I said anything.”
“Really,” I lied. “I’m not.”
He licked his lips, and his tongue bar glinted, the atmosphere tightening in a heartbeat. “We’ll fuck you first. A lot. Then you can think about it.”
My stomach tickled, and I wanted him. I knew I wanted him. I shouldn’t think it, and I certainly shouldn’t say, but the words were already in my throat. “If it was just… if this was just… regular… it would be…”
“Easy?”
“Easier…” I admitted. “I mean, if it were just… if this were… us…”
His expression turned serious. “Carl and I come as a pair,” he said. “Always.”
I shook my head. Mortified. “Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean. I was just… thinking aloud… I shouldn’t…”
“It’s alright. I get it. One on one is simple. Classic boy meets girl. Girl fancies boy. Boy wants girl. They fuck. They swoon. They fall into a groove.” He smirked. “I get it, that could be us. I feel that.”
“I shouldn’t have…” I repeated. “It just slipped out.” I wanted to kick myself. Hard. “I’m sure I’ll like Carl.”
“You’ll get to know him,” he said. “And when you do, you’ll love him. I promise.”
“I’ll love him, will I?” I laughed to lighten the tension. “You seem pretty confident.”
“I am confident. Carl’s hot, and smart, and funny — even if he doesn’t always seem that way. He’s determined and he always gives his everything. He’s loyal, too.”
“When did you know it was love?”
He smiled. “When he gave me his ass for the first time, and I was way more interested in him than his girlfriend’s hot pussy. It doesn’t happen all that often, the ass thing. He’s not much of a taker.”
I smirked. “So, the girlfriend got booted?”
He shook his head. “The girlfriend was a scheming bitch. She fucked off.”
“No loss, then.”
“Not for me,” he said. “More so for Carl.”
“So, you’re looking for a third for your happily ever after? Carl, Rick, and Miss Unknown.”
“Something like that. Like I said, it isn’t a concern for now.”
I couldn’t help feeling a little unnerved inside, the prospect of more taking grip of my lungs. I picked up a chicken wing, forced myself to smile as I ate it.
“You did say you didn’t want the status quo.” He held up his glass. “Here’s to finding out, hey?”
I touched my glass to his. “Sure thing. I’ll drink to that.”
He took a swig, then clapped his hands together. “Enough of this heavy bollocks,” he said. “Let’s shut up and eat our bloody lunch before my blabbermouth runs away with me.”
Sounded good to me.
Rick moved the music to the living room after lunch, one of those seamless setups that pipes your tunes from room to room. He took the sofa, and so did I, and so naturally my knee rested against his. He’d made me laugh, so much. Made me smile, so hard. So many stories, of travels, and graphic design, and love, and sex, and life. Mainly I had stories about Samson, but he was interested. Genuinely, too. I could see it in his eyes.
I could spend a lot of time around Rick Warner. A fuck of a lot of time.
An early lunch was turning into a late one, but he hadn’t made any attempt to return to his project, and I wasn’t pushing it. I could have happily stayed there, slumped on his sofa while we talked the afternoon away, substituted mineral water for cold beer and laughed my way through until dawn.
“So, yeah,” he grinned. “She, um, didn’t last long. Told me I was a freaky piece of crap and took off out of there.”
“In her underwear?!”
“In just her fucking knickers.” He laughed. “Seriously, it was a pathetic excuse for a thong.” He gestured to his crotch. “Barely covered her fucking slit, I tell you.”
The thought made me giggle. “She drove home like that?!”
“Yep. Through rush hour traffic.”
“And that was the very first time you tried watersports?”
His eyes glinted. “What makes you so sure I tried it again?”
He had me. My cheeks burned. “I dunno. You just seem that kind of guy…”
“Ha!” He held his hands up. “You got me. Seriously, though, don’t get too nervous. I won’t throw up any filthy surprises, I promise.”
“I trust you,” I said. “I’m brave like that.” I smiled at him and he smiled back, and there was something in it. Something unspoken, and heavy, and probably the result of too many sex stories.
I shifted in my seat, trying to ease the need between my legs, but all it did was hitch my