Three Ways to Wicked (7 page)

The realization that he was possibly worried what she thought of him tugged at her, effectively muting her own private drama regarding the situation. She was all too aware of how it felt to be judged. To live under the constant pressure of disappointing those she loved. Never in a million years would she treat him that way.

Without saying a word, she took his hand in hers and squeezed it. A hefty portion of the anxiousness ebbed from him. His eyes conveying his relief, he twined their fingers together and led the way back to Master Charters. Ty fell in step on her other side and crooked his arm around her shoulders. Her pulse slowly eased back to normal. For a moment she was even able to fool herself that her world hadn’t tumbled off its axis.

That changed the second they stepped into the lobby, and the reminder of what she’d seen clubbed her upside the head with the subtle impetus of a two-by-four. Hot, sinful snapshots paraded across her mental big screen, making it impossible for her to meet Ty’s and Gibb’s gazes again. Uncertain what to do with herself and the prickly heat crawling beneath her skin, she rubbed her forearms and tried to look anywhere but at Gibb and Ty. A large saltwater aquarium in the corner offered a prime distraction, until she noticed that a couple of the pufferfish were getting extra frisky with each other.
Good God.
Maybe it’s something in the water.

A weary breath gusted from Gibb, drawing her focus away from the fish tank. “I don’t know where to begin. Hell, I’m at a loss to explain all of…” he waved toward the table where he and Ty had been locked in their erotic embrace, “…that.”

Once again, his obvious anxiety banished her own awkwardness to the back burner. “I already told you none of this is necessary. You and Ty being lovers is…well, it’s great.” She grimaced at her overenthusiastic cheeriness.
Oh Lord, I sounded like Tony the Tiger.
Sexy man-on-man action, even better than Frosted Flakes. There’s a slogan for ya.

Pushing aside her chagrin, she noticed Gibb’s complexion had mottled into a darker shade of crimson.

“Ty and I aren’t lovers, Kay,” he said, his voice strangled.

“You’re not?” Okay, now she was thoroughly confused. “Then what was…that?” She copied Gibb’s earlier move and gestured to the table.

Ty grunted. “Seven years of avoidance exploding on impact.”

She bounced her focus between both men and blurted out the most unintelligent response she could think of. “Huh?” Yeah, right now that was all the brilliance her brain could muster.

Gibb scrubbed a hand along his nape, his face turning ten shades of red. “Ty and I shared an encounter awhile back and—”

“In non-bullshit speak, that means he blew his load when I sucked him off seven years ago, and we’re just now getting around to talking about it.”

“
Jesus Christ.
” Gibb appeared on the verge of rupturing every blood vessel in his head. “Could you be any less tactful?”

“Screw tact. Hasn’t done a damn bit of good anyway. Now the ninja’s out of the closet, no point pussyfooting over the subject. We’re all adults here, right?” Ty glanced at her, and she nodded automatically. He returned his attention to Gibb and cocked an eyebrow.

Gibb’s mouth tightened. “Yeah, I can see how systematically banging every woman you could immediately afterwards was the pinnacle of adult behavior.”

A tic twitched near Ty’s eye. “How did I know you were gonna bring that up?” He huffed out an angry breath. “I admit it, I reacted badly. Does it mean I have to pay a penalty for my stupid-ass behavior the rest of my life?”

Gibb averted his gaze, a guilty flush creeping along his neck. “No, you don’t. I won’t give you a hard time about it anymore.” With his attention still riveted on the opposite wall, he failed to observe the obvious relief blooming across Ty’s features. But Kayla saw it, as well as the unmistakable flash fire of hunger that ignited in Ty’s eyes whenever he looked at Gibb.

That raw, unshielded glimpse of desire stirred equal amounts of heat and embarrassment through her blood. Suddenly feeling like the odd woman out, she inched toward the exit. “I’ll, uh, leave you two to finish this alone.”

Both Ty and Gibb jerked their stares in her direction. Ty frowned. “But we’re taking you on the boat.”

It took massive effort, but she somehow managed not to dwell on how scandalously sexual his pronouncement had sounded.
Yeah, in my dreams.
“Don’t worry about it. Clearly there’s stuff you two need to work on here, and I wouldn’t want to be a third wheel.”

Ty strode to her and cupped her cheeks in his big hands. “Kay, you could
never
be a third wheel.”

She gaped at him, completely ensnared by his compelling gaze. Something flared to life in his whiskey-hued irises. Something that went a whole lot deeper than the sultry flirtation that typically exuded from him. It took precisely two heartbeats to recognize what she was looking at. The consuming
I-want-to-eat-you-up-in-one-lusty-bite
stare he’d leveled on Gibb earlier was now centered on her.

She gulped. Ty’s attention beelined to her mouth and remained fused there for an endless moment. The fingers he’d locked around her face tightened almost imperceptibly, and a low, carnal sound rolled from the depths of his chest.

“Aw,
shit
.” The words ripped from Gibb a second before Ty’s hand sifted through Kayla’s hair, tipping her face toward him. The growl that broke from Ty was borderline animalistic and sexier than hell. The next instant his lips captured hers.

There was no gentle teasing in the kiss. Just full-on ravishment with a chaser of liquid sin. His tongue swept over the edges of her teeth and then delved deeper—a wet, slick assault on her senses coaxing her to give in fully to the devastating skill of his mouth. She went willingly. Eagerly. Her nipples tightened, and her knees wobbled. Convinced she was about to melt into an unrecognizable puddle, she dropped her bag to the floor and clutched at Ty’s bare shoulders.

Good God.
If she kept ending up on the receiving end of kisses like his and Gibb’s, her brain would be complete putty.

But
damn
, what a way to go. Giving a breathless moan, she slipped an arm around Ty’s waist, relishing the silky shift of his muscles beneath his warm skin. He palmed a handful of her left butt cheek and squeezed, earning her gasp.

Gibb cleared his throat with a gruff cough. “Bailey is going to fucking kill you.”

“So worth it,” Ty murmured before intoxicating Kayla with another round of drugging kisses. He sucked her bottom lip between his teeth, and a responding beat pulsed in her clit, spurring a whimper from her. Ty pulled back slightly, his hand still massaging her ass through the thin twill of her shorts. His pupils were dilated and loaded with one hundred degrees of pure sin. “Now what were you saying about being a third wheel?”

“I…” she swallowed, her focus glued to those sexy, masculine lips that were way too ridiculously skilled at short-circuiting her brain, “…have no idea.”

Ty chuckled, but a hasty glance in Gibb’s direction revealed his mouth was set in a grim line. Despite that, his gaze held a fierce conflagration of heat, as if watching her and Ty kissing had massively turned him on. A quick scan of the impressive bulge denting his fly confirmed the possibility. He clenched his jaw and glared at Ty. “If you have one iota of sense, you’ll promise me you’ve gotten that out of your system now and won’t repeat it.”

“You tell me. Did kissing Kay one lousy time satisfy you? Or do you want a helluva lot more?”

Gibb’s intense stare swept her, spiking her heart rate by several chaotic beats.

Another smoky chuckle fell from Ty. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. So the way I see it, we’ve got ourselves a dilemma here. Either the three of us keep dancing around the issue, pretending we don’t want each other and suffering for it.” Ty’s fingertips skated enticing figure eights along her spine, increasing the heavy ache between her legs. “Or we say fuck what everyone else thinks, and see where this takes us.”

Gibb’s expression remained stony. “There’s no way in hell you’re suggesting what I think you are.”

“Mama always said the polite thing to do is share.” The wicked sparkle in Ty’s eyes thoroughly contradicted his innocent smile.

A grunt snuck from Gibb. “Somehow I doubt your mom was referring to a threesome.” He shifted his focus to Kayla. “One of us needs to be the voice of reason. Tell him this is a moronic idea. That you have no damn interest in pursuing this disaster in the making.” Although he’d made it sound like Ty was the one who required convincing, the dark desperation in Gibb’s pleading stare hinted he needed it just as much. Maybe more.

Every ounce of logic she possessed acknowledged the truth in Gibb’s assertion. If she gave in to her desire to be with him and Ty—a fantasy she’d barely given herself permission to weave during a solo session with her vibrator, for God’s sake—she’d potentially be driving a huge wedge between her and Bailey. That prospect made her chest feel like it was pinned under a ton of bricks. Plus, knowing Bailey, there was the very real possibility that she
would
kill Ty. “I’d feel terrible if I created a problem between you and Bail.”

Ty offered Kayla a reassuring squeeze on her hip. “Remember what I said about tuning out what everyone else has to say on the matter? That goes double for my sister.”

Kayla chewed her lip, her thoughts veering to Bailey’s words from earlier. Remembering her best friend’s adamancy about not giving in to Ty, Kayla winced. “She won’t be happy about me getting involved with you guys.”

Ty stroked her arm gently. “Kay, what we do is none of my sister’s business. I’d be more than happy to remind her of that, but if it makes you feel better keeping this strictly between you, me and Gibb, we can do that too.”

Guilt percolated inside her, adding to her uncertainty. There’d never been any lies or secrets between her and Bailey. “I…I need some time to process this.”

Rough exhalations broke from Ty and Gibb. Their expressions gave nothing away, making it impossible to tell if their reactions were prompted by disappointment or relief that she hadn’t immediately shot down Ty’s insane proposal.

A threesome. Good Lord. It was so…so…

Exciting.

Her skin flushed. Okay, there was no denying that the idea of being with Ty and Gibb made her tremble in all the right places.

Ty cupped her nape and leaned down to brush her lips with a lingering kiss that recruited a new troop of goose bumps. His fingertips danced seductively down the slope of her neck. “Take all the time you need. In the meantime, I promised you that boat ride. Still up for it?”

Everything inside her longed to give in, and not only in regards to the boat trip.

God.
Aching to be with two men. At the same time. It was precisely the sort of perversions Jeremy had accused her of. That her mother condemned her for writing about. No doubt they’d label her a world-class whore for even considering the proposition of being with Ty and Gibb.

If you’re going to be accused of trampy behavior, why not make it real and enjoy every naughty minute you can with them?
Her pulse sped up as the incredibly tempting and scandalous enticement whispered through her mind.

Could she do something so sexy and wanton? Although she’d penned her fair share of threesomes, she’d never entertained the possibility of engaging in one in real life. She was nowhere near that wild.

But you want to be. With Ty and Gibb, you want to be as wild and wicked as the brave, uninhibited heroines you write about.
Admit it.
Deep down, you’ve been hungering for this from the first moment you laid eyes on them all those years ago.

Damn, her inner voice was pulling no punches today. Still, it was nothing less than the brutal truth. She
did
want to explore every sinful avenue she could with them. She always had. Furthermore, she was a grown woman. Free to do any crazy, kinky thing out there. True, if a few certain someones didn’t approve of her actions and condemned her in the end, it’d hurt. A lot. But she couldn’t keep plodding through her life with this constant worry of disappointing everyone and ignoring her own desires.

Firming her resolve, she sucked in a shaky breath and released it. “I’m tired of always worrying about making everyone else unhappy. For once, I want to focus on what will make
me
happy.”

Gibb’s stare drilled into her. “What exactly are you saying, Kay?”

She swallowed past the uncertainty congesting her throat and prepared to leap into the wild unknown. “I’m saying yes. To the boat ride. To you and Ty. To whatever happens between us.”

Chapter Eight

Her newfound courage hit a rough patch the moment Ty and Gibb escorted her to the docks where their small fleet of fishing boats was moored. Easy to feign bravery on dry land, where it was entirely possible to beat a hasty exit if things got too intense. But out on the Atlantic? There’d be nowhere for her to go, other than overboard. And probably into the jaws of a waiting shark, knowing her luck. Since that was something she intended to avoid at all costs, she’d have to hike up her big-girl panties and take her chances with Gibb and Ty.

She risked a peek at them and realized they were watching her intently. Oh crap. Had they asked her a question? How long had she been dazing off into space and fretting about three-ways and sharks? “I’m sorry, you were saying?”