Bella rouses enough so that she's somewhat aware of her surroundings, but just enough to grumble something unintelligible and wrench her pillow over her head. She remains lying like that on her stomach, otherwise motionless.
I smile up at Jazz as he walks around the bed, then reach for him and kiss him. Only briefly it turns out, as he pulls away with a noise of disgust at the back of his throat, but he grins down at me.
"No offense, but you smell gross."
"Do not," I grunt back, but a vague sniff in the general direction of my body underlines just how accurate his assessment is.
While I disentangle myself from Bella and the sheets, Jazz starts unpacking his suitcase. He's careful to make a wide detour around the heap of discarded clothing left on the floor from last night. I shake my head at his antics as I pick them up, and deposit them in the hamper before I hit the bathroom.
By the time I'm done showering, Jazz has miraculously lost most of his own clothes, and is crawling onto the bed to tease Bella awake. I stop just inside the door, leaning against the frame while I watch this truly bizarre spectacle.
Bella has always been resistant to waking up, but given her exhaustion from yesterday's activities, I can understand why she wants to grab more than just a couple of hours sleep. Jazz is a lot less sympathetic than I am, though. He seems hell-bent on getting his head bitten off, from the way he's now sidling up to her.
"Bella, oh sweetest Bella," he keeps cooing, but the only reaction he gets is a grunt from underneath her pillow that is as unintelligible as it is hostile.
Undeterred, Jazz nudges her shoulder, then grabs the pillow and starts wrestling it from her grasp. Or tries to, but the only thing he receives for his efforts is her badly aimed kick to his leg.
Deciding that this won't do, he switches tactics. Bella utters a muffled shout when he tackles her, and tries to roll them both over. That finally gets her to move for real, but when she tries to push away from him he holds her down, his whole body more or less perched on her back.
"Let me up, you stupid oaf!"
"Stupid oaf, eh? What kind of crappy romance novel have you been reading? Is that the worst you can come up with?" he taunts, then starts tickling her. Bella shrieks, now fighting to throw him off for real, but worn out as she is Jazz has no problem keeping her underneath him.
She finally gives up and looks pleadingly over at me; I'm hard pressed not to laugh at them both.
"Help me!"
"Now that's unfair," Jazz grumbles, then eases up and rolls off her, coming to lay side by side with her. Bella sneers at him, then grins and settles back into her pillow. She groggily rubs her eyes and yawns loudly, without covering her mouth.
"You're early."
Jazz nods as I repeat my observation, briefly looking from me to her as I join them on the bed at Bella's other side.
"There wasn't really much to hold me in California. A little flirting with one of the stewardesses got me rebooked on a flight this morning."
"That's so typical of you!" Bella groans accusingly, snuggling back against me once I pull the covers up over my body again. Jazz actually looks a bit offended, but that doesn't change the brightness of his grin.
"Hey, it was just some harmless talking! And she was weirded out when I told her I wanted to return home earlier because I had two wonderful people waiting for me. She asked if I had a picture of my kid there, and I told her that both of them were older than me."
Bella huffs at that.
"You can be such a charmer. And she probably thought you were still living with your parents."
"She so did not!" he scoffs, then pushes himself up on one elbow, briefly looking at me before he resumes talking to Bella.
"So what have you two been up to while I was gone? Did you miss me?"
"I always miss you. No one could ever annoy me as much as you do," she quips in return. Jazz pretends to be deeply hurt for a moment, but takes it in stride.
"You would just become complacent and bored without me annoying you."
"That's beside the point!"
"And you really missed me? You're not just saying that because you're afraid I'll end up putting itching powder in your knickers?"
Bella scoffs, ready to hurl another insult at him, but then stops. A light frown appears on her forehead, and her eyes narrow. When she speaks again, her tone has changed; it's no longer petulant and teasing, but now has a clear note of seriousness to it.
"Jazz, you know that we always miss you. Both of us."
He actually looks chagrined, and for all intents and purposes avoids Bella's gaze while he fidgets with the corner of her duvet. I feel her tense under my arm before she groans, then pushes herself up onto all fours and crawls onto Jazz until their foreheads are almost touching. The motion makes the sheet slip off her, revealing a plethora of bruises and marks all over her back, ass and thighs. Their position should be sexual with her naked and him only wearing his boxers and a t-shirt, but neither of them seems to be aware of that.
"Are you really that insecure that you think we hugged and danced around the room the moment you were gone because we finally got rid of you?"
Jazz makes as if to give a snappy reply, but Bella shushes him with a gentle finger to his lips.
"You have no fucking idea how much moving just now hurt me. You owe me some honest answers."
He frowns slightly, then cranes his neck so he can catch a look at her backside. Unnecessarily, as her boobs bear enough marks of their own, if mostly fainter ones, and his true intent becomes obvious when he lightly slaps her ass. Bella winces, but looks more pissed at him for trying to change the topic than at him causing her some moderate level of discomfort.
"Jazz?"
"What? You know you like it."
Her huff is frustrated enough to sober him up. When she sits back on her haunches, bringing distance between them while she settles on his thighs, he seems to realize how serious she is. As is usual when they are having a heart to heart like this, they both ignore me. They don't seem to mind the fact that while I'm just outside of touching distance, I'm well within ear shot.
"Yes, rationally I know you didn't spend the last twenty-four hours being happy I wasn't here. I guess, knowing you both, that you spent a lot of time not really thinking at all. But that doesn't change the fact that irrationally, I feel like maybe you should have been happy to get some alone time without me for a change."
Bella frowns, crossing her arms over her chest as she keeps scrutinizing his face, as if she could force his every feeling and thought out into the open. It certainly works well enough when she pulls that stunt on me.
"You know that just like you guys get to fuck each other when I'm not around sometimes, Edward and I end up screwing without you. So what?
It's usually a thing of impulsive horniness and opportunity, not a statement of possessiveness. We all know it happens, and I don't think any one of us is resentful when it does?"
She keeps staring at him until he shakes his head.
"I won't deny that I had a hell of a great time yesterday. We fucked a lot and it was great, we did a couple of things that I've started to miss a little, and a few more I didn't even realize I wanted to do that badly. But, quite frankly, I think the only reason I felt remotely glad you weren't around the whole time was because I didn't want to worry about you feeling weird about any of it, because I needed to let go and have not a care in the world in order for it all to feel as good as it did in the end. I would have loved to share all of it with you if I'd thought you would have appreciated it all as much as we did."
"So I'm holding you back."
He sounds petulant enough that I feel like speaking up myself now, but Bella is faster, the sadness on her face speaking louder than words.
"No, you're just not there yet. We have a great time giving you opportunity and experience enough to get there if you want to. But not once have I thought something like, 'Damn, he really needs to be gone for a day because he keeps getting in the way.' You know I don't give a shit about your delicate sensibilities; if I had wanted you gone, I would have kicked you out of the playroom myself."
It's not hard to believe her with the vehemence in her voice – not that I doubt even a single word of what she is saying – and she goes on before Jazz can interject.
"But, you see, we're not having some kind of 'I'm kinkier than thou'
competition here, or you and I would look really lame compared to Edward, anyway. Maybe I'm closer to his comfort zone than yours, but I haven't spent my whole life denying the integral parts of my sexual preferences. I raced to embrace them once I became aware of them. And you know that it's not like Edward and I are a couple who keep you as our boy toy on the side. The three of us are 'us' – equals in every sense of the word. There's no 'two plus one' in any part of the equation. I personally don't have a problem with that, seeing as I can still call you a fucking moron without being afraid I will hurt your manly feelings. Or do you require my confession of undying love for you in order to believe me?"
Jazz makes a retching sound low in his throat, then grins again, this time a real grin that even reaches his eyes.
"Only if you call me Jamie when I fuck you, and I can call you my queen."
"Ew, you're such a sick bastard!" Bella groans, then shoves on his chest when he tries to hug her close. "Let go of me!" Her words don't accomplish much, but when she utters a light groan from just climbing off him he stops immediately. A baleful look still on her face, she moves back towards me, and then lets me pull her against my chest, spooning her again. Before Jazz can utter another remark that will likely get him another kick, Bella grabs his arm and tugs on it until he shimmies closer to her, his knee ending up bumping into mine where it's slung over Bella's calf.
"And you aren't going to add anything to that?" he asks me once he has settled against her comfortably.
"I fully agree with everything Bella just said, and would never dare to come between you in your incestuous love and insult hurling."
I wince softly as Bella's elbow meets my ribs, while Jazz chuckles on her other side.
"Which reminds me, you keep calling me a fucking moron, too!"
"Now what does that tell you about my deep feelings for you?" I tease back, smiling at his scowl. "But I've really missed you, too."
He grumbles something under his breath but doesn't hang on to the subject any longer.
"So you both missed me. Now tell me what I've missed."
"Us, I hope," Bella snorts, poking his chest half-heartedly. He slaps his hand over the spot, uttering a groan, but his smile doesn't change.
"Sure, sure, my heart was weeping every minute of it, yadda yadda, now give me the details! Details! Jerking off to bad internet porn doesn't compare to listening to the real deal!"
I can't see her face, but the way Bella laughs she must be smirking. Instead of answering right away she slides her hand down his stomach and into his boxers. His grin grows slack when her deft motions quickly show results, but he doesn't push her away. Instead he just shimmies out of his underwear, while her hand remains wrapped around his hardening cock.
Once he's lying still again, Bella starts her brief yet candid recount of what we were up to yesterday, leaving out nothing but adding a lot about her own reactions and impressions. I'm not surprised that he takes the morning's scene in stride, but without the enthusiasm her words rekindle inside of me. As much as he doesn't seem to mind being rough with me, we all know that slapping and choking her is something he'll never be comfortable doing, but none of us has a problem with that.
When Bella gets to the part on the restaurant terrace after our dinner, her voice turns husky. I chuckle into the side of her neck when she pushes her ass repeatedly back against my hard-on. Jazz seems greatly amused by the whole thing, until Bella mentions our possible mystery encounter.
"Wait, so you have no idea if some guy just stuck his head out to see how cold it was for taking a smoke, or whether someone was watching you the entire time?"
"Nope," Bella laughs, then moves a little closer to him so she can stare directly into his eyes, forcing him to look at her. "And quite frankly, while that uncertainty would freak me the fuck out now, back then I wouldn't have run even if he had told me to suck off a couple of strangers."
Jazz shakes his head, still bewildered, while Bella settles back against me and resumes her tale. He takes the rest of it better than I've expected, besides a few cut-off moans when she speeds up jerking him off. Despite that I'm still curious when he makes a face at both of us at the end.
"I get why you didn't want me around for roughing her up," he gripes at me, then narrows his eyes. "But why did you think you had to keep me from the rest? Beth, Charlotte, Peter and Gerard have watched me fuck people before. I don't think any of us has a problem with seeing each other's naked asses anymore."
Bella's hand drops from his cock and she rearranges herself so that she is lying on her back, able to gaze at the both of us. The look on her face is still somewhat quizzical when she turns to Jazz.
"I think I'm kind of speaking for Edward and myself when I say we assumed you'd have issues with someone's entire hand shoved up my ass?"
"I got that, yeah, but what I don't understand is why?"
It's almost comical to watch her unease turn to that frustrated kind of anger she has perfected over time, but before she can do more than open her mouth and take a deep breath, Jazz interrupts her.
"If your answer by any chance entails terms like 'too loose' or 'not tight enough anymore', you can keep it to yourself. If I remember correctly, it was you having issues with me maybe not approving of that half a year ago, not me actually telling you I thought you were a freak for liking to get your holes stuffed with a little extra something something."
It's moments like these when I really appreciate the kind of bond that exists between them – while I could never have said anything even remotely like that to her and lived to tell the tale, his crude remark doesn't even seem to faze her. Yet at the same time it takes the wind out of her sails. With her need for self-righteous smiting suddenly gone, Bella appears at a loss for words for a moment before she eyes me questioningly.
"I guess you never asked Jazz what he thought about fisting?"
I shake my head mutely, confirming her guess. Slowly a wide grin spreads across her face, and this time I'm the one who gets poked.
"Guess assumptions make an ass out of you, and make mine rather sore.
Or something like that. Shit, I need more sleep for conversations like this!"
"Well, at least that's cleared up now," I helpfully supply, earning a wry chuckle from Jazz, and a breathier one from Bella, cut short by a grunt of discomfort as she shifts positions.
"Hopefully. Still, I'm not only horny now, I also have a painful hard-on. You can't just leave me like this!" Jazz complains, then nudges Bella's thigh repeatedly with said evidence of his arousal. She laughs but shakes her head.
"No, no, no, no, don't make puppy eyes at me, my wrist is about the only part of my body that doesn't hurt right now, and I know that you're asking for more than a quick hand job."
Jazz does a half-assed job at looking crestfallen, then turns to me, the comical look of hopefulness on his face making me laugh.
"And you think it's now my obligation to finish what she started just because I'm responsible for her being all banged up from yesterday?"
"Kind of, yeah. Although I was hoping you'd let me fuck your ass instead."
Not that I ever need much convincing for that, but instead of telling him, I put on a mock frown.
"Do you realize that of late you show a disconcerting penchant for fucking my ass over me fucking yours?"
"Stop being such a whiny bitch and roll over. You know you love it!"
His growl makes both me and Bella crack up, and she snorts when I raise my eyebrows in her direction.
"What? I'm just glad I'm not the only one who has to suffer what must be one of the lamest sentences ever. But if you want to, I can start a list of who is fucking whom in this house and how often. I swear, if I wasn't sure I'd dislocate my hips doing it, I'd get my strap-on and fuck you both right now!"
"Aw, poor Bella, too sore to teach her bad, bad boys a lesson?" Jazz tries to get another rise out of her, but fails miserably when she just shrugs and props her head up with her arms crossed underneath.
"Oh, wait. I can do that without even moving a single muscle. But considering that he is trying to play the strong, unfazeable guy now, Edward can't be that much better off than me. I think you should just wrestle him down and fuck that self-satisfied smirk off his face. I'll help you as much as I can."
As happens so often when they exclude me from their conversations, Bella and Jazz have reached an agreement before I can interject anything. Jazz is already up on his knees and hurling himself at me before I can protest.
His movements display little grace, as he has to crawl over Bella to get to me and somehow tear away the duvet that covers us both. Not that I feel like protesting when he grabs my shoulders and pushes me into the mattress as he climbs onto me, then leans in for a sloppy kiss that I quickly deepen.
While he has started out rather aggressively, Jazz takes his time just staying like that, before he eventually nudges me onto my left side, facing Bella, while we pushes himself flush against the length of my body along my back. I have just a moment to smile at Bella before she's on me, molding herself against my front while she kisses me just as hungrily.
I moan into her mouth when she wraps her fingers around my cock, instinctively moving closer to her. Jazz's arm is around my hip while he strokes my stomach, his lips and tongue alternating between my neck and shoulder. None of us is really in a hurry to actually get it on for real, so we stay that way, relaxing and touching each other.
Things change when Bella eventually lets me nudge her thighs apart so that I can run my hand up her inner thigh to her pussy, the contact making her moan. Jazz stills for a moment, then pushes his cock a little more decisively against my lower back, but I ignore him for now. Looking deep into Bella's half-lidded eyes, I cup her entire sex with my hand, then push just the tip of two of my fingers into her pussy, feeling her swollen labia wet and warm against my hand. She utters another moan, smiling languidly, then stretches and moves her hips into my hand, clearly wanting more.
I feel Jazz push himself up at my other side, probably so he can see what I'm doing between Bella's legs, his chuckle low beside my ear when he props his chin up on my shoulder.
"That's so hot," he observes as he watches me stroke her pussy some more, my thumb finding her clit. Bella grins up at both of us, her smile coy.
