Despite a fitful night’s sleep filled with visions of Xane and Dani and a whole lot of nakedness, Luthor woke when the sun crept over the horizon. Sure, there were curtains covering the glass-panelled door to the Little House, but they weren’t of the blackout variety. Spook obviously thought they should all be up and doing t’ai chi on the lawn or saluting the sun or something the moment it was daylight. As it was impossible to lie and doze with Rock Giant grunting away beside him in the accompanying twin bed, Luthor pulled on some shorts, grabbed his toothbrush and set off in search of some washing facilities.
Spook was indeed doing some sort of meditative posturing on the lawn, but he waved Luthor toward the forest-style steps to the side of the house, which led him to a log building with a meadow for a roof and a spectacular view out across the lake. However, it was the interior of the cabin that completely blew him away. It contained a proper Swedish sauna, and the biggest walk-in multi-jet shower he’d ever seen. You could fit an adult elephant in there with room to spare. Or an entire rock band. He’d been expecting a vaguely damp-smelling, functional but not terribly pleasant campsite-style washing block. He whispered a prayer of thanks to Spook for the joys of chrome and perfect tiling.
This was just what he needed to work some of the kinks out of his joints, and maybe a few of the ones from his brain too.
The rest of the household had risen by the time Luthor had sweated and tried every single water jet Spook’s wet room possessed. He made his way up to the decked area on the sunny side of the house, still towel-drying his hair. If he’d been home with his family, then he’d have detoured back to the Little House for a shirt. His mother insisted on proper attire for mealtimes, no slouching around in pyjamas or flashing too much skin. Somehow he didn’t think this bunch of rockers were going to be such sticklers to a dress code. Case in point, Rock Giant was minus a shirt too. In fact, he looked as if he’d rolled over, fallen out of bed and crawled from there straight to the table. His mostly matted hair was a bird’s nest of long knotty strands and sections glued together with wax and hairspray. Actually, on closer inspection, it looked suspiciously like an attempt at a man-bun.
No matter, the smell of syrupy pancakes was incentive enough for him to brave that hideous possibility.
‘Morning, roomie.’
‘God morgon.’ He worked his way around the table. There were currently three spare chairs. If he planted his butt beside Xane, Dani would probably shoot him with a death-ray stare, but if he sat next to Rock Giant that meant Ginny and Ash would have to sit apart when they appeared. Never mind death rays, Ginny would probably skewer his guts and eat him if he got in the way of her playing nursemaid to Ash.
In the end, Xane pre-empted his choice, by pushing back the chair next to him with his foot. ‘Been for a swim?’ he asked.
‘A shower.’
‘Uh huh.’
Luthor hung his towel over the back of the chair and sat. The moment he did, Xane squeezed his thigh. The gesture was more reassuring than sexual, but that didn’t stop his nerves from singing hallelujah.
‘Spook, pass this man some coffee.’
Spook raised two pots. ‘Coffee or cloudberry tea?’
‘Definitely coffee.’ His days as a roadie had given him a taste for a nice, over-sweetened, tarry brew first thing.
‘There’s also porridge, fil, crispbread and caviar.’
‘And pancakes,’ Dani added with a grin.
‘And pancakes,’ Spook repeated with an accompanying eye roll. They definitely weren’t part of what was otherwise a very typical Swedish spread.
‘I might take a couple of those, actually.’
She opened the foil-wrapped bundle beside her. Luthor speared a couple and transferred them to the plate that had materialised before him. He liberally topped them with filmjölk and blueberries, rolled them up and tucked in.
Ash joined them a few minutes later. He took a seat while Ginny lingered in the doorway to the lounge with her mobile phone clamped to her ear. She’d been similarly posed every time Luthor had seen her since they arrived. Curiously, her side of the conversation only ever seemed to consist of frustrated ‘uh-huh’ noises.
‘OK?’ Spook asked.
Ash shoved his long fringe away from his face and levelled a stare at him. ‘Why wouldn’t I be?’
‘Christ, I’m only saying good morning! There’s no need to bark at me.’
Ash made a grizzly noise, whereupon Dani pushed a coffee cup in front of him and ladled in two enormous spoonfuls of sugar and a liberal splash of milk. She stirred it for him. ‘Drink up, sourpuss. You look as if you could use the kick to the head.’
Rather than snarling that he could manage for himself, Ash accepted her offering gratefully, even summoning something approximating a smile, and a tiny twinkle in his eyes.
‘Don’t go getting ideas,’ Xane warned him. ‘She’s spoken for.’
Ash cradled the cup in both hands and inhaled the aroma before taking a sip. A glow of warmth seemed to seep into him as the caffeine hit, making him appear less gaunt and the circles beneath his eyes a little less puffy. Mind you, looking around the table, Luthor was startled to note Ash wasn’t the only one looking worse for wear. Weeks on the road and the trauma Iain Willows had put them through had marked them all. Xane’s blond roots were starting to show. Ash’s brown ones had grown through at least an inch and he had enough scruff around his jaw for it to qualify as a beard. Rock Giant was also sporting more than a little facial hair as well as the bird’s nest on his head. Only Spook seemed unchanged, but he’d always had that haunted look about him.
Ginny finally finished her call and joined them at the table. ‘Have you taken your pills?’ she asked Ash.
‘They do crap,’ he grunted.
‘Take them anyway.’ She plucked the blister strip from the back pocket of his jeans and popped out two tablets. ‘Here.’ She held them to his mouth, until he dutifully opened it. Then poured him a glass of orange juice.
Ash ignored the fruit juice in favour of another swig of coffee.
‘The doctor said you needed vitamin C.’
‘He said a fuck of a lot of crap.’
‘You know if you actually obeyed instructions—’
‘What are people’s plans for the day?’ Luthor asked, hopefully derailing what was gearing up to be a major domestic argument. If making sweet, sweet music of both varieties was out, then he wasn’t sure what seven adults were supposed to find to do on a couple of acres of land in the middle of a lake, unless they were planning mainland excursions to tourist spots, which seemed unlikely, given they were trying to keep a low profile.
‘Ash has an appointment in Stockholm with a specialist this afternoon,’ Ginny informed him. ‘Spook and I are going with him.’
‘I don’t need babysitting.’
‘I thought I was the chauffeur,’ Spook remarked.
‘You’re not taking the boat all the way, are you?’ Dani asked.
Spook pushed his chair away from the table, stood and began gathering dirty dishes. ‘Only as far as Mariefred. We’ll meet the security contingent there and drive the rest of the way.’
‘I’ll come.’ Rock Giant announced, to surprised looks that quickly became a chorus of ‘no’s.
‘There won’t be room in the car,’ Spook elaborated, patting the big guy’s shoulder. ‘And we can’t have you wandering around Stockholm unaccompanied anyway, so you’d be supremely bored. Seriously, this is a one-stop tour. We’ll be gone four hours max, and most of that will be spent on the road.’
‘I could drive instead of you.’ A huge grin stretched his mouth wide.
Ginny flicked a blob of filmjölk at him. ‘I am never, ever getting into a vehicle that you’re driving ever again.’
Ash looked as if he was about to say something, then apparently thought better of it. ‘Stop flinging food, Ginny. This is a civilised household.’
‘Sorry, Spook,’ she apologised, then got up and cleaned the blob of curdled milk from the arm of Rock Giant’s chair. ‘Do you want some help getting this lot loaded into the dishwasher?’
‘I’m fine. Finish eating. We’ll leave in ten minutes.’
‘What now?’ Luthor asked some twenty minutes later, after they’d waved goodbye to the outbound party. Arm wrapped around Dani’s back, Xane turned back towards the house. ‘Four hours is a long time to kill without a plan in place.’
‘We could take a walk in the woods,’ Rock Giant suggested. He’d combed out his hair, and it was now slicked back off his face like he was a 1950s rocker. Actually, he kind of looked like the Joker, with his green and purple streaks.
‘That’ll take all of ten minutes.’
‘Not if we go foraging.’
‘For what?’ Luthor asked, intrigued.
‘Mushrooms, berries. There’s nothing like a bit of natural produce to pick you up.’
‘Isn’t that dangerous?’ Trust Dani to be thinking of practicalities.
‘Don’t worry. King Fungus here knows his Amanita from his chanterelles,’ Xane reassured them.
Dani laughed. ‘I have no idea what you just said.’
‘Someone knows more than he likes to let on.’ Rock Giant joined her in laughing.
‘All right,’ Xane agreed. ‘Let’s walk, at least until one of us thinks of something better to do.’
Luthor could think of several things already, but they only involved three out of the four of them, and, even if Rock Giant did magically disappear, he still wouldn’t have a hope in hell’s chance of persuading Dani that the best use of four hours was to spend it rolling around naked on the lawn.
Exploring the woods turned out to be something of a non-event; they simply weren’t big enough, and the trees were mostly evergreens. They didn’t find any mushrooms, not a single Kantarell, or Hedgehog, not even any Boletus pinophilus, which Rock Giant swore were common in pinewoods. At the north end of the island, the ground sheered away into the sea, while to the east and west the trees ran more or less up to the shore. ‘We could tiptoe around the edge and see who makes it the furthest without falling in,’ Rock Giant suggested to a distinctly lacklustre response. ‘Hide and seek?’
‘What are we, twelve?’ Xane remarked.
‘Majorly fucking bored.’ Rock Giant complained. ‘I should have hitched as far as Mariefred and trekked around the railway museum or the castle.’ The dome-like turrets of Gripsholm Castle were visible in the distance. ‘There’s two security bods. Only one of them will have gone with Ash and Spook. The other is still here patrolling the waters and making sure naked groupies don’t swim over and offer to relieve our boredom.’
‘And there you give away your true intention, to find some poor unfortunate to hump. We’ve not even been here twenty-four hours and you’re already convinced your dick’s going to drop off through lack of action.’
‘Says the man who’s been getting laid on an almost hourly basis for the last six months, and has two people ready to tango with him right now.’
Dani blushed. Luthor refused to look sheepish. Yeah, he desired Xane. He was past hiding that fact.
‘Why don’t you use your time to find out where the fuck Elspeth is?’
‘’Cause maybe I think she’s better off away from you.’
‘What the hell’s that supposed to mean?’
Oh, dear, this sounded suspiciously like it was going to turn into a fight.
‘That she’s fucked up enough because of you, without having to spend time imprisoned with you and your fan club on a fucking island,’ Rock Giant spat.
‘I’ve fucked her up. What about what she did to me? Do you ever actually think about that?’ Xane took a step forward, fist raised, but Dani put herself in his path. When Rock Giant lurched forward, she planted her palm squarely in the centre of his chest.
‘Back off. You know what I’m sick of, Elspeth being the centre of attention even when she’s not fucking here. Yes, Xane, I swore without turning scarlet. Now will the pair of you stop winding one another up for no bloody good reason?’ She turned her head to face Rock Giant. ‘I get it, you’re bored, but I’m sure you can think of something better to waste your time on than picking an unnecessary fight. I know you don’t actually hate one another, I’ve seen the proof.’
So had Luthor. Rock Giant had been all action when Xane’s life had been in danger.
‘Fine. I’m going to go answer my fanmail. May as well give my ego a wank, since my cock isn’t going to be seeing any action.’
‘That’s what fists are for,’ Xane muttered under his breath, but nobody took any notice. Rock Giant did as he’d suggested and trekked back toward the house with his rolling, long-legged stride.
And then there were three …
Luthor took a perch on a fallen log and entertained himself removing grass seeds from the inflorescences and blowing them away. Yesterday, before Sally had hijacked him and escorted him to the docks, he’d been high on the prospect of seeing Xane and Dani again. He’d stupidly been thinking of them as his two lovers, and had let his imagination run wild about how they would all be with one another. Reality was a very, very different place. While Xane was more or less ready to pick up where they’d all left off, Dani had taken five steps back and buried her head in the sand. She still wouldn’t look at him. It made him want to strip off and wave his tackle in her face, just to provoke some sort of reaction. What had happened to them being friends, and the spark of attraction – albeit a small one, at least on her part – that had existed between them? He hadn’t imagined that.
Luthor drank his fill of her, while no one was paying him any attention, because none of them knew quite what the hell to say. He wondered what he’d find, if he ever managed to catch a glimpse of what lay beneath her clothing. A whole lot of curves and creamy flesh, he suspected. He found it curious that they’d shared a sexual encounter – Xane might have been the focus, but they’d both been there and both participated – and yet he hadn’t seen her undressed. Moreover, Xane had made no attempt to undress her, and that man liked skin. Luthor had to wonder at that. There had to be a reason.
‘I can entertain myself if you guys have something you want to do.’
He didn’t want to leave, but he might as well accept the fact that he was surplus to requirements. Forget that they both turned him on and that he craved their affection and admiration in return. Nothing good was going to come of him lingering.
Neither of them said a goddamned thing.
Luthor pushed to his feet. OK, he definitely needed to move. Xane shot him a look as he walked past, which said he totally wanted to say, ‘Stay and let’s work this out,’ but Dani’s lack of response was holding him back. He got the fact the man was in love, but it was making him as indecisive as Dani. When he was on stage, he was all action and in control, but now Dani had him by his knackers and the result was less pleasing by the second. ‘OK, I’m going. Gone …’
He didn’t even attempt to stay on the path but instead wandered between the trees and the clumps of undergrowth. This was all so fucking stupid. What’s more, if the situation didn’t change within the next day or so, his stint with Black Halo was going to come to a very swift end. It’d be too awkward sticking around if they couldn’t reach an accord. Not to mention the fact that the group dynamics were strained enough without him creating an additional burden.
‘You’re going to fucking break my heart, if it comes to that Daniella Fosbrook.’ He knew she could see what she was doing. She wasn’t dumb, or that emotionally naïve. She had to be aware how much this was hurting him, and how much it was screwing with Xane. But he guessed all she was actually thinking about was herself.
Luthor didn’t walk far before he came to a stop and leaned against a tree. Hey, he’d found mushrooms, though not of the edible variety. A big clump of Flugsvampar, or Fly Agaric as his new British band-mates would call them. No way was he pointing those out. From what he knew of Rock Giant’s background, he was just the sort of nutty fool who would actually soak them in mead in the traditional Viking way and give them all the trip/hangover/headache from hell. Assuming he didn’t just kill them all outright. That said, a nice dose of trippy mushrooms might loosen Dani up and allow her to get over herself. For Christ’s sake, he was sure no other woman on the planet would be erecting barriers like this at the thought of taking two rock stars to bed. All right, one rock god and a rock newbie, but still … He was hot. He had skills, the face that stared back at him from the mirror was a relatively pretty one, and he was totally willing to treat her like a goddamned queen. She just needed to say yes for once, instead of dithering.
Dani had always been indecisive and uptight, but the way she was currently pogoing back and forth between ‘Yes, it’s OK for you and Xane to get it on if I’m watching’ and ‘Don’t even think about touching him, in fact don’t go near him or even look at him sideways’ was making far too many knots in his brain. All he wanted was for the three of them to be happy. He was certain they could be, if she’d just give it a chance.
He laughed as he shook his head, only for his chuckle to turn into a frustrated groan. He’d been in this exact same position, thinking exactly the same thoughts, three weeks ago. The only difference between then and now was a single morning spent in Xane’s arms.
Luthor was so tied up in his thoughts, he didn’t realise Dani and Xane had plodded into sight through the trees, until the crack of a snapping branch and a cry of ‘Ow!’ alerted him to their presence.
He turned his head in time to see Xane fall onto one knee beside Dani, who was lying prone.
‘Shit! Bugger. Bugger. Bugger.’ The expletives were Xane. ‘Are you hurt? Where are you hurt?’
‘I’m all right. Ow.’ She sat, rubbing at her backside. ‘I caught my foot on something. It twisted my ankle.’
‘OK, right then. Sit still. Um, I’ll pick you up, carry you back.’
‘So that you can misstep, topple over and get injured too? Don’t be silly. I’m fine.’
She tried to put weight on the foot and must have grimaced, because Xane was suddenly flapping his hands in alarm and scrunching handfuls of his long hair.
‘Ice,’ he said. ‘I’ll nip back to the house and get some if you won’t let me carry you.’
‘Just give me a minute.’
‘No. You stay there. Hold tight, I’ll be right back.’
Luthor watched him leave. He didn’t want to seem grateful for Dani’s injury, but he couldn’t deny this was a great opportunity to corner her. She was sitting with her legs stretched out before her when he arrived, looking irritable and poking at the ground beside her with a stick. She scrubbed out what she’d been doodling as he approached, but not so well that he couldn’t still make out the rough heart-shape and decipher the names she’d written inside.
‘Anything I can do to help?’
‘Luthor … No, I tripped. It’ll be fine in a minute. Xane’s gone back to the house to fetch some ice. I probably don’t need it.’
‘Yeah, I remember what you’re like about injuries – big on the denial part.’ The time some overzealous fangirls had split her lip for her, Dani had insisted that she didn’t need a first aider, which had left him the task of trying to tidy her up.
‘I’m not like anything. Maybe … do you think you could help me up?’
‘I think I should take an actual look at your ankle before you attempt to walk on it.’
His suggestion was met with a snort. She folded her arms across her chest.
‘Yeah, whatever, grumpus.’ He untied her shoelace and drew off her sock. Her ankle looked fine. There was no sign of any bruising or swelling, but he did find a section of prickly pine needles wedged inside her sock. ‘Is this the source of all your agony?’
She stared at him. Not at the bit of tree he was twirling between his fingertips, but right at him, because obviously the pine needles were a mere pinprick compared to the agony he was causing her.
‘Just say it,’ he prompted her. ‘Get it all out. It’s not as if I can’t figure out what’s going through your head. You’d like me to sod off and emigrate to Australia or something, or go and find someone else to hit on, anything that doesn’t involve you or Xane.’
She pursed her lips.
‘What happened to our agreement, eh? Actually, never mind that, what happened to us being friends, people who care about each other, who talk and listen to each other? I’ve been hanging with my old band-mates for the last few weeks. I thought you might like to hear about it. It was weird being in a proper recording studio and working with a whole set of pros for the first time. Fucking awesome too, but a steep learning curve. Hopefully, though, it means I won’t look like a complete klutz next to the rock legends I’m going to be recording with next. Oh, and Lykke says “Hello” by the way.’
She sucked her bottom lip hard enough to leach the colour from it, but otherwise didn’t respond. It made him want to shake her so hard she rattled.
‘Dani,’ he snapped instead. ‘For fuck’s sake, just talk to me. Can’t we sort this out? I mean, I thought it was sorted, so what changed?’ He stared at her, pleading with his eyes. ‘Really, what did I do? Why was it OK three weeks ago, but now it isn’t?’
She hunched herself up and wrapped her arms around her knees. Deep frown lines wrinkled her brow. He hated pressing her. Hated that he was causing her distress, but he didn’t understand. He just wanted answers.
She sniffed hard.
‘Please. Say something. Just tell me where I stand. I’m so sick of being in limbo.’
‘I don’t know if I can do this.’ Her voice was muffled as she was speaking into her knees. ‘I thought I could, but now I’m not sure. Halmstad wasn’t a magical solution. It was just one blip in time.’ She looked up at him, and her pretty eyes were rimmed with tears. ‘Xane’s the only good thing that’s ever happened to me. Can you blame me for wanting to keep him to myself?’
He shook his head.
‘I don’t want to share. I don’t really see why I should have to. But then I see the way he looks at you, and I know that no matter how much I want to keep him to myself, that’s never going to be the reality, and that’s before we get on to the hundred million fans he has in the world.’ She sniffed again and wiped at her eyes. ‘It nearly killed me when I found out that he was attracted to men. I couldn’t believe that, out of all the possible people in the world I could have fallen for, it had to be someone who was bisexual.’
He didn’t quite get why that was an issue.
‘My dad walked out on my mum and me when I was eleven, if you didn’t know,’ she explained. ‘He ran off with our neighbour’s son. So you see, it’s hard for me not to believe Xane’s going to run off with you.’
All right, that at least made sense. ‘Has Xane been any different with you since I’ve been around? Any less loving? Any less eager to get you into bed?’
She shook her head.
‘You have nothing to fear from me, Dani. Not a thing.’
A pale glitter of hope shone in her eyes at this, but her mouth retained a downward cast. ‘I’d like to believe that was true. I can’t convince myself of it yet.’
‘How can I help?’
Her brows furrowed. ‘I’m not sure. I’d quite like to stick my head in the sand and only raise it again when this has all blown over, except I know it won’t. You’re not going to up and leave, but the alternative, saying it’s OK, and letting him be with you too, that feels like I’d be deliberately walking in front of a firing squad.’
‘Oh, Dani.’ He put his arm around her shoulder, and leaned their heads together. For a moment she stiffened and he expected a rebuff, but astonishingly and pleasingly it did come.
‘I love him, Luthor. I love him so damned much it’s probably not good for me.’
‘I love him too, and I’m not going to apologise for that. Leastways, I want to be allowed to love him. He’s not really willing to let me in while he thinks it’s going to hurt you. So I’m trapped, and it sucks. I know it’s a situation of my own making, but it still sucks.’
She astonished him by closing her hand over the top of his, so that their fingers were entwined. It was the sort of gesture he might anticipate from a friend, but they weren’t really that any more. ‘You could choose to walk away, as you would presumably if you’d discovered he was married.’
‘To do that now, I’d have to walk away from Black Halo too. That’d be giving up my two biggest dreams in one go, not to mention a sizeable income and a shot at real fame.’ He hoped she understood why he didn’t want to do that.
He guessed she did, and didn’t have an answer to the conundrum, because they fell into another silence.
‘Will you tell me honestly what happened last night?’ she asked after a short while. ‘I know that something did, because he was so turned on, and it wasn’t due to anything I did.’
‘Dani.’ Luthor gently reached out and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. They were so close now he could smell the vanilla scent of her skin, and feel her warmth. ‘I hadn’t seen him in three weeks, and I just wanted some reassurance that everything was still good between us. We kissed, nothing more. I promise you.’
‘You got him that worked up with a kiss?’ Her tone of voice scaled an octave.
‘It might sound unlikely, but it’s the truth. He pushed me away.’
He covered his eyes with his hand a moment. Then he drew his fingertip and thumb together so that they met on the bridge of his nose. ‘I wanted him to call you, and get you to join us.’
Since they were properly talking, he wanted to get as much straightened out and into the open as possible.
‘So I could watch?’
‘So you could join us. I don’t only want him, Dani. I want a relationship with you too, and you know that.’
She shook her head in a way that seemed to make her whole body quake. ‘That’s not what you want. You want him.’
‘I haven’t only wanted Xane since Paris.’ Hell, he’d concocted plenty of fantasies about the three of them getting it on together to know exactly how fascinated he was with not just getting into her pants but sharing his time with her. ‘Dani, I want the three of us to be lovers. I know you think I’m just saying that, but I assure you I’m not. You turn me on just as much as Xane does.’
‘No, I don’t,’ she snorted incredulously. ‘That’s an enormous whopper. He’s Mister Alpha, sex on a stick, and I’m a ladybird.’
‘A very attractive one.’
She shook her head.
‘Why’s it so hard for you to believe?’
‘You fancy me.’ She gave a mocking laugh.
‘Yes, actually. Mister sex-on-a-stick Geist fancies you, so why the hell is it such a weird idea that I or any other man might be attracted to you too?’
Doubt flashed through her eyes. OK, he’d got her stumped with that one. She ran her tongue along the edge of her teeth. Then pulled her hand free of his.
‘Shit!’ he muttered. ‘Don’t run away, please.’
‘Luthor, I don’t want you to want me. You just confuse me.’
‘You do realise that’s not how desire works.’
‘Please don’t use me as a means of getting to Xane.’
That made no sense whatsoever. She was like a porcupine to Xane’s koala. If he was going to make a bid for one of them by coming on to the other, it wouldn’t be this way around.
‘Why is me wanting you so objectionable?’
‘Because I don’t fancy you.’
He’d have been hurt by that statement if he actually believed it. But he’d seen how she looked at him. He knew there was more than friendship between them, even if that friendship was strained to the limits at the present.
‘Is that so? There’s not even a smidgen of attraction buried in a corner somewhere that might turn into something if you gave it some attention?’
‘I’m in love with Xane.’
‘What has that got to do with anything?’
Her agitation prompted her to push up onto her feet. Apparently whatever damage she’d done to her ankle was now fixed, because she paced a few steps away from him, only to turn around and come back. She looked down at him, for he’d remained sitting.
‘Everything. I can’t love two men.’
‘Why not?’ He was being naughty, challenging all her beliefs like this, but frankly she had some weird ideas that needed challenging. ‘Why do you think you can only give your love to one person? Do you have a limited amount?’
He could see the cogs inside her head turning, trying to figure out if she believed that.
‘What happens in big families, if that’s the case? Do parents have to ration out packets of love to each child? Of course they don’t.’
‘I can’t be attracted to more than one man,’ she repeated, but he could see he had her worried. The statement was meant to solidify her stance, but actually it sounded more like a plea for him to please understand and back off, and not make her think about this.
Luthor rose to his feet. ‘Kiss me,’ he said.
‘What? No.’
‘Prove to me that there’s no glimmer of attraction between us, no tiny forgotten seed that might grow into something bigger.’
‘There isn’t.’
He half-turned away from her. ‘You’re such a fucking liar.’
‘Don’t you dare call me that!’
Damn, she was beautiful in her indignation. It made him want to reach out and prove his point, but forcing himself would only give her a reason to be petty.
‘Liar. You’re the biggest fucking liar, Dani Fosbrook. You know why, because you lie to yourself. You claim you feel nothing, but we both know that’s not true. You’ve feasted your eyeballs on me on numerous occasions.’
‘Like when?’
‘Roskilde for starters, in the shower block. Remember that?’
He’d never seen anyone turn pink so fast.
‘I … nothing happened. Xane was there.’
She could bluster all she liked – he knew that she knew he’d caught her out. ‘It wasn’t Xane you were gawping at though, was it?’
‘You were naked. It was a shock, that’s all.’
‘You drank me down like I was double chocolate milkshake.’
Every inch of her exposed skin was red now, not only her cheeks but the semi-circle of flesh above her bust too.
‘Own it, Dani. I don’t have a problem with the fact you were ogling me. I don’t have a problem with the fact you did the same thing when I was naked and making out with Xane either. You saw something you liked, and you appreciated it. I just wish you would stop pretending that’s a reason to push me away. Admit it, you’re as scared of being attracted to me as you are of the possibility of losing Xane to me.’
She took another backwards step, misjudged the lie of the land and would have fallen, had he not reached out and caught her. ‘Dani.’ He held her, savouring all the soft curves pressed against his body, and the way his arousal tickled in his loins, making him hard. ‘Let’s just try this, shall we?’
She raised a finger and covered his lips, attempting to silence him.
Luthor kissed her fingertip, which made her drop her hand back down to her side as quickly as gravity would allow. She was really quite startlingly beautiful when she was this wound up. Her eyes sparkled with passion, and the way she puckered her lips made him want to reach in, grab hold and kiss her hard. He’d bet his whole drumkit that she tasted so goddamned sweet it’d be like sipping nectar. The muscles in his groin twitched in excitement at the thought of not just kissing her lips, but exploring the beautifully curvaceous contours of her body, and maybe – hell, yes, maybe – pinning her against the pine tree at her back and proving to her that Xane wasn’t the only man on the planet, or even this island, who could get her heart racing.
‘I want to kiss you. I really want to kiss you.’
She shook her head in a tight fashion that meant it barely moved, but her whole body shook. They had chemistry. He could feel it. ‘Please, Luthor, don’t. Don’t follow through on that look.’
‘Why not? Are you scared Xane won’t approve? He’s not going to have a problem with this.’
‘He’s watching us. Xane is watching us.’
If Luthor hadn’t been set on this course, then now he was. His lips touched hers. It was a mere graze of a kiss, not the full-on version he wanted to give her. It lasted a mere fraction of a second, which was still long enough to realise he wanted a second helping.
Dani stared at him wide-eyed. ‘Oh, God!’
‘Again?’
That wasn’t even funny. He couldn’t. What was she doing? She stood there like a rabbit in the headlights and let him kiss her again, in a way that made her sigh, and washed arousal right through her preposterously tensed frame.
Luthor’s tongue teased the swell of her lower lip. ‘I want you, Dani. Don’t doubt it.’
Horribly confused, she pushed away from him. ‘You shouldn’t have done that. I’m going back to the house.’
‘Dani, don’t go.’ He gave her a puppy-dog look through his curtain of blond hair.
She had to. She didn’t know how to deal with this.
‘That’s the same damn thing.’
‘It’s not even vaguely the same thing.’
Luthor let her stomp a few metres away before he caught up with her and fell into step beside her.
‘If you were thinking of saying something, just don’t,’ she snapped.
He held his tongue, at least for a few seconds.
‘What are you giving Xane for his birthday? I’m totally stumped.’
Dani stopped in the middle of the path and looped her long hair back behind her ears. It wasn’t that she didn’t welcome the change of topic, but … How come he could so easily wrong-foot her? ‘I’ve a few little things, like a mug, and some jewellery, nothing terribly exciting.’
He bowed his head, which made his long hair tumble over his face, completely obscuring his eyes. She wasn’t sure how he would be able to see the path ahead if they started moving again, so she stayed still.
‘I guess I’ll have to ask Spook for ideas when he gets back, and hope I can get next-day delivery on something.’
‘As long as you don’t think I’m going to help tie a ribbon around your cock.’
A snort of laughter erupted from both his nose and mouth. ‘There’s a nice fantasy. I’m not sure which bit of it would be the best, even – the tying or the untying?’
‘Don’t joke about it.’
‘I’m not, I’m getting horny.’
Dani poked him. ‘That’s not actually funny.’
‘I said I wasn’t joking.’
She wished he wouldn’t look at her like that, as if he could see into her thoughts and make better sense of the jumble they were in than she could herself.
‘What are you so afraid of, Dani? Why won’t you let me take you both to bed?’
‘I’m not that brave,’ she said, and realised it was the most honest thing she’d said all day. ‘What if I actually like it?’
He looked deeply puzzled. ‘I rather hoped you would like it.’
‘I mean, what if I like what you do to me more than what Xane does?’
‘You won’t, but, even if you did, that wouldn’t necessarily mean it was an issue.’
‘I’ll let you touch him,’ she said, making a snap decision. Maybe if she gave him Xane, he’d give her some space. ‘You can make out. You can do it now. We can go and find him, and you can have sex.’
Luthor’s eyes narrowed to slits. ‘Don’t imagine I don’t know what you’re doing. I’m not going to say no, but don’t imagine this is going to change anything. I’ll still want you too, even while I’m fucking your lean, mean, sexy pussycat.’
Dani swallowed the hard lump that had formed in her throat. ‘I’m just going to watch, Luthor. You don’t get to touch me. You have to agree to that, and if I say stop at any point, you have to stop.’
‘Deal.’ He offered her his hand to shake, but she couldn’t bring herself to touch him. If she did, she might end up slipping her arms around his waist, or, God forbid, actually tasting his lips again.
‘I don’t think this is going to be nearly as painful as you anticipate.’
He had to be kidding. It was excruciating already.