Chapter Six

The afternoon was bright with sunlight, and Sidney squinted behind her sunglasses as it glanced off the alabaster hull of Brody’s yacht. While Drew climbed on board and called down into the cabin for Brody, her eyes followed the thin blue line that encircled the hull, coming to rest on its name scrawled in dark lettering near the stern: Sunset.

Sidney had once asked Brody why he’d chosen that particular name. He’d smirked in that caustic way of his and told her it was because the one thing you could count on with him was that he’d eventually sail into it. Some people spent their lives watching for the next sunrise, waiting with hopeful thoughts for the new day. Brody spent his chasing the sunset.

Darkness and shadow, that was Brody.

What was she doing here?

“Hey, Brody says he’s taking her out to Craggy Point. Feel like tagging along?”

Sidney glanced up to see Drew waiting for her answer. Brody was beside him, his head and shoulders protruding out of the lower cabin. He was wearing a black T-shirt and an even blacker expression. “Weather report says there could be a storm later.”

The last thing he wanted was for her to climb aboard his boat. His attempt to dissuade her from coming sparked a contrary sense of rebellion in her. She smiled, holding Brody’s gaze. “Sure. I’d love to come.”

Drew helped her aboard while Brody moved into the cockpit. Soon she was helping Drew release the dock lines and they were motoring out of the marina.

Once they were on the open water, Sidney sat with her bare feet dangling over the side of the boat, resting her arms on the bulkhead while Drew and Brody hoisted sail. The wind whipped through her hair, slapping it against her face as the yacht ripped open the surface of the bay like a knife parting crushed silk. The wake behind the boat violently churned the deep blue to a frenzied white. Inside, Sidney felt like that water. A turbulent mess.

The last two days had been intense. Ever since the night of their conversation and subsequent frenzied lovemaking at the lookout, Drew had barely let her out of his sight. He made love to her twice more that night, and once again, slumberous, in the morning. And last night the restaurant had been slow, and he’d closed early to take her home and draw her a bath. He’d stayed in the bathroom with her, watching while she undressed and sank beneath the bubbles, following her movements with his eyes as she soaped herself. It had been as unnerving as it had been erotic. Afterward, their lovemaking had been profoundly passionate, fraught with an underlying tension Sidney didn’t understand.

She guessed it had something to do with today. With what she’d told Drew she wanted. Now, she wasn’t so sure this wasn’t a giant mistake.

They sailed until they veered into a small inlet. A white fingernail of beach skirted the bottom of the granite cliff face known as Craggy Point. The water was calmer here, graduating into progressively paler shades of blue as it flowed gently onto the narrow shore. Beyond the bluff, a patch of dark cloud hovered, but here the air and water were peaceful. Birds circled in the sky until they dropped like bullets into the water and came up with flapping silver fish clenched in their beaks.

The metallic crank of the anchor chain being lowered sounded preternaturally loud against the tranquility. Sidney jumped as Drew placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Sorry. Did I scare you?”

Sidney let out a relieved laugh. “No. I was enjoying the quiet. It’s so different out here. Like we’re removed from ordinary life.”

Drew took a seat on the deck, his longer legs dangling over the side and almost to the water’s surface. “Are you sure you’re not a bit jumpy?” At her look he continued, “Brody wasn’t exactly welcoming. Are you having second thoughts?”

She was having twenty second thoughts. There had been so many doubts tumbling through her brain the last two days that she barely remembered having the first thought that had gotten her to this point. “I shouldn’t have come,” she burst out. “Brody doesn’t want me here.”

“He wants you.” Drew’s tone suggested his omission of the word here was deliberate, and Sidney turned away from his watchful gaze.

She wished for a fervent moment that she’d lied that night at the lookout when Drew had asked if she wanted Brody again. But she’d never lied to Drew, and she hadn’t wanted to start, not even to protect him. After a time she said quietly, “I don’t need to do this.”

“I need you to do this.” His tone made her turn her head sharply. But when she encountered his expression, it didn’t reflect the intensity she’d detected in his words. He cocked that devilish brow and gave her his crooked smile. “I told you, I want to watch.”

Sidney shifted her backside on the deck as his words elicited a physical response. Her heart raced at the thought of Drew looking on while Brody did whatever he wanted to do to her. Dear God, what have I gotten myself into?

“It’s all right, Sid.” Drew’s hand came to rest on her thigh, just below the cuff of her white shorts. He started up a gentle massage that had the heat at her core soaring. “I’d never let anything bad happen to you. I only want what’s best for you.”

Sidney sighed. “I know that.”

“Good.” He removed his hand from her thigh far too soon and shot her a smile. “I’ll go talk to Brody. Why don’t you wait a few minutes and then come down below?”

Sidney nodded mutely as Drew got to his feet. She watched as he turned and made his way below deck, her heart filled with both appreciation and apprehension.

She knew she could trust Drew.

Brody was the unknown quantity.

 

Brody was checking the functionality of his echo sounder when Drew’s feet thudded down the stairs. He glanced up before turning his attention back to the colorful patterns on the screen before him.

His focus didn’t stay there long.

“Why do you always have to be such a bastard to Sidney?”

“I wasn’t aware I was doing that.”

“Bullshit.” Drew came and stood before him, casting a shadow over the navigation equipment. “You’re intentionally making things difficult for her.”

Brody sat back and looked up at the man he’d known since childhood, careful to keep his expression as bland as Drew’s was fiery. “What, precisely, am I making difficult?”

“You know why we’re here,” Drew said quietly. “Why she wanted to come here.”

Brody was not a blusher, but he could swear he felt his face flame beneath Drew’s knowing stare. “She likes the salt air?”

“What she likes is you. What she wants is you.”

Now he knew his face had to be red. Brody managed a dismissive scoff before turning back to the screen. “Get your hand off it, Buchanan. She’s always wanted you. You’re the man of every girl’s dreams.”

Brody felt himself spun around as, with abrupt force, Drew kicked the swivel chair he sat on and forced their gazes to lock. “Don’t give me that poor-abused-Brody crap today. If you wanted a woman you could have one. It’s your decision to treat every one of them like flotsam you can chuck aside whenever you want to lighten your load. Well, you won’t do that to Sid. You do that to her, I swear to God, I’ll kill you.”

The silence charged like electricity between them as they glowered at each other. Brody had never backed down from a fight in his life, but he struggled to be the one to maintain eye contact as some of Drew’s words pricked at him.

He did use women and toss them aside when he was done. He was, as he’d always known, a complete prick. Drew was right in intimating as much. But his friend had it wrong if he thought he could throw Sidney away even if he wanted to. She wasn’t his to jettison.

“I’ll pull up anchor,” he said at last. “I’ll take you both back—”

“No. Sid thinks the two of you have unfinished business from the other night. She wants to finish it.”

“There’s no unfinished business.”

“Apparently something you said gave her a different impression.”

Brody thought back to all he’d told Sidney as he’d tried to leave. About how he wanted to fuck her—how many times, how many ways. His cock unfurled at the notion that Sidney had heard all that and not been repulsed. The thought that she actually wanted any of it was exhilarating.

But she was Drew’s girl. A conditioned sexual response didn’t change that. “You can’t seriously want me to have sex with your girlfriend again.”

“Consider it repayment of a debt.” This time it was Drew’s turn to look uncomfortable. He’d always felt he owed Brody for pulling him out of that storm water drain all those years ago.

But to Brody’s mind the love and warmth the Buchanans had since shown him had cancelled out that deed long ago. “You don’t owe me anything.”

“I’ve always owed you my life. Sid is my life. After this, we’ll be even.”

Christ, this couldn’t be happening. He wouldn’t betray Drew for all the sunsets in the world. But he thought of Sidney sitting up on that deck, looking luminous in her white clothes, turning her head to the sun and just being his shortcake, and his heart throbbed. His blood pumped so hard in his veins there was no way he was going to be able to get rid of the painful erection that strained against his shorts.

No way except one.

He smelled her before he heard her approach. She was so petite that her footfalls on the stairs were almost silent, but the scent of her signature perfume, that trace smell of jasmine that always came with her, reached out and curled around him.

Brody looked up and saw her. Her eyes remained on his when she asked, “Am I interrupting?”

Brody’s mouth went dry. He needed a drink, preferably something alcoholic. But he had to deal with this situation, one way or another. Drew had forced his hand with his challenge; Sidney forced it just by being near him. He returned her stare. “Drew tells me you think we have unfinished business.”

“Oh.”

She bit her lip, not asking what he meant. He went on. “We can’t have that. What do I have to do to make you feel better?”

She flushed violently, and Brody felt simultaneously triumphant and guilty. None of his emotional turmoil came through in his voice, and he was thankful for that. Perhaps he could make something out of this situation after all. Sidney might think she wanted him, but she belonged with Drew, and perhaps he could do something to push her back in that direction. She wouldn’t like who he really was, the aggression at the heart of him.

“I-I don’t know. I just thought…”

“Why don’t I save you the embarrassment of answering, shortcake.” He swung his chair around so he faced her and put one foot on the opposite knee as he made himself comfortable. “I’d like you to start by taking off your clothes.”

 

Oh God, oh God, oh God.

Sidney glanced from Brody’s hard face to Drew’s, but her so-called boyfriend was looking at her with as much bland disinterest as Brody. He leaned back on the wall and crossed his arms, indicating with his silence that she should comply with whatever Brody suggested.

Dear Lord, this was what she’d wanted. But last time there’d been wooing involved, a thorough and mesmerizing seduction. Wine, for God’s sake. Now Brody wanted her to stand in the middle of what were essentially his living quarters, and strip.

“Start anywhere you like,” Brody suggested helpfully. He gave his watch a pointed glance. “But I haven’t got all day.”

His show of indifference angered Sidney. Was he putting on an act or could he really care less whether they did this or not? The need to know combined with sexual anticipation compelled her to act. She lifted her hands to the buttons of her shirt and began releasing them.

Even taking off the outer layer of chambray made her feel exposed, although she was fully dressed underneath it. Well, almost fully. She remembered her yen to go without underwear today and felt a tinge of embarrassment. They would both know when she shucked the rest of her clothes.

One look at Brody’s disdainfully arched brow had Sidney fumbling for the hem of her top. Damn him, if he thought his attitude was going to put her off at this late stage of the game, he had another think coming.

She grabbed the singlet and pulled it over her head, shaking out her hair in a way she knew would make her breasts waggle. She looked over to see Brody’s gaze had dropped to that spot and felt a sense of accomplishment. He did still want her like he’d said the other night.

She went for the fly of her shorts and snapped open the button, drew down the zip and let the garment fall to the floor. She kicked them aside and stood before the men, completely nude, proud that she managed to do so without betraying the extent of her nervousness.

A thick silence followed, but Sidney schooled herself not to fidget. She clung to the table behind her for balance as the boat swayed gently. Her gaze shot to Drew. His was trained on her body with a look of longing that helped her relax. Like he’d said, nothing bad would happen to her while he was here.

She turned back to find Brody casting his coolly assessing gaze over her nakedness. Sidney’s breasts tingled beneath his perusal, their crests drawing taut. She knew he must be able to see her panting shallow breaths, but she stood determinedly still while he looked his fill.

Her heart jumped when he said, “Touch yourself.”

Sidney stared at him. “Where?”

His sardonic laugh made a mockery of her ignorance. “My poor, sweet shortcake. I meant you should show me how you like to make yourself come. I want to watch you masturbate.”

“Here?”

Brody leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his spread knees. “We’ll move to my cabin in a moment. After you do as I tell you.”

Sidney shot another glance at Drew, and she knew her eyes must be shouting a plea. But his expression held little sympathy and a lot of interest.

She had them both ganging up on her.

God help her.

“Sidney.” Her head whipped back to see Brody staring at her with some of the granite hardness relenting. He commanded in a gravel-edged whisper, “Do it for me.”

His voice scraped over her aroused nerve endings and turned them cooperative. She smoothed one hand over her belly, the action easing the butterflies that were in frenetic flight. She felt in tune now with the gentle rocking of the boat and was confident enough to take her other hand off the table behind her. In both hands she cupped her breasts, relieving a modicum of the ache there by rubbing her palms over them. She gently flicked her thumbs against the engorged peaks until they hardened further beneath the heat of two watchful gazes.

Her pussy clenched in reaction. Sidney walked her fingers over her stomach until they reached the short fuzzy hair that had grown back since last week. She thread them through it, teasing herself as she continued to stroke her breast with her other hand.

Unable to delay for long, Sidney moved her middle finger into the fold shrouding her clit. She burrowed through the plump, damp flesh until she found her swollen nub and ran her finger over it. She let out a sigh of pleasure and closed her eyes, dropping her head back. The rock and roll of the boat beneath her feet seemed to encourage her movements as she fingered herself with a feather-light touch, increasing the pressure in slow increments just as she liked. It wouldn’t take long and she would explode.

The thought that both Brody and Drew were watching spurred her on. Her actions became a little more frantic, more insistent. She felt the first rush of approaching climax fill her and she moaned in welcome.

“Stop now.”

Brody’s words barely registered. She was almost there. Just a few more strokes…a little harder and she’d be in bliss…

Suddenly her wrist was seized in a clamplike grip. Her eyes flew open to see Brody standing before her, his face only inches from hers. His dark eyes shone in the gloom cast by his hulking shadow. “When I tell you to stop, you stop right away. When I give an order, you follow it. Understand?”

She ought to be angry. Her aborted orgasm certainly frayed her patience. But the forceful look in Brody’s eyes, his unrelenting grip on her wrist, tamped anger down and made it compliance. And bone-deep, head-swimming arousal. “I understand.”

He dipped his head and lowered his voice, his lips brushing her ear. “I decide when you get to come today. And you’re going to beg me for it, shortcake.”

A shiver traversed her spine. Chills of apprehension rippled through her body, sharpening her arousal. She knew he meant it, that he would make her beg. She was almost ready to beg right now. It was all she could do to keep from closing the distance between their bodies and rubbing her breasts longingly against his chest. She whispered, “I’ve got it, Brody.” She might as well have said, Take me, do whatever you want.

He drew back and looked into her eyes. His were feral with the power he knew he wielded. “Good. Now go into my cabin. Sit on the bed, and wait.”

Sidney nodded her head, her voice having deserted her. Brody released her arm, and she went to the bow of the boat and his sleeping quarters.