Three to Tango (12 page)

He groaned and thrust his hips forward into his hand as he took a step back to lean against the tiled wall. He let go for a second, his cock bobbing and tapping his taut belly, then used a handful of body wash to lather himself. The water washed most of the suds off right away, but his hand kept moving. Stroking. Kerry watched, her gaze going back and forth between the delicious sight of his hard cock and his face. She loved watching him come.

“Yeah,” he said, almost to himself, but looking at her. “And you’d take him all the way in, wouldn’t you? All the way down your throat, Mr. Pretty Cock himself. Mr. Salesman.”

“Don’t call him that,” she whispered, unable to talk any louder with her throat gone so dry.

Jeremy smirked, his eyes heavy lidded. “Maybe he’d put his hand on the back of your head, huh? Pushing you a little. Making you take it, right? But you totally could, babe, because you’re just that fucking good. And you like it. You love it. Don’t you?”

She did love it. That was the truth. Brian wouldn’t do that though, she realized through the slow-syrup haze of arousal covering everything as she watched her lover stroke himself. Jeremy was the one who liked to put his hand on the back of her head, both of them pretending he had to coax her when the fact was she willingly took him as deep as she could. That she reveled in making him groan and moan.

Games. That was what Jeremy liked. Like this one, right now.

How long could she keep from touching herself? Or going to him, getting on her knees for him in the shower? Water pounding down, covering them, wreathed in steam. Kerry shivered. Jeremy saw it. He always did.

“Yeah, so he’d fuck your mouth just right. Is that what he did that night? Fucked that pretty mouth of yours? And you touched yourself, didn’t you? Slid your fingers into your pussy, got them so wet, right? That’s how it was. That’s what you’d do, if you were sucking him right now. In front of me.”

But that wasn’t how it had been, Kerry sucking Brian’s cock while she took care of herself. Brian had touched her, instead. He’d been the one to slide his fingers inside her, then up and over her clit, rubbing. Making her come. Not herself, but him.

“Damn, babe, I’d get so hot watching you I’d fucking bust my briefs right off.” Jeremy’s hand moved a little faster. He spread his legs, letting the shower hit his crotch. “And he’d be coming in your mouth, I’d be coming all over my fist and you … Oh, fuck, babe. You’d be coming, too. Wouldn’t you?”

“Yes,” Kerry told him, still in a whisper. She uncrossed her arms as her hands cupped her breasts, her thumbs passing over her nipples. One hand moved to cup herself through the denim. It wasn’t enough pressure, but it still felt good.

“Take your clothes off,” Jeremy told her.

She stripped out of her T-shirt and jeans, bra and panties, too, leaving everything balled up on the wet bathroom floor before stepping into the shower with him. The water was too hot. It stung. She gasped. When Jeremy kissed her, the water sealed their mouths and she had to break the kiss too soon because she didn’t want to get water up her nose.

Jeremy took her hand and put it on his dick, then put his over it. He stroked slowly, so slowly she knew he was lingering deliberately. She thought he would push her shoulder, urging her to her knees. She was ready to do it, too, her mind full of the picture he’d painted. Her mind full of Brian.

Jeremy surprised her. That was typical, too. He was the one who got to his knees and pushed her back against the shower wall. He spread her with his thumbs, finding her clit with his tongue with unmistakable aim. He laved her flesh, and all Kerry could do was arch herself into the caress. She looked down at him, indescribably aroused by the sight of his right shoulder dipping as he stroked himself while he worked her cunt with his tongue and lips.

She blinked water from her eyes, wanting to see him, but then gave up and closed them. She gave up to sensation, too, letting it wash over her the way the water did. Incredibly, Jeremy kept talking even as he ate her pussy—the words were mumbled now, a little incoherent, but the added hum of his voice on her clit was what ended up sending her over. She didn’t quite know what he was saying, but it didn’t matter. She was coming in rippling undulations of ecstasy.

This orgasm, maybe because it had taken so little time to reach, was sharp. Bright. Kerry’s muscles jerked with it, pumping her cunt harder against Jeremy’s tongue. Until at last, blinking away the water, she looked down to see him staring up at her with a grin. So taken over by her own pleasure, she hadn’t even heard him give the telltale grunting groan that usually signaled his orgasm, but that grin told her he’d come. Jeremy got to his feet and held his hands out to the water, washing them, then turned his face to the water to do the same.

“You should totally meet him for coffee,” he said over his shoulder, casually.

Kerry didn’t answer.

Six

“
C
hai latte.” Brian set the cup on the table, followed by his own mug of black coffee he’d poured himself from the urn on the counter. He made his hands busy so he didn’t have to look right at her.

“Thanks.” Kerry’s chair scraped as she moved.

Brian sat. He warmed his hands on the mug though they weren’t cold. He just wanted something to do with them so he didn’t do something stupid. Like, oh, reach across to take hers. He wanted to touch her, but other than the perfunctory half hug she’d offered when they greeted each other, Kerry had stayed far enough out of reach to make even a fake accidental brush of his hand on her sleeve impossible. Not that he could blame her. He should never have asked her out for coffee.

“Great day, huh?” Kerry gestured at the large front window through which sunshine poured in a strangely delineated square, leaving the rest of the coffee shop in cool shadow. “I know everyone’s going to be complaining that it’s too hot, but I like it this way. Beats all the rain we’ve had the past few weeks.”

Great. They were talking about the weather. Brian hadn’t bought coffee, he’d just paid for a one-way ticket to Lametown. He nodded, though, and sipped coffee so he could pretend his mouth was too full to speak.

“I’m glad you called me,” Kerry said in a lower voice.

Hot coffee scalded his tongue. Brian winced. “You are? I mean, good. I mean, I’m glad.”

She smiled, and he got the feeling she knew exactly what he was thinking. Which would’ve been some trick, since Brian wasn’t exactly sure what he was thinking himself. Images of naked, writhing bodies mingled shamelessly with footage of them walking hand in hand along a beach with their shoes off, kicking at waves. He was such a freaking sap.

“I mean it,” Kerry said.

Brian swallowed the taste of coffee that really needed some cream and sugar. “Me too.”

Her smile got wider, bright as the square of sunshine surrounding them and just as hot. Brian tugged his tie a little, wishing he’d bought an iced drink. She’d be able to tell he was blushing.

But then something happened. Kerry started talking about her job—she worked as a registered nurse in labor and delivery at Harrisburg Hospital. It was clear she enjoyed her work, but more than that, her stories made Brian laugh. She was the same old Kerry, talking with her hands, adding accents and facial expressions to her jokes to make them funnier—and not in a contrived way or anything. Just being herself.

Maybe this hadn’t been a mistake.

Brian sat back and watched her, his bitter coffee forgotten as she managed to pull information out of him he’d never have thought to tell her if she hadn’t asked. It seemed that after their marathon conversation the night of the reunion there wouldn’t be much ground to cover, but Kerry had a way of making Brian feel like she was interested in everything he did, not just the “important” stuff. Forty minutes later, they were laughing so loud they turned heads, and he did it.

He reached across the table and took her hand.

Kerry’s laughter didn’t cut off abruptly. More like it slid away into silence, though she was still smiling. She looked down at their hands, his much bigger and covering hers. He’d messed up, Brian thought. She was going to give him a sympathetic look and pull away.

Instead, Kerry turned her hand so she could link her fingers through his. “This is nice, Brian. Really nice.”

He squeezed her fingers lightly. “Yeah. It’s like—”

“Third-period study hall,” she finished with him at the same time. “Yeah. I thought so, too.”

“Aside from this,” Brian said, barely lifting their hands.

“And the … other,” Kerry said.

The night of the reunion, she meant. At least that’s what he hoped she meant. Brian smiled. “Yeah. That, too.”

They sat and stared at each other like a pair of idiots for a minute. Then Kerry’s eyes flicked over his shoulder, and her smile disappeared. She looked apologetic.

“Brian, I have to go.”

He nodded, acting like he wasn’t disappointed even though his gut sank. “Oh. Sure. Right, of course. I guess I should go, too.”

Kerry extricated her fingers from his and stood. “Thanks for the tea. And the talk. It was really great catching up with you. We should get together again some time.”

Brian stood, too, wondering where it had gone wrong. She was looking at him with wary eyes, her smile definitely fake. Even after all these years, Brian could tell the difference.

“Sure. That would be great. I’ll call you.”

“You do that.” She sounded like she meant it, but she didn’t quite meet his eyes. “Thanks for the … I already said that.”

“It’s okay.” He forced a laugh and stood awkwardly as she moved around the table.

He thought she might hug him, but she didn’t even give him the one-armed social embrace she’d given him earlier. She patted his shoulder almost like an afterthought. She made a phone of her thumb and pinky and held it to her ear, then pointed at him. He nodded.

Then she left.

Brian didn’t turn to watch her go. That wouldn’t be a ticket to Lametown; that would be a first-class pass to Loserville. For one. He gathered the trash, threw it away and then took his mug back to the counter. All of that business took maybe five minutes, long enough for her to hightail it down the street and make the escape she’d seemed set on, so when he stepped out of the front of the coffee shop and saw her standing there, ready to come back in, he said the first thing that came to mind.

“What are you still doing here?”

Someone was behind him, trying to get out. Someone was behind her, waiting to get in. They were making a logjamb in the doorway, and both Brian and Kerry moved away at the same time. They ended up on the sidewalk a few feet from the door.

“Brian, I—”

“Kerry—”

Both stopped. Laughed. Brian wiggled his fingers, telling her to go first. Kerry took a deep breath and looked into his eyes.

“About that night,” she started and said nothing else.

It wasn’t right to talk about this in the middle of the sidewalk, right out in public, but they had no other place to go. Brian took her upper arm gently and led her to under the awning of the natural foods market next to the coffee shop. Nobody was going in or out of there. The bright sun didn’t reach beneath the awning. Shadows painted her face. He wished he could take a picture, just then, but settled for trying to memorize it.

“I’m not sorry about it,” she said.

“Me neither.” That was an understatement.

“And it really was good to see you again, Brian. I mean it. This was so much like old times … but better, somehow. Maybe because we’re grown-ups. I thought maybe that what happened would get rid of some of that old tension.”

“Did it?”

She shook her head and gave him a more genuine smile. “No. Not at all. If anything, it made it worse.”

He’d been holding his breath and now let it out in a rush. “Yeah. Yeah, it’s all … Kerry, it’s all I’ve been thinking about. You. You and me. And—”

She shook her head, and Brian shut up. “Just one night, remember?”

“Why does it have to be?”

She blinked rapidly and drew in a breath. “Brian, I have a boyfriend.”

The earth moved, and not in the good way. In a very, very bad way. Acid lurched from his guts into his throat, burning. Making it impossible to speak, though his mouth opened. Brian took a step back.

Boyfriend?

Of course Kerry Grayson had a boyfriend. Of course she did. Why wouldn’t she? Why would a woman as amazing as her be single? Just because Brian hadn’t been able to commit to any woman for longer than a few months made him a screwup, not Kerry.

“Brian. Wait.”

He hadn’t really been paying attention to his feet taking him away until her voice stopped him. He didn’t turn. Her hand touched his sleeve, and he wanted to pull away but didn’t.

“I’m sorry, Brian. It’s not what you think.”

He shrugged. Started walking. “I don’t think anything. I’ll see you around.”

Or not.

“Brian!”

He’d made it all the way to his car before she caught up to him. “He knows.”

He stopped, not looking at her. “He knows what?”

“My boyfriend,” Kerry said in a low, sad voice. “He knew that I’d had this … thing … for you forever, and so he just told me to go for it.”

He turned. “Just go for it? Your boyfriend told you to sleep with me?”

“He was okay with it.”

Brian swallowed bitterness. “Good for him.”

“Hey,” she said softly. “I’m sorry. I just thought, you know. One night. That it wouldn’t matter. I didn’t think you’d call me.”

“Why wouldn’t I, Kerry? I mean … God.” Brian scraped a hand through his hair, hating the way it fell over his eyes. “I thought … never mind.”

“Brian. I’m sorry. I really am. But this doesn’t mean we can’t be friends, does it?” She tugged his sleeve, and for one moment he thought she was going to take his hand. At the last minute, she let hers fall. “I mean … we used to be friends.”

“That was a long time ago.” It came out sounding harsher than he meant it. No, scratch that. It sounded exactly as harsh as he meant it to.

She got a look he remembered. A tiny crease between her eyebrows, a slight downward tilt of the corners of her mouth. He’d pissed her off, hurt her feelings. Well, too bad.

Kerry lifted her chin. “So … in other words, it was just a sex thing? If you can’t fuck me, you don’t want to have anything to do with me, is that it?”

That wasn’t it. Not even close. Brian shrugged in reply rather than say so out loud.

She moved closer. She wasn’t wearing heels as high as the night of the reunion, but she managed to get up in his face, just the same. “That’s really shitty, you know that?”

“Worse than cheating on your boyfriend?” Brian shot back, stung because what she’d said would’ve been true if that was his reason.

“I didn’t cheat on him.” She paused. “I didn’t cheat on
you
, either.”

Her words punched him in the gut. He couldn’t look her in the eye, afraid to be what Kerry was. Honest. Forthright. If he looked at her, she’d make him say what he was thinking, which was that was exactly how it had felt. Like she’d cheated on him.

“So … that’s it? We fucked, now we can’t be friends? Did you ask me to meet you for coffee just because you thought you’d get in my pants?”

“It wasn’t like that,” Brian said in a low voice.

She laughed without humor. “Right. That’s why you can’t even look me in the face.”

The day was too bright for this sort of conversation. Too many people were around, walking back and forth. He really should get in his car and drive away, forget this whole mess.

“Look at me,” Kerry said.

He did, reluctantly but helpless not to. She was frowning, her arms crossed. Then, surprising him, she took him by the tie and tugged him down to her level.

“If that’s all that matters to you, Brian, then here it is. Take it.”

And she kissed him.