The One Who Got Away

by Kristina Wright

  I shook my head, unable to explain that what I had with Sergio didn’t need the blessing of church or government.

  Ekaterina’s little sigh-growl vibrated through my body, then her lips covered mine.

  Bliss. Softer than Sergio’s, Trina’s kiss was like sinking into a familiar mattress. Comforting, like home. Then her tongue darted out and the familiar taste of orange Tic Tacs invaded. I needed her more than my next breath, like I’d spent the past ten years doing nothing but waiting for her to return.

  But I hadn’t. I was turned on and so furious that she’d waltz back in and pick up like she hadn’t eviscerated me. I’d prepared to push her away when the heavy metal door popped open once more, letting the raucous party music trickle out.

  “ Amore?”

  Shame curdled my stomach. Or maybe that was the vodka. With lust-fuzzy vision, I saw Sergio standing to our right, hands on his hips. The sides of his gray suit jacket pulled back to expose his lean torso and his crisp white shirt covered the muscles I knew by touch.

  Tears burned the rims of my eyes as I waited for his anger, his jealousy. As open-minded as he was, Sergio was also deliciously possessive. His hand shot out and I grasped it like a lifeline. He pulled me against his body. The door slammed closed behind him. While I shivered, I watched Trina blanch.

  “I thought…shit.” Her fingers clenched on empty air. The hollow laugh that followed almost made me want to hug her. “Add that to the list of apologies.” She turned to go, her bony shoulders hunched under the thin sky-blue sweater she wore.

  “Ekaterina, wait.” Sergio’s deep, lyrical voice startled us both. He left my side and Trina’s eyes widened as he walked to her, arm outstretched. “Have lunch with us tomorrow.” We both gaped at him, but Trina moved before I did, snatching at the business card he offered.

  “Why?” Her voice was strained, her eyes watery.

  An elegant shrug was her reply. “You are important to my Katie.”

  She transferred her attention to me. “Kotonok?” The hope in her voice tightened my throat until I could only nod in reply. With three deep breaths, I reminded myself how deeply I trusted Sergio. I could follow his lead. Maybe this would offer some kind of cathartic resolution with Trina, considering our last words to each other had been ugly and cruel.

  Like that had buoyed her, Trina stood tall and looked at the card. “I have rehearsal all day. Could we do dinner? I can take a cab over.”

  “Is the orchestra visiting New York?” The question was out of my mouth before I could think twice.

  She ignored me, instead waiting for Sergio’s answer. “Of course, bella. Does six work?”

  Trina nodded, then turned to go. “I’m with the New York Philharmonic now,” she tossed out before retreating into the night.

  We made sweet, frantic love that night after Sergio reassured me he wasn’t angry. No, he understood.

  “You still want her, amore. I see why.” Staccato thrusts pierced his statement. “I would be so hard, watching you together. Watching you kiss her. Watching you make love. Tasting you on her lips.”

  I had come so hard stars danced behind my eyes. Until tonight, it had all been pretend, keeping things exciting in the bedroom. Now it was real. Possibilities ringed rosy in my dreams until I woke, chest tight with anxious hope.

  The whole day I struggled to focus on my work. The only highlight was grabbing a quick lunch with Sergio—there were benefits to working in the same building, even if we were floors apart. Normally, our quick lunch bolstered me through the day, but today’s was fraught with tense undertones. Regardless, I loved knowing he was nearby, especially when tensions in Africa had our whole political affairs office in a frenzy.

  It seemed like I’d be able to escape on time, until a last-minute emergency crossed my inbox right before 6:00 p.m. Damn, I hated being late. Especially since I’d wanted a couple minutes alone with Sergio.

  No dice. When I stepped off the elevator at 6:12, his laughter caught my attention, quickly followed by a familiar giggle.

  They hadn’t caught sight of me, so I paused to watch my past and present lovers sitting next to each other on a couch in the lobby with their shoulders turned inward so they were almost facing each other.

  I waited for the pang of jealousy that usually gripped me when a beautiful woman set her sights on Sergio, but none came. They looked good together. Relaxed, natural. Instead of what I used to call her “plastic public smirk,” the guise Trina donned when performing on stage, she graced him with her true smile.

  They both caught sight of me at the same time and my body burned with need as I walked to them. Sergio ducked his head and whispered into Trina’s ear. Two hungry looks were leveled on me. I had never felt sexier in my life.

  Damn, he worked fast. To be fair, it had been the same with him and me.

  My panties fucking melted along with coherence. “Hi.” Lame. Well done, Katie. I capped it off with a little wave, even though they were both within touching distance.

  Sergio pulled me into a hug, planted a kiss on my forehead, then gestured to the door. I wanted a kiss from Trina, too.

  Walking the blocks between the office and one of our favorite dive restaurants did nothing to dissipate the building need in me. The little Mediterranean diner, run by three generations of a Lebanese family, had become an easy default meal when neither Sergio nor I felt like cooking. As a bonus, it was dimly lit and crowded, which provided a sense of privacy.

  Sergio gestured for me to take the inside of the booth, then maneuvered Ekaterina to follow. She scooted closer than was strictly necessary while he took the seat opposite me.

  Aban, the owner’s grandson, took our order, which Sergio rattled off: Massaya Classic wine and batata harra to start, followed by kofta kebabs and the delicious vegetarian stew with rice, bazella.

  “I’ll have the kofta kebabs too,” Trina added.

  “Really?” I looked at her out of the corner of my eye. She’d been a painfully picky eater in college, sticking with bland basics. “That’s lamb, you know.”

  I caught her rolling her eyes, then she elbowed me. “Ten years is a long time.”

  Understatement of the year.

  Sergio pulled us back from the lull in conversation and soon we were all chatting and laughing like three old friends, filling in the gaps of the past decade. She might have become a more adventurous eater, but Trina was the same bubbly, flirtatious bitch I’d fallen in love with. She scooted closer under the guise of getting to the batata harra, until her slim hip cozied up to my rounder one. She didn’t move even when the entrees were set down. My right side tingled from her body heat.

  We’d had enough wine that my defenses were down, and I had seen Ekaterina’s drunk-lazy smile enough through the meal to know she was probably buzzed too. While the conversation flowed and I heard tales of her time in Saint Petersburg’s famous orchestra, Trina’s hand settled on my thigh. I jumped, and got a popped eyebrow from Sergio. My skin flushed—he knew.

  Sergio maintained the dialogue while I closed my eyes and imagined her fingerprints searing into my skin so she would always be with me.

  “You are beautiful, kotonok. Soft.” Trina ran a finger up my thigh. “I want to touch you everywhere.”

  I gasped and tensed in the seat. Sergio leaned across the table until it seemed the world was just us three. “I had an enlightening conversation with the lovely Ekaterina while we waited for you.”

  She picked up the thread of conversation. “I didn’t believe you’d missed me. Sergio let me know he had been helping you remember our time together.”

  In the dim corner where we sat, her fingers skimmed across the swell of my breast beneath my staid green cardigan and cream silk shell. Scrabbling for a defense against her witchy touch, I said, “You can’t leave like you did and pick things up a fucking decade later!”

  Trina turned to Sergio. “Still has a dirty mouth, hmm?”

  He smirked. “Dirtier.”

  “Good,” s
he whispered in my ear. “I love hearing you talk dirty. And I want to apologize. Profusely. With my lips.” She nipped my earlobe and goose bumps exploded down my back. “And my fingers and tongue.”

  Lord, I was outnumbered. Hopelessly outmaneuvered. And to be honest…I didn’t want to fight. Why punish myself with more wet dreams, when I could have Trina, in the flesh, one more time?

  “Yes,” I said.

  * * *

  I don’t remember paying the bill or hopping in a cab or traveling across the bridge to the luxurious two-bedroom condo Sergio and I had purchased last year. Aside from Trina’s hands wandering my body, nothing hit my radar. And since this was New York, no one cared about a threesome snuggling in the back of a cab.

  Pressed between their bodies, I reclined against Sergio’s reassuring strength while Trina teased. Finally we arrived and poured from the cab, drunk on lust and wine.

  We stumbled up four flights of stairs to the top condo. As soon as Sergio unlocked the door, we burst through in a fit of flying clothing and grasping hands. I had peripheral awareness of him moving away to recline on the couch with a small glass of Vin Santo.

  Then Trina’s lips found mine and her almost-nude body pressed into my curves and everything winked out of existence. She traced the same paths Sergio would, but the rough calluses on the tips of her left-hand fingers hit nerves his work-soft hands didn’t, from neck to the V between my breasts to the round swell of my stomach to the dip of my waist. Trina clung to the soft flesh of my hips and thrust her knee between my legs.

  “I can feel how hot you are. God, I missed this.” Traces of her Russian accent, vestiges of a childhood immigration, lurked in her voice when she was truly aroused. She whispered to me in her native tongue and my stomach flip-flopped at her fluency.

  “Picked up more than good eating habits, huh?”

  Redundant question. She answered with a deep kiss that left me gasping for Trina-scented air.

  A shove to my shoulder, then I was falling back, caught in Sergio’s strong arms. “Hold on, amore.” His thighs spread my own and, like a dream, Trina knelt between them and made good on her promise.

  I lost count of how many times she brought me to the edge before backing off, but after each one she kissed me and said, “I’m sorry, dorogaya.” Her endearment—darling—struck my heart.

  Then, “Forgive me, lyubov moya.” She chipped away with the next volley—my love.

  After I’d lost count of her teasing near-orgasms, she laved my aching nipples and pleaded. “Ty nuzhna mnye.” I need you broke down my walls.

  Next time I writhed in pleasure, my knees quaking around her ears, she kissed me and whispered, “Ya ne mogu zhit’ bez tebya.” I can’t live without you.

  Ah, god. I caved. It’s not like I had healed after she left; no, that wound was still open and raw because a piece of me had been missing. And if I wanted us to have a shot at any kind of relationship—even friends, since she’d been my best—grudges and resentment and regret had to get the boot. I pulled out the one sentence of Russian I remembered. After all, I’d whispered it into the ether every day. “Ya tozhe tebya lyublyu.” I love you too.

  This time, she let me come, her fingers deep inside me and lips swallowing my cries.

  From behind me, Sergio shifted. His erection nudging into my back presented a stark reminder of our mixed company. For an ugly moment, I resented him. I’d had my Trina back, all to myself…but that had never been the deal.

  Then the moment twisted and Trina kissed him, her lips glossy with my flavor. Jealousy burned away. I whimpered, pressed between their hot, hard bodies, so different from my own.

  Neither let me wallow with those dark thoughts. No, their hands, as if choreographed, roamed my body while their tongues made love. I was included, even while on the periphery. Their fingers entered me at the same time and I shook between them.

  “Bedroom.” Sergio’s voice cracked through the air.

  My mind calculated all the ways the three of us could combine, leaving me to follow mutely behind their sinuous forms. They were almost the same height, my bookend lovers—one as pale and ethereal as the other was dark and commanding.

  Sergio wended his hand in Trina’s hair and hauled her against him for a feral kiss. “Unzip me.”

  Her pupils were so dilated her eyes looked like the deep, endless middle of the ocean. I drowned in them while she stripped Sergio. We didn’t break eye contact until he was as naked as we were, and only then because he grabbed her arm, spun her to face the bed, and pushed her onto it.

  Even from halfway across the room, I could see the shine of wetness on her pussy. She’d always loved it rough; one thing I had never quite been able to offer. Satisfaction slowed my racing heart.

  “Lie on the bed, amore. You are going to lick her until she comes, then until I tell you to stop.”

  While I rushed to comply, I heard the now-unfamiliar crinkle and rip of a condom. He’d planned for this eventuality.

  My friends would have balked, called him a dog. A letch. An opportunist.

  I thanked god I found him. Thoughtful, loving, understanding.

  And yes…a man who was a wonderful opportunist.

  Once I was in position, Trina climbed fully onto the bed, curling over my body to make up for the difference in our heights. I gripped her strong thighs and arched up until my tongue met the clit peeking eagerly out from its hood. She squealed against my touch and bit my hip. I sucked the nub, remembering exactly how she liked to be touched. My thumbs spread her pussy lips and I licked into her, a teasing prelude to the impending penetration. Arching my head back, I saw Sergio at the edge of the bed, waiting. His cock was still, veins throbbing with the surge of blood. I knew if I took him in my mouth, he’d barely fit. I loved when he was this turned on.

  I backed off when he stepped closer, positioning himself at her entrance. Enthralled, captivated, I stared as he nudged the head inside.

  He cursed. “You are so tight.”

  My stomach fluttered. I wanted to finger her, feel the walls of her cunt squeeze around me. In solace, I licked her clit again and continued up to Sergio’s waiting shaft. They both shuddered, and his cock slipped farther inside her.

  Trina’s muffled voice reached me. “It’s been awhile.”

  Later, when I held her against my breast and combed my fingers through her hair, I’d make her tell me exactly how long. I’d forgotten how much I missed falling asleep like that. Now that it was within reach, I wanted to seize it with both hands.

  “Please, please. I need—”

  He surged inside her and she cried out. I watched her flutter around him and knew her body was adjusting to his girth. I licked around their joining, sucking at her clit and soothing until her hips canted back, begging for more.

  “You must stay very still, bella. Just like this, so Katie can tongue that pretty pussy.”

  She whimpered and her hot breath blew against my splayed legs. I’d need them both again, soon. Heat built in my core as I pleasured her in time to Sergio’s slow thrusts.

  As we found our rhythm and his hips pistoned into her, I brought her to orgasm once, then again, before Sergio succumbed to her clinging pussy.

  Sweaty, exhausted, and just barely sated, I turned on the bed and pulled Trina into my arms. By the time Sergio returned from cleaning up, we were a tangle of limbs in the middle of the mattress.

  Undeterred, he crawled in behind me to spoon against my back.

  This was bliss.

  Until that ugly little voice crept in. Their arms both tensed. Sergio asked the building question. “What is wrong, amore?”

  I sighed, resigned to hashing this out. Neither would allow my thoughts to fester for long. They were too clever by half— and here I was, voluntarily putting myself between their all-too-capable hands. “What now?” Even though I knew the answer, felt the inevitability of us, as truly as I knew I loved them both, I had to hear it.

  Trina laughed, the purr rumbling throug
h my chest. “I have two guest tickets for Wednesday’s performance. The concert is at seven, but I hope you don’t have plans later that night. There’s this quiet hallway, see, with an old, abandoned dressing room…”

  SUNSHINE

  Emerald

  Her dark hair hung long and straight past her shoulders, almost covering one eye as she spoke to the bartender. She didn’t smile, but neither did she look grim as she faced forward and waited for her drink.

  Sean sidled over to her. Up close, her features were striking, set in smooth pale skin surrounding dark-brown eyes. She met his gaze in the mirror behind the bar without turning to him, and he smiled.

  “Hi,” he said easily. “I’m Sean.” He held out his hand.

  She faced him at last, looking in his eyes for a beat before shaking his hand. “Kelly.” She wore little makeup, and the edge of a tattoo peeked out above the top button of her blouse. He smiled wryly when she caught him looking.

  “I’m sorry. I was just noticing your tattoo.”

  She nodded and casually hooked her fingers over the edge of the lavender fabric, pulling it to the side so he could see the tattoo fully. It was positioned high enough above her left breast that showing it was not inappropriate.

  The design was a round clock face, intricate with its twelve Roman numerals and solid black hands positioned at just after seven o’clock. Sean studied the precise numerals and tiny black indicators between each one, struck by their meticulous resemblance to those of a genuine clock. Each hand blossomed from its respective black arm into an elaborate tangle of swirls and then back to a pristine point. The ink around the border gave the impression of a shiny casing, and the entire thing was about the size of a silver dollar.

  “Interesting,” he said, his curiosity piqued. “I’ve never encountered a clock tattoo before. What made you choose it?”

  She was watching him steadily. “It’s the time my daughter died. 7:02. My way of showing her I’ll never forget her.”

  Startled by the revelation, Sean took an involuntary step back, then immediately regretted it. Kelly smiled a tight, tiny smile and turned to accept her drink as the bartender brought it to her. Sean put a hand up when she got out her purse and ordered one for himself, pulling cash from his wallet and handing it to the bartender. Kelly had paused, and for a moment he thought she would argue, but then she lowered her hands and nodded his way.