Page 29 of Unlocked Dive
I miss it.
We spend at least one day a week out at Big Top as this year’s performers trickle in and the new show starts to come together. I do silks with Milla, talk shop with Shilo and her wife Cheyenne, and listen to the stories of the new arrivals.
Byrd keeps his distance when we’re in public, but his eyes follow me in the tent and around the lot, and more than once, I catch Shilo watching us with a knowing look in her eyes.
Josha is actually becoming a friend, although I still flirt enough to stoke the rougher edge of Byrd’s desire, and I relish every time I push him to the brink of his control.
He’s deliriously generous with his mouth and hands but maddeningly stingy with his dick. He’ll let me get him off, and one night in the kitchen, after a few beers, he puts me on my knees and uses my mouth until I’m choking and tears are running down my face. But even though I come in my hand before he’s even done with me, wild with the glorious unleashed brutality of it, he refuses to touch me for two days afterward and ignores all my reassurances.
And for all his talk that first night of spreading me open until I begged for his cock—something I am totally down for—he still won’t actually fuck me. Like it’s some hetero holdover linehe’s drawn in the sand of his honor and refuses to cross, no matter how I taunt and plead.
So I train and tease and fuck myself on my fingers when I wake up alone, and I wonder if I’m using him or falling in love.
14
Byrd
“We’re having company?” Echo asks as I hit the end-call button on my phone and toss it onto the couch next to me with a sigh. He’s been lying on the mat since my sister’s call interrupted our training session, toying with the tail of the rope like a lazy kitten.
“Looks that way. James is going to pick Elke up in Oakland and drive her up. He’ll spend the night at an Airbnb in Navarro, and she’ll be here for who knows how long. Hopefully, not more than a week.”
“You and your sister don’t get along?” There’s no judgment in his voice, only curiosity.
“We get along fine, most of the time. But she’s…a lot. You’ll see.” Elke has reliably questionable intentions, no filter, and creates chaos by simply occupying a room. I have no idea what she’ll make of Echo.
“And James is her boyfriend?” He bats the tail in my direction with a smirk. “Is he hot?”
“James is my brother-in-law. Ex now, I guess. And a good friend.”
“The video game guy?”
“Yes.”
“So…” He catches the rope on its next swing and pins me with his sapphire gaze. “Is he hot?”
“He’s straight. And too old for you.”
That cracks him up, of course, and he peels himself from the mat and stalks toward me on all fours. My dick starts to pay attention, and I palm myself through my joggers. “He’s also Lara’s brother, in case you missed that part. You’re going to have to behave while he’s here.”
“I always behave.” He climbs into my lap and straddles my thighs, arching that damn brow at me until I reach up to smooth it away with my thumb.
“Don’t,” I say, unthinking.
“Why not?” the cheeky little brat asks, waggling it at me. While I fumble for an answer, he pulls the elastic from my hair and starts to card his fingers through it.
Because it reminds me of your brother.
“I’m serious,” I warn. “About James.”That too.
His grip in my hair tightens, and he tugs my head back, eyeing my mouth, as my hands find their way down the back of his shorts to squeeze his ass. Which might not be helping me get my point across. “Elke will be enough drama. I don’t think I can handle the fallout if James figures out…” I trail off, and Echo goes still, his lips an inch from my own.
Shit.
“That you’re with a guy now? Or that it’s me?” His tone is dangerous, and his eyes have gone flat and hurt.
“Echo.” I could almost laugh if he wasn’t looking at me like that. “No onecould be ashamed of you. You’re a walking wet dream, and you know it.” I dig my fingers into his ass again and tug him against my erection in demonstration. “But James is very protective of his sister. Despite how long we’ve beenfriends, I’m pretty sure theonlyreason he still talks to me now is because the divorce was Lara’s idea.”
“And what? You think if he sees you’ve moved on, he’ll be pissed?”
