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The car door clicked open. She lifted the handle and then glanced over her shoulder at him. “Thank you.”
“I did wonder there for a while, but you’re worth the trouble, every ounce of it.” The teasing expression was returning to his face, and the set of his mouth indicated he was accepting the way she was, that he might even enjoy being kept on his toes. With the lightest of strokes he touched her face.
It was so brief it made her yearn for more, but she didn’t hassle him. Instead she got into the car quietly, clutching her lingerie bag to her chest as she settled into the seat.
The thunk of his door shutting locked them together in the intimate space, and yet the journey back to the house was silent. The landscape along the meandering road that had
fascinated her on their outward journey seemed almost therapeutic this time around. Why, because she needed the space? Glancing over at him, she realised this had knocked her back a peg. She’d been gung-ho on the danger, the sexy set-up, and the fire between the three of them. When had she got to be so bound up in herself and her needs? Back in her days of not being able to do her duty as a nurse, it was always because she thought she was fighting for the good cause, and for the rights of the patient. Then again, she’d never been involved in anything like this before, and yet it had been so obvious and she kicked herself for not being more aware, for not making it easier for him. She’d got carried away on the dynamic and forgotten the reason why they were all stuck out there together. Seth had to be stressed out of his eyeballs, and she was busy having fun.
As they closed on the valley where the hotel was located, he changed down the gears and then he moved his hand to her thigh, squeezing her. It was reassuring. She was relieved to see the Hafod Y Coed sign, and silently read the words with even more interest now that she knew it was his childhood home.
“Does it all look okay?” she asked as they pulled up at the back of the building, and her stomach was knotted.
“Looks good so far.” He smiled her way. He didn’t say more than that, but she felt as if they had met each other half way in understanding.
When they walked into the hallway, she had the overwhelming urge to shout out to Adrian, to be sure, but Seth beat her to it.
“We’re back.”
“I’ll put the kettle on.” Adrian’s voice reached them from the kitchen area.
“He’s fine.”
Thank god. The sense of relief she felt made her light-headed, the knot in her stomach unravelling. If anything had happened to Adrian while they had been gone she’d never have been able to forgive herself. She dumped the lingerie bag on the hall stand, resenting it all of a sudden. Luxury items they were, in more ways than one. It was a luxury she truly could have done without. She could have made do.
Seth’s hand on her shoulder drew her back. He was right there, his reassuring presence close against her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him pick up the bag. He held it out to her. “Take it. I want you to wear it, all of it, tonight.”
Lily stared down at the bag he held against her, unable to move.
“It’s okay, take it, please.”
Her hand closed over his on the handle of the bag.
His head lowered alongside hers. Mouth against her ear, he nipped hear ear lobe between his teeth. Deliciously painful, yet poignant and arousing, it was a connection she couldn’t deny. Breath sucked into her lungs, her chest expanding.
“Lily, you’ll look so bloody good. I didn’t mean to be a tyrant, I’m sorry. I want to see you wearing it, all of it.” His mouth rested against her cheek, soft as a sigh.
Lily savoured it, her whole body attuned to his. Aching for him deeply, she blinked back the emotion before she turned her face to his, looking up at him.
His expression was still overcast and yet he looked at her as if he wanted her to understand, as if he was requesting it, earnestly, and it was the first-time she had ever seen him looking at either her or Adrian that way. It was like he was letting her in. Her heart knotted in her chest. In the beginning she had thought him cold, brutal, and demanding, but it was simply because he had to be that way.
She went to speak, and then the sound of the kettle whistling madly reached them. She pulled a froth of lace out of the bag, and held it to her chest. “Do you think he’ll like it?”
Oh, how her heart ached. She felt as if she was asking permission, asking for him to let Adrian be involved. And yet…neither had said anything about how things stood between them, or about Adrian and his role in bringing the three of them together. Seth had grown more intimate with her over the past day or so, but what did that really mean? Her emotions were intricately bound up with both men now. Seth’s guiding hand was crucial, and she wanted Seth’s approval of the way things were panning out.
But Seth just smiled, long slow. “I know he will. He’ll love it. We both will.”
For Lily, that comment meant the whole world. She reached up, kissed him on the mouth and nodded. “Let’s make it an evening to remember.”
Chapter Fifteen
Lily took a sip of her wine, and put the glass down. She’d thought she would need it, but she didn’t. She was already on a natural high and she really wanted to do this. It had been a fantasy for so long, to have a man who she wanted – and who wanted her –watching as she stripped and danced, just for him. Andrea had teased her about it and then bought her a stripping technique DVD for Christmas. They’d watched it for a laugh, but Lily had played it on her own, too, while she ran her hands over her body and flicked her hips from side to side, imagining her dream man sitting in front of her, hard and ready while she strutted her stuff like a professional exotic dancer.
Now she had two dream men to dance for, and they both were dream men, in different ways. She smiled to herself as she thought that. Yes, in different ways. Seth was so full on, so black and white in his opinions, and yet so mysterious at the same time. She craved his dangerous edge, his sureness about going after what he wanted. Adrian was the more subtle seducer, the everyday guy who could reveal his blatantly deviant sexuality as and when it pleased him. He was the one who pushed her buttons at the crucial moment, the one who made her confident enough to take them both on. The fact that they both wanted her was such a turn on. She could see it in their eyes, feel it in their touches.
It might be just this place and the set up, she reminded herself, but whatever it was she wanted every moment of it.
When she’d gone to get ready they had both whispered encouragement. Adrian gave her a long glance that positively smouldered, while Seth looked as if he was about to strip her right there and then, not waiting for the show.
