Detachment

by Shae Banks

  Her down to business approach was far more telling than she could have imagined. Thom had disclosed to me what Lyla had told him about her fertility, more to prevent me from saying something fucking stupid than as an excuse to talk about her, but he hadn’t warned me that she would be so forthright.

  “Well,” I began, finishing my wine and raising my hand for the waiter’s attention, “that’s good to know. Is there a counter measure we can take against these snappy outbursts?”

  Her nose wrinkled as she gave a small snort of laughter. “I don’t know if you noticed, but it’s usually safest to feed me. Savoury, not sweet.”

  I nodded. “Meat pies and beer, got it.”

  I tried not to get distracted when she ran a single finger around the base of her wine glass and pulled my eyes back to hers. “To be honest, it was nice to have Gunner to take out. I walked it off.”

  “You should have hopped in the hot tub. I imagine that would have helped,” Thom suggested, as the waiter returned to the table.

  I handed him the empty bottle and requested a fresh one.

  Her finger stopped tracing the glass as she frowned. “I keep forgetting that’s there. You’ll have to show me how it works.”

  “Lift the lid and push the button,” I suggested.

  Her brows raised in surprise. “It’s always on?”

  I smirked. “Yeah, but the clothes rarely are.”

  “Skinny dipping in the garden. Got it,” she answered with a wink.

  My cock stirred. She was definitely my kind of girl. Sassy, pretty, and an enthusiastic fuck. I’d be making the most of Lloyd being away while I could.

  It was just after twelve when we got home. We’d spent most of the evening picking through various servings of Meze, drinking four bottles of very good Greek wine, and talking.

  We’d covered all topics from divorce to music to dream holiday destinations, and Lyla was the most relaxed I’d seen her since she’d arrived.

  She’d laughed far more than she’d frowned once the topic of her husband had been left behind, and was still smiling to herself when she kicked off her heels in the hall.

  Thom ran upstairs to take a piss, which left me to lock up.

  “What’s amusing you now?” I asked, tossing the door keys on the shelf.

  She approached. “You.”

  While it was more than welcome, I wasn’t expecting her to kiss me.

  She tasted of wine and mint, and the scent of her perfume was intoxicating. But the feel of her beneath my hands, her tits pressing into my chest, her hair brushing my face, was all it took for me to need more.

  “Is this the part where I pay you back for dinner?” I teased, stepping away.

  She shook her head. “No. I’m not quite finished yet.”

  I watched her turn and head up the stairs. She didn’t look back until Thom came out of the bathroom. Then, she looked over her shoulder and asked, “Are you coming?”

  Thom caught my eye. He was already unbuttoning his shirt and the glimpse of his chest, coupled with the sight of her ass jiggling as she walked up the rest of the stairs, had my dick making the decision for me.

  I caught up with her on the landing, but she held up her hand before I could reach her. “Question.”

  I suspected I knew where this was going, but I glanced to Thom before playing along. “Go on…”

  She backed towards Thom’s bedroom door, and reached for the handle, but didn’t open the door. “What’s the thing with you two? Are you together?”

  Thom grinned. “We come together several times a week, and the rest of the time we’re…” He trailed off and looked to me. “Special friends.”

  I barked out a laugh.

  “So, you’re not gay?” she ascertained.

  Thom shrugged, returning his attention to me. Usually, I avoided the subject. It was what it was, and it didn’t need a name. A title. I didn’t need to be put in a damn box. But coming from her it wasn’t the same. She wasn’t asking to put me in a box, I realised, she was asking so as to find her place in whatever this was. I could work with that.

  “I’m as gay as I am straight,” I answered honestly. “What I have with Thom is the same as what we have with you. I don’t question it, it just feels right.”

  It seemed my answer was enough, because she gave us both a nod, pushed down the handle, and disappeared inside.

  I was about to follow when Thom gripped my wrist and pulled me towards him.

  His fingers brushed my ear as he reached for me, digging into the back of my neck to hold me firm. His kiss, like Lyla’s, triggered a physical response.

  “Don’t leave me hanging, please,” she called blithely, and I looked to Thom’s bedroom door.

  There she stood, with her arms above her head, tying her hair up in a huge, curly bunch.

  Yep. That dress was coming off.

  12

  Lyla

  Hot was my first thought when I woke up, the second thought was I desperately needed the bathroom. I cracked my eyes open and scanned the room. Thankfully, nothing had gotten broken when we arrived home from dinner. The activities that followed had left destruction of the clothing variety everywhere.

  Squinting, I eyed the nightstand and spotted Thom’s boxers hooked over the lamp. A snort escaped me, and Ryan’s disturbed snore sounded next to me before his hand snaked around my waist and pulled me to him. That was no good, I needed to move.

  Wiggling out of his hold, I managed to get free and take care of my morning needs. Hands washed, I considered my options. Go back to Thom’s room, to them, or grab a few more hours in Lloyd’s bed alone?

  When I re-entered the bedroom, Ryan had moved into my warm spot and was pressed against Thom. There wasn’t an inch of space left between them. I watched them sleep for a moment, and it sent my mind into overdrive. Seeing two men together was something I never thought I’d experience in my wildest dreams. Being an active partner in those relations was beyond my imagination, and while I didn’t completely understand the type of relationship they had with each other, I was still excited to be a part of it.

  Before I could slide back into bed behind Ryan, my phone began to ring. I rushed to my bag I’d just seen dumped on the landing to try and get to the phone before it woke either of the guys. I dug around inside my bag as it fell silent and I froze, listening. Thankfully, Thom and Ryan were still asleep, and I was about to turn the thing off when it sprang back to life in my hand.

  Any positivity I woke up with vanished, replaced by a lead weight settling in my stomach. Despite my instinct to ignore it, my thumb swiped to accept the call and I raised the phone to my ear.

  “What?” The single word showed my displeasure over his call.

  “Have you changed your mind yet? Are you going to come home?”

  Not wanting to have this wretched conversation while naked, I placed the phone between my ear and shoulder and hurried into Lloyd’s room for my robe before heading downstairs.

  “Because this has gone quite far enough, Lyla,” he continued, when I still hadn’t answered. “You’ve made your point. Your displeasure has been noted and steps will be taken.”

  Sliding on the robe and tying it tightly, I stared out of the window. The bastard thought that steps were enough to fix it? No amount of glue in the world could fix the clusterfuck that was our marriage.

  I felt a headache brewing and I rubbed my forehead, hoping to alleviate the throb, and scoffed, “I haven’t changed my mind, Francis. I’m staying here.”

  Chairs scraped behind me, and I turned to find Thom and Ryan getting comfortable at the kitchen table, apparently interested in what I had to say to Francis. At least they’d managed to put on some boxers.

  “What reason have you to stay? Liking being around the squaddies, is that it? Have you let them into your knickers already? That didn’t take long, did it?”

  My eyes widened as they locked on the guys, the colour draining from my face. “That’s none of your bus—”

&nb
sp; “Legally, you’re still my wife, Lyla, so I would say it’s very much my business.” He made no effort to hide his amusement.

  Not wanting to see their concerned expressions, I turned my back on them and peered out the window once more. The stillness of the morning outside contradicted the emotions warring in my chest. It was none of his damn business what I did, or with whom. I’d left him with no intentions of going back. Surely I didn’t need to spell this out.

  Annoyed with his smugness, I snapped, “I left you, Francis, because I don’t love you. Because you don’t really love me.”

  “Love,” he scoffed, “Lyla, whatever has transpired over the last two weeks won’t matter once you return home. We’ll put it down to stress. The pressure of the treatment. Your disappointment. We can try again—”

  Anger ignited in my veins. The condescending bastard. I didn’t want to try again, and certainly not with him. Living without a child wasn’t so bad. It may have taken Thom and Ryan to make me begin to believe it, but I could live a happy life without procreating. I still had worth.

  “I’m not one of the broodmares from your father’s stables, Francis. I refuse to put myself through that torture again. Not for your ideals, or your family’s. If you want a child, a bloody heir, so badly, go and fucking buy yourself one. I’m sure daddy has a contact somewhere.”

  Not waiting for his response, I held the side button of the phone for a few seconds, then slammed the handset down on the counter.

  I was beyond furious with him for being the way that he was, and more so with myself for being so blinded by how I thought my life should be that I’d not seen him for who he truly was sooner.

  Fuck, that man tested my patience.

  Shaking with rage, I balled my hands into fists and fought the urge to punch something.

  “Lyla?” Thom called quietly, laying his hand on my tense shoulder.

  I took a deep breath and uttered, “I’m okay.”

  I wasn’t okay. I was fighting to push down the emotions, but they were so damn strong. My breath hitched despite my words.

  A moment later, Ryan joined him. “You’re not okay, babe.”

  My eyes closed against the pain. “Just give me a minute,” I pleaded.

  “You don’t have to put up with that. You have options,” he continued, ignoring my request. “I know it’s hard now, but you really can just walk away and not look back.”

  Every inch of me wanted to fall into their arms. I wanted them to make me forget, to erase him from my mind, but that wasn’t the solution. It wasn’t their responsibility. I wasn’t their responsibility.

  Pushing away from the counter, I flicked the kettle on before grabbing three cups from the drainer. “Tea?” It came out overly chirpy, but even I could hear the strain.

  Thom grasped my hand and took the cup from my too tight fingers. Passing it off to Ryan, he grabbed my other hand and commanded, “Lyla, stop.”

  “Everything he said was true. I don’t know how, but he knows. He can use it against me. He thinks I’m a… I mean, to be fair, I—”

  “He’s wrong.” Ryan breathed in my ear, pressing up against my back. “You’re not.”

  “He’s—” Emotion clogged my throat.

  Thom kissed my cheek. “You haven’t had an affair, you left first. Now you’re away from him and you can file for divorce. Move in here permanently, or get a job and move somewhere close by. You have options, Lyla,” he assured me, running his hands over my hair before he began to knead the tense muscles in my neck.

  “I do—” I began, but stopped and sucked in a breath as Ryan’s lips brushed across the back of my ear. Closing my eyes, I barely noticed his arms circling me, his fingers slowly undoing the ties on the robe.

  “Don’t think about it for now. Don’t allow his words to impact how far you’ve come since you got here. You’re stronger than you think you are.”

  “What ar—” My words cut off on a groan as Thom’s fingers fluttered against my clit, and when he got no protest from me, his fingers moved to plunge inside me without warning.

  The white-hot anger that was bubbling over turned into lust so fast it left me breathless and lightheaded to the point I had to lean back into Ryan. Shoving away thoughts of Francis, I focused on Thom’s fingers as they hooked and twisted. Right then, that was all that mattered.

  Ryan put space between us, much to my annoyance, and I quickly became distracted by Thom once more.

  Fingers gripped the material against my breasts, and the robe slid off my shoulders to pool at my feet. Now naked, Ryan stepped into me, his bare flesh pressing tightly against my own.

  “Don’t think, just feel,” Ryan whispered huskily against my shoulder, pressing a kiss against my heated flesh.

  I shifted slightly, and Ryan’s cock rubbed against my bare ass as Thom withdrew his wet fingers and dragged them up and over my clit.

  Needing something to hold on to, I raised my arms and wrapped them around Ryan’s neck, the angle pushed my chest out, offering my bare breasts to Thom, and my ass pressed back into Ryan. In symphonic perfection, Thom sucked one of my nipples and bit down at the same time Ryan pinched the other.

  The orgasm hit me full force and without warning, and I was lost in a sea of hot mouths, expert fingers, and a hard cock nudging at my entrance. Before I was able to come down, Ryan thrust into me, filling me completely and manipulating my body straight into another. Fingers on the back of my neck added force, bending me over until Thom’s cock brushed against my lips.

  I opened gladly, circling the tip with my tongue as he wrapped my hair around his fist, pulling me closer, urging me to take more.

  A seed of doubt. A single, horrifying thought that Francis knew. He knew we were there like that, fucking like animals in the kitchen.

  I pulled my head back as far as Thom’s hold on my hair would allow and reached around to Ryan to get him to stop, but a swift slap to my ass had thoughts vanishing as I cried out around Thom’s cock as it entered my mouth.

  Fuck Francis. Fuck that miserable life.

  Desperate for the next orgasm and hanging on by a thread, I pushed back onto Ryan, urging him deeper, harder, faster. His hands gripped my hips, bitingly, almost bruising, but the sensation only pushed me closer to the edge.

  One hand released my hip and rubbed up my spine as Thom pushed deeper, pulling a little harsher at my hair, his balls tapping against my chin as his fingers pinched and rolled my nipple. I was consumed by sensation, or so I thought, until a thumb brushed over my asshole. One swipe, two. It disappeared for a moment, but returned wet and more persistent.

  Fireworks ignited. Ryan’s thumb pushed a little harder, his dick becoming almost brutal in his desperation to come. My pussy clenched hard, milking him, and he finally slid his thumb into my ass as Thom groaned above me, his orgasm spilling into my mouth.

  I glanced up, swallowing hard, to see Thom tilt back his head and mutter something as his fingers relaxed their grip on my hair.

  Ryan wasn’t far behind, pumping into me with a couple of violent thrusts. “Fuuuuck, Lyla.”

  With my mouth free to gasp my own final release, I bowed my head, rocking back into Ryan, his thumb flexing inside my ass.

  “That escalated quickly,” Ryan muttered, while breathing heavily, and withdrew his thumb slowly. That was new. The added sensation brought a new element to my personal experience.

  Ryan bent right over, kissed my hip then took a step away.

  The sound of the elastic of his boxers snapping against his skin was almost comical, but I managed to keep my amusement to a smirk and straightened. “A bit. Umm, thank you?”

  Thom’s laugh was carefree, and he kissed me softly before offering my robe. “Any time. Now that we’ve gotten the morning off to a more positive start, shall we get dressed and go for breakfast?”

  I frowned. “I should shower.”

  Thom shook his head. “No. You should get dressed and we should go out. Right now.”

  Ryan nuzzled
my neck, kissing just below my ear. “Hmm, out in public, reeking of sex with your just fucked hair? I’ll be ready to go again watching you eat breakfast like that.”

  I laughed, hoping to God he was joking, and tied the robe around my waist. “Can I at least clean my teeth?”

  The hard, probing kiss was unexpected, but hot as hell. Ryan’s arm snaked around my waist, pulling me close as he pinched my ass. “If you’re not down these stairs in ten minutes, I’ll come and get you.”

  “Promise?” I teased, kissing his neck.

  He let me go and shoved me gently away, back into Thom. He caught me, kissed my cheek, and tapped my ass. “Go.”

  Stomach flipping like a love-struck teen, I ran up the stairs to get ready. As much as I liked the idea of Ryan coming to get me, I was bloody starving, and I at least needed to tame my curls before I left the house.

  13

  Lyla

  The words were a blur on the screen of my phone as I reminisced over the last week. Without any of us realising it was happening, we’d settled into a new, shared existence. From going to bed together, waking up together, and them coming home from work and us eating together, it quickly became my new normal. It wasn’t unpleasant like it had been with Francis, but it smacked me in the face with unforgiving clarity of how bad things had truly been at home, and just exactly what I’d been missing out on. And that didn’t even include the mind-blowing, toe-curling sex. There’d been one particularly exhilarating experience involving a very large dildo and me watching Ryan suck Thom’s cock mercilessly, which was one of my favourite reveries to pass the time.