Island Idyll (6 page)

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?

Chapter Seven

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.