Page 41 of Enticement
“I’m sorry, Ross.”
“Don’t be sorry. You know I’ll give you whatever you want.”
Now was the time when she really ought to make her confession, tell him exactly what had happened in the coal shed and out on the hillside, but a quick glance at Ross confirmed that he was already sliding into post-coital exhaustion. Maybe now wasn’t the time. Then again, when would there ever be a good time to confess?
“Hypothetically,” she began and bit her lip.
“It’s fine.” Ross sleepily patted her shoulder. “If you want to fuck him, that’s okay as long as you don’t mind me humping him too.”
Her initial shock—she would never have dreamed of asking him that—transformed into surprise. Mirth spread across her face. “Oh, yeah, I can just see you and him giving each other a knuckle shuffle.” It didn’t matter how hot she found the thought. It wasn’t ever going to happen. She laughed, but her merriment soon died away, and she settled against Ross’s shoulder. “Were you serious?” she asked a moment later, afraid of how excited the almost permission made her.
Ross yawned making a braying sound reminiscent of a donkey. “Damnit, Evie, if you want any more action tonight it’s going to have to be with him. The only loving I’m fit for now is a date with my pillow.”
“So, you were serious?”
He looked at her, but his eyes soon slid closed again, and he gave another terrific yawn.
“It’d be okay?”
Ross mumbled something which might have been a yes and she thought he nodded. The question was, how compos mentis had he actually been? Could she actually interpret his sleepy mumblings as permission to act on her attraction to Kit, or would Ross wake up and think they’d been talking about frogs?
“Really, it’s okay?”
In response he curled his big body around her, so that she lay tucked tight to his side. Since Ross wasn’t normally one for snuggling she took that as a reassurance, but it still didn’t entirely eliminate her guilt.
Chapter Ten
Evie sat up and folded her legs before her. She watched the gentle rise and fall of Ross’s chest, even bestowed a few kisses upon it where his hair formed a diamond-shape over his heart. She couldn’t settle though, she kept thinking of Kit, and how he was probably stretched out next door, pleasuring himself having eavesdropped on the entirety of her and Ross’s lovemaking. In a way that seemed fair, considering they’d made him part of the scenario.
When she crept to the bathroom over an hour later, a faint gleam of light showed beneath the bottom of the guest room door. Evie hurried passed, afraid he was waiting up for her. She hadn’t forgotten his request that she come to him with Ross’s sweat fresh upon her skin, and though the idea left her curiously excited, she wasn’t about to act it out. Instead she waddled across the landing, intending to soak way the cricks in her limbs and the ache in her heart with half a bottle of Radox.
She left the main light off in the bathroom opting for the dim shaving light over the mirror instead. Evie looked at her reflection, barely recognizing herself. Oh, outwardly she remained the same, slightly overweight, blue eyes, streaked mousy brown hair, but inside something had changed. Her vision of domestic goddesshood had been blasted to smithereens by a black-eyed rogue, with snaky hips and a silver-tongue. A man who claimed that being with him wouldn’t upset the balance of her current relationship, and whom she truly wanted to believe, only he’d already upset the balance, and surely a threesome wouldn’t be more than a one off. What happened afterwards?
She jumped at the knock on the door. Kit let himself in. “Is everything okay?” he asked.
Evie didn’t grace him with an answer. If everything had been okay, she wouldn’t have been lurking in the bathroom at one a.m.
“Evie?” He padded barefoot over the tiles to reach her, a black silk kimono covering his nakedness. “I could hear you. I heard what Ross was saying. What did he do to you?” His image swam in the mirror beside hers, dark hair swept across his brow to mask his eyes.
“None of your business.” She dropped her gaze to the mug holding their toothbrushes, three of them, squashed together where there’d recently only been two.
“Is it not?” Kit spun her around. He held her facing him with his hands upon her shoulders. “Seems to me that I was involved, considering how many times my name got mentioned.” He leaned closer, as if he was about to kiss her. The dark line of stubble above his lip had grown thicker. There was a shadow to his jaw line too. “What sort of make believe did you play?”
“Did you tell him?” she asked, seeking out the truth in the dark depths of his eyes. “Have you had a nice chat about me, discussed what’s allowed?”
Kit’s brow furrowed into numerous tiny lines. He eased back a little and pressed a finger to his lips in quiet deliberation. “What are you suggesting? That we’ve been debating access rights?” He brushed a stray lock of hair away from where it clung to her cheek, and tried to lift her gaze. Evie stubbornly resisted. “You’re your own person. Only you can say who you’re with.”
Below the hem of Kit’s kimono his knees were battered and scarred. Evie concentrated on them in an attempt to push everything else aside. “What happened?”
“That’s right, change the topic.” Kit began to laugh. “Hell, I know my knees are ugly, but I’d hate to think they were a deciding factor in all this.”
“Why did you come here?” she asked.
“Bathroom, here, or Kirkley?” he asked as he hooked the side of his fingers under her chin, in order to lift her gaze.
Evie found it hard to look at him. She was still psyched up after the fantasy she’d just shared with Ross, a fantasy in which Kit had been far more than a friend, or just their house guest. It was a good fantasy, but she needed to remember that’s all it was. Three people would always equate to a crowd, one person in the middle, one person always left out. She knew how she’d feel if Ross became involved with one of her close friends, and it wasn’t a pleasant emotion. Jealousy—everything about it implied heartache.
Kit brushed his thumb over her lips and slowly began to circle them. “I had unfinished business here. That’s why I came. There are some things you just can’t leave hanging forever.”
