Anything But Vanilla

by Ellis, Madelynne

  ‘Aren’t you coming in?’ Kara asked. He’d passed over the little stick and turned away, rather implying that he was leaving immediately.

  Ric cast a brief glance at her door. His shoulders lifted slightly. ‘I have the dogs.’

  ‘But they’ll be fine out here for a bit, won’t they? I can get them some water.’ Something clean, rather than the brackish slime one of them was lapping out of an old birdbath.

  ‘I don’t know. I can’t stay long.’ He wriggled his hands into his front pockets, which made the jeans even tighter across his hips. ‘I suppose a few minutes. What did you want to say?’

  ‘What happened between you and Zach? Why isn’t he talking to me? Why have you been so scarce?’

  Ric shrugged. ‘I’ve been busy. Can’t speak for Zach.’

  One of the dogs pushed its nose inside the door as Kara opened it.

  ‘Horace, no.’ Ric tugged him back by his collar. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘I don’t know how you tell them apart.’

  ‘Easy. Toby has a heart on his butt.’

  Sure enough, the other dog had a heart-shaped ring of dots on his rear.

  ‘Stay. Wait.’

  ‘Will they actually do that?’ Kara asked, giving the two tongue-wagging fiends a last glance before she closed the door.

  ‘Sure.’ Ric gave the hall a once-over, presumably in order to digest the changes a week’s habitation had made in his former property.

  ‘My laptop is in the lounge.’ Kara led the way through to where she’d set up a workstation in one of the alcoves. ‘Go ahead and boot her up. I’ll make us some tea.’

  Hm, Ric seemed a little twitchy, but maybe he was apprehensive over what she was about to say. Casual partners, Kara reminded herself as she stuffed teabags into the pot. We’re not dating, so he doesn’t have to call or spill the beans on his life. She’d spent too long with Gavin, who checked up on her all the time.

  Leaving the kettle to boil, she returned to the room with a plate of biscuits. Ric had taken off his jacket and hung it over the chair, and sat hunched over the screen with his back to her. A list of gig dates written in white stretched across his shoulder blades. Kara smiled, remembering the elaborate inked design that lay beneath the layer of cotton, and how she’d traced each sable swirl with her tongue the night he’d slept over.

  The ponytail she couldn’t decide upon. It meant she could see the back of his neck, one part of a man that she’d always found fascinating, but on the other hand it took some effort of will not to tweak the cord so that the knot would unravel and set free the silky strands.

  She pressed two fingers to his skin just above his collar line and Ric turned around.

  ‘Biscuit?’ She thrust the plate under his nose.

  ‘No, thanks. Is there another chair?’

  Kara shook her head. There were stools in the kitchen, but she couldn’t be bothered to fetch one. ‘Shuffle along. We can cosy up.’ By the time the imaging software had opened, they had one bum cheek each perched on the seat.

  ‘Did you get anything you can use?’ Kara asked. She blinked in astonishment at the impossibly crisp images loading on to the screen. That Ric possessed talent had never been under dispute, but she hadn’t expected him to have made her look so gorgeous. Somehow, he’d transformed her from an ordinary woman into a wildly erotic creature.

  She and Zach looked fucking amazing together.

  ‘One or two things,’ Ric remarked. A slight smile tugged at the edges of his lips. ‘Would you like me to blow a couple of them up for you?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Kara gasped, though lord only knows where she’d hang such an image. She hardly thought Christopher would appreciate having a picture of his sister’s naked butt in his lounge. ‘I mean, if that’s not a problem. It’s not going to cost me, is it?’ She had no money to speak of.

  Ric shook his head. ‘No, providing you agree to coming back to the studio. Any thoughts on which one you’d like?’

  ‘You choose.’

  ‘You,’ Ric insisted.

  The more Kara looked, the more difficult it became to pick between them and to remain unmoved. Kara surreptitiously squirmed on her part of the chair, trying to negate the flare of arousal that was gathering like dew between her thighs. Ric remained still, she guessed, inured to the effect of the images by years in this line of work. Then again, he’d not been quite so untouched by the eroticism in his studio. Not that the photos showed the whole story. They stopped short of the grand finale.

  ‘Do you ever photograph yourself?’ she asked.

  Ric shook his head. ‘Narcissism isn’t an endearing trait. If I want to look at myself, I can look in the mirror. Besides, photography is about catching a moment. Any pictures I took of myself would only reflect what I was thinking about, namely angles and lenses. They wouldn’t be very erotic. Why do you ask? What’s up? Is Zach not doing it for you?’

  ‘It’s not that.’ She settled on an erotic but non-explicit picture of her and Zach on the verge of kissing, even though she secretly wanted the one of her masturbating Zach where his hand was folded over the top of hers. ‘It’s just that these are much nicer than the snapshots I have of you on my phone.’

  ‘I bloody well hope so. What’s the lens on your phone, about five megapixels?’ Kara took out her mobile to have a look, but there were no markings to verify Ric’s assertion. He began to laugh.

  ‘I ought to get you both together so that I can snap you side by side,’ she said.

  ‘Are we back on that again? Honestly, I’ve never known anyone quite so obsessed with the idea of being spit-roast.’

  ‘Ewww!’ Kara slapped him across the arm, and then stood up. ‘There’s no need to be gross. Anyway, you’re just as fixated as I am. You’re the one who keeps bringing it up. And you’re the one that made such a point of having both of us the last time we were all together. It wasn’t Zach or I who turned it into a threesome.’

  ‘That wasn’t a threesome.’ Ric ejected the memory stick and slipped it back into his pocket. ‘Nothing like.’

  Presumably he was talking from experience. She couldn’t make eye-contact with him, so instead focused on the neckline of his T-shirt where the ridge of his collarbone peeped out. ‘Did you two have an argument afterwards?’ she asked. It was bugging her. She had to know. ‘Is that why Zach’s being weird with me? He already knew about us. I didn’t anticipate a drama.’

  Ric spun the swivel chair to face her. ‘That’s not what he’s pissed off about. At least he claims it’s not.’ He folded his arms across his chest.

  Kara raised her hands in surrender. ‘What then?’

  Ric got up. He walked around the sofa until they stood face to face, nothing between them. ‘What’s he told you about us?’

  ‘Only that you had him when he first came to Liddell Island too.’

  A small hmm echoed in Ric’s throat. ‘That was six-seven years ago. I’ve been shagging him ever since.’

  Kara’s eyes widened. She reached out to the sofa back for support. ‘So you’re a proper item?’

  ‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘No, we’re not. That’s the issue. Zach wants us to be.’

  ‘But you don’t?’ She couldn’t for the life of her see why. Zach was a complete hottie and even thinking about it at this tense moment was making arousal bloom between her thighs. It still irked her that she hadn’t been able to see Ric sucking Zach off. ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because.’

  She cocked her head to one side, hoping for a more expansive explanation. ‘Don’t you love him?’

  From the way Ric sucked in a gasp and held on to it, she surmised otherwise. Ric cared all right. There was something else holding him back from making a commitment. ‘Please tell me this is nothing to do with me.’

  ‘It’s not.’ That was both a relief and a slap in the face.

  ‘Good. Then what is it?’

  ‘I just don’t want any strings.’ Ric bowed his head, making the lie obvious.

  Kara gen
tly touched his shoulder. ‘I understand that. It’s why I held off contacting you, even though I wanted to see you, and I had your number.’ She didn’t really understand it. It made no sense at all. Surely Ric wasn’t so foolish as to cast aside love in favour of pointless, faceless sex with whatever strangers happened by his door. ‘Listen, I know it’s none of my business, but is this something to do with your former wife?’

  Ric’s head snapped upright so quickly she feared for his neck. ‘Don’t ever mention her again.’ Blind fury transformed his handsome face into a web of lines and darkened the blue of his irises to near black. He sucked down an even deeper breath. ‘I see you did your homework on me.’

  Did he honestly believe she’d Googled him? Admittedly, she had checked out his web presence, but she hadn’t delved into his private life. ‘Robin mentioned her.’

  Ric pressed two fingers to her mouth to silence her before she said any more.

  ‘I know what it’s like,’ Kara continued, despite his fingers. ‘I just split with my boyfriend. He was a controlling jerk. I’ve no idea why I stayed with him.’

  ‘Kara.’ He cupped her face in his hands. ‘I loved her. Quite desperately at one stage. But we were bad for one another. Getting messed up like that is not something I’m about to repeat.’

  Flabbergasted, she simply stared at him for a minute. ‘But would being with Zach even be like that?’

  ‘It’s not worth the risk.’

  Kara wasn’t so sure, but was it her place to say otherwise? Fuck buddies, she reminded herself for the second time that day. Not that they were really even that. ‘I’ll go and make that tea.’ She needed a minute to compose herself. What was she doing getting involved with them both? She didn’t want to screw things up for them, and it was obvious that they were meant to be together.

  Ric followed her through to the kitchen. ‘Don’t bother. I don’t like tea.’

  ‘A stiff drink, then?’ The demijohn of cider he’d sent over still sat on the countertop. Kara poured out two glasses, but left hers untouched. Ric downed his in one. When she offered him hers, he accepted the glass but put it aside at once.

  ‘Come here, I’ve a better idea.’ He pulled her into his arms. ‘I don’t really do the whole getting drunk thing any more, but I do know how to raise my spirits.’

  Kara splayed her hand over his breastbone to hold him back a minute. The dark sheen of his pupils betrayed his intent. ‘Won’t this make things worse?’ It wasn’t that she didn’t want him, but she probably ought to leave him to his happy-ever-after with Zach.

  ‘Worse in what way, exactly? I’m not going to change my mind, and Zach is going to have to accept that. Plus, you’re right –’ he traced the shell of her ear with his tongue ‘– I am just as obsessed with the idea of a threesome.’

  His lips tasted of overripe apples. She caught the scent of his aftershave as his hand crept up her thigh.

  ‘Tell me, Kara, are you wearing any knickers today? Do you realise you left another pair at my place?’

  A silken thread of his hair had escaped its fastening. Kara twirled it around her thumb. Sod it; maybe they could work together on persuading Zach into accepting things. ‘Why don’t you find out for yourself?’

  Ric chuckled, which caused a low rumble deep in his chest. ‘What a splendid idea.’ His grin turned feral, showed just a hint of teeth. Apparently, that was all the permission he considered necessary. A second later he had her sprawled over the table-top, with her bottom in the air. Ric flipped back her skirt.

  ‘Ah-h, a thong, is it?’ He hooked a finger under the narrow ribbon of fabric that ran between the cheeks of her bottom and tugged until the fabric slithered downward and hung around her calves. ‘A little damp and eager for it, aren’t you?’ The blunt tip of his finger briefly swept along the seam of her pussy lips, making her blood run like hot sauce through her veins.

  Ric smacked his lips and she knew he’d tasted her. That alone caused another gush of arousal. She glanced back at him. His tongue briefly swept over his lips, moistening their surface. He fitted his palm to the curve of her right buttock as though testing the fit. ‘Do you know what I’m going to do?’

  She glanced at his palm again. ‘Oh, God!’

  ‘It’s what I do to all the naughty girls.’

  Kara gripped the table edge tight.

  ‘You know that this is going to hurt, right?’

  She tensed the muscles in her legs, but even that didn’t brace her enough for the tremendous crack his palm made as it connected with her flesh. She jolted forward, gasping with shock. Damn, it hurt! Fucking ow! Yet the fire that streaked across her skin also flowed inwards towards her belly. Ric slicked another finger over the lips of her sex, which made her cunt ripple and throb.

  ‘Ten, shall we say?’

  ‘Five,’ she whimpered. No way on God’s earth would she ever tolerate another nine. Frankly, even five seemed optimistic.

  ‘Eight,’ Ric decided. ‘You should be glowing nicely at both ends by then.’

  She was doing that after another two. Both sets of cheeks were berry bright and her breathing had become a series of jittery gasps that failed to provide the required oxygen levels. The worst part was not the blow. It was the aftermath, when Ric gently caressed the tender spots he’d created, rubbing life back into her injured flesh. That shot tremors right through her body and made her clit nag so much she couldn’t help chafing her legs together to cause a little friction. Of course, that only provoked him into punishing her some more.

  He reached six before she begged him to stop. Her limbs ached, and the skin of her bottom felt so tender and tight she could almost believe it blistered.

  ‘Are you nicely warmed up, Kara?’ He didn’t allow her a moment to recover. ‘Shall we see how eager you are for me?’ His thumb immediately rode the split between her labia. Two fingers pushed straight into her eager cunt, causing her to release a desperate groan. Kara gripped him tight with her internal muscles. She had to concentrate, and blow out each breath.

  Ric’s hands left her. Momentarily bereft, Kara glanced back at him in time to see him tug off his T-shirt and then unbuckle his belt. Ric shoved his tight denim jeans down his thighs along with his underwear. His cock reared proud, pink-flushed along its entire length – beautiful. It seemed a shame he had to hide it with wet-weather gear.

  He bent and kissed her cheek before his cock finally slid into place between her thighs. He filled her up as he had the first time, stealing her breath as he thrust and going deep from the outset. The slap of their flesh made the sting in her rear burn with renewed intensity. White heat fanned out from her bottom and into the rest of her body. Her breasts ached so much she found a way to support her body without her hands in order to squeeze her own nipples. The throbbing in her clitoris wasn’t so easily quelled.

  ‘Harder. Harder,’ she begged.

  ‘Like this?’ Ric curved a hand over her shoulder so that he could tug her backwards on to his shaft as he thrust forward.

  Holy-damn-hell-yes! Even though the increased vibrancy of the way their bodies met made her reddened bottom sting. Kara released one nipple in order to wedge a hand between her legs. Heaven swelled within her cunt as she rubbed her clit. Ric continued to drive her up against the table-top. She was going to come hard; already her muscles were tightening with expectation.

  When the chime of the doorbell cut through the sexual haze she was drowning in, Kara jumped half out of her skin.

  ‘Easy.’ Ric held her firmly, his demanding pace not easing in the slightest despite the racket his two dogs were making outside. ‘Were you expecting somebody?’

  ‘Nnnnr.’ She shook her head. When a moment later her phone began to beep, she realised she was expecting someone. She’d sent Zach that text. ‘Zach. Oh, fuck. It’s Zach.’ They hadn’t time to disengage and straighten things out before Zach was peering through the old distorted glass of the uncovered window, straight at them. His thick eyebrows hitched immediately. Then, slowl
y, terribly, he backed away.

  ‘Fucking shit!’ Ric leapt away from her like a scalded cat. ‘Shit, shit, shit.’ He hoisted up his jeans, his erection apparently gone. ‘Oh, bollocks,’ he added somewhat more calmly.

  Kara twisted round so that she faced him. ‘What just happened?’

  ‘He asked me not to fuck you.’ Ric wagged his finger at her. ‘I’d been doing well. I’d made it to day four. I knew coming here was asking for trouble.’

  ‘I hope you’re not waggling that finger at me in order to point blame.’

  Ric lowered his hand and shook his head. ‘No.’ He came and rested his bum against the table beside her. Kara slid her arm around his shoulder. She didn’t really understand the relationship between the two men, or the way she’d become embroiled in it, and she didn’t wish to see either of them hurting, but nor did she really want to back away. ‘Should we go after him?’ Maybe if they all sat down and talked like adults they could straighten things out in a way that was acceptable to all three of them.

  Ric produced his mobile from his jacket pocket and put it to his ear. After a moment he put it down again. ‘He’s not answering. I better go after him on foot and talk to him.’

  ‘We’ll both go,’ Kara insisted. She ran upstairs to find some sensible clothing. It was already heading towards evening and twilight seemed to vanish in the blink of an eye. Ric had pulled on his T-shirt and jacket by the time she came back down. He stood on the doorstep with his dogs.

  ‘We don’t know which way he’s gone. I’m going to head over to the cove and then across to the fort and the eastern tip of the island. Are you OK taking the other route and heading down to the Bunker in case he’s gone there?’

  ‘Yeah, sure. We’ll keep in touch by phone.’ Kara pushed hers into the pocket of the cargo pants she’d pulled on along with clean underwear. ‘Let me know as soon as you find him.’