[Invitation to Eden 21.0] Falling or Flying

by RG Alexander

  He gestured toward the tree line they’d come from. “Then we ended up on that beach with Court along for the ride and I didn’t know whose wish Eden was fulfilling. But I didn’t care anymore. You let me in, let me see you and talk to you and touch you and I didn’t care why.”

  He reached for her again, cupping her shoulders tightly so she couldn’t back away. “I’m sorry for the lie. I wasn’t thinking straight. I wanted you too much.”

  Joely stared at him. What he’d done was insane. It wasn’t how the island worked. How had he gotten away with it? If Vardalos had found out…

  Austin studied her expression and dropped his hands. “I can’t really compete with Eden, I know that. I know what you need to be happy.” He tore his gaze from hers and looked at his friend. “I could hate you for your fucking timing.”

  “Believe me, buddy, I hate myself,” Court responded softly.

  Austin turned away and dragged himself out of the hot water, grabbing up his clothes and heading back to the cabin.

  Joely watched him walk away, her body trembling from restraining herself. She wanted to go after him. Yell at him. Tell him she’d torn up that stupid invitation so it was all for nothing.

  She wanted him to kiss her until she forgot about everything.

  Court wrapped his arms around her from behind. “I sure know how to kill a party,” he sighed. “Joely, about Austin, he—”

  “He’s a lot like my boss.” The instant she said it, she realized it was true. Theodosius Vardalos had had a dream about a girl, built a fantasy resort and waited for over ten years for her to arrive. He’d transported a crumbling castle over the ocean. He’d done whatever it took to create the place he’d seen in his vision as if that would make her appear. If he’d had to use illegal means to make it happen—well, Joely wouldn’t have put it past him.

  And Austin had done this. For her.

  Hardly daring to believe it, she gave a rusty laugh. “Rich people are strange.”

  “Gee, thanks.” Court kissed her shoulder. “I don’t know about Theo. I know Austin, though. He’s a good man, crazy about you in a way that borders on criminal obviously, but a good man.”

  Crazy about her. “Why did you really come to Eden, Court?” she asked, excitement and nerves prickling under her skin.

  “I told you already. To repay a debt. When I found out about his plan, I had no idea what was going to happen. Hell, he could have been discovered and taken away in chains. I’d told him to ask you out, to kidnap you—anything but his original plan. Who knew you’d end up fantasizing about tromping through the jungle with us?” he added in a rueful tone. “I sure as hell didn’t, but like I said, I know Austin, and I was afraid that even if he wasn’t found out, he’d end up torturing himself, watching you live out your sexual daydreams with someone else, and I couldn’t let that happen. I love the man like a brother, but sometimes you need to throw away the plans and take a leap. I wanted to make sure he took his chance with you when it came around. Sure, after I met you I might have wanted to be included in some of those chances, but my heart was in the right place.”

  Joely swallowed hard, awed by his loyalty and his determination to see that Austin got his heart’s desire.

  And Austin… She shook her head in amazement, knowing that if he’d merely asked her out, she would have said no. She always said no. Guests and staff were off limits. Long relationships that took her attention from Eden were off limits. Love was off limits. She’d only given in to her fantasy when she’d had no other choice. No plane to fly away in or job to use as an excuse. He’d given her that—maybe not directly, but Austin had set the chain of events in motion with that forged invitation.

  Never in her life had anyone gone to so much trouble for her, not for any reason. She still couldn’t believe losing her plane was a part of her fantasy, but the rest of it made sense now. She’d had—was still having—her own kind of adventure in Eden, the kind she’d always imagined, but with an added twist.

  Two twists. She leaned against Court and closed her eyes, suddenly terrified. It was her move now—what if she did the wrong thing? “What would you do if you were me? Truth.”

  “Playing that game again?” Court pulled her closer. “Well I might not be the best person to ask. I’d do a lot.”

  “I need more than that, Court. What do you mean by a lot?”

  He sighed. “Okay. When we got back from Afghanistan, the first thing my mother did after crying over her prodigal son was buy me my camera. She’s never been able to travel—her agoraphobia is so bad she’s hardly left the house in twenty years—so she gave me a mission to find all the beautiful places of the world and photograph them for her. I promised her I would and that’s a promise I intend to keep, though it might take a few years more than she has. And Austin? I promised myself I would see that man living the long and happy life he deserves, and I will do whatever I can to keep that one as well. My point is, I would do anything for the people I love. Save them from themselves, travel to the ends of the earth…forgive them for doing the really wrong, unnecessarily complicated things for the right reasons.”

  She turned her head to look up at him. “Have a ménage?” she asked lightly, more moved by his words than she cared to admit.

  “I might not be the one to ask about that either, since I have a vested interest in the answer,” Court told her with a twinkle in his eye. “But you have to know I’d vote yes. You’re special, Joely Jones. You may not be able to see it but I can. Austin can. Look around you—even your precious island knows. You’re worth all of this and more. You deserve to have your dreams come true as much as all those guests you ferry in and out of the resort.”

  Joely bit her lip, still unsure. Did she deserve it? She’d never felt like she did. She’d considered herself lucky to have finally found a place that wouldn’t be taken away from her. The island would never leave her.

  Austin might.

  “What if it isn’t love?” she asked anxiously. “What if it isn’t real?”

  Court laid his forehead against hers. “Take a leap, Joely. Take a chance. What if it is?”

  Chapter Six

  This would be the perfect night for flying. The sky was clear and the stars looked close enough to touch.

  Joely pulled the crocheted blanket they’d found in the closet around her shoulders and looked up into the night, yearning for Wanda. And answers to all the questions, all the doubts that were swirling through her mind.

  The cabin had been too crowded with both men watching her every move, waiting for her reaction to their revelations. Their emotions were so strong she couldn’t tell them apart from her own. After her shower she’d only been able to take the tension for a few minutes before she’d had to come back outside. No one tried to stop her.

  She’d been going back and forth with herself for hours about Austin. As the pilot, she ought to be pissed. Damn it, she was pissed. Who the hell did he think he was, attempting to control the powers of the island for his own personal whims? Attempting to usurp her boss’s authority—the island’s authority—by sending out an invitation to…her.

  She was the reason he’d kept coming back. The idea was still mind-boggling, and she wasn’t sure she quite believed it, though that seemed to be what both men were implying. If she really was, the island hadn’t given him what he wanted.

  Until now.

  I can’t compete with Eden, I know that now.

  What did he mean by that?

  But she knew. She’d said it herself a hundred times—Eden was her fantasy. She didn’t need anything else. It was her home, her safe harbor, her friend. And Austin had picked up on that. No wonder she’d always felt his gaze burning holes through her—he’d studied her. Knew her like a book.

  Saw her.

  People never saw her. They saw the pilot. Even Vardalos, as much as she trusted him and as close as they were—most of the time he was so busy looking for what was coming or mourning what used to be that he couldn’t see anyt
hing else.

  She’d never minded. She hadn’t. But then, she hadn’t really known what she was missing.

  Feeling even more bewildered, Joely pulled the blanket tighter around her and sighed. She’d thought this was all she needed—this life that she’d made, her job she was so proud of. She was meant to be here. She’d felt it to her bones and she’d always trusted her feelings.

  Not when it came to Austin. He confused her, aroused her, got under her skin and haunted her dreams. What she felt about him wasn’t something she understood—mostly because she had nothing to compare it to.

  Court was easier. Her feelings for him were intense and getting stronger all the time, but being with him was easy. Like they’d always known each other and they always would. They laughed, they understood each other and the chemistry between them was already combustible.

  Austin was… He was the risk. The reason she never wanted a fantasy. The reason getting the invitation had scared her.

  She was obviously in love with him. She’d been in love with her dream of him for years, and a part of her had known if she’d let him in, even an inch, she would have been lost a long time ago.

  Loving was a gamble that had never paid off. People left her. They always left her. For a long time she’d thought it something in her makeup, or maybe something she’d done wrong. It wasn’t until she came to the island that she’d begun to think that might not be true.

  “But I’m lying again, right? I still think it’s me. You don’t count,” she informed the island. “You don’t think my abilities are odd, you don’t have a car and as far as I know you aren’t going anywhere.”

  And that was one of Eden’s biggest attractions—if one of them left, it would be her, not the island. And she loved this place. Everything about it. Could she give it up to take Court’s advice? To take a chance and do whatever it took for someone she loved?

  Could she let what she’d found in Eden’s jungle go—let these men go—when she knew she would never feel anything like this again?

  The island knows what you need. “So do I,” Joely whispered, standing up and walking toward the cabin. “At least I’m starting to.”

  When she opened the door they were sitting on the couch, and Court was talking to Austin with an earnest expression on his face. “Don’t be an idiot. Give her some time to think.”

  “I should go,” Austin said, though he remained firmly slumped on the cushions.

  Joely shook her head, closing the door firmly to get their attention. “No. You shouldn’t.”

  Austin started to stand up but she waved him back down, moving toward them until she was standing on the other side of the coffee table, where they could both see her.

  Her heart tripped as she looked at them—they were so handsome. And they both look so damn worried. “First things first. As your tour guide, I should warn you that Vardalos might send you both packing and ban you from returning when he finds out about the invitation. He cares about me, and he’s fond of you or he wouldn’t have had you back so often, but he can be a bit of a control freak and in the end he makes the rules. And I have to tell him.”

  Austin clenched his fists on his knees and looked away from her. “I understand.”

  “Probably not.”

  He turned back at her words and narrowed his eyes. Waiting. When she glanced at Court, the devil sent her a wink, though his expression was still reserved.

  “Of course you have to tell him, Mary Ann. And when you do, I’ll be there to remind Theo about the time Austin managed to convince the campus police not to arrest him after that incident with those girls at the science lab. And about the time he—”

  “She gets the point.” Austin spoke through gritted teeth. “Let her talk.”

  She took a breath and dropped the blanket from her shoulders, revealing the clean t-shirt and pajama bottoms she’d put on after her shower. “That fire is hot, isn’t it?”

  “You said that was the first thing,” Court encouraged when she hesitated.

  “I did. And there is a second thing. In the interest of fairness, the second thing I need to tell you is that I lied too. By omission and with my behavior when you came to the island.” She took another shuddering breath for reinforcement and continued, “The big guy might fire me anyway once I tell him I could have prevented Austin’s machinations. If I’d admitted my attraction to him earlier, this wouldn’t be an issue, and we might have discovered we had something unique in common.”

  Austin was leaning forward now, hope simmering in his gray eyes at her words. “What do we have in common, Joely?”

  “Dreams. Unusually graphic, detailed dreams with very specific casting. I’ve been dreaming about you too. For a while now.”

  Court whistled under his breath. “I’m surprised again, if anyone’s keeping track.”

  “We’re not,” Austin and Joely said at the same time.

  Court laughed. “And now it begins. Couple-speak.”

  Austin moved to get up again but Joely held up her hand, not wanting to lose her nerve. “Wait. I wanted….”

  “You can have whatever you want, baby,” Austin rasped. “Tell me.”

  She was so aroused…and relieved…and nervous. She wanted to be kissed. She needed to be touched. She’d just told Austin he was her dream man. How soon could she mention her other fantasy?

  Looking at Court desperately, hoping he could read what she needed in her eyes, she said, “Ginger, you always keep your promises right?”

  His smile was pure sin. “Always, Mary Ann.”

  She wrung her hands together at her waist, hoping she wasn’t going to spoil the moment. “Truth or Dare?”

  Pick it. You know you want to. You always do. Stop looking at me like that and just say it.

  “Dare.”

  Finally.

  She looked at Austin, worried he would be suspicious or disapproving. Worried he might think the worst. He always surprised her. He smiled up at her, his eyes shining with something that took her breath away.

  “I dare you to keep your promises to me,” she said unevenly without taking her eyes off Austin, “and show me why women say you make a great team.”

  Court stood up and pulled off his shirt and she bit her lip when she saw it fly over her head. He wasn’t shy. “Where?”

  Startled, she looked up and was seared arousal in his blue eyes.

  Oh God. “Here. On the floor. Now.” She looked between the two of them and offered a weak smile. “Did I mention it was my fantasy?”

  Austin stood and helped Court move the coffee table out of the way, making room while she watched. He started to move past her and she grabbed his arm. “Austin?”

  His cheeks were flushed, his eyes bright as he pulled her into his arms. “How long, Joely?”

  The dreams. “From the moment I met you.”

  He closed his eyes and shuddered. “I was going crazy. I’m not like this. I’ve never been like this. I used to be able to talk to women. I was moderately charming. After I saw you…once the dreams started…you turned everything upside down. I felt like an obsessed stalker. I held back—too much—at first because of the injury, and then because I didn’t want to scare you away. But I couldn’t let it go. I knew you were mine.”

  “I didn’t know anything.” But I do now.

  He kissed her and she melted into him, loving him, trying to show him with her lips and tongue, her hands in his hair. He tilted his head, taking what he wanted, claiming her mouth the way she loved. Everything else fell away when she was in his arms. She never wanted him to stop.

  “Not to interrupt…but I seem to recall someone daring me to fuck them senseless.”

  Court tugged her out of Austin’s arms and spun her around. He was already naked. Already hard. “Lift your arms.”

  When she obeyed he pulled her shirt over her head and tossed it on the couch. His hands reached up to cup her breasts and she shivered. “I told you I’d get my hands all over you,” he muttered, watching his f
ingers squeeze her nipples. “My mouth.”

  Court dipped his head and opened his mouth over her breast, sucking her nipple hard against the roof of his mouth. His beard scraped her tender flesh and an electric shock traveled through her body, straight to her clit. “Oh God.”

  Austin’s hands slid into the waistband of the pajama bottoms, skimming them down to her ankles and leaving her naked between them. Between them. Two men. Her men.

  She could feel hands on her ass, caressing her back and her side. She gasped when Austin appeared beside her, moving Court’s hand out of the way and lowering his mouth to her other breast, sucking greedily.

  Her hands came up to tangle in their hair and she held their heads close, loving the feel of both of their mouths on her. “Touch me,” she whispered, feeling wild again. No shame, only desire. “I need you to touch me.”

  Two hands slid down her stomach and she spread her legs just enough for their fingers to slip between her thighs. They were a good team. Austin sucked harder and pinched her clit between his fingers in the way she loved. Court bit the edge of her nipple and thrust two fingers into her wet pussy, every move showing how impatient he was to take her. To get inside.

  “Yes,” she moaned, her hips pumping helplessly. “Please.”

  Court lifted his mouth. “I need to pay her back for this morning’s kiss.”

  Austin growled against her nipple, sucking so hard she whimpered, and then he let her go and looked up at her with stormy eyes. “Lie down, baby.”

  Court didn’t wait for her to obey, falling to his knees and reaching up to drag her down with him.

  “I didn’t get to spend the night in the magic cave,” he reminded her roughly. “I didn’t play Truth or Dare. Austin has forever, but I have some catching up to do.”

  He moved her around as if she were a doll, lifting her legs up high over her head until only her shoulders were touching the ground. “I’m too hungry for a sample of this sweet treat. I’m going to need the whole meal.”