“You tell me,Jasper.”
Jasper. Goddamn. I’d spent my whole life trying to convince people to overlook my full name, but Red had a way of wrapping her tongue around it that made me briefly forget Kim’s ominous silence.
Briefly, because there was no forgetting Kim when he was suddenly in front of me, his gaze as intense as it had ever been. More so. “Are you drunk?”
I winced guiltily. “A little. Sorry, I was halfway here before I figured it might be a problem for you, and by then—” I waved my hand vaguely. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. My problems aren’t yours.”
“What if I want them to be?”
“Why would you want that?”
“Why not?”
“Dear God.” Red laughed. “You’ve met your evasive match there, Kim. No wonder you’ve been pissing in circles for weeks.”
That she seemed to know enough about Kim and me to make that judgement seemed oddly normal. And it was reassuring to know that Kim’s habitual deflection wasn’t all about me.
But I didn’t look at Red. Couldn’t, because I had eyes just for Kim as I took his face in my hands and kissed him, really kissed him, falling into him the way I should’ve been falling all along. Falling into his arms. Falling in love. Because I could love him, and he could love me, if only we’d both stop sitting down at the foot of the hill.
Kim let out a surprised grunt, but didn’t resist as I backed him against the trailer’s thin wall. And I didn’t stop my assault on his mouth, even when lips that weren’t Kim’s brushed a soft kiss to the back of my neck.
Red’s touch was fleeting, and thrilling. I didn’t notice where she went, but I smelled her sweet, feminine scent mingling with the lingering incense smoke, and with Kim’s unique essence of wood, paint, and ink.
If I’d been mildly drunk before, I was intoxicated now. I craved Kim’s skin against mine, and I fumbled clumsily with his T-shirt, yanking it over his head like we were alone. He returned the favour and his chest hit mine. I closed my eyes, wading through the quagmire of complication we’d created between us, chasing the healthy oblivion that was a world away from our shared demons.
The solitude I’d spent years craving was a distant memory as I gently swiped Kim’s legs from under him and lowered him to the floor. The heat from the log burner reached my face, and déjà vu skirted around the edge of my conscious thoughts, taking me back to when I’d met Kim, to that hazy day at the festival I’d fought tooth and nail to avoid. I’d been a different man since that day, like Kim’s touch had set me on a path I’d desperately needed to travel, perhaps my own recovery of sorts.
Could he taste the wine on my tongue? Alarmed by the thought, I pulled back, but Kim restrained me, holding me tight against him, his kiss fierce and demanding, his long legs wrapped around my waist like a cage.
And I knew then that I wasn’t getting off this train.
I slowly opened my eyes. Kim’s gaze was searching. Frightened. “Don’t go.”
“I won’t. I’m right here, I promise.”
For a moment I feared he hadn’t heard me, but then Red’s lips brushed my neck again, and the lightness of her touch seemed to reach Kim’s face.
“Beautiful boys,” she whispered. And I sensed her ghosting around us and settle on the couch. Her presence was comforting . . . reassuring where perhaps many people would’ve found it intrusive. I looked at her and she smiled, and the heat between Kim and me cast a glow about the room that even the brightest flame couldn’t match.
I moved so my body covered Kim completely, and kissed him, absorbing his quiet moan like it was my own, and sliding my tongue against his. His slender legs tightened around me, and he tugged me impossibly closer, tilting his head so our kiss deepened.
But I couldn’t resist a glance at Red. Beside us on the couch, she shifted, leaning back, her hourglass body a picture of relaxation. Somewhere along the line she’d lost Kim’s T-shirt, leaving her in just her shorts, and the kind of bra I’d dreamed about as a conflicted teenaged boy.
She flashed me a wink that made my cock harder, and then Kim moaned, bringing my attention back to him. He loosened his legs around me, and let them fall open, his intentions suddenly clear, and it wasthisthat finally shocked me, despite having sensed from the beginning that he was a versatile lover.
I stripped us both of jeans, socks, and underwear, and lay over him once more, pressing us together like I’d never been gone. His dick was as hard as mine—harder—and the temptation to straddle him and sink down on his cock was strong, but I didn’t. Instead, I moved over him, nudged his legs wider apart, and pushed them back to his chest. Condoms and lube appeared like magic, pressed into my palm by a hand I barely noticed as Kim sank his teeth into my neck.
He broke away with a growl. “Fuck me.”
I didn’t need telling twice. I rolled a condom on and lubed up, my eyes drifting to Red, who was watching us with a hooded expression I couldn’t entirely read. It felt almost natural to ask her to join us, though in what capacity, I didn’t quite know.
Like she’d heard my errant, rambling thought, Red shook her head with another devilish wink, her message, for once, clear.This isn’t about me.
And it wasn’t. It was all about Kim, and me, and Red—about all of us, perhaps. Maybe. Who the fuck knew?
Not me, but as I slid slowly inside Kim, it didn’t seem to matter. It was obvious that Red was getting off on seeing us together, and there was nothing in her gaze but a heated kindness that made everything right, filling the gaps in the foundations Kim and I had fudged since we’d met.