he ever let her out of the room. Whether that was while she was in the middle or some other place wasn’t really important.
Chris blocked the exit with his body.
‘Oh, for fuck’s sake, what is your damage?’ Kara blurted, getting in his face, despite being a foot shorter.
‘Were they lovers before you came along?’
What! What the hell did that have to do with anything? ‘Yeah.’
‘I can’t believe you’d do that.’
‘Do what?’
‘Sabotage an existing relationship. What are you doing, trying to make them less gay?’
‘Fuck you. You’re talking out of your arse, Christopher North. You don’t know a damn thing about either of them. That’s some assumption you’re making. For starters neither of them is gay. They both like men and women. Ric’s been married before. Just because you have a narrow view of the world doesn’t mean everyone else has.’
‘I have a narrow view…’ He spluttered inarticulately. ‘Babe, you’re either deluded or just a complete fucking idiot. Straight guys don’t muck around with one another’s dicks.’
‘I never said they were straight.’
‘Kara, trust me, there is no middle ground. It’s one or the other. You’re obviously a crutch with which they’re clinging to normalcy.’
‘Fuck you,’ she spat. She darted underneath his arm and sprinted across the landing. Chris followed, but she slammed the bedroom door in his face and slid the bolt.
He hammered against the wood. ‘You’re making an enormous mistake, Kara. I thought you might have grown some sense since you left dickbrain, but you’re being just as stupid as ever.’
‘Fuck off, Chris.’
‘It’s my house,’ he repeated, but after a moment, he stopped banging and she heard him stomp down the stairs.
Kara turned her back to the door and closed her eyes. Shit! What was his problem? He’d never been like this with her before. Chris normally took people as they came. She was sure he had friends who swung both ways. It wasn’t as if the concept was alien to him. So why was he trying to suggest she was some sort of interloping queen bitch? Christ, the only reason Ric had agreed to deepen things between himself and Zach was because she was around too.
‘Problem?’ Zach asked.
Kara rubbed her eyes with the heel of her hand. Her two lovers were sitting side by side on the bed, extremely naked.
‘He’s come home with a stick up his arse. He’s not normally like this.’
Chris was usually the one member of her family she could rely on not to be an utter prick. He’d been the one to support her and offer her refuge when she’d cancelled her wedding at the last moment, while everyone else was banging on about her having made the biggest mistake of her life.
‘Where’s he been?’ Ric rose from the bed, still eager for action if the wood he was sporting was anything to go by. Curiously, he headed over to the camera to turn it off, rather than towards her.
‘New Zealand.’
‘It’s a long flight. Maybe he’s jet-lagged.’
‘Maybe.’ Jet-lag might explain his behaviour, but it didn’t excuse it.
‘I’m going to head off,’ Ric announced, having removed the SD card from the camera.
‘What, now? I thought we could…’
Since none of them had come, because of the interruption, she’d rather assumed they’d find a way of picking up where they’d left off. Her gaze drifted down Ric’s naked body. Just the sight of him defused some of her anger and made her insides molten. Ric was…
Well, he probably ought to have been in front of the camera rather than behind it. A shiver of anticipation rolled along her spine, making her flex. She reached for him. He wasn’t actually going to leave, not when he was standing at the ready. No way was he even going to fasten his fly over that.
Zach shifted on the bed, making the floorboards moan. He seemed surprised by Ric’s announcement too, if the furrows between his brows were anything to go on. ‘Where are you going?’
‘Home. I’ve stuff to do.’
‘No, you haven’t.’
‘Actually, I have.’
‘We agreed we’d spend the day together.’
Ric shrugged. ‘I’m not exactly in the mood any more.’
The hell he wasn’t.
‘Sure could have fooled me,’ Zach drawled, stalking towards him. ‘The ice might have melted, but there are still plenty other toys around we can play with.’ He reached out to touch Ric’s cock, but Ric turned so that he was facing Kara. For a moment it looked as if he was angling for attention, and manipulating the pair of them into giving it. As in: offer him incentives, and he might be persuaded to stay. The fact that he pushed his hands inside her dressing gown only prodded her further towards that conclusion.
Ric’s fingers slid into the slick wet heat of her sex, causing Kara’s pleasure centres to reawaken.
Oh, yes, please…All she wanted right now was to get back into bed and prove her damn brother wrong.
She lifted her hands to wrap them around Ric’s neck and pull him close for a kiss, but he stepped backwards, leaving her with her hands raised towards his cheeks.
He sucked his wet fingers into his mouth and pulled them out clean. ‘I’ll call tomorrow.’
Kara swallowed, suddenly terrified that he might not. She’d never known him to be a liar, but something about his tone set her on edge. In all probability the fear was unfounded, and she was simply giving credence to Chris’s nonsensical assertions. Things were fine between them all. She didn’t need to go hunting for shadows where none existed.
Ric pulled on his jeans.
‘Go talk to your brother. You’ve obviously plenty of catching up to do.’
Talking to Chris was the last thing she wanted to do. All they were going to do was have a blazing row.
‘Are you coming?’ Ric asked, casting a backwards glance at Zach as he jerked open the bedroom door. ‘’Cause I’m leaving now.’
The problem with the island being only a mile across was that Ric had done two laps of it before his pace slowed enough to allow Zach to catch up and fall in alongside him. God only knows what had got into him. Ric had left Kara’s place as if he had the devil on his tail.
