Worlds Apart (31 page)

Even through the force of the shower, Taylor tasted salty, his precome leaking into her mouth. Roo ran her tongue around the smooth ridge of his cock while Niall sucked his balls. When Roo opened her mouth and swallowed his shaft as deep as she could, Taylor’s breathing became choppy. She felt Niall’s fingers moving on her throat and knew he was tracing the movement of Taylor’s cock.

“Oh fuck, fuck,” Niall grunted. “That is so hot.”

Roo pulled back, panting, and Niall took over, his cheeks hollowing as he sucked hard and took Taylor deep. And Roo did what Niall had just done, put her fingers on Niall’s neck and felt Taylor’s cock slide in his throat. Need spiraled through her and Roo slipped a hand between her legs. Without looking at her or taking his mouth from Taylor’s cock, Niall’s hand settled around her wrist and tugged her fingers away. When Roo tried to pull free, he tightened his hold and took his mouth off Taylor.

Looking straight at Roo, Niall whispered, “That’s mine.”

“I ache,” Roo wailed.

“Good.” Niall smiled.

“Hey, I’m still here. You haven’t finished with me yet,” Taylor said.

“Come on our faces.” Roo looked up at him and Taylor’s breathing became more ragged.

With no hesitation, he wrapped his fingers around his cock and began to pump and twist as he looked into their eyes. A vein pulsed at Taylor’s temple. Roo ran her tongue over her upper lip and stared straight at him.

“Christ,” Taylor gasped and ribbons of come flew to splatter Niall and then Roo when she pushed Niall out of the way.

Taylor snorted and tried to aim the next jet at Niall.

“Ooh,
Top Gun
.” Roo chortled and licked her lips, licked Niall’s lips and then Taylor pulled them both up to join in.

“Our very own porn star,” Taylor whispered to Roo. “Do you have any idea how sexy you are?”

“You didn’t think that when you first met me.”

“Even as a chicken you were irresistible.” Taylor licked the water from her eyelashes and turned her to face Niall. “I want to watch you fuck her.”

“Don’t blink,” Niall said, his hand pushing down on his balls.

The look on Niall’s face was a mix of desire and desperation. Roo almost pinched herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. Even as her sensible part kept saying
This won’t last
, the part of her brain she most listened to told her
Seize every chance for joy that you can
.

Niall lifted Roo by the hips, and as he shifted her against the wall next to Taylor, she raised her legs and wrapped them around him. When Niall pressed the crown of his cock against her folds, he groaned as if the world were ending. Roo slid her arms around his back and kissed him, digging her heels in the muscles of his butt.

“Roo,” Niall whispered her name, drawing it out like a caress.

Taylor slid behind her and supported her as Niall worked into her slowly, prolonging the entry. Roo gulped against his mouth, tangled in the kiss.
Bliss, bliss, bliss.
Her head turned to mist as heat gathered inside her and liquefied her organs. Niall spread his legs, changed the angle and pressed in a little deeper. It was as if he’d pushed the air from her body, and Roo threw back her head to take a breath.

Then as Taylor licked her neck, Niall began to move, small, gentle thrusts that quickly grew longer and harder. With every drive of his cock, she tightened her muscles around his shaft and he panted into her face. Roo crossed her legs on his back and clung on as Niall began to pound into her and Taylor slid away. Her breath hitched as Niall went deep, the feeling—
Oh fuck. No condom.

As if he’d realized at the same time, Niall froze and buried his face in her hair as he clutched her. “It’s okay. Sorry. I forgot,” he whispered. “But I can’t get you pregnant and I’m clean. Trust me.”

Roo took a contraceptive pill but she’d never had sex without protection. And she knew better than to trust any guy who said
trust me
particularly when it related to contraception. But something told her to believe Niall.

Taylor moved closer. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Roo said, and smiled at Niall.

He should have stopped. He could have pulled out and put a condom on, but he didn’t want to. Roo felt perfect and he wasn’t lying. He couldn’t pass on any disease, though he wasn’t sure about the pregnancy part. He doubted it could happen, but he didn’t
know
. Though he barely moved inside Roo, his cock sang with the pleasure of each slide. He could feel the texture of her cunt, the wet folds caressing his cock, his precome mixing with her cream.

Niall slid his hands under her thighs so he could pull her down more strongly, and each time their bodies pressed together, his need to come grew more powerful, the grip tightening on his body, creeping through his limbs. Roo’s fingers threaded his hair, stroked his face, held his head. Niall wanted to do this forever, to never let her go.

Roo is our center, our balance, our heart.

The moment that thought came into his head, his tattoo burned like acid and Niall’s knees buckled.

Taylor slid behind him, his hands on his hips as if he’d sensed Niall had a problem. He did. Poison leached into him from every mark on his body, and if Roo and Taylor looked closely enough, they’d see the tattoo grow. But even that pain wasn’t enough to stop him coming. As Roo flew and tightened around him, the muscles of her sex pulling at his cock, fire licked up his spine, flared in his belly and Niall exploded inside her.

They clung together and Niall knew that without Taylor holding him, he’d have collapsed. The aftershocks of release were overwhelmed by the hurt in his body, and Niall had no choice but to lift Roo off his cock before he sank to the floor of the shower. He hadn’t expected Taylor to let him fall. Niall groaned when his knees collided with tile.

“You stupid fucker,” Taylor snapped. “What the bloody—”

Niall saw a fist coming toward him but Roo grabbed Taylor’s arm. “Don’t. It’s okay.”

“It’s not fucking okay. He didn’t use a condom.”

Roo moved between him and Taylor. “It’s my fault as much as Niall’s. We got carried away. I’m on the Pill. I trust Niall. I trust you. Don’t make this an issue.”

Roo bent at his side. “You okay?” She reached to turn off the water and laid a hand on his forehead. “Wow, you’re burning up.” As she touched his neck, he gritted his teeth. When she ran her fingers down his tattoo, Niall groaned.

“Why is this so hot?” Roo asked.

He couldn’t speak, even if he’d wanted to tell her. A message from his mother. Perfect fucking timing.

“Stop sulking and feel him, Taylor. He’s too hot.”

Niall cringed as Taylor ran his hand down his leg, the brush of his fingers like sharp needles.

“What’s wrong?” Taylor asked, sounding worried now.

“An infection from the tattoo?” Roo suggested.

Bright girl.
Though she’d never guess the truth. Niall closed his eyes.
Shit, it hurts.

Taylor shook his head. “Maybe if it was new, but I don’t think it is. It’s not red and inflamed, it looks—blacker if anything. Sharper.”

“Could it be some sort of fit, an allergy to the soap? Do we need to call an ambulance?” Roo asked, clutching at Niall’s hand.

“Niall?”

“No,” Niall grunted.

“Don’t try to talk yet.” Roo squeezed his fingers.

“Let’s get him to bed,” Taylor said.

Between them, they helped Niall to the bedroom and he lay on his back, gasping like a fish. The pain was fading now and he had to think of a lie to tell them before they called someone and made matters worse. Roo wiped a towel over his face then down his body, wicking away the moisture, avoiding his tattoo. Any fabrication would have to include something about that damned mark.

Taylor wasn’t so careful in the way he handled Niall. He touched the tattoo on his leg and Niall writhed.

“Is it the tattoo?” Taylor asked.

Niall kept his eyes closed.

“Should we call the doctor? Take him to the hospital?” Roo asked, panic clear in her voice. “Maybe he’s been poisoned. You said he was hiding. What if he’s been found? He could have been stabbed by a poisoned umbrella, or maybe picked something in the garden that was coated in a drug. We need to do something.”

Niall opened his eyes, grabbed her hand and squeezed hard.

“No?” she asked.

He squeezed again and managed to shake his head once, though the action brought on a fresh burst of pain.

“Niall, do you have medicine?” Taylor asked. “Upstairs in your room?”

“I’ll go look.” Roo dashed out.

I don’t have the energy to sustain the mirage.

Taylor took his hand and stroked the back of it with his thumb. “Why didn’t you tell me you were sick?”

“Sorry,” Niall whispered.
Sorry about everything.
He shouldn’t have come back. He’d made matters worse and he wasn’t sure he could stand a week of this pain.

Taylor kissed his forehead. “You don’t have anything to be sorry about. But I think we need the truth now, mate. Otherwise I’m going to carry you to the car and drive you to the nearest hospital whether you like it or not.”

Roo raced up the stairs, burst through the door into Niall’s room and came to a crashing halt. She’d thought this was his room but it couldn’t be. The attic was practically bare except for a pile of blankets in one corner topped by a blue cushion. She frowned. If Niall had been sharing with Taylor, wouldn’t he have said and not let her rush up here?

As Roo stepped over the threshold, the room seemed to shimmer and the outlines of the sorts of things she’d expected to see took shape. A bed, a chest of drawers, a wardrobe.
What?
Roo blinked and rubbed her eyes. No, the room was almost empty. That was weird. Roo headed for the corner and lifted the blankets to check for a bottle of pills, but her attention was snagged by something else. Hanging from the eaves, dangling a couple of feet above the makeshift bed was a tatty blue-and-white plane.

Was that the one Stephanie had written about?

Roo ran back down the stairs and into the bedroom. Niall was sitting up, leaning against the headboard and looked less pale.

She took a deep breath and stared straight at him. “I didn’t find anything.”

Niall’s cheek twitched.

Taylor turned to Niall. “No medication?”

Roo sat on the bed. “No, I mean I didn’t find
anything
. There’s nothing up there. No bed, no clothes. Just a few blankets and dust bunnies.” She turned to Taylor. “And your toy plane.”

Niall caught hold of her hand and squeezed. Was he trying to tell her something?

“What the hell are you talking about?” Taylor snapped. “Did you look in a bloody cupboard?”

Roo bristled. “No, I didn’t. It was the attic and it was empty.”

Taylor hesitated and then left the room. Roo heard him running up the stairs. She turned to Niall. “You said you’d been here six months. Where’s all your stuff?”

Niall summoned the energy to grunt a few words. “How d’you know…Taylor’s plane?”

Ooops.
Blue and white. She’d assumed it was the plane Stephanie had written about, but Roo still hadn’t come clean about the book. “I said
your
plane. I didn’t say Taylor’s.”

“You looked at him.”

Taylor came clattering back. “What the hell was that about? Bed, wardrobe, chair, clothes all over the place. No pills though. Unless they’re in a drawer?”

“No pills,” Niall said.

Roo frowned.
Had
she somehow gone into the wrong room? A door she’d missed?

“Are you okay now?” Taylor asked Niall.

“Pain’s going.”

“So what was it?” Taylor asked.

“You think I could have…a coffee and some toast?” Niall asked.

He lifted a shaking hand to his head and dragged his fingers through his hair.

Taylor sighed. “Okay.”

“I’ll stay,” Roo said.

“Go help him. Give me a minute,” Niall said. “Please.”

Roo sighed but pushed herself off the bed and put on the white shirt Niall had been wearing the night before.

Taylor stepped into boxers and followed her out of the room.

“Are
you
okay?” he asked as they went downstairs.

Roo took his hand. “If Niall wasn’t ill, I’d say I felt fantastic.”

“Good.” He tugged her to the kitchen. “We’re going to have to work on him to tell us the truth, who he’s hiding from and why, and explain what the hell just happened in the shower. There’s nothing that can’t be sorted out. Well, not much. As long as he’s not murdered anyone. We need to persuade him to talk to us.”

“You’d better bring a sledgehammer up with breakfast.”

Taylor smiled. “I’ll do the toast while you make the drinks. Hey, what was that crap about the attic being empty?”

Roo furrowed her brow as she pulled mugs from the cupboard. “Is there another room up there? A split attic?”

“No.”