Anything but Ordinary

Anything but Ordinary Madelynne Ellis Their ‘no strings’ affair is about to get complicated.The Sequel to ANYTHING BUT VANILLA.One disastrous marriage was all it took for Ric Liddell to give up on commitment, so when his ‘no strings’ arrangement withZach Blackwater and Kara North hits the rocks due to a plague of interfering busybodies, he retreats to what feels safe — sex, filthy sex, and even more filthy sex, in no particular order.Zach wants Ric, and not just for their connection in the sack. When his lover hurts him, he’s willing to look elsewhere for the stability he craves — and he doesn’t have to look far, because Kara’s right there.The guys are hot, and the sex is dirty, but for Kara, caught in the middle of Zach and Ric’s emotional absurdity, it’s painfully clear their threesome just can’t last. Unless they can somehow set their fears aside and accept they need one another to be whole. Anything But Ordinary MADELYNNE ELLIS A division of HarperCollinsPublishers www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk) This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. Mischief An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers The News Building 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.mischiefbooks.com (http://www.mischiefbooks.com) An eBook Original 2015 1 Copyright © Madelynne Ellis Madelynne Ellis asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. 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Ebook Edition © 2015 ISBN: 978-0-00-814879-9 Version: 2015-11-03 Contents Cover (#ubfdf54ce-ac0f-5ff2-9337-58cbcbd95866) Title Page (#ua6ac5966-ffca-5579-bfca-9b4b87b23318) Copyright (#ue490a83a-c4ba-55f4-93e2-15bbb9c53b4c) Prologue (#uab8f95f0-eadf-5737-aa2b-25b584f87d7f) Chapter 1 (#u720979ad-169d-5e55-ac08-65d3773b789a) Chapter 2 (#u71f17ac6-213c-5c02-999c-abc7e1062836) Chapter 3 (#u65d70a16-3109-509c-919e-cd1edb073fab) Chapter 4 (#u34f6691a-e239-5725-a949-c738cfe9c145) Chapter 5 (#u6c846b1d-9d1a-52c9-87e9-237c68fd76dc) Chapter 6 (#ue1ec7442-f8de-5927-922d-8ba4d07a776a) Chapter 7 (#u20cf8af7-a2c1-550b-97e0-136428957fd5) Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 25 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 26 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 27 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 28 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 29 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 30 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 31 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 32 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 33 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 34 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 35 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 36 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 37 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 38 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 39 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 40 (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 41 (#litres_trial_promo) Postscript (#litres_trial_promo) About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo) Prologue (#uba1295ed-7a16-51c4-b77b-05c896c3efb9) It reminded Kara of the night it all began. Standing pressed against the railings bordering the canal, with her panties around her ankles and the caress of cool air stirring against her skin. Except this time it was the sea breeze blowing across the bay, ruffling her skirt, and in place of cold iron and inky water stood the sea wall and a thin stretch of white sand. Two fingers rode the line of her slit, making her hips punch forwards in eager anticipation of the touch reaching her clit. She needed this, after the last two weeks of hell, when everything had fallen apart and she’d wondered how it would ever be righted. Zach had fixed that with his presence alone. Explanations were unnecessary, likewise apologies given in words. The aching tension that had knotted Kara’s muscles slowly began to unravel as his touch reached the desired destination and worked its magic. He teased his fingers back and forth in her moisture. ‘I’m glad you came,’ she whispered, as her lips found the soft stretch of skin between his ear and the line of stubble upon his jaw. Not that ‘glad’ really encompassed what she felt. No one word could, nor even a thousand. You couldn’t sum up love with words. It was something you experienced deep down on a cellular level. It had the ability to raze and savage, heal and nurture. Love destroyed and elevated, wrought bliss and panic. She’d felt every one of those emotions over the last few days, but now, at last, everything had come full circle. And maybe the fact that it was hard won made the high she was sailing towards that bit sweeter. ‘Not half as pleased as I am.’ Joy radiated off him like heat, and was made manifest in numerous other ways: in the metre of his voice – soft yet pleasure-laced – and in the way the worry lines that had etched his skin were wiped away. Zach turned his head, forcing her lips from his ear in order to drive his mouth down hard upon them. He worshipped their curves, before pressing inside and stroking his tongue against hers. Kara’s arousal spiked, sending a shiver down through her tensed limbs, while the touch of his fingers caused an upwards sweep of excitement. The twin sensations pooled in her belly, leaving her overeager and poised on the tips of her toes. Off balance, Kara grabbed hold of Zach’s belt and held on tight. He knew how to do right by her. She couldn’t think of a single occasion when he hadn’t delivered. Zach was the ultimate giver. He gave now, circling her clit with the tip of his thumb, so that it perked up, eager for direct action. ‘Like that, do you?’ He pursed his lips, expression one of bemused contentment. ‘You know I do,’ she sighed, giddy in anticipation of that hot stroke across her clit. Her nipples stiffened, breaking the smooth line of her dress. Immediately, Zach’s gaze dropped, followed by his head, so that he could rub his cheek against the protruding points. His stubble rasped against the fabric and sent a sharp flash of lightning zipping through both breasts and down to her sex, provoking a groan. So damn good. Somehow she always forgot exactly how good he was. Great enough that she longed to feel his mouth against her bare skin and to hell with the possibility of being seen. If her dress would have allowed it, she’d have wrenched the fabric aside without a second thought. As it was, she could only tilt her head back and arch her spine so that her breasts were thrust forwards in offering. If it had been Ric out here with her instead of Zach, then he’d have had a hand in her hair by now, and would be pulling, urging her to give a little more. Zach invariably proved the gentler of the two men. Her two lovers… A broad grin stretched wide across Kara’s face. Two lovers – every time she considered those words it felt like her nerves were powered with rocket fuel. What’s more, they were rock-solid again. Ric would join them soon enough. Then they’d prove triangles weren’t only mathematically strong, they worked emotionally too. ‘How long do you think he’ll be?’ she asked. ‘Why, are you in a hurry to get somewhere?’ Only to get off. She didn’t need to say that aloud for Zach to hear her. He read it straight from her thoughts. ‘We don’t need Ric for that.’ He claimed the rigid peak of her nipple, sucking hard and flicking it with his tongue, while his hand remained curved against her pussy. He was right, of course. Ric’s assistance wasn’t required. Zach had only to keep up his current teasing and she’d come all over his fingers. The only thing that held her back from writhing hard against his hand was the desire to get him a whole lot closer. The stroke of his fingertip almost brought her off anyway. ‘Nooo,’ she squeaked. ‘Not yet. Not yet. I want more…closer.’ She tugged at the waistband of Zach’s formal trousers, but they didn’t budge from his waist. ‘You can have more. I’m not going anywhere. Let me give you this, Kara.’ ‘Oh, God!’ she gasped, voice no more than a croak, as he drove her into the white void ready to topple. ‘I’m gonna…’ ‘Shh!’ He nuzzled her neck. ‘Just let it come. You know I like it when you’re slick and smooth, and you get my cock all wet when I rub against you.’ Kara dug her teeth into her lower lip, trying to hold the imminent explosion inside. She couldn’t do it, not when he was stroking her like that, touching her in just the right place, in exactly the right way. ‘I’ll give you everything you want, Kara. You know that. No tricks. No false promises. Just let it come.’ Let it…She couldn’t hold it back if she tried. Fuck…fuck…fuck! That was good. That was so fucking good. Zach held her as his fingers beat a rapid tattoo against her clit that matched the drum of her climax. Spent, she sagged in his embrace, limbs boneless. Zach held her steady, as aftershock upon aftershock rippled through her and she breathed in his heavenly scent. ‘That was cruel, Mr Blackwater.’ ‘Cruel?’ Twin furrows appeared between his wing-like brows. ‘What’s cruel about getting you off?’ ‘Spoiling me for other things.’ ‘That’s not spoiling you. It’s just warming you up.’ Yeah, she was warm, all right. Heat suffused her cheeks, and he’d left an inferno raging between her thighs. ‘For what?’ ‘I think you know.’ ‘It better not involve a wait.’ ‘You don’t think a delay or two makes things sweeter?’ ‘Chocolate sauce makes things sweeter.’ ‘Sadly, I don’t have any of that on hand.’ She’d painted him with it, the second time they’d met, and then licked it from his cock until he’d been rabid with need. Kara’s climax hadn’t lessened her desire for him. If anything, the craving to have him thrust inside her had tripled that need. ‘No more tricks, Zach. Show a little mercy.’ ‘Tricks?’ A grin stretched his lips wide, showing off his pearly whites. ‘Uh-uh. Now you’re mistaking me for Ric.’ That was true. Zach was honest to the core, straight-up and straightforward. There was no guile to him. What you got was what you saw. Ric was the one with the mad manipulation skills. ‘You know I’m all for calling a spade a spade.’ And a cock a cock. ‘So if I wanted you to do something unspeakably rude, then I’d only have to spit it out?’ ‘Aye, though it’s not like you to spit.’ She spluttered out a laugh, then covered her mouth with her hand. ‘The general sentiment sounds good though.’ The two fingers he’d been using to tease her clit dipped down into her pussy. Kara’s muscles clenched tight, welcoming them, trying to draw them deeper. Hell, yes, that’s what she wanted: something to hold on to. Zach kissed her brow, then stole a kiss right off her lips. ‘Name it, Kara. You know I’d give you the world if I could.’ ‘I’m not really after that.’ Her desires weren’t nearly that lofty. All she wanted was to feel the staff currently bruising her thigh poking her somewhere wet and warm. ‘I thought maybe you could do something with this.’ She scratched a fingernail over the long obscene wedge. Apparently that made it his turn to shiver. ‘Yeah? Then maybe you’d like to give me a little breathing room.’ ‘Maybe I’d like to go a step further, and get on my knees and suck you.’ ‘You don’t think that might prove too risqu? an exhibition even for this place?’ They were poised across the road from one of the country’s most prestigious art galleries. ‘I thought they were all for modern art. You’ll have to make sure you come artily.’ ‘How about I paint you a pearl necklace?’ he asked, quirking one thick brow. She could picture that. Her on her knees, him with his back to the sea wall, facing the gallery entrance, his trousers coiled at his feet and all the buttons of his dress shirt undone save the top two so that the ridges of his torso were on display along with the diamond of hair on his chest and the line that led right to his assets. His tie would still be in place, though skewed to one side, his fingers clawing the stone to his rear, eyes closed but mouth open, framing a bone-deep sigh. Hell, there was a picture she’d hang on her wall. Where was Ric when you needed him to be about to take it? Kara popped Zach’s button and drew down his fly. His shirt tails were tucked around him, like he’d walked straight out of the eighteenth century. He wore no underwear, a fact she damn well loved him for. Give her easy access over Calvin Kleins any day. And the less said about boxers the better. Long and stiff, Zach’s erection filled her hand and then some. She didn’t exactly give him breathing room, but then she didn’t actually believe that was what he wanted. There was barely a hair’s breadth between their bodies as she sought his kiss again. The man had a mouth made for sin, and a body she intended to sin with. ‘Know what I’d really like to happen now?’ ‘I’m sure I can’t imagine.’ ‘Turn me round. Lean me over that wall. Shove up my skirt and fuck me.’ ‘Right now? It’s gonna be really obvious what we’re doing if anyone walks past.’ ‘Fucking is always obvious.’ Sex always looked like sex, no matter how you tried to dress it up. Hiding under the biggest beach towel on the planet wouldn’t disguise what they were doing if their bodies were moving. Not that she gave a damn if they were seen. ‘I don’t remember you being so squeamish about being seen the first time we met.’ ‘I didn’t have a hotel with a hot tub waiting for me that night. And in any case, I didn’t imagine I’d ever see you again.’ Nor had she. He’d been an easy pickup, a soothing balm to rub onto an open wound. That night was supposed to have been her wedding night. The best thing she ever did was cancel that debacle and find herself a damn good lay instead. Gavin, the ex, had been terrible in bed and out of it. Blissfully, wedding bells were now off the agenda for good. You weren’t allowed to marry two men. Apparently it was considered greedy or something. ‘Pull up my skirt and let me feel you,’ she insisted. Sometimes it took a little repetition to get her point across. Unless it was Ric she was talking to. He’d have been kneeing her legs apart before she’d even finished the request. The man had no shame, but neither did she, not when it came to the men she loved. Fuck waiting until they reached the hotel. Really, fuck even dragging him down the promenade steps and onto the sand where they could pretend they were invisible by lurking in the shadows. ‘Fuck me, Zach.’ She turned, wriggled her arse at him, then peeped back over her shoulder to gauge his reaction. He stood gaping at her, fever in his eyes, erection pointing at her like a heat-seeking missile. ‘You’re so goddamned dictatorial.’ She pursed her lips. Maybe so, but she’d learned good things came to those who were honest about their wants. Kara grasped both sides of her skirt and began to inch it upwards, stopping only when the hem sat just below C-level. ‘You’re gonna get us both busted for public indecency.’ ‘So snuggle up close so there’s nothing to see.’ ‘Like this?’ he asked. Not really closing the gap at all. Only his cock touched her. He drew the head of it along the crease between her cheeks before angling it down so it lay parallel to her slit. Somehow him being so near and yet so far, further fanned the flames that already had her scaling sheer rock faces in her mind. She wriggled some more, this time trying to tempt him into position, while thoroughly enjoying his determination not to gratify her too swiftly. One of his large palms settled against her bare skin, stilling her jigging and forcing her to wait for it. It wasn’t fair of him, not when she was already so wet. There was dew all over her lips and even the tops of her thighs were starting to feel a little damp. ‘God, you’re wet.’ His quick gasp buffeted the back of her neck as he leaned into her, just lodging the head of his cock where she so desperately needed to feel it. ‘I love it when you’re this desperate. You’re fucking insatiable, aren’t you, Kara?’ ‘For you,’ she agreed. ‘For Ric too.’ ‘I’m not going to deny it. You can’t either. You love him. It’s why you’re here. It’s why we’re both here. It wasn’t right, the three of us being apart.’ Zach’s teeth grazed her shoulder. Ahead of her, sea foam lapped at the line of pebbles. ‘There’s no Ric involved in this.’ He filled her, forcing the release of the breath she’d been holding. ‘This is just us, Kara. It’s just us. What you can feel is my cock in your cunt. It’s me giving you this. Ric’s still schmoozing arty types.’ It might be true that at this moment it was just the two of them, but when Ric emerged from the gallery he would blend seamlessly into their game, take out his phone and capture them on film. Or he’d stand to the side, place one hand on Zach’s arse and slide the other between her pussy and the wall. His fingers would brush her clit every time Zach’s thrusts jerked her forwards. He’d make himself part of this even if he wasn’t doing the fucking. ‘Do you think he’s going to be long?’ ‘I don’t care if he takes all night.’ Zach’s fingers clawed upon her hips. ‘Ever consider that I might like that it’s just us out here doing this?’ He bucked forwards again, filling her up, then gliding back, the motion so smooth it made the whole of her lower body tingle. Then he was back inside her again, pounding away at her hard like there was a point he had to make. ‘Zach! Oh, God!’ That was ridiculously, fantastically good, but also a little too much, a little too fast. ‘It’s not a race.’ ‘Isn’t it? Maybe I need to get you off before he makes himself a part of this. Maybe I need to prove I can make it good for you all on my own.’ ‘Shit, Zach! You already did. It wasn’t the night air that made me this wet.’ ‘Wanna go all the way with you.’ They were going to be in free fall over the edge of the sea wall if he didn’t cool it a little. Shame she didn’t have the breath to tell him that. And maybe, truthfully, she didn’t want to. The buzz built rapidly, sending shock waves out across her body. It was all she could do to hold herself steady, clinging with her fingers to the sloping top stone, while her upper body clove to it. Zach fucked like a demon – no let-up, no restraints. It was a sprint he absolutely intended to win. Damn if she wasn’t cheering him towards the finishing line too, her pussy eating up his thrusts and going crazy for more. She pushed back against him, making their naked flesh slap. He rode his thumb up along the length of her spine, the soft caress sending out pleasure spikes of a different kind. His grip curled around her shoulder, then he reeled her in, bringing her upright and back against the hard slab of his body. Cradled, he held her, one arm locked beneath her breasts, the other slicking dew over her red and hungry pussy. Yet his need to possess her didn’t ease. ‘Are you gonna come for me, Kara? I need you to come.’ Her pulse fluttered wildly in her neck where his lips pressed against the skin. ‘Wanna feel you explode.’ He sucked, obliterating what was left of her rational mind. All that remained was one living, breathing, aching spiral of need as Zach was driving towards a cataclysmic impact. Her orgasm broke, dragging an inarticulate moan from the depths of her soul. Kara shuddered, surrendered and let the beat of her body dictate everything. Zach had nothing to worry about. There was no reason for him to believe he wasn’t every bit as amazing as Ric. Their talents were just for different things. They were each artists in their own way. What they did have in common was the ability to make her come so hard it was impossible not to weep afterwards. Scalding tears trickled over her cheeks and hit her swollen lips. Kara licked the salt away as she rested, reclaiming her breath, while Zach continued to hold her upright. Eventually, they’d have to break apart. Gravity was already doing its evil work and speeding them towards that moment. His softening cock slipped from her. Ejaculate trickled down her thighs. Zach stood behind her a moment, strangely quiet as he zipped up. She half expected him to tidy her clothes too. Maybe even produce a handkerchief and dry her off a little. Instead, he turned her around so they stood facing once more. Then he knelt on the pavement and dragged his tongue over her still smouldering sex. Shock loosened her tongue. There was no way of holding back her cries, other than by biting down hard on the heel of her hand. She couldn’t come again. Not yet. It was too soon, but her body responded with aftershocks and she absolutely didn’t call him off from showing his appreciation. As his mouth soothed, Kara laced her fingers through the strands of his brown hair. He was going to scuff the hell out of the knees of his tailored trousers, kneeling down before her like this. ‘Kara.’ Zach gazed up at her, dark-brown eyes like molten pools of chocolate. The night sky and a million stars were reflected in their surface, overlaid by her own shadowy silhouette. ‘Yeah,’ she replied, stroking the line of his jaw. ‘I wondered…’ He broke off to wipe the back of his hand across his mouth, removing the smears of moisture there. ‘That is, I hope this isn’t too much of a surprise, but will you marry me?’ ‘What? Don’t be silly.’ ‘I’m being serious.’ He was too. His earnestness shone all too clearly in the twisted turn of his mouth and the worry-lines scrunching up his brow. ‘I know I’ve kind of sprung this on you, but…’ Holy fuck! Kara clamped a hand across her mouth. The next minute seemed to stretch out infinitely long, before time snapped back on itself. Marry him! Where the damned hell had that come from? She’d been a runaway bride the night they’d met. When she’d made the decision to ditch Gavin, admittedly not quite at the altar, she’d sworn to herself that marriage was firmly off her life agenda. Given she now had two lovers, how could she even contemplate anything different? ‘You don’t have to give me an answer right now.’ Yes, she did. She absolutely did. While Gavin had never understood her, and their union would have been an unmitigated disaster, she couldn’t say the same of her and Zach. They had everything in common to make such a binding work, including the one thing that made it impossible to say yes. ‘What about Ric?’ Zach bowed his head, seeming to focus on a spot on the pavement between her feet. ‘I guess I ought to have realised you’d prefer to have him over me.’ ‘No,’ she insisted, shaking her head. ‘No, Zach. That’s not it. It’s not about me having a preference. I won’t choose one of you over the other. You both matter.’ Why did he even imagine she’d contemplate doing so? All she’d ever wanted – once they’d hurdled over the no-strings bit – was for them to be equals. ‘If I could marry you both it’d be different, but that’s not an option. Why are you even asking this? Did you think it through? Tell me you didn’t think it through, and that it’s just a stupid spur-of-the-moment thing.’ He raised his head, reached up and attempted to hold her hand. ‘I’m asking because I love you.’ Kara covered her ears. ‘You love Ric.’ ‘And you.’ ‘Stop it,’ she said, pushing away from the wall and taking two unsteady paces along the promenade. She dragged her skirt back into position. ‘Why is that so hard to believe?’ She swung around to face him, to find him rising to his feet. ‘Because I know how you feel about him. Zach, don’t do this. Tell me this is a joke. We’ve just found each other again, why would you want to break it up?’ ‘I’m not trying to break anything up.’ ‘Can’t you see that’s exactly what will happen if I agree to this? It’s like we’re all on a seesaw together and you’re trying to tip it in one direction.’ He dragged his hand across his mouth, scratched at the shadow already scuffing his jawline. ‘That’s not what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to keep us together.’ ‘Drop it, Zach,’ she pleaded. ‘I don’t want to hear anything else about this now. I can’t hear it. I’m going to pretend the last few minutes didn’t happen.’ ‘You wouldn’t be saying that if he’d asked.’ ‘He has sense enough not to ask. But the answer would be the same. Tying that sort of knot would unbalance everything. It’d ruin everything.’ The sound of approaching laughter made them both turn to face the art gallery entrance. The last few stragglers were now emerging from the building. Kara covered her mouth with her fingers to silence herself. This conversation was done with, over now. She didn’t even want Ric to know it had taken place. Ric led the parade of be-suited, cravat-wearing bohemians jogging down the steps. His long hair rested on his shoulders. His sleeves were rolled back to his elbows and the neck of his shirt was undone. Damn, he still had the power to steal her breath. Tears prickled in her eyes, but she blinked the sensation away. Ric crossed the narrow road to reach her. Slid one arm around her back and drew her close. The scent of champagne lingered on his breath. ‘Ready to go?’ ‘Sounds good to me.’ He made the couple of strides that separated her from Zach, tugging her along for the ride. ‘Zach, you’re coming too, right? Or did you book a room somewhere?’ Zach shook his head. Shadows swam in his dark eyes, which Kara prayed Ric was too drunk to notice. ‘Thank fuck for that,’ Ric blurted. ‘I want you in bed next to me, not in some room halfway across town.’ He kissed his lover full on the lips. ‘Hmm, nice, somebody tastes of somebody else. Have you two being having fun without me?’ ‘You seemed to be having fun without us.’ Kara nodded to the group he’d come out with, who were still chatting outside the curved, whitewashed walls of the gallery. ‘Good guys,’ Ric acknowledged, saluting the small congregation. ‘See you all around.’ They waved, then turned away and headed off in little groups. Ric positioned himself between her and Zach. He hooked an arm around each of their waists and jogged them into motion. ‘Hotel? Or do you want to take in the Island view first?’ ‘Hotel,’ they replied synchronously. ‘Too right,’ Ric agreed. ‘There’s no view on earth that can compete with the sight of you two naked.’ He slid his hands upwards to cup the back of their heads, urged them to turn inwards and attempted to engineer a three-way kiss. It didn’t work. All they did was bump noses and chins. ‘Good job fucking’s easier than kissing. I want to get inside you both.’ ‘I don’t think you can do that simultaneously either,’ Kara whispered. ‘One after the other then,’ he replied, giving her a wink. ‘I think you know my stamina’s up to it.’ ‘Your libido might be,’ Zach said, finding his voice again. His tone suggested he’d swallowed any awkwardness their recent conversation had caused, though there were still shadows lingering in his eyes. ‘But how much booze have you had?’ ‘Less than the amount of spunk I intend to have as a chaser.’ Kara snorted. Ric ran his tongue over his teeth, while a blush heated Zach’s pale cheeks. ‘The fact you even said that proves you’re wasted.’ ‘I’m not wasted.’ Ric laughed. ‘Just a little merry.’ He squeezed Zach’s arse. ‘And I’ve missed you enough to want to suck you off.’ His expression sobered as he faced Zach square on. ‘I really fucking missed you, man. When are you coming home?’ ‘As soon as you give me back my key.’ Zach kissed Ric hard upon the lips. ‘I’ve missed you too.’ Chapter 1 (#uba1295ed-7a16-51c4-b77b-05c896c3efb9) Three weeks earlier ‘No, no…Don’t you dare!’ Kara screeched as Zach crashed into her, knocking her off balance. She landed with a splash amongst the surf, with pebbles digging into her bottom and salt water in her eyes. None of that seemed to matter a second later, when Zach’s mouth closed over hers and he proceeded to drown her with hungry kisses. Their hips aligned perfectly, and the hillock between them hinted at pleasures still to come. Eager for all of it, Kara stopped squirming and hooked her legs around his thighs. ‘Nice…Oh, yeah, very nice…’ Shut up, Ric, she mentally chastised. Using her actual verbal skills was out of the question given her tongue was sparring with Zach’s and there was no point in objecting to Ric photographing them. That was what he did – all the time. The camera was a natural extension of him. He always snapped first and waved the consent forms around afterwards. She’d signed so many of them now, he had to have a drawer full of them. ‘Wet T-shirt, love it. Just hook your thumb in the back of his shorts, Kara.’ Obviously hoping they could make out without a running commentary was too much to hope for. Ric moved in close. As always when he was in the zone, his face was drawn into seriousness, lips sealed, blue-grey eyes gleaming. ‘Just roll with it,’ Zach whispered, having momentarily broken them apart in order to breathe. ‘You know he gets off on ordering us about.’ Yeah, and she got off on groping Zach’s arse, so she supposed there was nothing to get her knickers in a twist over. It would be different if Ric insisted she couldn’t touch, and that it had to be all smouldering looks, but the man had dirty engrained in his every cell. Actually, scratch that, he went beyond dirty, all the way to filthy and well on the way to whatever it was that came next. She’d yet to find a consensual sex act that Ric got squeamish over: toe sucking, if you insisted; bondage and discipline, he preferred to give but was up for taking too; gay sex; threesomes or moresomes; DP; nipple clamps, absolutely, bring it on. He’d never expressed an opinion on fisting, but hell, it wasn’t as if she wanted to go there. She’d bet he’d photograph it though. It was just what he did. ‘Now inch them down a bit. Come on. I want to see nails biting into his flesh, and sea spray clinging to his skin.’ ‘I want to see you tied to that rock.’ There were even convenient metal rings attached to it. ‘Doesn’t mean either of us is going to get what we want.’ Ric cast a brief glance at the old iron bands bolted to the cliff face. ‘If anyone is getting tied up, it’ll be me doing the tying.’ He’d once suggested that he liked to shackle wayward tenants there in order to pay their tithes. It didn’t take any imagination to figure out what that might involve. Alaric ‘Ric’ Liddell was the most sexual being Kara had ever met and, as the owner of Liddell Island, he’d been born to the role of master. If she pushed him, he might well chain her up. That was if Zach didn’t volunteer in her place. Not because Zach especially liked being restrained. It was more that he enjoyed the energy that power differentials generated. Oh, and he definitely got off on the idea of her and Ric drinking down the visuals of him all hot and horny and unable to do anything about it. Kara defied anyone to look at Zach and not get turned on, want to rough him up a little and then get down and dirty. There was a reason he was Ric’s muse. Zach wasn’t classically handsome, but his wing-like brows and soft, melting brown eyes certainly made him arresting. He was big-boned too, in an oddly wiry way that gave the impression of youth. Most importantly though, he was a giver, and that fact was written into every inch of his being. He radiated that warmth. He was heating her this very moment with it. His hand slid under the bottom edge of her bikini top and claimed her right breast. Kara sighed a welcome. The heat of his hand made a sharp contrast to the chill of the sea. It crinkled her already steepled nipple, which he rubbed with the centre of his palm, while he used his teeth to lift the other side of her bikini. That nipple he claimed with his mouth, sucking it deep, sending sharp pulses of pleasure down through her abdomen. Where she had been wet, now she was sopping. Zach wound a teasing pathway down to her pussy, pressing a kiss here, another there. He flipped up her skirt and teased the top of her thighs, tantalising her with his nearness, letting the tension inside her build until all she wanted was to grab hold of his hair and guide him into place. When he relented and sucked her, he did so through her panties, which only served to amplify her need. Kara softly moaned and pinched her own nipples, kindling further sparks of pleasure that connected and formed a circuit with her pussy each time Zach’s tongue flicked across her clit. And still the whirr of Ric’s camera melded with the birdsong and the noise of the ocean lapping at the shore. She didn’t mind him taking pictures. Ric could turn even her into a spectacular work of art, but she did fantasise about him discarding the camera on the sand and it being washed away by the tide. With his hands free, he’d then kneel by her head, jeans glued to his skin by the weight of the water, fly undone, and press his cock to her lips, and Kara would lose herself between the two men. ‘Put down the camera and come kiss me,’ she mouthed, vocal cords so tight from mewling in response to the tickle of Zach’s tongue that they didn’t seem to want to function. Ric pursed his lips. ‘And why would I want to do that?’ Despite their commitment to one another, he still insisted on maintaining an air of detachment, as if by doing so he could deny he was as emotionally entangled as she and Zach had become. The truth was that he was every bit as devoted. ‘Don’t look at me to twist your arm,’ Zach muttered. He breathed hot air onto her skin, and traced his tongue along the lacy edge of her panties. ‘Less of you means all the more for me.’ ‘As I see it, all you’re doing is toying with her. Why don’t you suck her properly? Rip that scrap of lace off and show me and that pussy some red-hot loving. Prove you’re not just a big fat tease.’ Kara groaned her agreement. Yes, please. She relished the idea of Zach’s tongue running along the split of her sex, then making direct contact with her clit. He’d make her ache so good that when he sucked, she’d be so desperate with need, even an earthquake wouldn’t move her as much. Instead, Zach sucked her through the lace, driving her into a state of frenzied desire, where everything was overwrought and hypersensitive. She ached with the need to feel him get closer, push his tongue inside her, fuck her with it and then with his cock. She reached for him, tangling her fingers in the longer brown strands of hair that normally flopped over his brow. What she really wanted was for him to shimmy up over her again, drive his cock against her mound, push inside, and make them both so hot they cried out, demented and desperate, as they strained together, strove together, until they were right there, hanging on the brink of orgasm just a finger’s breadth away from total collapse. For some reason she opened her eyes at that moment, perhaps needing the connection to Ric that proved they were a threesome before dying in Zach’s arms. Ric was intently focused upon them, brows subtly furrowed, blond hair tickling the tops of his shoulders and that magic gleam still in his eyes. ‘Come,’ he mouthed to her, tracing his tongue over the tip of one canine. ‘Keep looking right at me and come. Let me see it all, Kara. Everything. Don’t hold anything back.’ He might as well have asked her to give him her soul. Sex stripped away barriers. By its very nature it was up close and personal. You couldn’t hide when you were riding a tide of bliss towards orgasm. She knew everything she felt would be right there on her face, scored into every line, written into every millimetre of skin. Ric would capture that and print it for the world to see. Her agony and ecstasy all rolled into one. Perhaps she had become as enamoured as Zach of being immortalised, because she did look at Ric. Stared straight at him, and might even have come if it wasn’t for a shifting shadow that made her turn her head. Subconsciously, she’d been aware of the niggling sound that didn’t make sense for a minute or so. It was the gentle whirr of gears turning, and the repetitive ping of digital wizardry being made by something that wasn’t Ric’s stupidly expensive camera. Conclusion – there was a second photographer. ‘No!’ she shrieked in alarm, on glimpsing the figure. ‘Oh, God. Fuck, no. Get off me, Zach. Get off me now!’ Obedient to the core, Zach raised his head. ‘What?’ His eyes had been closed, but they flickered open now. His pupils were widely dilated and riddled with confusion. ‘What is it?’ He had his back to the intruder. In all honesty, that was probably a godsend, given the kid had to be all of eight. He was posed, mimicking Ric, right down to the angle at which he held his camera. Kara tugged her bikini top back into position, while Zach dragged his shorts up so they covered his arse. ‘Stop him, Ric.’ ‘Hey, kid.’ Ric made a vague swatting motion, as if to chase the boy away, but the little blighter kept on staring at her and Zach through his camera lens. ‘Stop that. You can’t go taking photographs without permission. Where are your parents?’ On seeing that his words weren’t evoking a response, Ric skipped in front of the lad, so as to block him from taking any more shots. The lad didn’t seem to notice, given his camera kept on whirring away, presumably capturing some epic shots of Ric’s abs. ‘Give me that.’ Ric snatched the camera from his grasp, and held it out of reach. ‘Nan…Nana!’ Christ the kid had lungs. ‘Nana, the rude man’s taken my camera.’ The little dynamo aimed a kick at Ric’s shins, missed and targeted a punch towards his groin instead. ‘Oh, for fuck’s sake.’ Ric planted a hand on the boy’s head and held him at arm’s length, while he browsed through the illicit images with his thumb and repeatedly hit delete. Kara curled her hand around his bicep when she noticed the kid’s grandmother appear from around the curve of the bay. The old woman saw them huddled around her still flailing charge and hurried over, chiffon scarf waving in the breeze. ‘What on earth are you doing to my grandson? Get your hands off him.’ She inserted herself between Ric and the boy, whom she sent scuttling towards a line of young relatives who’d just appeared from the same direction she had come. ‘Nan?’ they enquired. ‘I’m fine, dears.’ She flapped them towards the shore. ‘Go…play…’ Gentle with her charges, her gaze turned cold as she turned it upon Ric. ‘Who do you think you are, laying a finger on him? You’ve no right, none at all.’ ‘He was taking pictures of things he shouldn’t have been.’ ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ The woman’s sun-browned face scrunched into a web of lines. ‘Is that his camera? How dare you take it off him? Give that back.’ She snatched it out of Ric’s hand. ‘And you’ve been deleting his pictures. Oh, my God.’ ‘Would you rather I’d left the topless shots on there?’ ‘Well…’ Ric scratched the faint golden stubble around his jaw. ‘Or the ones of them shagging?’ He shot sidewards glances at both Zach and Kara, who had positioned themselves at either side of him. ‘Maybe you’d prefer it if I’d just allowed him to carry on.’ Mouth slack, the woman seemed momentarily lost for words. She blinked at Ric. ‘Preposterous. He would never do such a thing. You meant to steal his camera. It was a birthday present, I’ll have you know.’ Somehow she seemed to have missed the expensive camera hanging from a strap over Ric’s shoulder, and hence had failed to realise how ludicrous her claim was. ‘My phone has a better lens than that thing,’ Ric scoffed. ‘Stealing? You’re off your rocker, lady. Instead of casting aspersions, maybe you ought to go and ask your grandson why he felt it necessary to take pictures of strangers. And maybe you’d like to ask yourself how he was allowed to wander off without you knowing where he was or what he was up to.’ ‘I did know where he was. Just ahead of me. And there’s only your word to suggest he was doing anything wrong.’ ‘Not only my word.’ Ric tapped his index finger against the viewscreen of the boy’s camera. ‘Don’t think I quite got them all, if you’d care to look.’ The woman’s gaze dropped from his face, travelled along the length of his arm to his finger. ‘How am I supposed to know what button does what?’ Ric helpfully tapped the back button. A blush fanned across the woman’s cheeks. Yet again her mouth fell open. ‘Well…I…never…That’s…Are you?’ She flicked a hurried glance at Kara, clearly appalled. ‘This is disgusting.’ The remaining few images only consolidated her outrage. ‘What sort of person films this filth on a public beach, or performs it?’ Ignoring Ric a moment she levelled another glance at Kara. ‘I suppose it’s too much to hope that you’re married.’ Kara wiggled her fingers, displaying the absence of any sort of ring. ‘You ought to be ashamed of yourselves, the three of you.’ She shut off the camera and deposited it in her cream-coloured handbag. ‘Nasty, that’s what it is, and clearly what you are.’ ‘This isn’t a public beach,’ Zach pointed out, but the woman wasn’t listening. She was staring at the sunlight dappling Ric’s naked torso, and the spray slowly trickling over his abs. One droplet clung to his stomach just above the waistband of his extremely low-slung jeans. Kara had to clench her fists and dig her feet into the sand to stop herself from falling onto her knees and licking him. The old woman would probably faint dead away if she did that. Well, perhaps after she’d given them another lecture on propriety. It occurred to Kara that her own sense of decorum had skipped out of town some nine months ago, right around the time she’d arrived on Liddell Island, and definitely by the first time Ric had fucked her in the arse in the open air. It’d happened on the cliff top, just above this cove. The memory put a hugely inappropriate smile on her face that she struggled to hide. Thankfully, there’d not been an audience that night. ‘For heaven’s sakes, cover yourself up. There are children about.’ ‘They shouldn’t be here.’ Kara cast her gaze along the shore. Several kids ranging in ages from approximately seven to seventeen were now splashing about in the waves. She didn’t need to see Ric’s expression to know his thoughts. Ire was radiating off him. ‘Really, it’s not appropriate. At least pull your trousers up.’ ‘This is private property.’ Kara quickly inserted herself between Ric and the woman, just in case he did anything rash. She’d never known him to deck a total stranger, or strike a woman – discounting occurrences during consensual sex – but everyone had their breaking point and Ric had seemed alarmingly close to his for weeks now. His mouth formed a nasty scowl. ‘Let’s go, Ric. We don’t need to hang out here,’ she counselled, tactfully failing to mention that it wouldn’t kill him to cover up a little under the circumstances. It wasn’t necessary for him to stroll around half naked, even if the fact he did meant she got to drink her fill of his stellar body. ‘Go where? I shouldn’t fucking need to go elsewhere. And no, I won’t put a fucking shirt on, and neither will he.’ Clearly he’d forgotten that Zach was technically dressed. It was an easy mistake to make, given that their roll in the surf had left him sodden and his cotton T-shirt see-through. Kara could see Zach’s nipples, puckered by the cold, quite clearly, along with the ridiculously pleasing cut of his abs, and those cute lines that formed a V either side of his hips that drew the eye downwards to… She stopped herself looking, aware that the belligerent old woman was still present. The only reason her own clothing wasn’t as transparent as Zach’s was that she’d worn dark colours. ‘Let’s head up to Kara’s place,’ Zach suggested. Beachcomber Barn was only a little way along the cliff top, and at least there they wouldn’t be interrupted. ‘Why should we?’ Ric had a point. A valid point. This was his island. His property. Liddell Island had been owned by his family for centuries. The woman and her charges were only here because he chose to allow it. If he wished, he could force every one of the island’s visitors to leave immediately without giving any reason at all. ‘Come on, Ric.’ Zach clapped a hand on his shoulder. ‘It’s not worth it. Let the kids play in the sun. I can live without sand in intimate places and sunburn on my arse.’ He was rewarded with dual withering glares: one from the tourist, presumably over his language, and the other from Ric, who clearly considered it a matter of pride to stand his ground. ‘Really, man? It’s so not worth it.’ Zach half turned him and gave him an encouraging little shove in the right direction, which at least got him moving. Ric grumbled under his breath all the way up to the top of the cliff and the way-marker stone. ‘It’s my fucking cove!’ he yelled back at the holidaymakers, giving them a two-fingered salute. Kara doubted the folks on the beach heard him. The wind was blowing in the wrong direction and they were all too busy enjoying themselves to worry about a strange man prancing about on a clifftop. Oh, well, so much for them chilling out on the beach together for the afternoon. Still, the day wasn’t done, and there were other places they could cosy up together. ‘First man to the barn gets a blowjob,’ she said, tapping Ric on the shoulder. That would hopefully get his attention. She didn’t wait to find out, but took off along the narrow track, agile as a mountain goat, despite the headland wind roaring in her face. Zach followed, easily matching her pace with his impressive stride. He slowed a little as they neared the wood and wire fence that encircled her property. ‘I think I’d better let grouchy bear win. He looks as if someone stole his porridge.’ ‘I’ll blow him. You can rim him,’ Kara suggested. ‘If that doesn’t lighten his mood nothing will.’ Zach stuck his tongue into his cheek. ‘Somehow I don’t think we’re going to get to dictate terms. He needs to reassert his authority, and you can bet we’re about to feel the full force of it.’ Kara let a grin stretch across her face. ‘Sounds good to me.’ She always enjoyed herself when Ric got masterful. Chapter 2 (#uba1295ed-7a16-51c4-b77b-05c896c3efb9) Ric didn’t like doing it indoors. No – that wasn’t true. He liked doing it everywhere. He just objected to being driven indoors. Ever since the start of the holiday season he’d been forced to play by other people’s rules and it sucked. It really fucking sucked. So much so that there was no fucking way he was letting the cottages out ever again. Once the summer was done, that was it. He didn’t give a rat’s arse about the income. No amount of money was worth sacrificing his privacy for. This was his island, his home, and he did not appreciate being lectured by members of the chiffon brigade. Nor did he appreciate being told how to dress. Yes, it was a pointless form of retaliation, but he unzipped his fly while still two hundred metres from Kara’s front door. Of course, the real malefactors of this current situation were ahead of him waiting by the front door of Beachcomber’s Barn. Kara and Zach – it was their fault the island was swamped with tourists. Between holiday lets and restaurants, they’d obliterated his peace. Ric preferred things how they’d been when it was just rock pools, crabs and ice-cream sold from the back of a van. Better that than withered old prudes getting snotty because he’d taken his shirt off and got on with making his living. ‘No more tourists,’ he growled as he shoved his way between his two lovers and entered the house. Bypassing the living room, Ric headed straight for the kitchen. ‘Upstairs.’ He flung out his arm in the direction of the staircase when they attempted to follow him. Supplies were why he’d come in here, nothing more. One wooden spatula, snatched from a pot on the worktop, and a tray of ice cubes from the freezer and he was set. Unsurprisingly, the pair of them were still loitering at the bottom of the stairs. Ric smacked the spatula across Zach’s arse, which got them both moving. Zach took the steps two at a time, while Kara attempted something similar, misjudged and ended up on all fours with her bum in the air. Not that he was complaining, because Kara had a very cute arse, and he was being blessed with a spectacular view of it, given the shortness of her skirt and the itty bit of nothing she was wearing that ostensibly classed as panties. The temptation was too great. He clamped both hands down upon her curves, squeezed, and then used his strength to roll her over. The moment Kara lay on her back, he stretched out above her. In truth not all his irritation was down to the kid and his nan interrupting his photo shoot. Some of it was plain old sexual frustration. You’d think, given that he had two lovers, sex would be easy to come by, but no, Zach was forever at the restaurant and Kara had developed an annoying habit of talking about drains and wallpaper at inopportune moments. Glamour was sexy. The way a well-placed lamp cast a glow over a model’s skin fired his pulse. Wet clothes pulled tight over perfect abs got him hard, so did the wind blowing through a lover’s hair. As to whether a septic tank was stocked with the right flora or the general d?cor was courtesy of Laura Ashley or B&Q, who the fuck cared. ‘Don’t say a word,’ he warned her. All that mattered was that their bodies knew one another. He kissed her hard, to make sure she obeyed. In return, Kara shoved her hands inside the back of his jeans. Her nails bit into his flesh, but that only spurred him on. Rough, aggressive, a little bit cruel – these were all things guaranteed to set his blood alight. Ric shoved her short skirt up to her waist. The wind and the sprint to the barn had dried her skin, but her clothing was still damp from her roll in the surf. He’d deal with that in a moment, strip her naked as the day she was born. First, he dealt with his own footwear. He toed off his boots and let them fall. Hopefully, nobody would trip over them the next time they came downstairs. Then he drove his hips down against hers, letting her feel his arousal. A shiver of anticipation rolled through her body. ‘Are you gonna fuck me bare, Ric?’ He left off kissing her with a snarl. ‘Get upstairs, before I decide to go for it right here.’ He didn’t doubt her arousal. Zach had taken her halfway to paradise already, eating her out down on the beach. If he pushed his fingers under the silly scrap of lace, he knew she’d be sopping wet. And as for ‘fuck me bare’, while he didn’t normally act so irresponsibly, none of them had fucked outside their relationship since Kara first turned up. And he’d seen her swallowing birth-control pills. Kara turned back onto all fours and scampered upwards, pale bottom waving enticingly at him the whole way. Ric shucked off his jeans, leaving them alongside his boots. Then, having reclaimed his spatula, he sprinted after Kara. Damn bitch had stolen his ice cubes. He made a dive for her on the landing, only for Zach to hurl himself into the line of attack. He got a shoulder in the chest and a lightning-fast smack across his rear for his trouble. No one got between him and his lady, except maybe this man. Zach didn’t attempt to wrestle with him. He forced his mouth down hard over Ric’s, snatching the kiss he was clearly eager for. Yeah, OK, that derailed his thoughts of humping Kara in favour of getting hot and sticky with Zach. The guy had his hands entwined within the long blond strands of Ric’s hair, so that he couldn’t have moved his head, even if he’d wanted to. Right now, he didn’t. Not when staying meant feasting on kisses that made his heart pound and created a second pulse in the tip of his cock. He was burning. Hard as steel and ready to rock. Zach tasted good. Of lime and soda with a dash of something exotic added to the mix. They kissed aggressively, not quite snarling, but coming close to biting in their desire to somehow lock themselves together. Ric wasn’t about to let Zach dictate though, not for more than fifteen seconds. If he lost a few strands of hair to the process, then so be it. Rather than backing up to give himself space, Ric leaned into Zach’s body, forcing his lover to do the moving; only one pace to begin with in order to maintain balance, then another, until they were no longer at the top of the stairs, but across the landing almost level with the bedroom door. The moment Zach’s back hit the wall, he made like he was superglued to the plaster. His hands left Ric’s hair and splayed out to the sides, palms to the cool surface. Every time, back him into a corner and Zach was mister I’m-all-yours. Fuck if that notion didn’t fire up Ric’s blood to boiling point. Zach was exactly the right mix of sexy and vulnerable. He had a way of looking up through his eyelashes that jellified Ric’s limbs, and a body that was so pretty you couldn’t resist licking it. Ric licked the side of the guy’s neck, tasted salt, sweat and need. ‘I’m going to fuck you hard. It’s what you want, isn’t it?’ Ric pressed his index finger to Zach’s kiss-reddened lips to stop him answering. He didn’t need answers. He could see Zach’s need…taste it…smell it in the form of the musk on his body. He claimed Zach’s wet T-shirt. The man needed to be naked. He was hairy beneath. Not ape-like, just enough of a sexy fuzz to get the blood pumping, and provide a trail down the centre of his abs leading to his groin. There was no resisting that lure. Fingers walking the path ahead of his tongue, Ric followed the signposts, peeling away the barriers to his gaze. He needed Zach every inch as naked as he was. Oh, yes, the man was a god. There was a reason he’d been photographing him for years. Ric dropped to his knees, bringing Zach’s beach shorts down with him. The guy did for him every fucking time. Yeah, the scent of him, the look, those long firm muscles…He couldn’t help himself. He had to take, had to possess, especially when he was standing proud and so desperate for some red-hot loving. Ric traced with his tongue the small pentacle tattooed just below Zach’s right hip and then, palms planted either side of Zach’s cock, his thumbs teasing the tops of his balls, he rose up, mouth open and claimed Zach’s cock. Glorious! Far more than a mouthful, but sweeter for that fact. Ric worked him with greedy pulls, using his tongue to ramp Zach’s need up to boiling point. He didn’t believe in doing anything by halves when it came to sex. When he fucked, he gave it everything. And he liked fucking Zach. Actually liked it a whole lot more than he generally cared to admit. Zach had been right on that score: moving in together had ramped things up a level. It’d yanked the safety net from under Ric’s feet and left him wandering in a drunken stupor for weeks. It was heady stuff, having this much awesome in your world 24 hours a day. ‘Say, boys,’ Kara called from inside the bedroom. Ric would have ignored her and stayed fixated on the task, but Zach unglued his upper body from the wall in order to twist so that he could see around the door frame. ‘What’s this for?’ She held the tray of ice cubes aloft as if she were a cocktail waitress. The only item of clothing she still had on was her skirt, which sat where he’d left it, rucked up around her waist. The microscopic panties had vanished along with her bikini top. ‘I’m not sure I care,’ Zach muttered. ‘Dammit, woman, what are you doing over there? Come and give me some tongue loving.’ ‘And risk my arse.’ She spun around in order to flaunt her rear, and then winked at them from over her shoulder. The woman was an absolute minx. As if he was going to allow her to hijack Zach’s attention without demanding recompense. Ric released his hold on Zach and stalked over to her. ‘Wanna find out?’ he asked, flicking a quick glance at the ice-cube tray. ‘Will I like it?’ ‘Fuck if I know. Can’t think of anything I’ve done that you haven’t lapped up like a sex-starved nymphomaniac.’ Kara made a swipe at him, but she telegraphed it so far ahead that her hand never got close to making contact. He was to the side, then behind her, using her own momentum to spin her towards the bed. She crashed down onto the duvet, at which point he reclaimed the ice and then joined her. Ric stalked her from one end of the mattress to the other before making her his captive, hands locked together above her head, as if she were practising a yoga pose. Except he had one hand fastened around both of her wrists, and his hard-on was making an acquaintance with her slit. Oh, yeah, that was a very fine groove to be riding. Very fine… ‘Mm.’ Kara wriggled beneath him, trying to get him to do more than tease. He knew what she wanted, but he wasn’t ready to give it yet. Refusing to allow his libido, or hers, to derail his plans, Ric tightened his grip. Yes, it’d be fucking glorious to push into her pussy right now and steal the first taste of it from Zach, who’d been miles ahead of him on the beach. However, he’d always been a delayed-gratification sort of guy. Things definitely rocked more when he held back a little and let the tension build. On this occasion it’d already been building for weeks. Kara was liquid against him, writhing her hips and stretching herself out, so that her throat lay exposed, and her nipples grew peaked and hypersensitive. Nipples – there was something he could turn his attention to. All he needed were a few shards of ice. He stretched over the side of the bed and whacked the tray against the striped wood floor. Ice cubes shot in many directions. Ric claimed one and drew a circle around Kara’s areola with it. The bud immediately spiked, at which point he sucked it deep into the heat of his mouth. ‘Oh, God!’ she moaned. Ric repeated the tease, circling her other nipple. ‘So cold,’ she whimpered. ‘Gives me shivers.’ Pleasant ones if he was any judge. She was pushing herself off the mattress in a bid to make contact, both with the ice and with the heat of his mouth. The bedsprings groaned as Zach added his weight to one corner of the mattress. This bed hadn’t been built for three, and it was beginning to show the strain, having seen rather a lot of robust loving. Ric resisted the urge to turn and look at his lover. Instead, he maintained his teasing play. That’s not to say he wasn’t hyper aware of Zach’s every action. He didn’t have to see the man to be cognisant of him. Ric knew every inch of Zach’s body, some areas in more intimate detail than Zach likely knew them himself. He could picture his muscles working, limbs moving as he stalked forwards. The sensation of Zach’s tongue being touched to the base of his spine and sweeping upwards, before repeating the action from a lower starting point, might have been delightfully predictable, but it raised shivers and made Ric’s cock buck with pleasure nonetheless. Yeah, he liked it. Got off on the idea of the guy being behind him if truth were told. If he only consented to them fucking that way occasionally it was because denying himself what he liked made the times when he consented that much sweeter. Not content with tickling his spine, Zach attacked his arse with teasing bites. Ric grabbed hold of him by the hair, forcing him to roll onto his side. Wordless, Ric scooped up a couple of the rapidly melting ice cubes and popped them into Zach’s open mouth, stifling his groan of complaint. He didn’t like having his hair pulled? The fuck he didn’t. Next he’d be claiming he didn’t like being fucked or some other bullshit nonsense. Or demanding that they only make love, and that fucking was for savages and wild beasts. Yeah, about that…He always had been, and always would be, feral to the core. Untameable. Plenty had tried. Ric didn’t bother using words to indicate what came next. Actions spoke louder anyway. He turned his lower half away from Kara, so that his cock pointed right at Zach. Yeah, it knew where it wanted to slide. Zach, like the saint he was, quickly obliged, opening his mouth and forming an O around the head. A sharp hiss whistled past Ric’s teeth as he sucked in a breath. He could always find heaven inside Zach’s mouth, but this magnified every urge. Heat enveloped him. Then tiny droplets of sharp delight would touch him, sending intense thrills zapping along his shaft and making his balls pull up tight. In order to stop himself being carried away, he refocused his attention on Kara, making a few seductive twists with his tongue, unconsciously mimicking the acts Zach was slowly killing him with. He sucked harder, drawing sighs from Kara’s body, while his own blood threatened to boil. It was hard not to lose it when she was flooring him with all that fluttery panting. The sort that seemed to stick at the back of her throat, then burst free leaving her breathless. Maybe those noises weren’t actually so different from the ones he was making himself. Shit! He was going to end up too far gone if he wasn’t careful. Every muscle strained, crying out for more, as he pulled away from both his lovers. Yes, he needed to fuck. He needed to fuck now, until all of him ached, but he’d make himself wait. Absolutely, he’d make himself wait. He credited himself with a little control. Yet, when Zach looked up at him, his dark brows drawn together and mouth slack, Ric almost forgot that promise along with everything else including his own name. His mouth found Zach’s, and they kissed sloppily, both hungry for the aggression, desperate for one another, and that one intangible thing they could only ever have in each other’s arms. He wasn’t dismissing Kara; she was absolutely part of their bond, maybe even the glue that made them stick together, but damn if Zach couldn’t turn him inside out. Ric’s heart gave an infatuated flutter, and he hauled himself away from both his lovers fast. Distance required… He sat back on his heels and watched Zach and Kara make out. Hands mussed hair, fingers bit into muscles and gripped hard as their bodies entwined. Soon Zach’s cock rode against the lips of Kara’s sex, seeking entry. ‘Stop!’ Ric demanded, when it looked as if Zach might actually claim her. ‘Hold it.’ He didn’t want to tear them apart, only for them to freeze. There was something deeply alluring about that split second before penetration took place, when a man stood poised to enter, that never failed to arrest him. He felt dual tingles at the base of his brain and in the head of his cock as multiple memories of living exactly such a moment overlaid themselves one on top of the other. Suddenly finding his camera became more of a necessity than breathing. ‘Don’t move. Not a muscle. Not a hair. Don’t even breathe.’ OK, maybe…maybe he’d allow the last one. Ric leaped off the bed. He vaguely recalled leaving his camera on the table in the kitchen, which was way too far away. Luckily, he’d spent enough nights here over the last nine months to have a tripod permanently set up in the bedroom. It took two seconds to snatch the Nikon off the base, whip off the lens cap and get up close and personal. ‘Go ahead now. Slide in slow.’ He recorded every inch of their union, right up to the point where their pubic hair kissed and they were bound so closely that there wasn’t a space between them. Only then did he pan back a little, focus on the sun-bleached hair on Zach’s arms, and the hint of good old-fashioned sweat gathering across his back. Ric returned the camera to the stand and set the timer to take shots of them at regular intervals. He climbed onto the bed behind Zach and tasted his skin, but fucking him wasn’t what he wanted right now. There was something else eating up his thoughts. One image, neon-bright, of them all entwined in a way they’d never been before. He didn’t want to fuck Zach. He wanted to fuck with him. ‘Roll over.’ He urged their compliance by tugging on Zach’s hip. Soon Kara lay above, stretched out over Zach, her peachy arse pointed towards him again. ‘Where’s your lube?’ he asked Kara, knowing the answer but giving her just a little bit of a heads-up of what was coming. All right, perhaps not quite as much of a warning as she might imagine, since he’d lay money on her expecting him to slide into her arse. It wouldn’t be the first time. It wasn’t even the first time he’d have taken her like that with Zach already in her pussy. But that wasn’t what he intended. Ric slathered up his cock, but it was his fingers he slid inside her – into her pussy, alongside Zach’s cock. ‘Oh, God! What are you doing?’ Zach gasped. His line of sight was blocked, but Ric knew he could sure as hell feel what was going on. He moved his fingers back and forth in time with the thrusts of Zach’s cock, stroking him as much as he was stroking Kara. ‘I thought we might try something.’ ‘Try what – shredding my sanity? Jeezus, Ric. Stop doing that.’ ‘You don’t like me stroking your cock?’ he teased. ‘Kara doesn’t want me to stop, do you?’ ‘I want to know what you’re up to.’ She turned her head to look over her shoulder at him. ‘What are you up to?’ Ric flashed her his wickedest grin. ‘What, you want me to tell you what the surprise is? Then it won’t be a surprise.’ ‘Hm.’ She pursed her lips. ‘I know that if you squirt any more lube, I swear you’ll slip out before you even dive in.’ ‘A physical impossibility, I think,’ he replied, continuing to fuck her with his fingers in perfect synch with Zach. It was true, he had slathered his dick up pretty good. ‘Fucking come on, Ric,’ Zach panted from below her. He lay on his back, his dark hair, damp at the front, curled over his forehead covering one eyebrow. ‘Whatever it is, get on with it, or I swear I’m going to steal your thunder.’ ‘Do that and I’ll make you pay.’ ‘Keep doing that and I’ll not be able to help it.’ ‘OK, I was just looking out for Kara.’ Who seemed to twig at that moment just exactly what he had planned. ‘No,’ she said. ‘You’re crazy. You’ll never fit.’ ‘Is that a statement or a challenge?’ ‘Fuck!’ She dug her teeth into her lower lip, while he straddled Zach’s legs and cosied up closer to her back. ‘Ric, no.’ She gulped audibly, but she didn’t try to pull away from him. If anything her body language was welcoming. She even slowed the jig she was performing with Zach down to a super-gentle pace. ‘What’s going on?’ Zach demanded. ‘Why’s she saying no?’ Ric ignored him in favour of answering Kara. ‘No. Really?’ he enquired. ‘Or, no, you’re fucking insane, but do it to me now, ’cause I’m every bit as delirious as you are?’ He laughed when the only response she made consisted of a drawn out ‘mmm’ sound that vibrated through the whole of her body. He could feel it against his fingers that were still inside her cunt. ‘Care to clarify that?’ ‘Yes,’ she said, exhaling sharply. ‘Um,’ Zach protested. His hands fastened upon the tops of Kara’s thighs, as he tried to motivate her to up the pace again. ‘What did you just agree to?’ ‘Don’t worry, lover boy. It’s nothing to get to get riled about. She was just agreeing we could be fuck buddies.’ Zach’s brows immediately knitted. Suggesting, even in the most offhand way, that they were something less than committed lovers always wound him up. ‘We might need to take this slow.’ Ric pulled his fingers free and aligned his cock with Zach’s, at which point the other man finally seemed to twig what was going on. ‘Hang on. Do I not get a say in this? What makes you think I want my cock stroking yours?’ ‘Because you always want your cock stroking mine.’ ‘Kara?’ Zach peered up at her, his mouth opening around a sigh of bliss, despite the questions written into his gaze. Kara answered by sinking back slowly. Oh, fuck, that was tight! ‘Slowly…slowly.’ Zach gasped. ‘Oh, honey. Oh, living hell!’ Yeah, that was right, slow and relaxed. No need to rush, not that he wanted to. Ric intended to savour this. It was about as close to paradise as he thought he could get, cosied up besides his two favourite people. Like seriously, heaven had nothing on this. Kara rocked her hips, which sent a dart of pure bliss through his cock, and tore a deep groan from his throat. ‘More,’ he thought he heard her gasp. She began to pick the pace up, apparently now eager for what they were giving her. Sheesh! If they didn’t slow down a little, he was going to go off like a rocket. So much for his supposed control. Right now, it was shot to pieces. All he could do was hold onto her and follow her lead. He wrapped his arms tight around her middle, and let his head rest against her shoulder as he fought the inevitable ride towards orgasm. He’d known this would be intense, just hadn’t banked on it shredding his self-discipline quite so swiftly. Ric’s gasps sounded loud in his own ears. They drowned out similar sighs and mewls made by both Kara and Zach. At least they weren’t any more immune to the sensations than he. Not that his reaction was purely physical. There was a vast mental component too. It was about the three of them being all tied together, completely and irrevocably entangled. His heart was on the line here. Hell, who was he kidding? He’d fallen for them both long before this moment. Their absence in his life over the last few weeks had proved that. He’d been mooning over them when they weren’t around or were too busy to be with him. He’d made out he was annoyed that Zach wasn’t around to pose, and that Kara seemed more interested in welcoming strangers into his world than welcoming him between her legs, but actually it was plain old-fashioned jealousy on his part. He wanted them to be his, as they’d somehow made him theirs. This act proved it as much as anything. ‘Can’t…hold…back…much…longer,’ Zach rasped. Ric couldn’t see him to know how true that was, but he could certainly feel him. Damn, could he feel him. They were locked together inside Kara’s pussy, moving against one another in perfect synch. ‘So don’t,’ he said. Suddenly the idea of being this close while Zach ejaculated was a monumental turn-on. It probably shouldn’t have been. In a moment of more clarity, it might even have icky potential, but right now…right now it was the hottest thing on earth. Even better yet if he could get Kara to come at exactly the same time. With that goal in mind, he moved his hand down across the gentle curve of her stomach so that his fingers rested over her clit. He didn’t rub; he let the motions of their bodies do the work. ‘Fuck! Oh, fuck…’ Zach was riding the wave. He always got vocal when he was about to come, and he’d probably be biting his lower lip, trying to hold it back too. It never worked. It didn’t sound as if it was about to this time either. Mind you, he was clinging on by his fingernails. Kara was squeezing them both so tight that sweat slicked Ric’s skin. The buzz started in his balls, and grew intense far too quickly. It licked along the length of his shaft, and tore a sob from his throat. He was babbling. He didn’t know what the fuck he was saying – hopefully nothing too revealing – although, actually, who gave a damn? Another minute or two and he was going to die right here in their arms. Chapter 3 (#uba1295ed-7a16-51c4-b77b-05c896c3efb9) Kara was a finger’s breadth away from the climax of her life when the bedroom door slammed back on its hinges. ‘Oh…my…fucking…God!’ The shout made Kara wince. Both her lovers too. Really, now? He had to turn up at this moment? Could he actually have found a worse time? A feeble croak escaped Kara’s lips as her libido shrivelled and the glorious promise of orgasm that had seemed so imminent slipped quietly beyond her grasp. She froze, prompting Ric and Zach to still too. Ric turned his head to look over his shoulder, while Zach attempted to peer around her. The voice was too disturbingly familiar to require her to look. It wasn’t like she was going to forget her baby brother’s voice. ‘Kara?’ She screwed her eyes closed, and sucked a deep breath in through her teeth. ‘Chris…Hi. Welcome home. I wasn’t expecting you yet. Not for another week, in fact.’ ‘What the fucking hell are you doing?’ Goose bumps peppered her skin. Zach peeped up at her, his thick brows doing a questioning dance. His lips were pursed, and he looked damned confused. Sadly, that didn’t seem to have affected his state of arousal. He remained hard inside her. So too was mister virility Liddell. In fact, she’d swear he was more turned on now than he’d been earlier. Ric was just the sort to get pumped up by being caught red-handed twice in one day. ‘Kara – you’re in bed with two fucking men.’ ‘No, she’s in bed with two men she’s fucking,’ Ric growled. She’d have laughed if she wasn’t so close to tears. When Chris had emailed her not long back to let her know that the film he was currently working on as a focus puller was wrapping soon, she’d neglected to consider what that actually meant. Now, the repercussions were all too evident. Never mind holidaymakers cramping their style, having a member of her family present on the island was going to be far, far worse. She probably ought to have thought of this before now, but she’d been enjoying herself, and Chris had seemed far way. He had been far away, in New Zealand. Maybe he wouldn’t be sticking around long, and he’d be off again within a week or so to work on another film in some other exotic location. Please, God, let this be a short, short visit. ‘Aw, man. No! Don’t walk into the shot.’ Kara turned her head to find Ric frantically waving her brother away from the bed. ‘Excuse me,’ Chris snarled, glaring at the tripod-mounted camera. ‘This happens to be my house. I’ll walk where I fucking like. Who are you, anyway?’ Kara slapped her brow in despair, wondering how much further down the slippery slope of doom this conversation was going to get. While she wasn’t in any hurry to give her brother a more graphic visualisation of what they were doing, she needed to extract herself from between the two men, and that meant both of them slipping free of her body. She pushed up from the bed, leaned over and snatched her dressing gown off the nearby chair. Once she’d pulled it on, she climbed out of bed to face her brother. Ric followed her off the bed, but made no attempt to cover up. He flaunted it all in front of Chris: ink, washboard abs and a hard-on so stiff it was hugging his skin. Her already flaming cheeks filled with additional heat. ‘Chris, this is Alaric Liddell. Your landlord. Ric, this is my brother Christopher, who I’ve been house-sitting for.’ Consummate professional that Chris was, he stuck out his hand, only to withdraw it immediately. Presumably, once he’d considered where Ric’s hand had just been. ‘Um,’ he grunted, looking startlingly uncomfortable. ‘And that?’ He stared pointedly at Zach, on the bed. ‘That’s Zach.’ Kara glanced back at him regretfully. It rather looked as if the night of fun they’d had planned was now off. ‘He owns the Bunker. I mean Blackwater’s. It’s the restaurant at the head of the causeway, next to where you parked up.’ She assumed he’d arrived by car. ‘Nice to meet you, Kara’s brother.’ Zach offered a cheery wave. ‘Yeah, you too.’ Chris’ facial expression didn’t match his polite agreement. Oh, lord, this was excruciating. The only thing that could possibly make it worse would be if her mother turned up…or Ric’s stalker…or his dead wife…OK, actually, there were quite a few ways things could go downhill from here, but that didn’t make this any less awkward. Chris grabbed hold of her upper arm and turned her towards the bedroom door. ‘Kara, a word, please.’ ‘I was kind of in the middle of something.’ He glared at her. ‘Not funny.’ She hadn’t meant it to be. Oh, Christ! This was going to be ugly. Chris guided her onto the landing, and pulled the bedroom door closed behind them. Then, clearly having decided they were within earshot of her guests, he ushered her into the squat bathroom. ‘When did you get back to England?’ Kara asked pre-emptively, sidetracking his inevitable rant. ‘What?’ Chris floundered. ‘Oh, about four hours ago. I collected the car from the airport and drove straight here.’ Kara refastened the belt of her dressing gown so that it concealed her body a little better. ‘You didn’t stop to see Richard? Aren’t you lovebirds anymore?’ ‘It’s complicated. Look, Kara. Stop it. Never mind about Richard. What the fuck is going on with you? Seriously, explain it to me. I left you to housesit because you needed a place to crawl out from under Gavin Covey’s thumb and hide from Mum, but I come home to find you gangbanging my neighbours…’ ‘It’s hardly a gangbang.’ ‘It’s hardly what I expect to find my sister doing. I thought you’d be camped out in front of the TV, not recording porn.’ ‘So, you’ve unrealistic expectations. That’s hardly my fault.’ Chris rubbed at the more than five o’clock stubble around his jaw. ‘What the hell has got into you? Are you putting that stuff on the internet?’ ‘No! Uh…’ She raised her palms, fingers spread wide. In the past, she’d have squirmed and wriggled, but if her time on Liddell Island with Ric and Zach had taught her anything, it was that she didn’t owe anyone an explanation about how she chose to live her life. What she did in privacy, or otherwise, was her concern and hers alone, even if her cheeks were currently flaming. ‘The camera’s just for fun.’ Ric’s predominantly. Judging by the puce tint to Chris’s face and the twin furrows wrinkling up his forehead, her brother believed otherwise. ‘Seriously, Kara, what the fuck are you doing?’ She sighed, lifting her shoulders at the same time. How many times was he going to berate her with the same question? ‘I was having the time of my life until you walked in. If you’re intending to turn this into a lecture, then you can fuck off back to the airport, because I’m not listening to it.’ ‘This is my house, remember. That’s my bed you’re –’ he made a goldfish face as he strove to find the appropriate word to describe the activity ‘– that you’re doing whatever it was that you were doing.’ ‘Shagging my boyfriends,’ she helpfully supplied. ‘And yes, they are that and not random strays I picked up on the beach.’ Chris caught a few more flies. ‘Does Mum know?’ ‘Does she know you’re gay?’ Kara countered. Chris had jumped out of the closet at age fifteen, loud, catty and ?ber-proud, but while most of the family had shrugged and accepted his revelation as no big deal, their mother had point-blank refused to accept reality. To this day, she insisted that Richard, Chris’s on-off lover, was nothing more than a housemate. Moreover, she explained away Chris’s lack of romantic attachments as him being career focused. Frankly, their mother was a bigoted dinosaur, which made her hard to love. Kara had rather enjoyed not having her breathing down her neck for the last nine months. ‘Anyway, why are you acting as if me dating Ric and Zach is some major surprise? I mentioned them in my emails, or didn’t you read those?’ ‘I assumed you were bored and horny,’ he said scratching at his stubble growth. ‘I had no idea that you were for real.’ ‘Well, I wasn’t bored. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying myself. I’m working for Ric, and I help Zach in the restaurant, so I’m pretty certain they’re not figments of my imagination. I’d have starved by now if they were. Nor would you have me squashed in here making such an enormous scene about nothing.’ ‘I’m not making a scene,’ he protested, scrunching his face into a scowl. ‘I’m establishing facts. I’m concerned.’ ‘That’s sweet of you.’ She patted his arm, faking gratitude. ‘However, now you’ve established them, can I get back to what I was doing?’ Chris’s jaw damn near hit the basin. ‘You’re…you’re intending to go back in there?’ ‘Well, I’m certainly not intending to spend the rest of the evening hiding in here with you. I’ll try not to squeal too loudly if that’ll help. Make yourself at home. There’s plenty of food in the cupboard. No beer, I’m afraid, but there is a demijohn of cider in the porch, should you fancy putting some hairs on your chest.’ Given that Chris normally waxed every speck of hair from his body, she doubted it, which was probably a good thing, since the only thing worse than an overprotective baby brother was a drunk, overprotective baby brother. After he’d managed to close his mouth, Chris glared at her, nostrils flaring. He wasn’t happy. Kara sighed, already anticipating another screech of ‘What the fuck are you doing?’ only for the screech of bed springs to turn both their heads back towards the bedroom. ‘They’re getting it on without you.’ Chris growled, turning the remark into an accusation. ‘So?’ Kara lifted her shoulders. Given her brother’s preference for loving other men, she couldn’t see why Zach and Ric making out would render him bug-eyed. ‘What’s the problem? We were having a threesome. It wasn’t all about me being in the middle.’ ‘It’s a problem, if you’re coming between them.’ ‘Excuse me?’ She was planning on coming with them, if he ever let her out of the room. Whether that was while she was in the middle or some other place wasn’t really important. Chris blocked the exit with his body. ‘Oh, for fuck’s sake, what is your damage?’ Kara blurted, getting in his face, despite being a foot shorter. ‘Were they lovers before you came along?’ What! What the hell did that have to do with anything? ‘Yeah.’ ‘I can’t believe you’d do that.’ ‘Do what?’ ‘Sabotage an existing relationship. What are you doing, trying to make them less gay?’ ‘Fuck you. You’re talking out of your arse, Christopher North. You don’t know a damn thing about either of them. That’s some assumption you’re making. For starters neither of them is gay. They both like men and women. Ric’s been married before. Just because you have a narrow view of the world doesn’t mean everyone else has.’ ‘I have a narrow view…’ He spluttered inarticulately. ‘Babe, you’re either deluded or just a complete fucking idiot. Straight guys don’t muck around with one another’s dicks.’ ‘I never said they were straight.’ ‘Kara, trust me, there is no middle ground. It’s one or the other. You’re obviously a crutch with which they’re clinging to normalcy.’ ‘Fuck you,’ she spat. She darted underneath his arm and sprinted across the landing. Chris followed, but she slammed the bedroom door in his face and slid the bolt. He hammered against the wood. ‘You’re making an enormous mistake, Kara. I thought you might have grown some sense since you left dickbrain, but you’re being just as stupid as ever.’ ‘Fuck off, Chris.’ ‘It’s my house,’ he repeated, but after a moment, he stopped banging and she heard him stomp down the stairs. Kara turned her back to the door and closed her eyes. Shit! What was his problem? He’d never been like this with her before. Chris normally took people as they came. She was sure he had friends who swung both ways. It wasn’t as if the concept was alien to him. So why was he trying to suggest she was some sort of interloping queen bitch? Christ, the only reason Ric had agreed to deepen things between himself and Zach was because she was around too. ‘Problem?’ Zach asked. Kara rubbed her eyes with the heel of her hand. Her two lovers were sitting side by side on the bed, extremely naked. ‘He’s come home with a stick up his arse. He’s not normally like this.’ Chris was usually the one member of her family she could rely on not to be an utter prick. He’d been the one to support her and offer her refuge when she’d cancelled her wedding at the last moment, while everyone else was banging on about her having made the biggest mistake of her life. ‘Where’s he been?’ Ric rose from the bed, still eager for action if the wood he was sporting was anything to go by. Curiously, he headed over to the camera to turn it off, rather than towards her. ‘New Zealand.’ ‘It’s a long flight. Maybe he’s jet-lagged.’ ‘Maybe.’ Jet-lag might explain his behaviour, but it didn’t excuse it. ‘I’m going to head off,’ Ric announced, having removed the SD card from the camera. ‘What, now? I thought we could…’ Since none of them had come, because of the interruption, she’d rather assumed they’d find a way of picking up where they’d left off. Her gaze drifted down Ric’s naked body. Just the sight of him defused some of her anger and made her insides molten. Ric was… Well, he probably ought to have been in front of the camera rather than behind it. A shiver of anticipation rolled along her spine, making her flex. She reached for him. He wasn’t actually going to leave, not when he was standing at the ready. No way was he even going to fasten his fly over that. Zach shifted on the bed, making the floorboards moan. He seemed surprised by Ric’s announcement too, if the furrows between his brows were anything to go on. ‘Where are you going?’ ‘Home. I’ve stuff to do.’ ‘No, you haven’t.’ ‘Actually, I have.’ ‘We agreed we’d spend the day together.’ Ric shrugged. ‘I’m not exactly in the mood any more.’ The hell he wasn’t. ‘Sure could have fooled me,’ Zach drawled, stalking towards him. ‘The ice might have melted, but there are still plenty other toys around we can play with.’ He reached out to touch Ric’s cock, but Ric turned so that he was facing Kara. For a moment it looked as if he was angling for attention, and manipulating the pair of them into giving it. As in: offer him incentives, and he might be persuaded to stay. The fact that he pushed his hands inside her dressing gown only prodded her further towards that conclusion. Ric’s fingers slid into the slick wet heat of her sex, causing Kara’s pleasure centres to reawaken. Oh, yes, please…All she wanted right now was to get back into bed and prove her damn brother wrong. She lifted her hands to wrap them around Ric’s neck and pull him close for a kiss, but he stepped backwards, leaving her with her hands raised towards his cheeks. He sucked his wet fingers into his mouth and pulled them out clean. ‘I’ll call tomorrow.’ Kara swallowed, suddenly terrified that he might not. She’d never known him to be a liar, but something about his tone set her on edge. In all probability the fear was unfounded, and she was simply giving credence to Chris’s nonsensical assertions. Things were fine between them all. She didn’t need to go hunting for shadows where none existed. Ric pulled on his jeans. ‘Go talk to your brother. You’ve obviously plenty of catching up to do.’ Talking to Chris was the last thing she wanted to do. All they were going to do was have a blazing row. ‘Are you coming?’ Ric asked, casting a backwards glance at Zach as he jerked open the bedroom door. ‘’Cause I’m leaving now.’ Chapter 4 (#uba1295ed-7a16-51c4-b77b-05c896c3efb9) The problem with the island being only a mile across was that Ric had done two laps of it before his pace slowed enough to allow Zach to catch up and fall in alongside him. God only knows what had got into him. Ric had left Kara’s place as if he had the devil on his tail. The fact that he’d left sporting the hard-on to end all hard-ons, and was dressed in a pair of spray-on black jeans that he’d broken the zip on while trying to fasten them, and a pair of Chelsea boots, appeared to be the only reason he hadn’t made the circuits at full tilt. It was damned hard to run when your tackle was poking you in the belly button. ‘This just about a thwarted orgasm, or has something else got your panties in a wad?’ Ric ignored him and kept up the forwards motion. His teeth were clenched. Whatever it was that had narked him, he was determined to keep it locked up. ‘Me, did I say something?’ Zach didn’t think he was to blame for this, but people didn’t always make it obvious when you’d fucked up. Ric stopped abruptly by a stile. Instead of climbing the jagged rungs over the mossy wall, he squared off against Zach. ‘Why do you always think it’s about you?’ ‘I don’t,’ Zach replied, raising his hands and backing up. ‘I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t something I could say sorry for, given that whatever it is has seriously rattled you.’ Ric’s blue-grey eyes fixed on an indeterminate spot over Zach’s shoulder. ‘Maybe I’m just pissed off at being interrupted.’ ‘So let’s go home and do something about it.’ Ric threaded his fingers through his long hair. ‘If I go home, it’ll be to work.’ The unspoken assertion was that if Zach wanted to do something to ease Ric’s frustration, it had to be here, and while normally Zach wouldn’t think twice about wrenching those ridiculously low-slung jeans off Ric’s hips and getting down on his knees, or hell, even splaying himself out like a sacrificial offering on the table-like slab of rock a few yards away, he balked at the possibility of being chastised for the third time in the day over his sexual antics. Unlike Ric, he did give a fuck what people thought of him. Plus, he had a restaurant to run. He didn’t want to scare the customers off, or attract them so they could gawp and discuss his sex life rather than compliment him on his mouth-watering food. That left them standing, eyeing one another uneasily, as if they were sizing one another up before a boxing match. ‘Need me to pose?’ ‘Yeah.’ Once they’d rattled off a few hundred digital shots, maybe Ric would allow him to soothe his frustration. That’s what he thought this was – one too many thwarted orgasms. He’d been on the point of going over when Kara’s brother had barged in. There was no way they could have recaptured that moment, which was presumably what walking out had been about. Another time, another place, they could do the scene over and hopefully get a better outcome, but the mood had been shattered by Chris’s presence. If Zach hoped that there was a deeper emotional significance to Ric’s agitation, then he didn’t allow himself to dwell on it. He knew better than to tread that path. Ric would never admit it, and he was done with tying himself in knots about things he would never get this man to admit. Leastways, he told himself he was. ‘Come on,’ Zach urged, turning towards the fort. ‘How do you want me? Is it more water shots you’re after?’ The theme of Ric’s current collection – destined for some highfalutin gallery exhibition – was based around sex and the six elements of the Chinese Zodiac. Zach couldn’t help thinking they ought to have given Ric wood. That way he could have taken a few dozen erection shots and been done with. Water was apparently a much harder medium to get right. You had to control the lighting and the refraction off the droplets. Rivulets had to course over the skin the right way, and sweat had to look sexy, not clammy, the skin beneath holding a glow without seeming unduly reddened by exertion. ‘Did you know about him?’ Ric asked, ignoring Zach’s question. ‘Him? You mean Kara’s brother? I knew she had a brother. She has a sister too. It’d escaped my mind that he might arrive home at some point. You knew too, though. I mean, the guy’s paying you ground rent. You sold the barn to him.’ Ric sucked his teeth. ‘You do realise his being here is going to fuck everything up.’ ‘Why? Just because we shocked the hell out of the guy doesn’t mean he’s going to cause problems. It’s not what you expect your nearest and dearest to be doing when they’re house-sitting for you. Don’t pretend you wouldn’t freak if you came home and found your cousin –’ Ric didn’t have any siblings ‘– getting it on with a couple of people you didn’t know, in your bed.’ Ric snorted. ‘Get real.’ Yeah, OK, bad example, given Ric’s closest cousin was a rock star with a well-publicised sexual appetite. ‘All right, you’d freak if it was me.’ ‘You’d better not even think about inviting anyone into my bed. And that’s a shockingly poor comparison. That’d be cheating. Kara’s brother is just making a moral judgement.’ ‘I expect he’ll calm down. Probably already has, and they’ll be laughing about it now.’ Awkwardly, maybe, but what else could you do but laugh it off. It’s what he hoped would happen if he ever found himself in that situation. Not that he ever intended to get caught out by a member of his family. Lovely as they all were, with the exception of Heather, whom he employed, Zach preferred to keep them off the island and out of his hair. ‘Quit worrying, will you? Nothing needs to change just because her brother’s around. We’re still solid.’ ‘Are we?’ Ric remarked, which was how Zach knew this was definitely about more than Chris and one thwarted orgasm. Still, if Ric wanted to say something, he’d do it in his own time, same as always. Chapter 5 (#uba1295ed-7a16-51c4-b77b-05c896c3efb9) Kara did the only sensible thing she could think of after Ric and Zach left. She stripped the bed, then got in the shower. Her brother was home and would no doubt want his room back, which meant she’d be kipping on the couch, unless she could find a more appealing place to sleep. Beachcomber’s Barn lacked a spare room. However, it wasn’t the prospect of backache from the battered old leather couch that had her stomach in knots. That was down to having to face Chris. Somehow she suspected no matter how long she hid upstairs it wouldn’t be long enough. God, just find your sense of humour and see the funny side, please. When she crept down the stairs forty minutes later, smelling of talc and her favourite perfume, she was still trying to concoct ways to avoid a confrontation. Maybe she could sneak out of the back door and join Ric and Zach at the fort for the night. Sharing a bed with her lovers was certainly preferable to defusing the bomb that was her brother’s temper. She’d even overlook the fact the two of them had run off and left her to deal with this alone – cowards. Actually, the fact that they’d left her smarted more than she wanted to admit. They’d only gone and given roots to the doubts Chris had seeded. I’m not an interloper. I’m the link holding this together. Prior to her involvement, Ric and Zach had been fuck buddies and nothing else. No relationship, no solidity and definitely no emotional attachment. At least on Ric’s part there’d been none. Zach was another story. ‘Kara, is that you?’ Damn, he’d heard her. She ignored the summons, and headed into the kitchen to bundle the soiled bedding into the washing machine. Chris had littered the kitchen surfaces with items. He’d always been untidy. It was something both their mum and his live-in lover had complained about in the past. On this occasion, she was prepared to forgive it, given he didn’t know where anything went, and it gave her an excuse to postpone the confrontation an extra five minutes as she put everything away. I know I only came here to housesit, but Liddell Island has become my home. Don’t screw that up for me, Chris. I’m happy. I’m really, goddamned happy. OK – she was going to have to face this…face him. Kara meandered her way around the stack of luggage in the hall to reach the living room, where to her relief she found Chris crashed out in the armchair with his open laptop balanced on his knee. Yay! Storm temporarily averted. He’d have a clearer head if they left this until morning. ‘I’m not actually asleep,’ Chris muttered as she turned away. ‘Come back in and let’s talk.’ Kara peered over her shoulder to find him adopting a more upright pose, though his head still lolled against the armchair back as if it was too heavy for his neck to support. ‘I dunno. Maybe I should let you get some rest. We can do this in the morning.’ Chris looked at her through the gaps between his fingers as he massaged the sleep from his eyes. His normally smooth jawline was currently softened by a line of golden fuzz, and his mouth kept on opening wide around successive yawns. ‘I don’t want to leave this and have it eating away at me all night. Get a drink or whatever you need and let’s get it over with.’ ‘Talking, or pissing one another off some more?’ He closed the computer lid with a decisive snap. It seemed it was going to be the latter. She realised not all the grim lines etched into his face were down to tiredness, a lot of them were down to his current opinion of her. ‘Chris, you do realise whatever it is you’re going to say isn’t going to change anything, right?’ She settled uncomfortably on the sofa arm, legs spread wide, but her arms folded. Rather than mirroring her pose, Chris set the laptop aside and leaned forward. ‘You could at least hear me out, or is it too difficult to hear the truth? For heaven’s sakes, Kara, what are you doing? A one-off with two guys I could just about get my head around. We’ve all had our slutty moments, but long-term? Have you considered what people will think and say about you? I mean, I understand that you needed to let rip when you got here, and it’s far away enough from Mum for you to be uninhibited, but don’t you think this is taking it a bit far?’ ‘No. I think it’s perfect.’ ‘You know it can’t work indefinitely?’ ‘Actually, I don’t see why not.’ They’d survived nine months without any significant issues arising. It wasn’t like they were all riddled with jealousy and constantly checking up on one another. That and none of Liddell Island’s permanent residents had said a damn thing. At least, not to her. The only condemnation had come from her ex and the odd conservative tourist, like the woman on the beach. ‘What about marriage, children…’ Chris insisted, as if those things were inevitable and not optional. She’d already ruled out marriage after the fiasco with Gavin. Ric was set against tying the knot again, having already done it once, so the first of Chris’s arguments was void already. As for children – they practised birth control. ‘I don’t need either to be happy. The same goes for them. Having one another is enough.’ Actually, they hadn’t really discussed the long-term future. She had no idea if either of the guys wanted kids. The subject hadn’t arisen. In any case, they were prepared to take life a day at a time and live in the moment. That was what island life was like – quiet, even with the recent influx of tourists. Days slipped into one another, and weeks and months passed without the need for constant planning. It wasn’t like living in the city, where even going to grab a coffee had to be recorded in triplicate on numerous electronic devices and tweeted about afterwards. ‘Having one another…’ Chris forced a laugh. ‘That’s a good one. How exactly do you have one another? Are you there for each other when you get sick? Do you go for candlelit suppers and sit on the back row of the cinema snogging each other?’ ‘Only teenagers do that.’ ‘Oh, hang on,’ he continued, ‘I’ve already had a demonstration. What you mean is that you let them fuck you both at once. You know fucking isn’t the same as love, don’t you, Kara? The two don’t actually equate.’ ‘They’re not mutually exclusive either,’ she shot back. ‘So it’s love? You’re in love with two men and you’re all equal? Yeah, right.’ He sat back as if he’d scored a point. ‘Yes, actually,’ she blurted, leaping to her feet. She began to pace. All right, so when you got down to the nitty-gritty not everything was perfectly balanced, but she and the guys were fine with that. Things weren’t skewed in a way that left anyone out. Zach favoured Ric over her, so what? No relationship was ever uniform. Couples didn’t always love one another equally. ‘They’re using you.’ She stilled. ‘What?’ ‘They’re just avoiding climbing out of the closet.’ God, he was so full of himself. He’d only been on the island for an hour, and spent thirty seconds with her lovers, and already he was making judgement calls on their integrity. Kara shook her head. ‘Oh, you are so full of shit, brother. First you accuse me of being a slut, then tearing a relationship apart, and now they’re using me because they’re frightened people might think they’re gay. Do you know what Ric does for a living? He’s a photographer. He takes explicit pictures of people having sex. He’s not worried about what people think.’ Ric was a little commitment-phobic, but he had absolutely no qualms about his sexuality. ‘Really, he doesn’t give a shit what anyone thinks. He doesn’t even think in your narrow terms of orientation. And Zach – Zach’s his model. He doesn’t care either. They’re shacked up together, for God’s sake.’ ‘Hmm, they’re shacked up and you’re living here.’ ‘You hired me to housesit. I’ve been house-sitting.’ She resumed pacing back and forth across the worn brown carpet. She had done some decorating since she’d been here, but had avoided making changes that involved significant expense. She didn’t have any money, and Chris was forever forgetting to wire it. What he had sent had covered a few tins of emulsion and some new curtains. ‘Now you’re home, you won’t need me for that any more.’ She could move into the fort with Ric and Zach, and be all equal. Hopefully that would shut Chris up. She wished she knew what his goddamned problem was. What had happened to the reasonable, liberal-minded man she’d grown up with? He’d never been this blinkered or bigoted before. Confrontational sometimes, yes, but normally over stuff that mattered. Things like equal rights and social injustice. Things he seemed determined to deny her. She stared at him. His lips were drawn back into a scowl, and his blue eyes burned with righteous fury. ‘Where’s this coming from, Chris? What’s your problem?’ ‘You’re being damned irresponsible for one, and short-sighted for another. You’ve barged into a pre-existing relationship on a whim and now you’re exploiting the fuck out of it. It’s all going to end in ruin because you couldn’t keep your knickers on.’ ‘How dare you? You know nothing about my life for that last nine months. You don’t know Ric and Zach. You’ve no idea what I walked into. They were fuck buddies before I came along, OK. There was nothing deep and meaningful.’ ‘But I suppose there is now. You’ve healed everything with your magic pussy, because that’s really what every gay guy needs.’ Kara stared at him, mouth agape. When he’d hinted at much the same thing upstairs, she’d taken it as his temper getting the better of him. Deep down, she hadn’t believed for a minute it was what he actually thought. ‘As I told you in the bathroom,’ she hissed indignantly, ‘neither of them are gay.’ If they were, Zach wouldn’t have picked her up in that nightclub the evening her wedding was supposed to have taken place, and Ric wouldn’t have hidden the keys to the barn the night she’d first arrived on Liddell Island and proposed a kinky challenge that involved getting her off if she didn’t happen to find them. Their relationship was not built around the notion of the guys curing themselves of an obsession with one another. It wasn’t. ‘Oh, my God, Chris, I thought you’d seen enough of the world to accept that people swing in many directions. What happened? Did you join a brainwashing cult in New Zealand? Just because you don’t get off on the idea of fucking women doesn’t mean that some other guy who also happens to sometimes do men feels the same way. We don’t just get it on while we’re all together, you know? They’re not shy about touching one another, or me. It’s stable. It’s good. It’s been fucking fantastic, actually. How about you try and be happy for me? I’ve found two guys who aren’t dickheads that I adore. That’s a vast improvement on what I had the last time we spoke face to face.’ ‘Your relationship with Gavin was never going to hurt anyone but yourself.’ ‘What?’ she gasped. Her former fianc? had been a manipulative control freak, but apparently that was all right because she’d chosen to be with him and the only person getting screwed was her. Except she hadn’t been getting screwed, at least not to her satisfaction. ‘I think we’d better end this discussion right now, because I can’t believe you just said that.’ ‘Said what?’ ‘That it’s fine if I’m blisteringly unhappy because I chose that, but it’s not fine for me to choose to be happy because it might make someone else sad. Not that it is, since both Ric and Zach are thoroughly on-board with the threesome thing.’ She stopped pacing and stood with her hands on her hips, shaking her head. ‘I’m going to go and pack my things. It’s a bit late to go anywhere now, so I’ll leave in the morning, and you can wash your hands of me.’ ‘I don’t want to wash my hands of you. Kara,’ he called after her as she headed towards the stairs. ‘No!’ she yelled back. ‘Just no. Whatever it is, I don’t want to hear it, Chris. I hope this is jet-lag talking and not the new you, because if it’s the latter, you need to sue whoever gave you the personality transplant.’ Kara marched up to the bedroom, where she retrieved her suitcase from the bottom of the wardrobe. She hadn’t arrived with all that much and, since Liddell Island had no shops, she’d acquired very little during her time here. Packing was therefore the work of minutes. It’d be fine. Ric and Zach would welcome her. Maybe she ought to go tonight. Sure, it was late, but it had only just turned twilight. The only problem would be if they were in the studio, because they might not hear her banging on the door, and in any case Ric tended to ignore callers if he was working. She was in the bathroom shoving toiletries into her vanity case when Chris thudded his way upstairs. ‘You don’t have to go,’ he said, sticking his head around the bathroom door. ‘Actually, I’d rather you didn’t.’ ‘Yeah, but only because you don’t want me shacked up with the two of them, not because you want my company, or you’ve realised you’re being a prick.’ He opened his mouth as if he was about to say something, then closed it again. Kara pushed past him and returned to the bedroom. She dumped the vanity case alongside the open suitcase on the bed. Chris followed her. ‘I changed the sheets,’ she told him. ‘So you needn’t worry about getting cooties.’ ‘I can’t believe you were screwing in my bed in the first place. That’s just…’ He grimaced and stuck out his tongue. ‘Sorry, I must have missed the memo explaining that house rule. Would you rather I’d restricted my activities to some other item of furniture, or was I supposed to act like a nun?’ Chris threw wary glances at various other items of furniture, and then at the camera tripod that Ric had left behind. Some of the colour drained from his face. New Zealand had aged him, Kara decided. The changes were deeper than his new, shorter haircut. He looked leaner and harder somehow, like all his soft cuddly qualities had been stripped away. He was right to contemplate the rest of the furniture though, as nearly every item had been christened in some way, along with most of his kitchen utensils. Ric liked to be inventive, and Zach liked to hug walls and shag in doorways. As for her, she was just happy to get her mitts on two such genuinely gorgeous guys. Everything else was just set dressing. ‘Kara, stop,’ Chris said, sticking his hand in the way of her closing the suitcase. ‘This isn’t what I expected to come back to. Look, I don’t like it, but you’re a grown woman. It’s not like I can force you to break it off.’ ‘I’m glad you realise that. I’m still going. I refused to move back to Mum’s after I broke it off with Gavin because I wasn’t interested in being emotionally mind-fucked, hence I’m not going to stay here and take it from you. I don’t care what you think, Chris, your assumptions are all wrong. It’s stable between Ric, Zach and me. It’s secure, and very, very real. It’s not a fling, or some sort of rebound. It’s absolutely what I want and the fact your moral compass says it’s wrong is not going to mean it ends.’ ‘OK. I hear you,’ he replied around an enormous baying yawn. Kara guessed it was the best response she could hope for under the circumstances. She dragged her luggage off the bed and waved Chris towards the pillows. He looked about ready to drop, and even if she was contemplating kicking him, she still cared enough about him to look after him. ‘Get in, before you fall over. You can tell me about New Zealand in the morning.’ ‘I thought you were leaving,’ he said, while kicking off his shoes. ‘I am. You can tell me before I go.’ Chris pulled off his shirt and draped it over the footboard. ‘Wake me. Don’t just leave.’ Kara shook her head, then turned away, leaving her possessions stacked beside Ric’s tripod. ‘Just go to sleep.’ She tramped back downstairs, and then stretched her legs by walking a little way along the clifftop. The tide was out in the cove, which left a large semicircle of soft white sand below, but the glow of the sun was no longer on the water, so that it was a dull slate-grey, instead of the blue it had been earlier. She watched the foam lap at the shore and tried to find some peace there. Something had obviously happened in New Zealand, something that had turned a perfectly reasonable human being into an idiot. She supposed she ought to try and find out what, just not right at this minute. She needed to think about her own situation first. Moving into the fort might not actually be as straightforward as she’d like. Zach wouldn’t be an issue, but Ric… Her muscles pulled tight, making her belly ache. Ric could be… Well, he might actually say no. Not because she was a crutch as Chris suggested, but because he was funny about people encroaching on his space. It had taken a near tragedy for him to agree to Zach moving in. Her current circumstances weren’t nearly as dramatic. ‘There’s no point fretting all night about it,’ she told herself, making the decision to return to the barn. ‘You’ll just have to see what tomorrow brings.’ Chapter 6 (#uba1295ed-7a16-51c4-b77b-05c896c3efb9) Ric’s studio occupied the entire top floor of the fort he called home. There were no dividers in the vault-like room, which had an arched ceiling and only one narrow window, set too high to look from. There wasn’t even a door onto the narrow stairwell. Seating was minimal, other than a small area of squishy leather beanbags, and a couple of spindly prop-type chairs. Lighting was another matter: there were more options than the average regional theatre stage, though only a couple of lamps burned at the moment. The rest of the space was devoted to photography in the form of screens and cameras, a centrally positioned workstation with state-of-the-art computer editing software and a whole rack of filters and lenses. There was no artwork displayed on any of the walls. Instead, the perimeter was stacked, in some places nine deep, with framed prints. All of them positioned with their backs facing outwards, as if Ric couldn’t bear to look at the art he’d created. ‘Do I need to go and dunk my head in a sink, or are you going to spritz me with water?’ Zach asked, as he positioned himself under the two glowing spotlights. Ric barely looked up from the camera he was fitting a lens to. ‘I don’t want you wet.’ ‘This isn’t for the collection?’ ‘It’s for me.’ OK, that wasn’t what they’d agreed outside, but Zach was prepared to roll with it. Likely enough, it would be more fun. Strutting about and posing for publicly displayed material was one thing – a cool thing even – but doing it for his lover’s private collection tickled Zach on an altogether deeper level. ‘Just tell me what you want and I’m game.’ The remark earned him a glance from under Ric’s brows, and the faintest of terse smiles, but no definitive answer. That was unusual; normally Ric barked instructions at him. Another thing that stood out as different from normal was the chug Ric took from a bottle of ice-white liquid that definitely wasn’t water. He dried his lips on the back of his hand and set it aside before pattering forwards barefoot. Neither of them had bothered to change clothes, so Ric was still wandering around with a broken fly, and Zach was feeling the chill. ‘Where do you want me? Do I just stand here?’ ‘Yeah.’ Ric raised the camera and put Zach at the centre of its viewfinder. The mechanical device whirred and clicked as he took static shot after shot. Zach remained poised, ready to perform in whatever way Ric required him to. Sometimes he wanted a show, needed to see movement. Other times, he demanded repose, or subtler gestures. Tonight, he remained uncharacte?ristically quiet, which could only mean that he wasn’t certain what direction he wanted to explore yet. Zach’s heart thudded as he waited. Ric might not know where this needed to go, but he did. He didn’t actually want to be at the centre of a camera’s eye, but he hoped one thing would inevitably result in another. Let Ric demand he get sexy. Let his lover work himself into a frenzy while he created his art, and then let him explore the need that heated the air between them. Once they’d ridden one another hard, the worry about Chris North would be reduced to insignificance and forgotten. He cast a sly glance over his lover’s form. Ric’s jeans hung off his hips, so low now, due to his constant motion and the force of gravity, that they were barely hanging on. Zach knew a blush was streaking across his cheeks when Ric zoomed in on his expression, yet he still couldn’t avert his gaze from Ric’s cock poking obscenely between his busted fly. He wanted to plant his lips against the silky trail of golden hair that marked the centre of Ric’s abs and widened across the top of his groin. He wanted Ric’s cock in his mouth, and to trace his tongue down Ric’s shaft and keep going. Suck his balls. Tease the stretch of skin between them and his arse. There weren’t pictures enough of the two of them fucking. ‘What do you want, Ric?’ he asked, his voice husky because of the sudden tightness in his throat. ‘Do you need me to touch you?’ His lover shook his head. ‘Touch yourself. Show me what you need.’ What he needed was Ric’s hands on him, his lips, his passion lapping at him, swaddling him, fingers making bruises on his skin because the grip was over-tight. Zach needed to know that he was special, and that this wasn’t all some gigantic lie. He’d been allowed to move in. They’d made an exclusive commitment to one another – and to Kara – which he’d never expected to get, but there were times when it was like living in a bubble. Everything was shiny and smooth, but one wrong touch and pop, it would all be gone. Was that what Ric feared too? Did he somehow imagine that Kara’s brother was the pin that would destroy them? Something about Chris North’s presence had wound him up. ‘Don’t take your clothes off.’ Zach had released his fly and begun to shuck his shorts off, but Ric reached out a hand to stop him. ‘Just pull the T-shirt up so I can see a nipple. Then inch the shorts down. Let me see everything, but don’t let them fall. I want them framing you. Pretend this is five stolen minutes in which you get to ease your desperation. Make every second of them count. Stroke yourself. Do it fast.’ Like he needed instructions on how to masturbate. He knew what he liked, knew where to apply pressure and when to ease off, which bit to cup if he needed to slow it down, and how to sweep his thumb across the eye or dig it into the sensitive spot below the head to give himself the shivers. He’d have preferred to do it while naked, because his clothes were damp and uncomfortable, but whatever. What he didn’t quite know was how to do all this and reel Ric in at the same time, because Ric isolated himself behind that damn camera. When it sat in his hand he was thinking about angles and refraction. He was cut off from his emotions. But if Zach could somehow get close enough to touch him… ‘I want to see you make a mess.’ ‘I want you to make me make a mess.’ He didn’t normally add his input while they were working. Zach wasn’t sure why he’d done so this time. The result was that Ric’s spine straightened and he gave his head a curt but very definite shake. Immediately, Zach’s arousal evaporated, leaving his dick limp and curled against his palm as if it needed to hide. ‘Brilliant,’ his lover remarked, turning away. He stalked over to the workstation without a single backwards glance and booted up the computer. No second chances. No attempt to make this work. Ric could be the ultimate fuckwit. A reality he kept on proving by studiously ignoring Zach as he buttoned his shorts. There was no point in doing anything else. Zach knew that no amount of squeezing and rubbing was going to get him hard again, unless Ric was the one coaxing him. He coughed. ‘I guess I’m going to bed, then.’ Nothing – the bastard gave him nothing. That was what would kill them. Not Kara’s sibling, but Ric’s fucking inability to express himself when it really mattered. ‘Night,’ Zach remarked caustically, still half hoping as he hit the spiral staircase that Ric would come pattering after him and shove him hard against the wall. Do him, as he’d once done in anger, against the cold stone steps. Even angry sex was sex, and he needed the reassurance of Ric’s body locked tight against his at the moment. Yes, that made him fucking needy, but it had been a weird, weird day. He’d had his libido repeatedly jerked with for over five hours, and no climaxes, leaving him awash with emotions he now had no outlet for. He lingered at the bottom of the first bend in the stairwell, pointlessly, he knew, but not entirely without hope. Just a goodnight would be nice. The silence that echoed both down the stairwell and inside his own head made the centre of Zach’s chest ache. He thought that, when they’d moved in together, they’d moved past this feeling of stalemate. Was it really so hard to open your mouth and spit out a platitude? The reality was that he simply had to run further to escape it. There was no driving to the mainland any more and cooling off by tearing along country lanes or chilling with his family in front of a giant TV. He couldn’t avoid Ric for days on end until they were both better emotionally equipped to deal with one another, because they were sharing a house, a bed even, on a tiny pile of rocks in the ocean that was cut off when the tide came in. You could bet your life the tide was currently in. In their shared bedroom, he jerked the pull cord on the bedside lamp. ‘All you had to do was touch me,’ he cursed as he curled onto Ric’s side of the empty bed. ‘That’s it. That’s all.’ He’d have done the rest of the work. Sighing heavily, he pulled the other pillow over his head. After nine months of living together they were still in the same place they’d been on the day he’d moved in, and he had to wonder if this man would ever let him in enough to find his worm-riddled heart. Chapter 7 (#uba1295ed-7a16-51c4-b77b-05c896c3efb9) Ric didn’t raise his head from the computer screen until long after Zach retired. Frankly, given how unbalanced he felt, concentrating on cycling through hundreds of digital images had seemed the best course of action. He didn’t want to lash out at Zach, who in this instance hadn’t done anything wrong, nor did he want to end up fucking him in a fit of anger, which wasn’t to say he didn’t want to fuck him, because he did. Oh, God, did he. His cock remained as stiff as the rest of him. His shoulders and the back of his neck burned as he tried to straighten up. Of course, he could attempt to blame his erection on the photographs he’d been viewing, all of which were erotic in nature, and many of which were of his lovers, but he’d long ago learned to disassociate himself from the media he produced. It rarely affected him now, unless he allowed it to do so. Better to view it rationally, in terms of lighting and composition, than be rendered ineffective by allowing himself an emotional response to it, at least until he reached the mounting stage. Mounting… His cock bucked at the mere suggestion. Damn! This was all the fault of Kara’s brother. Chris North’s arrival had ruined everything. Ric had been a hair’s breadth from the most intimate moment of his life. He’d been so in tune with both Zach and Kara that he could feel their orgasms building as if they were his own. He’d wanted his cock bound that closely to Zach’s as he’d climaxed, had wanted the other man’s come on him, like it was a scent marker, or a badge of ownership. Instead, he’d had the earth ripped from beneath his feet, and he’d skydived. There was no parachute to slow his descent. At some point he knew he’d hit the ground, but it hadn’t happened yet. He remained in free fall, and the worst part wasn’t knowing he’d crash, it was that careening out of control turned him on. Yeah, screw-up that he was, he got a thrill out of having the floor disappear from under him. Yet at the same time he didn’t want to be speeding towards an inevitable pile-up in a car that had no brakes, only an accelerator and a turbo boost. Christ, he’d ridden this track before. The only place it ended was heartbreak. For days after Scarlett’s death he’d struggled to breathe. Shock, they called it. The medical term for a crippling agony. He’d been a maelstrom of emotions. Too tormented by guilt to articulate what he felt, but desperate to express it. The fact that his veins had been full of drugs and booze at the time had only made the downwards spiral worse. You could love somebody too much, until it was toxic. He and Scarlett had been a volatile mix from day one. They should never have been allowed in the same room together. She’d been his whole world, nothing existed outside her. He didn’t want to end up in that space again. But things with Zach and Kara seemed to be forever tugging him along that path, and any form of denial only made it worse. He didn’t want them to matter, but they did. He wanted to be able to deal with his frustration efficiently, but he couldn’t. No strings and no emotions had kept him sane for the best part of seven years; now he felt trapped. There was no option of just going and getting laid any more. Sex was now cocooned within the bounds of a triangular relationship. He was in a relationship! How fucking awful was that? ‘Not awful,’ a little voice in his subconscious crooned. Ric ignored it. Pretended it didn’t exist, thus avoiding another round of that skydiving shit. His stomach was already in his throat. And he was freezing. And his own thoughts didn’t even make any sense. Shit! When had it grown so cold? A hint of vapour clouded the air when he exhaled. He rubbed at his arms. It was summer, and sure, the British weather sucked, but it had no right to be this chilly. Ric hobbled over to the nearest radiator and put his hand to the metal. Not even warm. The heating must have turned off hours ago. No wonder his muscles were protesting every step and he was curled over like a hunchback. Irritably, he rubbed at the back of his neck. It failed to release the tension. A long hot soak would sort it out, but he knew if he climbed into the bath now he’d be asleep in minutes. Did he really want to wake submerged in cold water tomorrow morning, when Zach stumbled into the bathroom looking for his razor? Nope, not really. A better plan would be to go to bed and sleep it off. Bed, yeah. That place where Zach was. He could be warm and snug, and wouldn’t be able to keep his hands to himself. It was hardly fair to wake Zach at this hour, especially as he’d be doing it for the same wrong reasons that had stopped him initiating anything when it had been the other side of midnight. They ought to have just screwed while Kara was out of the room having that head-to-head with her brother, instead of settling for a few rough kisses. It’s what he’d wanted to do, and what his frayed nerves and cock had demanded he do. He’d needed to finish things, but Zach – mister fair play – had said it was inconsiderate to leave Kara out. Stupid rules. Stupid conscience. He ought to have listened to his dick and made it about sex, not emotions. So just jerk one off, and be done with, you stupid bugger. Like that’d even work. It might. He could make himself come easily enough. He pushed his hand inside his jeans through the busted fly and stroked along the hot length of his cock. Coming wasn’t the problem. It was doing it in a way that didn’t leave him still hard and eager for more. Ric briefly considered returning to the computer and surfing for porn, but ruled it out. His studio housed a collection of erotic material far superior to anything he’d find online. Nor did it require a computer to view it. He had only to flip around a few of the mounted images that lay stacked around the room. Ric reached for the most recently framed pile of photographs, knowing they were all of Zach, some with Kara, some without, all highly voyeuristic. The first was a close-up of Zach’s face. He remembered taking this particular shot so vividly, how Zach’s spine had arched to meet the back of the spindly wooden chair, and how his hand had been positioned on his cock, stroking. Ric had stepped in at the last minute and brought Zach off. He’d watched his lover’s eyes close, lips part around a cry of pleasure – beautiful, and yeah, the money shot had been pretty spectacular too. But no. This wasn’t the answer. It would only intensify his need. While wanking was undoubtedly quick and efficient, it rarely satisfied him even when he wasn’t tetchy as hell. He’d rather shoot once in a way that left him reeling than give himself arm ache seeking fifteen lesser quakes. Of course, he’d happily watch Zach play with himself until doomsday. Sex was what he needed. Rough, glorious, bruising, sweaty, dirty sex. Maybe he needed to forget that crap about being noble and just accept that it was OK to be selfish sometimes. Ric squinted at the clock. It didn’t seem very likely he’d find Zach awake and waiting for him. He nevertheless made his way downstairs to their bedroom. A pale yellow glow shone around the edge of the door as he approached. Zach had obviously fallen asleep with the lamp on. Ric went inside. Sure enough his lover was comatose on his back, splayed across the mattress like a starfish, completely naked, unless you counted one scrunched corner of the duvet that he was clinging to like a security blanket. Most of the bedding was on the floor, including all but one pillow. Kind of made him wonder if it was intended as a hint that he should sleep there. Well, fuck that. Ric stripped off his jeans and approached the bed. He stopped near the base, next to where Zach’s foot overhung the mattress, and traced the curve of his instep. Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». 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