Page 84 of Van Cort

Rhett raked over the fire, loosening it so he could throw more wood on. He stared, long and hard at the embers and flames, sinking the rest of his bottle without any conversation.

Until.

“How well do you think you know us, Lara?” he asked.

She nuzzled into West and chuckled quietly. “Very well. I should do after all this time.”

Rhett got up and reached for another bottle of beer. “No, you don’t. I bet you couldn’t tell which one of us was which if we tested you.”

“We’ve done that a few times. I always know. Besides, you’re wearing different clothes.” Rhett stared at her, a slight lift to the corner of his mouth. “What?” she asked.

He pulled his sweater off and started ripping at the arm of it, eventually straining the stitching so much that the arm peeled from the rest of it. He held it up.

“If you can’t see us, how would you know?”

West laughed quietly, as Lara stiffened a little. “That’s a good call. Let’s play.”

“You want to blindfold me?”

West squeezed her thigh. “Yes.”

“Take your clothes off,” Rhett said.

Lara looked between the two of them. “Out here?”

West shifted in his seat and got up, taking Lara with him until he was standing so he could put her down. “Yes.” He didn’t waste any time getting himself naked, and Rhett just stared at Lara until she got the hint and started removing her clothes.

Some parts of them stripping were full of giggles. It’s not like they hadn’t skinny dipped before. And they all knew each other naked well enough. But West knew that wasn’t what was going through Rhett’s mind. Laracouldtell the difference between them. She’d become astute regarding them. She knew the pressure they preferred, the way they kissed, the feel of force on her skin or none. The only way she wouldn’t understand which one was which was by one of the brothers being different than normal. West knew Rhett wouldn’t change a thing about himself – ever. Which meant he’d have to. She was in for one hell of a fucking.

When both of them were naked, Rhett moved over to her, still in his jeans and boots, and tied the arm of his sweater aroundher head to cover her eyes. She stood patiently, trusting that nothing the brothers did would harm her. But when Rhett went to West’s sweater and ripped both arms off it and then tied them around her wrists and made a knot to fasten her to a tree, West wasn’t sure what was going on.

“It’s a bit tight,” she said, wrenching at her wrists to ease the bind.

Rhett didn’t reply.

West frowned, but the sight of her there, bound to a tree and helpless, made him smile, regardless. He thought back to that moment on the rock all those years ago, when that first kiss had meant everything to him and nothing to her. Maybe now was time for some payback.

Rhett lifted his chin at West, indicating that West should go first. He made a fist, squeezed his fingers tightly. West knew what it meant. Pressure. It meant pressure, and more than West would usually apply. He obliged with a smile on his face, interested in how far he’d be able to push Lara. He’d never wanted to before. Sex was always about passion and adrenalin and making her feel as good as him, but he’d watched Rhett with her enough. It was nothing like that.

His fingers landed on her, and he bit them in a little too hard.

She smiled. “West.”

Rhett laughed behind him and started taking his clothes off. “We walk differently.”

“We do?” West replied.

Lara giggled. “Yes. You’re louder than he is.”

“Louder?”

“Stompy.”

“I am not stompy.”

“You so are.”

Rhett arrived by his side, while Lara carried on giggling, and took hold of her upper arm, harshly. She flinched, then relaxed.