Page 56 of Savage Blooms
Adam looked miserably to Finley, knowing better than to seek any solace in Eileen. Finley merely looked him up and down, disappointed in his sexual cowardice.
“All right,” Adam bit out. “I’ve thought about it.”
“I had to give details so you do too,” Finley said, twisting the knife. Adam had insulted him, and in response, Finley would humiliate Adam in front of his fair maiden, just for the pleasure of watching him squirm. Eileen was under no illusions about being wicked, deep down, or about the perverse thrill she took in Finley’s flashes of cruelty. Watching him torture Adam was as erotic to her as a striptease. “Come on. Let the lady know how you feel. She’s been so patient with you. Years and years of knowing each other, isn’t it? Don’t you think she deserves a little decency?”
“I’ve thought about it once or twice,” Adam muttered, staring at the ground. “Maybe more than that, if I’m being honest.”
“Adam,” Nicola sighed, and pushed onto her hands and knees and crawled the few feet between them. She sat back on her heels and searched Adam’s face, her expression beatific as a Botticelli angel. Everything unspoken between them pulled taut, moments from either snapping or pulling them closer together. “I want to know.”
Adam met her eyes. Somehow hungry and penitent all at once.
“I don’t want you to hate me.”
“I could never hate you,” she said, and kissed him on the mouth.
Eileen silently reached out and gripped Finley’s knee. He sat still as a statue, but the muscles beneath Eileen’s hands were tight.
Adam surged up against Nicola like the waves against the shore, cradling her face with the most delicate touch even as he devoured her. Nicola braced her hands on his thighs and leaned in close, making a sweet, sighing noise as she parted her lips wider and slid her hot, searching tongue into Adam’s mouth. If Eileen had been skeptical about them never having gone to bed together before, she was soundly proven wrong. This was not the kiss of two people who had enjoyed intimate access to each other for years, or even for one wild night before. This was the kiss of two people who had been longing for each other every day of their lives without a single moment of consummation.
Eileen and Finley may as well have not been in the room.
When Nicola finally pulled away, Adam stared at her as though under some spell, his fingertips resting lightly on her cheek.
“Do you remember spring break, when I convinced you to come to Barbados with me?” His voice was barely audible. It was like he was in a trance. In the week she had known Adam, no matter how bated his breath when Eileen walked into the room, she had never seen him look atherlike that.
“I do,” Nicola said. Her mouth was wet from his kiss,gleaming tantalizingly in the low lighting of the parlor. Eileen wanted to kiss the taste of Adam right off her.
“We went out to the dancehall and you were wearing this tiny dress, with all your hair piled up on top of your head because it was so hot. You were dancing on some guy and I couldn’t stop looking at you, or imagining pulling you into the bathroom and pushing up that little dress and… I wanted you so badly it hurt. I couldn’t sleep, remembering the way you looked.”
“That was the first time?” Nicola asked.
“Yeah. But not the last.”
“Averygood answer,” Eileen said. “God, I love this game.”
Adam’s eyes cut over to her. He was not pleased with her question, despite the obvious boon he had won by answering with courage.
“Have you ever slept with anyone else besides Finley?” Adam demanded, before anyone else could say a word.
“And why would that be a concern of yours?” Eileen scoffed. Adam wouldn’t try to make her confess. He wasn’t bold enough, not yet anyway. She hadn’t had her talons in him long enough to shape him to her liking.
Unceremoniously, Finley laced his fingers through Eileen’s hair and yanked her head backwards, exposing the white curve of her throat. Eileen gasped but didn’t struggle, utterly dazed. She hadn’t expected Finley to act as Adam’s champion in this battle. She hadn’t expected Finley to push back against her at all.
“Answer the question, Isla,” Finley said, giving anothertug. His grip was punishingly tight, giving her the real, white-hot pain she so craved in private. He wasn’t pulling his punches any more, audience or not.
“Never,” she ground out, blinking back the water in her eyes. “There’s never been anyone else I wanted.”
It was Finley who spoke next, not Adam.
“And what about now?”
“No doubling up on questions,” Eileen said with a mocking smile. Despite the pain tingling along her scalp and the way her sex throbbed in response, she would not give him the satisfaction of making her beg for release in front of her guests. “Your turn, dearest. Do you want to fuck pretty Nicola?”
Hatred flashed in Finley’s eyes. How quickly the two of them spun from affection to bitterness, like ice dancers caught in a death-defying spiral.
“That’s enough, Eileen,” he said, letting her go as though he had been burned.
“If Adam had to answer, then so should you,” Nicola shot back, strapping her arms over her chest. She had more spirit than Eileen had assumed, and if there was anything Eileen appreciated tremendously, it was a high-spirited woman. “It’s only fair.”
