“Great.” She pushed away from the table and stood. “I’m just going to clear these dishes. I can bring the cookies and coffee out on the patio, if you’d like.”

Justin nodded. “Please.”

Mari exhaled slowly as soon as she entered the privacy of the kitchen. Would every meal they share be this uncomfortable? Because Paul came over to eat regularly, and they were at his place just as often.

She was arranging cookies on a plate when the door opened and Justin slipped into the room. Without speaking, he took her elbow and spun her around, pulling her against his body. He tilted his head, finding her mouth to kiss her slowly, his tongue barely teasing her lips. Mari opened herself to the kiss automatically, her arms going around his neck. She loved the way Justin kissed. He always took his time with each caress, like he wanted to impress each one on her memory.

Mari was so caught up in the kiss, she didn’t hear the kitchen door open again. And she didn’t hear Paul’s shoes on the linoleum floor. And she didn’t know he was standing behind her until he ran his fingers down her ribs and pressed his chest against her back. She jerked out of the kiss like she had been scalded, but she didn’t have the chance to say a single word of protest before Justin was kissing her again.

It was an unfair tactic, and they both knew it. Justin was using his mouth to disarm her, to steal the oxygen from her brain until she would agree to anything. Each kiss was a little deeper, a little longer, a little more thorough, until her head was spinning, and she couldn’t tell the difference between the two men as they touched her. Her lungs burned. Her skin burned everywhere they touched her.

Clever fingers on her back, her ribs, her arms, the sides of her breasts. Nobody’s touch went too far. Neither man strayed to her nipples, her ass, her pussy, but that made it worse. She shifted her weight, grinding against Justin, but inadvertently pushing her ass against Paul’s hard cock.

Mari froze. Her mind still wanted to put a stop to this, but the second she felt the proof of Paul’s arousal, she immediately soaked her panties. Her pussy clenched and unclenched rapidly, and she could already feel him. His cock between her lips. His cock pounding into her. Every second of desire, every frustrated moment of lust, every hidden fantasy finally swept through her, and she remembered what Justin apparently couldn’t forget -- just what was missing from her sex life.

She might have moaned, or whimpered, or maybe Justin just knew every reaction of her body like he knew his own. Either way, he lifted his head at the very moment her common sense lost the battle. He looked directly into her eyes, and she looked back, unblinking.

“Why don’t we put off dessert for a little while?” he suggested.

She nodded.

“And we’ll take you upstairs.”

Mari nodded again. What else could she do, when she could taste lust, like glue, on the back of her tongue?

Justin bent his head, his mouth so close to her ear that she shivered. “Please trust me, Mari. Do you trust me?”

“Yes,” she breathed.

“I’m not going to let you go. Not even for a second.”

“I know.”

He closed his hand around hers. “Then let’s go upstairs where it’s a bit more comfortable.”

Mari risked a glance over her shoulder to Paul. His eyes were dark with desire, his mouth partly open. She thought she should say something, but she didn’t know what to say. But maybe this didn’t require anything from her. Maybe Justin had already said everything that needed to be said. Maybe she should let her body do the talking now, and her body only had one goal at that moment, one purpose.