Enticement Read online

  Kit grinned. “You’d better love me too after this.” He opened his mouth wide to take Ross’s cock.

  “Fuck, that’s good.” Ross replied as he guided Kit’s sucking with his hand thrust into his hair. Eyes closed, a dreamy smile stretched across his lips. “Of course I love you too, you sexy bastard, much as I’ve been trying to deny it for years.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Is she really going out with him?

  Well, there she is, let’s ask her.”

  The upbeat lyrics to the sorrowful song ran through Evie’s head as she trekked over to Kirkley’s tiny post office on a quest for ice cream a few days later. Kit had painted them both with the remainder of the last tub, leaving them sticky and the kitchen table permanently stained with triple chocolate sauce. Personally, she wasn’t in any great hurry to taste ice cream again for a while, but the boys were both fond of it, and Kit had suggested they make alcoholic ice-cream floats, by mixing dollops of rich vanilla ice with spiced rum and cola.

  Despite the teeny shop’s rather haphazard business hours, it remained a hive of activity for those possessed of more sobriety than to set foot in the pub before six ‘o clock. The collection of busybodies huddled beneath the green envelope of the glorious weeping willow to the right of the shop door.

  “On your own today?” said one of them when Evie emerged with her tub of Neapolitan.

  “Yes. Ross is at work.”

  This response was met with an approving nod.

  “What about your lodger, he still with you?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Poor you,” remarked the woman.

  “It must be terrible for you,” remarked a second, slight woman with stark white hair. “I shouldn’t like him in my house. One would never know what he might do. I wouldn’t be able to relax.”

  In Evie’s mind, she remained draped across the kitchen table, naked, perfectly at ease, while Ross and Kit gave her a glorious massage.

  The braying of muttered affirmatives to the petite woman’s assertion snapped Evie from the memory.

  “Oh, he’s perfectly house trained. I wouldn’t let him stay if he wasn’t.” Her glib remark earned her an array of scowls.

  “I dare say he’s absolutely charming at first glance.” The first woman took up the gauntlet again. “It’s what comes after that concerns me. Christopher Skye is a bad penny, always was. Done some terrible things, that boy.”

  Evie tried hard not to smirk as another memory of Kit standing over her naked, stuffing a tea towel into her mouth so she couldn’t squeal while Ross smacked her bare arse reared in her head. Damned bastard, Kit, had then turned his back on her and started playing with his cock, deliberately provoking her with the fact that she couldn’t see what he was up too.

  Yes, living with Kit, was deeply frustrating, but, also deeply wonderful, if somewhat exhausting. She could see why he was keen to have two lovers. He’d exhaust just one. She considered her libido fairly high, but Kit’s never seemed to wane, although mostly he enjoyed teasing.

  “I expect you’ll be glad to see the back of him. It’s terrible the burden he’s putting on a canny couple like you and Ross.”

  “Oh, I don’t know. We quite like having him around.”

  The statement met with a line of raised eyebrows.

  “Don’t be silly, dear. He’s no right to go intruding on your relationship.”

  Evie glanced warily about, heat rushing to her cheeks. Did the whole village know that he’d become far more than her lodger? Had Lillianna’s words of a week ago actually made the circuit round the neighbourhood?

  “Still playing his old tricks?” The question sprang from a male throat. It possessed none of the twittering, fake concern of the women in their quest for gossip; rather it roiled with savage dislike.

  Evie spun to face the newcomer, whom she vaguely recognized as someone Ross exchanged curiously polite nods with whenever they crossed paths. Tony, she believed him to be. She watched him tap a ciggy from a new packet. He didn’t light it up, merely propped it behind his ear so that it lay parallel to the greying patch in his otherwise mousy-coloured hair.

  “I’ve heard he’s a good fuck.” He looked pointedly at her, holding her gaze while he emphasized each syllable. “He’s certainly good at fucking things up. Don’t expect anything good to come of what he’s up to. It never did in the past.” Having etched that statement deep into her psyche, he turned and strolled off towards the A road.

  Bewildered, Evie stared after him, clutching her rapidly defrosting ice cream. “What the hell was that about?”

  When she turned back to the women for an answer, she found they’d all fled.

  The strange encounter wouldn’t leave her. Evie found herself thinking about it in odd moments, wondering what the hell Tony had meant with his words. It hadn’t so much sounded like a warning as a bitter observation. It set her wondering about the way he and Ross nodded to one another, like rival cowboys in some old Western showing grudging respect in order to maintain the status quo. Ross’s response to her text message didn’t entirely quell her anxiety.

  He’s the ex of one of Kit’s exes.

  She guessed Kit had stolen his girlfriend in the dim and distant past, but that didn’t really explain the reputation Kit had with the old biddies brigade. In the end, she called in to see Kit on her way to work.

  Metal scaffolding enfolded the front and side of Rose Cottage, and a team of builders sat perched along the apex of the roof. They wolf whistled as she strolled up the drive, and pointed her around the back when her knock at the door went unanswered. Kit was in the garden, rinsing his hands under the outdoor standpipe.

  Evie leaned against the wall of the old potting shed, watching silvery droplets sluice along his arms and into the cuffs of his three-quarter length sleeves. He still hadn’t learned how to dress down for work. Currently he wore leather trousers topped with a T-shirt that probably cost as much as a meal for four in London. Ross had tried to lend him a pair of old combats and a pullover, but Kit had left them on the bed mumbling something about the smell making him too horny to work.

  “See something you like?” Kit glanced over his shoulder at her and gave her a wide grin that showed off his crooked canines. He tugged his T-shirt over his head, so that he could soap the rest of his arms and torso without getting the cloth wet. The cold water, coupled with the nip of the breeze made his delicate nipples crinkle into two coppery points. Evie moistened her lips, thinking of biting them.

  “Why are you washing outside?”

  “Water’s off inside, while I figure out the pipes for the utility room. That and I’m keeping the spies busy.”

  “Spies?” Evie glanced up at the builders on the roof, who were now back at work stripping off the old tiles.

  “Not them.”

  Her gaze encompassed the garden, instead, but beside a couple of starlings pecking at the lawn, there was no other living thing in sight. “What are you on about—spies?”

  “Spies…fan club… call ’em what you like. They’ve taken to sitting in the orchard to eat their lunch.”

  “Who has?” Now that he mentioned it, she could see an unnatural flash of blue amongst the tree branches and a pink that wasn’t a blossom, but they had to have binoculars to be copping a gaze at Kit from that distance.

  “It’s Doris’s granddaughter and her mates that work over at the riding school.”

  Negligent of the spluttering water, Evie shoved Kit towards the house. “Jesus, Kit! What have you been doing? They’re barely legal.”

  “They’re all perfectly legal. It’s Laura’s twenty-first in a fortnight. Doris told me. And when they’re not here checking me out, they spend most of their time propping up the bar in the pub.”

  “Yeah, but still.”

  “I haven’t done anything. Not unless washing’s suddenly a crime.” The gleam in his eyes told her explicitly otherwise. Not that she’d go so far as to accuse him of lying, he was merely playing loose wit
h the details.

  “Kit…”

  “I get a bit lonely up here when you and Ross are at work, especially when I get thinking about all the fun things we’ve been getting up to…” His words tailed off. Evie stared at him, her mouth agape and her breath caught in her throat. He hadn’t…the bastard…He had. “You’ve been…for them! So, they’ve seen.” She had a burning urge to smack him across the face.

  “Seen what, Evie?” he teased. Kit reached for a towel drying upon the Aga, but Evie snatched it from his hands and lashed him across the ribs leaving a broad red mark.

  “Hey! Ow! What’s that for?” He wrestled her for the towel, and finally pinned her against the wall, so that she lay trapped between the unmovable stone and the wiry unyielding heat of his semi-naked body.

  “Bastard,” she hissed into his mouth as his lips descended. Kit stopped short of making contact, so that his breath whispered across her lips, but there was no ravaging kiss in which to disperse her anger. “I can’t believe you’ve done it for them, but not for me.” Although a hint of playfulness rang in her voice, hurt stabbed at her chest. It seemed so unfair that he would perform for strangers but not for a lover.

  Kit sandwiched their palms together either side of her head. “Done what, hmm?”

  As if he needed her to explain. So, she had a fetish. There was nothing wrong with that.

  Ross had suggested two days ago that she quit pestering Kit over that particular act and that they just get on with having fun, his theory being that fewer expectations would make for a less stressful relationship. In theory, it worked. Only, Kit knew what she wanted and that she was constantly biting her tongue. He teased her mercilessly, refusing to let her see so much as him touching himself, although he’d happily spend hours toying with Ross’s cock without the slightest hesitation. He’d even sat with her and watched Ross masturbate.

  “Are we by any chance talking about the M word?”

  Evie shook her head, still vexed by his teasing. “Actually, I came to ask you about Tony.”

  Kit released his grip and dropped his hands to his sides. “What about him?” He rubbed at the scabby line still above his right brow.

  “I bumped into him outside the post office. He wasn’t all that friendly.”

  “Did he threaten you?”

  She shook her head, eyes narrowing with suspicion and alarm at the tone of his voice. “Ross told me that you and Tony have an ex in common.”

  Kit rested his bum against the lip of the Belfast Sink. “Not exactly. It was more a case of I got there first. It’s hardly my fault that he took so bloody long to ask her out.”

  “Guess he was pretty hung up on her to still be pissed at you after all this time.”

  “Guess so.” Kit turned away and pulled his T-shirt on again. “Come on. I’ll drop you at work before I head out to B&Q.”

  The feeling of unease between them persisted while Kit gathered his things together. “You realize you still owe me a confession in exchange for the story I told you about Ross and I getting it on in the tent,” he said as he locked up.

  Evie sniffed, recognizing the attempt to lighten the mood. “That was hardly about the pair of you getting it on. Hearing about your actual first time might be genuinely worth my attention.”

  He laughed. “Come on, Evie. Spice the journey up for me. Tell me something really dirty and maybe I’ll give you a prize.”

  Huffily, Evie climbed into the car. There’d be a catch. He’d try and fob her off with some other reward besides the one she wanted. “Nothing to say.”

  “Nothing at all? Not even a nice PG-rated fantasy?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Clearly I need to up the incentive.” Kit’s eyes twinkled as he checked the mirrors before reversing into the lane. “How about if you make it good enough, I’ll really tell you about how Ross and I first got it on. But I’m warning you, it’s not entirely pretty.”

  “I can ask Ross; he’ll tell me without the need to barter.”

  “Okay, turn me on with your words and I’ll let you watch.”

  “Watch what, Kit?” She wanted him to say it, so there could be no squirming out of the arrangement later.

  “I’ll shake my thang for your pleasure.”

  She kept her eyebrows raised and her lips pursed. “You’ve got to actually say it.”

  “Okay, okay. I’ll wank for your pleasure.”

  “Great!” She grinned as sudden warmth heated her around the ears. Finally… Now, she just needed a good enough story. Unfortunately, the most adventurous sex she’d had prior to Ross and the move to Kirkley was balanced against the sink in her parent’s bathroom, halfway through the most excruciating meet-the-family dinner the universe had ever witnessed. Was it any wonder that particular relationship had only lasted two weeks?

  “He’s back, he’s back, he’s back…”

  Evie tentatively opened the front door later that day to find Lillianna, her hair newly dyed black and ironed Morticia Adams straight, singing on her doorstep. It was a lovely evening, the sky orange all along the horizon, and the air filled with the crisp, clean scent of the coming spring. Purple-tipped crocuses had reared their heads all along the strip of green that bordered the street. Evie peered quizzically at her friend. “Who’s back…?”

  Lillianna playfully slapped her cheek. “I see you’re in la-la land again. It must the lack of fucking sleep your getting, or is it just the fucking? Your favourite lover boy just drove into the village. I saw him pull up at his place not more than ten minutes ago.”

  “I don’t have a favourite… and he’s only been to B&Q.” Evie stared nonplussed into the twilight. “It’s not like he’s been away for a week. I saw him at lunchtime.”

  “Yeah—curious that you don’t have a favourite but you know who I’m talking about.”

  “Drop it, Lilli. Are you coming in?”

  “Nah, you’re coming out.”

  Evie shook her head. She still needed to work on the dramatization of her sex life for Kit’s benefit. Despite fitting in numerous rehearsals at work, going over events in her head and trying to make them sound interesting, the only reaction she was likely to get at the moment was a humungous yawn. “I’m all set for an early night,” she told Lilli.

  Truthfully, she did need one. There were muscles in her stomach and thighs she hadn’t known she had a week earlier.

  “Honestly, you and your dressing gown!” Impatient as ever, Lillianna pushed past Evie into the hallway, her straight hair swinging like a stage curtain over her face. “Grab your coat. Let’s sort you out.”

  Thirty seconds later, Evie found herself crossing the green in her slippers, clutching her coat and bag. “Where are we going?” she asked as she tried to shake off Lillianna’s steel-clawed grip on her wrist.

  “Molly’s. You need sprucing up a bit, and I need an excuse to visit. It’s Wednesday,” she proclaimed as if that fact were highly pertinent. “And I had my nails fixed yesterday ’cause one of them broke, so you’ll have to have yours done.” She waved the evidence of her recent manicure two inches in front of Evie’s face. The nosebleed effect had gone, replaced by a stylized cobweb design in black and silver, presumable intended to go with her return to black hair. “Plus, you’re shagging Kit, so we kind of need to talk.”

  The notion of sharing the details of her sex life brought a sickly green tinge to Evie’s already pale skin. “I don’t do details. I’ve told you that before.”

  “I wasn’t asking for them, although if you do want to share… Anyway, I notice you’re no longer denying the fact that you’re doing the evil with him, which must mean Ross is in on it too.”

  Evie stopped and planted her hand upon her hips, but Lillianna just marched ahead.

  “At Molly’s.” She tapped her nose and gave Evie a wink. “Village green’s never a good place to dish.”

  “I haven’t noticed it growing ears.”

  “It doesn’t need to grow ’em.” Lillianna swirled around, but s
he kept on walking, albeit backwards. “I think it’s about time you learned what certain folks have against him.”

  Okay, this she definitely wanted to hear. At the least, it might shed light on Tony’s weird remarks.

  “Eyebrows and nails, Moll,” Lillianna announced when Molly opened the door of her corner cottage to them and peeped out into the now thickening gloom. “Sorry about the short notice, it’s desperate.” Lillianna guided Evie over the threshold and through to the conservatory, where she pushed her into the big leather chair that dominated the space. Molly followed them through, flicking off the TV with the remote on the way past. She stood in the doorway and eyed them questioningly.

  “Kill the hairy caterpillars.” Lillianna nodded towards Evie’s brows.

  Molly’s narrow, heart-shaped face filled with a sunny smile as she padded across the lime-washed tiles to Evie’s side. Ill at ease with the smiling torturer’s approach, Evie hunched down into the chair. “I happen to like them au natural.”

  Molly gave a shrug and slipped the tweezers she’d picked up into her pocket, the action met with a disapproving sniff from Lillianna, who swirled away in a cloud of patchouli and gardenia with her severely plucked eyebrows arched halfway up her fore-head. “I bet Kit plucks his. He’s not found of unnecessary body hair.”

  Evie folded her arms, remembering all too well the sensations associated with Kit’s denuded body, and how noticeable the stubble around his jaw was first thing.

  “And Ross definitely plucks, else how do you explain his teenage monobrow compared with now?”

  “Never mind the eyebrows, these are atrocious.” Molly’s fingers entwined around Evie’s hand and then stretched out each digit for inspection. Sorrow glowed in her mocha-brown eyes as she tutted over the destruction. “You’ll have to have acrylics, there’s barely any nail left.” She flicked her long blonde fringe out of her heavily made-up eyes and immediately set to work pulling out the requisite bits and pieces. “I never took you for a nibbler. Normally I can spot them.”