Anything but Vanilla (14 page)

She struggled, but he kept her pinned. He kept the punishing pace up too. Lost himself in the breakneck race towards satisfaction; in a space where nothing else existed and all that mattered was the steadily intensifying heat in his loins.

Even after his orgasm rushed up and shook him, Ric kept on dwelling in that void. He sank into it, let the blackness there overwhelm him for a while. Not too long, though: he wasn’t a complete bastard, after all. He stayed hard inside Kara long enough to rub her to a peak with his fingers.

Then in the quiet that followed, when his cock was spent and a near constant yawn stretched her face, he rested his head between her thighs and licked her to another, quieter climax.

* * *

Tuesday Morning

Text message from Zach Blackwater to Ric Liddell:

Wanker.

Text message from Ric Liddell to Zach Blackwater:

What do you expect when you constantly stand me up?

* * *

Fifteen minutes after Ric left without making any arrangements for a repeat meeting, Kara blearily peeped out of the front door to find Robin on her step. She closed the door and rubbed her face before releasing the chain. Why now? Couldn’t she at least wake up a little before facing this?

‘I brought you breakfast.’ Robin beamed, waving a brown paper bag in Kara’s direction. She’d obviously come straight from the mainland, and the smell of warm bacon wafted temptingly from the bag. ‘I thought you might appreciate not having to cook. I can boil the kettle for the rest.’ She made to step into the house, but Kara remained immobile in the doorway.

‘No,’ she said simply. ‘You’re not coming in.’

‘Wha – wait!’ Robin stared at her, her red mouth hanging open in a goldfish expression. It didn’t suit her otherwise perfectly styled outfit. ‘I thought –’

‘You lied to me.’ Kara stepped back to close the door, despite the welcoming growl in her stomach at the smell of bacon. Ric had indeed proved to be a magnificent alarm clock, in that it woke gloriously early. Sadly, providing breakfast in bed hadn’t been part of his repertoire. Hence she was totally famished.

‘Hang on.’ Robin slapped her palm against the closing door. ‘In what way did I lie?’

‘You told me Ric sent you and he didn’t. He barely knows you. He doesn’t employ you. I don’t like being used, Robin. And you used me. You pretended to be something you’re not in order to cajole me into sharing details that I would never for a moment have dreamed of sharing with you.’

Kara shut the door and pulled the bolt across too. She stood with her back to the wood.

‘Kara. I’m sorry, Kara. I didn’t mean to cause any harm.’

Maybe so, but regardless she wasn’t putting herself in a position where she could be abused in that way again.

‘I just wanted to know about him, that’s all. We had fun together, didn’t we?’

No, they hadn’t. Not really. ‘Go away.’

Robin pawed at the wood. The image of her in Kara’s head remained pitiful. ‘We can still be friends, can’t we? Did he stay the night?’

‘I said go away.’

A moment’s silence followed. ‘OK. I’ll let you calm down. I’m going. I’ll leave your breakfast on the step.’

Kara waited until she could no longer hear the crunch of gravel, then she let out her long-held breath. She didn’t open the door to scoop up the sandwich. Robin’s motivations in building their friendship were all too apparent. Why else would she have arrived here just after Ric had left? She’d probably watched him go. Hell, for all Kara knew, maybe Robin had watched him arrive too. That thought killed her hunger and replaced it with a slight feeling of nausea. She just didn’t want to share her sex life like that. Her thing with Ric might be casual, but it was still private, something between her and Ric, not anyone else. God help her, she wasn’t even sure if Robin would keep the information to herself. The fallout could be horrible if she went blabbing things to folks all around the island. She wanted to be the one to tell Zach what was going on, rather than have him hear it through the island grapevine. It wasn’t as if they had a special relationship. It was just courtesy to let him know where he stood. Plus, she ought to establish why she’d missed him.

On top of that, it also seemed plain wrong to encourage Robin’s obsession. God forbid the woman should start genuinely stalking the guy. At the moment, Kara prayed her notions of Robin parked on the hillside spying on Ric were just fanciful ideas, and not the actual truth.

* * *

‘What do you want?’ Zach didn’t bother to turn his head in order to confirm the identity of the person who’d just entered the Bunker. The waft of expensive aftershave combined with the yammering of two dogs outside made it obvious, which was why he didn’t feel the need to be polite. Ric had ruined a perfectly good evening last night by commandeering Kara’s attention. Now he was set to ruin a perfectly good morning by crowing about it. He’d rather hoped his text message had got across his feelings on the matter already. Evidently not. He tensed in anticipation of barney number two.

‘Well, good morning to you too.’ Ric planted his boots right alongside the box of pink greetings cards Zach was halfway through sorting. ‘Nice to see you’re so cheerful. I thought I’d drop by and let you know how much I’ve missed your company and what happens? I get snarled at.’

‘Piss off. You haven’t missed me,’ Zach spat. Much as he longed to believe otherwise. ‘I saw you mooning your arse at passing ships last night while breaking in Kara. She’s obviously keeping you far too busy for you to be thinking about me.’

Ric covered his mouth with his thumb. ‘You know I like to keep my taxes up to date and my tenants on their toes, and, as I said earlier, you stood me up.’

‘Backs,’ Zach corrected. ‘You like to keep them on their backs. And if you want me that much, you know what you have to do. It might not even kill you.’

Ric pretended not to hear. ‘Even so, I was thinking about you the whole time.’

‘Like fuck you were.’

‘Wow.’ Ric folded his arms across his chest. ‘We are in a bad mood. Dare I even ask why you were around to see Kara and me? You weren’t, you couldn’t have been, looking for me? I hadn’t actually changed your goddamn mind?’ Ric gave him a slapdash grin, which while annoying also made him look ridiculously sexy. Ric had stylish charmer down to an art. This morning he sported bed hair and his dog-walking clothes: a jeans and jersey combo that made him look like a catalogue model. It was hard to hate him, when looking at him made Zach ache with longing.

‘Fuck you,’ Zach muttered again. Anything more eloquent seemed to have slipped right out of his head. ‘As if. I’ve told you how it is. I’ve no reason to come looking for you.’ Damn, he didn’t even want to have this conversation again. He’d told Ric dozens of times how he felt, and that he wanted more from their relationship than sex. Fucking was all well and good – and boy, was it good – but you could only live so long without emotional sustenance, and he’d wanted something more meaningful for years. He often figured it’d be nice to share more than grunts for a change, maybe enjoy a nice dinner, or take a holiday and soak up some culture.

‘So, why were you on the island so late?’

‘Actually, I had a date with Kara.’

Fine, so he was a little pissed off at her too. Yes, he’d been running late. He’d had to drive Heather home and then play chicken with the tide to get back across the causeway. All for nothing, because by the time he’d arrived she was already being screwed by Ric.

‘Ohh!’ Ric sucked a breath between his teeth, and clutched his stomach at the same time, as though he’d been kicked. ‘Smarts. So that’s why you’re in such a bad-ass mood.’ Ric bent at the waist so that his long hair fell forward and obscured Zach’s view of the cards. ‘Did you set up an alternative date that I ruined?’

Zach flicked a card in Ric’s direction, aiming for his face. It flew wide of his ear.

‘You know you could have joined us.’

‘I can’t say I much fancied it,’ Zach growled. Besides, it would have put Kara on the spot too much if he’d shown up after she’d agreed to go out with Ric. Conflict wasn’t what he’d been looking for. He’d envisaged sharing a glass or two of wine with her and chatting. Just because alfresco sex had featured as part of their first two meetings, it didn’t have to be a staple of every encounter he had with her. He actually quite fancied getting to know her as a person. Better that than ending up in the situation he was in with Ric, which amounted to a whole lot of fucking nothing.

‘You ought to know she’s been angling for that very thing.’

‘What?’

‘Kara. She thinks you have a sexy butt, and she wants to watch me screw it.’

No. No. They weren’t going down that path. Getting involved in a threesome would only lead to further heartache. He didn’t want to share. He struggled enough as it was, and hated it when Ric insisted on him taking part in multi-partner photoshoots. He didn’t believe it either. Why would Kara have even mentioned him?

‘You know, while I’m really enjoying the visuals of that pout, I’m sensing a breakdown in communications between us.’ Ric moved so that he could encircle Zach’s chest from behind. Maybe if he hadn’t been kneeling on the floor he’d have stood more of a chance of dodging the hold. As it was, one arm locked tight across Zach’s chest while the other angled upwards, so that Ric’s hand splayed across the front of Zach’s throat, fingertips digging into the underside of his chin. He had no choice but to tilt his head back and look up into Ric’s face.

‘What do you want?’

‘I need you to come and pose. You did agree to do it, and my deadline is getting close.’

Despite his anger, Ric’s pale eyes never failed to melt Zach’s heart. Ric’s eyes were a blaze of ice-cold silver, encircled by a darker sapphire ring. Zach could still remember the first time Ric had turned that gaze upon him, and he’d known immediately that what he thought he knew about himself was wrong. Straight, gay, bi: labels didn’t matter any more. He just knew he’d fallen hard for Ric. Years later, he still had it equally bad.

Zach carefully wetted his lips. ‘I’m busy. I’ve stock to unpack.’

‘No, you’re not.’ Ric’s lips briefly brushed his. Just that one irritating suggestion of affection set a groan rumbling down Zach’s throat. One more kiss and his dick would be hard as rock and he’d be as malleable as clay. He craved that second touch even as he despised himself for wanting it.

It didn’t help that for the most part he enjoyed posing too. He just suspected Ric had plans for the session that involved more than simple photography. He usually did. God help him if on this occasion it involved Kara.

‘Heather can run the van.’

‘She’s not here today.’ His sister only did alternate days except for weekends.

Ric put on a pout, but he didn’t withdraw. The arm locked across Zach’s chest shifted sideways. Five teasing digits made a drum roll against his chest, and then walked down the centre of his abs to his belt buckle. ‘Come on, you know you’ll earn twice as much and have six times as much fun posing than you will sitting in that van selling ice cream to runny-nosed brats and balding, overweight men.’

So true, Zach didn’t even attempt to deny it.

Ric’s fingertips eased beneath the bottom edge of Zach’s T-shirt and into the waistband of his jeans. A shiver ran through Zach’s already tensed muscles. He didn’t want to respond, but he did. Every bloody time, he did. He also knew Ric thought nothing of crossing boundaries. He’d open up the whole of Zach’s fly and rub him off right here, right now and not give a damn that anyone could walk into the shop without warning. Typically, Zach preferred to be a little more circumspect. He tried not to thrust his sex life into people’s faces. It wasn’t good for business.

Zach shrugged, but he failed to dislodge Ric’s hold. ‘I told you. I don’t want it to be like this any more. I’m sick of games. Offer me something serious. Maybe then I’ll feel more like obliging you.’

Ric’s index finger flicked back and forth across the top of Zach’s loins, where it caught the side of his growing erection,
tick, tick, tick
, in the way a normal person might thoughtfully tap their lip while considering.

‘Seriously, Ric, there’s more to life than sex.’

Woe flashed through Ric’s eyes, as though the remark had reawakened a distant memory. There had been a time in Ric’s past when he’d allowed himself to feel a whole range of emotions and when he’d been intimately involved with another person on an emotional as well as a sexual level. He just seemed determined never to go there again. Why that was, Zach had never figured. He didn’t believe for a minute that Ric was still mourning his wife. Mostly, he got the impression that Ric was grateful that period of his life had passed.

‘Tell me one thing that’s better than sex.’

Zach blinked, and floundered. He hadn’t anticipated the question. ‘Well … um …’ Damn it, his mind was blank.

‘You seem to be struggling a bit.’

‘Yeah, well, I can’t think. Not when you have your hands in my pants.’

‘Oh, Zachy, there’s no reason to think. Nothing else comes even close.’ A look of sly serenity stretched across Ric’s face. Bastard wasn’t going to budge over the nature of their relationship, and he wouldn’t let up over Zach posing either. ‘You know, you are pretty hard. A good wank might calm you down and grant you some proper perspective.’

Zach severely doubted it, but Ric’s voice continued to purr into his ear. ‘Since I already have my hand down here, I could easily oblige. You’d like that now, wouldn’t you?’ Ric’s agile fingers were already releasing Zach’s zip. Worse still, knowing that he ought to shove Ric off didn’t help one bit, especially not when his nice big hand cradled Zach’s erection. Three minutes, five tops, and Ric would have him happily shooting off. Godamnit, he was going to have to come up with another strategy for making Ric open up to them being a bit more than fuck buddies. Ric just saw his attempts at sexual withdrawal as a challenge.

As for him having sought out Kara again, that was more than likely just an attempt to say, ‘Fuck you, I’ve other lovers to please myself with, Zachy. If you don’t like it, you know what to do about it.’