Gilded Lily(50)

Lily eased her grip.

“Lily, I’ve never had another man—you know—touch me like that. Fuck, I didn’t know straight guys did that.” Adam plopped down on the grass, defeated. “Give me a chance to discover what it is you want from me.” He ran his fingers through his disheveled bangs.

“It’s okay, Adam.” Tony’s deep voice reassured him. “The first time Lily asked me to do it, I thought I was going to puke.”

“Then what happened?”

“I found out it felt too good to pass up.” Tony smiled and smacked Lily on the ass, making her flinch.

She stretched out beside him and nestled her nose into the crevice between his neck and shoulder. Adam looked down. Tony’s cock had risen again. Lily looked so peaceful lying next to him. Adam knew he was going to have to win back her trust. She’d been afraid he wasn’t going to accept her, and he’d made that fear come true. Nick had written about her being sensitive. Adam didn’t realize how much.

“Did my brother ever…you know, with you guys?”

Lily leaned down and whispered into Tony’s ear. Tony smiled and kissed her on the forehead. Adam waited for her to say something to him, but she never did. Tony unfastened the delicate silver chain from her collar and let her stand up. Both men watched as she walked back to the house.

“I fucked up, didn’t I?” Adam asked. God, he felt like his soul was walking back to that big house.

“Not too much. She’ll come around. The first time she asked Keith—” Adam didn’t remember Nick mentioning a Keith in any of his letters. He must have given Tony a fierce look, because Tony was quick to explain. “Her ex, Keith, was Lily’s fiancé before I ever came into the picture. He wanted Lily in counseling after she told him what she liked in bed. It took a lot of courage for her to pour her heart out like that, and the bastard made her go to a shrink. He wouldn’t discipline her either. It took my poppet down a dark road. She needs guidance with a firm hand. When she doesn’t have a strong partner, she spins out of control. By the time I got to her, she was working sixty-plus hours a week, eating only junk food on the run, and had chronic insomnia. She’s had trouble sleeping ever since her grandmother died. I think that she stopped going to the therapist because he was forcing her to open up about such a tragic event in her life. It was so traumatic that I don’t even acknowledge the subject unless she brings it up first.”

Adam rubbed the back of his neck. “She went to a psychiatrist?”

Tony lay back down. “For quite a while, from what she’s told me. At least until after she and Keith split. He had her convinced something was wrong with her. Lily opened me up, Adam. I thought I was her teacher, and I quickly found out she was mine.” Tony squinted up at Adam. “Do you care about her?”

“I’ve cared about her longer than she knows.” Adam lay on his back next to Tony. “Nick’s letters were filled with stories about his Lily Flower. I guess I fell for the woman on the pages.”

“And…”

“And what? I come here to get my brother’s things and find an intriguing, stunningly sexy, and vulnerable woman.”

“And…”

“And I don’t know. God, Tony, I have to have her. I’ve never met another woman like her. She likes to fuck as much as I do; only she doesn’t do it with men. It’s like I’m in some kind of nightmare and can’t get out.” Adam gazed up at the floating clouds. It was as if they were the same ones that floated by when he and Nick would lie on the lawn, bikes tossed aside, while they argued over which cloud looked like Darth Vader and which one looked like Yoda. His smile couldn’t quite reach its potential. He wondered if it ever would again. “I never expected this to happen.”

“What to happen?” Tony asked.

“For my ideal woman to have been my brother’s girlfriend. Or lover. Or whatever in the hell she was to him.”

Tony sat up. “What do you mean, girlfriend?”

Adam folded his arms across his chest. “I just figured Nick and Lily had slept together. But Lily told me she hadn’t been with a man in a while. She even said they hadn’t been together. So I’m not sure what went on between them.”

“Adam, I think you have the wrong idea about Lily and your brother.”

“How so?”

“Did your brother ever tell you about the people he dated?”

“Sure. There were a couple of women several years ago, but he dated around until his letters started to concentrate on Lily. I figured they were—”