Still hazed, she glanced from one to the other. They looked smug, and very pleased with themselves, but she couldn't find it in her to be in the least bit annoyed by that. Yes, they were a pair of sexual pirates, if not usually, well at least on this holiday. They'd selected her as a likely playmate for their threesome games, possibly even targeted her as a lone and needy woman. But still her gut feeling was that there was nothing fundamental venal about either man. They were pleasure lovers, and pleasure givers, out for fun, but still basically caring and decent.
They were what they were. They weren't hiding anything. Their honesty was refreshing, and a relief after what had happened recently.
The shade of Jim drifted into her mind, but seemed insubstantial. It was as if she'd only imagined him, while Ed and Denny were real, oh so real.
Yes, real men, both with erections.
"So what now?" She sat up, her momentary exhaustion fading, only to be replaced a new energy, and astonishingly, fresh desire.
Here she was with the two most gorgeous hunks on the island, and the night was beautiful and young.
"Let's go for a walk on the beach," said Denny, "I fancy making love beneath the stars."
ACT THREE
It wasn't what Laurie had expected, but somehow, ten minutes later, as they strolled along the strand together, it was right. It was better than right. It was perfect… and also scary and daring.
"What if someone sees up?"
The question had to be asked, and Laurie, as the newcomer in this trio, knew she was the one who had to ask it.
"Oh tish pooh," said Denny airily, "everybody's holed up in their cabanas at night shagging, and even if they aren't, nobody's going to complain, are they?" He waggled his sandy eyebrows at them both, and Laurie and Ed exchanged despairing looks. It was already strangely easy to do that. She'd never before felt that she fitted in, so quickly and so easily.
"This is a lovers' resort," he went on, "and we're just fulfilling the remit. Sex on the beach is almost compulsory, I'd say."
They'd already covered quite a bit of ground along the pale, moonlit beach, even though they were just ambling along in their loose group of three. Barefoot, and with their feet dusted with the fine white sand, they trudged in a line abreast. Ed wore just in his jeans and his chest gleamed in dramatic light. Under his arm he carried a rolled up beach blanket. Denny was still fully dressed apart from his shoes and socks, and was toting a plastic drinking bottle filled with rum, lime cordial and ice cubes, in case they should need a little "refreshment". With nothing to carry herself, Laurie had restored order to her dress, but abandoned her bra and knickers back at the cabana. They didn't really seem necessary any more.
"If you say so," she answered, meeting Denny's eye.
"I do say so." His grin was broad and puckish, irresistible. "And even if we do get slung off the island, all we have to do is hop on a plane, hole up at our London place, and shag each others' brains out there instead."
"Do you have other places too?" She hadn't pegged being a professor of volcanology as a lucrative employment, but clearly it was.
"Oh, Denny has places all over the place," Ed chipped in, reaching around to give his lover a playful thump on the shoulder, "His family is rolling in it. Titles up the wazoo." As Laurie turned around, walking backwards for a step or two, to watch their by-play, Denny gave Ed a mock threatening glare. "His real name is the Honorable Edmund St. John Denbeigh James, don't you know."
"So you're a toff?" Laurie challenged.
"Pah!" said Denny, kicking a plume of sand in Ed's direction, before scanning the beach ahead of them. "Look, there's a spot… a nice hollow, if you're worried about being watched all of a sudden." He gave Laurie a wink. "We just need those bloody seagulls to vamoose."
With that, he took off along the beach with a soft whoop, clearly intent on getting the seabirds to vacate his chosen trysting place by means of waving his bottle at them.
Laurie couldn't help but grin. Aristocrat or otherwise, there was something free and happy and young about the beautiful blond man that touched the heart. No wonder Ed adored him. Who wouldn't? She turned to her companion and wasn't the least bit surprised to see Ed looking in his lover's direction with such a fond expression in his eyes that Laurie felt almost teary.
"You love him, don't you?"
"Yes, I do… He's all the world to me," said Ed simply, still smiling in Denny's direction.
"It's obvious he feels the same. I can tell, and I barely know either of you." She followed his gaze, watching Denny, who'd strolled into the sea now he'd vanquished the gulls, and was kicking around in the shallows. "I still wonder what… well, what you need me for though. You're such a perfect pair. I'd have thought you wouldn't need anybody but each other."
Ed paused for thought, and then turned to her, with a little shrug. "Mostly we don't need anyone else. We have all we need in each other." He looked skyward for a moment, as if looking for a way to express what he meant. "But every now and again, one or the other of us will just have a yearning for the shape of a woman, for the voice of a woman. I don't know… for that special way of looking at the world that a woman has." His eyes met hers, very level and serious now. "There used to be a girl, Anya… we all lived together for a while, and we got on really well. It seemed as if it was going to last, but then she met a guy at the college where she worked, and fell for him, and she wanted a conventional life with him." He shrugged again. "We were happy for her. Still are. And she's doing great with her new husband."
"I see," said Laurie, sort of seeing. She looked up at the beautiful night sky, and then across the white beach, to the equally beautiful man who'd abandoned his splashing and who was walking back towards them, his face alight with joy and mischief. Then, she flipped her gaze to the man at her side.
I'm so lucky tonight. I couldn't ask for anything better. Even if I never see these two again, I'll remember this for the rest of my life, and be glad of it.
"See. Birds all sorted. Beverage shaken not stirred," said Denny, setting down the bottle and then whisking the rug out of Ed's hands. He surveyed the newly cleared area then spread out the thick, capacious square of tartan cloth. The perfect size for three. Grasping both their hands, he pulled the two of them down beside him.
But no sooner had he settled them, and given each a peck on the cheek, than he was up again, grinning and shrugging out of his waistcoat. With an animal grace, he peeled off his shirt, and stepped out of his trousers, and then in the wink of an eye, he'd whipped off his snug white underwear too. Giving them just a second or two first to admire him, he flopped down onto the rug, and struck a pose that would have made an odalisque envious.
Bloody hell… you're gorgeous.
She'd seen both men naked last night, of course, but there was a big difference between spying on them from a distance, and being up close, up close enough to touch. Denny's body was wonderful, smooth and toned, not a muscle-man, but developed in all the right places. His cock was thick and eager, rising hard.
"Well then?" He nodded at the surfeit of clothing that Laurie and Ed still wore.
Ed waggled his eyebrows and grinned, his fingers flying to his jeans' zipper.
"Um… yeah, right." Even after the things they'd done, Laurie still felt a little nervous, stripping off here on a public beach. They'd walked a good way from the resort, but there still might be some restless, lonely, or insomniac person walking this way.
"Go on, gorgeous, you can do it. You're delicious. We want to see all of you." Denny's smile was seductive and challenging, although Laurie couldn't really concentrate on it, because her eyes were fatally drawn to his cock, and the way he was unashamedly giving it a frisk.