Evie wasn’t sure she’d agree that she and Ryan were quite that solid, but she kept her mouth shut and pulled his hand into her lap. ‘How many times have you done this?’
‘Five online, many more offline.’
Evie laughed. ‘You make it sound so easy.’
‘It is, as long as all parties are looking for the same thing.’
‘Which is?’ Ryan asked.
David took a sip and shrugged. ‘Fucking.’
As David talked more about his experiences, Ryan seemed comfortable enough. He draped his arm over Evie’s shoulders and his fingertips danced against her shoulders.
The arm had been to stake his claim. Mine, not yours. Yet the movement of his fingers told her that he was distracted.
She wanted to slide her hand along his thigh to see if he was hard, but she didn’t want to make any movement that might be construed as an invitation. Hot flashes of skin against skin kept sparking before her eyes and she wanted to squirm against the seat to enjoy the wet heat building between her legs, but this was Ryan’s show.
She didn’t touch her wine. She’d had a few sips before their arrival, but it was sweet wine and she knew that if she brought the glass to her lips again she’d start gulping it down, and she was a complete lightweight when it came to alcohol.
David drank, but she suspected his handling of the glass was more to draw attention to his long fingers than for his refreshment.
Listening to David talk about himself made her a little jittery, though she couldn’t pinpoint why. He said he worked in finance, which could have meant anything from armoured-car driver to jet-setter. He lived alone and had never been married, and didn’t want to be.
‘I’m shallow,’ he went on. ‘I like my companions to be fit and good-looking, like me.’
This made Ryan chuckle and cast a look at Evie, who was never happy with the size of her hips or the colour of her skin no matter what he said.
She laughed and leaned a little more on Ryan. ‘I don’t think I’d call myself fit. I can’t remember the last time I worked out.’
‘But you are attractive,’ he countered, his smile widening. ‘You’re on your feet all day, aren’t you?’
‘True, I do walk at least two miles in an eight-hour period.’
‘Care to tell me exactly what this “tourism work” you mentioned in your messages is?’
‘I’m a tour guide. I know that makes me sound like a high-school student with a summer job, but I had to have a degree to get it.’
‘And Ryan, you work at one of the hospitals.’
Ryan took a sip of his wine before answering. ‘I’m a nurse down at Princess Margaret.’
‘Long hours?’
‘Usually.’
‘So you like to play hard.’
Evie had never seen Ryan look so captivated before. His smile almost turned goofy, and he made a fist against her shoulder. She looked down at her glass and slid her gaze sideways. It was a little hard to tell when he wore jeans, but she could definitely detect a poke between his thighs.
‘I do,’ he replied, and squeezed Evie closer as he looked down at her. ‘I’ve never really been aggressive in bed, but she brings it out in me.’
‘I can see why,’ David replied slyly, but didn’t elaborate. Evie liked the purr with which he said it. ‘So, Evie, I know Ryan’s never been with a man but he didn’t say anything about whether you’ve been with two.’
Having him address her directly made her pulse pick up. They were getting closer to something.
She wrapped her arm around Ryan’s midsection. ‘No, this is a first for me too.’
‘Has it always been a fantasy?’
‘Not until Ryan,’ she replied, and after a pause added, ‘I did think about it a few times over the years, but nothing I ever really wanted to turn into reality. I’d see two men on one woman in porn and it did nothing for me. Apparently I should have been looking at the ones where they’re all getting together. Once Ryan and I watched a few videos online, I was sold.’
David regarded her with a long, scorching look, and as Evie returned it Ryan bowed down and kissed her neck. She didn’t look away from David as his hands began to roam, up her T-shirt and into her bra.
Ryan’s lips brushed her ear and he whispered, ‘You all right with this?’
Evie responded with a hum, and let her hand drop between his legs.
‘Why don’t you come on over here and join us?’ Ryan said to David, and pressed pause on his explorations of Evie’s body while she unzipped him.
David waited, swirling his wine in the glass and watching with interest as Evie and Ryan worked together to get his jeans and boxers off. There was something so intoxicating about being watched that she could have easily performed while David remained in his seat.
It was impossible to keep her attention entirely on Ryan. The urge to turn around and see the other man’s reaction tugged at her.
He waited until Ryan pulled off the yoga pants Evie had soaked through, and, as their mouths joined and their tongues clashed, Evie caught his movement.
She rose on to her knees as she worked Ryan’s cock. She heard a zip and a shudder, and without warning David slipped his hands between her legs and cupped her sex.
She hadn’t expected him to be so abrupt. His fingers were insistent, pressing against her damp panties too roughly to give her anything but a semblance of being probed. She closed her legs, hoping to temper his eagerness, but he merely twisted his fingers in her clutch and tucked them inside her panties.
Eyes on Ryan, she found she had none of his attention. Head tipped back, he had lost himself in the way she stroked him.
‘Open up for me,’ David whispered, and the soft dance of his fingertips down her spine eased her anxiety.
He’s new. We haven’t found a groove yet. Patience…
Parting her thighs for David, she was rewarded with the delicious circle his middle finger made around her clit. Taking a second to congratulate herself for giving him the benefit of the doubt, she rocked with him and pressed her lips to the hollow of Ryan’s throat.
The taste of her man soothed her nerves. She filled her mouth with the salt from his skin, and her head with the subtle scent of soap that rose from warm flesh. Using the motion of David’s fingers to set her own pace, Evie closed her fist around Ryan’s cockhead and kneaded to gather as much slickness as she could before squeezing down the length.
Ryan turned his head and opened his eyes to slits, and a smile smeared across his lips. He reached up and stroked her cheek, then shifted to resume his exploration beneath her shirt.
He tugged her bra down and, as his fingertips rolled her nipples into hard and painful peaks, Evie felt the first delicious thrill of being doubly worked. As Ryan lifted his hips and David tugged down her panties, Evie’s pulse took over her movements, shunting back and forth from man to man.
‘Nice,’ David murmured, circling the mouth he had made slick. ‘Very nice.’
He ran his finger upwards along her crack. Evie shuddered as he teased her tight asshole, but as he pushed the tip inside she moved.
She wasn’t ready for such an invasion from a stranger and couldn’t keep from shooting him a warning look as she knelt up.
‘Let’s change things up a bit,’ she suggested.
Ryan blew out a sigh and then flashed a dopey grin. ‘Bedroom?’
As David rested his hands on her shoulders, Evie wanted to balk at the thought of letting him breach the intimate sanctuary of their main playroom.
Still, the bed gave them more room to move than the sofa, and would give her the opportunity to let Ryan take the lead, so she hopped off of the sofa and pulled Ryan to his feet.
The dynamic changed quickly once they were in the bedroom. Evie dropped on to the edge of the bed, and at the threshold David pulled Ryan back.
‘I don’t think you and I have been getting acquainted enough,’ David purred, pressing Ryan against the doorjamb. He ran the back of his ha
nd down Ryan’s chest, following with his gaze, and licked his lips as he began to stroke Ryan’s cock.
Watching those long, knobby-knuckled fingers work the flesh she had made slick, Evie’s reluctance disappeared. This was what she had longed to see: her man tipping his head back to welcome the bristle on another man’s chin against his neck, tilting his hips towards the hard body before him.
Letting the sinful scene unfold in front of her, Evie wiggled out of her panties and kicked them aside, then took off her shirt and bra. She went ignored for a moment longer, squeezing her legs together in anticipation as she watched Ryan squirm in David’s slippery clutch.
As David’s mouth reached Ryan’s, she caught her breath in anticipation. More than anything she had wanted to watch Ryan’s mouth crushing against another man’s, with the shine of wet tongues in shadow to tease her.
It didn’t happen. David grasped Ryan’s chin and turned his head, then whispered something into his ear. Evie saw something spark in her boyfriend’s dazed eyes. He shoved away from the door and crossed the room, then knelt on the bed and stalked her across the mattress.
Just as David had whispered in his ear, Ryan whispered in hers. ‘I want to watch you sucking his cock while I play with you.’
‘I was hoping we could do things the other way around. You do the sucking, I do the playing.’
‘Soon.’
David appeared behind Ryan, cock in hand, patient and still. Evie glanced up at him and wasn’t sure how she felt about the smirk that looked victorious and smug, but she loved Ryan’s when she turned back to him. She indulged in a kiss, taking from him what she had hoped to see David take, then turned over.
The bed made no sound as both men knelt and took their places. David sprawled before her, reclining against the short headboard like he owned the room. Evie reined in her courage and crawled between his legs. She held his gaze as she settled before the proud erection straining away from his balls. His passive pose soothed her as much as Ryan’s soft caress between her thighs.
She bowed low, opening her legs for Ryan’s fingers and parting her lips for David. She didn’t suck David like she would have Ryan. She knew nothing about what this stranger liked, and so she began a slow exploration with lips and tongue and teeth.
Behind her, Ryan’s fingers dipped and teased. She was more than ready for him to rise up and mount her and she knew he was waiting for her signal, but she needed another moment to savour the anticipation.
Swirling her tongue around the crest of David’s cock, she filled her mouth with the taste of him, then took more.
And then David placed a brusque hand on the back of her head and pushed up.
Her alarm returned and trilled in her ears. As he went deeper into her throat she resisted, but couldn’t escape his grip.
She tried not to panic as he tightened his fingers against her scalp and started to fuck her mouth. She grasped his knee and dug her nails in, but he didn’t relent, and as she started to choke her fear paralysed her.
Did she and Ryan agree on a signal? It didn’t matter. Ryan must have detected something; either felt her tension or caught a sound that didn’t seem right.
His fingers stilled, and then the bed shifted as he got up. ‘Not so rough.’
David chuckled. ‘She said she liked it rough. I’m just finding out how rough.’
He pushed up and deeper into her throat, and this time Evie really did try to escape him by shoving hard against his body.
‘Hey, easy,’ Ryan said sharply, then Evie was eclipsed by his shadow.
Suddenly she was free, but caught in a scramble between the two men as David rose up.
‘What’s your problem?’ he snapped at Ryan.
‘She wanted you to stop and you didn’t stop. That’s my goddamn problem.’
Shaken and her alarm still rising, Evie shunted back to the far side of the bed and looked up at the men now facing one another at the bedside.
‘Did I tell you before we came up here that you play by our rules?’
‘And that’s exactly what I was doing. She set the pace. Out there in the living room she was moaning and moving her hips, asking for more from both of us. Again, I didn’t hear her objecting.’
‘Kind of hard to do when your cock is choking her,’ Ryan snarled, and his expression softened when he looked at her. ‘You OK?’
‘Yeah.’ Her voice sounded small and she felt even smaller. She grabbed the nearest pillow and held it against her. ‘Maybe we should just take a break.’
A scoffing laugh came from their visitor. ‘Right. You two take a break in here. I’ll take a break somewhere else.’
‘That’s a great idea,’ Ryan snarled, ‘Get the hell out of my apartment.’
As much as Evie wanted the same, Ryan’s combative tone and David’s sharp look in return worried her.
She reached out and took Ryan’s hand. ‘Take it easy, I’m OK.’
He looked down at her with disbelief. ‘You don’t want him to stay, do you?’
Now she had the attention of David as well, smug challenge smeared all over his face.
‘Come on, sweetheart. Make up your mind. Either you want two cocks at once or you’re just doing this because your boyfriend wants a hard dick up his ass. Either way, no one likes a tease.’
She leaped too late, but it would have done no good. Ryan went off like a firecracker. He shoved David so hard that the other man slammed into the dresser by the bed.
Surprise flashed on his face for just a moment, and then he launched himself at Ryan. The two men hit the floor, and Evie jumped up on the bed, begging them to stop.
She heard a wet slap and then a grunt, and when the men parted David’s lip was split open.
He touched his fingertips to the wound and then he lifted his eyes from the blood to Ryan and went after him again.
Evie did the only thing she could think of to stop them. She scrambled to the window and called for Seth.
When his face appeared below, her tears bubbled out. ‘I need help!’
Turning back to the fight, Evie huddled by the window. The clang of the fire escape under Seth’s heavy tread was the best sound in the world, and also the most terrifying.
What would he think?
He didn’t hesitate as he came through the window, instead barking curses as he hauled Ryan off David.
David took another charge. As if the smaller man was no more consequential than a bug, Seth shoved him back.
‘Enough. Not in my fucking building,’ Seth growled. He pushed Ryan down on to the bed and stood before David, hands on hips. Faced with shoulders as strong as a bull’s, some of the fight left David’s face.
No one said anything for a moment. Evie crawled up behind Ryan and rested her hands on his shoulders, determined to do her best to keep him in place if David taunted him again. He’d never make it past Seth anyway.
‘I don’t know what in the fuck is going on here,’ their landlord said in a menacing growl, ‘but it’s stopping right now. Now I don’t know you, so that means you don’t live here, which means I can put you out by force if I have to. Do I have to?’
Turning his attention back to Ryan and Evie, David seemed to Evie to be trying to work out a way to regain the upper hand, to make himself look good, but another glance at Seth and he must have seen how futile that would be.
He scooped his clothes off the floor and with jerky movements put them on, quickly so as not to take his eyes off Seth for too long.
It was no wonder. David looked like he wanted to have the last word, but it would have been a stupid idea. Seth’s posture was like a bear standing on its hind legs, waiting for an excuse to strike if this interloper dared to challenge him.
He left without a word, slamming the door on his way out.
Evie blew out a sigh of relief while Ryan remained tense in her arms.
Crossing his arms over his chest, Seth sighed and swung around. ‘You guys all right?’
‘Yeah, we’re fine.’
Ryan dragged the blanket over his nudity and looked around, everywhere but at Seth. ‘Thanks.’
Seth nodded and his gaze settled upon Evie. She nodded and locked her hands together against Ryan’s chest, and prayed he didn’t ask any more questions – at least not now while Ryan was still a cord pulled so tight.
‘If he comes back and starts buzzing your ringer, just give me a holler and I’ll go take care of it. He probably won’t. He looked pretty finished.’ Seth headed to the window and carefully went through the gap. On the other side, he bent down, thrust his head in and grinned. ‘Which one of you busted his lip?’
Ryan raised his hand and sighed. ‘That would be me. Christ, I hope he doesn’t press charges.’
‘I’d be surprised if he does. Nice one. I didn’t think you had it in you.’
‘Yeah, I’m a bad-ass,’ Ryan joked. Evie forced a smile as Ryan vibrated with laughter in her arms.
‘Try to get some sleep,’ Seth said as his parting words, then disappeared into the night.
Once the rattle of the fire escape stopped, Evie groaned and buried her face against Ryan’s neck.
‘What a fuck-up that was,’ he said miserably and settled back against her.
Evie didn’t know what to say to him. Even if she could come up with something she didn’t think she could get it out without bursting into tears. She felt wretched and just wanted to hold on to him, and so she did, as long as he let her.
‘Why don’t you get in the tub,’ he suggested after the loaded silence. ‘I’ll clean up.’
‘Leave it for tonight.’
‘I don’t want to wake up to this mess.’
He disengaged himself and scooted forward, then paused and turned around, still on his knees.
Evie raised her face to his as he bent towards her, and took both his hands. ‘It’s all right.’
Ryan was quiet for a moment and then he shook his head. ‘No, it’s not. I brought that guy into this apartment.’
‘You’re not psychic. You couldn’t have known he would turn out to be such an asshole. If you’re to blame, then so am I for putting him on your radar to begin with.’ She pulled his arms around her waist, then slung hers about his neck. ‘Why don’t we both clean up, then we’ll both get into the tub.’
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