
Adolescent fantasies can grow into very adult realities.
Bandicoot Cove, Book 4
Sienna James has come to Bandicoot Cove to mourn the end of her eight-year relationship with Ben Cowley. The last person she expects to meet is the star of every one of her high school fantasies.
Joshua Lye is not only as appealing as he was in high school, he reveals she was the main feature in his adolescent wet dreams. As kids they never got it together. But they're adults now, and there's nothing keeping them apart.
When Ben arrives at the resort determined to win Sienna back, finding another man in her bed kind of throws a spanner in the works. But he isn't deterred. Rather than admit defeat, he comes up with an alternative plan: Let Sienna sleep with both men---at the same time. Then she can make an informed decision as to which man she wants.
Sienna shouldn't want to go through with this shockingly sexy plan, but she does. Desperately. Except after the sexual storm passes, she could have it all...or be left holding an empty heart.
Warning: Contains a suggestion beyond risqué, a solution beyond orgasmic, and two men who know how to play dirty. Really, really dirty.
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
577 Mulberry Street, Suite 1520
Macon GA 31201
Island Idyll
Copyright © 2011 by Jess Dee
ISBN: 978-1-60928-529-6
Edited by Jennifer Miller
Cover by Kanaxa
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: September 2011
Island Idyll
Viv, it's taken a while, but we finally did it! Woot. (Bet you'd almost given up on me.)
Lex, here's to writing many more books together in the middle of the night. Yawn
Ladies---I've had a brilliant time writing the anthology. Looking forward to round two.
Fedora---Thank you. For your sharp eyes, good advice, wise comments and honesty. You realize you've become an essential part of my book writing process?
Jennifer (Editor Extraordinaire)---I'm not sure whether you're crazy or just plain wonderful to have taken on the Bandicoot project, but damn, I'm glad you did!
You Are Personally and Cordially Invited to Attend
The Soft Opening of Australia's Newest FIVE-STAR Luxury Resort
BANDICOOT COVE on Bilby Island.
Bring a plus one if you desire.
All expenses and needs will be catered for
as we test our customer services in preparation for the Grand Opening.
(P.S. Can you believe I got this job, guys? Wow!!
See you soon,
Love, Kylie
XXXX)
(P.P.S.---Si! Wait 'til you see who installed our computer network. Your eyes are gonna pop.)
Sienna James drew her arm back, took aim and flung a flattish oyster-colored shell forward with as much gusto as she could manage. It sailed a good five meters in the air, landed with a muffled plop and sank beneath the pristine water surrounding the tropical and oh-so-beautiful Bilby Island.
With a satisfied grin, Sienna buried her feet in the wet sand, the sludgy grains squishing between her toes and leaned down to get another shell. Taking careful aim, she tossed it just as far as before. This time however, as she released the shell, she let out a mighty whoop.
Why the hell had she never considered tossing out her troubles before? So far, it was working a treat. With every shell that landed in the ocean, the shackles of her grief loosened, and throw-by-throw, step-by-step, she walked free of them.
Before lobbing the next shell as far as it could go, she brought it up to face level, glared at it with one eye and named it.
"Ben Cowley," she said and let it fly.
Ben sank gratifyingly fast.
"Dead-end engagement," she said to another shell and watched it disappear beneath the surface---just the way her ex-upcoming wedding had. Without even a splutter of breath. Both the shell and the wedding were gone. Never to resurface.
She held up a multihued shell, complete with intricate twirls and whorls. "Eight freaking years of my life," she yelled at it. "Eight!" This one flew even farther than the rest, and she had to shake the tension from her wrist as it plopped into the sea.
With every shell that vanished from sight, the burden of her break-up with Ben, which had been weighing down on her shoulders like rotting seaweed, seemed to ease. Tossing her woes aside was exactly what Sienna needed. A kind of ceremonial reawakening. Three months of mourning a dying relationship was long enough. It was time to live again.
Hurling her ex-mother-in-law-to-be into the ocean felt surprisingly good. So damn good, she tossed her in again, just for the hell of it.
The freedom of her actions sang to her. God, she hadn't felt this positive, this liberated, in months. If the water could drown her sorrows so effectively, what could it do to her body?
She was about to find out.
Checking up and down the deserted beach for any possible sign of life---and finding none---she stripped down to her underwear. With one more cautionary glance to her left and right, she ditched her bra and panties.
Whooping again, she rushed at the water. The welcoming sapphire sea engulfed her. Warm, briny water closed around her legs, then her waist, drawing her into its crystal-clear depths. With a gulp of air, she ducked beneath the surface, submerging herself completely. Silence swam around her. Salt burned her eyes. Peace descended.
When her lungs groaned, voicing their urgency for oxygen, she kicked off from the sandy bottom and exploded into the air. Water splattered in a million different directions.
Throwing her troubles away had been a fantastic idea. Washing them away in this glorious island sea, with only brightly colored fish for company, was the single best idea she'd had in years.
Josh Lye stopped to catch his breath before sprinting back to the hotel. The lack of physical distance on the island bothered him not at all. Laps of four-hundred-meter sprints across an island beach under the tropical Queensland sun beat city-bound traffic-laden jogs hands-down, any day.
One minute to get his heart rate back to normal and he'd head back.
He rested his hands on his knees, leaned forward and took mighty mouthfuls of air.
Four, breathe. Three, breathe. Two, breathe. One and...
What the---?
Was that a dolphin?
Uh, not likely, unless the dolphins living in this water were white, and Josh knew for a fact they weren't. He'd swum out to a pod frolicking off the island just yesterday afternoon, and their sleek skins had been obviously grey. Varying shades of grey, yes, but still grey.
He blinked, looked again, and this time focused properly.
Ah, person. Not dolphin.
Woman, to be more specific.
Wha---? Wait. Naked woman!
Naked woman, wading through the water and...whooping?
One-minute time limit forgotten, Josh stood right where he was and stared, entranced.
Of course she was swimming naked. Anyone with a body quite so bountiful and beautiful should swim naked. It should be written into Australian federal law. She should have the political right to display that body to every red-blooded male in the country.
Er, hell, no. She shouldn't.
She should only display that body to him. And only ever in private, away from the prying eyes of any other hot-blooded male anywhere on earth.
Okay, so he wasn't so close he could make out details like cup size and freckles, but his view was clear enough that his dick stood up for a look as well.
"Down boy," he growled quietly. "No way I can run with a woody."
The mermaid rose, facing away from him, and threw her hair back so that glorious, silver droplets cascaded in a shower around her. She let out a gleeful laugh.
Guilt filled Josh. What kind of a perv was he, watching her like this, when she had no idea he was there? He guessed if she did know she'd plunge back down beneath the water and not resurface until he left.
Time to go.
Marching himself and his stiff-as-steel dick down the beach, he hesitated only when he saw the pile of clothes strewn on the shore.
A pair of white shorts---short, white shorts---a black, singlet-type top and a thong so tiny he almost missed it. A matching bra---a back lacy number---lay alongside the clothing.
So, 36C.
If she'd been any closer, he'd have called it easily without the help of the bra.
With a broad grin and the details of her clothing tucked away in his mind, he took a deep breath and sprinted back down the beach, safe in the knowledge that his little mermaid remained completely unaware of his presence.
Sienna drew back her shoulders, straightened her spine and with a determined air, turned to face the world.
Okay, maybe not the world. More like the poolside bar. Still, the swim and the shell-tossing exercise had done her a world of good. She felt like a million bucks.
"A strawberry daiquiri please. Frozen, double hit of rum." She shot the bartender a dazzling smile and was rewarded with a flirty grin.
Oh, yeah. She still had it. The thought was accompanied by a modicum of satisfaction and a whole heap of surprise. After eight years with one man, she hadn't been sure.
"There you are," an excited voice purred in her ear. "I've been searching for you."
Sienna turned to find Kylie Sullivan standing beside her. She threw her arms around the other woman, and the two embraced like school kids, jumping up and down and squealing, just like they had at fifteen.
"Oh, my God. It's gorgeous, Ky. The most exquisite hotel I've ever seen," Sienna enthused.
"I know! Isn't it wonderful?" Kylie's eyes shone.
"Amazing." Ky had landed with her bum in the butter. "A perfect job. A perfect place. Possibly the most romantic hotel on the planet, and you're managing it."
Lucky Kylie.
Lucky Sienna. If not for Kylie, she wouldn't be here right now. Ky had only sent out invitations to her nearest and dearest in anticipation of the grand opening of Bandicoot Cove. This was the practice run. The make-sure-everything-works-smoothly run. Sienna was only too happy to be one of Ky's experimental subjects.
Kylie shot the bartender a smile. "Whatever she's having, I'll have the same, Stan."
Moments later, the two were stretched out on deck chairs, catching up on the last six months. Large mouthfuls of rum already sat like a warm puddle in Sienna's belly. Combined with the high of seeing an old friend and the glorious late-spring sunshine heating her skin, Sienna was grinning like a fool.
"I just bumped into Mason and TS," she told Kylie. Sienna had seen them as she'd walked off the beach. "Your little brother was looking totally stoked over the woman they were with."
Kylie nodded. "Paige. She seems nice. I've met her a couple of times before."
Sienna agreed. "Nice, gorgeous and skinny." She frowned. "I don't like her. I don't like anyone who's skinny."
Kylie laughed out loud. "You're not looking too bad yourself, Ms. James. I don't think I've ever seen you this thin or wearing such revealing clothes, for that matter."
Sienna glanced down at her shorts and the skintight, black halter-neck. The brand-new items she'd bought after dropping five kilos, post Ben. Missing him, missing the good times they'd spent together, missing the loving, caring, wonderful guy he'd been before he'd gotten so involved with work had killed her appetite, utterly and completely.
See? There were some positives to break-ups. It felt good to wear something skimpy for once. Even if her cleavage tended to spill over the top and she still had another good five kilos to lose. She wasn't one hundred percent comfortable with the lack of coverage, but wearing any more clothes in this humidity was inconceivable.
"Mack arrived a little while ago also," Kylie said about the third friend who made up their tight clique, excitement ringing through her voice. "She's busy exploring the island."
"Cool. I'll go find her later. Did she come alone?" Last time Sienna had spoken to her, Mack had been of two minds as to whether to bring her best friend, Aidan, along or travel fancy-free.
"She flew in with Mason." TS's friend and Mack's twin brother. "Aidan's here too. And he's looking mighty fine, I might add."
Sienna shook her head with a grin. "Think Mack will ever notice he's head-over-heels in love with her?"
"Yeah. One day. When Aidan holds up a banner saying: Open your eyes, McKenzie. I love you!"
The two women burst into laughter. As if. Aidan hadn't said a word about the subject in all these years. Nothing was ever going to change.
"It's good to hear you laugh again," Kylie said. "For a while there you worried us."
Sienna's smile faltered before returning with force. "For a while there I worried me. But you know what? I'm good now. I'm getting over him. I'm getting over us." Getting over him hadn't been easy. If only Ben had been an asshole and done something to hurt her---like cheated or treated her like dirt---breaking up with him would have been a whole lot easier. But the truth was, Ben was a good guy. A wonderful man who'd married his job instead of his fiancée. Which meant getting over him was harder than she'd anticipated.
The shells and the sea had gone a long way to help her today.
"I am so pumped to be on the island. So ready to move on. I bet there are a hundred great-looking men here I can move on with." One such specimen walked over to the bar as she spoke.
"There are some, for sure." Kylie's eyes twinkled with mischief. "But not hundreds. Remember, the hotel isn't open to the public yet."
"One'll do me just fine." Sienna grinned. "Someone so hot he'll make me forget all about Ben." A holiday fling was exactly what she needed to get past the love she still felt for her ex.
A smile tugged at the corner of Kylie's mouth. "Funny you should mention great-looking men..."
Sienna studied her friend's face with intrigue. "I've seen that look before. You've met someone, haven't you?"
The small smile broke into a massive grin. The kind of grin Kylie only displayed when she was falling in love.
"Spill. Now. What's his name?"
Kylie's face lit up. Then shut down. Then lit up again. "Not his," she confessed in a whisper. "Their."
Sienna blinked. "Uh, pardon?"
Kylie looked around, as if checking for prying ears. There were none. "I've met three guys, Si. Three. And I think I'm in love with all of them."
Sienna's jaw dropped. Kylie had always enjoyed a healthy romantic life, but three men were a lot for anyone to juggle, even Kylie. "Do they know about one another?"
Kylie's grin increased. "I would say so, since I'm sleeping with all three of them...at the same time."
Sienna gaped at her friend. "You're what?"
"There's something about the air out here," Kylie said with a carefree chuckle. "The freedom. It's like magic, intoxicatingly so. It makes you do things you'd never do in Newcastle."
"Three of them?" Sienna spluttered.
Kylie nodded, her face aglow. "Three of them."
For the second time in twenty minutes, Sienna squealed. "I want details. Every last, sordid one."
Kylie blushed. "Uh, mind if we skip the deets for now? I'm still kinda getting used to them myself. But...I could introduce you to all three tonight at the soft opening party at Bar Evoke, if you like?"
"If I like? Sheesh, try keep me away." Wow. Kylie and three men. "I don't know if I'm excited for you or just plain shocked out of my skull."
"I'm still kinda shocked about it myself," Kylie confessed. "But do me one favor. Give the island a chance to work its magic on you. Experience the freedom. Let the air intoxicate you too. Then you can decided if you're shocked---" she winked, "---or just plain jealous."
"Deal." Sienna laughed and sipped her drink, surprised to find it almost finished. "So you think I'm gonna be jealous?"
"Hon, for the last eight years, you've had sex with one man. One. No variety, no choice. Just one ol' guy," Kylie teased. "You are gonna be green with envy."
"Well, how can I argue when you put it like that?" Not that she'd ever had need to complain. As lovers went, Ben was a ten out of ten. Twenty out of ten. Loving, attentive, inventive, adventurous and satisfying. Oh, so satisfying. But since he hadn't had time for sex in the months leading up to the break-up, there'd been a distinct lack of satisfaction on Sienna's part.
"Who knows, Si, maybe you'll meet three men this weekend."
Sienna snorted. "I'd be happy with one. Well, one at a time anyway." Any more than that was not a number she'd feel comfortable juggling. Regardless of the magic island air.
Kylie signaled to a waitress and ordered another daiquiri. "It's for you," she told Sienna. "I have to run. Have another drink. Enjoy the sunshine, relax and forget about Ben. 'Kay?"
"No worries," Sienna answered, the combined effects of the rum and the Queensland heat already deliciously numbing her senses. She patted her bag. "I'm good here. Got my book and my sunnies, and I intend to read, drink and ogle hotties until dinner at least."
"Sounds like a plan." Kylie stood and straightened her tight manager's skirt.
Sienna couldn't let her leave without asking the one question that had been playing on her mind since receiving her beautifully printed invitation. "Hey, Ky?"
"Mm hmm?" Her friend's gaze was focused on the bar.
"I'm dying to know. Who installed your computer network?"
Kylie turned to her with a glint in her eyes. "If I told you it was a lie, would you believe me?"
"If you told me what was a lie?"
"A lie of epic proportions, I might add."
Sienna shook her head in confusion. "You lied? There's no one going to make my eyes pop?"
Kylie turned to the bar again, raised her hand and waved. A man waved back. The same hottie Sienna had noticed a few minutes earlier. Tall with enormous shoulders. He headed towards Kylie.
Kylie watched his approach, then flashed Sienna a wicked smile. "Believe me, Si, this is the only lie you've ever wanted." She checked the man's approach, checked her watch and smiled again. "Gotta run. Later, babe."
And she was gone, her heels tap-tapping over the travertine tiles surrounding the pool.
Dazed, Sienna watched her leave. What the...?
"Bloody hell!"
The stunned expletive had Sienna whirling around.
"Sienna James?"
She raised her head to stare up, up, up at the man Kylie had waved to. Hottie for sure. His white T-shirt hugged broad shoulders, and low-slung boardies highlighted trim hips and long muscular legs. Never mind hot. Scorching!
He pulled off a trendy pair of sunnies and stared at her with exquisite green eyes. Familiar eyes. "It really is you. And you still have your freckles."
Yeah, compliments of the sun. She had a ton of them.
The man knew her, of that there was no question. But damned if she could place him. She looked at him questioningly, taking in the silky hair that casually curled around his neck, as though he hadn't had a chance to cut it in months. Once it must have been pure brown, but the island sun had kissed it, leaving blond streaks woven through the russet strands.
His skin was tanned gold, confirming her assessment of the time he'd spent in the sun, and his lips---full, gorgeous and ruby-red---were curved in a bewildered smile. At least a week's worth of stubble shadowed his jaw and upper lip.
"Hell, Si, you look better now than you did twelve years ago. And man, you looked good then."
Recognition hit, the force enough to take her breath away. Suddenly Kylie's words made perfect sense.
It wasn't a lie she'd been referring to. It was a Lye. Or, to be more specific, a Joshua Lye.
A heart-stoppingly gorgeous, all grown-up Joshua Lye.
"Josh?" she asked tentatively.
He nodded. "In the flesh."
And, oh, dear Lord, what flesh it was. If the teenage Josh had made her blush like a fool, the very adult version made every nerve ending stand to attention. At sixteen, he'd been cute. At thirty, he was full-blown sex on a stick.
He sat with a thunk on the deck chair Kylie had just vacated and shook his head in wonder. "Christ, if you weren't the star feature in every wet dream I ever had..."
Her eyes popped open. "If I wasn't what?"
"My wet dream every night for years," he said, his gaze roaming over her face. "How are you, Si?"
She blinked several times, processing his words, his presence leaving her staggered.
Josh was here. On the island. Josh Lye. Or, as she, Mack and Kylie had called him, Josh Lie-With-Me. Hmm, nope, hang on. She was the only one who'd called him that, and only when he wasn't anywhere near. Ky and Mack had called him Josh Lie-With-Si.
Sienna had only had a crush on him the entire way through high school. She'd have shed her good-girl image in a second if even once he'd shown her any interest. Hell, she'd have tossed her much-cherished virginity aside in a heartbeat for just five minutes with him.
God, she hadn't seen him in...twelve years.
"I...I'm okay." She finally found the presence of mind to answer his question. "You?"
His gaze dropped to her chest and then slowly made its way down to her thighs. A grin tugged at his lips. "Good. Never better."
Sienna frowned. "You know, you have some kind of cheek, mister."
He cast her a questioning look. "I do?"
"Where do you get off making me the center of your wet dreams, anyway?"
"Where do I get off?" His lips twitched, as though he tried to repress a bark of laughter. "Uh, you really need me to answer?"
Sienna resisted the urge to drop her head in her hands and cover the blush she knew blossomed on her cheeks. Shit, that was so not what she'd meant. "Listen up, mate, I haven't seen you in forever, and you greet me with an explicit insight into your teenage fantasies. Nice. Real nice." Oh, yeah, real nice. It would have been nicer to know when she was a teenager too. When he'd been the main feature of every one of her adolescent dreams.
Josh's gaze dropped to her chest again, the exact place where her cleavage spilled over the top, and he let out a low wolf whistle. "Not just a teenage fantasy. I strongly suspect you're gonna be the center of a full-blown adult wet dream tonight as well. Mine."
She gaped at him. "You didn't just say that."
His eyes twinkled as he winked. "I always did like the way you blushed in school. How quickly those cheeks filled with color. Seems like nothing's changed."
Apparently nothing had changed. She'd blushed as a teenager every time Josh had walked into a room, and she was blushing again now. It was like her body couldn't deny her attraction to him.
Josh eyed her sexily. "I still like how you look when you blush. Like a mixture of a Penthouse centerfold and an innocent kid."
She snorted. "I'm thirty years old. Hardly an innocent kid."
"Which leaves just the Penthouse centerfold."
She opened her mouth to retort and realized she was struck speechless.
A rumble of laughter filled the air. "There it is again. The trademark Sienna James blush."
"Damn it, you're doing this on purpose. You haven't changed one bit, have you?"
Josh shook his head. "Nope, I was crazy about you in school, and after spending two minutes with you now, I'm crazy about you all over again."
"Pffft." She dismissed his comment with a flick of her wrist, although she couldn't hide her smile. Or deny the tug of awareness that flickered through her belly and lower. It was the first tug she'd felt for anyone other than Ben in a seriously long time. "What are you doing on the island?"
"Time." He grimaced. "Two months hard labor."
"You work here?" Would surprises never cease?
He nodded. "It's been hell, I tell you. Hell. I'm forced to swim every morning, sail a cat at sunset, dive on weekends and run barefoot along the beach every lunch hour. It's killing me."
She gave him a commiserative nod. "I can see the toll it's taken. You look awful." Awful good. He looked downright lickable. Sienna could only thank her lucky stars the waitress arrived with her daiquiri at that moment. Otherwise, she would, without a doubt, have licked him.
Not all over. Just a little sample of his neck. And maybe his lips. And, if she could just get that T-shirt out of the way, then maybe a nipple as well.
Sienna. Concentrate!
She took a very long sip of daiquiri and shoved all thoughts of licks, lips and nipples aside. "So, what hard labor have you been sentenced to?"
"Installing the computer network." He shook his head and scowled. "Wanna know the worst part of all? They may make it a life sentence. The hotel needs a permanent IT person on staff, twenty-four seven."
He grinned then. An outrageously sexy grin. A grin that made her want to lick him all over again. Everywhere.
"What did I do to deserve this kind of punishment?" he asked her. "What?"
"I'm sorry. You must have been a very bad boy." She laid her hand over his in mock comfort and jerked as a jolt of heat shot through her palm.
"I was a very bad boy." His eyes danced. "And I grew into a very bad man. Want to see proof?"
Yes! Every instinct she possessed yelled in her head. She'd wanted proof when she was a teenager, and she wanted proof now. Hell, proof with Josh would be a fantastic way of taking that final step away from Ben.
She suppressed her base needs and clung to her common sense instead, taking another sip of her drink for fortification. "I'd rather see proof of your sailing skills," she told him. "I saw the cats out on the beach earlier. I'd have taken one out on my own, but since I have no idea how to sail and would probably flip the Hobie and drown myself, I figured I'd better not take a chance."
"Fair dinkum? You wanna go sailing with me?" He turned his hand palm up, and Sienna belatedly realized she'd forgotten to move her arm away. Before she could motivate herself to do just that, Josh clasped her hand in his.
She bit her cheek, refusing to focus on the warmth of his skin as it wrapped around her hand. "That depends."
He raised an eyebrow. "On what?"
"You gonna talk any more about those wet dreams you used to have?"
Josh shook his head almost immediately, the epitome of a well-behaved kid---which he'd never been. "Hell, no. I promise."
Ah. Well, darn. "And you don't have to work?"
"I'm done for the week. Unless there's an emergency, this afternoon and the entire weekend are all mine."
She smiled. "Then if you'd be willing to take me, I'd love to go sailing with you."
He stood and was tugging her up along with him before she'd finished talking. "Ace. Let's go."
"Now?" What if she hadn't given him a choice? What if he didn't really want to go sailing and she'd just forced herself on him?
He nodded. "Right now."
"Wh-what's the rush?"
He met her gaze with his emerald green one. "You know how I promised not to talk about my teenage wet dreams?"
"Uh, yeah." Why, oh why did she feel like she was walking into a well-planned trap?
His face lit up like a damned Christmas tree. "Well, I made no such promises about my adult ones. And believe me, Si, you don't want anyone within ear distance when I tell you about those."
Sienna gaped at Josh. Again. Hell, she didn't think she'd stopped gaping since he'd surprised her by the pool. But seriously, the words that came out of the man's mouth were enough to make anyone gawk. And blush.
He sat beside her on the Hobie's trampoline, his legs stretched in front of him, one ankle propped over the other and the tiller caught under his arm. Wind whipped hair around his face, making him look wild, untamed and absolutely beautiful. Mirth and merriment glinted in his eyes like the rays of the afternoon sun glinted on the water.
"You're just saying all of that to make me blush again," she told him accusingly.
He shrugged, looking ridiculously adorable. "I'm saying it because it's the truth."
Sienna straightened her shoulders and decided to call his bluff. She was no longer the tongue-tied kid. She was a mature, experienced adult, and she could give as good as she got.
And if she got good, she gave good.
Suppressing a smile, she glanced pointedly at his groin then ran her hand over the boom beneath the sail, trailing her fingers down the smooth metal. "This hard, huh?"
"That hard." He grinned at her. "But thicker."
She wrapped her fingers around the metal and raised a disbelieving eyebrow.
"You're welcome to compare," he offered generously and shifted his leg, inviting her to move her hand from the boom and settle it on his cock.
Sienna's grip on the bar tightened. Her mouth turned dry. Ben was the only man she'd desired in eight years. Eight long years. She still desired him. That was a hard, unrelenting fact she couldn't deny.
Yet sitting this close to Josh, with the salty, ocean air filling her nose and nothing but crystal water stretched out around them, her belly flipped from one side to the other. Hunger and lust coursed through her veins like an incoming tide. She wanted him. Wanted him with a fierceness that shook her.
Not Ben. Josh.
When once she'd lusted after him with all the innocence of a teenager, now very womanly needs tugged at her breasts and pulled at her pussy. Josh's talk about the size of his erection was not helping matters at all. She resisted the urge to pump her hand up and down the boom, doing to it exactly what she wished to do to Josh.
That, and so very much more.
She sniffed. "You realize of course that I would have welcomed the chance to compare when we were at school."
His smile softened. "I'm willing to bet you didn't even know what an erection was when we were at school."
Touché. Still, instead of blushing, she met his gaze head-on. No time like right now to do something about all those desires raging through her bloodstream. "I would've been open to your teaching me."
"Ah see, Si. If the teenage Josh had let you anywhere near his erection, it would have been game over before you'd even touched him once." His eyelids drooped sexily. "Before you'd touched me once," he corrected, his voice a whole heck of a lot deeper.
Dear God. Was that simply desire in her veins? Felt more like a raging inferno.
She folded her arms across her breasts, staring at him mulishly as her past and present merged in her mind. "Here's what I don't get."
He looked at her expectantly.
"You knew I had the biggest crush on you for like, oh, five years. Heck, I even asked you to the Year Twelve Formal. You turned me down flat." Ouch. That had hurt. Big-time.
He merely nodded in agreement.
With a huff, she went on. "You never once, in all that time, acknowledged any kind of returned attraction."
Another nod.
Damn it. Did he have to agree so easily? Could he not maybe lie, and say something like he'd just kept his attraction to her under wraps?
She gave him the evil eye. "Yet here you are, telling me I was your wet dream every night of your high school life. Telling me that seeing me now makes you hard all over again. I don't get it. What did I do so wrong back then that you refused to show me any interest?"
For a second, the laughter and happiness leeched from Josh's face. His eyes...died. Emptied of emotion. And his lips thinned, fine lines fanning out from the sides of his mouth. "Si..."
He shook his head, blinked, and a mask dropped over his face, hiding any sign of the misery she'd just seen.
"Si," he said again. "You were everything good and pure in school. Everything each poor male sap in our year dreamed about. You could have clicked your fingers and had anyone you wanted fall at your knees. You were a...princess."
Er, not quite the way she remembered it.
She'd been a little overweight even then. Not a nerd exactly, but strait-laced and studious enough that she'd never been any guy's first choice. Those privileges had always gone to Ky and Mack. She was the plain Jane, happy to hear about her friends' conquests and determined to do her parents proud.
"You were..." He hesitated, as though searching for the right word. "Perfect. Utterly perfect. The last thing you needed was me fouling up your reputation."
Do not gape at him again! "What the...? What reputation? And how on earth could you have fouled it up?"
"It's never good for the class angel to hang out with the class failure."
"Failure? What the hell, Josh? Are you and I talking about the same school?" No, Josh may not have passed with the Dux of Year Twelve Award, but as far as Sienna knew, he'd always gotten along just fine academically. And just fine with the girls too.
Damn it, even now a sliver of jealousy crept under her ribs.
"You were good, Si. I wasn't. I refused to let my...ways blacken yours."
His ways? Blacken hers? "Seriously, Josh, you're talking rubbish." Hurt and anger assailed her. She could see only one reason he'd spout such crap. "If you didn't like me then, that's okay. You don't have to like everyone. I can even appreciate that having a classmate fawning all over you might make you feel awkward. But don't go feeding me some bullshit about you not being good enough, just to make me feel better."
Damn it, she shouldn't have come out here with him. Shouldn't have forced him to take her sailing. She'd been a burden to him back then apparently, and she'd just made herself a burden all over again. Her and her big mouth. Next time she'd just keep it shut. Every single insecurity she'd ever experienced at school came flooding back.
Cold shivers spread up her arms even though the sun beat down on her shoulders. The sail billowed in the wind, making Josh tug a little harder on the tiller.
"Know why I declined your invitation to the formal?" he finally asked.
She refused to answer. She'd already said too much about their high school years and her ridiculous infatuation with him.
"Because I had no way of paying for the tickets. Besides, if I'd missed work, even one night, my asshole boss would've fired my sorry ass."
She blinked. "You worked in high school?"
He shrugged. "Didn't have a choice."
"When?"
"Every night. Five to ten, at the fish and chips shop down the road."
She stared at him, stunned. How could she not have known?
"And every weekend. Stacking shelves at Coles."
"Two jobs?"
Another shrug. "Family had to eat."
"And you had to pay for the food?"
"Me and Jarrod."
His older brother. "Wh-what about your parents?"
"Ah, yeah. My parents. Let's see. My old man, well, I have no idea why he never gave us money. Probably because he spent seven of the twelve years I was in school in prison."
She knew her mouth hung open, but somehow she couldn't close it.
"And my mother? Yeah, she was good for work for a while. Until she discovered the attraction of the bottom of a gin bottle."
Her heart constricted. Dear God, what a childhood. How could she have been so blissfully unaware of the hardships in his life?
She ached for the teenage boy he'd once been. Or maybe she ached for the boy he was never allowed to be. "So you and Jarrod were forced to work?"
He angled the cat to the right, a little too far and too fast, and it tilted precariously. Sienna slid a little closer to Josh, so their legs pressed together. The muscles in his thigh were hard as rock and tense as elastic about to snap.
He righted the cat, muttered an apology and turned the Hobie again, catching the wind. The cat sailed through the water, picking up speed.
Sienna did not move her thigh. Not even an inch. She liked the way it felt resting against his. Liked the way the hair on his legs abraded her skin. Liked the way a tic pulsed in his cheek as he looked at her leg, then his, then up at the sail.
"Josh?"
"Yeah?"
"Why was your dad in prison?"
Big sigh. "Fraud."
"Is he out yet?"
"I'd assume so, since he was given a nine-year sentence almost twenty years ago."
"You don't know for sure?"
Josh shook his head. "Never been interested enough to find out."
"But surely he came back to live with you when he got out?"
His face was once again a blank mask. "He might have. We weren't there."
"Where were you?"
"Jarrod and I moved up north. To the Sunshine Coast."
"And your mother?"
"She moved on with her bottle of gin. To this day I have no idea where they went."
"She deserted you?"
"Pretty much."
"How old were you when she left?"
He bit his lip. "Sixteen."
"Sixteen?" That would have made Jarrod seventeen. "You lived without either parent for the last two years of high school?"
His arm tensed around the tiller, his biceps bulging under his skin. "It was easier alone."
"You never said anything," she whispered, dismayed by his revelations.
"We couldn't. Jazz and I knew if we mentioned our situation to anyone, and DOCS got wind of it, they'd step in. We managed just fine with an alcoholic mother. We managed even better without her."
God, he was so removed, so cold. Discussing the Department of Community Services and his past as though he had no connection to it whatsoever. Did he need to distance himself? To help him forget the pain and the hardships?
"I'm sorry," she whispered, knowing the words were completely inadequate, yet helpless to come up with anything better.
"Don't be." Again, his biceps bulged. "It was years ago. A lifetime ago."
"Still, I wish I'd known..."
"Why, so you could step in and cure my ailments? My woes?"
"I..." She let her words die on her lips. That was exactly what she'd have wanted to do. She'd have tried to help improve his circumstances somehow. And in doing so, she'd have inadvertently revealed the Lyes' living conditions, and DOCS would have stepped in. Exactly what Jarrod and Josh hadn't wanted. "It would have helped me understand you a little better."
"Ah, princess, I never wanted your pity."
She began to object then stopped. He was right again. That's what she would have given him. He hadn't wanted it then, and she was pretty darn sure he didn't want it now. "So, let me get this straight. Your dad was in prison, and your mother was an alcoholic."
Josh nodded.
"You and Jarrod worked every single day to put food on your table and...pay your way through school?"
"Someone had to pay."
"And with all of this shit going on in your life you still managed to pass every exam you ever wrote and get through your HSC?"
Determination glinted in his eyes. "A kid is nothing without a school education."
"So you did all of that, all of it, just the two of you?"
"In a nutshell."
She bristled. "Yet you have the audacity to label yourself the class failure?"
"Compared to you, that's exactly what I was."
"Damn it, Josh, you're not a freaking failure." She poked a finger into his arm. "You're a bloody idiot. I was a pampered kid who got whatever I wanted from a family who loved me. I never had to work a day in my life until I finished my uni degree." Princess was a pretty apt description, actually. "You had to support yourself and your family, and you still made it through high school. You're not a failure. You're a freaking legend."
"A legend?" He snorted. "Yeah, right."
She sniffed in indignation. "A real-life hero."
"Heroes aren't real," he pointed out. "They're made-up fantasies."
She looked at him sideways. "You were my fantasy for five years."
"That's the problem with fantasies. They're never as good in the flesh."
She gasped. "You're kidding, right?"
"I never kid about fantasies."
"Damn it, Josh. Your flesh looks good enough to lick."
He said nothing, merely raised an eyebrow in her direction.
Don't blush. Do not blush. "Know what I used to call you back in school?"
"Josh?" he hazarded.
"Nice try." She rolled her eyes. "But wrong. I called you Josh Lie-With-Me."
The eyebrow lifted higher.
"Because all I freaking wanted to do was lie with you. Even for just five minutes."
He threw his head back and laughed out loud, the first genuine emotion he'd shown since he'd begun telling her his sorry story. "See, princess. That's why you and I could never have worked. You and your angelic ways. You had a crush on me for five years, and all you wanted to do was lie with me?"
"No, you moronic halfwit. I had a crush on you for five years, and all I wanted to do, even if it only lasted five minutes, was fuck your brains out."
It was Josh's turn to gape at Sienna.
"Lie was a euphemism," she finished with a grumpy frown.
Jesus fucking Christ. The girl who'd usurped his childhood dreams had just confessed she'd wanted him as much as he'd wanted her. The angelic princess, who was so far out of his league it was laughable, had been as hot for him as he'd been for her.
Just as well he'd stayed away from her in school. Preserved her pristine purity.
No girl as perfect as Sienna deserved to be tainted by his kind.
"If it makes you feel any better," she said, her lips swollen in a pout, "I still want to fuck your brains out."
For once in his life, Josh was speechless. He had no witty retort, no quick comeback. He was quite simply stunned all the way down to his toes. And his dick, which throbbed beneath his shorts.
Not a day had passed at school when he'd escaped an embarrassing erection, brought upon merely by seeing Sienna.
Over a decade later, and he was still plagued with the same affliction. Only this time, the adult woman beckoned even more wantonly than the child, making his cock stand even straighter than it had back then. And thicker. So much thicker.
His gaze dropped to her chest. Again. Beneath the lifejacket that hung open over her shoulders, was the tiny little black shirt he'd first seen lying in a pile on the beach. His childhood fantasy was also the perfect mermaid who'd frolicked so freely in the waves.
The way her breasts spilled over the top of the shirt had him stiffening even more. And the fact that her nipples were two taut peaks, staring at him, calling to him, only made matters worse.
The kid he'd been would never, ever have thought to take advantage of the kid she'd been. He'd never felt good enough for her.
The adult he'd become felt no such compunction. The kid had been so way beneath Sienna she'd have balked at his living conditions. The adult had a thriving business, a place in the Sunshine Coast society, and enough money saved in the bank that he need never work another day in his life.
The adult had lived with fantasies of the perfect girl for over ten years. Had enough time passed between now and then to finally allow him a taste of what he'd missed out on as a teen? A taste of Sienna.
"Princess," Josh said, his voice carrying an intentional warning, "I'm not that same kid. If you offer yourself to me now, I am not going to refuse."
It was her turn to raise an eyebrow. "Ah, so you think my confessing that I still want you to fuck me six ways to Sunday is an...offer?"
Good God, her eyes were exquisite. Clear as a summer blue sky. "Is it?"
She flicked a silky lock of flaxen hair over her shoulder and sniffed again. Her eyes flashed, darkening even as her face lit up. "Hell, yeah. And mark my words on this one, you turn me down again, and there won't be another offer."
It was, without a doubt, the longest trip back to shore in the history of sailing. The mere two hundred meters felt more like a hundred miles.
Josh steered the cat into the shallow depths, jumped into the water and dragged the Hobie onto the beach. Sienna jumped too, not giving Josh the chance to lift her off the trampoline himself and carry her back to his room.
He waved over at Luke, the guy in charge of the boats, signaling their return, then grabbed Sienna's hand and hauled her off the sand.
"My room is just down there." She pointed, her voice breathless.
Ah. A beachside bungalow. Figured. Kylie would have saved the best for her best friends. His own suite was situated in the staff quarters. Nothing to sneeze at, but a million miles away from here. "Condoms are in my room," he told her, wondering why the fuck he didn't carry one around in his pocket at all times.
New rule. From this second on always carry a condom. Always. No question.
Her lips curved into a sexy grin. "I have some."
He faltered midstep. "You do?"
"There's a box in the bathroom. Compliments of the hotel."
"So, they're not yours?"
She shook her head.
Unquestionable relief stole through him. They weren't hers. Which meant she hadn't come here with the intention of having sex.
"I didn't think to bring any," she confessed. Her lips twitched as she looked on ahead, steering him towards her bungalow. "I don't usually use condoms with my vibrator."
Josh tripped. Over his own feet. Fuck, she hadn't even blushed when she'd said that.
Sienna turned to steady him. "You okay?"
Christ, the way her eyes danced, mischief painted all over her delectable face, her freckles standing out... "You said that on purpose," he accused. "Just to get a reaction out of me."
Why on earth had he ever thought her eyes were the color of a summer sky? Right now they looked black. Her pupils were enormous, dark spheres rimmed with navy.
"Did I get a reaction?" she asked with the tiniest hint of a smirk.
Jesus, what happened to the naïve kid he'd known in school? "Did you want one?"
She shrugged sweetly. "Only if it promises more satisfaction than my vibrator."
Enough.
He couldn't take another second of her teasing. Of her subtle scent that drifted through his nose with hints of cinnamon. Of her creamy white skin, so silky, just begging to be touched. He couldn't take one more second.
With more speed than he knew he possessed, he backed her up against the trunk of a palm tree, stepped in close---so close she'd have no doubt of the satisfaction his response could provide---and slanted his mouth over hers.
The little minx was ready for him, her lips soft, warm, welcoming and...parted.
Holy fuck! She'd parted her lips for him, inviting his tongue in, leaving the hot, sweet cavern of her mouth open to his exploration.
Her taste hit him with the force of a cannonball, smashing into his chest, winding him. Sweet and tangy, like strawberries and rum. And salty, like the sea air. Innocence, mischief and...sadness, all rolled into one.
He could taste all that on her tongue? Sadness? Why?
Then she whimpered against his lips, and his thoughts scattered. She twined a leg around his, hooking her foot around his ankle, pressing her groin into his and lining her pussy up with his cock.
He hadn't been kidding earlier when he'd said if she'd touched him, even once, when they were younger, it'd have been game over in a second. Suddenly he was that horny kid all over again. The determined teenager, aroused and desperate for a taste of her, a feel of her, knowing he could never have her.
She slid her hand between their bodies, cupping his dick through his boardies, making him groan savagely into her mouth.
The sound must have motivated her. Less than a second later the same hand was dipping beneath the waistband of his shorts and caressing his bare, aching penis. Here, in the open, standing just on the side of a public pathway, where God knew who could walk past. Anyone.
Anyone. And she was holding his dick in her palm, petting it.
Christ. Fuck. Holy shit.
She was in his arms, pressing her body against him, wrapping her hand around his erection, and damned if he wasn't on the verge of ending the game right now.
He wrenched his lips from hers, his eyes scrunched shut, pain shooting through his balls.
Fuck, release. He needed release. Needed to come.
"Let go. Quick," he rasped. Whoa. Close. Way too close. "Say something, anything. Get my mind off fucking you, or it's not gonna happen."
Her hand was an instrument of torture, releasing him in tiny, tormenting strokes. Her breath came in shallow gasps, her breasts scraping against his chest with every inhalation.
Not helping. Not one little bit. "Princess, fuck, say something."
With a long, breathy sigh, she released him, extricating her hand from his pants. "I...I'm getting married."
He clenched his teeth, willing his orgasm into retreat mode, mulling over her words, trying to make sense of them.
Married.
Married?
His erection died a sudden, effective death. Her confession slapped him clean across the face.
Josh stumbled back. "Married?"
No way. No fucking way.
What was he then? Some last minute entertainment before the big day? The last hurrah? A quick spin to tie up any childhood loose ends?
Sienna's face creased with sorrow.
"You're getting married, and you're here? Doing this? With me?" Irrational fury surged through him.
Tears pooled in her eyes. She shook her head. "No. I'm not."
Josh glared, his thoughts reeling. "Jesus, Sienna, what the fuck kind of a game are you playing with me?"
"No game. I'm not getting married." Her voice trembled.
"You said---"
"You told me to say something."
He smacked his fist into his forehead. Christ, he had. He'd practically yelled at her. "So...so you're not getting married."
A tear spilled over onto her cheek. "No." She shook her head. "Not anymore."
He stared at her, shocked.
"We broke up."
Ah. Could that account for the sorrow he'd tasted on her tongue? "When?"
"Few months ago."
"Why are you telling me this now?"
"Because I'm about to sleep with you. I thought you had a right to know. I, er, I haven't been with anyone besides Ben for a very long time."
Oh, great. Just fucking great. "So this makes me, what? The rebound guy?"
"Wha---? God, no!" She looked as shocked as he felt.
"Then you have slept with someone since the break-up?"
"No," she practically yelled at him.
"So I am the rebound guy," he confirmed.
She shook her head viciously. "Interesting perspective. I'd been thinking about you as my salvation."
He snorted. "Salvation. A quick fuck to get over your ex. Whatever. Same thing, no?"
She wiped an angry hand over her cheek, brushing away any trace of her tears. "I just told you I spent five years at school wishing you'd fuck me. That I still wish you'd fuck me. And this is your answer? This is your conclusion?" Emotion flashed through her eyes. Fury? Dismay? Confusion?
"Pretty obvious conclusion, don't you think?" Why was he so angry? Did it even matter if he was her rebound guy?
Her face shut down. Her body cooled beside his, noticeably. "You know what, Josh? I've got enough shit to deal with without you getting all pissy on me." She shoved herself away from the tree. "I've fantasized about you for years. But I guess it's true what they say. The reality can never live up to the fantasy." Shouldering him hard in the chest, she stormed past him.
Pain twanged through his sternum, the aching promise of a future bruise.
"Have a nice life," she tossed back at him and marched off.
He watched her go. Watched her round ass swing with every furious stride. Watched her endless, curvy legs eat up the path. Watched as the woman who'd been the center of every childhood dream disappeared from his life once again.
It was better to let her walk away. He didn't need the complication in his life right now. Didn't need a princess.
He never had.
In fact, the whole sorry situation wasn't worth another thought.
Acting purely on instinct, he sprinted after Sienna. One step, two, ten. Twenty. He barreled into her back, knocking her clean off her feet, the impact taking him down with her.
He twisted a microsecond before they landed, shoving them both onto the manicured lawn and landing beneath her, cushioning her fall.
Another bruise, definitely. This one on his butt, but he didn't give a damn. Without waiting for his breath to return, or her shock to dissipate, he cupped the back of her head, hauled her face down to his and kissed her again.
Their mouths met, clashed, fought, then finally submitted. The anger abated, fury turned to passion and her lips parted, once again inviting his tongue to explore.
Arms twined around his neck as she cuddled in closer, and breasts as round and plump as heaven pressed against his chest.
"I'm sorry, princess," he murmured when she pulled away to catch her breath. "My behavior was inexcusable."
She pressed her mouth to his jaw, leaving a soft imprint of her lips. "You're not a rebound guy," she whispered. A blush crept into her cheeks. "But you are the first man I've been attracted to since Ben."
"Should I take that as a compliment?"
"I don't know. How do you normally take it when a woman confesses she wants you to fuck her senseless?"
He laughed, a gruff, low laugh. "Contrary to popular belief, it's not every day a woman tells me that."
"I find that hard to believe."
"After hearing about my childhood? Poverty and dysfunctional families don't exactly attract women like flies."
"Are you calling me a fly?"
"You're a princess. You always have been."
"Is that a bad thing?" She held her breath.
"Only for failures like me, who have no chance of catching a princess."
"You're not a failure." She tilted her head to look him in the eyes. "You never were."
"I was never a prince."
"I never wanted a prince. I just wanted you to lie with me."
"Do you still?"
Mischief flashed in her eyes. "Well, I have my vibrator..."
Minx. "Show me."
"But you asked me to show you."
Uh-uh. No way. He wasn't falling for her innocence all over again. Josh tossed the toy over his shoulder. "I had to get you indoors somehow. Otherwise I'd have fucked you on the very public hotel lawn."
Her eyes lit up.
He groaned, the sound a mixture of disbelief and arousal. "You would have liked that?"
She tugged at the little black top, pulling it over her head and tossing it aside. "I may be a princess, but I'm not the good girl you seem to think I am."
Er, no. The strapless bra she wore, although black and lacy, did not scream good. It screamed rip me off now and ravage the breasts beneath. "So what, naughty girls like having sex in places they can be seen?"
Her hands disappeared beside her back and seconds later the bra fell to the floor. "I can't speak for all naughty girls, but this one certainly likes the thrill of knowing she could get caught at any time."
He licked his very dry lips, wishing it were her nipples his tongue caressed, not his own, hungry mouth. "You'd have let me fuck you outside?"
"I've waited so long for this moment, I'd let you fuck me anywhere." Her skimpy white shorts disappeared.
Josh forgot to breathe. Dear God, the woman was a picture of perfection. All lush flesh, abundant breasts, glowing skin and legs that wouldn't quit. "Anywhere?" he managed to choke out.
"Anywhere, anytime, any way."
She stepped out of the tiny scrap of material she had the audacity to call a thong, and Josh had to steady himself by grabbing the back of the couch. Holy hell. Never mind a princess, she was a goddess. Mother Earth.
Curvy enough to bring any man to his knees. As for her pussy, the clean-shaven flesh beckoned him closer. Closer still. Until he was in front of her. Touching her. Hauling her naked form into his arms and kissing her with all the pent-up frustration and need of an eighteen-year-old.
An eighteen-year-old who'd lusted after her for five years.
He scooped her up and carried her into the pristine wood and glass bedroom, laying her down on snow-white Egyptian cotton sheets. "The anywhere we'll leave for later." Sex in public? Not something he'd ever done. Not something he'd discount though. Perhaps when it was darker...? "The anytime is right now." Well, to start with. "As for the any way... Princess, there are so many ways I wanna make love to you, you'll be ninety before we've covered half of them."
"You talk the talk, bigshot. But so far I haven't seen any signs of you walking the walk."
He raised an eyebrow. "You want a sign?"
"No, I want you to stop talking and fuck me senseless."
He pulled off his shirt and tossed it aside. As his pants came off, he acknowledged defeat. How could he not? His dick was a solid pole jutting out before him, the head leaking a steady trail of precome. "You know I'm gonna last all of three seconds once I get inside you?"
"Then it'll be two seconds longer than me," she admitted hoarsely, her gaze glued to his erection.
He tore open a condom, eternally grateful to the hotel for having the foresight he so clearly lacked. With his gaze focused on the juncture between her legs, he sheathed himself. "Show me," he urged, watching as goose bumps popped up all over her skin.
Without hesitation, Sienna bent her knees and spread her legs, offering Josh a view he'd waited almost his whole life to see.
God help him, it was worth every minute of the wait.
Her pussy lips glistened between her thighs, a welcome invitation to the shaft he now gripped tight in his palm. He dragged air into his lungs.
"I can't go slow, princess," he warned. "I've waited too long for this moment. Wanted you forever. If I take a step towards the bed, it's not gonna be for gentle kisses and foreplay. I'm gonna bury myself as deep inside you as I can get and not stop moving until you've come screaming and every last drop of semen has drained from my cock."
A trickle of cream oozed from her exposed lips. "Promises, promises."
Josh pounced.
One second he stood in front of the bed, the next he covered her goddess-like body with his own and helped himself to her mouth. The sensations of her bare flesh clasped against his, of her taut nipples poking his chest and her womanly softness pillowing his harder muscles had him ready to blow.
As their lips melded and their tongues tangoed, she wrapped her legs around his waist and tilted her hips.
Her warm pussy caressed his cock, the evidence of her desire moistening his balls and the tiny bit of exposed flesh at the base of his dick. If he'd thought he couldn't get any harder, he'd thought very wrong.
With one thrust, Josh did as he'd longed to do since his first wet dream about her. Full to bursting, he buried himself in his dream girl.
Sienna pulled her mouth from his with a gasp, her entire body tensing.
Josh froze. Fuck.
"Princess?" he growled.
Her answer was a low moan.
His heart pounded. "Are you okay?"
Her breath came in fast gulps. "B-better than okay."
Thank fucking God. "I thought I'd hurt you."
She shook her head and squeezed her muscles around his cock, as though testing his girth---and self control. "You're bigger than I'm used to, is all."
Well, hell. His chest puffed up to twice its normal size. "I'll be gentle," he promised.
"Don't you fucking dare," she warned testily, and rolled her hips beneath him.
Ah. Fuck.
She did it again.
Jesus. No fair. She wasn't used to his size. He had to go slow.
Josh placed his hands on either side of her head and lifted his weight off her slightly. Sweat beaded on his spine, the result of his concerted effort to remain still.
"Josh," she growled between clenched teeth. "Move. Please. Move, now!"
Slow. Just go slow.
"Argh!" With a yell, she arched her back, clasped his waist tight between her legs and rode his dick as fast and as fiercely as her position would allow.
Velvet heat surrounded his shaft, sucked him in deep, stunned him all the way down to his toes, then released him. Fast, so fast. Too fast. He couldn't appreciate it.
Then it was back. The velvet heat. Her pussy. Her hot, wet pussy, claiming him, calling him. Fucking him.
With a wild roar, he lost his control.
Josh pistoned into her, over and over, stroking his cock inside her. Deep. So fucking deep he couldn't tell where he finished and she started. So deep he'd have feared losing himself inside her---if that wasn't exactly where he wanted to be. Where he'd always wanted to be.
She was right there with him, all the way. Meeting every feral thrust, clamping her inner walls around his erection, trapping him inside so every tug out was a delicious struggle.
Christ, three seconds had been an exaggeration. One second and he was ready to explode. His balls were tight knots beneath his dick. His shaft an aching rod, stymied with pleasure.
And Sienna. Lord, she was screaming. And gasping and...coming.
Holy fuck. Jesus Christ. She was coming. And coming and coming and coming. All over his cock.
Clenching him tight. So tight, milking him. Pulling his seed from his balls. Oh, Christ. She was shoving her breasts up high, rubbing them against his chest, muttering mindlessly.
God, she was coming. And... so was he!
Can't stop. Can't hold back.
Not one more second.
Silver heat blitzed through his shaft.
Coming. So hard. So fucking hard.
His entire body convulsed, the muscles in his back stretched tight enough to snap.
But, God. The pleasure. The intense, pure, pleasure.
Just perfect.
Pure perfect pleasure.
Josh sat on Sienna's balcony, his feet resting on the cane table, his butt perched on a ridiculously comfortable cushion on a cane couch. Not ten meters from said balcony, beach sand met lush green lawn. The sea was but a hop, skip and a jump from Sienna's room.
Josh tried to appreciate the sun as it dipped over the water. Tried to enjoy the forty different shades of pink and red that painted the twilight sky. He tried furiously to feel some sense of shame or maybe even embarrassment as a couple strolled along the path, hand in hand, and smiled at him from a short distance away.
In truth he felt nothing but the lips around his cock. The warm heat of Sienna's mouth as she sucked him in deeper, caressing him with her tongue. First, she twirled that sinful tongue around the head, and when she'd sufficiently tortured him enough, she twirled it around the length of his shaft.
Sweat beaded on his forehead and upper lip. Barely a half an hour had passed since his first explosive orgasm, and thanks to the ministrations of the woman kneeling between his legs, he was headed for a second one. Fast.
Josh lifted his arm, heavy as lead, and waved at the couple. They waved back, oblivious to the fact that a luscious, naked goddess perched at his feet, treating him to a little slice of heaven.
She drew her lips off of him. "You waving at someone?" Her voice was husky.
Josh had to clear his throat to answer, and even then he spoke no louder than a whisper. "Yeah. A couple walking past."
She gave a lusty groan and licked him from root to tip. "Think they know what you're doing?"
"I'm not doing a damn thing, princess," Josh reminded her. "And neither are you," he pointed out with a disgruntled sigh. She'd ceased all mouth movement and regarded him with those darkened blue eyes he was beginning to adore. Her lips were swollen and parted, and every syllable she uttered sent warm breath fluttering over his dick.
"How does it feel," she asked, mischief dancing over her face, "knowing they're so close and have no idea what's going on?"
"It feels..." He let his words drift away as she wrapped her lips around his tip and suckled gently. "Ah, Christ, it feels unbelievable."
She kissed his balls. "What if they knew what we were doing? Or worse. Came closer to say hello?"
He didn't have an answer. Dread fluttered in his stomach, right about the same time a fresh wave of blood slammed into his already engorged member. Precome leaked from his shaft.
Sienna moaned softly. "Can you still see them?"
Josh nodded, almost incapable of speech. "They're...close." Although they'd already walked past the balcony. Josh kept his voice low, praying fervently they didn't hear him. What if they turned around?
"Keep your eyes on them," Sienna told him. "Don't look away. Not for one second."
"Princess---"
"Please." Her smile was devilish. "Do it. For me."
How could he refuse? Josh returned his gaze to the couple, although he really wanted to watch as once again Sienna parted those cherry red lips and pulled him seductively into her mouth.
The woman said something to the man who turned to look at the beach. They stopped walking, not twenty steps away from Sienna's room.
Sienna swallowed his cock.
Josh jerked.
The woman pointed. Josh looked in that direction.
Sienna sucked, her mouth a hot, wet, tight cavern with silken walls.
A dark body broke the smooth surface of the water, spinning once in the air and diving back into the sea.
"Dolphins." The voice belonged to the woman. The rest of her sentence was unintelligible.
Sienna released him, just long enough to mutter, "Keep watching them," and then her mouth was back, consuming him, delighting him, tempting and teasing, rousing and inflaming.
He didn't drop his gaze this time. Watched the couple as they watched the dolphins, sat with his ass plastered to the seat, incapable of movement. Christ, her mouth. It wrenched a groan from deep in his gut, a loud, rasping noise he couldn't control.
The man turned to look at him, his face scrunched in silent question.
Ah, fuck! Caught.
A wave of heat hit him in the stomach, sending goose bumps all the way down his spine. Jesus, why did that thought turn him on so damn much?
Again, he raised his arm, now so heavy with desire he could hardly move it, and pointed to the ocean. "Dolphins," he mouthed. Comprehensive speech was simply not possible.
The man smiled and nodded. Josh smiled and nodded. But not in response to the man. In response to the molten mouth that devoured him, delighted him, fucking dazed him. And to the hand that caressed his testicles, held them, molded them slowly to the shape of her palm.
His balls swelled and tautened. The muscles in his thighs turned rigid. Sienna tightened her mouth, suctioning harder on his dick.
The man gave him a funny look.
"Dolphins," Josh mouthed again with a smile, then threw his head back, opened his mouth, closed his eyes and exploded between Sienna's lips.
His orgasm tore through his body, rocking him, shaking him. Wad after wad of come spurted onto her velvety tongue, and not once did she release him. Her muscles worked around his shaft as she swallowed, dragging even more semen from him.
He didn't have any more to give. Couldn't, not after his first orgasm. Yet the convulsions continued, shudders wracking his shoulders.
Holy fuck. He was so sensitive. Too sensitive. Couldn't take any more of her torturous caresses. Her mouth...
As if sensing his predicament, she pulled off him with a slow, wet slurp, placed a kiss on his thigh and purred softly.
Inch by inch Josh came back to himself. Reality returned. His neck muscles relaxed and he straightened, opened his eyes and stared across the balcony at the open-mouthed expression of the man. The woman stood beside him, oblivious, as she gazed out at the ocean.
"Dolphins," Josh said again. He smiled dazedly and dropped forward to kiss the hidden Sienna full on the mouth.
Just as soon as he'd built up a modicum of energy, they were going to switch places.
Sienna stood outside the exclusive, trendy Bar Evoke, leaning against the back of a bench in the exquisite gardens. Flowers blossomed everywhere she looked, their sweet, fresh scent tingeing the air.
Josh had gone back to his apartment to clean up and change, but he'd left with specific instructions to meet here, outside, so they could walk in together. He'd wanted to come back to her room to collect her, but Sienna had reckoned that was a seriously bad idea. If he came anywhere near her bed, they would not make the party. She had to make the party. She'd yet to see Mack and Aidan, and she was dead keen to meet Kylie's men.
Sienna breathed deep of the briny, humid air. The moonless night was thick and warm. Her tiny excuse for a cocktail dress already clung to her damp, just-showered flesh.
The bench Josh had chosen was situated away from the lamps that lit the path. It was the perfect place for a not-so-quick hello before heading indoors. Sienna stood behind it, impatiently awaiting his arrival.
Her heart drummed wildly. Ridiculous she should feel like this, especially so soon after her break-up with Ben, but just thinking about Josh took her breath away. They'd connected today. Connected as a man and woman. Connected sexually, yes, but it went deeper than that. Perhaps it was their shared past that made their communicating so easy, so natural. There seemed to be no shortage of things to discuss. And no inhibitions in revealing deep, dark secrets---or physical needs.
He rocked her world every time she looked at him. The sight made her breath catch and goose bumps erupt over her skin. She'd been convinced she'd never feel that intense lust for anyone other than Ben. She'd been very, very wrong.
Desire, hot and wicked, seeped through her veins, spreading into her limbs, her breasts and lower. The memory of his tongue on her pussy, stroking her clit, sent a gush of hot cream pooling between her legs. So aroused was she, all she need do was press her hand against her clit and she'd come.
Maybe Kylie was right. Maybe there was magic in this island air. Because what she and Josh had experienced today had been pure magic.
She clasped the back of the bench and did not let go.
Sienna sensed his presence a couple of seconds before strong arms embraced her from behind, wrapping around her shoulders and pulling her against a muscular chest.
She let him, stepping back gladly, molding herself to him, relishing the feel of him behind her. His scent wafted into her nose, the spicy masculine aftershave as familiar as her own Calvin Klein perfume. She inhaled deeply, allowing the scent to invade her entire being. It stirred the flames that already flared within.
"Sienna," he rasped and clutched her tighter. "God, Si..."
He sounded...different. Was that awe in his voice? Wonder?
She was awed. Blown away by how right she felt in his arms. How her body fit against his as though they'd stood like this a million times before, her curves pressed into his bulk.
She closed her eyes and dropped her head onto his shoulder, relishing the hard sinew around the bone, enjoying the natural ease of their stance, even if the atmosphere around them had suddenly charged with a million amps of electricity. She rubbed suggestively against the growing erection that pressed into her ass.
A low, masculine moan echoed in her ear, and he held her closer, held her as if she was both a treasured gift and a bird he feared would startle and fly away. His hold was gentle yet determined, and oh, so damn arousing.
"Need to---" He paused. "Have to... Ah, Christ." Soft lips touched her exposed neck, followed by the flick of a warm, wet tongue. Just a whisper, and then it was gone. "Baby," he gasped, and his lips closed over the same bit of flesh and sucked gently.
Baby?
Instinctively she stretched her neck, allowing him better access. "Mmmmm."
Against her back his heart beat a rapid flutter in his chest. It matched her own racing pulse. She grasped his arms in her hands, clutching at his wrists, surprised to find them covered in long, buttoned sleeves.
So formal?
He wore long pants too. In this heat? She hadn't expected that. Neither had she expected the pained growl he emitted before his long, slim fingers trailed ever so lightly against the sides of her breasts, making her nipples bead and her knees weaken.
"Have to touch you," he said on another growl. His thumbs stroked her nipples over her dress, once, twice. And then again.
Dear God. It was too much, too exquisite. She groaned in his arms, writhing against him.
Laughter and chatter erupted in bursts mere meters away, and she tensed immediately. "Oh---"
He cut her off with a soothing, "Shhhh."
The relative darkness might cloak them in privacy, but they still stood in the open where anyone could walk past. A thrill shot through her. "Touch me," she whispered. "Please."
Hot breaths of air tickled her neck and he moved his arm down until he found the hemline of her barely-there dress. His fingers slipped beneath it. Silver heat prickled her leg as his hand feathered over her skin.
She held her breath. Couldn't exhale. Forgot how.
He brushed against her thong.
"Ah!" Her exclamation was a breathless gasp. If she'd been aroused before Josh arrived, she was a livewire now. A pulse throbbed in her pussy, so forcefully she was sure he could feel it vibrating through his hand and arm.
"More," she begged shamelessly, and widened her stance to give him easier entry. She needed his touch. Needed it more than she needed her next breath.
"Si," he whispered, his voice rougher than she expected. But then her own voice had come out a good three tones lower than usual, the result of the carnal desire that held her transfixed. He thrust against her ass, pressing his erection into the cleft, her dress and his pants a sensual barrier she'd as soon weren't there. "God, I missed this. Missed you."
Missed her? In the last forty-five minutes? She'd have laughed at his sentimentality---if she wasn't burning for him. "Please," she begged again. "Touch me. I need...need you to."
His groan was guttural and coincided perfectly with the instant his finger slid beneath the crotch of her thong and brushed against her pussy lips.
Her knees buckled at the contact, and he held her tighter, supporting her, keeping her standing.
"I've got you, baby," he reassured as he ran his finger over the seam between her lips, once, twice, driving her crazy, making every nerve ending come to life. When he dipped it inside, gently, slowly, the liquid that had pooled there oozed out, coating his finger, wetting her panties.
Her jaw dropped open, and she emitted a soundless cry.
"Oh yeah. Just like it should be," Josh murmured. Softly, deliciously, he fucked her, as if he'd been doing this all his life, stroking his finger in and out, adding another, brushing his thumb over her clit.
Good. So damn good.
So unbelievably good.
Her brain short-circuited, refusing to work. Every thought she had fled her mind. She was nothing but a ball of pleasure, a leaf floating closer and closer to the pinnacle of ecstasy.
"Oh, yeah," Josh crooned in her ear. "That's it, baby. Ride my fingers." He thrust again against her ass, in time with movement of his fingers. "Ride my cock."
An unsettled flutter of...something shivered through her, and was gone as Josh caressed her clit, exerting a fraction more pressure than before.
The pleasure was almost excruciating. The bubbles of laughter from close by a powerful aphrodisiac. Sienna burned from the inside out, her pussy the apex of her excitement.
"Come for me, baby," he encouraged. "Come on my fingers."
Tiny quivers rocked her inner walls.
Baby?
Another flutter of disquiet worried her and was gone.
"Anyone could catch us," he whispered. "Could catch you, rocking on my hand."
She whimpered, fear mingling with blatant excitement.
"Let go, baby. Before they find us."
Baby. Not right. Something's wrong.
No, nothing was wrong. Everything was right. Wantonly, carnally right.
"Uh-oh." His voice was even lower than before and softer. His fingers continued their tempestuous strokes. "Someone's coming. Walking off the path. Headed...headed towards us."
Her breath vanished. Her heart raced.
"He's close. Quick. Now, baby. Come, now."
Not baby. Princess!
Sensation overwhelmed her. The quivers detonated into full-on convulsions and Sienna climaxed on his hand. Her pussy pulsed, clasping his fingers within, holding them there even as his thumb pressed harder, making the orgasm stretch out. And out. And out.
She held in the scream she wanted to emit, groaned his name instead. "Josh."
The hand inside her stilled. The shoulder her head rested on turned rigid.
"Josh?" he rasped. Ice-cold fury radiated from him, freezing the pleasure within. "Who the fuck is Josh?"
"That...would be me," another voice said. A voice just a little to her right, and almost as cold and angry as the voice in her ear.
Dizziness assaulted Sienna. The world went out of focus.
Baby.
He extracted his fingers and stepped back, leaving her shaky and off-balance.
Spicy aftershave.
She grabbed the back of the bench, clutched it tight.
Long shirt, long pants. Deep voice. Deeper than this afternoon, yet so recognizable. So...known.
She prayed futilely for balance.
The familiarity of it all.
The stars above swung around her, and any oxygen that had once fed the island simply dissolved in the humidity. She couldn't breathe. Couldn't think.
Josh was next to her, not behind her.
Baby. Not Princess. Baby!
Oh, dear God.
She turned her head, knowing what she'd see before she met his gaze. Knowing it would not be longish, sun-bleached brown hair or green eyes.
Knowing the cheeks would be smooth-shaven and the hair cropped short and black as night.
"Ben." The name fell from her lips in a breathless whisper.
What was he doing here? When had he arrived? Why was he here? What did he want? And dear God, why now? Why, why, why?
Was this what it felt like to have a panic attack, Sienna wondered as she tried desperately to inhale. Her breath came too fast, too shallow to get in any air.
Someone must have helped her to the bench, because without knowing how she got there she was sitting on it with her head between her knees. A gentle hand rubbed her back, and a voice crooned in her ear. Who the hand and voice belonged to Sienna could not determine. Josh? Ben? Both of them?
She hadn't been able to separate them out two minutes ago, why should she be able to now?
But then two minutes ago she hadn't expected the past she'd put firmly behind her to usurp the present she'd become utterly enthralled with.
"B-Ben," she said, but no sound came out.
Slow down. Breathe slower. Deeper.
Easier said than done.
She would have given up trying if not for the hand on her back. It stroked from her neck to waist and up again. Slowly down, slowly up. A soothing pattern. Something she could follow, adjust her panting to.
The voice helped too, encouraging her, insisting she'd be okay. It spoke with such quiet confidence Sienna had no choice but to believe it.
It took a while---and each time she remembered that the fingers that had been inside her were not Josh's, she had to start again---but she finally managed to set her inhalations and exhalations to the rhythm of the hand.
"That's it, Si. Just breathe easy. Slow and steady," the voice said, and because it sounded in front of her and not beside, Sienna finally established that one man stroked while the other spoke.
"Ben," she rasped.
"Right here, baby," he said from next to her, telling her which man was which.
She didn't look up, wasn't ready to raise her head. The world still swam around her. "Wh-what are you doing here?"
"You didn't know he was coming?" This from the man in front of her. His tone lost the soothing lilt and came out sharp and astonished.
"No." God, no! How could she have known? She hadn't spoken to Ben in weeks. Had cut off all communication with him after she'd moved the last of her possessions out of the unit they'd shared into her new, smaller one. The move had cost her every last bit of emotional strength. Talking to Ben would have shattered her resolve, sent her running back to him, apologizing for leaving. Begging him to take her back.
She couldn't go back. He'd married his work instead of her. Left her alone for the better part of a year. Neglected her and their relationship. Not because he didn't love her---he did. But because he'd been trying to establish himself in his new job as an investment banker. He'd just invested more of himself into his career than he had into Sienna-and-Ben. Sienna knew that as he made his way up the corporate ladder, his workload and work dedication would only monopolize more of his time.
She loved him, but she could no longer live as second best. She deserved more than that from the man she gave her soul and her future to.
"Then what are you doing here?" Josh asked, the question obviously not aimed at her.
The leg beside her stiffened. "That is none of your damn business," Ben snapped.
Silence ensued as once again Sienna struggled to breathe.
It didn't last as long this time, but it still left her light-headed. She raised her face slowly, fuzzily taking in the shorts and short-sleeved, button-up shirt Josh wore. Smarter than the clothes he'd had on earlier, but still casual, like she'd expected.
Josh raised his hands in submission, but when he spoke his voice was tight. "You're right. This is none of my business. I'll leave you two alone."
What? No!
Before he could take a step, Sienna grabbed Josh's arm. She wouldn't have thought it possible, especially considering how shaky she was, but she held tight, refusing to release him. "Don't go."
She'd only just found him again. She couldn't lose him. Not now. Not this quickly. "I...thought Ben was you," she admitted, shocked all the way down to her bones that she could have made that mistake.
But then Ben wasn't supposed to be here. He hadn't arranged to meet her at the bench. She hadn't anticipated a quick tryst with him in the gardens before joining the festivities inside.
Sienna had been primed and ready for Josh. The idea that he might indulge in a little secret play in public had thrilled and excited her. True, it was Ben who'd taught her about the thrill of hiding in plain sight, who'd introduced her to the danger, the risk and the incredible exhilaration. But it was Josh whose touch she'd expected tonight. She'd responded readily, happily when he'd embraced and caressed her. And she'd felt comfortable, right in her response.
But then who wouldn't feel right or comfortable responding to the touch of a man whose bed she'd shared for eight years? Even if that man was meant to be in Newcastle.
"You mistook me for another man?" Ben asked with a strange hollowness to his voice.
Sienna gaped at him. "You're not supposed to be here. You're not supposed to be holding me. Touching me."
"And he is?" Ben asked with a soft snarl.
Yes! The answer was on the tip of her tongue, but she bit it back. Her answer was not his concern. Once it would have been his concern. Now? No.
Didn't mean his presence wasn't making her heart pound a gazillion miles an hour. Didn't mean she wasn't breathing him in greedily, committing his scent to memory once again, shaking violently from his mere presence. His physical proximity had always affected her like this. Always made her want him so badly her muscles weakened.
"Why are you here, Ben?" she asked, suddenly very tired.
"Don't you know?"
It might be too dark to see his eyes, but Sienna could feel the full force of his gaze on her. It sent tiny shock waves down her spine. "How could I possibly know?"
"I've come for you."
"Me?" Her heart raced even faster.
"I want you back, baby. I need you back."
"Oh." Sienna nodded as if his response made perfect sense. In truth, she was incapable of making head or tails of his words. She chewed on her cheek. "Um...what?"
He grabbed her free hand. "I love you, Sienna. I never stopped. You ripped my heart in two when you walked away. Tore my world apart. I hate living this way. Hate being without you. Come home, baby. Come back to me. Please."
"Um... Ah." Sienna resisted the urge to rub her ear, unsure she'd heard him correctly.
"Make me complete again, Si. Come home." Ben's tone rang with sadness and desperation. This was Ben at his most vulnerable, showing her his insecurities, his fears.
He wanted her back? Seriously? Sienna gawked at him, stunned all the way down to her toes.
The arm she held tugged, attempting to free itself.
Josh! Trying to escape her hold. She tightened her grip, refused to release him. She wasn't ready to let him go.
"Sienna?" Josh said quietly.
She turned to look at him.
"Let me go, princess. I don't belong here."
"Princess?" Ben asked.
"Shut it, mate," Josh told him without taking his attention off Sienna.
"You don't belong where?" Sienna asked.
"Here. With you and him."
"Of course you do." He belonged with her. "We arranged to meet here."
"Did you arrange to meet him too?" Josh asked.
"Don't be ridiculous," she gasped. "I didn't know he was here."
"Yet you happily allowed him to bring you to orgasm," Josh pointed out, anger echoing through his words.
Her silence accentuated her guilt, and the tiny quivers still echoing through her pussy only worsened the situation. "Because I thought he was you," she whispered in shame.
"You would have let me do that to you? Out here?"
"I did let you." Heat crept into her cheeks. "It, uh, just wasn't you."
"No, it was your fiancé," Josh said bitterly.
Fiancé? Ben's words reverberated through her mind.
Come home, baby.
Come back to me.
Impossible. He couldn't really have meant that, could he? She shook her head. "He's not my fiancé. We broke up." Hadn't she told Josh that earlier? Hadn't they fought about it?
"I want to be your fiancé again," Ben told her. "I want to marry you."
Good grief, maybe he was serious. "You w-want to marry me?" The idea made her heart stand still. Made it stop beating. Made hope flare in her belly.
This was Ben, the man she'd loved for eight years, telling her he still wanted to marry her. Even though she'd left him.
Ben. Dear, wonderful, sexy, gorgeous Ben.
"With my entire being," Ben said.
Josh tugged again, reminding her he was there. Reminding her how he'd played havoc with her heartbeat earlier. How he'd made her belly flip-flop with desire.
"What about Josh?" she asked Ben.
"What about him?" Ben asked, as though Josh had no importance in her life.
The question made her bristle. She'd lusted after Josh for five years as a kid, and she'd lusted after him again this afternoon. More than that, something had clicked between them today. Fallen into place. Over the few hours they'd spent together, Josh had come to mean something to her. Ben's dismissal of him got her back up.
"He's important to me." She looked up at Josh, knowing with absolute certainty that she spoke the truth.
Josh seemed to relax. He ceased tugging against her hold and took a step closer.
Ben, on the other hand, pursed his lips. She couldn't see the little lines she was sure edged that grimace, but his anger and dissatisfaction were clear. They radiated off him in waves.
"And me?" Ben asked. "Am I no longer important to you?"
God, she wished she could say no, not anymore. But she'd be lying if she did. "Of course you are." The words were wrenched from her soul. She didn't want to admit them. Didn't want Ben to know he still had this hold over her. But he did, and denying it was impossible.
Then why would she not let go of Josh's arm?
"Marry me, Sienna," Ben said. "Let's put this hell behind us. We can go back to having what we had before."
Sienna's anger billowed out. Shock had held it in check up until now, but suddenly she couldn't avoid it. She'd left Ben. Put him behind her. Made sure she was moving on. And what had he done? Ruined everything she'd strived so hard to accomplish. Ignored the efforts she'd made to change her world. Come stampeding back into her life, begging her to marry him, again!
Not fair. So not fair. His pleas undermined her will, her wishes.
"Before what?" she bit out. "Before you chose to work twelve-hour days, every day? Before your weekends became work days too? Before you cancelled every arrangement I made for us? Before you started skipping dinners and breakfasts, just so you could get to work on time? Before you forgot I was in your life, waiting for you? Day in, day out? Before all that, you mean?"
Josh's response startled her. He took the hand that had been grasping his wrist in a death grip and held it in his own hand. Offering her...comfort?
She accepted it. Happily. Needing something to hold onto, some sense of stability in the madness that Ben was creating.
"You're angry." Ben nodded, accepting her outburst. "You have every right to be. My behavior was unforgivable. My neglect of you...abhorrent. I know that. I understand what I put you through, because these months without you have been intolerable. And lonely. So damn lonely." He choked out the last words.
Did he want her sympathy? Tough! He wasn't about to find it here. "Whose fault is that?" She didn't wait for his reply. "How the hell do you think I felt all those times you had to work? All those times I pleaded with you to spend a little time together, and you said no? You think the loneliness wasn't unbearable? You think it didn't break my heart?" Uh-uh. Too subtle. "You think you didn't break my heart?" Her hand shook as she pointed at him, jabbing his chest with her finger. "You broke us. You broke you and me. If you're feeling a little lonely now, there's only one person to blame."
Ben's groan was guttural. "You're right. About everything. I fucked up. I broke us. And I was too damn blind to understand it at the time." He rapped his chest. "It was my fault."
He fell silent, as if the words he'd spoken had cost him. It took a few seconds before he continued, and when he did his voice was stronger, more determined. More like the Ben she knew, the man she'd fallen in love with. "I made a mistake, now I'm correcting it. Making things right between us."
She almost scoffed out loud. "Sure. And how do you plan to do that?"
"I've cut back my workload," Ben said. "Taken on fewer clients. I've even told John I'll be spending less hours at the office. He approved it all." Ben squared his shoulders. "I'm fixing what I broke. Making things okay for us. We can be okay. Things will be different from now on. I'll be there for you. For us."
Sienna stared at him, stupefied. "Honestly?" Ben had never tried to cut back his load. Ever. Instead he'd pleaded and apologized, promised to make it up to her. He'd never promised to work less. Yet now...
"Honestly, baby. I had a new contract drawn up, specifying the maximum number of hours I'm prepared to spend at the office. I would have come earlier, told you about it in Newie, but the contract took time because of negotiations. I didn't want to see you until I had something solid and real to offer."
Her anger disintegrated as quickly as it had appeared. Tears welled in her eyes. Three months after they'd broken up, Ben had finally come to his senses. He'd finally offered her, on a silver platter, everything she'd dreamed about for the preceding year. Everything she'd wanted.
This was it. Now. In front of her. If she reached out her hand she could take it. They could go back to the life she and Ben had planned to spend together.
God, she wanted that. She'd wanted it for eight years. Wanted it until her heart had broken into a million pieces.
Joy filled her chest.
She reached out to accept it. To say yes. To take back the future she'd thought lost forever---but found her hand trapped.
Josh held it, and he wasn't letting go.
"Josh?" She looked at him questioningly.
Was she asking for her hand...or for his approval? Because if he freed her hand and she gave it to Ben, then whatever she and Josh might have had would be no longer. In a heartbeat she'd lose the chance she'd wanted with him her whole high school career.
The chance she'd grabbed wholeheartedly this afternoon.
"He's feeding you a line," Josh said with cool disapproval. "He wants you back, and he'll do whatever he can to get you." He shrugged. "I don't blame him. I've only had you for a few hours and I'm loath to lose you."
"Feeding me a line?" Ben? Could he be capable of that?
"Damn straight." Josh nodded. "He's telling you what you want to hear, because it's the only way of getting what he wants."
Josh had a point. The only thing that could ever convince Sienna to go back to Ben was the promise of less of his time spent at work. But was it a line, or was it the truth?
"Si," Ben said. "I neglected you this last year. I know that, and it kills me every fucking time I think about it. But I never lied to you. I will never lie to you. You know that. You know me."
She did know Ben. If he said he had a new contract, he had a new contract. He'd organized it for her. For them.
God, he'd changed his work habits. For her.
Again she reached out to accept his offer, but this time, more than holding her hand in his, Josh tugged on it, hard enough to pull her up off the bench. The second she was upright he caught her in his arms, pulling her flush against his body, his chest pressing against her breasts.
And there went her heart. Racing in five different directions at the same time. At least that was what it felt like. Her breathing became erratic again, and heat flooded her pussy.
Dear God. Her pussy? Aroused at a time like this?
"You want to go back to him? Then go," Josh said. "I won't stop you. I won't get in your way. But you have to take those steps. You have to walk away from me in order to get to him. Can you do that?"
Without waiting for her response, he kissed her. With the full force of his Josh Lie-With-Me mouth. His lips consumed, his tongue seduced and his body molded to hers, reminding her of every delicious pleasure they'd shared that afternoon. Every mind-blowing orgasm, every titillating tease. Every laugh he'd wrung out of her and every tear she'd held inside upon learning about this childhood.
One afternoon, and they'd made magic together. Shared a wealth of intimacies. A treasure she only wanted to discover more of.
She kissed him right back, explored his mouth as he'd explored hers, pressed her aching pussy against his hardening cock, rubbing, seeking the pleasure, the release she knew he could give.
She'd waited a lifetime for Josh to acknowledge her, to want her, and now that he had, she couldn't let go of him, couldn't walk away. Didn't want to.
When his mouth finally released hers, his breath came in short, sharp puffs. His erection pulsed against her clit, and his chest rose and fell unevenly---just like hers.
"Walk away, princess," he whispered. "If you can."
She shook her head, but before words could form in her mouth, telling him she couldn't and she didn't want to, hands fastened around her shoulders and twirled her around, out of Josh's grasp.
"She doesn't have to walk," Ben snapped at Josh. "I'll take her."
And take her he did, straight into another kiss, just as forceful and just as exquisite as Josh's. Sienna could have objected, could have said no. If she'd wanted to.
She didn't.
She hadn't kissed Ben for months. The sweet, chocolaty taste of him---he'd always tasted like chocolate to her---swept through her, through her senses, taking her back to the time when she'd been happiest. When she and Ben had been perfect together. When they'd finished each other's sentences, laughed at the same silly jokes, watched the same TV programs, fought over politics and torn off each other's clothes with abnormal speed. The weekends spent naked in bed, separating only to sleep, eat or shower. Making love before sunrise---and before sunset.
And the love. The pure, whole untarnished love of two people. Ben and Sienna. Sienna and Ben.
She tasted it all in Ben's mouth. Longed for it again. Yearned for it. Wanted what they'd lost in the rise of Ben's professional aspirations. She'd loved Ben for a long time. She still did. Heartbreak and heartache had driven them apart, but still she loved him. Probably always would.
Kissing him brought back every cherished memory she had of him, every iota of passion she'd tried so damn hard to repress.
Already primed from Josh's kiss, and still wet from the orgasm Ben had given her when she thought he was Josh, Sienna was as aroused as she'd ever been. More.
Two men wanted her. Two men lusted after her. Two men she wanted and lusted after.
A jerk pulsed through her when a pair of hands settled on her hips. While Ben's mouth devoured hers, the taste of chocolate rich and sweet on her tongue, Josh tugged gently, pulling her ass backwards by mere inches, until it rested against his pelvis, his erection pressing between her butt cheeks.
Just like Ben's had when she thought he was Josh.
She let him mold her to his shape, pressed back against him, wanting him there. Wanting him there as much as she wanted Ben in front of her.
God, she shouldn't. She should choose one. Or the other. Not both. Not nestle into Josh as she kissed Ben. Not draw Ben's tongue into her mouth as she rubbed against Josh's dick.
"Kiss him," Josh said in her ear. "Enjoy his mouth. But when you come, know who gave you this orgasm, because this time it won't be your fiancé."
O-orgasm? This time? What the---?
Before the thought could solidify, Ben tore his mouth from Sienna's. "Touch her---and die!"
Ben's warning held such malice, Sienna stepped back, straight into Josh. He clamped his arms around her waist, steadying her.
"A little late for intimidation, don't you think?" Josh asked, his voice as sharp as Ben's. "About three months too late?"
Ben's hand tightened into a fist that he'd raised before Sienna could blink.
Shit. He was going to throw a punch.
"Ben," she snapped. "Stop it. Now." Her head spun. He was willing to fight Josh for her? The same man who hadn't had time to eat breakfast with her in the mornings was now gearing up for a brawl?
Breathing hard, Ben glared at Josh. "Give me a reason not to hit him, Si. One reason. That's all."
"You'll hurt your hand?" Josh suggested sarcastically.
"Josh," Sienna chastised. She'd never seen Ben quite this agitated. In his current state, he could easily blacken Josh's eye, or break his nose, or worse. The last thing he needed was Josh egging him on. The last thing she needed was the two men coming to blows.
"One reason, Si." Ben shook, and Sienna knew it was from the effort he used to restrain himself.
"Fine. Do it, princess," Josh said, backing down. "Give him the reason---if you can find one."
Sienna didn't need Josh's permission, but it helped knowing she had it. And she did have a reason for Ben not to hit Josh. A good reason. He'd hate himself afterward, he really would. Despite this new, agitated side of him, he was still Ben.
She'd hate him too if he hit Josh, and she didn't want to hate him. She really didn't. When it came to Ben, she just wanted to...kiss him.
God help her, all she wanted right then was to kiss Ben.
Without thinking twice, Sienna stepped forward.
Josh loosened his embrace, letting her go.
"Here's your reason." She pressed her mouth to his, molding her lips against his, dipping her tongue in his mouth to help herself to a serving of chocolate.
Ben kissed her back almost immediately, but he didn't lower his fist. He still held his arm up like a warning to Josh.
And since Josh was at that very moment rubbing his hands suggestively over her hips, Sienna knew she had to act, fast.
Suppressing a sigh, she pulled her mouth away from his. "Ben C," she threatened, "if you stop kissing me, for any reason whatsoever, I swear to God, I will never talk to you again." She looked him dead in the eye. "Got it?"
It took him a long, tense moment to reply. But then he gave a sharp nod. "Got it."
She gave a sharp nod back. "Good." And this time when she pressed her mouth to his, she didn't pull away.
Neither did Ben. The hand that he'd used to threaten Josh now clasped her neck, pulling her closer, holding her face to his, keeping her there as his lips stole her breath and his tongue plundered her mouth.
Ben did not stop kissing her. Not when Josh's hands found her outer thighs, and not when, using deft strokes, Josh caressed her legs, pushing her dress up over her hips as he did so.
Goose bumps covered her entire body. His hands felt so damn incredible.
Then she remembered Josh's promise: When you come, know who gave you this orgasm.
Orgasm?
Dear God, he's gonna make me come.
While I kiss Ben.
The thought made her shiver.
The shiver made Ben try to pull away to snarl at Josh.
Damn it, she should have known Ben wouldn't yield to Josh's presence easily.
Too freaking bad. He'd held the strings to their relationship for the last year. Now they sat in her hand. She had control. She tugged his head back down to hers and kissed him.
Josh rolled her thong over her hips and pushed it down her legs.
He didn't.
God, yes, he did!
The warm breeze fluttering over her nude pussy proved it. She kicked off the thong, groaning into Ben's mouth, pressing her breasts into his chest, her nipples tight, aching beads that longed for a man's touch, a man's wet mouth ...
Ben kissed her harder, more passionately, and she groaned again as Josh launched his attack. He spread the cheeks of her ass and pressed his dick in close.
Damn his shorts. She didn't want all that material between them. She wanted his bare, pulsing shaft buried in her ass.
"Next time I make love to you," Josh whispered, "I'm taking you right...here." He thrust once, so his erection rubbed very lightly over her hole.
Sienna nearly fainted from lust.
Josh in her ass? Dear God. She wanted that.
Ben growled into her mouth and broke the kiss again.
"No," Sienna objected vehemently. "Kiss me. Don't stop kissing me. Ever."
Blessedly, Ben obliged.
She needed Ben's kisses like she needed air. Didn't he know that? Hadn't he always known that?
Josh drew his fingers over her pussy. Possessively. Knowingly. He ran his fingers from her clit downwards over her pussy lips, pausing only to dip inside for a second.
"I'm taking you here too," Josh promised as he scooped up the cream that spilled from her channel.
Ben swore viciously as Sienna groaned into his mouth.
"Shh," she soothed, kissing him, stroking her tongue over his until once again Ben took control of the kiss. Ah, she loved it when Ben took control.
And a good thing he did, because Josh used her cream to moisten the cleft between her ass cheeks, providing just the slightest lubrication so he could slide his finger against her anus. When he did it once, Sienna forgot she was kissing Ben. When he did it again, she attacked Ben's mouth with frenzied greed.
Holy heck, it felt good. Freakishly good. So good she could come just like this.
It was Ben who eased her into a less desperate kiss, a more arousing one.
Sienna doubted she'd ever been this turned on in her entire life. Even with her mouth plastered to Ben's, she could smell the scent of her own arousal.
She widened her stance, moaned Josh's name in Ben's mouth.
"Ben," her ex-fiancé growled. "My name, not his." And he kissed her again.
Josh swept his fingers across her pussy again and again as he caressed her ass with his erection.
Dear God, she wanted that cock inside her. Wanted Josh inside her.
And Ben too.
Then she moaned Ben's name as Ben's thumbs brushed over her nipples. He'd slipped them in under her sleeveless dress, and because she was braless---deliberately braless, as Josh had requested---there was nothing between her flesh and Ben's touch.
Holy fuck.
She was moaning both of their names. Ben's and Josh's. Kissing Ben while Josh fucked her with his fingers.
Okay, not fucked. Caressed. Aroused. Seduced. Delighted.
Just as Ben's thumbs delighted her nipples.
And meters away, in the exclusive Club Evoke, music began to flow, seeping through the walls and doors as a song she'd never heard before played. She knew the voice that sang, though. Recognized the tones instantly, muted though they were. Aussie rock star, Nick Blackthorne.
How was it possible she recognized the voice of a rock star with no problem whatsoever, yet had trouble identifying the voice of the man she'd lived with for eight years?
It didn't make sense.
Nothing made sense to her. Not anymore. How could it, when she stood between two men who fed her desire, her needs, her basic, primal lusts? Kissed and caressed her in public.
Not one man.
Two!
She couldn't think straight. Stopped trying. She simply felt. Josh's hands. Ben's kisses. Josh's erection. Ben's fingers.
"Remember who gave you this orgasm," Josh whispered, so softly it might have been the whistle of the breeze. When he penetrated her with two fingers, time stood still.
One second she was aroused and aware, the next she was nothing more than a euphoric body, swept away on an exquisite tide of rhapsody. A tide that sent wave upon wave of rapture through her. Over her. Consumed her.
And she let it. Let it carry her away. Far, far away from choices she didn't want to make.
If she was just a floating, rapturous being, then she needn't choose. She could have them both.
Ben and Josh.
Josh and Ben.
Couldn't she?
Josh adjusted his shorts as subtly as possible, hoping the other man wouldn't notice the dire situation in which he found himself. Horny as fucking hell and no way to get his release.
No such luck. The soft sneer told Josh that Ben knew exactly what he was going through.
Christ, what had he done? Stripped Sienna in public? Finger-fucked her? And all while she kissed her dickhead fiancé?
Josh hated to admit it, but it was the damn kiss that had prompted him to finger Sienna in the first place. The damn kiss she'd shared with her ex that had given him the erection from hell. Watching Sienna kiss Ben had been a huge, freaking turn-on.
It shouldn't have been. It should have made his cock shrivel up and die. It should have made him want her less. It hadn't.
He needed to come, needed relief. Or he needed to pick a fight with the dickhead fiancé so he had something to concentrate other than the frustration.
No, he couldn't do that. Not to Sienna. Sienna had stopped the fight Ben had tried to initiate. Pity. He'd have liked nothing more than to slam his fist into the dickhead's face.
Sienna still shook with the force of her climax. Ben held her in his arms, supporting her, keeping her upright.
Josh stood behind her, uselessly.
Why was he standing there? Why didn't he get the hell away from the couple? Leave them to sort out their differences and get on with their life together, like Ben wanted?
It would be the right thing to do. The gentlemanly thing to do.
Fuck that. Josh didn't want to be a gentleman. For five years he'd stayed on the sidelines, never feeling worthy of Sienna. Now that he finally did, he couldn't just give her up. He'd fought too hard to become the man he was today. Fighting was in his nature. And damn it, he was going to fight for the woman.
Something incredible had happened between him and Sienna today. Their years of wanting each other as kids had mysteriously translated into a recipe of instant compatibility as adults.
Compatibility? Hell. Never mind big fancy words. Josh was falling for her like a ton of bricks.
Josh couldn't back down. He owed himself this opportunity. And she was worth fighting for.
He just couldn't throw that first punch. He'd have to fight in other ways. More...genteel ways.
He bent down and patted the ground around Sienna's feet, locating her thong. Kneeling behind her, he coaxed first her one ankle up and then the other, helping her to slip her underwear back on. He tugged the panties up the endless length of her legs and over her hips.
He shouldn't do it---he knew he shouldn't---but he couldn't stop himself from swiping a finger over her naked pussy one more time, feeling her swollen, puffy lips.
She convulsed again, a kind of aftershock, and a fresh drop of her juice moistened his finger.
With a groan, Josh put the finger in his mouth and sucked it clean.
Fuck, she tasted incredible. Like blue gum honey and double thick cream.
If Ben hadn't been there, Josh would have placed his mouth on her pussy and eaten her out, right then and there.
But Ben was there, so Josh adjusted the thong until it fit correctly, then pushed the hemline of her dress down until Sienna was once again properly dressed.
He straightened his legs, still standing behind her, but he kept his distance. If he brushed his dick against her ass, even once, he'd lose control and come in his damned pants.
Ben sneered at him again, then spoke to Sienna, murmuring in her ear in golden tones.
Yeah, he might be whispering, but Josh was close enough to hear every word, and the asshole had to know it.
"I love you, Si," Ben said and closed his eyes.
Shit. Even Josh could identify the sincerity in his dulcet voice. Could hear the longing and the affection.
"I love you too, Ben C," Sienna told him, her voice hoarse and roughened from her orgasm. Or could it be from her confession? "You know I do."
The words stabbed straight into Josh's heart, blinding him with pain.
"I miss you. So much. Miss talking to you. Holding you when we sleep. Making love to you. With you." Ben cleared his throat. "What I wouldn't do to strip you, right now, feel your naked skin against mine, your juices wetting my finger." He groaned, a soft erotic sound that made Sienna shiver. "And my cock. I wanna be inside you, baby. So damn much, it hurts."
Sienna gave a sexy whimper.
Jesus, Josh should not find Ben's words arousing. He should not be imagining Ben inside Sienna. But he was, and the image made his shaft throb even harder.
What the hell? The dickhead had had eight years to put his cock in Sienna. Josh resented every day of every one of those eight years. Resented every time Ben had been inside her.
Resented? Hell, he fucking hated it. And yet here he was getting aroused at the thought. Fuckwit.
"I love watching you come, baby," Ben said. "Love when you get excited like you just did. I wanna make you come again. Wanna spend the rest of your life making you come."
Josh felt an overwhelming need to do exactly the same thing. Keep Sienna in his life always. Keep her happy. Keep her satisfied. Keep her coming, over and over again.
Him, not Ben.
No matter how goddamn much the idea of Ben fucking her turned him on, Josh wanted to be the only man making love to her.
Fuck this. He couldn't let Ben win. Couldn't let Sienna walk away when they'd barely had a chance to be together. He wasn't ready to lose her---they'd only just found each other again.
With no thought of hesitation, he stepped in close, slid his finger beneath Sienna's skirt and slipped it straight into her panties.
Her body welcomed the invasion with a jolt and a shudder. Not for a second did she tense or pull away. If anything, she relaxed almost instantly into his touch, twisting her hips once, enveloping his finger with her pussy.
As Ben continued to seduce her with his husky voice and romantic promises, Josh fingered Sienna until cream soaked her thong and her breath came in short gasps.
He fingered her while Ben urged her to return home. He fingered her while Ben spoke about wedding bells and fucking white picket fences. And he fingered her as Ben told her how much he fucking loved her.
He fingered her until Sienna was convulsing all over, coming on his hand, trapping his finger inside her, holding it there, refusing to surrender it to him. And when her pussy relaxed once again in post-orgasmic lethargy, he fingered her ass, gently. So damn gently, but it was all Sienna needed. Her climax was harder than before, and longer, and Josh wished to God it was his cock and not his finger inside her.
So focused was Josh on her orgasms, he failed to notice that Ben had quit talking. It was only when Sienna finally gasped for him to please stop that the silence permeated his concentration.
Josh glared at Ben. Ben glared at Josh.
Josh leaned forward, his gaze on Ben, his mouth at Sienna's ear. "You ready to walk away from me, princess?"
Her response was instantaneous. "God, no!" And then her knees must have given way because she simply crumpled.
Ben caught her, as he should have since he was holding her, and swung her up so her legs hung over one arm and her shoulders nestled into the other.
She sighed contentedly in his arms, and although jealousy struck deep in his gut, a smug satisfaction washed over Josh. He was the one who'd given her that contentedness.
"It seems we have a problem." Ben sounded...sad? Dismayed? Determined? "A big problem. But," he murmured, as if he didn't want to say what he was about to, "I may just have a solution."
Ben was a strategist at heart. Planning was his forte: setting goals and exploring different avenues to achieve those goals. Mapping out every possible course of action and every possible repercussion. It was what gave him the edge at work. Made him succeed time and time again.
Over the last three months, he'd had one primary goal: winning Sienna back. He'd done what he did in any complex situation. Examined the situation, assessed the shortcomings, outlined his goals and priorities, and then set his plan in motion.
Which was why after four weeks of heavy negotiation, Ben now stood at Sienna's feet, begging her to come home. But he'd made a fatal error. He'd failed to take all the variables of their break-up into account. Ben hadn't anticipated Sienna would meet another man this quickly.
Now he had no choice. He had to restrategize, and he had to do it on the spot, under pressure. And the worst part of all? Plan B had to include that other man.
Did he want to share Sienna with Josh? Fuck, no.
Did he want to lose her to him? Again, no.
But Sienna wasn't letting go of Josh anytime soon. She'd made that perfectly clear. The only solution? Compromise. Work with Josh rather than risk losing the woman he loved.
Damn it, he could barely breathe as he looked at her. As he considered sharing her. Love for Sienna welled in his chest, constricting his lungs and his heartbeat.
She'd lost weight, felt different in his arms. But she still smelled like the woman he loved. Like roses in summer. Like a breath of fresh air. With her he felt like a whole man and not the hollow ghost he'd become after she left.
What kind of an idiot had he been letting her get away? How could he have been so involved with work that he'd failed to notice just how discontented Sienna had become?
He'd taken her for granted. Assumed she'd be there through thick and thin. Assumed, that like him, she was in it for life.
He'd failed to see that the life he'd promised her was not the life they were leading. He'd failed to see that while he flourished and grew in his job, she shriveled and faded in their home.
She'd tried to make it work. Begged him to spend time with her. Begged him to reduce his hours. Begged him for a holiday. A weekend. An evening. An hour.
He hadn't given it to her. Any of it. Selfishly assuming she was as content as he.
Her graphic design business was thriving, therefore she should be thriving. Only she wasn't. She was withering. Dying inside. And so was their relationship.
Coming home to Sienna at the end of every day was coming home to a little piece of heaven. Coming home to an empty flat was a vicious, cold shock that chilled Ben to the bone. Flayed him. Beat him senseless. Or maybe, finally beat some sense into him.
Life without Sienna was not a life worth living. She was his life, his everything. He needed her back. Needed her like he needed air.
The woman he loved had come to life tonight. Electrified the very air he breathed. Only she'd come to life at another man's touch---or imagined touch---and the comprehension nearly brought him to his knees.
Sienna, coming for someone else. Sienna, orgasming with someone else. Sienna, moaning another man's name.
Fuck, it hurt. Burned so bad, Ben knew there'd be scars.
But it didn't change the fact that for the first time in almost a year, Sienna was the same wildfire she'd been before Ben had destroyed her happiness. And if Josh Whatever-his-name-was was responsible, so be it. Ben wasn't above using him to get what he wanted: Sienna.
He'd had to do a quick recon and alteration of his strategy, but so be it.
Quietly and calmly, Ben outlined his plan.
Not so quietly or calmly, Sienna jumped out of his arms. She stood on her own two feet, her jaw hanging open in disbelief. "All three of us?" she squeaked.
Although every muscle in his body yelled at him not to, Ben nodded, answering Sienna's question. "All three of us."
"At the same time?" Another squeak.
"That depends. Are you going to let him---" use his name, show respect, "---Josh walk away just because I've come to the island?" Ben fervently prayed the answer would be yes but knew better.
Sienna studied Ben for a long moment before shaking her head. "No."
"Then, yes," Ben said serenely, although that was about the last thing he felt. Jealous, aroused, angry, frustrated, desperate... "At the same time."
She must have reached out behind her to touch Josh, because the other man, who currently stood leaning against the bench, his butt resting on the side and his arms crossed over his chest, reached one hand out to her. "I'm right behind you, princess."
Sienna's shoulders seemed to lose their tension.
Christ, Josh spoke with such confidence, such composure, if Ben were Sienna he'd also feel reassured.
But he wasn't Sienna. He was Sienna's fiancé---damn it all, ex-fiancé---and he was facing her current lover. Ben didn't know Josh, but he hated the guy. Hated him with a fierce repugnance that made bile rise in his throat. If he could hit him, he would. Without a second thought. Pound the crap out of him. But Sienna would despise him for it, and Sienna already despised him enough.
Her relaxation at Josh's reassurance was exactly what Ben had considered when he'd made his absurd suggestion. The obvious attraction and comfort that flared between the woman he loved and a man he despised.
He shouldn't be aroused, but thinking about Sienna between himself and Josh, both of them fucking her, had his skin tingling.
It wasn't just about the threesome. It was about Sienna. About getting inside her again. Becoming a part of her again. Making her a part of him again.
It was about making love to her so he could make her love him again.
Damn it, he needed her love. Depended on it. He wasn't the same without Sienna.
"Y-you'd be willing to share me?" Sienna's voice quavered with emotion.
What was he hearing? Disbelief? Hurt? Shock? Excitement?
Yep, that about summed it up.
Ben braced his shoulders. "Forever? No." No fucking way. "For a night? Yes." For a night he could deal. He could enjoy---maybe. Most importantly he could convince Sienna Josh wasn't right for her.
Ben was.
"I..." Her voice trailed off. She raised her free hand in the air, dropped it and shrugged helplessly.
"I know this is hard for you, Si," Ben soothed. "I know you didn't expect me to appear on the island." He'd shocked the hell out of her, no doubt about it. "And I know you're---" Shit, he couldn't say it without almost choking. "I know you're trying to move on. But please. Give us a chance. Give me a chance. Don't throw away eight years without at least trying one more time."
She gaped at him. "And my sleeping with you and Josh, at the same time, will be giving us a chance how, exactly?"
Fair enough question. "You like him. I can see that." It made Ben want to kill the other man. Want to wrap his fingers around Josh's neck and squeeze. Hard. "Asking you to give him up would probably make you hate me."
He took a deep breath, tried his damndest to prevent Sienna from seeing how much his suggestion actually worried him. How threatened Josh made him feel. "I won't ask that of you, Si. So this is an alternative. A good one. Take us both. Have us both. At the same time. Compare. See which of us makes you happier. Decide which of us you want more. This way, you hold the power. It'll be in your hands, completely. He...Josh and I will be at your mercy. We'll do whatever you want." He lowered his tone, keeping his voice husky, the way he knew always turned Sienna on. "We'll fuck you however you want us to. We'll make you come however many times you need to come." Sienna came a lot. For her, foreplay and sex were never about chasing that one big climax. It was all about a series of small explosions. One quick orgasm followed by another and another and another. "We will cater to your every whim and fantasy, be whatever you want us to be, so you can make a decision."
"That's quite an offer you're making on my behalf," Josh said softly, dangerously.
Ben shifted his gaze from Sienna to Josh. The man looked...lethal.
Ben raised a brow. Legally, he couldn't strangle the guy, but he could fight him on a different level. "You don't want to cater to her every whim and fantasy?" he asked pleasantly.
"Are those Sienna's whims and fantasies you're talking about, or your own?" Josh asked, just as suavely.
"My fantasies of Sienna have never included a third wheel." Ben gave him an agreeable smile. "My feelings for her, however, insist I consider it for the first time."
"Your...feelings?" Josh prompted.
"I love her, she loves me." No denying that. Josh would have heard her say it out loud just moments ago. "I won't leave here without knowing I've done everything in my power to get her back." He twisted his lips in a frown, couldn't help himself. "But you're not backing off either, and Sienna doesn't want you to go anywhere." Fuck, fuck, fuck. "Which leaves one, two, three of us," Ben counted off on his fingers. "A threesome."
"That's assuming I want to have a threesome with you," Josh said, just as dangerously as before.
Screw the gentleman act. "Mate, you had your dick buried against my fiancée's naked ass, while she kissed me. You and I both know that had Sienna given you the okay, you would have buried it inside her ass without a second thought. So don't feed me your crap about me and threesomes."
Sienna moaned softly between them.
Ben diverted his attention back to her, ran his hand over her cheek. Her skin burned, heat seeped into his palm.
Aroused. Sienna was aroused.
"You like that idea, don't you, baby? The thought of Josh buried in your ass?"
She didn't answer, but her breath quickened.
Hell, yeah, she liked the idea. "Now imagine Josh buried in your ass---and me sliding into your pussy."
She whimpered.
Blood flowed straight to his cock, so fast it made him dizzy. If Sienna wasn't the most responsive lover imaginable, the most open-minded... There wasn't a single suggestion he'd made she'd rejected. No, she'd taken every one of them and run with it.
Toys? Hell, yeah.
Blowjobs in change rooms? More than a few times.
A quickie in the garden at a dinner party? Okay, only twice.
Dress-up? Sienna liked the schoolteacher outfit the most.
She'd even been willing to try a little BDSM but had laughed too much for that to be successful. They'd enjoyed the props they'd purchased for the attempt though. The restraints and the whips and the feathers. Enjoyed them thoroughly. And regularly.
The suggestion of a threesome? Not something he'd have ever made to her before. But times had changed. Circumstances were different.
Sienna wasn't. She was willing to run with it, just like she'd been willing to run with the other suggestions. Willing and excited.
"Imagine Josh in your ass while I lick your pussy," he told her softly. "Or me in your ass while he licks your pussy." Jesus, he wanted to be in her ass. And in her pussy. Wanted to lick her clit. Taste her cream. He didn't care who else was there, so long as Sienna was aroused. So long as Sienna wanted him there.
Okay, so he did care who else was there, and under other circumstances he wouldn't allow another man near her. But tonight...just tonight, he'd do whatever it took to get back into bed with Sienna.
"Do you want that, princess?" Josh had stolen closer without Ben realizing it. "You want me to make love to you at the same time as Ben does?"
Sienna began to shake. Full-on tremors racked her body. Sienna only shook like this when she was fully turned on and trying to repress it.
"D-do you?" she asked Josh, her voice a breathless rasp.
"I want you, princess. You know that. So if this is what you want, then..." He hesitated, squared his shoulders. "Then I'm willing to try it." He stepped even closer. "But it has to be your call."
Sienna didn't answer, but she shuddered violently beneath Ben's hand.
Seconds ticked past. Sienna shuddered again.
"Is it what you want, baby?" Ben asked.
In answer, she reached for his hand, which still rested on her cheek, and pulled it downward. Without saying a word, she lowered his hand to her thigh, then pushed it up under her skirt.
Ben needed no further urging. He shoved her thong aside and slid his finger over her clit.
Sienna whimpered out loud, her body a quivering mess.
He slid the same digit deep inside her, or tried to anyway. What he didn't expect, was to find another finger already in there.
Josh!
Ben looked at Josh. Josh looked at Ben.
Fuck, he hated the man. Hated him.
Josh pulled out of Sienna. So did Ben.
The hatred did not stop the heat that filled Ben's balls. Did not slow the flow of blood to his cock.
Josh pushed back inside. Ben did the same, matching his pace to Josh's. He didn't mean to match his pace, but for Sienna's sake it was a good thing.
Josh must have realized it as well, because before he slid his finger out again, he nodded once at Ben, prompting him.
They moved together.
Sienna yelped, the sound yanking on Ben's dick, making it even harder---if that were possible.
Together, he and Josh dipped back inside Sienna, then withdrew. Once, twice, more.
"You doing okay, baby?" Ben asked.
He needn't have bothered. Sienna's pussy was soaked through. Her skin was covered in goose bumps and her breath was coming a million miles an hour. Just like it always did when she was on the verge of orgasming.
"Is this what you want, princess?"
"Yes. God, yes!" And with that, Sienna came, emitting a soft wail as she convulsed. The walls of her pussy clamped around the two fingers inside her, trapping them there, together.
The party would have to wait. Meeting Kylie's lovers would have to take place tomorrow. Mack and Aidan she could see anytime. As the last flutters of pleasure washed through her, Sienna turned around and walked away. Back to her room.
Back to the balcony where she'd sucked Josh until he'd exploded in her mouth. The same balcony where he'd knelt before her and licked her into dizzying ecstasy. Three times over. Back to the sheets that smelled of sex. Back to the room where she had slowly begun to fall for Josh...again.
Only this time she wasn't going back to the room with just Josh. Ben came as well. Did she want that? Did she want Ben back in her life? God, she didn't know.
Her heart raced, her pulse drumming in her ears.
Ben. Ben was here. Wonderful, adoring Ben.
The Ben she'd loved so dearly for so long. Not the aloof businessman she'd lived with for a year. Ben. Her Ben.
She wanted him physically. Wanted him in her pussy and in her ass, right alongside Josh, just as he'd suggested. No question about it. There'd never been any question about her desire for Ben. She's always wanted him. But back forever? It was too soon to tell.
If only his presence didn't suffuse her like an aphrodisiac. His scent, his voice, his body, they all combined to reduce her to a quivering mass of need. Of want. Of yearning and lust.
She desired Ben as much as she hungered for Josh. Or maybe she desired Josh as much as she hungered for Ben. More like she wanted them both, equally---and at the same time.
Sienna pushed open the door to her bungalow and tugged the dress over her head, tossing it to the floor. Her sodden, useless thong followed seconds later.
Both men stood behind her, watching. She could feel the heat of their gazes on her back, making her spine tingle. They'd followed her wordlessly across the resort, their footsteps a soft whisper on the lush island grass.
Naked and aroused she headed straight for the bed. She would have drawn back the covers and thrown them aside if strong arms hadn't grabbed her from behind and hauled her around, straight into a bone-melting kiss. Magic sparked through the room.
Josh. Definitely.
How she'd been unable to tell the difference earlier defied her. His scent was so different from Ben's. Ben smelled of expensive, spicy cologne. Josh carried the scent of the island---eucalyptus and fresh air.
She buried her fingers in his silken locks---his long, silken locks, so unlike Ben's short-cropped hair---and tugged him closer. He clasped her butt cheeks and pulled her flush against him so her clit rubbed against the front of his pants, right over his rock-hard erection, making her giddy with need.
The light growth of his beard tickled her lips. So different from the eternally clean-shaven Ben in every way. Yet both men made her burn. Made her pulse race and her flesh hum. Both had the power to take her breath away and make her heart sing.
Or weep.
Josh kneaded her flesh, rolling his fingers over her buttocks, massaging, caressing, pushing her clit harder against his dick. She let him, moved willingly with him, lifted one leg so she could change the angle, get his erection to rub just so.
Josh. Childhood crush, adult fantasy. A real-life hero. Her savior. She couldn't get enough of him.
Seconds before an orgasm overwhelmed her, Ben plucked her from his arms and pulled her into his own, kissing her as feverishly as Josh had.
His shirt was gone, the formal button-up lying in a heap somewhere on the floor. His bare chest rubbed against her breasts, the dark mat of hair there scraping against the tender flesh of her nipples, driving her insane.
God, Ben. He felt so damn good. So damn real. He was there. With her. The man she'd loved her entire adult life. Her best friend. Her lover. Her fiancé.
Her throat clogged with emotion. She'd missed him. Every minute of every day. His absence had left a gaping hole in her life. A bottomless pit of loneliness, and now he was there. With her. Again.
She ran her hands over the thick muscles in his arms, up over his shoulders. So broad. So secure. She'd always felt safe, protected when leaning against those massive shoulders.
She still did, although not quite so safe as she once had. The trust and the security had been ripped away. Finding it again, in its wholeness, would take a while.
What wouldn't take a while was her utter sexual surrender to him. She could never refuse Ben. Never wanted to. Physically, she couldn't wait to give herself to him. Emotionally...they'd have to see.
He'd undone his belt and pants so they gaped open. The thickened ridge of his penis rode against her pussy, just like Josh's had. Only the soft cotton of his boxers was more giving then Josh's shorts. More flexible, and within seconds the climax that had begun in Josh's arms peaked in Ben's.
Quick and breathtaking, it flew through her, leaving her panting and boneless.
Ben carried her to the bed, laid her down on her back and lay beside her. Not once did he release her mouth. He kissed her as though he never wanted to let her go. Kissed with a soul-searing intensity. A chocolate-flavored delight that would have usurped her entire heart, her entire being, if Josh hadn't chosen that moment to remind her of what they'd shared just hours before.
"Enjoy his kiss, princess." Josh knelt between her legs. He was naked. Beautifully naked. He must have stripped when Ben had her full attention. "But don't mistake his mouth for the one that's about to show you fireworks." And with nothing more than that warning, he hooked the backs of her knees over his shoulders, leaned forward and buried his nose between her thighs.
A sigh of untold pleasure burst from her lips.
As Ben kissed her, Josh made love to her pussy, licking, nibbling, adoring---just like Ben did with her mouth.
Bliss, sweet and hot, spread like fire through her cells. The nerves in her pussy danced, delighting in Josh's attention to detail. They spun in dizzying circles, reaching higher, harder, faster for that pinnacle of ecstasy.
When Josh flattened his tongue against her clit and laved her, firmly, seductively, those nerves found their target, triggering an exquisite orgasm.
She groaned into Ben's mouth as waves of rapture undulated through her. He kissed her through each delicious convulsion, and she kissed him back, his chocolaty flavor the perfect accompaniment to the sin of Josh's mouth.
"My turn to taste you, baby," Ben whispered when he finally pulled away, and Josh reluctantly ceded to him.
Ben buried his head between her legs and welcomed her home. Whether it was Josh's incredible foreplay, the heat of Ben's attack, the expertise of both men's tongues, or the sheer familiarity of Ben's kiss, Sienna could not be sure. But the second his mouth touched her pussy, she came.
Screaming.
Josh captured her lips with his, inhaling her screams. As his mouth caught hers, the magic sparked between them. He kissed her and kissed her and kissed her, and he would have carried on kissing her had Ben not finally lifted his head and spoken.
"Si," Ben said, and Sienna broke the kiss to look at him. His lips were wet---from her juices---and his eyes dark as night, desire turning them almost black. "Tell us what you want. You're in control, baby. Lead us."
Josh nodded, murmuring in her ear. "I'll follow wherever you take us."
The only trouble with their request was that it meant Sienna had to talk, and since she was a raging mass of hormones, a multi-pleasured sack of bones, speech was not all that easy.
"F-first, kiss me," she told Ben. Knowing she'd need to say only the bare minimum to tell him her needs, she added, "Then flip me over."
Ben was all over her, his lips on hers, his tongue in her mouth. He tasted different now, less like chocolate, more like her. More like Josh had tasted. He tasted sinful. Made her heart fill and her pussy throb.
"J-Josh too..." she pleaded.
Ben nodded once and let Josh take her mouth.
"Generous," Josh murmured with an appreciative nod, before consuming her thoughts with his kiss.
And when Sienna was once again a quivering, mindless mass, Ben took control. "Roll over, baby."
He placed his hands on her hips, helping her flip over. Sienna moved willingly, quickly. Well, as quickly as she could in her mindless state. Josh still lay on the bed, and she knelt on all fours between his legs, crouching down low with her ass in the air and her elbows on either side of Josh's hips.
Her head was centimeters from Josh's erection, and she couldn't help but notice the way he fisted his hands in the doona, his knuckles whitening every time she exhaled.
She'd opened herself up completely for Ben, just the way he liked. Just the way she liked.
Ben skirted around the bed. At some point he'd lost the rest of his clothes, and Sienna's breath caught as she saw him in all his naked glory. Saw every line of his ripped body, every inch of flesh she'd loved so thoroughly.
And then he was out of sight, standing behind her. He swallowed, audibly. "Ah, fuck, Si!" He sounded mindless. "I missed this. Missed you. So goddamned much." He fell silent as once again he buried his face between her legs, this time licking her pussy from behind.
God help her, Sienna loved it when Ben went down on her this way. Loved what he did with his tongue. And his lips. And his fingers.
Oh, God. Those fingers!
When her mind cleared from yet another bone-melting orgasm, and her vision returned to normal, the sight she beheld made her mouth water. The tip of Josh's dick had beaded with precome and the vein on his shaft pulsed wildly. She really didn't have a choice in the matter. She was going to have to lick him.
He tasted good. Bitter and salty and so damn sexy. An addictive taste. Nothing like the chocolaty sweetness of Ben. This was far more elemental, far more dangerous.
She tasted some more. And then a little more. Only it wasn't just the tip of his cock she tasted now, it was the shaft too. The long, hard shaft. As much of the long hard shaft as she could get into her mouth.
Josh groaned. A low, animalistic sound.
And Ben licked her ass.
Holy fuck. He licked her ass.
Swept his tongue right over her anus. He did it again, clasping her butt cheeks and pulling them apart so he could get better access. Then he licked her pussy, but he didn't stop there. He continued up, licking his way back to her ass, where he paused to ream her hole, tickle it, delight it, before heading back to her clit.
Torture, sweet, torture.
Everyone should know such torture. She swirled her own tongue around Josh's shaft, licked him from root to tip and swallowed him whole. With his cock as deep in her mouth as she could take him, and Ben's tongue in her ass, no, her pussy, no...her ass, Sienna came again.
She rode Ben's tongue, thrusting her hips against his head as waves of sheer bliss ebbed through her. Seconds passed, maybe even minutes, before the orgasm floated away, before Ben pulled away, and Sienna returned her attention to Josh. She pushed her hair out of her face and looked up at him as she sucked his scrumptious cock.
He looked back at her, his emerald green gaze glazed. Desire seeped from his eyes. As did something else. Something...sad. Something that grabbed her heart and squeezed tight, leaving behind an answering melancholy.
Even as her body reverberated with the surplus pleasure of Ben's expertise, her heart shuddered, telling her something wasn't one hundred percent right. Josh, as aroused as he might be, was not altogether okay with what the three of them did.
It was up to her to make it okay, to make it as good for him as it was for her. Up to her to remind Josh that the island air had cast its spell around them. That the magic hadn't dimmed one iota since Ben had joined them. She sucked a little harder, swirled her tongue around and around.
"Damn, princess, your lips..." His words were lost as he threw his head back and surged into her mouth.
She relaxed her suction, let Josh take control. He thrust gently. So gently, but she had no doubt he was setting the pace. And she freaking loved it. She'd spend the whole night with her lips wrapped around his cock if she didn't know there were better things waiting for her. For them.
She was on her knees. Ben was in the room with them. There were definitely better things on the horizon.
As the thought crossed her mind, the bed dipped behind her.
Ben was back. He settled between her thighs like he had a million times before this. Only Josh had never been in her mouth any of those million times. His presence intensified her arousal exponentially. No matter how many times she and Ben had made love, she'd never, ever felt this alive. This sexy. This...adored.
The decadence of it, the illicitness, combined to send a thrill careening through Sienna's belly.
Something brushed against her pussy.
Not just something. Ben's cock.
Lord, it felt familiar, pressing against her lips, prodding her entrance.
He felt familiar, perched between her legs, his hands holding her hips.
Josh didn't. Not yet. But who needed familiar when the man's very touch kindled desires Sienna never knew she had?
Again she glanced up at Josh. Caught the look in his eyes at the exact moment Ben entered her. Saw the pain and the anger flash across his face. Saw the lusty gaze turn even hazier.
Josh's cock grew in her mouth. Minisculely, but enough for her to confirm that was desire she'd seen flare in his eyes. Desire and...jealousy?
Shit, she didn't want him to be jealous. He didn't need to be. She'd fallen for Josh all over again. Hard and fast. She should tell him that, should let him know. But...she couldn't concentrate. Not when Ben slid inside her, seating himself to the hilt in her pussy. Moaning her name.
Ben.
Ben was back. Where he was supposed to be. Where he should always have been. Where he belonged.
Inside her.
The sense of familiarity was so overwhelming, tears filled her eyes, and one slipped out before she could stop it. She tightened her mouth around Josh, tried to give to him as much intense pleasure as Ben gave her, but she knew it was a losing battle when the walls of her pussy began to convulse and bliss blinded her momentarily.
How many times had she come already? How could she possibly come again? Her body should be worn out. Overwhelmed. Pleasured beyond human capacity.
Apparently it wasn't, as Sienna witnessed not half a minute later.
Something cold, wet and slippery touched her bottom, and with Josh still in her mouth and Ben still in her pussy, a finger slipped past the tight muscles of her anus and into her ass.
She shuddered in ecstasy.
"Jesus, Si, I have to have you here. Have to take you." Ben pulled his finger from her ass and his dick from her pussy. When he pressed back close, it was his cock at her ass.
Had she not been near mindless and muscle-less from the seven thousand preceding orgasms, Ben's thrust might have hurt. It didn't. Mild discomfort was all she felt before he seated himself fully inside her ass. They'd made love like this too many times before for his actions to be painful.
This time however, Sienna knew it would not have been half as good if Josh's cock were not in her mouth. If he wasn't leaking copious amounts of delicious precome. She would not have been aroused even a quarter as much.
The taste of him, the feel of him, the knowledge that he hadn't walked away when Ben popped up so unexpectedly, warmed her heart. Filled her belly with a gazillion butterflies. And suddenly she didn't want just Ben inside her. She wanted Josh there too. Needed him there.
Kissing his shaft ever so wickedly, she looked up at him again. "Josh," she rasped, her throat almost incapable of forming the words.
"Princess," he rasped right back.
"Make love to me. Please." She'd meant to tease him with her words, tempt him, but the longing in her voice echoed through her ears.
He bit his lip. "You sure you want this? You want us both?"
"One hundred percent sure." She might well die if he didn't make love to her right now.
Josh nodded. Slowly. Like Ben thrust. Slowly.
"Condoms are next to the bed," Ben said.
Josh nodded again. He knew. He'd left them there earlier. Sienna watched him reach over for a packet, tear it open and roll the condom over his shaft. She had a bird's-eye view. Josh pumped his hand up and down said shaft in time to Ben's thrusts inside her.
The sight was so incredibly arousing, a gush of cream pooled in her pussy.
Dear God, how could she be more aroused than she already was? How could she want more than Ben was giving her?
How could she want them both?
She didn't have any answers. She just knew she did.
"Fuck me, Josh," she pleaded, not wanting to wait one more second to get his cock inside her.
She should be nervous. Should be worried. He was bigger than Ben. Significantly bigger. And Ben was already inside her. Filling her ass. How could she take Josh in as well?
The question was, how could she not? Her pussy felt empty. Achy. Hollow. Something was missing.
Josh was missing. She pulled at his legs, insisting he shuffle down the bed, inserting himself beneath her. It took a couple seconds of awkward maneuvering, all three of them seeking a more comfortable position, but finally he was there. Under her. His mouth level with hers, his dick below her pussy. And Ben was behind her, inside her.
Josh hadn't let go of his shaft, she realized. His hand was still wrapped around it, and he used that hand to tap the tip of his cock on her clit.
Holy fuck. That felt unbelievable.
"Kiss me," she demanded, and dropped her mouth to his before he could object.
He didn't try. He simply met her mouth with his, let his tongue seek entry between her lips, and kissed her so sweetly, another tear slipped from her eye.
The island air spun its magic web around them.
Ben ran his hand over her back, a feathery tingle down her spine. He thrust into her, over and over, his balls bouncing against her pussy. God, her entire pussy pulsed. Her ass too. A million nerve endings had awoken from deep slumber, just for this moment.
Josh used his hand to glide his cock over her clit, stroking it over and over. It swelled beneath his touch, beneath his cock. Tingled. Shuddered. Exploded.
The cream in her pussy gushed out, soaking Josh's shaft. Her ass clamped around Ben's dick, and Ben swore loudly as he groaned in pleasure.
While her pussy still pulsed, Josh guided himself to her entrance and pushed inside. He stopped halfway in, panting. His eyes were closed, his mouth clenched in concentration.
"Oh, God. Oh, God," Sienna mumbled, mindless. So much pleasure. So much bliss. It was like a frenzy of orgasms for her.
Full. So full.
Josh thrust into her, his hips coming off the bed.
Ben gasped.
Full, so very, very full. She couldn't move. Didn't try.
"Holy fuck! Josh. Do that again." It wasn't Sienna who moaned the plea. It was Ben.
"Anything for her," Josh groaned. "Anything." He drove into her, seating himself fully inside her.
"Fuck, yeah," Ben rasped hoarsely. He leaned over and kissed her neck.
Sienna felt his action deep, deep, deep inside. So did Josh. He moaned the second Ben moved.
Both of them were seated fully inside her.
Full, so full. So good. Oh, God, so good!
"Your go," Josh told Ben, just a second before he took Sienna's mouth, jut a second before Ben withdrew from her ass. As he began to pump back inside her, Josh withdrew, filling her again only when Ben pulled out.
God, they were fucking her in rhythm, filling her one at a time. In her entire life, Sienna had never been more aroused, more alive. She had never experienced such bone-deep pleasure. Had the world ended right then, Sienna would die a contented, happy woman.
But the world didn't end. It continued to electrify and stimulate, continued to provide rapture beyond her wildest dreams.
Josh's lips on hers, his tongue in her mouth. Ben's hands on her hips, his lips leaving soft kisses down her spine.
Whether they made love to her for a minute or an hour Sienna couldn't tell. Time lost meaning. Her world became a multihued mass of color, reds and greens, violets and pinks, purples and blues, all exploding behind her eyelids.
It was Ben's shout of surrender that made her eyes open.
"Coming," he yelled. "God, help me, I'm coming." He jerked behind her, buried himself in her ass and stilled for a second before his dick began to pump inside her. Over and over, emptying itself. "Hard. Coming so fucking hard," Ben gasped.
Josh continued to fuck her, his thrusts faster than before, deeper.
"Josh, fu-u-uck---" Ben groaned, digging his fingers into her sides. "Si! Feels...so...good." He put his mouth to her throat and sucked intently.
Blood roared in her ears. Josh's movements inside her felt as good to Ben as they did to Sienna? Lord, the knowledge melted her insides, made her go all gooey.
"Princess," Josh moaned, pounding into her. He'd stopped kissing her, lost his coordination the second Ben started to come. "Princess," he moaned again, and then he too was coming, his back arching up off the bed, his cock thrust deep inside her pussy, his hips jerking against hers.
She felt the vibrations of Josh's orgasm ricochet through her inner walls. Felt the last jolts of Ben's release echo in her ass.
Felt her own climax begin, like a million bubbles bursting inside before the explosion. Before a wave of blinding pleasure broke over her, consuming her, pulsing from her pussy outward, enveloping her entire body.
She'd come before, countless times. This was an orgasm like no other, an orgasm strong enough to wipe her out completely. This was the ultimate bliss.
Josh stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist. His head spun.
What the fuck had just gone down? What had he done?
A sense of self-loathing whirled through his stomach, gaining momentum.
He'd fucked Sienna. While another man did too. It hadn't been about making love. It had been about showing his dominance. About proving he wouldn't walk away, wouldn't give her up. And it left him feeling like a piece of shit.
Yeah, the sex had been unbelievable. Orgasmic-type unbelievable. He doubted he'd ever come harder in his life. And yes, knowing another man was inside Sienna at the same time was a turn-on unlike anything he'd ever imagined before. Her pussy had squeezed him like a velvet glove. Squeezed more come out of his balls then he'd ever have believed possible.
Could he have stopped what he'd been doing and walked away? Hell, no.
Did he enjoy what they'd done? Hell, yeah. Physically anyway.
Psychologically? Not so much. Every shred of common sense had told him not to walk this route. Not to compete for Sienna's attentions. But the boy he'd been, the parentless boy who'd desperately craved love and attention, had refused to listen.
His mother had walked away. He couldn't let Sienna do the same. Not when he'd just found her again. He'd stayed, believing he was fighting for her. But fucking a woman at the same time as she fucked her fiancé was not a fight. It was a debauched, twisted sense of logic. A fucked-up kind of a way of proving he was better than Ben.
He wasn't. A better man would have left. A better man would have let Sienna get back to the life she was born to lead. Not stayed on in case her fiancé proved Josh was the one she wanted.
The self-loathing intensified, made him sick to his stomach.
Yes, he'd fallen hard for Sienna. But he'd called it from the first. He was the rebound guy. Sienna wasn't over Ben. She wasn't ready to move on, and her willingness to jump straight back into bed with her ex proved that.
He should have listened to his gut instinct and left her this afternoon after they'd gone sailing. He shouldn't have gone back to her room, and he shouldn't have made love to her. Not then, and not now.
Sienna was too good for him. She'd always been too good for him, and his willingness to share her just proved that.
He slipped silently out of the bathroom, assuming Sienna and Ben had fallen asleep.
He'd assumed wrong.
Sienna lay in Ben's arms, blissfully unaware of Josh's presence, laughing softly at something Ben had said. Ben smiled at her, a smile that lit up the fucking room.
It killed Josh to admit it, but they looked good. They looked...happy. They fit together, like a couple should. Comfortable in each other's arms. Familiar with each other. In love.
They looked so fucking in love, it tore through Josh's chest, ripping at his heart, slamming it against his ribs, bruising it---forever. The pain hit hard, and the air whooshed from his lungs.
Ben looked up. "You're out of the shower?" he asked, oblivious to Josh's torment. "Cool. I'll use the bathroom." He gave Sienna a long, hot kiss before shifting out of bed and strolling across the room naked.
The second the bathroom door closed, Josh striped off the towel and pulled on his undies and shorts.
Sienna sat up, the sheet covering her from her waist down. Her luscious breasts bounced as she made herself comfortable, and it was all Josh could do to stop himself from jumping right back into bed with her.
He raised his gaze higher, noticing a dark splotch on the side of Sienna's neck.
Ben had left his mark.
It made Josh want to hit him again, but he stayed his impulses, pulling his shirt on instead.
"You're getting dressed?" Sienna asked, confused.
Josh nodded.
"But...why?"
Christ, her lips were all pouty, begging for a kiss. "I'm going back to my room."
She narrowed her eyes, as if she couldn't understand him. "Why?"
Josh slipped on his Havaianas and sat beside her on the edge of the bed with a heavy sigh. He took her hand, brought it to his mouth and kissed it. "When I was a kid, I had a ridiculous crush on you. You weren't just my nightly wet dream, princess. I loved you my entire way through high school." He breathed, an ache in his chest making the very action almost impossible. "Seeing you again today was a fantasy come to life. A chance to realize every childhood dream I ever had."
"It was my fantasy come true as well," Sienna whispered.
"Thing is..." Josh hesitated, unsure how to verbalize his thoughts. "In all my fantasies, I never once imagined being with you and another guy. In my dreams, it was only you and me."
"I know." Sienna blushed, the crimson in her cheeks only making her look lovelier than ever. "I never imagined myself with two men either."
Josh took a deep breath. "I fell in love with you all over again this afternoon."
Her mouth dropped open, forming an O. The rounded lips begged him to seal his confession with a kiss.
Instead he continued speaking. "Fell in love the way a man loves a woman, not the way a kid lusts after a girl."
"Josh," she breathed, but he cut her off.
"I can't do this, Si. I can't share you. I can't pretend I'm okay making love to you while you make love to your fiancé." Razor blades seemed to tear at his throat. "I'm not, and I never will be."
Again Sienna tried to speak, but he placed a finger over her mouth, shushing her. "He loves you, princess. I can see that. You can see that. He wants you back. And the thing is..." Deep breath. You can do this. "The thing is, I think you should go back to him." There. He'd said it. And he was still alive. His heart may be shredded, but he'd survived. "You love him too. You have for eight years. He's your fiancé. Your future. Go back to him. Go back to your life."
Sienna stared at him with enormous eyes. Disbelieving eyes. Eyes that filled with tears as he watched.
Okay, yes, he was alive. But maybe that wasn't a good thing. Searing heat filled his lungs. Shooting pains blinded him, and every muscle cried out in defiance as he held himself rigid, refusing himself the pleasure of touching her.
"Y-you're walking away?" she asked, her voice nothing but a peep.
Josh shrugged, and considering the way his muscles fought every move he made, that wasn't easy. "You and Ben belong together."
"Do we?" Sienna asked.
Josh nodded. "You know you do. Ben knows it too."
Fuck, he didn't want to believe that. Didn't want to lose her now. But Sienna had spent her adult life loving Ben. She wasn't going to throw that all away, especially not now, when Ben had come to his senses.
Unlike Josh's mother, when Sienna made a commitment, she stuck to it. Or half killed herself trying to stick to it, anyway. She'd been with Ben for eight years. Spent one of those years desperately trying to save a relationship in crisis.
Besides, Ben was a decent guy. Josh could see that. Knew it instinctively. He may hate him, but that was merely a guy thing. No way could Josh ever like a man Sienna loved. It just wasn't possible. His competitive nature made sure of it.
But like him or not, Ben would make Sienna happy. And Sienna deserved to be happy.
Tears spilled over her cheeks. "If you love me, you wouldn't leave."
He shook his head. "I'm leaving because I love you. You've had a few hours to get to know me, princess. You've had a lifetime with Ben. He's the right man for you."
And then, because he couldn't help it, he leaned in and pressed one last kiss to her lips. One last, bittersweet kiss. And this time, the saltiness he tasted on her mouth was not sadness about another man. This time, her tears were for him.
"Be happy," he whispered. "Both of you." Then he walked out of her room, out of her bungalow and out of her life.
Josh had not cried since he was sixteen. Not since the day he'd realized his mother had left and wasn't coming back. That day he'd locked himself in his room, thrown himself across his bed and wept himself to sleep. The next morning he'd vowed never to allow a woman to cause him such deep, unrelenting pain again. He'd vowed never to cry again.
For the first time in fourteen years, Josh broke those vows.
"Where's Josh?" Ben asked as he slipped back into bed beside Sienna.
Josh had only just shut the door behind him.
"He's...gone," she whispered. Her words seemed to echo in her ears, reverberating through the emptiness his departure had left.
"Gone?" Ben looked stunned.
Sienna nodded. "He wishes us happiness. Both of us."
"He walked away." Ben wiped a hand over his face. "Christ, I didn't expect that."
"Me neither," Sienna confessed, and a wave of sorrow hit her. Josh had left. Told her he loved her, then left. Her mind reeled. It had happened too fast. Too suddenly. She hadn't had time to prepare. She'd still been savoring the afterglow of their threesome, and he'd walked away.
Was she ready to let him go? Did she want him to go?
Did she have a say in the matter?
Apparently not.
Her sorrow turned to grief. Josh was gone. She'd only just met him again, and now he was gone. Whatever might have happened between them was no longer a possibility. He'd removed himself from the equation.
Which meant she no longer had to decide who she wanted more, him or Ben. With Josh out of the picture, there was no longer a choice.
There was only Ben.
She turned to stare at him. He stared back at her, awe in his eyes. "You don't have to choose between us," he said, having obviously come to the same conclusion. "You can come home now, Si. There's nothing standing between us anymore."
Sienna blinked. There were no more obstacles. Ben's work was no longer an issue, and Josh no longer stood between them. She and Ben could rebuild their lives. Start again. Or pick up at the point where things had begun to crumble around them. Only this time they could do it right. This time they could live the life they'd planned. Together.
Was that what she wanted? She'd spent three months forcing herself to live a life without him, and now he was here, taking her right back to the very place she'd fought so hard to move away from.
Sienna's heart raced. Her knees grew weak and her skin prickled with emotion.
Did she want to be with Ben? She'd been so overwhelmed to have him back, she hadn't stopped to ask herself the question.
More than that, was she content not to have Josh? Her gut yelled no, but he'd left so fast she hadn't had time to think about it.
And she didn't have time now. Not with Ben grinning triumphantly at her. "We can be together again, baby." The joy and relief were audible in his laugh. "We can be Sienna and Ben."
Sienna and Ben. Ben and Sienna. Together again.
His mouth consumed hers in a feverish kiss.
As his tongue swept past her lips with assertive familiarity, Sienna automatically gave herself over to the demands of his passion---just like she had every other time Ben had kissed her over the last eight years.
He moaned carnally, his arousal evident in every shallow breath, every soft caress.
Sienna opened herself up to his touch and his kisses, and waited for the magic of the island to descend over them, just like it had descended over her and Josh.
Hours later, she snuck out from beneath Ben's arm, slipping away from the heat of his body. Careful not to wake him, she tiptoed across the carpeted floor and closed herself in the bathroom.
For the first time since she'd left her bungalow earlier that evening, Sienna had a minute to herself.
She rested her head against the door, closed her eyes and let out a very long breath, relishing the solitude.
It took a couple of minutes to fill the bath, but submerging herself in the hot water was exactly what Sienna needed. Her body had adjusted to life without sex, which meant that the day of loving had made her muscles ache pleasantly, and her pussy and ass tingle.
The water soothed away her discomfort, lapping over her breasts and soaking up any residual stiffness. It eased the exquisite tenderness that remained from Josh's and Ben's wild and wicked thrusting, and brought an overall sense of calm to her physically.
What it could not soothe was Sienna's underlying sense of sadness.
Sienna should be on top of the world. She should be the happiest woman in the world. She had her fiancé back. She had her life back.
So why did the knowledge that her future was once again melded to Ben's make her want to drop her head in her hands and sob?
Josh's feet pounded across the sand, the tiny grains blisteringly hot from the afternoon sun. His lungs burned from lack of oxygen and his muscles screamed from the torment he put them through. He didn't care. He pushed harder, faster, needing to run through his pain.
He'd tried swimming out to the dolphins earlier, thought playing with them might take his mind off Sienna. But his punishing strokes through the water must have scared them off. When he'd arrived at the spot where he'd seen them frolicking just moments before, they'd scattered.
He'd tried sailing, hoping the wind through his hair would blow the cobwebs from his mind, help him see he'd made the right choice in letting Sienna go. Sitting on the cat had done nothing but remind him of the day before, when Sienna had sat beside him and confessed she'd had a crush on him for five years. Confessed that all she'd wanted to do, even if it only lasted five minutes, was fuck his brains out.
The memory had him bent over in agony. He'd let the anguish wash through him, eat him alive, and then he'd turned the Hobie around and sailed back to shore. He couldn't be there. Couldn't sit in the same spot where he'd sat yesterday without Sienna by his side.
So he ran instead. Just like he ran every day. Four-hundred-meter laps up and down the beach. He ditched his shirt and shoes on one of the deck chairs and sprinted along the shoreline, away from the hotel, away from prying eyes. Away from the bungalow Sienna now shared with Ben---if they hadn't already headed back to Newcastle.
Sienna had gotten her five minutes with Josh, and then some. He'd have preferred longer, like maybe a lifetime of longer, but things hadn't worked out that way. She was with Ben. Like she should have been all along. Josh had just been a temporary blip in her radar.
Fuck, Lye. Have a pity party, why don't you?
Christ, he was pathetic. A fucking baby, crying over spilled milk. Nah, too clichéd. He was his mother, crying over spilled gin. Or his father, crying over a nine-year prison sentence. Maybe he was both of them, crying over the life he wanted but could never have.
Not the life. The woman. And the girl. Sienna, the princess, so far out of his reach he'd been crazy to dream, even for those five minutes, that he might have her.
Girls like Sienna didn't choose boys like Josh. They didn't choose losers. They chose the Ben Cowleys of the world. And they lived happily ever after.
The figure on the sand ahead of him brought Josh to a careening halt.
She stood alone, at the end of the beach, hurling something flat and white into the sea.
What was it?
She leaned over, picked up something else, aimed and threw it too.
A shell.
Josh edged closer, his heart pounding in his ears. Not from the sprint, although that left him gasping for breath, but from the shock. She shouldn't be here. She shouldn't be alone. She should be in her bungalow, or back in Newcastle, with Ben.
Sienna hurled another shell into the sea, yelling something as she did so. Josh wasn't sure what she yelled---her voice vanished in the wind.
He inched closer still, moving silently, determined not to interrupt her. He listened more intently.
Christ, she was gorgeous. Not that he could see her face, but her blonde curls whipped behind her in the breeze. She'd crammed that luscious flesh into a tight singlet, and again wore shorts that showed off an endless length of leg. Her butt, full and round, was pushed out towards him every time she flung her shells, reminding him he'd never gotten a chance to take her there. Never had the pleasure of burying himself in her ass---even though he'd promised her he would.
There were a lot of things he'd wanted to do with Sienna he'd never have the chance to now.
It was just a sad, sucky fact of life.
Josh heard what she said as she flung the shell this time. Heard the word "Engagement" dancing in the air before it plopped in the sea, just like the shell. The next throw was accompanied by a name. Ben's. And on the third throw he heard his own name.
He waited for the splash, but it never came. Sienna hadn't flung the shell. She held it in her hand now, staring at it. "Josh," she said again, and then there was silence. A long length of silence.
Josh didn't dare breathe or move. He simply stood where he was, waiting. Filling his eyes with the sight of her. Wondering what the hell to do next.
He knew he should turn around and walk away, just liked he'd done last night. But this time something stopped him.
Sienna raised her hand to fling the shell, yelling out Josh's name again. She had to let him go, had to throw the shell in the water. Had to drown her sorrows.
So why couldn't she pry open her fingers? Why were they clasping the shell so tight they'd started to cramp? Why were tears running down her cheeks and her heart beating so hard she thought it might smash straight out of her chest?
She stared at her hand, knowing the answer. She'd known the answer all along. Since the minute she'd recognized the man standing beside her chair at the pool as Josh Lye, she'd known.
"Josh," she said again, wiping her other hand across her eyes. She yelled his name. Loud.
She had to find him, had to speak to him. Now.
"Josh," she screamed, knowing he couldn't hear her, knowing she'd have to look for him, search the whole resort if necessary. She'd do it too, just so long as she got to talk to him again.
"Josh," she called as she took off, racing toward the hotel as fast as her legs would carry her. Tears fell from her eyes, blinding her.
She almost didn't see him, almost ran headfirst into the man standing mere meters away from her. She managed to stop seconds before crashing into him.
Sienna blinked once, then again, barely believing her eyes.
"Josh?" This time his name was a murmur. It was all she could manage.
"Right here, princess."
She swiped at her cheeks, brushing away the tears.
Josh.
It really was him, standing before her, looking utterly gorgeous. Hot, sweaty, half-naked and utterly gorgeous. "Wh-what are you doing here?"
"Watching you." His answer was immediate, as if he hadn't thought about it.
"Why?"
He ran his gaze over the length of her, the action scorching her from head to toe. "I went for a run along the beach, the same as I do every day. I didn't expect you to be here." Josh looked into her eyes, making her breath catch. "When I saw you, I couldn't walk away."
"Uh... Oh." She'd been about to search every nook and cranny in the resort to find him. Tripping over him one or two steps into her hunt had her thrown her for a loop. "You startled me."
"I'm sorry."
"That's okay." It was okay. Very okay.
They stared at each other. Sienna couldn't stop staring, couldn't get enough of him. Josh, the boy of her dreams. The man of her dreams.
"You called my name," Josh said.
She nodded. "I was looking for you."
He narrowed his eyes. "Why?"
Why, indeed? She'd been so desperate to find him, to tell him why, yet now that he stood in front of her, she wasn't at all sure what to say. "There's something I need to say to you. I would have said it last night, but you left too quickly." Lordy, her heart raced so fast she could hardly talk.
He looked at her with an unfathomable expression. "I'm here now. You can tell me if you still want to."
"I do." She nodded, affirming her words.
Josh waited.
She couldn't speak. Couldn't find the strength and the honesty to express what was in her heart.
He let out a long sigh. "It's okay, princess. You don't need to say it. You don't need to say anything." He reached out and stroked her cheek, sending hot thrills through her skin. "Just know that if you should wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to get back to sleep, somewhere out here, there's a man dreaming very adult dreams about you." He ran his thumb over her bottom lip, just once, and then he turned around and walked away.
Oh, dear God. He was leaving her---again. No, no, no! He couldn't. She couldn't let him. Had to stop him.
"I love you too," she yelled after his retreating back.
Josh froze midstep, his foot still in the air. He turned around slowly. "What did you say?"
"I said I love you too." Shit, the tears were back, clouding her vision. She couldn't see his face, had no way of knowing what he was thinking.
Sienna began to shake.
"What about Ben?" Josh asked coolly.
"He's...gone." Sienna wrapped her arms around herself to stop the shivers. It didn't help.
"Gone where?"
"Back to Newcastle." Her skin was covered in goose bumps.
He shook his head, looking confused. "Why?"
She swallowed. "I asked him to leave." It had almost killed her, almost broken her heart all over again, but it had been the right decision for both Sienna and Ben. Hopefully, one day soon, Ben would be able to see that too.
"You did?" Josh took a step towards her.
"Yes."
"Why?"
She chewed on her lower lip. "Because our relationship is over."
Another step. "He came back for you."
"I know." She nodded. "And in doing so, he confused the heck out of me. Made me think I still loved him. Made me think I still wanted a future with him."
"You don't?" His question was a hoarse whisper.
"A part of me will always love him, will always love my memories of him. But our engagement is over. It has been for a long time." Their relationship had died months before she'd officially ended it. "Seeing him again was a shock. Hearing him say all those things about wanting me back, well, it made me nostalgic, made me long for what we'd once had." Because what they'd once had had been good. "But then you left, and I was alone with him. And I realized the magic wasn't there anymore. Whatever Ben and I once shared has died." While the knowledge was liberating, it still made Sienna terribly, terribly sad. She'd lost Ben all over again. But... "The magic in the room last night was there because of you. Not him."
"Si..." He stepped closer.
"You created the magic, Josh. Not him. It sparked the second I saw you by the pool and exploded into something undeniable when we made love yesterday afternoon. Ben got caught up in our magic. Yours and mine. That's why the sex was so good. It wasn't about him, it was about us."
Josh took one final step, and he stood in front of her, close enough to raise his hand to her cheek and wipe away her tears.
She took a shaky breath, luxuriating in his touch, in the tingles that flowed through her as a result. "I was crazy about you as a school kid, Josh Lie-With-Me. But yesterday I fell in love with the man you've become."
"You did?"
"I did."
He closed his eyes, almost as if in prayer. "And you'd still want that?" he asked, his voice sounding as shaky as she felt. "You'd still want five minutes to lie with me?" He opened his eyes, watched her intently. Waited for her answer
She shook her head vehemently. "No!"
Josh dropped his hand so fast she never saw it move.
She grabbed it, brought it back to her face, held it there. "Five minutes would never be enough for everything I want with you." She smiled, then grinned through her tears and quoted him, word for word. "There are so many ways I wanna make love to you, you'll be ninety before we've covered half of them."
Josh groaned, the sound emanating from somewhere deep inside him. "I wanna make love to you too, princess. But I'm a selfish man. I won't share you. Not ever again. I can't tolerate the thought of anyone else touching you. Can you live with that?"
"If you love me, I can live with anything."
"I do love you." He pulled her into his arms, crushed her against him. "Christ, I've loved you since forever, don't you know that by now?"
Sienna held him just as tight, wouldn't let go. "I'm a slow learner, apparently. But if you could give me a gentle reminder every now and again---"
His mouth cut off the rest of her words. His lips met hers in a kiss so heated, every chill that had wrapped around her skin melted in his embrace.
The kisses they'd shared before faded to insignificance. As his tongue swept into her mouth, claiming her, making her his, Sienna knew this was the kiss to end all kisses. This was the real the deal. The kiss that sealed her fate.
She was Josh's. Without a shadow of a doubt.
Her heart belonged to him completely. Him, and no one else. And his mouth told her his heart belonged to her---and no one else. Which was a damn good thing, because Sienna was just as selfish as Josh. She too refused to share.
She smiled as she kissed him, couldn't hold back her joy. She didn't try. Ben was gone, officially a sad memory from her past. Josh was here, with her. He loved her, like she loved him. Happiness exploded inside her, like the sun coming up.
"Josh?"
"Yeah?"
"Will you do me a favor?"
"Anything, princess."
"Lie with me?"
"For the next ninety years at least," he promised as he took her hand, and together they sprinted across the beach, back to her hotel room.
About the Author
To learn more about Jess Dee please visit her website at www.jessdee.com. Or you can drop by her blog: http://jessdee.wordpress.com.
Jess loves to hear from her readers. You can contact her any time at jess@jessdee.com.
Look for these titles by Jess Dee
Now Available:
The Tanner Siblings
Photo Opportunity
Ask Adam
Circle of Friends
Only Tyler
Steve's Story
A Question of...
A Question of Trust
A Question of Love
Winter Fire
Three of a Kind
Going All In
Raising the Stakes
Full House
Bandicoot Cove Anthology
Exotic Indulgence
Island Idyll
Print Anthologies
Risking it All
Three's Company
Coming Soon:
Speed
See You in My Dreams
Hidden Fire
Print Anthologies
Red Hot Winter
Three of a Kind
Tropical Desires
Fate is a wind that can change at the drop of a heart...
Paradise Found
© 2011 Vivian Arend
Bandicoot Cove, Book 2
Paige has enjoyed every nostrings-attached minute with her two Australian lovers, Trent and Mason. Over the past eleven months, they've surfed, hiked...and explored their seemingly limitless sexual chemistry.
Her lovers' invitation to the opening of a new resort comes at the ideal time, because in a few days she's returning to Canada. It'll be a fitting swan song for their easygoing relationship. A chance to fulfill a few fantasies and then escape before her men realize she's broken the rules by falling in love with them both. Better to take flight than be forced to choose.
Unaware of Paige's self-imposed deadline, Trent and Mason scheme to get Paige on their yacht for a once-in-a-lifetime voyage with one goal in mind: break the news that they're ready for something more than casual---and hope she doesn't run like hell.
It's a delicate operation that'll require close attention to which way her emotional winds are blowing. One wrong word, and their paradise-perfect arrangement could be lost in an instant.
Warning: This book starts with the heat turned way up high. Two men entirely focused on one woman's pleasure. One woman stepping outside the box to please her men. An exotic resort suite featuring an erotic piece of furniture that makes ménage a trois even hotter than usual. Really.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Paradise Found:
Paige stared him in the eye. "Sex in a pan."
He laughed. "That's the dessert?"
"The name is a mutation from six in a pan, for the original six layers, but the taste is downright orgasmic, if you make it right." She ran a finger along the edge of the bowl, scooped up a smear of the chocolate sauce onto her fingertip and offered it to him.
He swallowed hard.
"This isn't a good time for you to stop what you're doing, is it?" He forced the words past a throat suddenly tight with need.
She shook her head.
Fuckit. He sucked her finger into his mouth and moaned. The dessert was tasty, but having her finger to suck and tease, to be able to watch her eyes widen and hear her breath catch as he twirled his tongue around the digit? Torture.
He let her pull back, her finger escaping with a pop. He shook off the haze of lust threatening the production of the delicacies. Hold off, caveman.
Instead, he grinned at her. "If they're individual sex servings, does that make them masturbation pies?"
Paige rolled her eyes. "God. You are not helping me name them."
"Jerk tarts?"
"Trent!"
"Cream---"
The shot of, appropriately enough---whipped cream---hit him in the mouth, and he sputtered to a stop, eyeing her evilly.
She lowered the piping bag, fists dropping to her hips. "Behave. Let me pop these crusts in the oven, and then we can talk about your fascination with self-pleasure."
Hmm, now there's an idea. Not his pleasure, but hers. That was something he could get into. He stepped back complacently, licking his lips. Paige poked him as she passed by to re-wash her hands thoroughly. She returned to the counter, working quickly with the pastry dough. Effortlessly, she formed intricate flowerlike cups, one after another resting on the paper lining the cookie sheets.
He studied her face, loving the way her intent concentration made a tiny furrow appear between her eyes. She was smiling, nodding as she placed another edible art form onto the tray, and he realized this was a form of artistic expression. The beauty she created not only pleased the eyes but the palate and all the rest of his senses. She was a fully sensual creature, and he loved being around her. Enthusiasm and sensuality shone through everything she did.
He couldn't be any more certain. This thing between them was far more than a physical attraction. He was head-over-fucking-heels with the slim seductress. He would do everything he could to make sure she stayed in his life---even if it meant a few more unusual solutions, like those offered by Mason's gung-ho, madcap, anything-goes, both-feet-forward attitude.
Hmm, an attitude that was remarkably like Paige's.
"I bet that's why you guys get along so well."
She straightened after placing the second pan in the oven, that little secretive smile teasing the corner of her mouth again. "What are you talking about? Who?"
"You and Mason. You're both totally open and game for anything."
Paige's heartbeat leaped upward again as he caught her fingers. She'd slipped them under the faucet, adding a shot of soap to clean off the butter clinging to them. He lathered her up, threading his fingers through hers, his touch firm and yet sexual as he touched each digit in turn. Her mouth went absolutely dry.
They didn't seem to be able to be in the same room without wanting each other. "You're not such a prude yourself, Trent."
He crowded closer, his arms caging her, hands rocking over hers again and again. Splashes rose to soak the front of her blouse. He planted kisses along her neckline, and she leaned to the side to allow him to maneuver.
Instead he spun her and locked his lips on hers. Oh Lord, she couldn't think when he did that thing with his tongue. Taking total control of her mouth as if he were starving and only she could satisfy his hunger. He licked and nibbled and explored---ownership in every touch. The sound of the running water grew faint below the roaring of the blood in her ears. His wet hands slipped onto her back, the fabric sticking to her skin. He held her by the upper arms and slowly separated their bodies, his lips clinging with heat and moisture until the last possible second.
They stared at each other. She knew she was grinning, and the expression on his face---sheer happiness. As if he was exactly where he wanted to be, and life was good.
She'd put that expression in his eyes, at least partially, and for one wild second she nearly blurted out that she loved him.
"Knock knock."
They both spun toward the door, Trent settling her tightly against his chest. The warmth of his body heated the wet spots on her clothing.
Mason raised a brow as he approached. "Am I interrupting? Fair dinkum, it smells delicious in here."
"Paige is cooking up a storm."
Mason walked the length of the room with any hesitation, not stopping until he was pressed firmly against her.
"She always cooks up the most mouth-watering mischief." He lifted her chin with his fingers and kissed her. A momentary buss on the lips, just enough for her to taste him, tease her senses. "What's next on the menu? That's what I want to know."
He dipped his head again and took his time opening her lips to his caress. A series of small kisses along her jaw, a butterfly soft touch to the corner of her mouth. A tantalizing stroke of his tongue over her lower lip.
A low level of excitement and delight accompanied his teasing touch. She was totally surrounded, boxed in by two solid male torsos. Trent's erection pressed hard into her right butt cheek, and the longer Mason kissed her, the more his interest rose as well. She tangled her fingers in his hair and held him tight. Twisted her hips slightly, rubbing both of them, slow and deliberate. She might be encircled, but she still had a say in this adventure. It looked as if there was no need to prolong the wait for one of her favorite parts.
Being totally cared for by two men. Four hands bringing her delight, stroking and guiding her pleasure in ways she'd never dreamed possible before getting involved with them.
Paige pulled her lips free and Mason leaned his forehead against hers. Trent's fingers caressed her hip slowly. They both waited, patiently. Time paused, their three bodies slowly becoming more attuned to each other as their breathing synchronized. Her anticipation rose---there was some specific mischief she had in mind, although it was actually Mason who was the engineer of this afternoon's coming escapade.
She could hardly wait to see him explain the sex chair that graced the center of their suite. Forget the details of how it got there, she wanted to know everything possible about using the chair itself.
It takes more than a rock star to rock your world. Sometimes you need a friend.
Tropical Sin
© 2011 Lexxie Couper
Bandicoot Cove, Book 3
McKenzie Wood has just spied her ticket out of tabloid journalism. A rumor-shrouded rock star who thinks he's incognito at Bandicoot Cove resort. With a little help from her BFF she'll be on her way to serious work in no time. Aiden's perfect for the job---pulse-pounding gorgeous, and probably gay. After all, she's never seen him date anyone.
Aiden Rogers admits it's pretty damned pathetic that he can rush into burning buildings, but not have the guts to tell McKenzie he's in love with her. No way can he tell his best friend he'd like to do some seriously sinful things to her, especially since she's never shown one iota of sexual interest.
Nick Blackthorne looks forward to some "unfamous" down-time in his home country. He's surprised to find his creative muse stirred---more like brought to rigid attention---by a couple so sexy that all he can think about is the three of them. Together.
Three bodies move together as one, and the music becomes a smoldering beat that rivals the island's heat. When the truth inevitably comes out, the heat might be enough to save three souls...or end up just another sinner's lament.
Warning: One plus one plus one equals OMG sex, are-you-freaking-kidding-me orgasms and some serious mind-blowing climaxes.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Tropical Sin:
"Aidan..." she whispered, wishing she could see inside his head. Was this just sex for him? Or something else? Something...
"You truly have no idea how long I've ached for this, Mack."
His proclamation, spoken with an almost dazed disbelief, sent a shiver through her. Not just through her sex, but through her. All of her.
"What?" She needed to know. "What have you ached for?"
"You."
The answer was simple. Honest.
"Why didn't you tell me before?"
"Because I almost...because the thought of you rejecting me..." He left the sentences unfinished, but what he didn't say made her belly flip.
Oh, God. This wasn't just two friends fooling around now. This was...huge.
"If you want me to stop..." he continued, dragging his hands up her waist only to halt them at the curve of her ribcage just below her breasts. His face was tight with tension, his jaw clenched. "I will. But you need to tell me now."
Stop? Was he kidding?
Her reaction was instant and raw and it told her what her stupid brain couldn't. The second he'd even uttered the word "stop" she knew she didn't want him to.
She buried her fingers in his choppy mess of hair to stare into his eyes. "If you stop, I will be forced to slap you senseless."
A soft chuckle vibrated through him, the dimples in his cheeks flashing into existence. "I thought of doing something else to you until you were senseless only a little while ago."
She cocked an eyebrow at him, rolling her hips again in an attempt to stroke her sex over the confined pole of his cock. Damn, she wanted to feel that inside her. Wanted it so much she actually ached. "And what was that, Rogers?"
His eyes twinkled green fire. "This."
He spun her away from the door and, three strides later, threw her on to the suite's main bed, a massive king-sized number covered in silk and cushions. She squealed in shocked delight, the sound captured by his mouth as he dropped on top of her.
His hands roamed her torso, up to her throat, back down to her hips. He squeezed her arse cheeks before raking one hand down the back of her thigh and tugging her leg up. She willingly obeyed his unspoken direction, wrapping her leg around his hip to grind her pussy up and down his still-constrained cock.
"I want to make love to you, Mack." His breath was ragged, his eyes ablaze. "Right now." He slipped one hand under the hemline of her shirt, his fingers brushing her bare flesh beneath.
She sucked in a swift gasp, the contact somehow more electric, more arousing than any she'd ever had before.
Of course it is, McKenzie. This isn't just anyone. This is Aidan. The guy's had your heart in his pocket since you were kids. Even if you didn't know it.
She whimpered, bringing her hand to his as she arched her back. She wanted him to touch her breasts. Not just touch them, but cup them, squeeze them. She wanted to feel the callused strength of his hands mold her soft flesh, hands skilled in extinguishing heat now on the verge of setting her on fire. She wanted to feel him possess her.
"Then what the hell are you waiting any longer for?" she asked, directing his hand up to her breast. Over it.
"Oh, God, McKenzie." He moaned, his body stiffening as his fingers found her pleasure-swollen flesh.
He dragged his thumb over her rock-hard nipple, teasing it through the thin lace of her bra. It puckered harder to his touch, as if it too said, "Yes, why have you taken so long to do this?"
Her breaths grew shallow, more rapid with every stroke of his thumb pad. But it wasn't enough. It was torture.
"Please..."
Like he always knew when she wanted popcorn at the movies, like he always knew when she needed chocolate, like he always always knew when she needed to hear his voice and called her from the fire station, now it seemed he knew exactly what she wanted him to do to her.
God, it was wonderful. More than wonderful. It was amazing. Sublime. It was...
Right. So goddamn right.
His erection pressing to the sodden junction of her thighs, Aidan hooked the edge of her bra with his fingers, and with one swift move of his arm, pulled the lace from her breast and raised her shirt up her torso.
He looked at what he'd revealed for a short---and at the same time, agonizingly long---second before his gaze found her face. "Are you sure?" he whispered, the words almost strangled.
Was she? This wasn't just a quick fuck. Not even a one-night stand---well, a one-morning stand. There was no coming back from this. Sex with Aidan. Everything changed after that. Whether it was good or horrendously bad, it changed everything.
Horrendously bad? Are you serious? You've never felt so freaking aroused, so consumed with...with...hell, so consumed with real pleasure and all he's done is kiss you.
Was she sure?
She nodded, swallowing at the thick anticipation rising in her throat. "I've never been surer."
The muscles in his body tensed, his nostrils flared again, and then he lowered his head and took her nipple in his mouth.
Exquisite pleasure shot through her, and she cried out, her pussy not just throbbing but contracting with such eager want she thrust her hips harder to his body. She'd had her breasts sucked before, but what Aidan was doing...
His tongue rolled over her nipple, short stabbing strokes followed by shorter, sharper sucks that sent shards of squirming pressure straight through her. She moaned, fisting her hands in his hair and shoving her sex closer to his cock. "Oh, Aidan..." She closed her eyes, close to sensory overload. "That feels..."
"I'm in hell here, Mack," he growled, his lips and breath hot on her breast. "I want to make this last forever---for as long as I've wanted to do it---but I'm so close to coming..."
The torment she heard in his voice, the raw truth, flayed McKenzie's tenuous control. God, why had she never known he felt this way? Why hadn't she realized she felt the same? Her pussy squeezed a cock that wasn't there. She opened her eyes and gazed up at him, the pain etching his face, the desire, making her sex flood.
She'd always been one for foreplay. Long sessions of foreplay followed by longer sessions of fucking, but Aidan---as always---seemed to know exactly what she needed. She needed him inside her. Now.
"Sixteen years of foreplay and I didn't even know it," she murmured.
Aidan's jaw bunched, his cock nudging her sex with a jerking spasm. "I fucking did."
She laughed, a shallow burst of awestruck breath, and he seized on the moment to rise up between her legs, grab the waistline of her shorts and yank them off her body, taking her sodden undies with them.
"I'm going to fuck you with my tongue later," he rasped, tossing her clothing aside, his voice not altogether steady. "I promise, but right now..."
He tore open his fly, his cock springing free of its imprisonment immediately. McKenzie's breath left her in a whimpering moan. God, he was huge.
Precome glistened on the tip of his shaft, a perfect bead of pleasure. Her mouth filled with moisture at the thought of licking it off with her tongue.
Later. Later. But now...now...

