by Rhian Cahill
Kitty’s face burned with embarrassment, and she knew anyone watching would know exactly what she’d been up to the night before. Her body still hummed with satisfaction and a need that hadn’t been satiated. She’d known one night wouldn’t be enough, but she didn’t have the courage to go for more. Better to do the walking than to be walked. And that’s what she was doing.
Leaving before they could ask her to.
There must have been someone somewhere looking out for her, because when she hit the end of the street she saw the rush of cars on a major road only a block away. Picking up her pace, Kitty looked straight ahead and pretended she wasn’t out of place, pretended she was taking a normal Sunday-morning walk. Not that there appeared to be anyone around to see her.
Hopefully, it stayed that way until she managed to flag down a taxi.
Her luck held when she reached the busy road. Fifty metres away to the left was a set of traffic lights, and right in front was a taxi with its rooftop light illuminated.
Thank God.
Raising her arm, she stood on the curb and flagged the cab. The headlights flashed and the indicator light blinked out. For a split second, she thought the driver was fobbing her off, but when the traffic lights changed, the taxi headed in her direction and pulled to the curb beside her. With a sigh, Kitty opened the back door and climbed in.
The driver didn’t blink or look down on her or even look at her. “Where to?”
Her shoulders relaxed and the churning in her stomach slowed. “Silver Street, Marrickville, please.”
Kitty was relieved when he didn’t strike up a conversation as the cab pulled out into traffic. She was more relieved when she realised she was only about thirty minutes from home. Hopefully early morning traffic wasn’t heavy and she’d be home, in the safety of her room, before Ethan or Finn noticed she was gone.
Ethan rolled over and landed on a hard, warm body.
“What the fuck?” Finn shoved him off.
“Shit.” He bolted upright, his head swivelling on his shoulders, his eyes scanning the room. Ethan saw the emptiness immediately. “Fuck!”
Kelly had run.
“What?” Finn sat up, his gaze following Ethan’s. “Ah, shit.”
They scrambled out of bed and ran from the room. Ethan headed one way while Finn went the other. When they met up in the kitchen, it was obvious Kelly was no longer in the house.
“Fuck.” Finn dragged a hand down his face.
“It’ll be okay.” Ethan wouldn’t let himself think anything else. “We’ll get dressed and go find her.”
Finn looked at him but Ethan couldn’t hold his gaze. If he did, he’d lose it, and that wasn’t an option. Not if he wanted to get Kelly back
He spun on his heel and headed towards his room. “Five minutes to shower and dress or I leave without you.”
Ethan didn’t wait for Finn to answer. He tried not to think about the fact that Kelly had left them. Or that neither of them had woken when she’d crawled out from between them. That had never happened before. Then again, they’d never let a woman sleep in bed between them before. Their usual MO was to fuck them until they’d had enough and then ship them out.
Day or night.
In fact, Ethan couldn’t remember sleeping with a woman since he was a naïve teenager and didn’t know any better.
Kelly was different on so many levels and she didn’t have a clue.
Because they hadn’t told her.
That changed today.
Today—once he got his hands on her—she’d know everything in his heart and mind. Every little detail of the future he could see for them.
Ethan grabbed his phone and dialled Kelly’s number. No answer. He left a message to call him back and then rushed through a quick shower, virtually ran under the spray and out again, threw on a T-shirt and jeans—sans underwear—and shoved his feet into flip-flops.
Finn met him at the garage door. “Your car or mine?”
Ethan scoffed. “Mine.”
“Fine.”
They climbed in and Ethan had his Audi reversing out of the driveway in under a minute. He poked at the nav system until he pulled up the programed address book and Kelly’s home address.
“Since when is Kitty’s address in your sat-nav?” Finn asked.
“Since she’s our employee and I’ve picked her up and dropped her off a few times.” He glanced at his friend before returning his eyes to the road. “You know that, so what’s really going on?”
Finn slapped the dashboard with his palm. “Fuck.”
“Yeah, we’ve done that. Now we’ve got to convince her we want everything else.”
“Sorry. It just burns my arse that she slipped out and neither of us noticed.”
From the corner of his eye, Ethan saw Finn fist his hand. “Don’t you dare punch my car.”
Tension radiated off Finn and did nothing to ease the tight knot cramping Ethan’s gut. Angry and frustrated, Ethan figured his best friend was feeling the same and cursed under his breath. They needed to take it down a notch or they’d really scare Kelly into running. He reached over and cranked up the air-con. A slap of cold air might not be any relief, but it might snap them out of the anxiety rolling around the car.
“Jesus. What are you trying to do? Freeze me to death?” Finn growled while reaching to turn the system back to normal.
“Nope. Just cooling your jets a little.”
Finn laughed. “Not going to happen.”
Ethan shrugged. “Worth a shot.”
They didn’t say anything else and Ethan concentrated on getting them to Kelly’s house without getting a speeding ticket.
Due to traffic, the thirty-minute trip took forty-five and felt like an eternity. He pulled up at the curb and shut off the engine. Neither of them got out. Ethan knew his reluctance was due to fear of Kelly rejecting all he planned to offer and he figured the same apprehension consumed Finn. But they couldn’t stay here and wait for her to find them. If they wanted this they had to go after it. They had to prove they were willing to fight for her.
“We have to think the same way we did when we started the business. It’s ours for the taking. We just have to make it happen.” He turned to Finn. “Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
Ethan opened his door and climbed out. All the while he kept his eyes on the house, hoping Kelly would come through the front door with a smile on her face. Shaking his head, he skirted his car and met Finn on the footpath. “Let’s do this.”
As a united front, they made their way to Kelly’s door. Ethan rang the bell and they waited. He took a half step back when a small older woman answered.
“Hello?” She smiled up at them. “Can I help you?”
“Um, yes, we’re looking for Kelly,” Ethan said.
“Kelly?” The woman’s brow furrowed and a frown tipped the corners of her mouth. “You mean Kitty? No one calls her Kelly.”
“Yes, Kitty. Is she home?” Finn asked.
“Oh, she doesn’t live here.”
Cold washed over Ethan from head to toe. “Doesn’t live here?” When had she moved?
“No, Kitty and Jilly live in the other half of the house.” She leaned out of the doorway and pointed to the left. “Go round the side. You’ll find the door there.”
Ethan glanced that way. “Okay. Thanks.”
“But she’s not home.”
He turned back to the old woman. “Not home?”
“No. I heard her come in earlier and leave almost straight away. But Jilly is there. She might know where her sister is.”
With that, the woman shut the door in the faces.
“Well. That was…interesting,” Finn murmured.
“C’mon.” Ethan led the way around the house, but they didn’t even make it to the door before a woman who could only be Kelly’s sister met them.
“She’s not here, and no, I don’t know where she’s gone.” Her gaze raked them one at a time. She sighed. “And for the li
fe of me I have no idea why she went.”
“She’s not answering her phone,” Ethan said.
The woman looked at him. “Well, she isn’t going to if she doesn’t want to be found, now is she?” she said with a tone that implied any idiot would know that. Instead of taking offense, Ethan accepted her less than subtle insult.
“Can you at least tell us she’s okay?” Finn asked.
Laughter bubbled up out of the woman’s glossy lips. “If it were me you two were looking for I’d say yes, but we’re talking about Kitty, and she hasn’t known what to do with the opposite sex a day in her life.”
“Hey!” Ethan took a step forward.
“No, wait. She’s my sister. I love her but she’s never done very well in the boy-girl game and you two are a little more game than most.”
Heat filled Ethan’s face. Christ. He was blushing? “Ah…”
“I don’t know details, but I get the gist of what went down, and my only advice is to give her some time.”
“It’s not like we have a choice,” Finn muttered.
Kelly’s sister smiled, and for the first time Ethan thought she might prove to be an ally in their battle to win Kelly’s heart. “Look…Jilly?”
“I prefer Jillian. Only my mother still calls me Jilly.” Her eyes darted to the window a few feet behind them. “We should take this conversation away from the house.”
She walked around them and out onto the street, leaving them no choice but to follow. It seemed today would be full of things he had no control over. Ethan was man enough to admit he didn’t like it.
Not. One. Bit.
Finn could see the anger and frustration rising in Ethan and knew if he didn’t defuse his friend in the next few minutes, this poor woman would bear the brunt of the coming explosion.
“Jillian. Is there any way you could give us a hint of where we might find Kitty?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Nope. She didn’t tell me. Probably because she knew the second I saw you two I’d spill the beans.”
“Is there somewhere she goes often? A favourite café or restaurant? A park?” Ethan asked.
“No. She works or she’s at home. Last night was the first time she’s gone out in months.” Jillian grinned. “I was rather proud of her when she came trudging in just after seven this morning.”
Shit. They’d slept at least another hour after Kitty had snuck out. “If she contacts you or comes home can you let her know we’re worried about her and just want to talk?”
“Sure. Don’t know what good it’ll do though. She might be the quiet mouse, but Kitty has always known her own mind, and once it’s made up there ain’t no changing it.”
Not something Finn wanted to hear. He glanced at Ethan. “Helpful or not, we’d appreciate it.”
“Yes. We would.” Ethan turned towards the car, but Jillian spoke again before he took a step.
“For what it’s worth, I think she’s freaked out over what she’s discovered about herself not you two.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Finn asked.
Jillian smiled, and he was instantly reminded of Kitty’s mouth and all the X-rated things she could do with it. Shaking those lusty thoughts from his head, he took another look at her sister. The two were very much alike. He figured Jillian was a year or two older, tops.
“Whatever the hell the three of you did, she liked it. A lot. That’s what sent her running.”
A horn blasted behind him and he glanced over his shoulder to see a BMW pull up to the curb.
“Gotta go.” She strode away as though their lives weren’t hanging in the air ready to crash to the ground and shatter into a million pieces at any moment.
Finn watched the woman get in the waiting car. He wasn’t sure what to make of her comment. Did she mean once Kitty accepted her reaction to them she’d come back?
“Kelly.”
He spun around to find Ethan on his phone. For a split second, his hopes had soared, only to be dashed when he realised Ethan was leaving a message and not talking to her.
“Please call. We just want to know you’re okay.” Ethan hung up and shoved the phone in his pocket. “Okay. Let’s go home. There’s nothing we can do anyway.”
Finn hated the defeat in Ethan’s voice, mainly because he was intimately acquainted with it himself. Their hands were tied. Until Kitty rang or came looking for them, there was absolutely nothing they could do.
He’d never felt so helpless in his life.
Ethan’s phone chirped and they both froze. Finn’s hands clenched while he waited for his friend to fumble his phone out of his pocket. Watching Ethan’s hands shake as he checked the message gave Finn no relief or measure of ease to know they were both strung tighter than a hangman’s noose.
“Well?” he asked.
Ethan met his gaze. “She said she’s okay.”
“What?” Finn snatched the phone from Ethan’s hand. “Shit.”
I’m okay.
Two words were all they got. Two words? After last night he thought she’d at least give them more. He shoved the phone back at Ethan. “Let’s go.”
They didn’t speak on the drive home. Barely said a word for the next four hours. But when Kitty sent a second text telling them she was taking a week off. That she needed time. Well, they certainly had plenty to say then.
Unfortunately, not one word did them any good because in the end Kitty was still not there and neither of them had any idea what would happen when she came back.
Kitty stared at the rolling waves and wondered what the hell she was doing. Nothing had changed in the last three days. She’d made no decisions or come to any conclusions about Ethan and Finn.
That was a lie.
She’d come to one conclusion.
They cared.
Every day her phone beeped with numerous messages. They missed her. Hoped she was doing okay. Was there anything she needed?
Except for the frequency of their messages, they hadn’t changed. They’d always taken care of her in little ways—or tried to. She could see that now. Yes, they’d had sex purely for pleasure, but under the want—the need—had been genuine affection and caring.
She’d been blind to that before. Jillian had done a lot to point out what she’d overlooked. The lunches bought, the gifts on her birthday and at Christmas. She spoke to her sister every evening, but she hadn’t trusted Jillian enough to spill her location. Kitty couldn’t tell which pissed Jillian off more—Kitty’s rejection of two hunks or her unwillingness to share her hideout.
She smiled and pushed to her feet. Brushing the sand from her backside, she was blindsided by the memory of Finn spanking her. Her body tightened—grew damp—and her muscles, still tender for the workout they’d given her three days ago, ached with a mixture of pleasure and pain. And there was the craving for more. Kitty didn’t think she’d ever reach the point where she didn’t want more of the ecstasy she’d found in their bed.
It had been like that from the minute she’d left Sydney on Sunday. Normal things would set her mind travelling back to their night together, and Kitty would be on the verge of packing up and heading home to get another taste of them.
Honesty meant she had to admit she wasn’t running from them.
She was running from herself and the carnal desires she had for two men that had gone from fantasy to reality to need.
Now that she’d opened the door to her own wants and desires, there was no closing it. She had to accept her sexual inclinations the way she’d accepted her love for both Finn and Ethan.
And she did love them. Had done for a while now. She should have seen that before too, but it was easy to hide behind her job—behind her shyness. But it was hard to hide from anything when you were on your own for hours and hours and hours though. Too much time to think—too little distraction to ignore.
Sighing, she walked up the beach to the little house she’d rented for the week. It was a shack really. Two rooms total. A bedroom and a combin
ed kitchen and living space. The bathroom—not that the curtained-off corner of the bedroom could be called a room—had a toilet and shower, no hand basin. Good thing the bed was comfortable and the position prime—right on the beach—or she might have driven home the first night.
Not that driving home didn’t appeal otherwise. She’d fought with herself every second to stay. There were moments, like now, where she wondered why she had, and there were others where she thought she might never go back.
Kitty knew that was her fear talking. She knew she’d be going home. It was just a matter of when. As if Ethan and Finn had a direct channel to her thoughts, her phone beeped. Smiling, she took the phone from her pocket and read the latest text. This one from Ethan.
All good? Need anything? The office sux without you. XOXO
She laughed. She’d made sure the temp agency sent their most proficient worker so Kitty knew the place was in good hands. And if that made her stomach cramp uncomfortably to think about she pushed it aside. No point thinking about some other woman running the office in her absence. Not when she’d been the one to make that happen.
Kitty grabbed the towel she’d left slung over the chair by the door on her way to wash and dry her feet. The outdoor shower gave her all sorts of carnal fantasies, but she pushed them aside before they overtook her mind and she did something stupid like text Ethan and Finn her whereabouts so they could join her here and turn her fantasy to reality.
But not matter how hard she tried. The images of the three of them taking a skinny-dip in the ocean as the sun set and returning to help each other remove the sand from every nook and cranny just wouldn’t leave her alone.
She was fighting a losing battle and she knew it.
Instead of turning on the tap, she held her phone, hovering her thumb over the screen, and wondered what they’d do if she gave them the one thing they seemed to want.
