Anything but Vanilla (6 page)

‘Spare bedroom’s on the first floor,’ he said.

Kara’s heart plummeted into her gut.

‘Right.’ She might not be so eager to run, but Ric obviously felt differently. While he wasn’t about to turf her out, the party was definitely over. His whole mien had changed. He’d clammed up so tight the strain showed around his eyes. ‘Goodnight,’ he managed to croak as he left the study.

Kara took a breath but held back the tart retort that sat on her tongue. ‘Yeah, right,’ she whispered to herself as she climbed the stairs a few moments later. She was so going to sleep well after that mine had just blown up in her face. Alaric Liddell might be a damn good fuck but apparently he also had a chip the size of his blasted island on his shoulders about engaging in post-coital intimacy. Shame, because she’d rather been looking forward to laying her head down next to his on a pillow.

Ric lingered on the stairs watching the guest room door. He knew the exact move to make to turn what had been a fabulous evening into an all-night lust fest. It would start with an apology and include room for grovelling and penance. Only one thing stopped him – he’d made this mistake before, rushed in before he’d really judged a character and lived to regret it. A playful smile didn’t necessary equate to a great long-term lover. Sometimes, it didn’t matter how plain he made it that he was in this for fun and nothing more; as soon as he turned up the heat, women expected emotions to follow.

The idea of exposing himself to that level of intimacy set a shiver racing down his spine. Ric folded his arms before him. He took a deep breath and forced himself along the corridor, head down, absolutely not straining his neck to look back over his shoulder at what could still be, if he simply knocked upon the guest room door.

Don’t be a fool
. Kara North might be a very welcome addition to Liddell Island; she looked good, smelled better and, boy, did she make a good after-dinner guest, but he absolutely wasn’t looking for a permanent fixture in his life.

Still, he only crossed the threshold of his room once he’d seen her light blink out. Much as the idea of company enticed him, intruding on a person’s sleep overstepped certain boundaries, and, if all you were offering was one night of no-strings sex, it moved you firmly into dickhead territory.

Ric stripped off in the dark, leaving his clothes in a heap upon the floor. Sleeping apart was for the best. It meant that come morning they’d part company with no further expectations of one another. It might not constitute the most comfortable arrangement, but at least he hadn’t helped to generate any false hopes on her part. She wouldn’t be the first lover he’d had that had called him a bastard for laying things out straight. He’d wait and see how she settled down on the island before he even thought of claiming his prize.

Ric grinned as he flopped on to the pillows anticipating that future date. The memory of Kara’s long legs and the silk-smooth grip of her pussy still made him feel warm and fuzzy.

Sometimes he liked to imagine he could get by without sex. That he could genuinely lock himself up in this fort and not bother with the world outside. But he’d tried celibacy once. Gone stir crazy in a matter of weeks and then ended up wanking himself stupid, before hitting Torquay as though he meant to shag every inhabitant. Few good memories existed of that weekend. Not so this evening. He’d hardly believed his luck when he opened the door to find her peeping in at him from the gloom like some sort of sea sprite.

She had an earthy sort of beauty: faerie-like angularity set within an oval face, the delicate bone structure combined with a wide, giving mouth. Everything about that mouth said she was a girl who liked to suck. Maybe he should have pressed more to find out. In his mind’s eye, he pictured her crouched over him, ready to dip her head and pull him deep.

Not that he was ready to hand over that sort of power. He had issues on that score already.

Ric instantly switched the scenario in his head, imagining her sitting, him standing. He cupped her bounteous breasts together, while he thrust his cock into the soft chasm between them. Every time his shaft peeped from between her breasts Kara dipped her chin and licked the tip of his cock.

Damn – his hand closed around his shaft and began to pump – it’d been too long since he’d met a woman willing to roll with her desires. The last few he’d become embroiled with had been ridiculously coy and swore they wanted nothing but vanilla sex. Not so Kara. It hadn’t mattered what he’d suggested, she’d gone with it. She’d let him lead, and trusted him enough to guarantee her pleasure.

Fuck! This was no good. Ric snatched his hands away from his crotch. He clenched his fists by his sides. Now he was randy as a satyr again, with only his palm to relieve him. Well, his palm and a few toys he liked to torture himself with. There were loops of silk cord knotted around the posts of his bed for good reason and they were fuck all to do with being tied up. Ric preferred restrictions to restraints. He preferred to keep his hands away from his cock. Wanking oneself was altogether too easy, too addictive and just didn’t relieve any of the strain.

That which is harder to attain is always more rewarding
. Saying it didn’t help with the cockstand he was facing. Ric splayed his fingers over the eiderdown. He lay breathing in a steady rhythm for several moments, but his erection wasn’t going away. Masturbating would be a poor substitute for the gorgeous woman occupying the bed across the hall, but with any luck it might get him to sleep tonight.

You sad bastard.

He stretched sidewards to open the top drawer in the bedside table, only for his phone to buzz just as he closed his hand around a bottle of lube. He kept hold of the lube, and answered the phone with his free hand. ‘Yeah,’ he drawled into the receiver.

‘We need to talk,’ the husky voice of his favourite fuck buddy purred into his ear.

Shit! Not now.
‘I can’t imagine what about.’

A deep sigh reached him from the other end of the phone line. ‘Cut the bollocks, Ric. We’ve known each other too long. Credit me with some brains.’

‘Fine. I assume this is why you’re not over here now.’ They had a semi-regular date. Shagathon Sunday, Zach had once branded it. It would certainly have been that if Kara had arrived in the middle of what they normally got up to. Considering her reaction to that group shot, he didn’t think she’d have balked at a threesome with two guys.

Ric flicked open the top of the lube and slathered it over his hungry dick. ‘Wouldn’t this have been more appropriate face to face?’ he asked sweetly.

There was a lip-chewing pause on the other end of the line, before Zach’s deep voice rumbled, ‘I know what happens when I come near you.’

‘You come,’ he quipped in return. ‘Isn’t that the whole point? That’s what fuck buddies do.’

‘Stop calling me that.’

Ric formed a ring with his fingers and began to work his cock. The silky lube made for an extra-smooth glide that eased his overwrought nerves. Now he had two lovely images in his head. One of Kara’s cunt clasping him, and one of Zach’s delightfully wicked tongue lighting up an array of very sensitive nerve-endings.

‘Shit! Are you with someone?’ Zach cursed.

The sounds of his self-loving must have reached Zach’s ears, or maybe it was the catch in his breath each time his palm rubbed over his glans. ‘Not just at the minute, but the new owner of Beachcomber’s Barn has arrived. She’s staying in my guest room,’ Ric confessed.

‘You fucking …’ Zach’s words trailed off. ‘Uh!’

Ric refused to let the frustration in Zach’s voice rile him. He hadn’t changed in any way. Zach was the one suddenly murmuring about commitment after years of them enjoying a very casual and open relationship. They’d always had other partners. ‘Shall I tell you about her?’ He deliberately made his voice low and sexy. They often traded sexual encounter stories. Sometimes it really helped to set the mood.

‘What else do I need to know, beside the fact that you fucked her?’

‘Hey, needs must when your date doesn’t arrive. And you’re hardly a saint yourself.’

Several moments of uncomfortable silence stretched between them, during which all Ric could hear was the unsteady sound of Zach’s breaths. ‘You could still come over,’ he suggested. His cock pulsed at the idea, giving a little nod of approval.

‘Oh, yeah. I’m an idiot like that.’ Zach began to laugh. ‘You screwed it up, didn’t you? Just like normal. What did she tell you that you were – vermin, a bastard, a right fucking wanker? All of which are true, by the way.’

‘I did not screw anything up.’ Ric bristled. ‘I’ll have you know that my new tenant is a very amenable lady.’

‘You’re a fuckwit. And I’ll be amazed if she’s talking to you in the morning.’

Why was it so hard for people to accept the truth? ‘What’s so wrong with being honest?’ It was a shame more folks didn’t appreciate it. He didn’t pretend. He didn’t offer anything he wasn’t prepared to give. Zach had always understood that – well, until recently. If it had been anyone else bleating on about having a proper relationship, he’d have severed the damn thing on the spot. For some reason he hadn’t been able to do that to Zach, perhaps because they’d been together for so long.

Zach understood him, when few others did.

Zach had been there for him.

‘The problem isn’t with being honest,’ his lover patiently explained. ‘It’s with how you drop the bombshell. For someone with such ace seduction skills, you’re fucking awful at letting people down gently.’

Oh hell! They’d moved on from talking about Kara again. This was about to turn into another session of ‘Poor old Zach’ and how unfair it was that he wasn’t valued or appreciated, and how crass Ric was for not wanting something deep and meaningful.

‘Go on, call me some more names,’ Ric insisted, planning on derailing that line of talk before it started. ‘Purr those sexy thoughts into my ear.’

There was a pause, during which Zach clearly held the phone to his chest. The echoes of the snort he made still rumbled down the line. ‘I did not phone in order to get you off,’ Zach said peevishly, although Ric guessed that the guy was also smiling. ‘We need to have a proper talk, and, just so you know, it hurts to hear you’re still shagging around.’

‘So talk. I’m all ears.’ Ric tucked the phone receiver between his shoulder and ear, and then he grasped the silken cord above his head with one hand, while his other continued to provide vital life support to his needy dick. He used his strength to lift himself so that he was doing tiny pull-ups that caused his muscles to burn, and his erection to drum against his stomach each time he strained.

‘Tell me how you want it to be, Zach. Do we fuck more or less in your head, once you’ve wrung a confession of undying love out of me?’

‘What would you say if I said yes?’

‘I’d say describe it to me. Convince me. Prove to me that a dose of romanticism is going to help me get off.’

‘Ric, my sister’s in the next room.’

‘Then keep your voice low. Come on, Zach, talk to me. You know I like the sound of your voice, especially when it gets all low and husky.’ Breathless. That was the word. ‘How’s love gonna change things?’

It wouldn’t, as far as Ric was concerned, at least not in any positive way. It only meant he’d be beholden to someone in a way he didn’t wish to be. He’d been there before. The episode hadn’t really done a lot for him. He barely registered what Zach was saying. It didn’t matter. What was important was that just the suggestion that he was even considering the issue was enough to provoke the response he wanted out of Zach.

When Zach fell silent on the other end of the line, Ric knew it was because he was slowly sliding the teeth of his zip apart.

Ric waited, bating his breath. Prickles spread out with increasing urgency from his loins and crossed his belly and thighs. ‘Zach, are you still there?’

‘I’m here,’ Zach eventually said, in a ridiculously husky purr that fanned up the heat in Ric’s groin.

Ric strained against the cord, holding himself still in anticipation of his lover’s next words. He formed Zach’s image whole in his head. Brown hair falling in a haphazard fashion over his face, his teeth drawn into a pseudo snarl, while, lower down, his thick cock sprang up from its nest of wiry curls. Zach was pretty much hairy all over, but there was something especially appealing about the thatch around his loins.

‘I’m picturing us together. Your cock and mine, pressed close, like that time in the shower. Do you remember that time?’

‘Yeah.’

Rivulets of water had streamed over their bodies. White condensation had steamed up all the glass. They’d started off soaping one another, and getting hard because of it. Ric had wrapped his palm around both of their cocks and began working them together. In his head, he relived those slow, slow tugs upon his cock. The sensation of Zach’s cock rubbing smoothly against his own literally stole his breath away.

‘Do you remember what came next?’ Zach asked.

God, did he. The memory caused blood to surge into his loins. His balls grew tight as his erection surged.

Mostly, Ric preferred to fuck rather than be fucked, but once in a while, not very often at all, he’d consent to switching things around. That night in the shower had been one of those occasions. Zach had pinned him, face to the wall. His stomach had been pressed tight to the cold tiles, his cock sandwiched between their hardness and the desperate heat of his body. Zach had nuzzled up against the back of his neck. He’d rained kisses there, as he’d directed his cock to the ring of muscle he was desperate to try.

‘Remember how it felt. You were so goddamn tight that I could hardly move inside you. And like an inferno.’

Ric gripped the phone more tightly, hanging on to every word. He no longer held the silk cord, but concentrated on the swoop and swish of his palm riding up and down his cock. His hips began to lift. His stomach muscles cramped with each thrust. On the other end of the line, Zach’s breathing had become loud and breezy. But not so loud that it masked the sweet sound of his hand rubbing his dick.