Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
ISABELLE
The ghost of a touch across my bare ankles snapped my attention to Ben, the blanket had fallen aside and he was running the softest of touches over my skin.
The sensation, possibly the gentlest way I’d been touched by a man, was like a shock of adrenaline.
I gaped at him, aware it was less than attractive yet unable to help myself.
His hands on my skin, purposefully, hit me like a drug.
“We like it when Ben touches us?” Seb whispered the question into my ear earning him only a sigh in reply. Was I that easy to seduce?
Ben’s tentative touches turned more confident, featherlight caresses along the bottom of my leggings, fingers delicately running under the edges of my sock.
“His attention is addictive, don’t you think?” Seb’s words were like honey, ramping up my aroused state, he chased them with kisses to my throat.
Nodding, I couldn’t find any words, none at all.
“You want to see?” Seb muttered.
My brain tried to make sense of that when I realised Seb was no longer working his way across my neck, that he’d turned to Ben.
Shifting my attention, I found Ben looking between us, eyes dark with desire.
“Yes.” It was a whisper.
“See what?” I asked.
Seb took hold of my jaw, turning my face to lay a gentle kiss on my open mouth, he then faced Ben who had his lower lip pinched between his teeth observing us with unbridled want.
Seb muttered something I couldn’t make out, before he turned back in to resume his kisses. This time it more resembled our feverish kisses from earlier, demanding.
He forced his tongue inside my mouth, groaning and my temperature spiked, my body beginning to demand more of him, so I threaded my fingers into his hair and yanked him in. He took that as the green light to consume me.
My feet were shifted and I felt the warmth of Ben’s leg between mine as he came closer. At the movement, Seb broke our kiss. My breath stuttered in and out and I was almost lost enough in the moment to beg him to carry on.
“More?” Seb asked. Who to didn’t matter because he received the same response.
“Yes.” Mine was utterly breathless.
“Please.” Ben’s voice carried awe.
Seb’s answering chuckle was pure sin. Ben’s hands began to rove more freely but no less carefully over my lower body.
Fingertips skimmed under my jumper and across the incredibly sensitive skin of my stomach making me mewl. I mewled. Then they tucked inside my waistband searching deeper before finally a sliver of logic returned to my sex-addled brain. I snatched at his hand and it stopped its movement.
“Bad.” I dragged in a breath. “Can’t.”
“I need more than that, Killer. Ben’s asked to see more.
I’m not sure ‘bad’ and ‘can’t’ is a cohesive argument against?
” His tongue rolled across his lips, knowing the effect it would have on me, and predictably I followed the movement knowing my body was giving off a different message to my words.
His tongue then darted across my lower lip.
I gasped and my pussy clenched.
“Killer?” he whispered against my mouth.
Their hands on me had fallen still, but it didn’t seem to matter. I wanted whatever this was. And my protests were entirely about perception, propriety.
These men had been clear – were being entirely clear about what they wanted.
Silently I conceded, not actually able to verbalise it I simply nodded.
Both men audibly exhaled, their hands resuming their silent exploration, my back arching in welcome.
Seb’s hands tucked inside my underwear but he didn’t kiss me again, his focus on Ben whose pupils had blown wide to consume his irises.
The last tiny sliver of blue was erased in the dark light the moment I gasped at the first touch of Seb’s fingers across my centre, the sweetest flush rising along his high cheekbones.
“He-likes-watching-you,” Seb ground out, words muttered in time with his fingertip circling my clit. “Eyes on Ben, Killer.”
I obeyed, Ben switching between scanning my face and studying how Seb’s hands moved rhythmically beneath my underwear. Although he couldn’t see any skin, I somehow felt completely bare.
Seb’s finger slid down to circle my entrance, dipping inside and my body bucked. Seb groaned while Ben’s tongue slipped across his lips, his fingers sliding across my legs in sync with Seb’s.
“Ben?” Seb checked in with him.
“More.” His reply was a gravelled whisper.
Moans built in my chest and I choked them down, panting.
Seb’s fingers continued dipping inside me, then dragging up and over my clit, back down, pushing deeper inside with each pass. Every touch to my clit, every time his fingers pressed inside to rub over my inner walls, I climbed higher.
“Seb,” I panted, not knowing how I managed to keep my voice so quiet.
“I know, Killer.” His pace quickened and I felt the blush of newfound bashfulness at being seen like this.
“I can’t.” I writhed. “Quiet…” My words were strangled, cutting off.
Seb’s fingers never slowing, he wrapped his arm around my back his hand coming up to trace my lips, then he placed his palm over my mouth.
“You can scream now, Killer.”
That was it, his words drove me over the edge, my loud moans captured behind his hand while tremors wracked my body.
I clenched my eyes closed, riding the climax until it subsided and my eyes eased back open.
Both men were statues in their stillness, the sound of their panting breaths matching mine, the only noise in the room before the quiet was shattered by a desperate noise from Seb.
He gently eased his fingers from inside me, lifting them he finally dragged his eyes from my face to look at his embarrassingly wet fingers.
Heat raced up my cheeks, the embarrassment worsened when he slipped his fingers into his mouth and ran his tongue over them lasciviously. Only when he was finished did he release me.
I stood on shaking legs, jaw slack with the post-orgasm haze.
Ben followed reaching out to steady me.
“Let’s get you to bed, before I get carried away.” Seb clapped a large palm over my ass, the shock startling my still-tingling body and I groaned. I definitely needed to get into my room before I pushed this to escalate myself.
“First.” Seb closed in on Ben, fingers lifting his chin ever so softly. “It’s only polite to share.”
His mouth slanted over Ben’s who made a shy, desperate noise, his tongue slipped out to run over Seb’s lips and into his mouth, the movement the most sexual thing I’d ever seen.
Clenching my thighs together against the new wave of arousal I stared, unabashed.
Finally, Ben withdrew, and Seb delivered the filthiest chuckle I’d ever heard before he took both our hands and pulled us up the stairs.
It had been two days since the little sofa session that had resulted in me giving myself a serious talking to then tucking myself into bed nursing a dull throb that had taken up residence between my legs, the ache a constant reminder that my inhibitions were dead and buried.
“RIP,” I muttered as I flicked closed the novel I was reading. I truly had no idea what was happening between the covers of this book, my attention solely attuned to the ever-present arousal I’d harboured since.
This morning I had taken another extremely cold shower and snuck back to my room while the house was still quiet.
Seb and Ben had made no real moves since the other night.
Perhaps Alex’s warning had sunk in, but if the smiles from one man and soft glancing touches from the other were anything to go by, they were just being respectful.
Still, I was trying to spend a little more time in my own company. The fact that I was a point of contention between the brothers and their, well, other brother. That didn’t sit well with me.
Intent aside, my mind wandered to where they could be, completely distracted by any indication of movement in the property. The footsteps passing by my room then retreating to the staircase. The door opening and closing downstairs. The sound of activity outside.
“He’s too polite to say it, but are you going to drag out the tease much longer?” Seb swaggered into my room. Soft oversized joggers met a long vest slashed down the sides to reveal the hint of obliques as he moved.
Mashing my lips together to fight against the curling smile, I shook my head.
“Now, now. Don’t play coy, Killer. You promised Ben fresh, warm, treats.”
My jaw dropped open and he laughed.
“Pastries, Killer. Pastries.” He grinned devilishly, pleased to have scandalised me.
“Right.” I allowed the book to drop onto the bedding. “Now?”
His nod was solemn.
“Is Mr Sunshine downstairs?” I worried the inside of my cheek with my teeth.
Since his outburst, I was always on eggshells around him. I’d stopped counting the days since I arrived and there would be far too many of them left before I had the hope of escaping his company entirely.
My stomach clenched at the thought of the other company I’d lose at the same time. These men were proving to be addictive.
“Oh no, not the pout. Is Alex bothering you that much?” Seb crossed the space in an instant, he picked up the end of my loose braid, toying with it.
“No.” I straightened, I wasn’t a child. I was not pouting. “I won’t make pastries while he’s shooting daggers at me.”
“Understandably so. He’s busy, so you’re safe. I can be your apprentice in the kitchen.” He gathered me up from the bed and set me standing, hesitating before he gave me more space, stepping back almost reluctantly.
His fingers wound through mine and he tugged me through the house and down the stairs, snatching something from the counter he pressed it into my hands. I unfolded it, a gingham pinafore.
Seb held another in contrasting colours.
“Any favourites?” I thought to the times I’d baked before. It wasn’t remotely necessary for someone with a family as wealthy as mine, still, I’d given it a few attempts over the years at university, with mixed success. “Turnovers are the easiest, and maybe my best.”
“I have a confession,” he murmured as I placed the pinafore over my head.
Seb reached in to wrap the ties around my waist while I silently waited for him to continue.
“I can’t bake,” he whispered.
“Oh my.” My voice was equally quiet. “Something Seb can’t do?”
His body shuddered in a silent laugh. “Hate to tarnish your god-like perception of me, beautiful, but there are a good few things I can’t manage. For example, I’m terrible at cricket.”
“No!” I clapped my hand over my heart in mock outrage.
“I’m appalling at decorating. Paint rollers are a point of serious contention, and don’t get me started on wallpaper.”
“And then there’s baking?” My palm landed over his heart now. “However do you cope?”
He clapped his palm over where my hand rested against his chest, pressing down firmly so I could feel the thud of his heart.
“I just need someone who can love me despite my flaws.” He blinked down at me like he wasn’t a man who was adored almost everywhere he went. Or at least I suspected that was the case.
“Well.” I rose onto my tiptoes to bring our faces slightly closer together and his lips parted. “I need to see for myself how dire it really is.”
He slowly blinked, eyes glazing over.
“There’s only so much one can overlook,” I continued.
He shook himself from his daze, the following swat of his hand on my bum wasn’t such a surprise today, but it still stung. Something I was stunned to realise stirred a feeling akin to desire.
His accompanying growl shot through me, heightening the sparks of hunger and I created space, swallowing thickly.
I looked at the selection of baking ingredients already on the surface and saw a few cookery books sitting beside them.
“Are you ready to be my apprentice?” Why was my voice so breathy?
“I am, but before we start, I want to know what I get in exchange for my help?” He was suddenly in my space. The question half cheek and half hope, if the way he stared was anything to go by.
I ran my tongue over my teeth, Seb becoming spellbound by the movement so I dragged it out, empowered by the heat in his eyes.
I parted my lips, torturing him, and he mirrored me.
“You’ll receive payment in the form of…” I paused. Seb shuddered, his mouth so close to mine that the tiniest movement would brush our lips together. “Apple turnovers.”