And One Makes Three (Carnal Coeds) (8 page)

He scrambled into a standing position and threw on his clothes. Becca and Gabe did the same. He watched them as they dressed and couldn’t help missing the feel of their bodies next to his. He had forgotten how much fun sex with a three people could be.

He didn’t forget the fallout, however. It hurt being told he wasn’t wanted anymore. He’d never let that much pain fill him ever again.

Becca went down to the water to gather the paddleboards as Gabe collected the blankets.

“What’s going on here?”

Lane looked up and saw his boss peek around the dune.

“Just giving a private paddleboard lesson.” Lane nodded down to where Becca was gathering the equipment. “I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?”

His boss glanced at Becca and frowned.

“It’s my day off…” Lane stuffed his hands in his pockets, unsure of what to do.

“They weren’t doing that when I saw them.” An outraged older woman said as she peeked her head around the corner.

“What were we doing?” Gabe asked as he cradled the blanket under his arms.

The woman appeared shocked. “You were all naked.”

“How did you know? Did you see us?” Gabe pressed.

“I saw enough.” She huffed and crossed her arms.

Gabe smiled. “But you didn’t
see
anything.”

“Well, I…”

Gabe raised his brows.

She turned to Lane’s boss. “Young people shouldn’t be allowed to do whatever they want out in the open like this. It’s indecent.”

Lane’s boss sighed and ran his hand over his face. “All right, ma’am. They’ve had their warning. Now let’s leave them be.”

“Warning? Shouldn’t they be thrown out?”

“For paddleboarding?” Lane’s boss asked.

“No. For that-that other thing.”

“There’s no proof of what you think you saw,” Gabe said.

“What I saw!” The woman frowned as Lane’s boss put his hand on her back.

“If I see them do anything like that in the future, I’ll take the proper action then.” Lane’s boss gave him a poignant look. “Come on, Ms. Garrison. Let’s leave them be.”

The old woman sputtered and complained as Lane’s boss led her away.

“Whew, that was close.” Gabe pushed his hair from his face.

“Yeah. Thanks.” Lane offered him a shy smile. “I could have gotten in a lot of trouble if you didn’t step in.”

“No problem.” Gabe reached out as if to touch Lane but then seemed to think better of it. He glanced down the beach at Becca as she was making her way back to them with one of the paddleboards.

“Text me later, okay?” Gabe asked as he returned his attention to Lane. “We need to talk.”

“Okay.”

“Did I miss anything?” Becca asked as she caught up to them.

“Nothing noteworthy.” Gabe took the paddleboard from her. “I’ll bring this back to the car.”

Lane watched Gabe’s muscular form as he made his way back to the parking lot with the paddleboard.

“Well,” Becca said after a moment. “I suppose I should get the other boards.”

“Yeah.” Something bothered Lane about this situation, but he wasn’t quite sure what. He placed his hand on Becca’s arm as she started to retreat.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“I’m fine. Why?” She pulled her arm out of his grasp.

He shook his head. “No reason.” He followed her down to the other paddleboards, his mind filled with confusion. She and Gabe were already distancing themselves from him. While he had known today would only be a one-time thing, Becca’s actions seemed to drive the fact home.

He helped Becca retrieve the boards and escorted her back to the car. With each step, Lane’s heart felt heavier and heavier in his chest.

Why did he think he could keep his heart out of this? He already had feelings for Gabe, thanks to their interlude in the alley and their constant sexting. After spending time with Becca today, he was beginning to develop feelings for her too.

He was such an idiot.

“You and Gabe make a good couple,” he said to fill the awkward silence that had developed between them.

The question seemed to take her off guard. “What? Oh yes, I suppose it looks like that to some. Looks can be deceiving, however.”

“How so?”

She shrugged. “We’ve been having problems.”

“In the bedroom,” he said when she didn’t respond. “Gabe told me.”

“Yeah, there’s that.” She pressed her lips together for a moment in thought. “But it’s more than that. He used to lack confidence.”

“Used to?”

Color stained her cheeks. “I don’t know what happened, but over the past week, he seems like a different guy.”

“Different? How so?”

“I don’t know. He’s more in control, I guess.” She nibbled her lower lip. “A lot more in control.”

Lane digested her words. He knew that Gabe could be controlling in the bedroom. He had seen it firsthand. “You like him like that?”

“Yeah, I really do.” She glanced sideways at him. “What about you? Any girlfriends back at home?”

“No,” Lane said as he thought about the couple who dumped him. “There’s no one.”

“You said you went to school south of here.”

“In Virginia.”

“Then why do you spend your summer here? Why not down in Virginia with your friends?”

Lane didn’t like where this conversation was going. “I don’t have any friends down there.”

“Why not?”

He shrugged. Lane didn’t want to talk about his failures, not today. “I think I need to focus on something else for a while.” She didn’t need to know Lane had failed in his duties as a lifeguard, or that his lovers preferred to spend time in each other’s arms rather than his.

 “Took you two long enough,” Gabe said as they approached. Lane helped put the paddleboards in the back of the car and watched Becca get into the passenger seat.

“Call me,” Gabe mouthed as he put his hand to his ear in the universal sign of a phone.

Lane nodded and stepped back from the car as Gabe got in.

Call him.
Yeah right. Why bother? Gabe has said that this was a one-time thing. It was a way to let go and have fun, a way to bring both Gabe and Becca closer together.

Judging by the way Becca snuggled up to Gabe in the front of the car, it seemed to have worked. They got what they needed, and once again, Lane was left standing alone.

Lane took another step back as the car roared to life. Country music blared over the radio and tugged at his chest.

He had hoped that by moving, he could hide from his past, but the pain had caught up with him and forced him to face the truth.

Happiness never happened to people like him. Lane was forever destined to be alone.

* * * * *

“So what did you think of today?” Gabe asked Becca over a bowl of curry at Thai Heaven, Becca’s favorite restaurant. He had decided to bring her there to talk about Lane and their experience at the beach. He wanted everything to be perfect, because what he was planning on suggesting was sure to shock her.

“I liked it.” She moved her rice around her plate. “What did you think?”

“I liked it too.” He cleared his throat and picked at his food. He had thought suggesting a more permanent threesome would be so much easier than this.

“Lane’s from Virginia, did you know that?” she asked.

“Yes. He went to school there.” Gabe had found that out through one of their many phone conversations.

“Do you know if he’s ever planning on going back?”

“I don’t know. He never mentioned it.” Gabe frowned and put down his fork. He had never really thought about Lane leaving, but Becca’s words gave him pause. What if Lane was only up here for the summer? What if he was planning on going back to Virginia?

“It’s a shame that he goes to school so far away. I could see us becoming close.”

Gabe leaned closer and lowered his voice. “Really?”

She nodded.

“Like, how close?” He rested his forearms on the table.

She shrugged and put down her fork. “I don’t know. Close.”

“Like, permanent threesome close?”

She blinked at him, and Gabe realized that his words might have taken her a little off guard.

“You’d do that? Consider a permanent threesome?” she asked.

“I—well, with Lane, sure.”

“But you were so jealous when we were together the other day.”

“I got over it.” He took her hand. “I wasn’t jealous today, was I?”

She seemed to think that one over a bit. “No,” she agreed. “I just thought it wasn’t your thing.”

He squeezed her fingers. “Well, there’s a lot about me you don’t know.” He let out a long breath as Lane’s smooth, muscular body materialized in his mind. “I wouldn’t be into just any old threesome. Lane’s different though.”

She leaned in over the table. “But he’s going away at the end of the summer.”

“Do you know that for a fact?”

“Well, no.”

“Perhaps we could convince him to stay.”

“But he has a life, friends.”

“He could transfer.
We
could be his friends.” He lifted her hand and brushed his lips against her fingers. “This is right, I know it.”

“He’ll never agree.”

“We won’t know unless we ask him.”

She smiled and squeezed his fingers. “Then what are you waiting for?” She nodded to his pocket, where he kept his phone. “Ask him.”

Gabe let go of her hand. “This isn’t the type of thing to text someone. It’s too big.”

She thought for a moment. “Plan another paddleboarding lesson. We can ask him then.”

“Good idea.” Gabe pulled out his phone and called up Lane’s number.

Hey. You there?

Gabe didn’t have to wait long for a response.
Yeah, what’s up?

I was talking to Becca. She wants another paddleboard lesson.
Gabe hesitated, then put a winking smiley face at the end of the statement. Hopefully Lane would catch the hint.

Seconds passed with no response.

“What is he saying?” Becca asked.

“I don’t know.” Lane’s text flashed on the screen. “Hold on a sec.” He frowned as he read Lane’s response. “He said that he didn’t want to do another paddleboarding lesson.”

“Oh.”

Gabe’s heart thudded in his chest as he looked down at his phone.

Is there something wrong?
he texted.

No, a threesome just isn’t my thing.

Gabe sat back in his chair, stunned. “He said that he didn’t think a threesome was his thing.” Fuck. Gabe had been so worried about Becca not liking the idea of a threesome. He never considered that Lane might be the one to back away. What the hell was he supposed to do now?

Becca couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Give me the phone.”

Gabe pressed the phone into her hand. Becca shook her head. She loved Gabe, but the man was no good under pressure. She quickly scanned the texts and then started typing.

This is Becca. Where are you?

There was a moment’s hesitation.
At Flourish.

She furrowed her brow.
The bar?

Yeah.

Stay right there, I’m coming over.
She handed Gabe back his phone. “Let me handle this.”

He stared at her, stunned. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to go talk to him. He was fine on the beach, so something must have happened after that.”

Gabe nodded and stood. “Let me go with you.”

Becca put her hand on his chest. “No, I think it’s better if I do this alone.” She winced at Gabe’s hurt expression. “He might not open up if we’re both there, jumping all over him. If it’s just me, then maybe I can get him to talk about his concerns.”

Gabe nodded. “You were always better at soothing people.”

“Right.” She stood on her tiptoes and kissed Gabe’s cheek. “I’ll call you after and let you know what’s going on.”

“Okay. Just don’t be too long.” He pulled her up against him and rubbed his swollen cock against her lower abdomen. “I get lonely.”

“I know.” Heat spread through her body as he kissed her, but she pushed it aside. There wasn’t time for this now. She had work to do. “I’ll call soon.” She patted his cheek and left the restaurant. Once outside, she hailed a taxi and stepped into the back.

“To
Flourish
,” she said. “And step on it.”

Chapter Eight

It took Becca a long time to find Lane.
Flourish
, like the rest of the bars along the boardwalk, was packed. Some indie band was playing cover music, and young patrons gyrated to the beat with colorful drinks in their hands.

Lane was a dark hole in the colorful landscape. Customers instinctively left him alone, creating a circle of space around him at the bar. He wore black and nursed a bottle of domestic beer. Becca watched as some girl tried to flirt with him, but he shooed her away. The man looked downright depressed.

“Is this seat taken?” she asked.

Lane looked up and stared at her for a long moment before responding. “No, I suppose not.”

She smiled and took the bar seat next to him. After giving the bartender her order—a glass of white wine—she turned to face hum. “What’s going on?”

He shrugged and played with the paper label on his beer.

“Why don’t you want to give me another paddleboarding lesson?”

He frowned and glanced up at her. “You seem to be doing fine on your own. You don’t need me.”

She leaned her elbow on the bar and rested her chin in her hands. “What makes you say that?”

He returned to playing with the end of his beer label. “You have Gabe to teach you how to paddleboard. You don’t need me.”

Becca sensed they were talking about more than water sports. She placed her hand over his and waited for him to look up and meet her gaze. “Gabe and I have tried to do things on our own before, but it never felt right. When you came along, everything seemed to fall into place.”

He pulled his hands away from hers. “So you’re telling me that you need me in order to make things feel right between the two of you.”

“That’s right.”

“You want to keep using me so that you can keep having those warm fuzzies with your boyfriend.” He shook his head and took a long sip of beer. “That’s seriously fucked up.”