Asher is staring at us, his gaze riveted on where my cock is thrusting into her tight little pussy, and she’s whimpering, these hot little noises that are driving me fucking crazy. I can feel the orgasm building, my balls tight and heavy. Asher reaches out and pinches her nipple and Megan shudders.
Our girl likes it a little rough, then. I fuck her harder, a relentless rhythm.
“Fuck, that’s good, sweetheart,” Asher gasps, and she sucks him deep into her mouth. His eyes go wide, and he makes a choked noise, thrusting into her mouth as he comes.
She’s smiling when she pulls back, and Asher laughs, a shaky noise. Her eyes drift to me, and I roll my hips, hitting a spot that makes her gasp.
“Make her come apart,” Knox says, and I glance at him. He’s cleaned up, his dick half erect. I swallow and thrust harder, dropping down. Meg arches into my weight, and I roll my hips, thrusting faster. She kisses me, and I reach between us, feathering my thumb over her clit as she nips at my lips, her tongue teasing against mine. She shudders, going rigid, her eyes unfocused. My name is a garbled sound that’s almost unrecognizable, spilling from her lips as her orgasm slams into her.
I thrust again. Once. Twice. And then my own climax tackles me, and I groan, my eyes closing as the pleasure sweeps over me like a tidal wave. For a long, boneless moment, I ride the wave of pleasure, lost in the erotic haze of Megan.
Asher is still hard, and I feel a moment of guilt as I pull out. Meggy whimpers, a low needy noise, and curls on her side. “Sleepy.” She murmurs.
“Do you always get tired after sex?” I tease, and Asher laughs.
She peeks an eye at him and frowns. “Asher.”
“I’m fine. You’d be turned on, too, if you watched the two of you together.” He leans down, placing a chaste kiss on her lips. I finish cleaning up and tug on a pair of shorts before padding back to the bed and curling up against Megan’s back.
“Do you want to shower and eat? Or just sleep?”
Her stomach rumbles, loudly, and Asher laughs. “I guess we have our answer.”
“No!” she complains, cuddling into the pillow.
I glance at her and shrug to Asher. “I’m hungry. If gorgeous here wants to sleep, we’ll eat without her.”
“Bad Chinese?”
I nod, and he grabs the phone, calling the front office for the local delivery. Megan is half dozing on the bed, and I reach down, pulling a blanket over us as Asher orders.
Asher
I hang up and stand, stretching. Luca glances up at me. "She's asleep," he murmurs.
"Is this a normal thing for her?"
"How would I know?" he asks, a smile turning his lips. "I haven't been with her before, English."
I hesitate, and then, "But she was your roommate."
"Megan has never been into sharing—she always assumed I wanted her and Sun. And that's not her thing."
I shift. "So. This"—I gesture at us—"isn't unusual for you?"
He laughs, a startled noise. "No. Sorry, dude."
I flush and look away. For some reason, I'd got it in my head that this was some heavy, new experience. Even though I knew about Sun and his fondness for threesomes—I thought this was special. And it might be—for me. For Megan. But this is normal for Luca.
"How did you get started, in this?"
A shadow slips across his face, there and gone too quickly to pinpoint. "It’s a long story."
I cock my head to the side and study him. There is a hint of panic to his handsome features that I haven't seen before, and it worries me. "We have the time, Luc."
He flinches, a tiny movement that catches my attention. I take an emotional step back and nod at Megan. "She says you’re close to your roommate—Sun."
A smile, not shadowed, fills his face. "Yeah. She was one of my best friends in high school. We were inseparable. When I decided to come to LA to work, she came with me. I can't imagine the past four years without her."
"And yet, she's not here—and we are. Why?"
"Sun isn't interested in this, long term."
I go still. "Do you think we are?"
He shrugs and rolls onto his back, away from Megan. She shivers. "I don't know. But I want her."
"And me."
He looks at me, his gaze clear and steady in a way it hasn't been all night. "I want to know what makes you tick. I've watched you, Asher. You’re talented and a good man, and she adores you—which means something to me. But I also feel like you’re running from something, and I don't think you even know what it is."
I stare at him, stunned. No one has ever called me out like that, no one but my mother. Even Megan, who can see through my bullshit better than anyone I know, has never called me on it. Not like this.
"Why are you so miserable?" he asks, his voice a soft whisper. I open my mouth to answer—
And there is a brisk knock on the door. Dinner is here. The tension drains away, and I stand in a rush, opening the door. The delivery man blinks, startled by me, but he doesn't comment other than to thank me for the tip. I nod and kick the door closed. Luca still hasn't moved, lying across the bed by Megan, watching me. I think he's waiting for an answer, and I don't have one for him. I busy myself with the plates, opening little boxes of rice and chicken and noodles. He comes to his feet, moving quietly around the room until he's standing near me. I can feel the heat of his body, but he doesn't push me. Instead, he takes the cardboard container of garlic chicken and pours some onto a plate. The task is so damn domestic, it throws me for a moment.
Sometimes, though, you need the normal and domestic. To keep you grounded.
"It would appear that we both have secrets, huh?"
"They're the spice of life," I shoot back, taking my plate and dropping onto the end of the bed. Luca laughs.
"Nah, man. They really aren't."
"Then why don't you get some off your chest," I challenge.
He shakes his head, a smile on his lips and sadness in his eyes. I don't like it—that sadness. "What do you think of Black Tides?"
It's an abrupt change of subject, and I pause, a bite of rice on my fork. Stare at him hard. I had forgotten, somehow, that he would be working with me on the film. "Will this make things awkward on set?" I ask abruptly.
He shrugs, glancing down. "What?"
I set my plate aside, and lean forward, nipping at his ear lobe. Wide eyes dart up to mine and I catch his lips in a quick kiss. It's different from kissing Megan. Luca’s lips are fuller, softer, with a rasp of rough dry skin. I lick at his lips, without thinking, and he shifts, his hand fisting in my hair. His tongue strokes along mine, a touch that has my blood racing.
I pull back quickly, and Luca laughs, a low, husky noise. It doesn't help me get my shit under control.
"Nah, man. There shouldn't be any awkwardness at all."
He’s grinning, a knowing little smile that I can’t decide if I want to smack or if I want to do something to make him do it again. I sit back in my chair and pick at dinner. Glance at the sleeping girl on the bed.
“She’s amazing, isn’t she?” I say.
Luca shifts, twisting around to look at her. Red hair spills around her, and I want to play with it. Not that playing with a girl’s hair while she’s sleeping isn’t creepy as fuck.
“You knew, right away, that she was special,” he says.
I glance over at him, frowning. “She said something—that first day, you flirted. But the second, you were quiet—watching her. It really freaked her out. I figured it out though—especially after she quit and you agreed to play it by her stupid rules. You knew she was special and wanted to keep her.”
I swallow hard. How did he see through me so effortlessly? Without even knowing me—because he hadn’t, not then. We hadn’t even met.
“She is special. You know, she doesn’t give a fuck what or who I am. She just bullies me through it.”
“I remember the first time you went off the reservation,” he says, staring at his plate. “She was so scar
ed—she knew if anything happened to you, it’d come down on her. Kevin had been looking for an excuse to fire her since she started. And he didn’t warn her, you know. That you had a tendency to just vanish. So she was frantic, called me and Sunny to help look for you. We went everywhere. And about twelve hours before you got back, the worry just vanished and she was livid.”
“I remember her being angry.”
“She wanted to kill you.” He laughs. “She didn’t care who you were or how big a star—she was furious, and she wanted your head on a fucking platter. I don’t know how you managed to walk out of that alive.”
I remember when he’s talking about—it was after a particularly rough press junket. I’d slipped out without warning her. Spent a few days in a coastal town where no one knew or cared who the hell I was. I was sunburnt and sand blasted, my hand busted from a pickup game of basketball, when I came back. And I was well rested and happy.
She’d been furious, a quiet little mountain ready to explode in my kitchen. “She threatened to quit,” I say. “Meggy always could get me to back down, if she did that and I knew she meant it. I would do just about anything to keep her working for me.”
He nods, a tiny smile curving his lips. “I know.”
Chapter Thirteen
Luca
“So.” Megan adjusts her glass and shifts on her side of the booth. We’ve been on the road for six hours already, and only stopped because English is starving and a whiny little bitch when he’s hungry. And if I have to see him eat corn nuts again, I might throw up.
“What?” I say, cautiously, eyeing her. She smiles, a bright chipper expression that is vaguely terrifying.
“What happened with Sun?”
My stomach drops. I’m not ready to talk about this—about why Sun can never be more than she is right now. Megan has believed something for so long, and if I tell her the truth now...
“She got engaged.”
Megan pauses, and Asher, in a pair of dark glasses and a ball cap, leans forward. “But Megan said you two were—”
“We’re not, okay,” I snap. His eyes go wide, and Megan’s breath hisses out. “I haven’t been with Sun for almost six months.”
There’s a breath of silence, and the waitress intrudes, dropping off our plates. It’s loud and awkward, and she’s smacking her gum so loudly I can feel my temper fraying.
“We’re fine!” Megan snaps. The girl looks startled, and Asher shoots Meg a quelling look.
“Thanks. We’re good,” I mutter. The waitress retreats, and Megan frowns at her burger and then looks at me. “What the hell do you mean, you haven’t been together for six months? You live with her. You’re in love with her—what about that girl from two weeks ago, that y’all fucked in the bathroom?”
I shake my head. “Stranger sex with her is a bad habit—it’s not a relationship. Sun wants something I can’t give her.”
“What?” The question comes from Ash.
I shake my head, hard. “I’m not ready to talk about that. I need you to respect that.”
“And I need to know how you could just leave Sun like that!” Megan says shrilly.
“Because I can’t!” I snap. “I can’t be with her—she wants what we had in the past, and I can’t do that. No one can.”
They’re staring at me, blue and green gazes mixed with concern and anger. And I want to run because I’m not ready for this—I need more time before I tell them, and not over fucking bacon cheeseburgers at a truck stop diner. Not when I’m just getting Asher to trust me and, if I close my eyes, I can still feel Megan coming apart under me.
But you don’t get to pick the time and place, do you?
“Sun and I grew up together. I told you that, right?”
Megan nods, and Asher leans across her to snag the salt. “We went to school together, and we were the best of friends. She lived maybe a block away—and we’d constantly be at each other’s houses. But the first time I met her, I hated her.”
Megan jerks, startled. I give her a wry smile. “She showed up at Dylan’s house.”
“Who is Dylan?”
How long since I’ve talked about him? Four years—four years, six months, twenty-two days.
“Dylan Carter. He lived down the street—between Sun and me. His dad worked at the same bank my mother did, and his mom would babysit us during the summer. We got along great—it wasn’t one of those situations when you had to hang out with some lame kid. Dylan was amazing. The older we got, the more interested he got in sports, but he was so smart. He studied ancient history like kids today study sports stats. He knew everything about Alexander the Great and the Aztecs. The dude could go on for hours—it drove me absolutely crazy, sometimes. But I mean, he loved it. You don’t squash something someone you care about loves.” I stare at my food, for a minute, a smile on my lips.
"What about Sun?"
"She showed up the summer before we started sixth grade. She was this over-exuberant personality, all over the place, and Dylan fell for her, hard. She'd settle down, when we were practicing—we both were on the football team, and she loved watching us play. I hated her intrusion, you know? We had this great little world, and she just invaded and wouldn't get the hell out. And then, she just wormed her way into both our hearts. She was so sweet, even when I knew my best friend loved her. I got used to her, I guess. She was there, constantly."
I shrug, glancing up. "You can't pinpoint the moment you fall in love. All I knew is that the day we started freshman year, they were a couple and I was following them around and I just looked up and I knew. I loved her. I had been in love with Dylan for years, so that wasn't a shock—but she was. And I was ok with being in love with them, even if they never found out. Because they had each other, and they were happy."
Megan's eyes are wide and scared—she's never heard this. Our history. Sun and I don't talk about it. Ever.
"Freshman year we dominated on the field, and Sun bounced around the sidelines and tried to get me to hook up with the other cheerleaders. But she'd always sabotage it. She'd drive the girls off as fast as she could get them to agree to date me. Dylan was just as bad. Girls knew he was my best friend. They'd ask him about me, and he'd blow them off. They were in love and happy together, and I was alone and happy for them, but miserable. I was lonely. And they knew it. So one night, we got into this huge fight. It was after another disastrous date. A cheerleader from our rival had made a pass at me at a party, and I set up a double. Sun was furious." I laugh, a little.
"She alternated between flirting with me and being the biggest bitch imaginable to my date, until Clarice finally just walked out. I always wonder what she thought about us—and how fucking dysfunctional we were.
"Anyway, as soon as she was gone, Sun cheered up, went back to her friendly self while she made out with Dylan. And I lost it, you know? I just couldn't get it. We left and ended up screaming at each other in the school parking lot."
I go quiet, remembering.
“You can't keep doing this! You’re not with me. You can't be jealous.”
“They don't deserve you.” From her. And Dylan, watching. A strange look in his eyes, a look I'd recognize the rest of my life. The screamed declaration and the kiss that he did nothing to stop. His quiet movement around us as I made out with his girlfriend. His soft orders as we stripped on the football field and she sucked me off, as I slid into her—I shake my head.
"I think they knew, for a long time, that we'd be more—it was not so much an if as a when. And after that first night, it was different. We weren't open about it, but I quietly took myself off the market. The dates with other couples at school stopped. We spent more time in." I sigh, shaking my head fondly.
"It was a good time for us. We ran that school, you know. Some people suspected—there would be rumors that she was cheating, or with both of us—but as long as Dylan and I kept the team winning, no one gave shit. We thought it would never end."
We were fucking idiots. Blissfully happy and
stupid enough to think it would never end.
No one gets that. No one gets to keep their slice of heaven forever.
"Dylan was killed Christmas of our senior year. We'd just gotten accepted at UGA, and we were headed there in the fall—all of us. We were so unbelievably happy. The kind of happy that doesn't end, you know?" I can't look up. I can't face the shock and pity in their eyes—it's why I left home.
"He was driving home—he and Sun had driven out to my grandparents’ farmhouse, and he had to go back to the city. We tried to talk him into staying—it was snowing and the roads were iced over. But he had to take his baby sister shopping the next morning, and he wanted to give me and Sun some time alone—it was his way of saying Merry Christmas. So he left, and we let him. And the next day, he was dead—they found his car wrapped around a tree. He'd been pinned in the seat and bled out." For a moment, I'm swimming in it again, the searing heartbreak and crushing grief. It doesn't go away. How could it—he was my best friend and lover. How do you get over losing that?
You don't.
"Luca," Megan whispers, her tone rich and raspy with shock. Pity?
"After that, I couldn't be alone with Sun. I tried, but every time, all I could think about was Dylan slowly dying while I fucked our girlfriend. And I couldn't get over that. She moved here with me because it was as far as we could go to get away from the memories. But she wants to recreate what we had."
"And you don't?" Asher says, his voice cautious. Like I might hit him and he'd like to avoid that.
"I love Sun. I loved them both and always will. But no one can replace Dylan, and I can't have with her what we had together. It was never going to work, just the two of us. Dylan held us together and made us better. She's trying to replace that and..." I shake my head, helplessly. "I can't do it. I don't want it. I don't want to look at her and see him—and I do."
Megan exchanges a quick glance with Asher, and I can almost hear what they’re thinking. Gently, she says, “Sweetie? Is that any different from us?”
I shrug. “There isn’t an us. We’re fooling around and its fun—but we aren’t a life-changing thing, Meg. Not unless you both want it to be.”
Sweet Ruin Page 10