat, “you’re fucking freezing.”

  Cam looked broken. “I told you. Nothing takes away the chill. Not even you.”

  Cole didn’t care to be told he couldn’t do something. Cam’s innocent words hid a challenge. Could he assert his influence over Cam’s body and drive out the other? He grasped Cam’s shoulders and pushed them hard against the back of the couch. The blanket fell open. He sidled further up on Cam’s lap, so his prominent hipbone jutted into Cam’s rib. Then he kissed him hard, savagely, thrusting his tongue past Cam’s parted teeth toward the back of his throat. Their mouths filled with the tastes of phosphorous and charcoal. Their teeth banged and scraped. Cole moved his right hand back over Cam’s chest, this time seizing a handful of the thin, blond hair that grew in the center. Cole felt fiercely possessive. Cam and Bobby belonged to him. He was tired of having his sacred things—his home, his forest, and his lovers—infiltrated and usurped one by one. Defiled.

  Cole yanked at the chest hair even as his mouth pushed in the opposite direction, so Cam’s supple torso arched into him. He wriggled his left hand between their flesh, his own skin sweat-glazed now and Cam’s still chilly. With his fingers pointed down, he rubbed with his palm until Cam’s stiffening cock jabbed between his fingers. The swollen head of his own cock jutted into Cam’s navel.

  Cole pictured them both as vessels, himself full of embers and flame, like the potbellied stove, Cam empty. He channeled the heat up from its source, just above his cock but further in, into his hands and breath, and then into Cam. Slowly the pallid skin bloomed pink around his palms. Cam moaned gratefully, the sound reverberating through both of their bodies. Nipping and licking Cam’s lips and tongue, Cole exhaled more warm air into him. Cam belonged to him. If he wanted Cam warm, melted even, then warm he would be. He rubbed horizontally from one of Cam’s shoulders to the other. He hadn’t realized he’d started stroking Cam’s cock until he felt the first pearl of precome escape the tip. He didn’t stop. Most of Cole’s magic, the really effective spells, came to him spontaneously. He was at his best when he spoke the words that formed in his mind instead of memorizing chants. When he gave his instincts free rein and followed their lead, he could be overwhelming.

  Though he rejected most of the mystic doctrine he’d discovered online, Cole embraced the tenets of chaos theory as they pertained to magic. Chaos magic discarded tradition, ritual, and religion in favor of results. It encouraged the caster to pick and choose from the world’s institutions, combining them at will. Belief was mutable, morality irrelevant. Only success mattered. As soon as Cole developed his own system, which largely entailed doing or saying whatever impulsive thing he felt, his power and confidence had increased tenfold.

  This was the right thing to do now, he sensed. He sped up his hand, smearing the warm liquid across Cam’s head. Warm. Good. It was working. Cole was nearly empty. He had precious little more to give. But he dug deeper, pulling more heat and energy from the base of his being. Cam opened his mouth wider, and dropped his head backward to rest against the cushion. He circled his hips as he thrust into the tunnel of Cole’s hand. Dizzy, Cole held on tighter to Cam’s chest hair, eliciting a tiny pained gasp from the other man that sucked his breath in with it. He had to break the kiss, or he’d pass out. Besides, Cam’s cock twitched in his hand, and he wanted to watch Cam come. Cole withdrew his lips with a little wet pop.

  “Come for me, Cam,” Cole panted, the effort brightening and multiplying the comets that shot across his vision. “Just for me.”

  Cole spent a second glancing at Cam’s face. Cam’s lips burned red from kissing, and his cheeks matched. A few beads of sweat even glistened on his upper lip. His gorgeous green eyes looked glazed, just as they did when he divined. The bright irises rolled back, and he moaned Cole’s name. A wisp of smoke escaped his parted lips. Then he groaned as his seed shot out, spilling over Cole’s hand and dribbling down his knuckles. Cole quickly lifted his hand and scraped his fingers along his lower lip, letting Cam’s fluids pool there. Then he grabbed Cam’s hair and pulled their faces back together. The come slid into Cam’s mouth along with Cole’s lip. Their tongues twisted in concert, churning, mixing the semen with saliva. Before they pulled away, each sucked some of the concoction into his mouth and swallowed. Convergence like this held potent magic, Cole knew. He held Cam’s jaw and licked his chin, cleaning away anything that had dripped out. Then he wiped his own with the back of his hand. A few drops of blood in the potion would boost the power tenfold. He’d remember next time, and bite the inside of his cheek. For now he could only sprawl across Cam’s chest and prop his forehead against Cam’s reedlike neck. The walls of the cabin rotated around the couch in a blur of browns and plaid.

  “Better, baby?” he asked. “Warmer?”

  Cam petted Cole’s straight dark hair. A few pieces of blood-red striped it, now that he’d left the insurance agency and its dress code. Cam’s heartbeat shook both their bodies, and he said “Yes, thank you, Cole.”

  “Don’t thank me. Thank you, for saying my name when you came. It was a powerful gesture at that moment. It means you’re mine.” He kissed the spot where Cam’s jawbone met his ear. Then he moved his teeth to the silver ring in Cam’s lobe and tugged, making Cam close his fingers in his hair and pull. The twinge of pain made Cole’s cock jump. He thrust it against Cam’s belly, feeling the scrape of the sparse hair against his head. Exertion had doused his erection partially, but done little to quell his desire.

  Cole felt a firm grip on his knee, and he lifted his face from the screen of Cam’s hair. Bobby’s even brown eyes met his. Worry pointed his brows in, toward the thick, straight bridge of his nose. He sat as rigid as a fencepost beside the languid curve of Cam’s body. “Is Cam all right?” he asked.

  “He’s all right,” Cole said. “He’s warmed up now. We were just having some fun. Care to join?” They’d done so before, many times, since the first union in the tree house.

  But Bobby didn’t respond to the invitation. Instead he regarded Cole a second longer before pinning the hair away from Cam’s forehead and turning Cam to face him. “Do you want to rest?” he asked. “Are you really okay?”

  Cole wanted to swat Bobby’s hand from his knee. When had this happened? Since when were Cole’s assurances not enough?

  “Doesn’t he look okay?” Cole snarled.

  Bobby ignored him and lifted his brows to coax a word from Cam.

  “I really feel much better,” Cam said. “That rain. Have you ever seen anything like that? It felt like, I don’t know, little cold needles sticking in my body.”

  The three of them shuddered in silence, and instinctively joined hands: Bobby stretched to weave his fingers into Cole’s, and Cam bent one arm up to reach Cole’s on his shoulder and crossed the other over his belly toward Bobby. Their wagons were circled now, their fortress built. The tremor Cam’s words had instigated ebbed.

  “We’re safe right now,” Cole said again. Their circuit broke, and they returned their hands to their previous positions. Cole’s palms prickled where the energy had flowed in and out.

  “How can this be happening?” Bobby said. “Thorn is powerful, but the tree branches, that storm? And at such a distance—”

  Cam pirouetted toward Bobby so fast Cole fell from his lap. He grabbed Bobby’s cheeks and kissed him with little nips, like he sampled something he wasn’t quite sure he liked. But his tongue delved deeper with each peck or nibble. Bobby twined his arms around Cam’s waist. Cam stopped to breathe and said a single word between each kiss. “Please. Don’t. Talk. About. Him. Any. More. Tonight.”

  Breathless, Bobby muttered “’Kay, baby.” He took Cam’s waist and easily lifted the smaller man on to his lap. Cam straddled Bobby’s legs and leaned in for a
longer, slower kiss. His tongue wriggled into Bobby’s mouth and his hair fell over both of their faces. Bobby grasped Cam’s thighs where they met his torso and pulled him forward. Their bellies, chests, and cocks pressed together. Their groins moved against each other in tight, slow circles. The room had warmed, and sweat glistened on both Bobby’s brawny, olive body and Cam’s willowy, ivory limbs.

  Cam stood up and knelt in front of Bobby, pushing the other man’s knees apart so he could crouch between them. Cole, content to observe and idly stroke himself for now, watched Cam kiss his way up Bobby’s inner thigh until he reached Bobby’s cock. It wasn’t overly long, but it was as thick as the staff he wielded in their ceremonies. Cam ruffled Bobby’s brown pubic hair with his nose. Then he grasped Bobby’s erection at the base and kissed and suckled his scrotum, pulling on the loose skin with his lips, making Bobby moan with frustration. A bead of come welled on the tip of his cock. Cam licked it away, but didn’t linger. Bobby groaned when Cam withdrew his tongue. Chuckling softly, Cam continued to nibble all around Bobby’s balls and crotch, making Bobby’s skin shine with saliva. Bobby arched his spine and turned his face toward the low, unfinished rafters.

  “Cammy, gods,” he growled, twisting his fingers into Cam’s thick blond hair.

  Green eyes sparkling with mischief, Cam looked up from under his long fringe as he circled the head of Bobby’s cock with his tongue. Bobby looked down, and their gazes locked as Cam parted his lips to take Bobby into his mouth.

  “Damn, but you’re beautiful,” Bobby said.

  It was beautiful, watching Cam’s full, lily-pink lips slide over Bobby’s darkened, engorged cock. But Bobby opened his eyes, as if he’d suddenly realized something, and he waved his hand at the desk lamp and it turned off. Power still overflowed from each of them. Bobby gestured toward the bulb hanging over the round table where Cole took his meals, when he remembered to eat, and it flickered and then went out. Only an orange rectangular outline, from the gaps around the woodstove door, illuminated the room. It reflected off the damp, lean muscles of Cam’s back as they contracted and stretched rhythmically, and off Bobby’s broad chest, but it hid much more than it revealed.

  “Why do that?” Cole asked. “I was watching.”

  “I don’t like to be watched,” Bobby grunted. “You know that.”

  “I miss watching you two. I went ten years without it. A compromise?” Cole asked, and he pointed his finger toward a candle held in an empty gin bottle. The wick burst alight, providing a warm, fuzzy glow that Bobby didn’t protest. It made the downy hair covering Cam’s ass look like dandelion fuzz lit by golden sunlight. Unable to resist any longer, Cole left the couch and squatted behind him.

  The rough wood floor scraped his knees, but Cam’s skin felt as smooth as still water. Cole traced the graceful muscles of Cam’s back, kissing from one shoulder to the other, inhaling the rain scent of his hair. When he reached Cam’s hips, Cole eased them up, away from where they rested on his heels. He took an old pillow from the sofa and placed it beneath Cammy’s knees as he caressed the back of his slender thigh. Without losing his rhythm, Cam took his hands off Bobby’s legs and rested them between Bobby’s feet. He shuffled backward on his knees until his back was flat and straight. Cole grasped Cam’s thighs just below his ass and urged his legs apart. He spread Cam’s cheeks and ran his finger over the wrinkled ring of muscle between them.

  Cole didn’t want to spare the seconds to get the lube from his desk drawer, and then he remembered they’d left some under the couch the last time the three of them had held their rituals. He stretched forward until he pressed his chest against Cam’s back, and then fished around until he felt the small bottle. After taking a few minutes just to relish the feeling of Cam’s soft skin against his, Cole squeezed a quarter-sized amount onto his palm and closed his fist to let it warm before spreading it over his fingers. When the first two were coated, he pressed them slowly and gently into Cam, who shuddered pleasantly at the penetration. Cole eased his fingertips deeper and down, until he found Cam’s gland and rubbed it. He loved the feeling of being inside one of his lovers: the satiny heat, the squeeze of the muscles around him, the echo of the heartbeat.

  For a few minutes, Cole let his fingers slide gently in and out. When Cam’s muscles relaxed, he added a third. He took his time stretching his partner, making sure his fingertips jabbed Cam’s prostate with every thrust. Cole liked watching his digits spread the rim of Cam’s ass taut and disappear inside his body. Cole had always been a visual person, and had even come a few times just from watching Bobby and Cam, back when he’d been a teenager.

  He withdrew his fingers and positioned the head of his cock outside Cam’s opening. He covered himself with the lube from his hand and then pushed the head into Cam’s hole. Cam bowed his back and scraped his nails against the wood floor. Slowly, Cole buried himself in Cam to the base of his cock. He knew he was above average in that department himself, and he didn’t want to hurt his lover. His first strokes were long and leisurely. He drew back until only his head remained inside Cam, and then he pressed forward until his black pubes brushed against Cam’s tailbone. He rested his right hand on Cam’s back and cradled his balls with his left. Before long, the three of them fell into an easy cadence. All of them slipped toward gnosis, into a reality where they could connect on a level beyond the physical.

  Cam lifted his head from Bobby’s lap. Cole paused inside him and said, “What’s up? Are you okay?” Cam’s aura looked steady and even, a faint green sheath of light around his lithe form.

  “I want Bobby inside me,” he said. Shock and hurt almost extinguished Cole’s erection. He felt like he might cry until Cam added, “With you, Cole.”

  It took a second before Cole realized what Cam was asking. He couldn’t deny that the novelty of it turned him on; his cock swelled, stretching Cam’s ass further, but not as far as if they did what he was suggesting. Bobby, too, seemed intrigued. He looked hungrily from Cole to Cam, but he said, “Baby, are you sure?”

  “I’m sure,” Cam said, stroking Bobby to keep him hard. “I want that. All three of us. Connected. I feel like this is important right now, and I need it.”

  Cole found himself trembling with anticipation and a little worry as he pulled his cock out of Cam. Cam turned his back toward Bobby and straddled him. Cole tossed the bottle of lube and Bobby caught it. After Bobby rubbed it on himself, he threw it back to Cole. Cam bent his knees, and Bobby spread his ass open gently with his big hands. Cam lowered himself onto Bobby’s cock, moaning. Bobby beat out Cole for girth, and Cam bit his lower lip. He sank down slowly, driving Bobby further into him, until he sat on Bobby’s pelvis. Cam’s balls huddled tight against his body, and his erect cock dribbled.

  Cam relaxed back against Bobby’s broad chest, and Bobby hooked his hands under Cam’s knees. He thrust up into him a few times before he pulled Cam’s legs apart further and held Cam’s knees against his shoulders. Cole could see where the root of Bobby’s cock disappeared into Cam’s flesh. He thought he might lose it, topple over the edge, seeing them like that after so long. Cam looked small and vulnerable next to Bobby. His ass was stretched so far already. But Cam rested his head confidently on Bobby’s shoulder, and he fluttered his eyelids with elation as Bobby’s thumb worked his glans.

  “Cole—” Cammy moaned. “Please, baby—”

  Hands shaking, Cole squirted more lube into his palm, twice as much as before. It dripped from his throbbing cock after he applied it. He stood between both pairs of splayed legs and looked into Cam’s eyes. “You want this?” he asked again.

  Cam exhaled a yes, and Cole placed the head of his cock above Bobby’s. He couldn’t imagine how much this was going to hurt. He didn’t even know if it was possible. He leaned forward and kissed Cam’s lips. Bobby kissed the side of Cam’s neck, and Cam’s eyes rolled back in his head as he groped around to touch them both wherever he could.

  “You ready?” Cole asked.

  “Uh-huh.”<
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  “If you don’t like it, we’ll stop,” Bobby panted.

  Cole grabbed Bobby’s shoulder for balance and held himself with his other hand. He searched Bobby’s eyes for any sign that he shouldn’t proceed. Bobby just ran his tongue along the edges of his teeth and watched Cole and Cam from beneath heavy-lidded eyes. Cole bent his knees until his groin was level with those of the others. Gingerly he thrust forward. At first it didn’t seem like he’d be able to get in, but then the muscles acquiesced. Cam gave a sharp cry as Cole’s head penetrated him alongside Bobby’s cock. The scream stopped Cole. He didn’t pull out, but he waited.

  “Go… ahead,” Cam said through gritted teeth.

  Delving in an inch at a time, Cole finally buried himself in Cam’s ass. He’d never experienced anything like it. The tightness was unbelievable, almost painful. Cole could feel Bobby’s thick, hard cock squashed up against his own, Cam’s soft, snug flesh encasing them both. He could feel Cam’s pulse pounding against his entire length. Cam’s muscles spasmed in waves, squeezing Cole and Bobby together so hard Cole thought they’d burst, then releasing them slightly before contracting again. A few seconds more of that, and Cole would come. He wouldn’t need to move at all.

  “Gods, Cam. Cole,” Bobby moaned. He didn’t seem to need to move either.

  Cole looked down at where Bobby’s cock and his own had stretched Cam’s ass so far open. Then he looked at Cam’s flushed, sweat-glazed face. He loved Cam for offering himself to them in this way, as their vessel, almost in sacrifice. He kissed him again, circling his hips ever so slightly. Then he lifted his mouth away and kissed Bobby. After pulling away again, he took a handful of Cam’s hair, and of Bobby’s close-cropped locks, and brought their faces together. As they kissed eagerly, Cole drew his cock out of Cam an inch, and then pushed it carefully back in. His lips hovered at the sides of their mouths, where he could feel their tongues working against each other. He dared another inch.