17. Penelope
Chapter 17
Penelope
In the darkness, I am being held.
My back is pressed tight to the firm planes of a warm, solid chest, and while I can’t really move, I know I don’t want to. Hands roam over my body, strong fingers splayed over my stomach, ghosting over my chest. Lips, soft and gently find my neck and press kisses that start light and get more insistent as time passes. They dip down to my shoulders, following their natural curve.
I sigh softly with pleasure, letting the rush of warm, good feelings move through me.
There’s a voice here too, but it’s gruff and rich, not cold and cutting like before. “Beautiful,” it says. “Fucking beautiful. Are you wet for me? Do you want it?”
I can’t help but whimper and press closer to the sound, to the touches. I arch into them, begging for more with my body. When I press back, I feel a hot hardness there, right up against my ass, and that startles another little moan out of me.
It feels good.
Sharp teeth nip at my ear, and my blood beats hotter. My heart pounds, but it’s not from fear this time. Now it’s from arousal. From wanting more of this.
“Just like that,” the voice urges me, and the body presses closer. “Do you feel what you do to me? How much I want you?”
Oh god, I can feel it. I work my hips back, dragging my ass along the hard ridge of that cock, building more heat between us…
The dream falls away bit by bit, and when I wake up this time, my body is buzzing for an entirely different reason than the last time. I blink as I come back to myself and realize that it was a dream.
I was dreaming, and I’m definitely not in my own bed.
It all comes back to me in a rush, that I’m in Tristan’s bed. That I’m in Tristan’s bed because I had a nightmare, and I was just having a sexy dream with him right there.
A flash of panic hits me at the thought. Was I moaning in my sleep? Was I grinding on him like I was in the dream just because he was there? Oh god, I’ll never live that down if I was.
I try to scoot away from Tristan’s warm body, to put some distance between us, but his arms are wrapped tightly around me. He’s holding me from behind, his chest tucked against my back, just like in my dream. And… oh. There’s the hard line of his cock pressed against my ass. I guess my brain didn’t invent that part for the dream.
From the way Tristan’s breathing, I can tell he’s awake, and I feel mortified that this happened. When will I stop embarrassing myself in front of this man?
“I’m sorry,” I whisper quickly. “I… I was dreaming, and I didn’t know where I was.”
“What were you dreaming about?” Tristan asks.
His voice is so close it tickles over my ear, gruff and raspy with sleep. It sounds good on him, and I have to swallow hard. There’s no emotion in it, of course, so I can’t tell if he’s pissed off or doesn’t care or what. He hasn’t shoved me out of the bed yet at least, so that’s… something.
I lick my lips, not sure how to answer that. Being honest feels like too much. I doubt he’d want to know all of that, and probably he’s just asking because he wants to know if I had another nightmare. Not because he really cares about the dream. Or about me.
But something about being this close and waking up with his scent all around me makes me more honest than I meant to be anyway, and the words come out of my mouth on a whisper.
“I had a dream where you didn’t hate me.”
Tristan’s reaction is immediate. He turns me over in his arms quick as a flash, leaving me gasping in surprise as he stares down at me with something blazing in his eyes. It’s the most emotion—the most reaction—I’ve seen from him since I met him, and all I can do is stare up him, caught completely off guard by this change in demeanor.
The air is suddenly charged with… something I can’t name. But I feel it, rippling along my skin, sparking between us as the moment stretches onwards.
Tristan licks his lips and takes a breath. “If you ever have a bad dream again, you should come to me,” he says.
And then he moves again, this time to get out of bed completely and disappear into the bathroom. The door closes behind him with a decisive click, and I’m left staring at it, wondering what the hell just happened.
When it becomes apparent that Tristan isn’t coming back to finish… whatever that was, I get up as well, gathering my pillows and blankets to take them back to my room.
My cheeks are flushed, and I feel overwhelmed by the moment. All I can think about is the way Tristan’s eyes blaze so hot, and how different that was from the way he usually is.
Where does all that hide when he’s being guarded and impassive? It just always there, under his skin?
I shake my head and head downstairs. I need breakfast and coffee after the night and early morning I’ve had.
I walk into the kitchen and run right into Xavier who is on his way out of it. I’m struck with déjà vu of the very first time we ran into each other, years ago on the street.
Just like then, he grabs my shoulders, steadying me before I can end up on the ground, and his lips quirk in a smile. We’re both older now, and probably both different, but for a second, it’s like being right there again, and it makes my stomach swoop uncomfortably.
After the nightmare I had last night, all the feelings and memories from that time of my life are too close to the surface, and I don’t like how easy it is to think about it all. I want to keep it as far away from my new life as possible, but it seems like it wants to get dredged back up.
“Are you okay?” Xavier asks, his eyes flicking up and down, taking in my appearance.
I can only imagine what I look like. Even with sleeping with Tristan for the rest of the night, I’m not really well rested, and I didn’t even tame my hair before I came down here.
“Do I look that bad?” I ask, smiling tiredly.
He grins back. “Not bad. Just like you’re maybe in your head about something. Is everything okay?”
I sigh and shrug my shoulders. “Yes. Probably. I just didn’t sleep well last night.”
“Bad dreams?”
“Yeah. Unfortunately.”
Xavier’s grin dims and he makes a noise of sympathy. “That sucks. Sleep is supposed to be sacred.”
“I wish it was. It seems unfair that I can be stressed out while I’m awake and while I’m sleeping.”
“You should write an angry letter to someone,” he replies. “‘To whom it may concern, I have a complaint’.”
I laugh at his antics, shaking my head. “I wish it was that easy.”
“It would be nice. But hey, I know you’re too strong to be beaten down by a nightmare, so you’ll be all right.”
My brow furrows as I look up at him. “How do you know?” I ask. “You don’t really… know me.”
Something in his gaze softens, and his lips turn up in a gentler version of his usual smile. “Yes, I do.”
That freezes me in my tracks, and I look up at him with wide eyes. Xavier just gazes back, not hiding anything, looking like he’s waiting for me to speak first.
He could mean that he’s gotten to know me in the time since I’ve worked for Vantage and the time since we’ve been married, but something tells me this is more than that. He must actually remember me from the very first time we met, years ago.
“Wait…” I say, frowning a little. “I didn’t think you remembered. You didn’t seem to, when we met at the office.”
“I didn’t at first,” Xavier admits. “I had that feeling in the back of my mind like I’d seen you somewhere before. You know that feeling?” I nod in response. “I had to think about it for a while, but the more I see of you, the more I’m pretty sure I know where we met for the first time. You looked different back then, but your scent stuck with me.” He taps his nose with a smile.
“I didn’t realize it was that memorable,” I murmur.
“Your scent?”
“Any of it.”
“It was. You were,” he assures me. “I used to think about that day a lot.”
I blink in surprise because that’s the last thing I expected him to say. “Really?”
Xavier nods. “Yeah. It’s just… I saw so much strength in your eyes when we ran into each other. In the way you were carrying yourself. I could tell you were hurting but not broken. And the more we talked, the more I could see it. There’s a fire in you, shortcake. Don’t ever doubt that.”
My head feels like it’s reeling to hear him say all that. That he noticed so much about me and remembered it, after all this time. “I just can’t believe you remember,” I murmur. “That was years ago, and I was just someone who crashed into you on the street.”
“Hey, it’s not every day a beautiful woman crashes into me,” he teases. “But more than that, there was this… connection between us. I felt it right away and it just got stronger the more we talked. It felt like—and I know this is going to sound cheesy—like we were supposed to run into each other that day.”
“Oh.” I swallow hard, still so stunned. “I felt it too, I think. I mean, it’s not every day I would just talk to a stranger like that. You just felt… safe.”
He smiles at me, reaching out to takes a lock of my hair between his fingers. He twirls it a bit, like he just wants to touch some part of me. “That makes me happy to hear. At least it wasn’t one sided. And you know, when you crashed into my life again, some part of me knew I couldn’t let you go a second time. I hadn’t put all the pieces together yet, but I was sure of that.”
“I’m glad you didn’t,” I say honestly.
I stare up into his eyes, and he holds the eye contact. Neither of us move, but we don’t have to. The moment is charged with something that I can’t put my finger on. Some unspoken emotion, and definitely a good bit of attraction.
I was attracted to him back then too, but I never would have dreamed that he felt the same way and that it would be this strong between us. So strong you could cut the tension with a knife.
The sound of footsteps on the stairs breaks the moment, and Xavier lets my hair go and takes a step back. Seconds later, Dominic comes walking into the kitchen, and Tristan is close behind.
“Morning,” Dominic grumbles to the room at large, and Tristan just nods at Xavier, sparing me a glance.
They go about making coffee and getting breakfast together, but I slip out of the kitchen and back up the stairs, needing a moment to gather myself.
I wasn’t expecting this. Any of this.
When the three of them suggested this arrangement, I thought it was going to be strictly business. Yes, they’re all handsome and rich and they smell like a dream. Yes, all three of them exude Alpha confidence and presence like breathing. But it was never supposed to be more than a mutually beneficial thing.
Now I have to admit to myself that there’s another layer to it. Because they’re more than just my bosses and the men I’m currently sharing a house with. All three of them bring something unique to the table, and the more time I spend with them, the more of them I’m getting to see.
Seeing more just makes them feel like real people instead of unattainable gods or something. And them being real people makes them relatable. Touchable.
I bury my face in my hands and let out a sigh. In the privacy of my own room, I can admit to myself that it’s not just that the three of them are attractive. It’s that I’m attracted to them. Deeply. And I can’t hide from that fact anymore.