Kara looked back at Robin with a snarl. No way was she going to allow that bitch to ruin it. It’d be difficult if Ric wasn’t prepared to trust her, but she wasn’t giving up. Having them both and then waking with them in her bed this morning had been an adventure worthy of endless repeats. She fully intended to make it happen again. Maybe if she explained to Zach what had happened he’d be able to get Ric to listen, except he had more important things to worry about, like his van and his livelihood.
She couldn’t bring herself to go and apologise to Ric either. No way was she putting so much as a toe in the water ever again. Instead, she strolled further along the beach, following the line of shingle past the cut that led to the bowl of ferns at the back of the Bunker, and on to another old ammunition shelter. She didn’t look back to see if Robin was gloating. An image of her triumphant mug had already lasered itself into Kara’s brain.
Outside the decrepit ammunition store, Kara found a perch on a boulder. Damn it, she didn’t want to be here looking out over all this water, but nor did she want to go home and allow the new wound in her relationship with Ric to fester. Surely he knew what Robin was like. She can’t have been the first idiot to fall for her tricks.
Kara drummed her feet. The causeway was hidden from this position; only a broad stretch of the English Channel lay before her. A few seagulls squawked from up on the cliff face. An old rowboat lay nestled amongst the grass to the side of the store. It was chained to a stout wooden post, as though it still belonged to someone and hadn’t simply been abandoned, though flecks of paint were missing from the planks and only one of the oars sat within its belly.
If she’d known about it last night, she could have rowed out to Zach instead of wading. Would it have made any difference to the outcome?
To her surprise, Ric appeared within a few minutes of her idling by the boat. He stormed right up to her, no hint of an apology on his face. Instead he growled, ‘Don’t you tell her anything. You don’t mention me to her, understand?’
Kara glared back at him wide-eyed with shock. ‘I won’t. I didn’t.’ Thinking back, she hadn’t really spilled anything. She hadn’t answered Robin’s questions. She’d just allowed her to make assumptions. It wasn’t as though she’d spun a full yarn. Really, she’d made a few affirmative and pleading grunts, that’s all. ‘I didn’t say anything about you and Zach. I didn’t even know about it at the time, and even if I had … Fuck, you should have warned me about her.’
‘And said what? Watch out for my stalker, she might torture you for information?’ He gestured wildly with his arms as he spoke, and finished by clenching the front of his long blond hair in his fist.
Kara stared at him bewildered. ‘Did you really come to just shout at me some more?’ she asked quietly. ‘Because I don’t need shouting at.’
‘I’m not shouting.’
‘Yes, you are.’ She shoved him hard in the ribs. ‘Back off.’
Ric didn’t back up. Instead, he took a pace forward and grabbed hold of her. He held her so tight that his fingertips bit into her arms.
‘What?’ she asked. ‘What?’
He shook his head, though his breathing still raced. ‘Just … just don’t.’ She wasn’t sure what he was seeing, but it didn’t seem to be here and now.
‘I won’t … I never meant to. I had no notion at the time that there were issues involved.’ She sought his hand, tried to unclench his fingers so that she could hold it.
‘Good.’ The emotion drained from his voice, though he refused to unclench his fists. ‘Don’t give her ammunition like that. She doesn’t need to know anything about me.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Kara apologised. She pushed her face up against his chest. Ric remained unyielding, his spine locked straight. He didn’t return her embrace, nor did he push her away. The wool of his jumper tickled her cheek. Kara tilted her head to look up at him. ‘Have you thought … maybe you should get a restraining order … keep her off Liddell Island for a bit.’
‘I can’t.’ Finally, he wrapped his arms around her and gave her a squeeze.
‘But if she’s bugging you to this extent … She told me, that first day, that you’d sent her. She implied that she worked for you. You shouldn’t let her get away with that.’
Ric nodded, showing that he understood, but was unmoved. ‘Kara, it’s not that simple. There are layers to this you don’t understand.’
No, but she wanted to. She really did. Something told her that this all tied in with why Ric had so staunchly avoided developing emotional relationships. Her thoughts immediately returned to their earlier darkness and the possibility that Robin had somehow been involved in the death of Ric’s wife. It seemed unlikely, and, if it were the case, then why would Ric protect her? ‘Who is she? What is she to you, really?’
‘A prize nuisance, that’s all.’ He ran his tongue over his teeth, and then glanced down at the little rowing boat. ‘Just like someone else I know.’ In the space it took him to make the remark, his whole demeanour changed. Out went the anger; in came something less easily defined. ‘What’s more, I know just how to deal with a good nuisance.’ ‘Good’ presumably opposed to ‘bad’, like Robin. ‘Over you go.’ He patted the side of the boat.
‘What? No,’ Kara protested. He couldn’t make light of something so serious in this way, nor be allowed to divert his anger into sex play. Of course, Ric’s expression said he was going to do exactly that. Maybe he did it all the time. From what she knew of his relationship with Zach, it seemed more than likely. ‘Ric.’
‘Forfeit,’ he responded. Long strands of his blond hair danced around his face, and although his mouth remained hard a twinkle of amusement had returned to his eyes. ‘You still owe me, remember. We agreed anytime, anyplace, anywhere.’
‘Yes, but not like this.’ Not to avoid confiding. Not to sidestep an issue he clearly wasn’t comfortable with. And definitely not while Zach and a work crew were only a short way up the coast, not to mention the bitch responsible for this drama.
‘Yes, now. I want you head down, arse up, over the side of this boat.’
‘You’re not even turned on,’ she protested.
Finally a smile cracked his face. ‘Oh, I will be,’ he promised.
Hell, no wonder Zach got frustrated if this is what Ric did every time someone touched on a subject he didn’t want to discuss. She liked sex, but this felt damn weird. Instead of moving into position, she continued to shake her head.
‘Come on. Do it,’ Ric cajoled. He gave her an encouraging nudge in the right direction. ‘I guarantee, the minute your pants go down, my attention will be fully engaged. You know, if you don’t, I’ll have to punish you.’ He picked up the little wooden oar as he spoke. ‘I don’t like girls who go back on their word.’
‘You can’t hit me with that,’ Kara blurted, staring at the weathered paddle. If he did anything more than tap her with it, he’d batter her into next week.
Ric gave an explosive laugh, which drained the residual tension from his body. Suddenly he did look in the mood to be naughty. He gave the oar a test swing. ‘You know that saying things like that is just planting ideas. Better brace yourself.’
‘Seriously, no.’ She held out her arms to ward him off, but Ric easily pushed inside her reach and tipped her over the side of the little boat.
Kara squealed and kicked her legs in protest. Her hair hung down around her face, masking at least some of her indignation. Ric’s hands were cold as he wrenched down her knickers. He left them hanging around her knees.
He stepped back, and the breeze kissed the skin of her cheeks, chilling them, and then came the drum of the oar. ‘It’s the least you deserve, all things considered.’
‘Ow,’ she complained, although it didn’t actually hurt. He’d put no power into the swing, so the sharp impact merely felt wet and cold. It actually seemed like a punishment, unlike the heat she knew he could raise with his palm. Maybe Ric realised it too, for he cast the oar aside after giving her a second sw
ift pat, and instead started teasing a single finger back and forth along the split of her sex. ‘I think you’d better tell me everything you told her, don’t you?’
‘Mmm-mmm, mmmm,’ grunted Kara from her upended position, which finally earned her a proper smack. ‘That’s the truth,’ she squeaked, once the sting in her cheeks started to dissipate. She wriggled her hips to try to ease the discomfort. If she wasn’t so precariously balanced, she might have tried rubbing her skin, except he’d probably have rapped her knuckles if she did. ‘I swear. She asked questions and I never gave a direct answer. I’m not sure I managed to utter more than a few syllables.’
Ric brought his palm down on her arse again, making a crack so loud it frightened the gulls perched all along the cliff face. The sound didn’t tally with the blow, which left her skin mildly heated and pleasantly tingly. ‘You fucked her?’ Astonishment caused his voice to creak. His palm rested against the curve of Kara’s cheek, warming the skin beneath, while the breeze continued to chill the rest of her skin.
‘Not sex,’ Kara insisted. She wasn’t having him envisioning her doing anything two-way or overly involved. ‘She rubbed me off while I was taking a bath. I was supposed to be describing what you and I had done, but mostly she talked and I didn’t do a whole lot besides moan.’
Ric twitched one finger over her flesh. ‘Fuck. I didn’t ever think she’d go that far. I didn’t think she’d ever had sex.’
‘I don’t think I was the first,’ Kara blurted, although in some ways she agreed with him. She didn’t think Robin had ever had penetrative sex with a man. A dildo, absolutely. She almost certainly got off regularly using a substitute dick while reliving other women’s experiences with Ric, or Alaric, as she so loved to call him.
‘Fuck.’ He began to laugh in a slightly unbalanced way. ‘Hellfire and fuck.’
Then he nudged his cock up against her labia. As promised he was at least partially hard. He rubbed himself in her wetness a moment, and then entered her, forcing her further into the boat, so that she was almost doing a handstand. ‘You know that’s twisted, Kara?’
‘Only as twisted as this is.’
He grabbed hold of her shoulder to pull her more forcefully back on to his dick. ‘Nah, it’d only be that if you weren’t turned on, and you are. You really are.’
She was certainly wet. The sounds of their loving confirmed that, and she wasn’t denying she was enjoying the thrust of his cock. There was even something to be said for the terror of discovery. It certainly lent a degree of urgency to the act. Any moment, Zach or one of the work crew could appear, and the shame would damn near kill her. If Robin appeared, things would be a whole lot worse.
Or would it? How would Zach react? He might get the wrong idea and take off again. ‘We shouldn’t do this here, without Zach.’
‘Do you want me to whistle for him?’
‘No.’
Ric steadied his motion into a slow, slow, quick, figure-of-eight roll of his hips. He certainly had a passion for doing things doggy-style. Perhaps it was just as well she intended to focus on maintaining two lovers, otherwise she’d have to instal lots of mirrors, just in order to get a glimpse of him. At least when all three of them were together, she’d be able to look at Zach.
Kara strained her neck, in order to satisfy her love of visuals. Ric looked fantastic in his oversized knitwear. His hair had completely escaped its binding now and danced against his shoulders as he filled her up.
‘What are you looking at?’
‘The man who’s fucking me so good.’
‘Yeah.’ He began to lean forward, so that his front pressed against her back. His hands skimmed over her stomach, pushed inside her T-shirt and claimed possession of her breasts. Her nipples immediately hardened. Sparks of arousal shot between her nipples and her groin. ‘I love that you have big tits. I love the way they feel and how they jiggle.’ He thrust forward particularly hard, setting the boat rocking. It made their position even more precarious. One wrong jolt and they’d both fall head-first into the bottom of the boat, yet somehow that made it all the more wonderful. The downward tilted position meant Kara’s heart raced and the head of his cock bumped the sensitive spot on the front wall of her pussy. She kept lifting her bottom to meet his strokes. It left her dancing on her toes as euphoria engulfed her. She clutched the sides of the boat tight. Time seemed to thin and stretch. For a while she danced entirely to Ric’s tune. He possessed her breasts and her cunt, and somehow managed to get the angles right so that her clit got in on the action too.
This was living. This was real, in a way her life hadn’t been before she’d set foot on Liddell Island. Hell, she needed this. She needed this man. Yes, fuck me. Fuck away the trauma of last night in exactly the same way Zach had done. What was wrong with sex to forget? It certainly beat stewing.
The ache in Kara’s pussy soon spread. It washed through her synapses leaving every one of them alert.
She came hard, squealing out his name. It was so good that for a long while she dared not open her eyes, for something was sure to destroy the moment. Eventually, her muscles burned too much, and Ric’s spent cock slipped from her cunt.
‘You all right?’ He offered her a hand so she could stand up. She did so rather unsteadily. Muscles ached that she didn’t know she had. She pushed her cold hands inside his jumper, up into the warmth of his armpits. Ric grunted but he let her linger. He lowered his mouth and offered her a kiss.
‘What are we doing, Ric?’ It didn’t feel light any more. At some point in the last few minutes they’d crossed an invisible boundary into uncharted waters. They weren’t simply fuck buddies any more. This had developed into something else. She wanted him in the way Zach did. She wanted this to be personal, intimate. She wanted what she felt to be love and for them to explore it and grow together, only she wasn’t sure Ric felt remotely the same way.
He scratched his throat beneath the roll-neck of his sweater. ‘Better get back to it. They should have the van on the tow truck by now.’
‘Is Robin still around?’
He shrugged. ‘Forget about her.’
She couldn’t. Not when he hadn’t answered her questions.
Ric started back along the beach ahead of her. Kara caught up and grasped his hand. He paused, looked at their joined palms a moment. ‘You know Zach will freak out more about this –’ he raised their clasped hands ‘– than he would if he’d seen us a moment ago.’
Kara squeezed Ric’s fingers tight. ‘Then you’ll just have to hold his hand too, because I’m not letting go.’
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Then ice-cream van stood on the back of the tow truck by the time Kara and Ric returned to the bay. Zach, as predicted, responded to their hand-holding by giving them both evil looks.
‘I’ve made coffee,’ he said, before handing over polystyrene cups filled with tar-like liquid.
Ric gave the sludge an uneasy glance before tentatively taking a sip. Kara swigged a mouthful of hers, but spat it straight out. ‘Ew, gross!’ She hoped it was down to bad coffee grounds and not Zach’s seeking vengeance. He obviously had questions about where they’d been and what they’d been doing – she could see them dancing about in his eyes.
‘Is the truck off to the garage?’ she asked, hoping to avoid that issue.
Zach shrugged inside his jumper. ‘It is, but I suspect the scrapyard would be more appropriate. It’s not going to go after the swim it’s just had. The bodywork is full of dents, the underside is probably going to rust to hell, and the engine and all the electrics are fried.’
‘So, you’re stuck here,’ she said, determined to put a positive spin on things. If he wasn’t tempted to leave the island every night to run home, then there’d be more opportunities for them all to be together. ‘Where are you going to stay?’
‘With Ric,’ Zach replied without hesitation.
The remark simply earned a shrug from Ric. ‘We’ll work something out. What’s the going rate for a live-in
sex slave?’ he asked Kara.
‘I don’t know. I’ve never had one. Are you volunteering?’ She placed her hands on her hips.
Zach made a low growl in the back of his throat that forced their attention back to him. Clearly the banter between them wasn’t doing anything to alleviate his paranoia.
‘Yes, you can shack up with me,’ Ric said. He shoved his hands deep into his pockets, as if he was determined not to make a big issue out of the matter. He looked up at Zach from beneath his long eyelashes. ‘Play your cards right, be a good boy and I might even let you sleep in my bed.’ He tilted his head and smirked. ‘But no twitching every time I look at Kara, please.’
Zach slowly swallowed, though his shoulders remained hunched. ‘OK,’ he replied breathlessly. He nervously rubbed his arms. ‘Where’ve you both been?’
‘Just along the beach,’ Kara insisted. She wrapped an arm around his waist and snuggled close.
‘Talking?’ he asked in a way that suggested he knew they’d been doing something far more intimate.
‘Arguing actually. I told Robin some things I shouldn’t have. Ric was expressing his displeasure.’ All of which was the absolute truth, without getting into details that would likely upset him. Evidently, jealousy was going to be an ongoing issue. One she guessed they were going to have to stamp out fast if things were going to progress between them. Mind you, it was early days yet, and poor Zach was hopelessly smitten, as well as being under tremendous stress because of the van.
‘It had to be done, man.’ Ric slapped his palm against Zach’s shoulder. Clearly, Ric wasn’t prepared to adopt any form of subterfuge, regardless of the consequences. ‘I couldn’t let her get away with that, but it’s not something you need to worry over. Let’s keep things in perspective, eh? You’re coming to live with me, Kara’s not.’
Anything But Vanilla Page 20
