by Marie Carnay
“Exactly. Don’t think. Just relax, have some fun.” Devin flashed her a grin and grabbed a giant Slurpee cup. “Blue raspberry? Three straws?”
Blake pulled out a pair of oversized, zebra print sunglasses. “You think we need some accessories? Wouldn’t want to get caught on camera, would we?”
“Guys, come on. We’re grown-ups.”
“So what?”
Summer glanced up at the cashier. Teenage eyes were glued to some car race on repeat on the tiny TV above his head. Oblivious to the antics of people old enough to know better. “Twenty-five-year-olds shouldn’t be acting like this.”
“When they’re sad and stuck in a rut, they most certainly should. Now stop talking and put these on.” Devin opened up a pair of neon green sunglasses adorned with more rhinestones than Dolly Parton. He slipped them on Summer’s face and stepped back. “Perfect. Let’s go.”
They all walked up to the cashier and Summer tried not to fidget. The last time they’d done something like this…It’d ended in the three of them tangled up in Devin’s sheets and a morning full of regret.
But before that? She’d had so much fun, Slurpee came out her nose. With a bite of her lip, she glanced at Blake. He’d been quiet inside the store. Did he have second thoughts too? Hands in his pockets, lips thinned into a line. Maybe he’d back her up. Stop this ridiculous game.
He sensed her eyes on him and looked up. Oh. Wow. Instead of wariness or concern, all she saw was heat. Lust. Unabashed need.
Thank God for dark tint, over-the-top shades. Otherwise, he’d see the same reflected right back.
* * *
BLAKE
Summer climbed out of the front seat and Blake had to bite back a groan. The green swoosh of her dress slipped higher up her thighs and the curve of her ass had him wishing for a hotel room instead of the beach.
He knew Devin meant well—a trip down memory lane to fire up a good mood and rekindle what they’d shared. But Summer was right—they weren’t kids out on a joy ride anymore. Couldn’t they hit a bar and chat in a booth like normal people?
Summer slipped off her sandals and Blake clenched his jaw. The beach did have some advantages. Shit. He needed to rein it in before he said something stupid.
“You coming, man?” Devin held open the door and Blake stood up.
“Yeah, sorry.” He hopped out and followed Devin and Summer as they made their way down the rocky slope to the beach. His feet hit the sand and he exhaled.
Midnight Cove might be the vacation spot for billionaires and movie stars and a whole host of people with egos bigger than the damn Pacific Ocean. But for Blake? It was magic. The salty surf crashing against the sand. The waves that carried him and a board in the air. The lighthouse spinning its web of light over the rocks and water.
He glanced over at Summer. She stood on the beach, sandals in her hand and toes flexing in the sand, staring out at the inky blackness. She’d always been that type of girl. The one who felt deeper, fell harder, laughed louder. The one who could take one look at the ocean and visualize a painting that captured more than just waves.
It captured Blake, too.
“Still beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Mm-hmm.” She nodded. “It never changes, does it? No matter what we do or where we go, this—” Her hand waved at the shoreline and the water. “It never changes.”
“No, it doesn’t. It’s always here, waiting.”
She turned to him, crazy neon sunglasses pushed up onto her head to hold back her hair. God damn. So beautiful. Wild. And she wanted to cage herself into the streets of New York. He’d never understand why.
“So are you two done staring at each other? Cause we’ve got a lifeguard station to TP!”
A roll of toilet paper sailed through the air and Blake caught it before it hit the ground. “Brad’s going to have a conniption if he finds out we did this.”
Summer spoke up. “Who’s Brad?”
“The head lifeguard and Midnight Cove’s building inspector. He’s the only thing standing between us and the bar.” Blake raised his voice as Devin jogged away. “He’ll probably deny our permit on principle!”
“Then stop shouting so we don’t get caught.” Devin stopped in front of the lifeguard hut. Fifty years old, with whitewashed wood walls perched ten feet off the sand, that place had seen more teenage action than anywhere else in the Cove.
Blake glanced at Summer. Some twenty-one-year-old action too. He still remembered her hair pulled back in a ponytail. Black tank top and jean skirt. Just enough thigh to grab ahold of as he pressed her against a pillar.
Maybe a break from real life wasn’t a terrible idea. Maybe it would show Summer what she’d been missing.
With a deep breath, Blake tossed the roll to her. “Come on, let’s have some fun.” He pulled his sunglasses down—oversized and bright red—and loped after Devin.
As he stopped beneath the lifeguard station, a toilet paper roll sailed over the roof and landed with a soft thud on the other side. Summer. Blake laughed and let his tension go. If Brad had an issue with them, he’d deal with it. Just not tonight.
Devin picked up the roll, pulled back and whoosh! Over the roof it went. A few seconds later, back it came with Summer’s warm, bubbly laugh hitching a ride.
Devin caught it and tossed it back. “See, I told you this would be fun.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “A half hour of this and it’ll all come back, Blake. She’ll remember.”
Blake picked up the pack of toilet paper and fished out another roll. “I sure as hell hope so.”
“Just watch.”
“Watch what?” Summer bounded through the toilet paper streamers covering the station and came to a stop in front of them. “Is there something else going on tonight?”
Devin shrugged. “No. I was just telling Blake that come tomorrow, this’ll be the talk of the surfers. We’ll probably have more business than we know what to do with.”
“And a whole big mess to clean up.” Summer held half a roll in one hand and eyed the station house. “You both are coming out here first thing and cleaning this up, right?”
Devin grinned. “I never said anything about cleaning it up.”
Blake shook his head and Summer did the same. “You’re terrible.”
“I know. Now help us out and throw that thing, would you?”
Summer shook her head with a smile. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.” She pulled her arm back and launched the toilet paper over the roof.
Blake grinned and jogged through the mess to pick it up on the other side. “Here it comes!” He launched it back over and Summer caught it with a laugh.
As the station disappeared under white streamers, they all fell into rhythm. Summer’s laugh warmed and grew. Her smile turned infectious. The woman Blake had fallen for was back. Spectacular. Larger than life.
Strips of the rolls hung down on all sides of the hut in makeshift paper curtains that hid everything inside. Without saying a word, the three of them ducked beneath the white and stood under the station.
Summer dropped her empty roll and took off her sunglasses. She spun around, laughing with wide eyes. Chestnut hair streaming, dress waving in the air like the ocean.
God, to have her back. To wrap her up in his arms and forget all about the last four years.
The pain. Heartache. What happened when she left. Blake shook his head and stepped toward her. He’d never be able to let her go. Never be able to move on.
* * *
SUMMER
Summer spun around and laughed at the craziness of it all. Twisting loops of toilet paper hung down like an art installation. Gauzy curtains blocked out the moonlight and the houses dotting the shoreline. A tiny cocoon on the sand shutting out everything but the sound of the ocean and her own beating heart.
Blake’s feet kicked sand onto her toes and she glanced up. Swallowed. The angle of his jaw. The crease between his brows when he smiled. The sparkle in his blue eyes when he looked her over
.
The kiss.
It stole her breath and turned her on and brought it all back. The heat and desire. Unchecked need. She stepped back and her arm brushed against Devin’s shirt. Oh, my.
Her two men. Tucked inside a spontaneous cabana on the beach. She closed her eyes. This was so not New York. So not her life.
Devin’s hand grazed her bare arm and she jumped. “Tell us about New York. What’s it like to live in the big city?”
Summer let out a shaky breath as Devin’s fingers played up and down on her skin. “Huge. Impersonal. Lonely.”
“I thought you lived in the art district?” Blake’s voice was soft, floating.
“I do. A flat in a building full of other painters and sculptors and all sorts of artists.”
“Aren’t they your friends?”
Devin’s fingers found her collarbone and she opened her eyes. Blake stood a foot away. Close enough to touch. To smell his sandalwood cologne. Catch the way the dim light cast shadows on his face.
“No. I don’t have any friends in New York. Everyone is crazy competitive. Or impressed with themselves. It’s all so fake and shallow.”
Blake eased closer. His beard coated his jawline and chin and Summer struggled not to remember how it would scrape as he kissed his way down her body.
“Then why are you there? Why don’t you come back to Midnight Cove?”
Devin’s other hand slinked around her waist. Gentle fingers exploring, teasing. Summer’s breath caught and her lips fell open. “I can’t. I’ve been trying to make it in New York for so long. I’ve got an exhibit next week.”
“You could have exhibits anywhere. Live anywhere.”
She swallowed. “My mother expects me to make it. To be someone.”
Devin pushed her hair off her neck and his lips took its place. Sensual, but firm. Summer clenched her muscles and shifted her weight on the sand. Her whole body hummed like an electric circuit full to bursting with unused energy.
Every touch of Devin’s lips had her biting back a moan.
They shouldn’t be there. The weekend wasn’t about her falling back into the past. It was about Mandy. The wedding. Being there for her best friend and then going back to the life she’d constructed three thousand miles away.
“What about what you want, Summer?”
Her lips were dry and she ran her tongue along the cracks. “What I want?”
“Do you ever do anything for yourself?” Blake inched forward and reached out to cup her cheek in his hand. Rough calluses earned from harsh sea water and surfboards scraped her skin. “Just because you want to?”
Summer tried to swallow, but she couldn’t. What she wanted in that moment was his lips on hers. Devin’s hands on her skin. Both them touching her. Everywhere. All at once.
She was so tired of being alone. Of the pretty boys in New York. The weak men who claimed they needed a muse and her body was it. Men who’d take what they wanted and leave her empty. Unfulfilled. Nothing like Blake and Devin.
One night with them and they’d filled her up. She’d painted for weeks. Dipping into the rich ochre and vermillion. The crimson and indigo their bodies created when they touched. When they fucked.
Blake’s fingers stroked her cheek and Devin’s squeezed her waist and she knew they’d satisfy all her needs. Stoke her desire until she could burst in a sea of Technicolor magic. Paintings would splash across her mind and cover her whole studio back home.
She would be alive. Sparkling.
Blake focused on her lips. “Tell me you remember, Summer. What we had. What we could be.”
The words slipped out before she could hold them back. “I remember.”
Devin took her by the waist and in an instant, she’d spun around, toes skimming the sand. “Then let us take you back. Relive that night. Even if it’s just one time.”
His eyes closed and his hands slipped higher up her back and then it happened. Devin kissed her. Hot. Hungry. Blazing. She was a torch and he was the match and as Blake’s hands found the curve of her ass, they all ignited.
How could she walk away? When the three of them were a damn bonfire?
She broke the kiss and looked up into Devin’s eyes. “Take me home.”
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMER
THE DOOR OPENED and Summer tumbled into the dark house. Devin’s arm tugged her down a hallway and Blake locked them in. Thank God. Another minute of groping Blake in the backseat like a pair of teenagers and she’d have caved.
One more red light and she’d have given in to the voices in her head telling—no, shrieking—at her to stop. Go back to the Inn! Track down Mandy and crash on her couch. Bang on your mother’s condo door and pretend you’re sorry!
Anything to avoid this. The crush of two men slamming her against wood paneling. The heat of Blake’s breath fast on her cheek. The scrape of Devin’s hands up her thighs as she scrunched her toes to gain purchase on the tile floor.
Summer didn’t know if they were in their house, some fuck pad across town, or their surf shop. She’d been too busy running fingers over flexed muscles and trimmed beard to notice. And she didn’t care. Not when everything—the memories and sin and lust—it all flared bright and wonderful. She wanted to drown in it. Drown in these two men she’d never been able to forget. Never let go.
In four years, she’d painted the ghosts of their lips and hands on every canvas she’d ever touched. A slash of black as Devin reached for the zipper on her dress. A swirl of red as Blake raised her arms above her head.
How had she denied this passion? The party dress fell to the floor and Devin slid up. A belt buckle scraped her bare skin. Shirt buttons bumped across her pricked flesh. He palmed the wall on either side of her head, caging her in lust and need.
Oh, God. No man in New York had ever come close. The possession. The control.
Lips landed hot and wet on her earlobe and she mewled. Devin ran his tongue along the sensitive ridge of her ear as Blake took her hand. His fingers wrapped around her wrist and slid up her skin until she shivered.
“Please tell me you have a bed.”
In an instant, she was weightless, off the ground and airborne in Devin’s arms. A door opened. A bed appeared as if she’d wished it into existence.
Why were they all wearing so many clothes?
Blake toed off his shoes and Summer shimmied out of Devin’s grasp. “Let me help you.”
She set to the buttons on his shirt while he unbuckled and shoved down his pants. Clothes fell to the floor, flew across the room, landed on a lamp and a dresser and stuff Summer didn’t have time to take in.
All she cared about was the craving she’d denied. The longing. Regret. She needed to wash it down with kisses. Drown it with their touch. Kill it with two cocks she’d missed so much.
A flick of her wrist and her bra disappeared. Panties next. She scrambled onto the bed as Blake unrolled a condom.
She’d ached for this. Pined for it night after sleepless night, rolling around in her big, empty bed in New York, dreaming of him crushing her into the mattress while Devin took her mouth.
Blake’s lips hit hers and she moaned. Oh, yes. Their lips mashed together, tongues lapped, teeth scraped against skin. His hands all over and not enough. Pulling back, he spread her legs. Yes!
As her back arched, willing him closer—take me, please!—the mattress dipped. Devin. He kneeled behind her and lifted her head into his lap. Stroked her face as his cock stood proud at the edge of her vision.
She reached up to rake her tongue across his tip when Devin leaned down and captured her mouth in a bruising kiss. Oh! He ravaged her. First lips and face and neck. Then her breasts. He took each one in his hands, bouncing them against her chest and watching the flesh ripple. He licked a trail across her nipples, flicking each one until they stood out like little knobs he could turn. Oh, God. Turn me. Turn me higher.
With Blake between her legs and Devin all over her, she burned. Reaching down, she found Bla
ke’s cock, hard and thick and so damn ready. It throbbed in her hand and need hit her like a drug. She shivered and twitched. An addict too long without a high. Guiding him closer, she positioned him at her entrance and grabbed his hips. “Fuck me, Blake. Right now.”
On her command, he thrust, burying his cock until their bodies touched. He filled her. Hot and hard and so damn sexy. Devin stroked her breasts and Blake groaned and Summer reeled. God, I’ve missed this.
Reaching up, she wrapped her arms around Devin and smiled up into his face. Thank you. As he teased her breasts, she bucked, rocking her hips against Blake until he pulled back and thrust again.
“Yes! Oh, God. Yes.” She wrapped her legs around Blake, urging him on with a kick of heels and begging for more. In silent answer, he picked up speed.
Over and over, harder and harder, he thrust, pushing her deeper into the mattress and Devin’s legs. Her breasts bounced, the mattress squeaked and the high she’d ached for barreled through her body at breakneck speed. Oh, sweet Jesus. Grasping at the bed, she took fistfuls of comforter in her hands, twisting and wrenching as pleasure built in her core.
“That’s it, baby. Come for us.” Devin whispered the command and she obeyed. Her muscles clamped around Blake’s shaft and she wailed her release, crying out as wave after wave of pleasure wracked her body. The room spun, the mattress floated, and she flew.
* * *
BLAKE
Fuck. She was everything. What they’d missed. What they’d found. The perfect woman.
Blake pulled back and thrust again. Deep inside as her body squeezed his shaft. God, he’d never last. And last he wanted. She needed to come over and over. Remember what it could be like. What they could share.
He knew sex wouldn’t bring her back—wouldn’t change her mind and force her hand and make her see the future with them—but it could be a start. They weren’t some sloppy one-night stand that never amounted to anything more.
The three of them together—Summer trapped between him and Devin as they all touched heaven—it was magic. Stronger than the waves crashing on the rocks, brighter than the lighthouse in the middle of the storm. They could be Summer’s muse.