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. The fact that he’d left sporting the hard-on to end all hard-ons, and was dressed in a pair of spray-on black jeans that he’d broken the zip on while trying to fasten them, and a pair of Chelsea boots, appeared to be the only reason he hadn’t made the circuits at full tilt.
It was damned hard to run when your tackle was poking you in the belly button.
‘This just about a thwarted orgasm, or has something else got your panties in a wad?’
Ric ignored him and kept up the forwards motion. His teeth were clenched. Whatever it was that had narked him, he was determined to keep it locked up.
‘Me, did I say something?’
Zach didn’t think he was to blame for this, but people didn’t always make it obvious when you’d fucked up.
Ric stopped abruptly by a stile. Instead of climbing the jagged rungs over the mossy wall, he squared off against Zach.
‘Why do you always think it’s about you?’
‘I don’t,’ Zach replied, raising his hands and backing up. ‘I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t something I could say sorry for, given that whatever it is has seriously rattled you.’
Ric’s blue-grey eyes fixed on an indeterminate spot over Zach’s shoulder. ‘Maybe I’m just pissed off at being interrupted.’
‘So let’s go home and do something about it.’
Ric threaded his fingers through his long hair. ‘If I go home, it’ll be to work.’ The unspoken assertion was that if Zach wanted to do something to ease Ric’s frustration, it had to be here, and while normally Zach wouldn’t think twice about wrenching those ridiculously low-slung jeans off Ric’s hips and getting down on his knees, or hell, even splaying himself out like a sacrificial offering on the table-like slab of rock a few yards away, he balked at the possibility of being chastised for the third time in the day over his sexual antics.
Unlike Ric, he did give a fuck what people thought of him. Plus, he had a restaurant to run. He didn’t want to scare the customers off, or attract them so they could gawp and discuss his sex life rather than compliment him on his mouth-watering food.
That left them standing, eyeing one another uneasily, as if they were sizing one another up before a boxing match.
‘Need me to pose?’
‘Yeah.’
Once they’d rattled off a few hundred digital shots, maybe Ric would allow him to soothe his frustration. That’s what he thought this was – one too many thwarted orgasms. He’d been on the point of going over when Kara’s brother had barged in. There was no way they could have recaptured that moment, which was presumably what walking out had been about. Another time, another place, they could do the scene over and hopefully get a better outcome, but the mood had been shattered by Chris’s presence.
If Zach hoped that there was a deeper emotional significance to Ric’s agitation, then he didn’t allow himself to dwell on it. He knew better than to tread that path. Ric would never admit it, and he was done with tying himself in knots about things he would never get this man to admit. Leastways, he told himself he was.
‘Come on,’ Zach urged, turning towards the fort. ‘How do you want me? Is it more water shots you’re after?’
The theme of Ric’s current collection – destined for some highfalutin gallery exhibition – was based around sex and the six elements of the Chinese Zodiac. Zach couldn’t help thinking they ought to have given Ric wood. That way he could have taken a few dozen erection shots and been done with. Water was apparently a much harder medium to get right. You had to control the lighting and the refraction off the droplets. Rivulets had to course over the skin the right way, and sweat had to look sexy, not clammy, the skin beneath holding a glow without seeming unduly reddened by exertion.
‘Did you know about him?’ Ric asked, ignoring Zach’s question.
‘Him? You mean Kara’s brother? I knew she had a brother. She has a sister too. It’d escaped my mind that he might arrive home at some point. You knew too, though. I mean, the guy’s paying you ground rent. You sold the barn to him.’
Ric sucked his teeth. ‘You do realise his being here is going to fuck everything up.’
‘Why? Just because we shocked the hell out of the guy doesn’t mean he’s going to cause problems. It’s not what you expect your nearest and dearest to be doing when they’re house-sitting for you. Don’t pretend you wouldn’t