Breaking Point [Sunset Point] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Susan Hayes

Amber’s eyes widened. “Did you just say three husbands? You’re married to three men?”

  Gaby started to laugh and Lexa joined in, completely understanding the other woman’s shock.

  “Oh yeah. Honey, hasn’t anyone told you about Sunset Point Island before you came here?” Gaby asked.

  “No. Obviously, some things were left out.” Amber glared at Trinity who simply grinned at her.

  While Gaby explained about Sunset Point, Lexa took a leisurely scan of the evening crowd and Sam’s earlier words came back to her. The people around her could have been anyone, from anywhere. It was only in her eyes that their money or lifestyles made them different.

  Shit. I’m as biased as I’ve always accused other people of being.

  The thought didn’t make her happy and she took a moment to down a healthy portion of her drink before looking up again. This time there was something new to look at, and she took her time enjoying the view.

  Two men were moving at right angles to her table, and they were a sight to behold. The one leading was dark haired and broad shouldered, and he didn’t so much walk as prowl through the crowd. His skin tone was a warm caramel and there was something about him that felt hauntingly familiar. Did she know him? Her pulse skittered up a few beats per minute and a heady rush hit Lexa and she half raised her hand from her drink to wave to him before she caught herself. She was being crazy. Surely if she knew someone that gorgeous she’d remember him! Her gaze slid to the second man and her heartbeat soared again. Damn, the men around here were something else.

  He was leaner than his companion, but not by much, and Lexa’s pussy quivered and a warm flood of interest bloomed between her thighs as she drank in the way his jeans molded to the curve of his ass. It was an act of will to tear her eyes away and look at the rest of him, but it was worth the loss of the view of his ass. He had sun-streaked blond hair that fell just to his collar, and as he turned to greet someone she caught sight of aquamarine eyes and a lopsided grin above a cleft chin.

  Beau. The name came to her unbidden and she startled as she stared at the blond man. Could that be Beau Rivers? The rich, deep sound of a man’s laugh rolled past her ears and a sense of recognition hit her hard, Diego. Gods above, the two hotties that had walked into the pub were her two childhood friends, all grown up! Lexa didn’t know whether to laugh or go to confession for thinking such sexually charged thoughts about two men she’d apparently once treated like brothers. Forgive me, Father, for I have been thinking of sinning…The thought made Lexa grin to herself, but damn, there was no denying the effect the two men had had on her. They were gorgeous. And clearly I’ve had too much to drink because they are way out of my league.

  Lexa drained her glass and slipped a little lower in the booth. If she had recognized them, there was a chance they’d recognize her, too, and she wasn’t ready for a public reunion. Hell, she wasn’t sure she was ready for a reunion at all. It would be so much easier if she could just remember what her life had been like here, before things had all gone wrong.

  A question from Gaby drew her back into the conversation, and Lexa found herself explaining how she’d found herself back on the island after all these years. By the time she was done she was in dire need of another drink, and she gave her order to a pretty woman with caramel-kissed skin and hazel eyes who was smiling as if she was a cat who had drowned a canary in cream and eaten the whole damned lot for dinner.

  Talking about her mother always hurt. The years after she had been taken from the island had been hard ones. Lexa had been powerless, dragged from town to town and school to school as her mother’s paranoid delusions had driven her to keep on the move. Sometimes it had been her father they’d supposedly be running from, other times it would be the police or some unnamed evil. It didn’t matter, the result was always the same, a new town, a new school, poverty and uncertainty haunting them every day of their lives.

  By the time Lexa was old enough to take care of herself, her mother had needed her and Lexa had taken control of her own life and her mother’s. When her mom couldn’t or wouldn’t stay on the medication she needed, Lexa had committed her to a facility to make sure she was safe and taken care of. With an incomplete education and only basic job skills, she had taken jobs wherever she could, trying to make enough money to keep ahead of the medical bills.

  She’d forgone sleep to study, finally passing her GED testing when she was nineteen. After that she’d tried to take community college courses when she could afford them, and had a working knowledge of bookkeeping and some basic business skills. It wasn’t enough to get a management job, but it was a start. Now she could go back to school full-time if that’s what she wanted. Her world had suddenly become full of possibilities, and she was feeling completely overwhelmed. It was definitely time for another drink.

  As she sat back and listened to Trinity talking about getting caught with one of her men in the alley a couple of familiar faces materialized out of the dinner crowd, both of them staring straight at their table. She leaned over and got Trinity’s attention. “Speak of the devil and he shall appear. I know you wanted to take a break from your guys, but I think your time just ran out.”

  * * * *

  “Why are we here again? I thought we were avoiding your family’s place so you could escape your mom’s lecture about settling down and giving her grandbabies?” Beau dodged a waitress with a tray full of drinks as he followed Diego’s lead, heading over to the pool tables.

  “Maria called me and said there was someone here I needed to see. She didn’t get into details, just laughed and said we had to come see for ourselves. And she swore Mom was busy in the kitchen and wouldn’t see us if we were careful.”

  “Well she’s right about that. How the hell are we going to find anyone in this crowd? It’s packed tonight!” They found an empty corner and claimed it, both of them leaning up against the wall in the games section.

  “Maria said she’d come find us over by the pool tables.” Diego shot a laughing look Beau’s way. “It’s not like we had anything else to do tonight. You’ve already waxed the boards and there was nothing but reruns on television.”

  “I was thinking we could go over the case again,” Beau replied and Diego groaned and shook his head.

  “We really do need to get you a hobby, man. There is more to life than police work. We’ve both been over what we have, and we didn’t find anything new. What we need is a bit of downtime and maybe some R&R.”

  “You call this relaxing?” Beau gestured around them. “I call this chaos.” He was complaining out of habit, but Beau knew that Diego was right. If they were home right now they’d both be bouncing off the walls of their apartment. It had been a long couple of shifts and they had more than earned their days off, but it still bothered him to be out enjoying himself when someone out there was flooding the island with a potentially lethal designer drug.

  “I call this recreation.” Diego winked and nodded to the clusters of single women here and there throughout the pub. “We’re both single, we might as well at least enjoy the view. Who knows, maybe the answer to our mothers’ prayers is somewhere within these walls right now.”

  Beau laughed at Diego and looked around again. “If she is, she’d have to come over and introduce herself or we’d never find her.” He looked around and then did a double take as he spotted a familiar face among the patrons. “Our lieutenant is here, and he looks pissed.” Beau glanced at Diego. “Did we forget to hand in a report or something?”

  “Wow, he really does look mad, but I don’t think he’s here for us, there’s another guy with him.”

  “Another guy who looks just as pissed off as Jackson. I think we need to get gone before we become a witness to whatever he’s about to do. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have any desire to have to submit a report citing my boss started a fight in my mother’s tavern.”

  As the two men moved toward the bar with matching strides and clenched fists, Beau started heading for the nearest
exit. “Me either. We can call your sister once we’re out of here and tell her something came up. Whoever it is we’re supposed to see, they’ll just have to wait.”

  Chapter 5

  It took three tries to get the key in the door, but Lexa finally mustered up the hand-eye coordination to open the door and make her way inside. “Four drinks was a bad idea,” she announced to the empty room as she toed off her shoes, one hand on the wall for balance. “Five drinks was a really, really bad idea.”

  She made her way upstairs, moving carefully and holding onto the handrail to make sure she got to the top without tripping. After a quick stop in the bathroom to get her makeup scrubbed off and her teeth brushed, she wandered to the top of the stairs and frowned down at the room below. Stairs again. Nope. Bad idea. She turned and wove her way back down the hall to her old bedroom and threw the door open before she could reconsider.

  Wow, it’s still the 80s in here. She giggled as she spotted an entire shelf full of her My Little Pony toys. Lexa walked a few steps further into the room and stared as memories assailed her from every corner. Tears stung at her eyes and she sank down onto her bed, so much smaller than she remembered it. Her hand stroked over the pink flower pattern in her sheets and she started to cry.

  Without thinking, she gathered up the stuffed unicorn that lay on her pillow and crushed it to her chest as the tears spilled down her cheeks. The walls around her childhood memories crumbled and broke, letting everything she’d tried to forget come rushing back, nearly drowning her in recollections of the past.

  It was a chaotic tangle of images, sensations, sounds, and half-remembered scents. There was the taste of strawberry ripple ice cream and the aroma of fresh bread baking while her mother sang off-key as she bustled around the kitchen. There were bike races and the sting of peroxide on skinned knees, and the sound of her father’s laughter as they danced to a song on the radio. Never once had she been scared or hurt or hungry. There was not a dark memory to be found, not until after she’d been taken away from here. Away from her home and her father.

  “Why Mom? Why did you do this to us? To me?” She howled her pain to the walls, her throat raw from crying. “It’s not fair. None of it. You took me away from here and filled my head with lies. Why did it have to be this way? We were happy here. You could have gotten help here.”

  She hurled herself down onto the too small bed, familiar scents mingling with the tang of dust and time as she buried her head into the pillow and cried until the emotional storm inside her finally calmed. Too broken to move, Lexa drifted off still curled up on her old bed, the stuffed animal caught firmly in her arms as she fell into an uneasy sleep.

  The next morning came far too soon, and Lexa groaned as she dragged herself to the bathroom, one hand on the wall and the other on her pounding head. She wasn’t much of a drinker, but last night she’d been putting them away like her liver had a death wish. Her tongue felt like it was too big for her mouth and was made up of two parts laundry lint and one part compost, and she was pretty sure that if she was able to open her eyes properly, they’d be bloodshot.

  She fumbled through the medicine cabinet until she found some aspirin and washed it down with a handful of water. Her stomach roiled in protest, but after a few deep breaths Lexa figured it was safe to move.

  Please, let Sam have thought to have the kitchen stocked with coffee or I might not survive. Lexa made her way gingerly down the stairs and headed for the kitchen, keeping her head turned away from the bright sunlight that streamed in the windows. She managed to find coffee and cream in the fridge, and as the coffeemaker started working, she fished a pair of sunglasses out of her purse. Better. With the light sensitivity issue dealt with for the moment, Lexa grabbed her phone, intending to check for messages.

  “Is that the time? Shit!” Lexa swore and then winced as her own voice echoed inside her skull. She rubbed her forehead with one hand and wondered if anyone had ever died from a hangover. It felt like a troupe of clog-dancing dwarves had taken up residence in her head, and every new noise set them off again.

  It was after eleven in the morning already. She’d slept half the day away, and Lexa wasn’t at all surprised to see she had a message from Sam checking in on her, along with several hang-ups, all from Simon. Lexa’s stomach rolled over at the thought of dealing with the amorous marina manager today so she decided to ignore those for the moment and called Sam to let him know she was having an off day.

  They made arrangements to finish the last few bits of paperwork after the weekend, and by then the coffeemaker was cheerfully announcing it was ready with a piercing beep that set Lexa’s teeth on edge. “One more peep out of you, Mister Coffee and you’ll be flying out Mister Window!”

  She poured a heavy dollop of cream into her coffee and then went to curl up in one of the chairs in the living room. It was the only room in the house with blinds heavy enough to block out the sun, and she sank into the cushions with a sigh of relief and took off her sunglasses. The aspirin had taken the edge off her headache, and the hot coffee helped chase the last of the cotton out of her mouth.

  As she sat there, feet tucked under her and her coffee cradled in her hands, she realized she’d instinctively chosen the corner she’d preferred as a girl. The chair was different, but the location was the same. This was where she’d sit on Saturday mornings, a bowl of cereal in her lap as she’d watch cartoons until her mom would call her in for breakfast.

  The recollection startled Lexa. When the hell had she started remembering things about her life here? It took another minute or so for her to recall lying in her bed and crying herself to sleep with a stuffed unicorn in her arms, and when she did, her already iffy stomach did a slow roll and threatened to eject the few sips of coffee she’d taken.

  For someone who doesn’t cry, I sure did a lot of it last night. And while hugging a stuffed animal no less. Lexa waited until her stomach settled again and then took another sip of her coffee. She needed to get her head together and stop wallowing in pointless emotions about the past. She couldn’t change anything that had happened, and regret was something she’d never had time for in her life. There was too much to be done to waste time worrying about what hadn’t gone right.

  Last night she’d given in to emotions and look where that had led? A hangover, swollen eyes and a morning lost because she’d slept in. But I did get back some of my memories, so maybe it wasn’t a total waste of time.

  Once she was feeling a little better, Lexa headed back upstairs and ran herself a shower, making sure the water was nice and hot before stepping into it with a groan of appreciation. Her father hadn’t changed much around the house, but he had renovated the bathrooms at some point and Lexa was grateful for the modern luxury of the double headed shower system and marble tiles. The rain shower style showerhead sent a cascade of hot water over her and she just stood beneath it, letting the heat soothe her aching head and loosen muscles tight with days of tension.

  By the time she got around to washing she was in a fugue state, her mind mostly empty and her movements coming in slow motion. As her hands smoothed over the broad curve of her hips, an image of Diego’s broad shoulders flashed behind her closed eyelids. She conjured up the memory of the man she’d seen last night and compared it to the few clear memories she had of Diego as a boy, and she had to admit he’d grown up finer than she could have ever imagined. Beau’s crooked grin was the same now as it was then, but the rest of him had filled out.

  The two skinny, noisy boys she’d raced around the island with had turned out unbelievably hot. Thoughts of the two of them had her nipples tightening and Lexa cupped the heavy weight of her breasts in her hands, letting her soap slicked fingers slide over the hardening buds until they were tingling against the tug and pull of her fingertip.

  As her libido roared to life she decided to indulge herself in her most illicit fantasy. The hands that touched her weren’t hers any longer, but belonged to a man whose face she had never seen. Lexa leaned up a
gainst the tiled wall and imagined it was the broad chest of her second lover, holding her safe in his arms. Her eyes closed and she let her fingers drift lower, caressing herself like her dream lovers would.

  Slow and sensual, exploring every part of her with a single-minded focus none of her handful of lovers had ever managed to duplicate. She stroked over the rounded curve of her tummy and circled her navel, teasing herself for a moment before her lover’s hands finally went where she needed them to be, between the lips of her pussy, rubbing along her already throbbing clit.

  She lifted one leg and set her foot on the edge of the tub, opening her thighs wider and rocking her hips against the pressure of her fingers. A low moan fell from her lips and she pressed her shoulders against the wall, using it to keep her balance as she started to rub her clitoris harder.

  In her fantasy the hand on her breast was replaced by one of her lover’s hungry mouths, suckling and nipping at her nipples until they tingled and throbbed in time to the needy ache in her cunt.

  Her fingers flicked over her clit, hard and fast like a lover’s eager tongue but it wasn’t enough to push her over the edge. She let the fantasy go wilder than she’d ever permitted herself before, pushing two fingers into her soaking pussy as she imagined herself being held by one lover and lifted up to be impaled on the cock of the other, fucking her hard and deep as she was suspended between them.

  Lexa’s legs shook and she moaned again as her dream lovers came to life in her mind. Hands caressing, her body trapped between them as they worked to bring her to orgasm. She cried out with pleasure as her release finally swept through her, making her knees buckle.

  As the pleasure receded, she let herself slide down into the tub, the hot water streaming over her limp body. Her dream lovers began to fade, but this time Lexa saw their faces, and she was stunned to realize that her subconscious had given them the faces of the men she’d been so affected by last night. Diego and Beau. Not even in your dreams should you be thinking about those two that way, she told herself with a derisive snort of laughter as she glanced down at her more than ample curves.