~ 20 ~
PEYTON
Sunlight spilled over the deck like warm butter, illuminating everything I’d been avoiding all morning. Fresh fruit. Hot coffee. Some kind of jam, spread over bread thicker than two of my thumbs put together. It all smelled so good, it should be illegal.
“Morning, boys.”
I crossed the room, the silk robe I’d put on dancing around the tops of my bare thighs. In truth, I hadn’t been avoiding anything. In fact I was looking forward to it. I was just so damned tired. And rightfully so.
“Who the hell butchered this mango?”
Theo, sitting beside the knife, was the obvious culprit. He wrinkled his nose as I picked at the savaged piece of yellow-orange fruit, and laughed.
“One day I’ll show you the proper way to cut it,” I admonished him, popping it into my mouth. It tasted sweet and tangy and just as delicious as everything else, here in paradise. “Not like this, though.”
Ipassed Ripley, who was shirtless of course, leaning against our little outdoor cabana. He had his arms folded casually, smirking like the cat who’d swallowed the canary. I blew him a kiss, in full view of the others.
“So, did everyone get enough of me last night?”
His smirk disappeared in an instant. He and Theo exchanged a concerned look, then glanced at Colson.
“Oh, don’t worry about him,” I teased. “He’s no angel. He got his turn, too.”
Theo’s jaw hit the floor. Ripley’s expression likewise took a hard left into confusion.
Shit, this was way more fun than I realized.
“He…he did?”
“Hell yeah,” I winked at Colson. “We got clean together, in the shower. Then dirty. Then clean again.”
I plucked the cup of coffee from Theo’s frozen hand and took a sip. The poor guy still hadn’t moved.
“Oh, come on now,” I began. “Are you really that surprised? After what the two ofyoudid to me?”
I stretched lovingly toward the sun, extending my arms, then hands, then fingers. The hem of my robe rode up a bit, barely covering the bottom of my ass. As expected, it didn’t go unnoticed.
“Pretty sure you did some stuff to us as well,” Ripley answered, without missing a beat.
“Well,” I admitted, with a guilty shrug. “When in Rome…”
Theo’s hands moved mechanically as I handed his coffee back to him. For the second time in as many days, he’dactually closed his laptop.
“I hate all of you, by the way.”
Ripley’s resulting smile made something warm bloom in my stomach.
“That’s not what you said last night.”
“Yeah, well I’m telling you now.”
Theo looked genuinely worried. “Why?”
“Why?” I laughed. “Really?”
Birds chirped exotically, somewhere in the distance. All three men were staring back at me in silence.
“Do you know how awesome last night was?” I asked, storming my way to the coffee pot. “How totally fucking legendary?”
