Grounded

I wrinkled my nose at him. I knew the Vegas scene well enough, even if it wasn’t really my scene. “I hope everything’s been disinfected.”

He tapped my nose. “Yes, of course. You know it drives me crazy when you do that with your nose. It makes you look so damn cute.”

I tapped his nose. “Don’t call me cute,” I told him.

His nostrils flared, rather sexily, I thought.

I was lying on a cushioned lounger in a white bikini I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing in public while he rubbed sunblock all over my body. He was not efficient about the process, rubbing more of the parts inside of the tiny bikini than out of it, and grinning the entire time.

“You don’t have to work at all today?” I asked him. He’d worked the day before, but made no mention of going in that day.

“I’m taking a day off. I want to fuck you in broad daylight. I want to spread you out and strip you bare under the sun.”

That made me squirm in my seat. I’d had my hopes when he was dismissing his staff, but now it was certain. We weren’t just out here to swim.

“You’re going to get me sunburned in some painful places,” I predicted.

He held up the bottle of sunblock he was using. “I’ve got it covered. Come on now, you know me better.”

He was thorough, but slow as molasses as he covered me in the stuff. He even spent extra time on my feet, rubbing and kneading until I moaned in pleasure. He was good with his hands in every way imaginable.

The second leisurely rubbed on coat of sunblock was completely unnecessary, of course, but he did it all the same. Only James could turn sun protection into foreplay. I was writhing before he made it back up to my inner thighs.

His sunblock coated fingers teased around my sex, fingering my tiny string bikini bottoms, but he pulled them back with a wicked little smile. “For external use only, Love. I guess you’ll have to settle for my tongue.”

He pulled the strings on both of my hips loose with his teeth. I buried my hands in his hair as he buried his face between my legs.

It wasn’t his usual oral technique, avoiding my clit at first to thrust his tongue as deep inside of me as it would go. It felt drugging—it felt good, but when he finally moved up to my clit and sucked with a vengeance I came hard, gasping his name.

He moved up my body in a flash, untying my top, and moving my leg across his torso, positioning it diagonally with my ankle on his shoulder, turning me on my side, and straddling my other leg. He poised himself at my entrance for a brief moment.

“Fucking me sideways,” I told him breathlessly.

He grinned and thrust in hard. “Every which way, until we’re sated or dead, Love.”

He pulled out slowly, dragging himself along every perfect nerve, playing me like an instrument, then pounded in again. His size, and the unrelenting position, made each thrust border on painful. He repeated the torture, again and again, and I came with a ragged cry torn out of me.

He didn’t stop, just pounded faster. He bottomed out and came inside of me with a rough shout. I loved it, absolutely relished the moments when he lost it like that.

He pushed my legs apart, shifted me onto my back, and moved into me, kissing me languorously. He pulled out of me slowly, drawing it out, until I wanted him again as though we hadn’t just made love.

Once he’d separated his body from mine, he moved flush against me again.

“Wrap your arms and legs around me,” he ordered against my ear.

I did, my body obeying but my mind still in that soft dreamy place that only he could take me. He picked me up, rising slowly.

It was only as I was flying through the air that I realized his intent. I hit the water with a surprised little yelp. I was glaring as I surfaced.

He just grinned, diving in after me.

We played in the pool for a long time. Like children, I thought, only we were skinny dipping in broad daylight. I loved every second of it. I thought that playful James might just be my favorite.

He pulled me against him, kissing me hotly, and then thrust me away. “Run,” he told me with a wicked grin.

I made it just to the edge of the pool and one step out before he caught me, yanking me back into the water and against him, his front flush against my back. He bit my neck and rubbed against me. His rock hard erection poked hard into my backside.

“You’re insatiable,” I told him, my voice breathless.

“Yes,” he breathed into my ear. “I am. Now run.”

I made it out of the pool, across the concrete, and into the grass that time. It was only as he was tackling me onto my stomach that I realized it was exactly what he’d wanted, exactly what he’d planned. He was entering me from behind rather roughly within seconds.

He fucked me in the grass, on hands and knees, pumping into me with a purpose.

“Say it, Bianca,” he ordered into my ear, his voice so low and gruff.

I came apart, but not enough to keep from saying it. “I’m yours, James. Only yours.”

He continued the jarring rhythm while my body squeezed him convulsively, as shivers of pleasure wracked my body. He kept going until every little shocking wave had passed. He moaned low in his throat when he let himself go.

My hands and knees were raw and grass stained when James carried me back to the pool. I couldn’t imagine that his were in much better shape.

He tossed me back in the pool. Even knowing it was coming, I let out a little shriek before I hit the water. When I resurfaced, James was striding towards the house, a towel slung low across his hips.

“Where are you going?” I called out.

“To check in with the other man in your life,” he called back.

I thought that was the sweetest thing in the world. And so very James. Nothing could soften me more than him understanding my bond with Stephan, and understand it, he did. He always knew which strings to pull. Manipulative, perceptive, wonderful man.

When he returned, he moved straight to the lounging sofa where we’d discarded all of our clothing. He pulled on his low-slung gray swim trunks and grabbed my bikini, moving back to the pool with a purpose.

He cornered me in the pool.

I kissed him. “Thank you for being so understanding about Stephan. That means everything to me.”

“I have nothing but love for that man. If I have to share you with someone, I’m glad that it’s him. And I will do anything it takes to stay on his good side. I know that a happy Stephan is a happy Bianca.” He gave me one hard kiss and began to slip me back into the tiny series of strings that he called a bikini.

“The guys wanted to hang out,” he continued. “So I told them to come over. Not sure how he did it, but Stephan turned the whole thing into an impromptu pool party. I don’t even know who’s coming. I may have met my match. That man is cunning.”

That made me smile real big. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black…

“I need to go put on a cover-up or something,” I told him. “If we’re having a party, I’d rather not be showing this much skin.”

He eyed me up, running a tongue over his teeth in a luscious display. “Yeah, I agree. I’d rather not share this much of your skin with company. Especially since I don’t even know who’s coming. I can’t even tell you the havoc that will wreak with security. A last minute party with no guest list.” He shook his head, then smiled suddenly. “I guess that’s why I pay them so well. Now let’s go get you a cover-up.”

Stephan and Javier arrived first, not even thirty minutes later. They were both already in their swimsuits, shirtless and smiling.

I eyed the three hot, half-naked men around me. “What did I ever do to get so lucky?” I asked.

Stephan flashed a dimple at me, and that dimple was always mischievous. He picked me up, running through the house with a happy shout. He never had been able to behave himself around water.

Unlike James, Stephan jumped in still holding me, rather than throwing me. I had a sudden but clear epiphany about the two major men in my life, and just how alike they were in so many strange ways, both so relentlessly, affectionately physical, and emotionally open for me, if on different levels.

Stephan didn’t let me go even when were both in the water, just cradling me to him and smiling.

“Who did you invite to this?” I asked him suspiciously. I could just tell by the look on his face that he was in an ornery mood. His huge grin at the question only confirmed it.

“Wrong question, Buttercup.”

I pulled his hair lightly. “What’s the right question, then?” I asked. I knew this game.

“Who didn’t I invite?”

I heard a bark of a laugh behind me, and craned my head around to see James striding back to the house. “If it’s going to be that sort of a party, I’ll at least have it catered,” he muttered as he walked. “And I don’t suppose a house full of pilots and flight attendants won’t want an open bar.”

I had to laugh. He’d assessed the situation accurately. If Stephan had sent out a blanket invite to everyone he knew, we were a few minutes away from having a house full of pilots and flight attendants, and they would be drinking.

The first few people to arrive were complete strangers to me, and it felt beyond awkward meeting new people wearing a tiny bikini, and a tiny, sopping wet cover-up, but I tried to play it off.

I shot Stephan a glare. “Do you even know who they are?”

He shrugged. “I think they’re pilots. Murphy’s friends? They look vaguely familiar.

James dove into the pool, his form perfect. He swam straight to me, staying underwater until he reached me. He grabbed me around the waist and dragged me from where I was huddled with Stephan. He cornered me against the side of the pool. “Stephan gets to play host tonight, since this was his idea, and I planned to spend my entire day touching you, so I’m damn well going to do it.”

I had no problem with that. I just smiled at him.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Mr. Scandalous

Of course a party at a swank mansion with an open bar attracted a lot of people, and within an hour the place was packed. I recognized maybe a third of the people that swarmed into the pools.

Our usual group ended up hanging out with us, taking one of the large pools to ourselves.

Marnie and Judith were there. I’d figured they would be. If they were in town, you couldn’t drag them away from a good party. Marnie, however, wouldn’t get in the water, which was unusual for her. I asked her why.

She waved her martini glass in the air. “You see this?”

I nodded, smiling. I knew there’d be a punch line.

“This is not a martini. This is a Midol-tini, cause I’m on the rag, folks, and it is a heavy flow day!”

“OOOhhhh,” Murphy cried. “TMI, Marnie TMI! I picture things!”

“Well picture that whole pool turning red if I take one step in.”

Every man within ten feet groaned in disgust. Except for Mr. Beautiful, who didn’t seem to have a squeamish bone in his body. He just laughed.

“Women are disgusting!” Murphy told her. “And what does it say about me that I’m kind of turned on right now?”