by Box Set
“I’m not sure,” I say, making her eyes narrow. I’m sure she realises I’m teasing. Of course she’s fucking hot. Men and women the world over know it. That guy she keeps mentioning, Aster, the one who cast her as Lana Bow, knows it, and more importantly, my dick knows it. “Do you do those walk overs that Lana Bow’s famous for?”
I swear she contemplates kicking me. Imaginary pain shoots up my leg from my shin in anticipation of her driving the toe of her boot into it.
“I’m just saying every man loves a gymnast, and threesomes require flexibility.”
She huffily turns away, prompting me to bend towards her, so that I can speak directly into her ear, or at least a close approximation thereof, since she’s shrouded by that enormous hood. “Come on, Mikayla, fan my fantasies here, while I’m contemplating obliging yours.”
She crosses her arms across her breasts, but there’s another cheeky grin spreading across her face that the shadows fail to entirely conceal.
“All right, so there may be a small chance that Edward Aster mo-capped me performing that particular feat, along with a host of other moves.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“He mo-capped you. You’re the actual person we see running about the screen.” I wonder if they’ve ever mo-capped anyone having sex?
“My likeness. I’m not actually her.”
Whatever.
“You and me are going running tomorrow,” I say. “I don’t give a fuck about computer games, but if a digitized wiggle is enough to steal the hearts of fanboys everywhere, then what must the real thing look like?”
“Oh, you.” Lightning fast, her arm whips out and she smacks me across the chest.
I catch her hand and press a kiss to the centre of her palm.
When I release her, she turns and moves so that she’s in front of me. “Lorne—” She strains up onto her toes, and plants her hands upon my shoulders. Her fingers catch the ends of my hair. “—I’m not angling for this to be about me, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
She is. We’re all at heart, a little selfish. But that’s okay, it’s human.
“It’d be primarily about you and Jasper working stuff out. I’d just be there to facilitate. It’s kind of the least I can do to make things right.”
I bow my head so that I can look at her on a level. She has the brightest, most piercing green eyes, and a cute button nose that just tips upwards at the end. Also freckles, real pale ones due to the lack of sun this time of year, but which no doubt darken and irritate the fuck out of her in the summer. “So, you’re just going to facilitate me giving Jasper the climax of his life?”
Her grin’s back. “You’re that good, eh?” She lifts a brow.
“Better.”
Her smile widens, and she shakes her head a little. “All right, I believe you. So, are you going to make me the filling in a hot man sandwich or not?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
She takes a steadying breath. “Okay, so what’s it going to take to persuade you?” She strains even further up on to her tippy-toes and slides her hands along the tops of my shoulders until they’re hooked behind my neck.
“Tempt me.”
“With a kiss?”
“With whatever you’ve got.”
For the space of a few heartbeats she hesitates, and I find I’m actually disappointed she hasn’t stepped up and made a move. Then, her lips tentatively brush mine. It’s exactly like she’s asking a question? Is this okay? Are you going to let me go further? Normally the women I snog are all take, take, take. Permission is inevitably something skewed in their favour.
Maybe I’m just a horny bugger, wound up and frustrated after everything that’s gone down with Jas this evening, but that questing little caress sets my heart off doing this weird flutter, while ‘hello sailor’ vibes zap down to my groin. Girl’s going to have me prodding her with my stick if she keeps this up. Oh yeah, news flash, that’s totally her mission. She’s not just hoping to get a rise out of me. She’s hoping I’m going to bring Jasper along to the party too. Wherever the hell Jasper’s got to. Of course, that’s not all she’s after. Little Mikayla wants to witness some hot guy-on-guy action, and then be allowed to play along.
Crazy thing is I’m fast coming around to agreeing to let her.
I open up, allow her to explore and slip me some tongue. She tastes of wine and gingerbread, not a bit like Jas, but that’s good. I’m not into people tasting like one another. I like the contrast of her sweetness and his more bitter flavour. Oh God, yeah. I pull her closer. What started tentative is that no more. I drink her down, like the fine wine she tastes of, and allow myself to get worked up.
When we finally part, we’re both breathless, and her eyes are glittering.
“Have we reached an accord?” she asks. Snowflakes fall down between us. “Or do you require further tempting?” Her fingertips tickle the skin at the side of my throat. There’s at least a part of me—the bit that’s all to hell with complications—that wants to just throw her over my shoulder and take her inside so that I can fuck her before the fire for the rest of the night, but if I do that, I know I’ll never win Jas, because I’d have stolen his fantasy girlfriend.
The better plan is definitely to present her to him as a gift.
I cover her hand with mine and draw it down level with my heart.
“Lorne, we’ll be good together, the three of us, don’t you think?”
I think I’m either about to make a huge fucking mistake or have myself one hell of a good time.
“I want to take you to bed, Lorne Everett.”
“And I think I might just let you.”
“Okay.” She adds a nod that dislodges her hood. “Then go get Jasper. I’m going to pull my jammies on and get under the covers ready for you to come along and make my night. Remember, I want to see a heap of hot stuff happening between you two.” She steps around me and swats me across the butt. “Oh, and try not to be too long or I might get too horny and exhaust myself.”
Chapter Nine
Lorne Everett
Retrieving Jasper will take as long as it takes. It could be a matter of minutes, or I might still be hunting him at daybreak. I strike out across the lawn to the shadowy, bark-clad outbuilding. It has windows on two sides, but there’s no evidence of a light being on inside. Then again, maybe Jasper doesn’t want anyone to think he’s here. One thing I’m certain of: he’s not in here pissing.
The outer door is unlocked, and the inner door succumbs to the powers of a ten pence piece. Jasper’s sitting in the dark, on a towel, with his back against the side of the gargantuan tub. There’s one of those battery-operated mock candles flickering beside him, and by his feet there’s a box of beer bottles. He has his fist wrapped around the neck of an open one.
“Anyone in here?”
He snorts loudly. “Since you’re looking right at me, and you just picked the lock to get in, let’s not pretend you’re blind. I’m not blind either, by the way.”
Fair enough. I mooch over to him and hunker down by his side. “What’s doing?”
He flicks his gaze in my direction, but doesn’t grace me with a reply, just applies himself to the bottle instead. All right, so he’s hiding. I get that, what I want to know is the specific why, and how I get him to relocate back over to the cottage. The way he’s gripping that beer—his knuckles white—I don’t see this being an easy task. Suppose I could try saying, ‘Mikayla’s desperate for a threesome and she’s getting naked in the bedroom now,’ to see if that shifts him, but it could drastically backfire. In any case, we could really do with figuring out at least some of the shit between us before we hit the sack and get eaten alive by Mikayla.
“Look Jas, I’m sorry about earlier.” I help myself to one of the bottles. I don’t normally mix wine and beer, but I figure Jas could do with the show of solidarity.
“Which earlier?”
All of them. Whichever one of them he needs me to
be penitent about. I know I’ve pushed him right out of his comfort zone. My body’s clamouring away telling me to keep right on pushing, but my brains actually engaged at the mo. “I shouldn’t have pushed things so far.”
“So, you’re apologising for wrapping your hand around my dick?”
“Not exactly. But I’m sorry I put you in an awkward position.”
“So you’re sorry for getting hands-on in front of La—Mikayla?”
I pop the cap off that beer. “Stop putting words into my mouth and don’t make this into a fight. I’m sorry that I’ve upset you in a way that necessitates you drinking yourself into a stupor alone in the dark. I’m not sorry there’s some heady chemistry between us.”
How’s that for honesty? I wish I’d had the guts to say something that straightforward to Dare half a decade ago. I don’t suppose it would have got me anywhere, but it might have left me a little less emotionally bruised.
“And between you and her,” he mutters, the words clearly discernible even under his breath.
“What? No.” Is that really what he thinks? Is that what sent him scuttling off into a dark corner?”
“She wants you.” This time his voice is perfectly clear.
“No, Jas. That’s not true.”
Shit! Did he see us outside? I guess that could lead to a certain conclusion.
No, I don’t think he did or he’d be far more assured of his assertion. Also, less maudlin and more aggressive.
“Jasper, she got turned on by both of us.”
This would be a good time to mention how she’d like to take us both to bed and ask him if he’s up for it, except, I’m still in two-minds over whether that’s really a clever plan.
Jas needs to hear more than what I’ve so far given him, though.
“You’re just blind to it.”
I clap a hand over his shoulder and give it a friendly squeeze. “She’s not out to hump me.”
What the hell am I saying? She just straight up told me that’s precisely what she wants to do, but context…Context is totally king here. It wasn’t a direct play for me, but a means of securing both of us.
“Leastways, no more than she is to hump you.”
He sweeps his head from left to right. “That is such a load of monkey shit. She thinks I’m a prize moron, while you’re mister sex on a stick. Yeah, I saw how she was looking at you. She was jealous of me. She wants nothing more than to lick your abs.”
“You didn’t lick my abs.” I’d have remembered if he had. Damn, the muscles in that region of my stomach tighten over the prospect of being lathed by Jasper’s tongue.
“Nowhere in the script did it imply that I needed to.”
“Right,” I bark, rolling my eyes. “‘cause that’s totally what all this is about. Fuck it, Jasper, can we cut the crap and start being honest with one another? I didn’t come here to practice the script. I booked the cottage so that we could figure out what the heck it is we’re feeling for one another and if we want to take it somewhere.”
I take a deep drink of the liquor. He looks so cute right now, his lips pulled into a pout and half his perfect face cast into shadow from the way his brows are knotted together. I want to kiss him all over until that frown is no more.
He opens his mouth, but I cut him off before he starts.
“Don’t you dare pretend that you feel nothing for me. If that were the truth, you wouldn’t be so worked up about how Mikayla might or might not have been looking at me, or what she might want to do with me.
“Maybe I want her,” he snarls back.
Fuck, that retort hurts almost as much as if he’d flat out punched me. A fizzing sensation spears through my nose and sets my ears ringing. I stumble as I rise to my feet. I have to cling to the side of the tub in order to stand. “Be my guest,” I show him the door. “She’s plenty eager to bed both of us as it happens, but I’m sure she’ll be just as happy to indulge you in some one-on-one loving providing you can manage to remember her name.”
He swears long and hard at me. Enough to make me reassess my assumptions about who exactly Jasper Frost is.
“I know who the fuck she is, Lorne. This isn’t about her.”
I’d love to know what it is about then. “Clue me in, Jasper. I’m not getting it.”
He pushes up onto his feet too. “All right, it is about her. It’s about you and her, and how you’re both screwing with my head.” He raises both arms, and his hands curl into tight fists. “She’s there and she’s not real, and you, you’re real, but you’re asking for something I don’t know if I can give even though part of me at least really fucking wants it. What I need is for you to both give me some head space in the hopes of ever figuring it out.”
Okay, he wants space. I’ll give him space, as long as he’s not flat out running. It’s not as if I counted on resolving everything tonight anyway. Only in my fantasies did this weekend consist of fucking, fucking, and more fucking. The more realistic version allowed for persuasive actions, talking, tooth brushing, meals, and maybe even the odd scenic walk.
“I’ll go.”
“Okay,” he says, back still stiff and shoulders hunched around his ears. “Wait, where are you going to?”
I fight it, but I can’t hold back the whole of the smile that pulls at my lips. “Bed,” I say.
“With her? I mean, where she is?”
“There’s only one.”
“Motherfucker!”
Whoa, is that the bittersweet sound of jealousy, I hear wriggling its way out of Jasper’s throat? It is. God, it is. I fight hard to keep the smirk on my lips from growing. It’s okay to tingle on the inside over his possessiveness, even if it’s a 50:50 toss as to which of us getting off with someone that isn’t him he’s most put out about. His eyes are two caustic pools as he mulls his options over. I speed the decision along by inching my way to the door.
“I’ll come too.”
A snort escapes me. “I thought you needed head space.”
“I’m not sitting in the dark and letting her jump you.”
No, he’s risking us both jumping him, but what the heck. I have no better solution to the issue.
Chapter Ten
Mikayla Ashton
I think Jasper’s asleep or else he’s faking it really well.
Lorne definitely isn’t. He’s lying on his back, his eyes open, staring up at the ceiling.
What went down between the two of them? Neither said a word as they bustled about getting changed and got into bed. Has whatever it was changed things? I can’t bring myself to speak. Somehow, it feels wrong to attempt to break the silence, but still I need to know what’s expected. Is the idea of a threesome still on or was it never more than a pipe-dream?
I lie super still, but my breathing seems impossibly loud. The guys are like statues on either side of me. It looks as if I’m going to have to be the one to make the next move. It takes a few minutes to decide that move will be to touch Lorne.
I shift position, taking care to make it seem like I’m just trying to get comfortable. The bed’s big, and there’s space enough for the three of us, but there’s only inches between each of our bodies. I close the gap that exists between Lorne and myself.
He’s only wearing a pair of pyjama bottoms. His upper body is bare, and I can feel heat radiating off his skin. I reach across and put my hand on his stomach, slowly uncurl my fingers so that my palm is flat against his abs, then slide it down under the waist band of his pyjamas.
Immediately, he catches hold of my upper arm, and I still, but when after a dozen heartbeats there’s no definite negative follow-through, I inch my exploration lower, until my fingers find a springy tuft of hair, and then his cock fills my hand.
Fuck! I think he’s actually going to let me do this. It feels deliciously naughty. I’ve never had to be surreptitious about wanking a guy before.
I’d be worried by Lorne’s frozen silence, if it wasn’t for the way he’s filling my hand with his heat. Damn, I wish I c
ould toss back the covers and look at him, maybe do more than just coax him with my fingers. I’d like to lick a trail over his chest and along the lines I’ve seen that define his lower abs, maybe follow the pale trail of hair to the lollipop he’s currently sporting. I bet it tastes real good.
I’m going to make sure everything about this feels amazing for him.
Chapter Eleven
Lorne Everett
Mikayla’s hands are small, but boy is her touch driving me demented. She dances her fingertips up and down, exploring all the good places, until I’m wholly rigid and muscles all over my body are cramped from the effort of keeping up appearances.
I’ve a bruised lower lip now, too.
I can’t tell her what happened between Jasper and me, so there’s no easy way of explaining that I’m no longer sure this is such a great idea.
Actually, it’s always been a stupid plan.
I don’t ever have a problem with enjoying sex with someone for the thrill of it, but as soon as emotions get involved, a little consideration of the impact can alleviate a whole lot of future stress.
This is going to cause future stress.
Fact is Jas is just going to see this as her hitting on me, while my response really only proves that I’m human and horny. However, I don’t think he’ll see it that way.
I probably need to stop her.
I know I should stop her.
But, god’s teeth, that feels good, and considering the number of times I’ve been worked up today and then it hasn’t gone anywhere…
It’s all undercover between us until her thumb feathers over the head of my cock, causing me to inhale sharply. The breath whistles as it passes my teeth.