Chapter 27
Lucy
Ihave younger brothers, so it’s not like I’ve never seen one person lunge after another. Mary had a penchant for chasing me around the house—anytime I abused my little-sister privileges and borrowed a Hollister tank top, a tube of lipstick, or her favorite body wash without asking.
But this is nothing like the little spats between my siblings that my parents have had to referee over the years.
This is a fully grown, muscular man—Dane—lunging after another fully-grown, and slightly less muscular man. Cole drops his controller on the couch, and it selects a new game behind us, so the TV chimes happily and starts the soundtrack for Coconut Mall. It’s absurd.
“You fucker,” Dane hisses when Cole ducks out of his way and turns around, his hand held up carefully. Cole is agile, on the balls of his feet, but Dane has more power. Dane is going for Cole, and Nico is going for Dane, yelling, “Down, boy!”
It’s complete chaos, and it looks like Cole might manage to keep away from Dane. Then, he hits his hip against the corner of the couch, lets out a curse, and Dane hooks an arm around the other man’s neck, dragging him to the ground like a pro-wrestler.
“Ohmygod, ohmygod,” I scream, jumping from foot to foot like the floor is on fire. The men are on the hardwoods now, Dane looking like he’s going to choke Cole, Cole striking back at him, and Nico groaning, holding his jaw where he must have taken a hit.
It’s at this moment, mere seconds into the fight, that I stop screaming, panic finally igniting into action.
I have to do something. I have to keep Dane from killing Cole, keep Nico from getting chewed up in the middle of it.
Cole manages to squirm free from Dane for a split second, and I take the opportunity, falling forward and crawling over his body. Dane is already in the process of trying to do the same—to get a few punches in on Cole’s face, maybe?—so I end up draped over Cole, back covered by Dane.
“Lucy,” Dane growls, and without thinking, I bring my elbow up and back.
It connects with his face.
“Ah, fuck.” It’s a low, deep hiss, then the heat of him behind me is gone. I’m instantly spinning around, not really cognizant of the fact that I’m now sitting in Cole’s lap, reaching my hands out to Dane.
He’s just behind me, his hand on his face.
“Dane, ohmygod, sorry… I wasn’t trying to…” Mortifyingly, a sob catches in my throat, and I dart a glance to Nico. “I just didn’t want you to kill Cole—”
Nico, who’s been knocked on his ass just to the left of us, has one leg thrown over Cole’s lap, like he was trying to use the same separation tactic as me, but I got there first. He’s breathing hard, and there’s a trickle of blood running down his chin from a split lip.
“He wasn’t going to kill him,” Nico quickly responds.
At the same time, Dane grunts, muffled through the hand over his nose, “I would never really hurt him, Lucy.”
“Fucking liar,” Cole grunts, too, and I feel the vibration of it from under my ass, which reminds me that I’m sitting in his lap.
His hands rise to my hips, and I don’t miss the way Dane’s eyes dart down to the contact, burning with…
what? Possession? Anger? Hunger? “Remember when you threw my cards away?”
“It was an accident,” Nico and Dane chorus, but Cole shakes his head like he doesn’t believe them.
Somehow, in a way that reminds me a lot of a fight between siblings, they’ve gone from actual blows to reminders of a shared past. Huffed laughs. A reluctant, casual truce.
Well, maybe truce isn’t the right word. I’m sitting backward in Cole’s lap, with Nico’s leg practically on top of me, with Dane close enough that I would only need to lean forward a fraction to kiss him.
“So,” Nico says, finally, breaking the silence in a way I imagine he often does. “We should probably sort this thing out.”
The guys glance at one another, Cole’s hands flex on my hips again, and I realize they’re having some sort of silent conversation through eye contact. Then, I realize the conversation is about me.
And, finally, it becomes clear that each of them knows. They’re aware of the fact that I’ve been with each of them—though, of course, my time with Cole didn’t end with sex.
My face flames hot, and I feel that shame following me all the way from Lancaster, Missouri. It burns through me like I’m sitting in front of our pastor, listening to a pointed sermon about chastity and purity. Protecting innocence.
“Dane would never go along with it,” Nico says, out loud, pulling their conversation from the weird telekinesis and into the air around us. Looking right at me, he says, “The man doesn’t know how to share.”
“We share everything else,” Cole says, and I feel the hum of his words through my body. The space around us is charged with all that potential energy I felt before, with Dane. It’s my body leaning into the next moment, sure that something amazing is going to happen.
What do I want to happen?
“Not happening.” Dane’s voice is hard, exacting. He pointedly does not look at me.
“Don’t think about what you should want,” Nico says, narrowing his eyes at Dane. “Just think about what you do want, man.”
Dane shoots Nico a glare and pushes his leg away, which just brings it closer to me. I resist the urge to rest my hands on his skin, to touch him. My palm still remembers anchoring on his thigh when I was sucking his cock.
Jesus.
Despite everything—the blood on Nico’s cheek, the adrenaline of the fight—I’m actually turned on right now.
Or, maybe, it’s not despite the fight, but because of it.
“Fuck,” I mutter to myself, realizing they’re all looking at me. Watching me. Waiting for an answer to this crazy question. “I need—I need some space.”
The effect is instant. Dane and Nico scoot back, and Cole manages to sit up, lifting me and depositing me on the ground like I weigh nothing at all.
He scoots back as well, until we’re all facing one another, eyes darting around, the space between us an empty reminder of the fight that just took place.
“Lucy,” Dane says, his gaze firmly on the floor. “This is an HR nightmare. If you’re uncomfortable, we can call the plane back. Get you home. If you want to resign, we’ll ensure you have the full severance package—”
“Jesus Christ, man,” Nico whispers, a touch of amusement to his tone, as always. But there’s also something else there. Annoyance? Or, it’s like there’s a bad taste in his mouth, but he’s hiding it. “You’re offering her hush money?”
Dane’s eyes flash, and he glances over at Nico with a grim expression. Something passes between them, a sort of understanding, and I’m reminded of their long history. How well they know one another.
“No,” Dane states, simply. “Not hush money. But a way out if she wants, to find another job.”
“I don’t want another job,” I breathe, emotions all choked up in my chest. Now that the adrenaline is crashing, reality follows right on its heels. I look up at all of them. “This is the best job I’ve ever had. And I…”
We share everything else.
They want me. All three of them. At night, in some of my dreams with Dane, the other men would appear. But I never let myself really think about that urge. Never let myself think it could be a reality.
For the past month, I’ve been grappling with my feelings for each of them, trying to decide. Trying not to think about what might happen if any of them found out about the other.
And now, here I am, with an offer on the table.
That shame is still bubbling inside me, but less fervently now.
Don’t think about what you should want.
What I should want is a nice Lancaster boy.
A house down the street from my parents.
A baby on the way, soon, so Mary’s baby can have a cousin not too much younger than her.
A whole brood of kids running around, their ages slotted in and around each other.
Shared birthday parties and my parents, beaming at being a grandma and grandpa.
Some job in town, or not, if my husband makes enough that I can stay home.
I should be okay with one man. With my canvases getting dusty and my paints drying up, and someday, one of my kids finding them in the attic, saying, I never knew you could paint.
But as good as I’ve gotten at pretending, I’ve never managed to pull it off. I think that’s what Frankie saw in me, that first day of freshman orientation.
I think about Frankie now, eating popcorn and cackling in heaven, swinging her legs and cheering for me, for this situation. For what I have within my grasp.
Three insanely handsome men, who all want me. Who want to share me.
Maybe this won’t be forever. Maybe it’s not love. Maybe someday I’ll have to tuck myself away on the shelf, go back to my small town to keep my family happy.
But for right now, I want to chase the sun while it’s still shining on me.
“I don’t want the severance package,” I say, suddenly. Only seconds have ticked past, but it feels like an eternity. Looking up, I meet each of their gazes, one at a time. “I want this.”
“You want…?” Dane starts, clears his throat, and looks away. I may not know them as long as they’ve known each other, but I can see his reluctance for what it is. Dane denying himself, forcing himself into a shape in which he doesn’t quite fit.
“All three of us?” Cole asks, his voice more level, the way he says everything. Like it’s obvious, the most logical conclusion. “To share?”
Nico’s already grinning, his ridiculous floral silk robe straining over his thighs. “But who gets to go first?”
“No.” Each ticking beat makes me bolder, and I sit up taller, this time holding Nico’s heated gaze. “I want all three of you.”
Another beat passes, and I’m not sure it’s really settling in. So, heart pounding, I reach out, taking Dane’s hand in my left, Cole’s in my right, while still holding Nico’s gaze.
“I want all three of you,” I say, sounding, even to my own ears, pretty fucking sexy. “Right now.”