Anything but Vanilla (10 page)

‘Is she buried here?’ Kara enquired. ‘I guess they were close if he wanted to stay here afterwards.’

Robin’s neat little brows furrowed again. ‘Devoted. They certainly fucked a lot, and she was very beautiful. I don’t think he could keep his hands off her. Hey.’ Her frown transformed into an impish grin. ‘You will share the deets about what he did to you, won’t you, because I’m literally dying to hear them.’

Oh, God
, thought Kara.
Oh, dear God
.
I seem to have hooked up with an obsessive
.

* * *

The route Robin took to Beachcomber Barn swept wide of the fort, so that they almost reached the western edge of Liddell Island before doubling back towards the south-facing cove. The barn seemed to have come to life since first thing that morning. With the external shutters drawn back, the penetrating sunlight gave all the interior wood a wonderfully buttery glow. There were still one or two cobwebs lurking in out-of-reach corners, but nothing a broom wouldn’t fix. In the kitchen, a large platter of fruit made a wonderful centrepiece for the old-fashioned wooden table. Ric had also left a demijohn of – potent by the smell of it – homebrewed cider and a tray of scones, clotted cream and jam.

Kara stared at the banquet and wondered if it was meant as a peace offering, or if he’d have made the effort regardless.

‘I’ll put the kettle on.’ Robin jumped to the task immediately. While Robin searched the cupboards for cups and began unpacking the shopping, Kara surreptitiously picked up the card that had also been left on the table. It said simply, ‘You still owe me. I will collect.’ While it wasn’t signed, clearly it had come from Ric. Evidently, having a snit over his bedroom arrangements didn’t get her off the hook from the sexual deal she’d made with him last night. More surprisingly, she was secretly thrilled. He had threatened to tie her up and roger her mercilessly, the prospect of which warmed her sex. A fact she intended to keep to herself.

She did wonder if the loss of his wife was the reason behind his post-coital coldness. If they’d been very much in love, and he’d been that emotionally bruised, then that could explain why he avoided relationships. It wasn’t the sort of thing you could explain to someone you were shagging either. Like ‘Oh, by the way, my wife died, so don’t expect me to be affectionate.’

Kara tucked the card into her pocket and sat down in time for Robin to thump two steaming mugs down on the pitted table.

‘The jam’s mine,’ Robin explained as they tucked into the scones. ‘I make vats of the stuff every year. I pick the berries off the bushes that grow on the island and then sell it at the Bunker. That’s the shop in the bay.’

‘I know. I’ve been there.’ Kara took a huge bite of her scone that caused jam and cream to splurge everywhere. ‘They should sell these there too,’ she said, thinking back to her ice-cream breakfast. ‘Everyone would come. And they ought to invest in some tables, so that customers could sit down properly and admire the view.’ She’d suggest it to Zach when he came by later. It’d breathe some life into the place. Maybe he could even clear out the tat and open up as a café, and consider providing intimate candlelit dinners of an evening.

‘Hm, maybe.’ Robin seemed less enthralled by the idea of decent dining. Possibly because, judging from the jam, she didn’t suffer from Kara’s ineptitude in the kitchen. Cupping her pointed chin in the V she formed with her hands, Kara’s new friend gazed at her with dreamy expectation. ‘About Alaric.’

The scrutiny caused Kara to twitch uncomfortably. While she’d enjoyed Ric’s attentions, she’d never been one to talk about her sex life, and sharing such details with a virtual stranger struck her as plain weird. It would be like comparing operation scars, or birthing stories, or making a sordid, guilt-ridden confession to a sex addicts’ support class. The very place her mother would be marching her to if she caught so much as a whisper of what she’d been up to since her break-up with Gavin. Besides, it was disquieting enough to know that other island folk, beside her and Ric, knew about the tryst. First Zach, now Robin – had a bulletin gone out that she’d got down and dirty with the local lord?

‘How come the house is furnished?’ she asked, in order to derail Robin’s salacious need for details.

‘Huh?’ Robin snapped out of her expectant daze. The resulting jerk made her stool rock, and dipped the ends of her hair into her tea. ‘Oh, that’s normal for the few properties there are here.’ She dried off her hair with the end of the tea towel. ‘It’s so difficult to get furniture out here, even the flat-packed crap, that everything is included in the sale.’

Presumably Chris had known that when he’d made the purchase. She’d Skype him later and tell him anyway. Let him know everything looked fine, though she’d skip asking him if he’d been aware of the
droit du seigneur
clause in the contract. The thought of talking sex with her baby brother was even ickier than discussing it with Robin.

‘More tea?’ Robin asked, rising to reheat the kettle.

‘Actually, no. If you don’t mind, I’d like to make a start on sorting things out. And I could really use a bath.’ She wanted a chance to pamper herself a bit before Zach arrived after work.

Robin looked downcast for a moment, only for her pretty smile to reassert itself. ‘I could help with that. I can run the water, while you get undressed. I could help with other things too, like … you know.’

Kara was about to refuse help with her unpacking, when Robin began to gesture downwards with two fingers. When Kara continued to stare at Robin in confusion, the other woman pushed her curled fingers between her thighs to make the offer more obvious.

‘Um …’ Kara squeaked in alarm. ‘Um, no. Actually, I don’t think I need any help with that.’ Masturbation had been a mainstay of her relationship when work kept her and Gavin apart. Interestingly, it hadn’t been necessary since. Being single had rather pepped up her sex life.

Robin’s smile didn’t waver. ‘I wasn’t suggesting you did, but it’s not exactly relaxing, is it, rubbing away at oneself? Why go to the effort when you’ve a perfectly good offer in hand? Think of it like you would any other chore. You’d totally go for it if I offered to do your ironing, right?’

‘It’s not really the same,’ Kara muttered. Where the hell had this come from? She hadn’t picked up any sexual vibes being beamed in her direction.

‘Well, believe me, I know my way around girly parts far better than I do an ironing pile. Think about it. You’ll be all relaxed and ready for when Alaric comes over.’

‘Eh?’ Hang on. Kara was about to ask how Robin knew that Zach was coming over, when she realised that Zach hadn’t actually been mentioned. ‘Ric’s not coming over.’

‘Duh, honey, didn’t you see his card?’

Fabulous! Apparently, even the content of her mail was public knowledge. Not that Ric’s message had given any indication about a time or place. Then again, the deal they’d brokered had specified anytime, anyplace – shit! She couldn’t have Ric turning up whenever he wanted, because she’d arranged for Zach to be here.

The swell of panic must have shown on her face, because Robin crushed her into an enormous hug. ‘I’m going to run you that bath. You look ever so strung out. Here –’ she uncorked the homebrew and poured Kara a glass ‘– get this inside you. It’ll help you relax. I’ll go rustle up some bubbles and then we can work on your tension.’

Kara dutifully drank the cider, which left her faintly buzzing, then went to the master bedroom to strip off. She couldn’t have Ric and Zach both turning up, not even knowing that they’d shared intimacies in the past, because she simply wasn’t brazen enough to suggest a threesome, and anything else would be excruciatingly awkward.

Not that she didn’t fancy them both, or together. It just seemed a tad unlikely to happen, even here on Nookie Island. First off, though, she had Robin to get rid of. She’d have to be firm with her.

* * *

When Kara charged into the bathroom, Robin was kneeling by the side of the ancient claw-footed tub. She’d taken off her little bolero jacket and draped it over the doorknob. Both her hands were swishing about in the froth of bubbles on top of the water.

‘It’s all ready. Bathrobe off and jump in. I can look the other way if you want. We can just chat for a bit.’

Feeling decidedly prudish, Kara still hesitated. She never worried about how men would view her body, but women were always far more critical. They always focused on the bits that weren’t as toned as they ought to be, or that waxing had missed. The last time she’d stripped entirely naked before another woman she’d been pre-teen. Her figure was fuller now, curved and soft in some places, a little skinny in others. Guys seemed to appreciate that.

Robin gave her a cheeky, dimpled smile. ‘Am I giving you palpitations? That’s definitely going in my diary. Come on. Don’t be scared.’ She lifted one hand free of the water in order to beckon her over. ‘I’ve got the water just right.’

Somewhat exasperated, but at a loss over how to get rid of her new friend, Kara climbed into the high-sided bath, the true dimensions of which she hadn’t appreciated until she sank back in the water and the bubbles reached over her shoulders, completely covering her nakedness. Robin had indeed judged the temperature perfectly.

Kara closed her eyes and wallowed. Bubbles tickled the back of her neck as they burst, and swirling currents rode against her thighs. Slowly, as the heat began to permeate her skin, she realised how tightly some of her muscles were wound. Vigorous sex had given her an intensive workout and her body was feeling the strain. If she kept it up, she’d be sleek as a panther.

Her worry over the chances of both men arriving together diminished too. In actuality, it was quite unlikely. It wasn’t as if she’d specified six o’clock sharp to them both. Rather, she’d allowed Robin’s obsession with Ric to affect her judgement.

‘So, I’m thinking that you’re not going to share.’

The sound of Robin’s voice cracked through Kara’s thoughts. She opened her eyes to find Robin gazing at her with her head cocked to one side.

‘I hoped you were a talker, but I can see you’re not. Maybe if I talk you can just nod your head and
mmm
if I’m on the right track?’

Kara had almost forgotten that Robin’s hands were still in the water until a soap-slicked palm slid up her left leg.

‘Where were you? I need to set the scene. Bedroom, his studio, the lounge?’

Something must have flickered through her expression, for Robin settled on the last, though it was more accurately a study than a lounge. Odd that Robin didn’t know that. However, the thought bounded away from her as, seconds later, Robin’s fingers danced among her pubic curls.

Robin ignored her stiff jerk of surprise. ‘Just open your legs a bit,’ she insisted, and gave Kara’s thighs an encouraging push, until her legs were spread wide enough to comfortably accommodate Robin’s questing hand. The tip of one finger stroked against her pussy lips, causing Kara to make a half-choked mewl. She loved the way men explored her cunt with their big blunt-tipped fingers, and how they’d be a fraction too rough in their eagerness to get to the good parts. Robin adopted a far softer approach. She didn’t push at all, instead she stuck to gentle caresses that encouraged Kara’s body to open up and reveal its secrets.

‘Hmm, I think you’re a little tender down here. I hear a good fuck can do that, and I know Alaric can get a little vigorous. That’s why we need to get you all relaxed again.’

‘How do you know?’ Kara was tempted to ask. Robin had admitted she had no first-hand experience with Ric, which rather suggested a more suspect method of obtaining that information. Kara had a sudden vision of Robin lying on a cliff-top with a pair of binoculars clamped to her face, or maybe even a camera with a telescopic lens. The thought caused the muscles in her abdomen to cramp. Her nipples stood up too, like crooked towers that crested the surface of the water. Robin unfortunately took that as a sign of arousal.

‘Hold still. Let me find the soap.’

Kara started to relax, thinking that Robin meant to spend some time actually bathing her; only her hand remained over Kara’s mons as she wrestled the bar of soap out of the water and brought it to her nose to give it a good sniff.

‘Excellent,’ she pronounced. ‘Unscented. This’ll do the trick.’

The precise nature of the trick, Kara dared not ask. It became apparent when the firm edge of the soap swept along the seam of her labia. Unlike the sweeps of Robin’s fingers, this pressure was more insistent. It caught her clit, causing joy to stab through her pleasure centres, as it stroked back and forth, slicking her folds until she was completely open to the assault.

Kara instinctively rocked her hips.

‘That’s right, honey. Just there, isn’t it? I told you I was good at this. Imagine what Alaric could do with a bar of soap.’

She did. She knew without question that he’d photograph himself soaping her all over. Then he’d shag her on the tiled floor so that they slid about together, hardly able to hold on to one another properly.

‘Tell me what you’re seeing. Tell me what he did.’

Kara kept her lips sealed. Ric would make her talk, but Robin didn’t possess that power, even if she had cajoled her into this.

Just then, the curved end of the bar caught the underside of Kara’s clit at such a perfect angle that her hips bucked upwards seeking repetition. Oh, God! It was perfect. Just the right place, the perfect pressure, coupled with that delicious glide. If she ever wanted to come fast, this would be the way to achieve it. Short sharp strokes that lavished attention on her clit and seemed to make that organ swell and form boundless connections with nerves all across her body.

‘Kara,’ her new friend begged. ‘Please. Just tell me how it was between you. I’m not looking for anything else. Did he stroke you like this?’ Robin’s fingers linked with Kara’s. She drew their hands out of the water and then placed Kara’s hand upon her bare arm where it rested upon the rim of the bathtub. ‘One squeeze for yes and two for no. Let’s have a practice. Did he touch you like this with his fingers?’