Island Idyll (7 page)

“You don’t belong where?” Sienna asked.

“Here. With you and him.”

“Of course you do.” He belonged with her. “We arranged to meet here.”

“Did you arrange to meet him too?” Josh asked.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she gasped. “I didn’t know he was here.”

“Yet you happily allowed him to bring you to orgasm,” Josh pointed out, anger echoing through his words.

Her silence accentuated her guilt, and the tiny quivers still echoing through her pussy only worsened the situation. “Because I thought he was you,” she whispered in shame.

“You would have let me do that to you? Out here?”

“I did let you.” Heat crept into her cheeks. “It, uh, just wasn’t you.”

“No, it was your fiancé,” Josh said bitterly.

Fiancé? Ben’s words reverberated through her mind.

Come home, baby.

Come back to me.

Impossible. He couldn’t really have meant that, could he? She shook her head. “He’s not my fiancé. We broke up.” Hadn’t she told Josh that earlier? Hadn’t they fought about it?

“I want to be your fiancé again,” Ben told her. “I want to marry you.”

Good grief, maybe he was serious. “You w-want to marry me?” The idea made her heart stand still. Made it stop beating. Made hope flare in her belly.

This was Ben, the man she’d loved for eight years, telling her he still wanted to marry her. Even though she’d left him.

Ben. Dear, wonderful, sexy, gorgeous Ben.

“With my entire being,” Ben said.

Josh tugged again, reminding her he was there. Reminding her how he’d played havoc with her heartbeat earlier. How he’d made her belly flip-flop with desire.

“What about Josh?” she asked Ben.

“What about him?” Ben asked, as though Josh had no importance in her life.

The question made her bristle. She’d lusted after Josh for five years as a kid, and she’d lusted after him again this afternoon. More than that, something had clicked between them today. Fallen into place. Over the few hours they’d spent together, Josh had come to mean something to her. Ben’s dismissal of him got her back up.

“He’s important to me.” She looked up at Josh, knowing with absolute certainty that she spoke the truth.

Josh seemed to relax. He ceased tugging against her hold and took a step closer.

Ben, on the other hand, pursed his lips. She couldn’t see the little lines she was sure edged that grimace, but his anger and dissatisfaction were clear. They radiated off him in waves.

“And me?” Ben asked. “Am I no longer important to you?”

God, she wished she could say no, not anymore. But she’d be lying if she did. “Of course you are.” The words were wrenched from her soul. She didn’t want to admit them. Didn’t want Ben to know he still had this hold over her. But he did, and denying it was impossible.

Then why would she not let go of Josh’s arm?

“Marry me, Sienna,” Ben said. “Let’s put this hell behind us. We can go back to having what we had before.”

Sienna’s anger billowed out. Shock had held it in check up until now, but suddenly she couldn’t avoid it. She’d left Ben. Put him behind her. Made sure she was moving on. And what had he done? Ruined everything she’d strived so hard to accomplish. Ignored the efforts she’d made to change her world. Come stampeding back into her life, begging her to marry him, again!

Not fair. So not fair. His pleas undermined her will, her wishes.

“Before what?” she bit out. “Before you chose to work twelve-hour days, every day? Before your weekends became work days too? Before you cancelled every arrangement I made for us? Before you started skipping dinners and breakfasts, just so you could get to work on time? Before you forgot I was in your life, waiting for you? Day in, day out? Before all that, you mean?”

Josh’s response startled her. He took the hand that had been grasping his wrist in a death grip and held it in his own hand. Offering her…comfort?

She accepted it. Happily. Needing something to hold onto, some sense of stability in the madness that Ben was creating.

“You’re angry.” Ben nodded, accepting her outburst. “You have every right to be. My behavior was unforgivable. My neglect of you…abhorrent. I know that. I understand what I put you through, because these months without you have been intolerable. And lonely. So damn lonely.” He choked out the last words.

Did he want her sympathy? Tough! He wasn’t about to find it here. “Whose fault is that?” She didn’t wait for his reply. “How the hell do you think I felt all those times you had to work? All those times I pleaded with you to spend a little time together, and you said no? You think the loneliness wasn’t unbearable? You think it didn’t break my heart?” Uh-uh. Too subtle. “You think
you
didn’t break my heart?” Her hand shook as she pointed at him, jabbing his chest with her finger. “
You
broke us.
You
broke you and me. If you’re feeling a little lonely now, there’s only one person to blame.”

Ben’s groan was guttural. “You’re right. About everything. I fucked up. I broke us. And I was too damn blind to understand it at the time.” He rapped his chest. “It was my fault.”

He fell silent, as if the words he’d spoken had cost him. It took a few seconds before he continued, and when he did his voice was stronger, more determined. More like the Ben she knew, the man she’d fallen in love with. “I made a mistake, now I’m correcting it. Making things right between us.”

She almost scoffed out loud. “Sure. And how do you plan to do that?”

“I’ve cut back my workload,” Ben said. “Taken on fewer clients. I’ve even told John I’ll be spending less hours at the office. He approved it all.” Ben squared his shoulders. “I’m fixing what I broke. Making things okay for us. We can be okay. Things will be different from now on. I’ll be there for you. For us.”

Sienna stared at him, stupefied. “Honestly?” Ben had never tried to cut back his load. Ever. Instead he’d pleaded and apologized, promised to make it up to her. He’d never promised to work less. Yet now…

“Honestly, baby. I had a new contract drawn up, specifying the maximum number of hours I’m prepared to spend at the office. I would have come earlier, told you about it in Newie, but the contract took time because of negotiations. I didn’t want to see you until I had something solid and real to offer.”

Her anger disintegrated as quickly as it had appeared. Tears welled in her eyes. Three months after they’d broken up, Ben had finally come to his senses. He’d finally offered her, on a silver platter, everything she’d dreamed about for the preceding year. Everything she’d wanted.

This was it. Now. In front of her. If she reached out her hand she could take it. They could go back to the life she and Ben had planned to spend together.

God, she wanted that. She’d wanted it for eight years. Wanted it until her heart had broken into a million pieces.

Joy filled her chest.

She reached out to accept it. To say yes. To take back the future she’d thought lost forever—but found her hand trapped.

Josh held it, and he wasn’t letting go.

“Josh?” She looked at him questioningly.

Was she asking for her hand…or for his approval? Because if he freed her hand and she gave it to Ben, then whatever she and Josh might have had would be no longer. In a heartbeat she’d lose the chance she’d wanted with him her whole high school career.

The chance she’d grabbed wholeheartedly this afternoon.

“He’s feeding you a line,” Josh said with cool disapproval. “He wants you back, and he’ll do whatever he can to get you.” He shrugged. “I don’t blame him. I’ve only had you for a few hours and I’m loath to lose you.”

“Feeding me a line?” Ben? Could he be capable of that?

“Damn straight.” Josh nodded. “He’s telling you what you want to hear, because it’s the only way of getting what he wants.”

Josh had a point. The only thing that could ever convince Sienna to go back to Ben was the promise of less of his time spent at work. But was it a line, or was it the truth?

“Si,” Ben said. “I neglected you this last year.
I
know that, and it kills me every fucking time I think about it. But I never lied to you. I will never lie to you.
You
know that. You know me.”

She did know Ben. If he said he had a new contract, he had a new contract. He’d organized it for her. For them.

God, he’d changed his work habits. For her.

Again she reached out to accept his offer, but this time, more than holding her hand in his, Josh tugged on it, hard enough to pull her up off the bench. The second she was upright he caught her in his arms, pulling her flush against his body, his chest pressing against her breasts.

And there went her heart. Racing in five different directions at the same time. At least that was what it felt like. Her breathing became erratic again, and heat flooded her pussy.

Dear God. Her pussy? Aroused at a time like this?

“You want to go back to him? Then go,” Josh said. “I won’t stop you. I won’t get in your way. But you have to take those steps. You have to walk away from me in order to get to him. Can you do that?”

Without waiting for her response, he kissed her. With the full force of his Josh Lie-With-Me mouth. His lips consumed, his tongue seduced and his body molded to hers, reminding her of every delicious pleasure they’d shared that afternoon. Every mind-blowing orgasm, every titillating tease. Every laugh he’d wrung out of her and every tear she’d held inside upon learning about this childhood.

One afternoon, and they’d made magic together. Shared a wealth of intimacies. A treasure she only wanted to discover more of.

She kissed him right back, explored his mouth as he’d explored hers, pressed her aching pussy against his hardening cock, rubbing, seeking the pleasure, the release she knew he could give.

She’d waited a lifetime for Josh to acknowledge her, to want her, and now that he had, she couldn’t let go of him, couldn’t walk away. Didn’t want to.

When his mouth finally released hers, his breath came in short, sharp puffs. His erection pulsed against her clit, and his chest rose and fell unevenly—just like hers.

“Walk away, princess,” he whispered. “If you can.”

She shook her head, but before words could form in her mouth, telling him she couldn’t and she didn’t want to, hands fastened around her shoulders and twirled her around, out of Josh’s grasp.

“She doesn’t have to walk,” Ben snapped at Josh. “I’ll take her.”

And take her he did, straight into another kiss, just as forceful and just as exquisite as Josh’s. Sienna could have objected, could have said no. If she’d wanted to.

She didn’t.

She hadn’t kissed Ben for months. The sweet, chocolaty taste of him—he’d always tasted like chocolate to her—swept through her, through her senses, taking her back to the time when she’d been happiest. When she and Ben had been perfect together. When they’d finished each other’s sentences, laughed at the same silly jokes, watched the same TV programs, fought over politics and torn off each other’s clothes with abnormal speed. The weekends spent naked in bed, separating only to sleep, eat or shower. Making love before sunrise—and before sunset.

And the love. The pure, whole untarnished love of two people. Ben and Sienna. Sienna and Ben.

She tasted it all in Ben’s mouth. Longed for it again. Yearned for it. Wanted what they’d lost in the rise of Ben’s professional aspirations. She’d loved Ben for a long time. She still did. Heartbreak and heartache had driven them apart, but still she loved him. Probably always would.

Kissing him brought back every cherished memory she had of him, every iota of passion she’d tried so damn hard to repress.

Already primed from Josh’s kiss, and still wet from the orgasm Ben had given her when she thought he was Josh, Sienna was as aroused as she’d ever been. More.

Two men wanted her. Two men lusted after her. Two men she wanted and lusted after.

A jerk pulsed through her when a pair of hands settled on her hips. While Ben’s mouth devoured hers, the taste of chocolate rich and sweet on her tongue, Josh tugged gently, pulling her ass backwards by mere inches, until it rested against his pelvis, his erection pressing between her butt cheeks.

Just like Ben’s had when she thought he was Josh.

She let him mold her to his shape, pressed back against him, wanting him there. Wanting him there as much as she wanted Ben in front of her.

God, she shouldn’t. She should choose one. Or the other. Not both. Not nestle into Josh as she kissed Ben. Not draw Ben’s tongue into her mouth as she rubbed against Josh’s dick.

“Kiss him,” Josh said in her ear. “Enjoy his mouth. But when you come, know who gave you this orgasm, because this time it won’t be your fiancé.”

O-orgasm? This time? What the—?

Before the thought could solidify, Ben tore his mouth from Sienna’s. “Touch her—and die!”

Ben’s warning held such malice, Sienna stepped back, straight into Josh. He clamped his arms around her waist, steadying her.

“A little late for intimidation, don’t you think?” Josh asked, his voice as sharp as Ben’s. “About three months too late?”

Ben’s hand tightened into a fist that he’d raised before Sienna could blink.

Shit. He was going to throw a punch.

“Ben,” she snapped. “Stop it. Now.” Her head spun. He was willing to fight Josh for her? The same man who hadn’t had time to eat breakfast with her in the mornings was now gearing up for a brawl?

Breathing hard, Ben glared at Josh. “Give me a reason not to hit him, Si. One reason. That’s all.”

“You’ll hurt your hand?” Josh suggested sarcastically.

“Josh,” Sienna chastised. She’d never seen Ben quite this agitated. In his current state, he could easily blacken Josh’s eye, or break his nose, or worse. The last thing he needed was Josh egging him on. The last thing she needed was the two men coming to blows.

“One reason, Si.” Ben shook, and Sienna knew it was from the effort he used to restrain himself.

“Fine. Do it, princess,” Josh said, backing down. “Give him the reason—if you can find one.”

Sienna didn’t need Josh’s permission, but it helped knowing she had it. And she did have a reason for Ben not to hit Josh. A good reason. He’d hate himself afterward, he really would. Despite this new, agitated side of him, he was still Ben.