by T. S. Ryder
“It’s too early for that.” Diana reached for a new card, but Bobby caught her hand. His chest heaved and she saw it wasn’t nerves but desire in his eyes. He swallowed and shook his head.
“We have to do as the cards say.”
Diana had to grin at that. Her whole body tingled with excitement as she slid to kneel on the floor and had Bobby turn his chair. She kept her eyes on his as she undid the button on his pants. He flashed her a smile, then gripped the edges of the chair as he lifted his hips, letting her pull his pants down. She kissed his knee, still looking into his eyes before she finally looked down. He was already semi-ready and she moaned with the desire to have him inside of her.
She took him in her hand, stroking him gently to start. Bobby tensed and she looked up at his face again. “If this is moving too fast—”
“No, it’s not.” Bobby swallowed. “Ever since the wedding . . . I started wondering if I really didn’t know you. When I close my eyes, I see your face. I’ve seen you calm down Ricky and Kurtis when they’re in the middle of their squabbles. I’ve seen you afraid, I’ve seen you angry. I know you. And I . . . I want this.”
Diana bent over him. She took him into her mouth and sucked gently. Bobby’s hips jerked. He let out a soft gasp that had her heating up inside. She tried to push aside her own desire and focus on him. The pants and gasps above her made everything tighten a bit more inside of her. An ache started to throb between her legs.
Bobby hardened quickly, so sensitive to her touch. He kept his hands clasped on the chair, and when she took a break to look at him, she found his eyes half-closed, a look of ecstasy on his face.
“You can go ahead and take your turn,” she said, then bent over him again.
Bobby moaned. Moments later, she heard the clatter of the dice. She gave another hard suck and Bobby buckled. The whole table lurched. She could feel his muscles trembling, so she leaned back on her heels. “That good enough for now?”
“No.” He let out a strangled laugh. “It’s never going to be good enough.”
She stroked him another couple times before reaching between her legs. When she tested herself, she was pleased to find herself slick. Good.
They continued their game, revealing secrets and random facts until they were both on the bed, utterly naked. Diana ran her hands over Bobby’s chiseled chest, loving the sensation of his warmth over her. He kissed her deeply, his tongue thrusting into her mouth as he moved her thighs up either side of her.
He entered her slowly, but the sensation of his size filling her made her whole body bend beneath him. A gasp escaped her mouth as she bent, eyes fluttering. He found himself seated deeply inside of her and then began to thrust. Diana ran her fingers over his mouth and he kissed them, then reached between their bodies. He found her clit and circled it gently.
He knew exactly what to do. Diana’s whole body arched toward him, unable to stop herself from crying out with every thrust. Her fingers dug into his strong shoulders and he dropped over her. His mouth hungrily working at her neck. Her skin tightened to a point of pain, her whole body on fire. She clung to him, her eyes screwed tightly against her arousal.
He thrust deep and wild like an animal possessed. Everything reached a peak too high for her to handle. He grunted, groaned. She felt him finishing her and his thumb moved more frantically over her clit. Everything inside her broke. Waves of darkness washed over her vision, her limbs flopped all over the place, and a scream tore from her throat.
Bobby jerked back from her, eyes wide. “Did I hurt you?”
Diana panted for a moment as wave after wave of relaxation washed over her. Eventually, she smiled at him. “Quite the opposite. Sorry, I should have warned you. I’m a screamer.”
Sweat dripped from his forehead, but he grinned and kissed her deeply. “Well, then . . . I look forward to making you scream all night. You won’t even have a voice in the morning. And you’ll never walk again.”
Diana laughed, wrapping her arms around him again. “I can’t wait,” she purred.
Chapter Twelve – Kurtis
Kurtis bounced his leg, trying not to look at the clock every few minutes. He kept glancing over at it, though, and the bouncing increased. Diana was due to arrive for them to have lunch together in ten minutes. He’d started looking at the clock at nine, waiting for it to be noon. Part of him felt silly for being so anxious to spend time with her, but it was a very small part.
It had been a long time since he allowed himself to feel so deeply about someone. To let himself be excited about seeing them, of waiting every moment for when they could be together again. He had been hurt badly by someone he loved, and ever since then, he hadn’t allowed himself to have an emotional connection
But now, with Diana? All those times he’d gone to the mainland and had meaningless sex paled in comparison to a simple kiss with her. It was like surviving off of potato chips when she was a four-course meal.
Kurtis smiled, already planning all the things he wanted to show her over his lunch break. The door opened and he looked up hopefully, but it wasn’t Diana who came charging into his office. It was Ricky. His face blazed with fury as he slammed his hands on the desk so hard that the wood cracked.
“I am sick and tired of this, Felton!”
Kurtis felt his guard hairs rise. His bear snarled, but he kept his expression smooth. “Sick and tired of what exactly?”
Ricky thrust a thick finger into his face. “You being cheap and stealing from my clan. I just got your offer for the wheat this year. We’d barely break even! And then you charge us an arm and a leg for the flour made from our own wheat!”
“If you don’t want to buy my flour, then you should get your own mill.”
Ricky growled at him. His brown eyes glinted with the dangerous look that he always got when he was getting up on his high horse. Kurtis resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Ricky simply didn’t understand how the business worked. If he did, he wouldn’t be so eager to lay all the blame on Kurtis. He needed to learn how to budget. Besides which, he had cut into a good deal of the Ridgeline’s profits when he started up his own water purifying plant. You didn’t see Kurtis complaining about it, though.
Kurtis folded his hands on his desk. “What do you want, Ricky?”
“I want you to think about someone other than yourself for once in your life!”
“I think about my clan.” Kurtis stood and circled the desk. He and Ricky were pretty evenly matched for height, though the other alpha had quite a bit on him when it came to muscle. But that didn’t mean that Kurtis was going to allow himself to be intimidated. “I give you a fair price for your crops. It’s more than I’d pay if I were importing produce from the mainland. And let’s be honest. Your yield has been less than ideal the last few years.”
Ricky clenched his hands. “If we had enough money to actually take care of the fields like they need—”
“How much could they need? You pull weeds, you water them, whatever. The problem is that your clan doesn’t put in the amount of effort that’s needed to make something of themselves.”
It was the wrong line to cross. A horrible lie and one that Kurtis himself had scolded members of his own clan for repeating. He had seen firsthand how hard the Flatland clan worked, and to suggest that they didn’t was, frankly, beyond insulting. As he opened his mouth to apologize, a fist flew at his face. Ricky’s punch hit him square in the jaw, sending him reeling backward.
Kurtis stumbled a few times. His bear snarled, and for once he didn’t try to tamp down that reaction. Instead, he sprang forward, swinging wildly at Ricky’s face. The other alpha dodged, but not fast enough. Kurtis smiled in satisfaction as a loud crack rang through the office. Ricky roared with rage and punched him in the stomach. Kurtis grappled with him as he fought to regain his breath. Ricky punched him again and Kurtis managed to knee him in the stomach, then threw him away, giving himself to breathe.
Ricky started forward again, but before he could reach him, Dian
a was suddenly there. She threw her hands out, pressing them into Ricky’s chest. Kurtis sagged against his desk.
“Stop it!” Diana shouted. “Stop this right now.”
“Out of my way,” Ricky growled. He tried to grip Diana by the hips to shift her out of the way, but she slapped his hands sharply. A look of pain and bewilderment came over his face, and Kurtis couldn’t help but laugh. Ricky growled again and stepped to one side, but Diana stayed on him like a shark on a whale carcass. “Diana, this doesn’t concern you!”
Diana shook her head. “It does concern me! I come to see one of my alphas for lunch and instead, I find two of them at each other’s throats? This is unacceptable. From both of you.”
“Hey, he’s the one who attacked me,” Kurtis protested.
“Completely out of the blue?” Diana gave him a withering glance and he ducked his head.
Silence descended. When Kurtis looked up again, he found that Ricky looked a bit calmer. His muscles still clenched, but he was no longer glaring murderously at him. There was a rueful expression on his face, and Kurtis felt that same regret coming over him. Seriously, why was it so hard for him to not antagonize Ricky? He knew that his former friend had a short temper.
And maybe he could pay the Flatlands more for their produce. The problem was, with very little to export to the mainland, there was a finite amount of money on the island. The economy was stagnant, and unless they figured out a way for new money to come in, he couldn’t risk giving more to the Flatlands. They were the group that spent the most on the mainland, making their stores dwindle even further.
Diana looked at them again and her shoulders sagged. “Guys . . . what is going on? Things have been going so well lately. You two have been getting along. I mean, how often has it just been the three of us at night?”
Kurtis looked away. He loved it when it was the three of them. Perhaps more than when it was just him and Diana. Certainly more than when Noel joined them.
“I’m sorry,” Ricky said in a low voice. “I guess I’m feeling the strain right now. Working all day while Kurtis sits on his ass doing nothing. And yet he’s the one who spends thousands of dollars on diamonds and pearls, and I can’t even afford to fix my damned tractor.”
Kurtis rolled his eyes. “Okay, for starters, I have not spent thousands on diamonds and I’ve never bought pearls. Second, I have to control the flow of money in my clan tightly so that we can afford to buy supplies in the winter and spring. Maybe you should start saving seed so that you don’t have to spend hundreds every year in order to plant your fields.”
“They’re hybrid strains. You can’t get a reliable crop planting them.”
“Then don’t buy hybrid strains.”
“Shut up, both of you!” Diana threw her hands in the air. “It’s clear that neither of you has any idea what it takes to do the other person’s job. I get it. This is why the packs being separate is a bad idea. It’s too rigid, and none of you bother to learn what the others do. You’re too busy throwing accusations around. Ricky, in your opinion, what do the Flatlands need more than anything else?”
Ricky opened his mouth, then closed it again. Kurtis wondered if he had been planning to give a snarky reply but thought better of it. “Better techniques. People trained to fix machinery. Resources.”
Diana nodded and turned to Kurtis. “Okay. Since we are combining the clans, the concerns of the Flatlands are your concerns. I want you to go through your budget and set aside enough money to send at least ten members of the Flatlands to the mainland to study agricultural practices.”
Kurtis bit his tongue to stop himself from snapping that she asked Ricky what his clan needed but didn’t bother asking him what his clan needed. He attempted to keep himself calm as he replied. “Diana, it’s not that simple. We need more money coming in, not more going out. We can only afford to lend out cash to half a dozen individuals a year to get a college education, and they spend the whole time on the mainland working to pay it off as well as studying.”
“So, your people can go to the mainland to learn how to paint, but when it comes to actually improving the infrastructure, that’s too much?” Ricky growled. “This island would starve without me.”
“Do you want to put that to the test?” Kurtis was just sick of being treated like all he cared about was money. “‘Cause I can cut all trade between the Ridgeline and Flatlands right now if you want.”
Ricky snorted. “I’d like to see you try!”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah!”
“That’s enough!” Diana’s hands were clenched. Her face turned bright red as she glared from one to the other. “You two are being idiots. Complete and utter idiots! You know what would be really great? If you could stop listening to your overinflated egos for one damned second and actually think about the welfare of the island.”
Kurtis started. “I have—”
“No, you haven’t. Because if you had, you’d have seen that the current system is broken. There is no reason why you should be able to buy a diamond necklace when Ricky is using a tractor that’s so old that it’s dangerous. You say you can send six people to college every year? Well, next year it’s going to be people from the Flatlands. No arguments.” Diana sucked in a deep breath and shook her head. “This shouldn’t even be discussed like this. You should have a council meeting where all the alphas get together and explain what is going on in their clans so that we can all figure out the best way to move forward.”
Kurtis was silent. As much as he agreed with her, he didn’t like the way she was talking about this. She had just come in, heard Ricky’s side, and completely ignored his. As queen, she was meant to be a stabilizing force. Not think that she could just dictate what was going on.
Diana’s gaze softened as she stepped toward him. “I know that this is a weird situation. We’re all trying to get used to it. I’m just tired of all the fighting. We have to figure it out.”
“You’re right.” Ricky was the one to answer. He stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “We do need a council. Probably every month, don’t you think? I can talk to Bobby and Noel about it if you want.”
“Right, so you can pretend like it’s your idea?” Kurtis said.
Diana rubbed her temples and pulled away. “No. I’m going to call them right now. Try to get along, will you?”
Kurtis opened his mouth to say it wasn’t him who needed to hear that but closed it again. Diana looked at them, sighed, and headed for the door. She stepped just outside to make her call. Kurtis watched her. So beautiful, compassionate, and smart. So why did she think that throwing money at the Flatlands was going to fix everything? If they didn’t get an export, then they were screwed. They’d have no money, and then what? Survive on sea lions, cows, and carrots?
“This queen thing was a good idea after all.” Ricky grinned at him. “Finally getting some change around here.”
Rage bubbled up Kurtis’ chest and he spoke without thinking. “I’d imagine that would seem like a good thing to a charity case like you.”
Ricky didn’t move for a long time. Then, he reared back, punched Kurtis square in the jaw and stormed from the office.
Diana yelped from where she was. She rushed in, eyes wide. “What happened?”
Kurtis grimaced. “Nothing. I have to get back to work.”
“Kurtis—”
“I have to work,” he repeated and turned his back on her.
Chapter Thirteen – Bobby
“Ricky, can you help me with—”
“I’m busy.”
“Okay.”
Bobby winced at the pain evident in Diana’s voice at the exchange. He dropped the bucket of clams he had dug up that day on the counter. It was his turn to cook dinner, so he set a pot of water on to boil and then went in search of Diana. He found her climbing onto a chair to reach for a clean set of sheets from the linen closet. Even as he moved forward to help her, Kurtis appeared at her side.
“I can help—” Kurtis started.
“No, thank you.”
The frostiness in Diana’s voice made Bobby shiver, even though it wasn't directed at him. Kurtis hovered a moment before he slunk off. Bobby sighed as he moved up to make sure Diana didn’t fall and hurt herself. He wasn’t certain if she wanted the help or just wanted Ricky to help, but the chair wobbled slightly, and he would rather her to be safe than see her get hurt. He grasped the back of the chair.
Diana whipped around, a fire in her eyes, but it died when she saw him. Silently, she pulled down the sheets, then braced herself on his shoulder to hop to the floor.
“Thanks.”
Bobby nodded at her, then put his hand on hers. “Do you need to talk?”
“No . . . Yes.” Diana sighed. She clutched at his hand and pulled him to her bedroom. The room smelled of lavender still, both from her scent and the candles she had lit. He smiled as he caught his own scent in the pile of sheets on the floor. “What is with Kurtis? I don’t know what he said to Ricky, but Ricky won’t even look at me anymore. He seems so angry and hurt, and I have no idea what’s going on.”
Bobby grimaced. He ought to have known that something like this was going to come up. He wasn’t certain exactly how to proceed. Diana deserved to know what was going on and what she was missing, but at the same time . . . Was it really his place to tell her?
“Kurtis and Ricky were once best friends,” he said slowly. “But there were rumors that drove them apart.”
Diana rose her brow. “Rumors?”
“That they were more than friends . . . That they were lovers.”
“So?”
Bobby shook his head. “Relationships between two males are not seen as . . . normal around here.”
Diana stopped where she was, the sheet half on her bed. Her jaw hung loosely as she stared at him. “What? So you’re saying that four men and one woman is acceptable, but two men who love each other not?”
“Not among alphas, at least. There is a lot of . . . ” Bobby struggled to find the right word. “Alphas are expected to be incredibly masculine. Tough. Anything that isn’t seen as masculine, no matter whether that’s true or not, is seen as a weakness. I mean, people have a hard time accepting me as an alpha because I can’t rip my clothes off just by flexing. For an alpha to be gay . . . I’m not saying it makes sense. It’s just how it is, and it hurt Kurtis and Ricky’s relationship.”