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Roll Against Fantasy
Allyson Lindt
The sun beat down on my bare skin, and the heat of the white sand radiated through my towel. The topless beach had been Ryan’s idea. I hadn’t protested too much, though I had insisted on a lot of sunscreen. Being a little bold was one thing. Turning into a lobster because I’d forgotten how quickly fair skin burned was a risk I wasn’t willing to take.
I just wished Seth had been able to join us. Working with both the guys I loved was usually great. But it did make it difficult to coordinate days off. Given how sparsely populated the beach had been when we arrived—there wasn’t anyone within ear shot of us even though I’d seen other people—apparently Seth wasn’t the only one who’d had trouble getting time off.
A shuffling sound reached my ear, and I pried one eye open. The bright day glared back at me even though dark lenses.
Ryan propped himself up on his elbow, and leaned over me. “You know what might be interesting?”
I’d heard that line before. I slid my sunglasses down my nose, and peered at him over the top. “Going an entire week without redefining my moral boundaries?” Despite my words, giddy ripples danced in my stomach. What did he have in mind today?
The corner of his mouth twitched into a crooked smile. “Says the woman sharing her bed with two men. Besides, that sounds the opposite of interesting. You know I’d never make you do anything you don’t want to.”
A current of control ran through his teasing tone. It was true, he knew how to take no for an answer. He was also very persuasive when he wanted to be. “All right. What might be interesting?”
His fingers glided up my stomach, drawing a sigh that melted into a soft groan when he traced the curve of my breast. I closed my eyes and focused on the barely-there touches. I wasn’t sure how I knew what he was going to ask next, but the delicate coercion made me think he was certain of my answer and hoping to change my mind. I intertwined my fingers with his. “No.”
His nose traced up my neck, voice soft and coaxing. “I didn’t say anything.”
In the six or so months the three of us had been dating, we’d tried a lot of things. Even stepped outside our relationship a few times, experimenting, sometimes inviting a third guy in. But there was one point I hadn’t budged on yet. Not because I was stubborn, but because I really wasn’t interested. “It doesn’t matter how many times you ask, I’m still not into girls.”
He twisted free from my grip, caught my wrist, and placed my index finger in his mouth. Pleasant chills raced up my spine when he ran his tongue along the fingertip. “How do you know?” he asked.
The conversation was more amusing than irritating, and the seductive nudging didn’t hurt either. It also didn’t change my mind. “I just know.”
He nodded at something behind him. “See that girl over there. Pink striped bottoms?”
I might as well play along for now, especially if he was going to keep trying to convince me. I pushed myself up on my elbows so I could look past him. “The blonde with a tan almost darker than my hair?”
“Do you think she’s cute?”
“Yeah, so what?” I turned my attention back to him. “You used to check out guys with me all the time…” I trailed off when I realized how weak my argument was. Even if I hadn’t realized it back then, when we’d still just been friends, Ryan completely swung both ways. Otherwise things wouldn’t have worked out with Seth.
I sat up, pulled my legs to my chest, and rested my forehead on my knees. “I’m still not interested.” He shifted on the towel until he was sitting behind me, legs on either side of my hips. He tugged my shoulders, until my back rested against his chest. “This isn’t about me, it’s about you. Tell me you can’t picture yourself kissing her.”
I leaned more into him. “I can’t picture anything like that.” We’d reached the part of the conversation where I normally stopped listening to him trying to persuade me. This time, though, my imagination had dived off in a different direction.
The reminder of Seth had familiar images gliding through my head. How enticing it was to see him making out with Ryan. The memories danced under my skin, lingering with whispers of sensation. My nipples tightened, and desire snaked through my body.
“Are you sure you’re not interested?” His whisper tickled my ear. Instead of interrupting the onslaught of images in my mind, Ryan’s voice mingled with them. “Those full, pink lips. Her tiny whimpers when her chest brushes yours. A sweet voice, begging you not to stop?”
I growled to hide how vividly I pictured his every word. Why was this getting to me? “Why is this such a big deal to you?”
He drew his tongue down the side of my neck, and closed the kiss with a nip of his teeth on my shoulder. His words vibrated through my skin. “Because I’m a guy, and I think it’s hot. Besides, I think you’d like it if you gave it a chance. Imagine meeting her for the first time.”
I closed my eyes, not sure if I wanted to block out the images, or focus on them. I did know the heat radiating from me had very little to do with the sun anymore, and dampness was growing between my legs.
His voice had an almost hypnotic quality. “She’d be entranced when she saw you. Your gorgeous red curls. Freckles in all sorts of interesting places.” His palm slid up my chest, and his thumb brushed my breast.
I pushed his hand back to neutral territory. “It’s a topless beach, not an exhibitionist resort. People are watching.” Despite my protest, another layer of anticipation raced through me at the words. Neither one of us minded being watched.
His smooth tone never shifted. “If they are, they’re probably enjoying it. Stop changing the subject. Even with that tan, I bet her skin is like satin.”
His words drew me into a waking trance, painting dream-like images in my mind. My resistance hovered at empty.
As if sensing my surrender, his fingertips trailed down my stomach, and his lips brushed my neck. “I know, it would be awkward at first. Both of you feeling attraction, but fearing rejection. She’d get past it, though. Her eager mouth would seek yours out with only the slightest hesitation.”
I leaned my head back against his shoulder with a sigh, abandoning reservation and sinking into the fantasy combined with his skillful touch. “Then what happens?”
He traced a line along the elastic of my bikini-bottom, caressing my hips but not moving lower. His other hand slid up my chest, cupped my breast, and kneaded. “The kiss would grow in intensity and heat, your perky nipples pressing into her hot skin. You’d put your hands out to steady yourself, embarrassed when you accidentally groped her. She’d pull away long enough to smile, and tell you not to stop.”
The idea anyone might be watching us slid to the back of my mind. I didn’t stop him when he rolled my nipple between his fingers and nibbled my earlobe. His voice dropped in volume, but was distinct enough I heard every word. “Your hands roam her body without much thought. She’s got a lot of the same buttons as you. Loves to have her nipples pinched.” He squeezed the tender nubs, and I groaned. “The two of you explore each other, and time melts away. Warmth has spread between your legs. A throbbing, wet need begging for release.”
My hips shifted on the towel to push closer to the hand on my waist, as words and fantasy mingled and blurred together.
He didn’t yield to the suggestion to slide his hand lower. “She knows what you want next, and kneels in front of you. Her tongue glides along your mound, licking through your swimsuit. You whimper at the tease.” His fingers followed the same path as the story he wove, and I moaned when they danced over my slit, kept away from his touch only by the thin barrier of my swimsuit.
“She tugs your bottoms to the ground.” His hand slid under my clothing, finally dipping between my wet folds. I gasped at the contact, back arching as I pushed up toward him. “The scent of your arousal spurs her on. Her lips meet those between your legs, and her breath against your wetne
ss drives you wild.”
He continued to massage my breast, pinching and tugging enough to send exquisite sparks of pain and ecstasy through me. Each pull was like a cord running from my chest to my wet sex. His other hand dipped toward my opening, and then spread my juices back toward my aching clit. “Her tongue slides along your slit, lapping at your sweet taste, flicking up to tease your swollen button before she moves back down again. You gasp in surprise when she penetrates your tight hole.”
My hips ground against his hand as my head swam with the fantasy. He knew what it took to push me to climax, and nudged me right to the brink before pulling back again. I was too lost in a combination of physical and mental stimulation to do more than gasp.
He wasn’t done with his story, though. “Her fingers massage your engorged clit, and you grind against her face.” He didn’t let off this time as he rubbed tight circles over my arousal. My breath came in short pants, and I pushed into his attention. “The rush makes you light headed. You clench around her tongue as you come, bucking against her face. Lost in the moment.”
I bit my bottom lip as orgasm spilled through me. My butt lifted off the ground and then dropped again when he eased off.
Slowly, more external details flitted in to my senses. The hot sun on my skin. His tiny kisses along my shoulder, his hard length pressing into my ass. And the heavy current running through his words. “Tell me again you can’t picture yourself with her.”
I shifted on the towel so I was kneeling between his legs, facing him. The heat in my cheeks wasn’t from the weather. I licked my lips, gaze locked on his, as I traced the outline of his erection through his trunks. “You win.” I nipped at his bottom lip. “But I want you to myself first. Sooner rather than later.”
He tangled his fingers in my hair, and crushed his mouth against mine, stealing my breath. When he broke away, mischief danced in his eyes. “I can’t argue with a request like that.”
If you enjoyed this short, and want to see more of Tasha, Ryan, and Seth, check out Roll Against Trust a novella by Allyson Lindt.
One More Chance
Nerika Parke
“This is a really bad idea.”
Ella stared at herself in the mirror and smoothed an errant strand of hair, twisting to check the back of her red dress. Turning forward again, she sighed and looked herself in the eye.
“This is the worst idea you’ve ever had, Ell,” she said. “It’s going to go badly.”
She walked across the room to the wardrobe and took out her jacket, shrugging into it. Then she returned to the mirror and peered at her make-up.
“It’s going to be a disaster, you know that.”
A brief search for the new shoes she’d bought to match the dress followed.
“I may even have to break out the word ‘unmitigated’,” she said after checking how they looked with the dress.
Heaving a final sigh, she walked away from the mirror, grabbed her bag and went to the door.
“Last chance,” she said, her hand on the door handle. “You can forget the whole thing and just stay here. Put the cost of the room down to experience and move on.” Ignoring her, her hand pushed the handle down and pulled open the door. “Fine, but when it all goes horribly wrong, you have only yourself to blame.”
Reaching the twentieth floor, she stepped out into the plush corridor, wondering how much the rooms up here cost. She’d got the cheapest the central London hotel had and she was looking at a couple of months of not eating ahead of her.
The maid she’d bribed had said he was in room 2008. When she found it, her confidence left her in an instant. A flood of self-doubt overcame her and she sagged against the wall.
What if it was the wrong room? What if he was out? What if he was in? What if he didn’t remember her? What if he wasn’t alone?
And then she remembered the last time they had been together, wrapped in his arms at the airport, crying into his shoulder and clutching onto him, never wanting to let go as her mother told her it was time to board.
He’d whispered into her hair, “No matter how far apart we are, I will never, ever stop loving you, Ella, for as long as I live.”
At the time she knew he’d meant it, but they’d been so young and it had been so long. Eleven years was a lifetime. But she had to see him, if only to get him out of her system. So that her first love wouldn’t turn out to be her only love.
She pushed herself away from the wall, strode up to the door and knocked, head held high and heart thundering in her chest.
After a few seconds the door opened.
The man standing in the doorway stared at her, his eyes widening. “Ella?”
Ella’s heart did a couple of back flips and settled somewhere around her knees. Hoping she didn’t look as shaky as she felt, she smiled. “Hello, Calum.”
The last time she’d seen him in person, he’d been seventeen years old, on the edge of adulthood, but still a boy. Now he was all man. She’d seen him on TV, of course, but that didn’t compare to seeing him in the flesh. Ocean blue eyes stared from a handsome face, not exactly rugged, but not boyish either, not like it used to be. The shadow of the day’s growth of a beard darkened his jawline. His dark blond hair curled across his forehead, over his ears and down just past his jaw. The black t-shirt he was wearing skimmed hard muscle, the sleeves straining around his biceps. As an actor, she guessed he must work out. Apparently quite a lot.
She wasn’t at all sure her knees could continue to support her.
“Ella, I...” He looked stunned. “Wow. I can’t believe you’re here. You look...” His eyes travelled down her body and back up. “...incredible.” He shook his head as if waking himself from a dream and smiled. “Sorry, I’m being rude. Would you like to come in?”
“Thank you,” she said, walking past him into his room. Make that suite, she thought as she looked around. Her entire flat could have fit into it. Twice.
She turned round to face him, just in time to see his eyes flick rapidly back up to her face.
“Uh, would you like something to drink?” he said, still looking stunned.
“Water would be great,” she said.
As he walked to the mini fridge, she took the opportunity afforded by his turned back to do two things. One, stare for a few moments at his extraordinary backside and two, sit in the corner of the huge sofa before her legs failed her. Calum leaned down to pull two bottles of water from the fridge. Ella only just remembered to pull her eyes away from him before he turned back around.
“What are you doing here?” he said as he sat, handing her the bottle. Then he winced. “I’m sorry, would you like a glass? I’m just so surprised to see you I seem to have turned into a Neanderthal.”
She laughed. “No, the bottle is fine. I’m not any more refined than the last time we saw each other.”
He grinned. “Well, at least let me open it for you.”
As she handed the bottle to him, his fingers brushed hers and her heart leapt. She wanted to smack herself. “Such a gentleman,” she said, taking the bottle back when he’d loosened the cap.
“Not like I was when I was seventeen,” he said with a smile.
Ella tore her eyes from his puckering lips as he took a sip from his own water. “You were always a gentleman to me.”
“Yeah, but I was...” He stopped and looked the drink in his hand. “...I was crazy about you.”
Ella swallowed and tried to say something in return. When nothing would come, she took a drink of water instead. A long drink. She heard Calum take a deep breath.
“Anyway, what are you doing here? Are you on holiday?”
She had this. She’d rehearsed it. “I’m just here on a business trip. Nothing exciting.”
He settled back into the sofa, one knee up on the cushion so he could face her. She noticed that, although the sofa was a four seater, he was sitting very close to her.
“What do you do?” he said.
“I work for a publishing company,” she sa
id.
“Do you enjoy it?”
She shrugged. “It’s okay. It pays the bills.”
“What happened with your dancing?”
Ella remembered back to when he used to hide and watch her rehearse, although she always knew he was there. When he was no longer around, she’d felt no joy in it anymore. “I was never going to make it as a dancer. I had a pressing need to eat and have a roof over my head.”
“You would have made it,” he said, his eyes softening. “You were an incredible dancer. I loved watching you. You always looked so happy. So graceful.”
“I suppose I didn’t have the drive I needed, not like you always did. You never gave up. You went for your dream and look at you now. A famous actor, just like you always said you’d be. I’m proud of you.”
He smiled. “I haven’t quite made it yet, but things are going okay.”
“More than okay! I Googled the hotel and your name came up straight away. Do you ever get to go anywhere now without people knowing about it?”
He laughed. “It sometimes feels like I’m always being followed, but in reality it’s only a handful of fans. Most people don’t even know who I am. How did you even know which room I was in?”
She could feel the blush colouring her cheeks. “I kind of bribed a maid to find out for me.”
“You could have just asked reception to call me,” he said, sounding amused.
She laughed and shrugged. “I thought maybe you wouldn’t remember who I was and I really wanted to see you.”
His smile vanished, his gaze becoming serious. “Wouldn’t remember who you are? How could you think I would ever forget you, Ella? You were my first love.” He gazed at her for a couple of seconds before looking away. “Anyway, how have you been?”
Trying to surreptitiously take a deep breath to calm her heart down, she said, “You mean for the last eleven years?”
He smiled. “Yeah.”
“Mostly okay, occasionally sick, a few hangovers, nothing serious. You?”