Up All Night

by Faye Avalon

  “I have to get back.” He had another thirty minutes before last orders were called at the bar, but he needed to escape from the confines of his own angst-ridden thoughts. He needed to drive along the coast road with the top down on his car and let the air blow some clarity into his brain.

  “How’s the new man working out?”

  Marco looked across at Ethan who still looked as shaken by the recent conversation as he felt. “Okay. Few more nights and I reckon I can leave him to it.”

  “You can spend more nights at Beth’s.” Amber’s green eyes twinkled. “It’ll work out with her too, Marco.”

  “Maybe.”

  But as he drove back through the light fog that had come in from the sea, Marco wondered if it would work out for him and Beth. If she said she wanted to go ahead with this damn fool idea of Amber’s, he wasn’t sure what he would do.

  Again he wondered how in hell Ethan could have offered Amber up to him all those months ago. If Ethan had loved her, how was it possible to watch while another man had sex with her? Yet it seemed Ethan had loved her enough that he was able to put his own feelings aside for Amber’s sake.

  As for himself? Well, he wasn’t even in love with Beth, but he wasn’t sure he had it in him to do the same.

  Chapter Eleven

  Since by breakfast his head still hadn’t cleared, Marco planned to take that long drive along the coast to get his thoughts straight before the bar opened at eleven. He’d spent a restless night while his mind churned over Amber’s fool idea. It didn’t matter from what angle he looked at it, the scenario she’d suggested was still a crazy idea.

  The sun had broken through the early morning mist with the promise of a fine, if chilly, day. So he again released the hood of his black convertible and hoped the fresh air would drive away the fuzz in his brain.

  He’d gotten a mile along the coast, when he found himself turning north and heading out in the direction of the rescue Center. With a glance at the dashboard clock, he wondered if Beth would even be up. Since it was barely eight, he might be pushing his luck. She’d caught the late shift last night and hadn’t been due to finish until midnight.

  When he pulled up outside her cottage he saw the front door open and a flash of movement inside. He killed the engine and got out of his car. He heard her before he saw her, and something inside him lifted as quickly as the early morning mist had done.

  Roscoe padded out and took a flying leap at the gate when he saw Marco.

  “Hey, boy.”

  As Marco stroked the dog’s head, Beth appeared in the doorway.

  “Hi.” Her sunny smile drove away any remaining angst in his chest. “Wasn’t expecting to see you this morning.”

  “Out for a drive. Hoped I might grab a coffee.”

  He wondered how anyone who’d worked past midnight could look so good at this hour. Her hair was pulled back in that ponytail she favored for work. Her battered blue jeans had seen better days, but on her the distressed fabric looked sexy and provocative. Even her blue fleece jacket, zipped to the neck and bearing the rescue center’s emblem above her left breast, managed to incite his lust levels to riot.

  “We’re just off for walkies. If you want to join us, I can promise coffee after.” She snapped her fingers at Roscoe who was still trying desperately to get to Marco over the gate. “Off. Good boy.”

  Roscoe plopped his butt down and gazed adoringly up at Beth.

  “Looks like you have a mutual love affair going on.” Marco watched as Beth clipped the lead to the dog’s collar. “Have you moved in together?”

  With a laugh, she stepped through the gate. “Not exactly, but he seems to have bonded with me and gets a little miserable at the Center. He’s been off his food, so we decided I should bring him home for a few days to see if he’d settle.”

  “Is that a good idea? Won’t he get too attached to you and be miserable when he goes back?”

  Beth looked up at him as they walked, her smile wry. “That’s just it. I’m not sure I’ll be taking him back. If he’s okay with me I’m thinking of adopting him. He’s a sweetie.”

  Marco looked down at the dog. Was it possible to label a Mastiff a sweetie? The dog was pretty ugly, but he seemed good natured enough, at least from Marco’s limited experience with animals.

  Besides which, if Beth was considering adopting the canine, least he could do was make friendly with the guy. He reached down and petted Roscoe. The dog spared him a glance, then promptly ignored him.

  “Looks to me like he’ll settle.”

  Marco snuck a long look at Beth as they walked. Her ponytail, thick and lush brown, swished across her shoulders. The fleece jacket hid her sumptuous breasts, but he remembered how that ripe, plump flesh had filled his hands. It seemed his cock knew too, seeing as it jerked to attention and began to throb against his zipper. He held back a beat so he could survey the outline of her ass encased in those fitted jeans.

  The sway of her hips shot heat through his entire body. Damn. He wanted her. It seemed he always wanted her. Fuck. How in the hell could he share her with anyone else? How could he watch another man touch her, taste her? The heat in his chest intensified at the thought and he felt his jaw go tight.

  “How did the dinner go last night?”

  The slight edge to Beth’s question tugged him back a few steps from his own journey toward full-blown pissed. “It was okay.”

  Despite Beth’s attempts to lay it to rest, it seemed the wound obviously still festered. In the circumstances, Marco supposed Beth didn’t need to know Amber was a great cook, or that she’d prepared such a spread he didn’t think he’d eat for a week. “I’m just sorry you couldn’t make it.”

  “We’re short staffed. It was good of Amber to invite me though.”

  Despite the fact her teeth were clenched as she spoke, Marco realized he had the perfect lead in. Make it casual, he thought. Non committal.

  Speaking of Amber, she wondered if you’d like to join us for a foursome.

  Shit.

  Since he couldn’t choke the words out, they fell silent as they walked through a gap in the fence that led to wooded parkland. He sensed Beth was holding back a little just as he was. Was she still thinking about their conversation? Was it doomed to sit between them like the proverbial elephant in the room?

  Maybe he should just come out with it. Tell her about Amber’s suggestion and get it over with. Except he didn’t only have his feelings to think about, he had to consider Ethan. He could barely believe Amber had suggested it. However hard he tried to fathom the ramifications of such an arrangement, he knew for sure that Ethan, like him, would be screwed over with the idea, hating it to hell and back again.

  If by some chance they did go through with it, he doubted his relationship with Ethan would survive. The thought of Ethan’s hands on Beth sent a fiery rage spreading through his chest, searing up into his throat. How was any friendship supposed to weather such a storm?

  “Have I ruined things between us?”

  At Beth’s question, he stopped in his tracks. “Why would you say that?”

  “Because you’ve been quiet, edgy, and there’s obviously something on your mind. Why else would you be here so early when it’s a busy day of the week for you with deliveries and everything.” She bent to unclip the dog’s lead and Roscoe went sniffing across the grass. “Are you finishing it between us?”

  As Beth brought her steady gaze to his, Marco’s stomach took an uneasy dip. “Hell, no. That’s not why I’m here.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets to stop himself reaching for her. “I wanted to see you. Wanted that coffee.”

  She nodded but looked unconvinced. “I’ve been thinking being with me might not be enough for you. No, let me just say this.” As he took a step toward her, she held up her hand. “Since I’ve been with you I’ve heard things around the bar and stuff. Things like you’re a player, that you like mixing things up. At first, I thought you were pretty much out of my depth, that the things you’ve
done were too far out there for me, until I realized that I want to try things, too. I want to mix things up. The thing is I—damn I’m messing this up.”

  Marco pushed down the growing sense of panic filling his chest. Was she breaking up with him?

  Beth took a long breath. “What I want to say is that I have needs and desires, and I want them fulfilled, but not necessarily the same way you do. You have the right to live your life the way you want to live it, and so do I.”

  Marco considered her words and couldn’t argue her logic. She was telling him she was no longer blaming him for sleeping with Amber, for being part of the threesome with her and Ethan. But she was also reminding him that she wanted to experience the same thing herself. If he wanted to keep Beth, he’d have to suck it up. But not with Ethan, or Amber. He’d have to find another of his friends he could trust. Several would be up for it, of that he had no doubt, but he’d need to give some serious thought to how he was going to set it up.

  “We can work things out to suit us both, bella. Whatever you want, we’ll work it out.”

  She stepped toward him and touched her fingers to his jaw. Marco wrapped his arms around her and knew he’d damn well move heaven and earth to give her what she wanted. He’d just have to shut down his emotions for a few hours, or however long it took for her to have those needs and desires fulfilled.

  When she raised her chin and pressed her lips to his, he felt like a man starved of air and now being given a shot of life-giving oxygen. He took her mouth in a long lingering kiss that soon had them both breathing heavy.

  Beth eased away, glanced over her shoulder at the dog who was happily sniffing something he’d found near a tree, and turning back to Marco pressed her mouth to his again.

  When her hand slipped down to his cock, Marco sucked in a breath. “Not especially wise to start something we can’t finish right now.”

  She ground her hips against his. “Who says we can’t finish it now. There are a lot of big trees around here and I can’t help but wonder how rough bark would feel against my back as you take me.” Her eyelashes fluttered over sultry blue eyes as she held his gaze. “It’s one of the things I’d like to try.”

  Marco hissed against her mouth as his cock grew heavy beneath her eagerly ministering hand. Seeing as he’d made a promise to himself that he’d be the one to school her and guide her into the unknown, how could he deny her her first experience of outdoor sex against a tree? Except… “One small problem.” He eased her hand from his cock. “Nothing on me.”

  She nibbled on his bottom lip. “That’s not a problem at all.”

  His head swam at the thought of taking Beth with no barrier between them, of his hot cum spurting into her tight sheath as she clenched around him. “Are you sure?”

  Beth drew back. “Of course.” She tapped the pocket of her jeans. “Always carry the staples with me. Poo bags, treats, condoms.”

  His hormones sang Halleluiah. “You carry condoms?”

  “Well not normally, but since you and I tend to have sex whenever we see each other, I thought it best to be practically prepared.”

  With a grin, he pressed her back against the nearest tree. “God love a practically prepared woman.” He swept aside her ponytail and scraped his teeth against her neck.

  Reaching beneath her jacket, he tugged her tee shirt from the waistband of her jeans. She jerked. “Your hands are cold.”

  “I know somewhere they’ll warm up nicely.” He slipped the zipper of her jeans and pushed his hand inside. The heat from her pussy was like a beacon to his desperate fingers, and as he slid his forefinger into her fire they both groaned.

  One day, one night without her and he was like a madman, desperate to feel her, take her. He pushed another finger inside her and anchored his free hand against the trunk of the tree beside her head.

  Her head fell back and she ground herself against his throbbing cock.

  He pressed harder, finding her clit and working her until her heady moans told him she was close to climax. “I want you,” he ground out as she continued to buck against his hand. “I want you naked, your legs wrapped around me as I push my cock so hard and deep inside you that my name will echo around these woods as you scream it.”

  “Oh Marco … yes…” She shuddered around his fingers, her inner muscles repeatedly clenching and relaxing before finally her body went still.

  As Marco’s cock continued to throb, Beth collapsed against him. Mad with the need to drive himself inside her, he withdrew his fingers and spun her around to face the tree, her back against his chest.

  He yanked down her jeans and panties, pushed his knee between her legs spreading them as far as her clothes would allow. “Hold on,” he growled as he pulled down his zipper.

  When she didn’t move, he took her arms and placed her hands on the tree.

  “My pocket,” she said on a moan as she wiggled her hips. “Condom.”

  “Shit.” He reached down and fumbled for the packet. His hands shook as he sheathed himself but he was so desperate to get inside her that he pulled her hips back a little too roughly and her hands momentarily came away from the tree.

  “Marco,” she whimpered. “Do it. Please.”

  He levered up her hips, placed a hand on her lower back, then plunged into her.

  As he pumped, hard and fast, Beth’s throaty moans spurred him on. His own grunts echoed around the quiet woods and soon his climax neared with frightening speed.

  He threw his head back, clenched his teeth, all the while thrusting into her like a madman until, finally, he came.

  Seconds later, Beth reached her own climax and they both collapsed.

  “Wow.” She laughed. Her body melted back against him, languid and spent. “That’s the best walk I’ve had in ages.”

  She glanced over her shoulder at him with the cat smile that always played across her mouth after sex. “Why don’t we head back to my place? We can let the coffee percolate while we take all our clothes off and I can ravish you next time.”

  “You did pretty well this time.”

  She laughed again. “I can do better. And seeing as you just gave me two fabulous orgasms, there might be a blow job in it for you.”

  “Shit.” His cock jerked, his blood reheated.

  “Then I’ll wrap my legs around you so you can push your cock hard and deep inside me and I can scream out your name.”

  He managed a smile as she parodied his own earlier words back to him. “I’m ready when you are.”

  She squeezed around until she faced him. “I like tree sex.”

  “Then we’ll do it again. Soon.” He zipped up his jeans then pulled out his cell. “Need to let someone know I’ll be a little late getting in this morning.”

  Beth fastened her own jeans and tucked in her tee shirt. “Bunking off work?” She tsked. “Naughty boy.”

  He cupped her now covered mound. “Count on it.”

  While Marco arranged for cover at the bar, Beth called for Roscoe, who came racing back from wherever he’d been amusing himself and earned himself a treat for behaving while his mistress enjoyed her own playtime in the woods.

  “Give me one of those.” Marco put away his cell then held out his hand to Beth who plopped two bone-shaped biscuits into his palm. He hunkered down to offer the treats to Roscoe who scooped them up with a surprisingly soft mouth. “You earned these, buster. Make good for the rest of the morning and your Uncle Marco will make sure you get a whole bucket load.”

  When the dog licked him, Marco liked to think that the dog was giving him a signal of male solidarity. He was starting to like the mutt.

  ****

  When they got back to the cottage, Beth coaxed Roscoe into his bed in her small kitchen and gave him another treat. The dog settled immediately, and Beth turned to Marco who stood in the doorway.

  She kept her gaze on his as she unzipped her jacket. “What are you doing standing there? You know the way to my bedroom.”

  When he’d arrived
on her doorstep at such an early hour and begged a coffee, Beth had been certain he was there to break up with her. She’d feared her suggestion that they invite another man into their bed had been one step too far for Marco. She worried she’d been too pushy even suggesting it, wondering if Marco liked to be the one to take the lead.

  She hadn’t been able to shake the thought he might be finished with her, especially after she’d refused Amber’s supper invite with the excuse she was working late. She hadn’t exactly been timetabled to work the late shift, but had swapped with a colleague so she didn’t have to feel it was an outright lie.

  That he wasn’t breaking off with her filled her with relief, but she needed to set the record straight by telling him she now accepted his history with Amber and threesomes. Group sex didn’t ring her bells. In fact, she couldn’t believe she’d suggested they have a threesome of their own. What if he’d taken her up on it?

  As much as she wanted to experiment, to push the sexual boundaries a little, she wanted to do it with Marco. Nobody else.

  She couldn’t remember having enjoyed a man’s company quite so much as she did Marco’s and had certainly never enjoyed sex the way she did with him. She trusted him. Trusted him to take care of her. In the woods he’d been a little rough, but she’d loved it and had certainly not felt threatened in any way. With Marco she never did. She was willing to try just about anything with him.

  Marco had already undressed when Beth stepped into her bedroom. He sat on the edge of the bed, watching with a feral gleam in his eyes as she treated him to a slow striptease.

  Naked, she moved between his legs, wrapping her arms around his neck. She loved how his gaze fell to her breasts when he placed his hands on her hips and held her close enough that all he had to do was lean forward a fraction, open his mouth, and her nipple would be covered by his hot, eager lips. Her sex clenched at the thought. “See anything you like?”

  His gaze lifted to hers. “As it happens.”

  “Then what are you waiting for?” She thrust her breasts at him. “Take it.”