“Your best friend will never ever do anything wrong by you, Mack.” Mason nudged her shoulder with his again. “Aidan would die before he did.”
With a strangled cry, McKenzie threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and giving him a tight squeeze. “Thanks, bro,” she whispered in his ear, warm pressure holding her chest a fraction of a second before she slapped a noisy kiss on his cheek.
“Eww,” he wailed, scrambling for her wrists with his hands. “Girl germs!”
She laughed, skipping backward away from him, the sand like cool satin between her toes. “Freak.”
He grinned at her, his teeth flashing white in the mauve dusk light. “Lunatic.”
She danced another step backward, her pulse pounding in her neck, her pussy heavy with constricting want. “Gotta go.”
Mason’s grin stretched wider. “Going to go do something reckless and insane?”
She grinned back. “And totally surreal. You?”
He laughed. “Oh, you better believe it.”
Chapter Seven
“A face of an angel with filth on her mind,” Nick sang under his breath, studying the smooth amber liquid in the cut crystal glass in his hand. “I pray to burn in her fire, I pray to die in her arms.”
The words sent a charge through him, like the electrical energy of a summer storm—crackling through the hazy, eucalyptus-drenched air, making the pulse quicken and the breath turn to shallow pants. It was intoxicating. Potent.
He held his glass closer to his face, watching the rolling waves kiss the white sand beyond his private bungalow’s eastern balcony through the still scotch.
“Yet the arms of her lover reach out for more,” he continued to sing on a murmur, closing his eyes, his dick—already half erect—twitching in his jeans. “Like a sinner I will burn in his fire. I will die in his fire as she pleads for—”
“I don’t think she’s coming.”
Aidan’s low voice, spoken from the balcony’s doorway, opened Nick’s eyes and he lifted his glass to his lips, swallowing the scotch—his first since Germany—in one mouthful. The liquor burned its way down his throat, a river of heat that did nothing to ease the unsettled nerves fluttering in his gut. So much more to his song to be found, to be felt… So much more of it still hidden in the mist.
Letting out a soft breath, he turned to the massive man now standing beside him, casting him a slow smile. “She’ll come.”
Aidan didn’t look convinced. The muscles in his sizable body tensed and he turned to look at the main door.
“She’ll be here, Aidan,” Nick said, taking in the man’s coiled strength and taciturn apprehension.
Troubled green eyes turned back to him. “How do you know?”
“Because she loves you.”
At Nick’s simple statement, Aidan let out a ragged sigh. “She hasn’t told me that.”
Nick chuckled, unfurling from his seat and placing his hand on Aidan’s broad shoulder. He’d seen the guy buck naked, he’d been witness to his amazing strength and power, but at the feel of Aidan’s muscles under his palm—like chiseled marble—another wave of awed appreciation rolled through him. The male form had never turned him on before, but it was impossible not to be impressed with Aidan’s sheer masculinity. “Her eyes have told you, mate.” He fixed Aidan with a steady look. “Trust me, she’ll be here. She loves you.”
Aidan studied him, doubt etching lines on either side of his eyes. “Damn it, I fucked up.” He dragged his hands through his hair as he turned back to the door. “I should have told her—”
A soft knock on the entry door brought him to silence.
Nick’s heart leapt into his throat. His pulse rate doubled. He stood and stared at the bungalow’s closed door, the knot in his gut twisting tighter. There were two possibilities to what awaited on the other side and as selfish as it was, he longed for only one of them: McKenzie Wood would cross the threshold and he would find the ending to his song. The other was too bleak to consider: she would tell Nick she wanted nothing to do with him again.
The knock came again, softer this time.
He shot Aidan a quick look and found the man standing motionless. “Do you want to get that, or shall I?”
With a start, Aidan moved, his ropey muscles coiling and flexing as he strode to the door. Nick watched him wrap long, callused fingers around the doorknob, watched him twist his wrist, watched his shoulder bunch as he pulled open the door.
A shaky sigh escaped from Nick as McKenzie stepped over the threshold, closed the door behind her with her heel and slipped the soft black shift dress she was wearing from her shoulders.
It fell to an inky puddle of material at her feet, but Nick didn’t really notice. Not when she stood before Aidan wearing nothing but a tiny black lace G-string and delicate black patent leather stilettos. Not when her breasts rose and fell with such sublime perfection, their rosy nipples puckered into hard tips, their creamy form swollen with anticipated pleasure.
Not when she looked up at Aidan and said, “And I want to beg but I can’t find the words.”
The lyrics from Nick’s first love song—a song he wrote for the goddess who long ago owned his heart—speared into his soul. The song McKenzie had selected when he’d come to them both and asked to be a part of their rapture.
He walked towards the two lovers, scooping the red silk scarf he’d laid out on the bungalow’s dining table earlier up as he did so. The cool fabric slid over his fingers in a gentle caress that send wicked licks of hot desire into his groin. His throat thickened. Oh, what he wanted to do tonight…
He stopped beside Aidan, giving the man—who still gazed down at McKenzie with silent love—a steady look. His heart beat harder. How could they not know how much each loved the other? How could they not see it? It was so potent, so undeniable he could barely draw breath. It fueled his arousal like nothing he’d ever experienced before. It moved him, inspired him. Fuck, it rocked him to the very center of his soul.
“Aidan—” he kept his voice steady, “—tie McKenzie’s wrists together behind her back.”
McKenzie’s sudden intake of breath, a hitching gasp, sent another hot surge of hunger into Nick’s groin. As did the way Aidan’s nostrils flared as the man turned to look at him.
He raised his hand, holding it palm upward, fingers extended. The red silk scarf draped over his palm, vibrant and evocative, as if alive with the future of those in the room.
Aidan studied it for what felt like a lifetime, his jaw clenched, his eyes unblinking. He lifted his stare to McKenzie’s face. “Mack?”
The question—just her name but full of unspoken hope—was enough to make Nick’s cock flood with hot blood. When McKenzie gave Aidan a single nod, moving her hands to behind her back, her breasts thrusting forward, Nick almost came there and then.
The trust, the faith these two people had for each other… God, it was exquisite.
And so fucking arousing.
Without a word, Aidan removed the scarf from Nick’s hand, stepping behind McKenzie, towering over her.
Nick took his place in front of her, his gaze holding hers as Aidan slid his hands over her shoulders and down her arms, the scarf held loosely between his fingers, caressing her skin as he reached her wrists.
“You trust him, don’t you?” Nick’s balls rose at the concentrated want in McKenzie’s direct blue eyes.
He saw Aidan become still, his head bent, his body pressed close to McKenzie’s back, as if he needed to hear an answer he already knew. Perhaps, with Nick there, he did.
A small smile pulled at the corners of McKenzie’s mouth. “I trust him.”
Nick’s balls throbbed and he took a step closer, letting his denim-clad thighs brush her naked ones. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes.” She drew in a deep breath, the action causing her nipples to graze the front of his shirt and his balls didn’t just throb, they ached. “I do. Besides, I know Aidan will break you in two if you do anything to hurt me
.”
Nick chuckled. “True.”
Aidan’s gaze flicked up to his. “True,” he said softly just as McKenzie’s gasp filled the room and her body stiffened.
Nick’s pulse thumped harder in his chest, her reaction telling him exactly what Aidan had done: tied the scarf around her wrists. Bound them together. Rendering her vulnerable.
Fuck, yes.
The urge to kiss her, to capture her lips and plunder her mouth almost overwhelmed him, but he held it in check. Just. Turning on his heel, he crossed the room to the table, retrieving another soft silk scarf waiting there. He heard Aidan’s heavy breaths behind him, the sound affirmation the man was as close to breaking point as himself. When he turned back to them both, he found two sets of eyes watching him, both ablaze with a desire so raw his cock jerked in his jeans. Precome leaked from its slit, its warmth slicking his taut flesh.
He walked back, stopping directly before McKenzie, the scarf dangling from his fingertips. “A face of an angel with filth on her mind.” The lyrics came from him in a low purr. “I pray to burn in her fire, I pray to die in her arms.”
He reached up and laid the scarf gently on her forehead, holding her stare for a moment.
“Yet the arms of her lover reach out for more.
“Like a sinner I will burn in his fire,
“I will die in his fire as she pleads for…”
McKenzie lifted her chin. “More,” she whispered.
Aidan’s groan rumbled in his chest, urgent and strained, and it was too much for Nick. Too much.
He pulled the scarf down over McKenzie’s eyes, knotted it behind her head and crushed her mouth with his.
The very second Nick’s lips found McKenzie’s, Aidan’s lips found her throat. He tasted her perfume on her skin, he breathed in her clean, delicate scent. From the way McKenzie shifted against him, he knew she was already struggling to control the pleasure in her body. Her hands were balled as fists at the small of her back, her knuckles pressing to the flat plane of his belly, just above his groin. His dick jerked in his trousers, straining instantly and irrefutably for her flesh, her heat.
He smoothed his hands over her body instead, up the curve of her ribcage to the swell of her breasts. His thumbs found her nipples, his pulse quickening at the hitching moan he heard her make through Nick’s kiss.
The singer pulled away from her, his mouth journeying down her throat, over her breasts until he captured one of her nipples. Aidan felt Nick’s warm lips on his fingers, felt his tongue stroke at McKenzie’s flesh. He held her breast for Nick to suckle on it, the soft moans rising in her chest all the evidence he needed to prove she was succumbing to the sensations the man’s mouth wrought on her body.
His cock jerked with increasing need. And something else. Something like…
Jealousy?
The thought threw him off kilter. Jealous? Now? Why now? After everything…
Because you love her, Rogers. You love her with every fiber of your being. You always have and you always will.
A low growl rumbled in his chest and he ground his teeth. The idea of Nick making love to McKenzie, of touching her…
Aidan’s stomach knotted. Not anymore. Not anymore.
As if sensing Aidan’s sudden tension, Nick lifted his head from McKenzie’s breasts, sliding his gaze to Aidan’s face. They stared at each other for a steady moment, a question in Nick’s grey eyes.
Aidan drew in a slow breath, taking McKenzie’s scent into his being, feeling her soft body against him. She stood motionless, blindfolded and bound between them, and yet there wasn’t an iota of apprehension to her. Her trust in him was implicit. Unquestionable. Oh, Christ, he loved her. So damn much.
He looked at Nick.
Nick looked at him. He didn’t say anything, not a word, but Aidan knew what he was going to do. With a smile Aidan could only ever call joyous, the world’s most famous, desired rock star lifted his hand to McKenzie’s face, cupped her jaw in his palm, and then stepped backward.
Aidan took his place immediately. Silently. He lowered himself to his knees, pressing his lips to McKenzie’s flat stomach, exploring her belly button with a series of tiny nips and nibbles.
She hitched in a gasp, and another one when he dragged his lips down farther, his tongue flicking out once to touch her soft, damp folds.
“Oh,” she whispered.
Did she know who was touching her now? Aidan didn’t care. All he wanted to do at that very moment was fill her with the purest pleasure he could. Give her his heart, his soul, in a simple touch.
He stroked her folds again with his tongue, and again she uttered that whispered word. “Oh.”
With gentle hands, he parted her thighs, opening her pussy up to his mouth. He lapped at her cleft, passing his tongue over her clit. Again. Again.
He heard he whimper, a shaky cry that barely left her throat.
He tasted her pussy with his tongue and lips, sucking on her sweetness with gentle pressure before laving her clit once more.
“Oh, yes.”
Her moan sent a surge of hot blood to his groin. His balls rose up. He dipped his tongue into her sex again, reveling in the wet heat of her feminine cleft. She tasted… divine.
And he wanted more.
His fingers skimmed over her hips, squeezing her firm arse cheeks for a brief second as he blew a gentle stream of cool air on her flushed, swollen folds.
“Please…” she begged on a trembling breath, rolling her hips forward.
He stroked his tongue over her clit, with a touch more force this time.
A slight shudder rocked through her, vibrating through his hands, down his arms into his chest.
“Please…” she begged again, her voice husky. “Oh, please, please I need to…”
He dipped his tongue deeper into her sex, lapping at her juices.
“I need to…”
The words fell from her in a hitching moan.
He rolled his tongue over her clit, flicked it, sucked on it.
“Oh, oh.”
He drew the sensitive nub into his mouth, capturing it with his teeth a split second before suckling on it once more.
“Oh God, please…”
He sucked harder. Flicked his tongue over it. Delved deep into her creamy heat and then sucked on her clit again.
“Oh, please, please.”
Her hips bucked forward. Her arse cheeks coiled. He heard her breath turn rapid, shallow pants that turned his balls to excruciating globes of urgent need.
He stroked his fingers over her hips, up her belly, feathered his fingertips over the swell of her breasts, teasing her erect nipples and then returning his hands to her hips. He swiped his tongue over her clit, swirled it around the tip and sucked it past his lips.
“Oh, please.” The moaned supplication was barely more than a breath. “Please.”
He smoothed his hands back to her thighs, spread her legs wider, granting his fingers, his mouth, greater access to the very center of her heat, and flicked his tongue over and over and over her clit. He slipped his fingers into her drenched channel and stroked the sweetest spot of her walls within.
She came. With a keening cry and a jolting shudder.
Aidan closed his eyes, pressing his face to her center, drinking her release as it wept from her.
He would never tire of this, of giving her this unconditional pleasure. He would never…
“I love you, Aidan.”
McKenzie’s voice caressed his heart. He opened his eyes, hardly daring to draw breath.
She bent her face toward him, the scarf hiding her beautiful, cheeky, expressive eyes from him.
He didn’t move. Did he hear correctly? Did he?
“Did you hear me, Rogers?” she murmured, her lips curling in a slow grin. “I love you. I love you so bloody much I won’t thump you for taking so long to tell me you love me back.”
Before he could stop himself, Aidan leapt to his feet, a whoop of delight—or some such sound—b
ursting from him as he swept McKenzie up into his arms and claimed her lips with his.
She kissed him back, her tongue mating with his, fierce and demanding and ferocious. Everything McKenzie-ish. And everything McKenzie-ish was everything he loved.
He kissed her until his head spun and his groin throbbed, and when he feared he would drop her, he lowered her feet to the floor and slipped the scarf from her face. “I love you too, Mack, just in case you haven’t picked up on that yet.”
She rolled her eyes. “A girl would have to be pretty bloody dense not to.”
He laughed, pulling her closer. “Yeah, dense is a good word.”
She thumped her fist against his chest, giving him a mock glare. “Hey!”
“How did you know it was me?” he asked, gazing into her eyes.
She grinned. “Who else would make me feel like that?”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Like what?”
Her grin stretched wider. “Like nothing else mattered in the world but me?”
A soft cough to Aidan’s left made him start and he swung around, more than a little embarrassed to discover he’d completely forgotten Nick’s presence in the room.
The rock star sat in one of the bungalow’s low, leather chairs, ankle resting on bent knee, one arm slung casually over the back of the chair. His body was loose and calm, his lips curled in an easy smile. Across his lap lay McKenzie’s dress, his fingers dancing over its soft fabric as if it were the strings of a guitar. “Now that was a thing of beauty.”
McKenzie laughed, resting her cheek against Aidan’s chest. His heart rate kicked up a notched at the simple intimacy and he wondered if he would ever get used to the wonderful sensation of being touched by her. Unlikely. Hell, he didn’t want to. Not ever.
He bent his head and kissed the top of hers, for no other reason than he could.
His heart rate tripped over itself again. Christ, he felt amazing.
Nick it seemed, recognized his sheer joy. The man’s smile twitched, his eyes sparkling bright grey happiness. “I think I’m allowed to say I told you so at this point, Aidan?”
Aidan smoothed his hands down McKenzie’s arms and, with a quick fumble of the scarf on her wrists, released her of her silken binds, gazing down into her upturned face. “Yeah, I guess you can.”
Tropical Sin: Bandicoot Cove, Book 3 Page 9