"Yeah, like I'm going to be able to do that with you or Geoff." She thumped his back and then shrieked as he hefted her so she slithered further down his back. Seizing his belt, she wormed her hand down beneath the belted waistband to grab a handful of boxers and yank. It didn't work as well as it did with briefs, but even so, at his amused grunt, she knew she'd accomplished enough of a wedgie to make an impact.
He laughed and hiked her back forward over his shoulder, flipping her in a move that had her cradled in his arms. "Little brat. Geoff, come deal with this so I can pull my underwear out of my ass. She hates to be tickled, you know."
"Does she? I hadn't noticed."
"No, no, no." She started to struggle as Geoff approached. He and Chris took her to the ground together, Chris leaving her in Geoff's care as he backed up to deal with his underwear. Since to do that he unbuckled his belt and unzipped his jeans, he effectively stole her attention as he reached down in back to handle things in a sinuous, wriggling motion. Then Geoff's long fingers were under her shirt, spidering along her waist and rib cage. "Let's see, where's she the most ticklish? Here . . . or here?"
"Stop. Stop it!" She squealed and shrieked, giggling and shoving at him as he persisted, as inexorable as Chris when he was holding her over his shoulder. "No, stop." She rolled and twisted and he sat on her, straddling her hips. He kept teasing those sensitive areas until she was begging for mercy. "Help . . . Chris, please."
Though he was the one who'd started the whole thing, the best part of play was that sides could change in a blink. Geoff let out an oath as Chris tackled him. They rolled off into the grass while she scrambled to her feet, flushed and giddy. Since Chris was working on getting Geoff into a headlock, she shot into the fray and tunneled her fingers under Geoff's shirt, taking her revenge on some of his more ticklish spots. He snarled at her while strangling on a laugh, he and Chris still grappling. Then he managed to break free and grab her by the waist, tumbling all three of them in a tangle of arms and limbs.
"Time. Time out," Chris called. The wrestling stopped, though she noticed both men kept her pinned, their hands overlapping at her waist and hip. Glancing down, Sam saw Chris's hand was over Geoff's at her waist. A blink later, he'd adjusted it higher so they weren't touching, but she saw one of those intriguing looks pass between the two of them, Geoff's quizzical lifted brow, Chris answering with a blank I didn't do anything expression that had Geoff curling a lip at him.
"You concede defeat," she told Chris, drawing their attention from one another. "You called time."
"I called time because you jumped into the middle." He pulled her hair. "Boys play too rough. I didn't want you to take an elbow in the face. Geoff likes to throw elbows."
"It's the only defense against a human python who likes the headlocks and body pins," Geoff retorted. "And you knew I wouldn't throw elbows with her in the mix, which gave you the advantage."
"So I was being fair," Chris pointed out.
"In what universe would any rational person come to that conclusion?"
"You're both sexist," Sam interjected. "I had plenty of scraped knees and busted lips growing up. I even had my nose broken once."
"By who? We'll go beat them up for you." Geoff stretched out in the grass, one arm over his head. They'd left the baseball field during their keep away and the wrestling match had occurred in a grassy spot just off the wooded trail, a roomy glade to do what they were doing now. Geoff tumbled her down next to him. With a little satisfied sigh, she put her head on his stomach. Chris stretched out on his hip, his large hand resting on her abdomen, fingers curling in her shirt.
/> "Darcy Strange," Sam said. "She was a cheerleader who was making fun of me for being skinny and awkward. It wasn't the first time someone called me 'Knobby Knees,' but when I tried to walk away, she shoved me. I fell and landed on a curb, broke my nose. In all fairness, I don't think she intended that to happen, but I was so mad, I got up and punched her in the face. Broke her nose, too. We became friends sitting in the nurse's office. Still exchange Christmas cards. So I'd rather you not beat her up."
"Well, hearing it was a girl fight changes thing. That's a spectator sport."
She elbowed Geoff again, then subsided, staring upward through the interlaced tree branches. Clouds were drifting across a blue sky. "I was just thinking . . . I'm pretty sure I fell in love with you both a long time ago. I can't even remember when it happened. It just seemed meant to be, you know? It took me a while to figure out how that would work, because I'd always been told it had to be one person."
"Yeah," Geoff said. He was playing with her hair, strong fingers massaging her scalp. "I think we both were in that spot as well. Until you took us to Naughty Bits, telling us it didn't have to be that way. Thinking about it as a real possibility is a different level of critical thinking."
She looked down at Chris, who'd plucked a dandelion and was rolling it in his fingers, his expression pensive. She touched his face to make him look at her. "Would it have been easier if I'd chosen only one of you?"
"Depends on who was chosen," he said. His lips quirked as if to pass it off as a joke, but she knew him too well. He'd meant to say something else, she was almost sure of it. But he curled his fingers around her wrist, gave it a little squeeze and then let her go to grasp the hem of her shirt, lifting it up to expose her navel. Since he was still twirling the dandelion, she tensed, but he shook his head. "It will tickle a different way," he said. "Okay?"
"Okay." She understood the message. Leave it alone for now. She didn't tilt her head to look at Geoff, but she wondered what his reaction was to Chris's odd response.
Chris moved the white puff of seeds over her flesh, tracing his way around the teddy bear navel jewelry. She reached behind her, curling her fingers in Geoff's shirt, bearing down so she could stay still under the sensual tease. His hand closed over her wrist. Her other hand was free, but Chris adjusted so his grip curled over that one, pinning it to the grass. Her toes balled up in her sneakers as he bent and blew over the same flesh, sending the dandelion seeds floating away over her head. As she watched them go, he kissed her stomach, tugging the teddy bear in his teeth.
Before she had a piercing, she'd never thought of her navel as an erogenous area, but a tug like that could twist sensation from that point and radiate it outward in heated swirls.
"I want to touch his hair," she said. Geoff's hand tightened on her.
"Ask me to let you go, Sam."
"Please . . . I'd like to touch his hair. Sir."
Chris stilled. She held her breath, waiting to see if he'd have any reaction, good or bad, to her addressing Geoff that way. Apparently he was processing it, like he had when Geoff made her hold the tomato in her mouth, because after that brief pause, he resumed what he was doing, teasing the indentation with his tongue. Geoff was still holding her. "Please, sir."
Geoff's grip loosened and she tunneled her slim fingers through Chris's thick mane, along his ears, his nape. Geoff stroked her hair as well, playing with the shell of her ears and caressing the tender skin of her throat. Chris's other hand traveled up her thigh, the heel of his palm pressing close to her pubic mound as he followed the strip of skin above the waistband of her jeans. Pushing two fingers beneath, he tugged on the elastic band of her panties. She gripped his hair in aroused response, and he made an approving noise against her. Lifting his head, he looked at her with a heated expression, shifting that look to her Master.
"I think it's time to go home, Geoff."
"It might be at that. Come here."