DRAMA NOVEL ONLINE HUGE X4: Chapter 8
I know I’m getting funny looks from people. I can feel the curious stares and the sneaky side-glances. It isn’t me just being paranoid. Well, I don’t think it is anyway.
I’m lying on a sunbed flanked by two identical twin gods. When we arrived at the beach, Liam and Callum found us a spot at the front that I was grateful for, because now I don’t need to try and walk across scalding sand while trying to maintain my dignity. I was planning on going at the end. Let the boys be together so they can talk and I can mainly pretend to be asleep while my brain goes at a hundred miles an hour over everything that has happened in the last twenty-four hours, but that didn’t happen. Guess they like me sandwiched between them!
It’s been nice. Too nice. Funny conversation. Butterflies in my stomach every time either Liam or Callum look or smile in my direction. I put breakfast behind me, but every so often, I get a flutter in my chest at the thought of Ryan and his determination, and Matty and his shyness.
What is it about gorgeous men that seems to knock the sense out of women? I mean, I’m pretty sensible in real life, but put me in a booth with Adonis, his twin and his practically identical younger brothers and suddenly I’m like emotional soup. Or pudding. Or something else equally squishy and unsuitable for functioning in day-to-day situations.
Well, a day on a Caribbean beach is hardly a day-to-day situation. It’s paradise here. Everything I imagined it would be when Kerry showed me the website. The sea is a gentle shushing sound. Children’s laughter drifts on the breeze. Whenever I turn over I have a man ready to rub in my suncream. I don’t even have to ask.
I think it’s the cream rubbing that’s causing the stares. First Callum smoothed it all over my back and legs. When he eased his hand in between my thighs to coat the sensitive skin there, I almost moaned. It wasn’t that part that would have raised eyebrows, though. It was when Liam insisted on rubbing cream into my front. I mean, I can do that myself with no problems. Who asks someone to smooth cream over their belly, for fuck’s sake. When he started towards my cleavage, I quickly slid off the sunbed and hurried into the sea. I could hear him laughing behind me, probably thinking that I’m a prude in public.
It’s hardly surprising, is it? This may be an enlightened era when it comes to sex, but ménage relationships aren’t exactly a regular thing. Maybe Callum and Liam are so used to sharing that they’ve forgotten what normal is.
I don’t get to hide in the sea by myself for too long.
“Hey Bethany,” I hear from behind me.
I turn towards the shore and spot Callum and Liam wading out. Oh holy hell. This is dangerous.
“Hey,” I say watching them like a deer would a pair of wolves. Liam picks up seawater in his big palms and splashes it over his face and hair. Callum does the same. Droplets of water run down their torsos, following the grooves between their muscles. As Liam gets closer I can’t stop staring at a water droplet that has formed on the end of his right nipple. It just hangs there, waiting to be licked off. I want to lick it off, but if I thought people were staring before, then they’d be getting the popcorn out for the main event if I did that.
The twins get even closer and dip down into the water so we’re all now at eye level. When they’re in front of me I know I’m safe. I’m a good swimmer. I can swim out deeper and escape if they try any funny business. It’s when they split up and come at me from both sides that I don’t know what to do.
“Guys,” I say in a voice laced with warning.
“What?” they both say at the same time.
“Just remember where we are, okay?”
“Last I checked it was Jamaica,” Callum says.
“You know, the beautiful Caribbean Island,” Liam says.
“Very funny. You know that isn’t what I meant.”
They both shrug; an attempt to maintain their innocence, but then I feel Callum’s hand on my waist and Liam’s hand on my hips and I flush scarlet.
“Don’t,” I say, trying to wriggle away.
“No one is watching, honey,” Callum says.
“They are!” I plead.
“Who?” Liam looks around and I follow his gaze, expecting to catch a few of the people closest to be staring in our direction, but no one is. They’re all too busy enjoying their own vacations.
I blink as Callum’s hand slides over my ass, giving it a good firm squeeze. The slip of his touch over my wet skin feels amazing.
He comes closer until his face is next to my ear. “You know, you are even sexier when you’re shy,” he says. “Makes me want to get even dirtier with you to make you blush.”
“She’s blushing already,” Liam says, coming even closer. “I bet if I did this…” He slides his hand around and cups my pussy under the water. “She’d blush even more.”
“She’d do more than blush,” Callum says. “She’s gonna gush.”
And he’s right. I can’t even pretend that they aren’t making me wet. If I wasn’t in the sea it would be ridiculous. This whole situation is ridiculous. I can’t let them do this to me here, as much as I want to, and I want to so much it’s an ache.
“We can’t do this.”
They both stop for a second. Liam cocks his head to the side. “Are you really that worried about what people think?” There’s a little flash of hurt in his expression that surprises me. These two men seem so self-assured, so ‘larger than life’. There’s no way I was expecting either of them to feel hurt by my unwillingness to indulge in public displays of affection.
“It’s just…” I stutter over what to say to make things better, and then I hear my name.
“Bethany, honey.” It’s my mom and I practically leap away from the twins and head towards her voice. It’s not that I want to see my mom. After what she said to me this morning quite frankly I’d prefer to avoid her all week, but that isn’t going to be likely.
“Hey, Mom,” I call. She looks pretty ridiculous in a straw hat and sunglasses, but mom is obsessed with maintaining a pale complexion to stave off the wrinkles.
“The sea is just beautiful,” she says, glancing over my shoulder. “Ah, you’re with Liam and Callum,” she says in a voice that sounds a little weird. Uncertain.
“Yeah. We’re just hanging out.”
“Hi, Mrs. Blane,” they say, coming closer.
“It’s Ms.,” she says primly.
There’s a moment of silence as we all stand awkwardly, then Callum saves the day with some wedding talk.
“That was a beautiful day yesterday. We thought we were going to miss it after all the flight problems.”
“Yes,” mom says. “We were worried you would, too.”
“Thank goodness we didn’t,” Callum says. God, they sound so formal.
“I didn’t know you were friends with Bethany,” Mom says, narrowing her eyes. She has that look she gets when her radar is picking up something she hasn’t quite worked out yet.
Suspicious.
“Yeah. Just from yesterday. Thought it’d be good to hang out,” Liam says.
“Well,” Mom looks between us all. “Bethany’s not going to be around much. We have family obligations.” I want to say ‘huh’ because I have no idea what she’s talking about. There haven’t been any arrangements made as far as I know. “You know Cousin Dylan. He’d really love to spend more time with you, Bethany.”
Now I know something is up because Cousin Dylan has never been a fan of mine. I think it’s because our moms played competitive when we were growing up. ‘Bethany got this in her exams’. That kind of thing. He was generally on the losing end of those kinds of discussions, which is probably why I get a frosty reception any time I try to talk to him.
“I’ve got a few days left, Mom,” I say.
She looks between the twins again suspiciously. “Why don’t you come and sit with me for while?” she says to me. We can go and get a mimosa.”
“Okay,” I say. “I’ll get my sarong.” I turn to the boys. “Are you going to stay at the beach all day?”
They nod, eyes seeming to size me up in the same way as my mom’s had. They must see that I’m happy to accept mom’s invitation so that I can escape from them for a bit. I just need that headspace.
“Well, I guess I’ll see you later then.”
“We’ll be here,” Liam says.
The walk back to my sunbed is awkward. I can feel the twins’ eyes on me. I know they’re watching and the thought of it makes me hot between my legs. Public displays of affection might be a problem for me but imagining hot threesome sex, not so much. I decide to take my bag too so that I can reply to a few messages using the wifi.
Mom is waiting at the beach bar, wearing a flowing dress.
“Here, darling,” she says gently pushing a tall glass towards me. The bubbles in the champagne tickle my nose as I take a long drink.
“Thanks, Mom.” Perched on a stool, looking out over the beach, my eyes are drawn back to the twins. They’re playing in the shallows with a ball, and even from here I can see the ripple of their muscles as they hit it back and forth. Damn.
“They’re good looking boys,” Mom says.
I snap my head in her direction and see her looking thoughtful. “I guess,” I say.
“No guessing needed,” she says. “Every woman on this beach is thinking the same thing.”
I must blush because she laughs. “Hard to choose when there are two.” I choke a little on my latest mouthful of drink. “Anyway, I’m going to make that situation easier for you.”
“What situation?” I ask, frowning. Mom isn’t usually this cryptic.
“I got engaged this morning,” she says. For a moment I just stare at her blankly. Engaged. What the hell does she mean?
“What?”
“I’ve been dating a lovely man for a while now. He arrived here this morning. He proposed and I said yes.”
She beams, looking younger than she has in a long time and I gawp, the things she just said not really penetrating my brain. I didn’t even know she had a boyfriend, let alone that they were thinking long term.
“Who is he?”
She brushes some sand from her arm. “His name is Frank,” she says. “He’s amazing. You’re going to love him.”
“Okay.”
“And we’re going to be a huge family.”
“What do you mean?” I say.
“Well, he has four sons.”
Wow. Four stepbrothers. That’s going to be interesting.
“Two sets of twins, actually,” she says looking down the beach towards where Callum and Liam are now sitting at the edge of the sea, soaking up the rays.
“Two sets of twins,” I repeat, my mind sliding over the coincidence. So weird, I think as I take another sip.
“Yes. Ryan and Matty, and Callum and Liam.”
I spit the mimosa that’s in my mouth all over the sand in front of me, coughing and sputtering. What in the actual fuck?
“So you see,” she continues. “No point in choosing between those gorgeous boys when they’re going to be your new family.
And just like that my world comes crashing down again.