Three Rings (The Fairytail Saga) (11 page)

A beat after he realized how nice the view was, he realized how bad it was that he was
seeing
it. His head hurt straight away, and his grip on his second shoe slipped, causing him to stumble.

‘Hey!’ He caught himself on the curved, stainless steel handrail leading into the spa. ‘Lux...I cant get in the spa with you
naked
.’

She turned, and her breasts caught his eye and made him swallow. They were huge, nothing like any he’d ever come close to before, and yet their shape and lift seemed to defy their own proportions. She smiled at him as she inched one leg into the spa. ‘You’re either in the community Link, or you’re not.’

‘Um,
I’m
not.’ A female voice stuttered. ‘And if you guys are in here to screw, I’m not going to be in the spa, either.’

Lincoln’s eyes closed as he recognised Sherri’s voice. ‘Oh...this is so
unprofessional
…’

Lux laughed. ‘Oh Link drop the woeful thing, okay? Hey Sherri...I recognize you.’

‘You saw me five minutes ago.’ Sherri smirked. ‘Sorry for the interruption, boss. There just aren’t many pools where I come from and I figured a night swim would be okay, so long as no one saw me….’

Lincoln opened his eyes and peered into the spa, relieved to see that Sherri appeared to be wearing a hot pink bikini under the surface.

‘It’s fine,’ he said. ‘You earned it tonight. Just like I earned a dousing.’ He tore his shirt off over his head, deciding that the damage was done. He’d seen Lux’s rack, and he couldn’t palm her off onto the poor new girl and excuse himself. If Ivyanne heard about this, she’d be pissed-but she was going to be pissed anyway, so what was the point of damage control? He reached for his fly and unzipped it, stepping out of his pants and dragging the other shoe off with them. ‘And don’t worry, I’m keeping my boxers on.’

‘I wasn’t worried.’ Lux joked, settling against the wall of the spa, a few feet from Sherri. ‘Not a lick.’

Sherri snorted. ‘If I wasn’t so embarrassed right now, I’d laugh.’ She glanced at him. ‘But I can’t say I was concerned for my eyes or anything either.’

Lincoln’s face grew hotter as the flattery met the alcohol in his system and they fed off each other. He eased down on the pebble-edged side of the spa, and put his feet in, lifting his face to the scuttling palm fronds above and almost growling as the water eased the throbbing in his feet instantly.

‘You two, behave.’ He cautioned them. ‘I’m already in deep trouble with
the chick
. I don’t want it getting back to her that I had a midnight swim with two beautiful blondes who stroked my hammered ego.’

‘It won’t.’ Lux said softly. ‘You need to kick up your heels, Link, and I’m not going to make this any harder for you. So as far as Ivyanne knows-we went straight to bed.
Separately.
’

‘Agreed.’ Sherri said. ‘That girl is tightly wound, but I can see you’re completely gone on her. I mean, she’s
stunning
. So is the guy who came in after her! I mean,
wow
. I totally get why you’re freaked out by the competition-even if you do have that dark prince thing going on.’

Lincoln snapped out of his drunken stupor. ‘What?’ He sat erect. ‘Someone came
after
her?’

Sherri’s face was slightly concealed by darkness, but he saw the whites of her eyes clearly enough. ‘Um...yeah? The blonde, curly haired guy? Right as she left, he came to the door, saw her, called out, but she didn’t hear him. So he went around the bar, towards the beach. I gathered he was going to cut her off.’

‘Ugh!’ Lincoln dropped his head into his hands, but he was so drunk that the force almost caused his elbows to slide off his knees and into the water. Tristan had come back! He’d been right there, and Link had been too Ivyanne-focused to even
see
him! ‘Son of a-’

‘Ssh!’ There was a tug on his foot and the sound of water lapping against Lux’s body. ‘Link...chill. You’ve got too much booze in your system to get worked up over something that happened hours ago.’

‘Too much?’ Sherri repeated. ‘He had like,
three
.’

‘Well, he’s sleep deprived.’ Lux fibbed. ‘And I didn’t see him eat all day.’

‘Oh. I was going to say….lightweight, for a bartender!’

Lincoln shook his head, barely hearing them. He didn’t care if he let something mer slip out in front of a human. At that moment, he just wanted to die. Where was Tristan now? Were he and Ivyanne still together? Why had he returned? Had she known? Angry tears sprung to his eyes.

‘This is hopeless..’ He swept the tears back into his hair, lifting his head so he could inhale a calming breath through his nose. His lung swelled up with chlorine, honeysuckle, and a hint of fertilizer, but not relief. ‘He’s going to win. He’s just got too much going for him...least of all, the ability to fund three flights in one bloody day!’

‘Hey..’ Lux’s Scottish accent made the soothing whisper more comforting than it might have normally been. Her hand slid up his leg grasping his knee. ‘You’ve got plenty going for you, Lincoln Grey. You just need to believe in yourself.’

‘How can I do that, when Ivyanne’s love for me is the only thing I’ve ever completely believed in?’ He shook his head, staring into the water behind Lux so he wouldn’t glimpse more than he already had. ‘I can act as confident as I want, but it’s still just an act. At the end of the day...I’m just too damn insecure to do what I need to-grab her by the hair and drag her back to my damn cave.’ Bitterness coated his tongue. ‘Like
he
did.’

‘You want some self-esteem?’ Lux’s fingertips curled, tickling the inside of his kneecap. ‘How about the fact that you have two scantily clad girls in a spa with you, who are silently praying that you let
them
make you feel better?’

Lincoln stared at her, flabbergasted. Those beautiful eyes returned his gaze soberly, full of blatant desire. He looked to Sherri to break her hold.

‘Sorry Sherri,’ he said apologetically. ‘She’s drunk. I know she’s speaking on her own little horny behalf and
nothing
is going to come of it, so don’t worry.’

‘I wasn’t.’ Sherri smiled, sliding out from under the shadow of the cluster of trees behind her and bringing her hand down on the button to activate the spa bubbles. The motor in the garden whirred awake, and the jets began to hiss and spit near his calves. ‘I’m quite comfortable...right here.’

‘Girls…be serious.’ Lincoln squeezed his eyes shut as though he could activate the logical part of his brain by doing so. But with his eyes closed, his other senses began to compete for supremacy-the sensation of a warm, wet hand sliding up his thigh coming out on top. ‘You’re messing with me, yeah?’

‘Do you hear me laughing?’ Lux’s fingertips slipped under the hem of his shorts, and his manhood twitched in reflex to their proximity. ‘I mean, I can’t speak for Sherri, but this doesn’t have to be a big deal, or even something that’s spoken about. It’ll just be cathartic, for both of us.’

‘No it won’t,’ Link whispered, bringing his hand down on hers, halting her progression. Her fingertips pressed down on the head of his growing erection, and he quivered, pushing her hand back.

God he needed to be touched. But it was the wrong hand doing the touching! The wrong mouth saying all the right things. He opened his eyes, and stared into Lux’s, trying to look more convincing than he felt. ‘I’ll feel worse for it tomorrow. And if I’m worth what you say I am, I ought to.’

Lux rose, resting her hands on his knees, spreading them apart to slip between. Wet, naked, glowing despite the lack of light with the water frothing behind her, Lux was magnificent.

‘Why? You’re not with her, and she might be with him right now, doing worse.’ She took his jaw in her hands and lowered her voice to an intimate whisper, too low for Sherri to decipher over the bubbling jets. ‘Our species exist to do this. If Ivyanne begrudges you a little relief, relief she won’t provide, then why would you want to be with her anyway? Aren’t you sick of being tortured?’ She spoke with quiet earnestness. ‘Because I’ve been where you are Link-I
remember
. And you need this if you’re going to survive the next few weeks.’

‘Don’t,’ Lincoln said, but lips touched his seconds later. Alarmed, he tried to pull back, but she held him firmly, and slid the tip of her tongue against his upper lip, parting his mouth. She tasted like lemon and salt.

‘Tell me you don’t need it. The human girl wants you too, Link. You could do us both, right now. Don’t you
want
to?’

Lincoln did. Not because of their bodies or their looks, but because he needed
their
need for him and the calm that would follow climax. He wanted to keep his eyes shut and pretend they were Ivyanne’s hands on him.

But they weren’t. He opened his eyes and his mouth at the same moment to rebuff her in a way she’d actually heed, but before he could speak, he caught Sherri watching him with wide grey eyes, and he was distracted by how inappropriate it all was. He should never have taken his shoes off. He shouldn’t have drunk at all and he definitely shouldn’t have used the new girl as a means to entice Ivyanne’s jealousy! Remi was right-he was acting like a fool, not a man, and if word spread-which it
always
did-he’d become the guy some idly accused him of already being-the lecherous boss, not fit to be anyone’s king, let alone to someone as lovely as Ivyanne.

Lux pounced, taking advantage of his momentary stupor, but before he could actually tell her off for it-a gasp of disbelief made him turn his head towards the bar.

Of all the people he’d expected to see standing there, Pintang was not one of them. But she was as real as his ridiculous predicament, and her blazing blue eyes were full of bewilderment.

‘Lux?!’ The name was expelled like a curse. ‘Oh my god...and
Link
?! If Ardhi-’ She shook her head, taking a step back. ‘I don’t freaking believe this!
Where is Ivyanne
?’

Lincoln rose swiftly, his movement knocking Lux back. ‘Pintang! Hey! Oh my god, please-this is
not
, I mean, I wasn’t
going
to kiss her back-’

‘If it’s not what it looks like, it can only be
worse
.’ Pintang glanced at the new girl, and her brow furrowed. ‘Who in god’s name are
you
?’

‘I’m leaving, that’s who.’ Sherri got to her feet, water spilling off her. ‘Good night Link and uh...good luck.’

‘Good. Scram.’

Lincoln’s mouth fell open, watching Sherri scamper away, humiliation contorting her features. So much for not scaring off the best bartender he’d ever had!

‘Pintang!’ Lux stroked backwards. ‘Calm down. You don’t know the half of what’s going on around here-’

‘I know that if Ardhi saw this, he’d
flip
!’

‘Would he?’ Lux challenged. ‘Are you certain about that? As far as I can tell, no one had a good grasp on what he was going through in the end-not even enough to pick up on the suicidal vibe. And as his
sister
-’

‘Shut it!’ Pintang looked furious, and tears came to her eyes. ‘I picked up on it all, Lux. But there’s a difference between a runaway train, and a derailment you know! And I was powerless to prevent either!’ Pintang turned back to Lincoln. ‘Have you lost your mind? Of all the ungrateful-’ She shook her head, backing off. ‘Actually, don’t explain. I don’t want to hear it. I came back for...not for this kind of crap. Good night.’ She shot Lux one final, baleful glare. ‘And by that I mean
go to bed
. Alone.’

Both Pintang and Lux were long gone by the time Lincoln snapped out of his frozen panic.

⁓

It seemed to Tristan like a millennia had passed before Ivyanne spoke again. She turned away from the ocean and glowered at him, crossing her arms across her chest, looking like a goddess against the inky black night.

‘I don’t want to get on a plane, and even if I did, I couldn’t just ditch Lincoln like that. It would be heartless. So what else can I give you that will make this trip a non-issue?’

‘Aside from the obvious?’ Tristan asked. ‘I want to know that my odds of winning here are the same regardless of whether you’re carrying my child. I want to know that you’re not saying no to this trip because you can stand to be away from
me
easier than you can stand being away from
him
.’ He could tell Ivyanne was about to say something but he held his hand up. ‘The scales are so in his favor that it’s almost comical. For one, he gets to see you every single day and secondly, you’re giving him an equal chance
regardless
of the fact that you’d already promised your future to
me
! And to make it sting just that little bit more, I
had
to get you pregnant to be considered
at all
!’

‘Not true!’ she said. ‘That day on the beach, before we made love, I
told
you that I was falling for you.’