34 - Peyton
PEYTON
Ripley was the first one to join me. He stripped casually and without fanfare, rolling his layered shirt overhead as my eyes crawled his musclebound body the whole way. He stopped at his boxer briefs, smirked at my disappointment, then stepped purposefully into the steaming, super-heated water.
“Fuuuuck…” he sighed, gliding in up to his shoulders. His eyes even rolled back.
“Worth it?” I giggled.
“Shut up, you’re interrupting my orgasm.”
Theo and Colson followed suit, and I enjoyed the double feature.
Watching them disrobe, inch by rippled inch, was almost as fun as the end result.
Soon the four of us were floating together, letting the geothermal heat from the thousand-year old mineral springs soak into our tired, travel-weary bodies.
“The grotto opens up to the outside,” Theo motioned. “Follow the cooler air.”
Through the backlit blue dome we swam, the boys brushing their mostly-naked bodies against mine every chance they got.
It didn’t bother me one bit that I was the only one totally naked.
With their wet, skin-tight briefs revealing every bump and curve of their front and rear packages, I deemed the trade-off to be more than enough.
At the back of the grotto we had to dip through a smaller crevice, and then suddenly we were outside. The pool continued in a rough half-circle, along the back of the house. Above us, the star-flecked sky was tinted with a shimmering ribbon of green and purple. I gasped when I realized what it was.
“Solar particles interacting with atmospheric gases—” Theo began.
“You mean the Northern Lights?”
He stopped narrating and chuckled. “Yeah.”
I stared openly, totally awestruck, enjoying the moment. Two arms slid around my waist, pulling me gently so that I floated weightlessly onto my back.
“It’s so beautiful,” I sighed. “So… safe.”
“Iceland is one of the safest countries in the world,” I heard Theo say.
“C’mon,” Ripley grumbled. “Don’t jinx it.”
“I’m just saying,” Theo went on. “Not only is Iceland safe, but the people who provided this place for us pride themselves in keeping it invisible. It’s totally off-grid. Stocked for months. Connected only through impenetrable layers of encryption, and—”
“You could like, not do this right now?” I asked him sweetly.
Theo chuckled again and swam closer, gliding alongside me. His touch was gentle as he guided my cheek his way, then leaned in and gave me a soft, bold kiss.
“Smooth move,” I sighed. “And confident, too. You wouldn’t have dreamed of trying that a few weeks ago.”
“Trust me, I dreamed of it,” he assured me. “I just kept my dreams to myself.”
Ripley’s hard body floated closely beneath mine, supporting me, allowing me a full, unobstructed view of the shifting sky.
The white and green ribbon changed colors, even as we watched.
The light pulsated outward like a living, breathing thing, where it turned the most beautiful blue and violet at the very edges.
“This is the first time I don’t feel hunted,” I sighed.
“Doesn’t mean we aren’t.”
“I know. It’s just… I want to enjoy this. While it lasts.”
I twisted from Ripley’s hold, then turned to face him.
The french manicure I’d gotten before the wedding was mostly holding up, so I used a single nail to trace his cheek, his lips, his sharp, angular jaw.
My eyes wandered his face slowly, bit by bit, taking mental photos of every rough, rugged part of him.
Then I kissed him, inhaling him as his lips parted to kiss me back.
Our tongues slid hotly through each other’s mouths, the kiss deepening as the heat built between us.
As I melted into his arms, my gaze shifted to the others. There was jealousy in their expressions, for sure. Colson’s was a quiet, but focused envy. Theo’s was sharper and more desperate, as he was the type to wear his heart on his sleeve.
Both expressions gave me pause, maybe even a little worry.
But they also turned me on.
You’re in trouble, Peyton.
I broke Ripley’s kiss just as it was becoming even more possessive, and shoved off into the center of the pool. Floating there, obscured by the steam, I tried to swallow past the knot in my throat.
“What’s wrong?” Colson challenged, slicking his hair back.
“N-Nothing,” I stammered.
“Doesn’t seem like nothing.”
“It’s just, well…” I swallowed, shifting gears. “I was thinking you boys probably shouldn’t fall for me.”
There was a beat of silence, as my statement landed amongst them.
“Oh, really?” Ripley barked a laugh.
“Really.”
“And why’s that?” asked Colson.
“Because I’m very addictive,” I said confidently. “And dangerous. And—”
“What exactly are the symptoms of this addiction?” interrupted Theo, smirking slyly from his corner of the springs. “You know, just so I can tell if I’ve already been affected.”
I shrugged, innocently. “You’ll start prioritizing me, for one.”
“We’ve already done that,” Ripley pointed out.
“True enough. But historically, falling for me can lead to some very questionable life decisions.”
Now it was Colson’s turn to laugh. “Are you kidding? Our lives have been a long string of questionable decisions, ever since we threw in with you.”
“See?” I teased. “Point proven. You’re already in too deep.”
The sky shifted again, the stars twinkling magnificently around the shifting colors.
But all I could think about was them.
“So you’re warning us now?” Theo challenged. “After exposure?”
“For real,” agreed Ripley. “This is like putting out a recall after knowingly supplying the product.”
I shrugged coyly, as they launched themselves from the walls. They came at me from three sides, in a collapsing triangle. I felt a soft pleasant swoop, low in my stomach.
“Quick question for you,” Colson asked boldly.
“Okay.”
“How do we know you’re not falling for us?”
The others nodded their silent agreement, as stray fingers grazed me beneath the water. A thigh brushed lightly against mine. My stomach went tight.
“I mean, you’ve made your body fully available to us,” Colson breathed huskily. “Haven’t you?”
“Yes.”
“And we’ve taken it, haven’t we?” Theo murmured. “Every chance we got?”
An unknown palm slid possessively over my ass. The touch elicited involuntary shivers.
“Yes, you have.”
“But you’ve been just as greedy at times,” Ripley took over. “You’ve slipped in and out of our beds. You’ve kissed us until we were dizzy, and unable to say no…” His lips moved softly now, in almost a whisper, “then pushed us onto our backs, and wrapped those legs around us.”
Colson was behind me now, tucking his stubbled chin into my neck. His kisses were molten. Goosebumps erupted, everywhere his lips touched.
“So are you saying these encounters are purely sexual?” Colson murmured against my skin.
“Purely?” I choked. “I—I…”
“Or maybe you’re guilty of falling for us,” he finished, kissing me some more. “Every bit as we’re guilty of falling for you.”
Falling…
For me.
His words caused a wave of nervous nausea to ripple through me. Of course, this wasn’t the first time I’d put my foot in my mouth. It was one of the first times I didn’t regret it, though.
“I can’t fall for one of you,” I protested weakly. “It’s just not possible.”
Ripley stared back at me, pretending to be wounded. “And why not?”
His arms and shoulders were peeking above the water now. Curls of steam rose from his skin in shimmering, flame-like waves.
“Lots of different reasons,” I answered, falteringly.
His sculpted shoulders were hypnotizing me. Colson’s hands, suddenly on my hips, also weren’t helping.
“Give me one.”
“Well, let’s take our current situation. We could all be dead by tomorrow.”
“We could,” he allowed. “We won’t be, but we could.”
The hands on my hips slid forward and downward, gliding between my thighs. I was rapidly becoming lost in wicked, greedy thoughts. Losing all train of rational thought.
“Why else can’t we fall for you?” asked Theo, closing in. “It’s not like you’re married.”
“I’m still engaged though,” I countered. “Technically, I suppose.”
Colson chuckled against my neck. “Pretty sure your engagement ended the moment you went wheels up at Nantucket.”
I sighed, thumbing back through my Rolodex of memories while dating Donovan. The good ones were few and far between.
“Well before that, actually,” I admitted.
“Good,” he agreed gently. “You’re finally being honest.”
“The main reason I can’t fall for you though,” I went on, “is because there are three of you.”
“Three of us?”
“Yes.”
More silence. More touching. More soft, nuzzled kisses.
“But there’s been three of us the whole time.”
“I know, and maybe that’s what makes the whole thing so safe for me,” I shrugged. The sex part is easy, knowing I can’t actually fall for any of you,” I explained. “Not without making the others jealous.”
“Jealous…” Colson repeated.
I bit my lip and nodded. How could I tell them the sinister truth? That it was the jealousy part that turned me on? That I wanted to fall for them so badly, so deeply, but kept them at an emotional arm’s length, even in the wildest throes of our most intimate contact?
Colson was strong and sharp, and I’d never felt so safe in a man’s arms. Theo was just as hot, and intellectually the most attractive man I’d ever laid eyes on. And Ripley… Ripley was physically perfect; with that tattooed, bad boy edge that soaked my panties every time.
Of course I wanted to fall for them.
Shit, maybe I already fucking had.
“Maybe, for tonight at least, you can fall for us,” I heard Ripley murmur.
The idea was freeing, liberating, totally wild. My throat was so thick with want, I could barely speak.
“I can?”
“Sure,” murmured Theo, his voice barely above a whisper. “All you have to do is let yourself.”
A searing heat bloomed inside me, scattering the last of my emotional inhibitions.
The only thing left, was total surrender.
“And maybe, just for tonight,” murmured Colson, pulling me even tighter against his hard, unyielding body.
“The three of us fall for you.”