Manny scrubbed his eyes again and dropped back against the fluffy pillows. “Thanks. Will do.”
* * *
Rebecca kissed Manny good-bye at the door and then watched him kiss Kyle too. Then Kyle snatched up Rebecca’s overnight bag before she could do it herself. She’d gotten quite used to living out of that thing in the past few weeks, hopping between Manny’s and Kyle’s apartments and exchanging one sundress for another. The thought that she hadn’t actually been searching for her own place passed through her mind as she and Kyle ducked into the waiting Town Car.
Inside, Kyle reached for her hand and rested their linked fingers on his knee. He didn’t speak. Silence was something of a rarity from Kyle Hunter. She watched him check his phone for the time, and then he scrolled through his e-mails. He caught her gaze with the corner of his eye. “Hey, beautiful.”
“Hey,” she answered back.
“You keep looking at me like that, and I won’t be waiting until Manny gets there tonight to jump your bones.”
Rebecca blinked at him. Was that how a threesome worked? “Are those the rules? Nobody does anything unless we’re all there together?”
Kyle was silent for a moment. “I never had a reason for it to be any different before.” He looked at their hands, joined together in a lazy familiarity on his knee.
“I’m not just on loan to you, am I?” Rebecca wasn’t sure where that question came from, but suddenly she needed to know. After all, she’d been borrowing Manny from him since that first night, hadn’t she?
He turned to face her. “Please tell me you don’t really feel that way.”
“I don’t know…I—”
Kyle dropped his lips onto hers and swiped his tongue into her mouth like it belonged there. “Manny’s not the reason that feels so good.”
Rebecca nodded. He clutched her hand again and squeezed it tight as the gray concrete ambled endlessly past her window on their way to the airport.
Chapter Fourteen
Kyle couldn’t shake Rebecca’s question. On loan from Manny? The other times he and his best friend had made love to the same woman, she’d been dating only Manny. Kyle had just been the icing on her cake and happy to oblige. But Rebecca meant something to him, unlike any other woman they’d ever shared.
“Do you think we need his permission?” Kyle asked suddenly, raising the privacy screen between them and the driver.
Rebecca chewed her lip. “Don’t you?”
He took a breath. “No, actually, I don’t. Manny may have found you first, but I have every right to want you just as much as he does.” Kyle leaned toward her and slid his hand between her bare knees up to her thighs. He took a nice handful of her warm flesh. “Want to know why?”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t feel the least bit of guilt about it.” He found her panties with his fingers and slipped a single digit beyond the scrap of lace. She parted her legs for him naturally. “God woman, you drive me crazy.”
Her voice cracked on a whisper. “Don’t you think he’ll be jealous if we make love without him? Fooling around is one thing…”
Kyle heard her question, but there seemed no mistake in the way her body moved against his hand. She was wet beyond belief. Kyle pulled her onto his lap and smiled. She was wet for him.
“Only that he isn’t there to see you come apart.” He pumped another finger inside of her, and she slammed her hand against the window for leverage. Kyle spread her legs wide and pinched her clit. She panted against pressed lips, clearly struggling to keep as quiet as possible. It only made him want to hear her scream. “I can’t wait to fuck you on the beach with the waves lapping at our feet.”
“And Manny?”
Kyle grinned wickedly. “I can’t wait to fuck him too.” He twisted his fingers inside her and strummed her clit with his thumb. “But until he gets there, baby, it’s all about you and me.”
* * *
Two and a half hours later and the plane settled down in another country. Kyle watched Rebecca stretch like a cat in the first-class seat next to him. After the orgasm he’d given her in the back of the Town Car, she’d been as pliable as the strawberry bubblegum she chewed, curled up around him and drifting to sleep the moment they took off. Kyle had been too wired to sleep. For one, he was still horny as hell. Rebecca would help him take care of that soon enough. But he was also torn over doing right by Manny. Even if he didn’t need Manny’s permission to be with Rebecca, he couldn’t deny that he still wanted it.
Just because he wasn’t jealous of what Manny had with her didn’t mean Manny wouldn’t be. After all, Kyle had lots of practice sharing Manny over the years. He’d been there at every turn as Manny’s interest in the women he dated crested and fizzled. Kyle knew how to find his place next to him even when Manny’s attention had been divided. Truthfully, it had never been that hard. Everyone knew they were inseparable. Kyle never once felt as though that would change.
But in all that time, Manny never really had to share anyone with Kyle—not in any way that counted. Sex, after all, was just sex.
He studied Rebecca as she glued herself to the window with excitement in her eyes. Sex had been what put them on their knees together that first time with Manny, but the hunger in his chest now had little to do with getting Manny off and everything to do with wanting her to stay.
His text to Manny said that they’d landed safely. After a moment Kyle added that he needed to talk and that he’d call when they got to the hotel.
Stepping into the warm weight of the Caribbean air, Kyle took a deep, cleansing breath. He needed to get away from the campaign and everything that came with it. Just for a few days he needed to be free. Rebecca stepped out into the light and plopped an enormous sun hat of black woven straw on her head. It flopped in her face, and she wrestled with it to no avail.
“Are we renting a car?” she asked. The soft ocean breeze blew the hat in her face again. He took it from her and smiled.
“Only our luggage is taking a car. We are traveling island style this weekend.” He pointed to a Vespa kiosk. Rebecca looked genuinely delighted, and he took a mental snapshot of that smile.
“I have always wanted to ride one of those.”
“Ride? No, you’re driving, baby.”
She fished into her knapsack and pulled out a hairband, then whipped her curls into submission atop her head.
Kyle folded her Hollywood-diva-style hat and stashed it into the front pocket of his suitcase. He twirled an errant curl around his finger. “Now you look ready for anything.”
She blushed nice and pink for him, and he couldn’t resist a nip of her jaw.
“Sunblock?” he asked upon returning from the small pink building.
“Check!” she said, taking the key he offered.
“Helmet?” he asked, tossing her the faded yellow one with a snappy blue racing stripe down the center.
She looked at it and laughed. “Check!”
“Quick lesson around the parking lot?”
“Oh, thank God!” she said, with her shoulders sagging a little as she popped on the helmet. “I don’t want to risk an elbow.”
He eased in close to snap the chinstrap for her. “It’s easy. Trust me.”
“I do,” she whispered.
Kyle got lost for a second in the complexity of her gray eyes. He saw every gentle wish and every fear she’d ever had. “You really are special, Rebecca.”
She pulled her chinstrap tight and swatted him on the butt. “The sooner you finish sweet-talking me, the sooner we can hit the beach!” With that she hiked her dress up and swung her shapely leg over the sea-foam seat of her Vespa.
Kyle’s cock tightened in his pants thinking of just how hard he wanted to hit the beach with her. First, he’d have a talk with Manny. The closer Kyle got to Rebecca, the dumber he felt for not doing it sooner.
* * *
Manny tried to keep his voice down as he waited to board his first-class seat to his twenty-four-hour Bermuda getaway. He had long ago quit feeling envious over the perks Kyle enjoyed with his reams of Benjamins in the bank. For one, Manny knew the dues on those perks were pretty steep. He also knew Kyle would give his last dime to make someone else happy. In the end, Manny learned to say thank you and leave it at that.
But Kyle sounded weird in his text and even weirder now on the phone. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Manny. I’m not saying that I feel any differently about you, but I need to tell you that I want Rebecca for myself.”
“What?” Several people raised their heads with annoyed glares at his sudden outburst. Manny felt the hairs rise up on the back of his neck. This was his worst nightmare come true. He gritted his teeth and covered the phone with his hand. “What the fuck are you saying?”
“Shit, that totally came out wrong.” Kyle took a breath.
“Where is she right now?”
“Out by the pool.”
Manny had heard all about the private cabana with its own plunge pool when Kyle practically demanded they’d take this trip.
“You want to start over again?” Manny said. “And this time make me not want to fly all the way over there just to punch the crap out of you?”
“I meant to say I want to be with her because I like her, not because
you
like her. I mean, I like that you like her too…and maybe it started out that way for me, like the other times…but…”
Manny could see the strain on Kyle’s face even if they were hundreds of miles away. Where was that cocky, sure-as-shit attitude he’d come to know and love? Swept away in a wave of strawberry blonde curls, he supposed. “I wish that made me feel better.”
Kyle huffed. “She’s fucking special, man. I just got chills when I said that. Fucking chills, do you hear me?”
Manny bit the inside of his cheek. “I hear you.”
Kyle cleared his throat. “I have feelings for her too, that’s all, and I don’t really feel like I need your permission to fall for her.” He sighed. “It’s kind of too late anyway.”
“Kyle, what are you saying?”
“The rules. We need to talk about the rules, man. I want to make love to her the same as I want to make love to you. As often as possible.” Kyle laughed lightly, and Manny wished he could appreciate the humor. “I’m not going to put my dick on house arrest, just ’cause you aren’t in the same room with us.”
Manny swallowed hard. “I did. Don’t you think I wanted to make love to her when you were away last week?”
“That isn’t right. I know how you feel about her. I know how you feel about me. You shouldn’t have to hold any of that back, and I don’t want to either.”
“Good for you then.”
“Good for
us
, dude. We have found the perfect woman.” Kyle’s voice was full of joy. “Hurry up and bring your ass here soon so I can have my cake and eat it too.”
* * *
Rebecca dragged her foot back and forth through the tepid water as she lay at the side of the pool. The sun had nearly set on the peaceful ocean, and only the faint call of seagulls in the distance stirred the evening air. She closed her eyes and inhaled the sea, thinking how different the ocean smelled here. How naïve could she have been? Bermuda was a hell of a lot nicer than Coney Island. She’d been too embarrassed to admit to Kyle that although she had a valid passport, it had yet to be stamped. She wasn’t much different from the kids he’d brought to see her; her only knowledge of the great big world was from books. She was never rich, but with her research, she never felt poor.
She opened her eyes again and gazed out at the horizon. The day that had passed stretched out before her eyes.
The day that was Kyle.
She smiled at the thought. Her body tingled at the memory.
They took the slower, secondary roads to the hotel, Kyle keeping a watchful eye on her the entire time. She decided to race him at the last intersection before their turn toward the beach, and he feigned engine trouble just to win.
“Dirty bastard!” she’d yelled after him when she’d predictably stopped to help. He laughed all the way to the gates. They were twenty-five feet high, at least, glittering with golden letters in the noon sun. Kyle flashed his identification at the gatekeeper as if they’d arrived in a Rolls-Royce rather than on two rented Vespas. She admired his confidence, though he didn’t seem to make a point to flash his money in anyone’s face. Kyle Hunter looked like any other tourist on vacation. Maybe that was just what he wanted.
Rebecca felt oddly like a couple standing there at the reception desk with him, without Manny. He’d wanted to show her the gardens next to the golf club, and he’d held her hand as they walked. He’d pulled her seat out for her at lunch and didn’t correct the waiter when he’d asked what the Mrs. would be having. In fact, they’d laughed about it once he’d gone. Rebecca had mentioned that her name meant “to be snared,” so Hunter was quite an ironic fit.
Curse the word nerd she could be sometimes. Kyle had only smiled, but she’d sworn that his cheeks had turned a little rosy.
He’d been sweet. Sweeter than she’d ever expected from him. It was just a short walk back to their suite after lunch, and with the warmth of the afternoon light beating softly on her back, they watched the waves roll gracefully onto shore. They’d shared jokes and teased each other—the kind of lively banter she’d come to expect from Kyle. And then he’d told her about the mission he flew with Manny over Kandahar. He toyed with her hand as it rested between them on the warm concrete seawall, delicate strokes from her palm to her fingertip.
“People are always calling us heroes, but they don’t really know what it was like over there.” He talked and stared at her hand, stroking the longest finger between two of his callused tips. “Our orders were to kill whatever was coming at us…whatever stood between us and our target.”
Rebecca leaned her head on his shoulder. “The thing about heroes is that they never think they deserve the title.”
That won her a small smile, but his expression took on distance once more. “Some of them were just kids. Kids caught up in something somebody told them to believe.” He shook his head. “Marines don’t talk about it—what it’s like to kill someone.”