Chapter Eight
Ana
Three weeks later…
I still can’t decide if staying here was a good or bad idea.
The house is fuller than it has ever been. Serena is staying with us, and Tank is often around to spend time with her and show her that he is not going anywhere. That has been quite entertaining to witness, since my sister has a hard time speaking to men she’s really attracted to.
Then there is Ice. I told him I wanted him to stay because he’s my friend, and I could use my friend right now. I also felt this need to be close to him. I also wanted to see for myself how he and Maverick act together.
Maverick is another story. Since we have been home, there has been no sight of the man Viking had become. He has been home whenever he’s not working, or out of town for club business. He has been finding things that got missed in the renovation. He has also been working on the front and back yard.
There are now flower beds in the front and back, which I never pictured Maverick adding but, when he’s out there with his shirt off, I find myself sitting on the deck with a lemonade watching him work. I can tell by the smirks he sends me that he doesn’t mind. I also pretend that I don’t see Ice in the window watching him right along with me.
They check each other out often. The sexual tension is thick, but no one has decided to bring it up yet.
I’m still sleeping in our bed alone, but it’s the only way I can draw the line with Maverick. Even if I toss and turn all night from wanting him beside me.
I head to the washroom to do my morning routine. That’s when I see a post-it note on the mirror that says, “ I love waking up next to you. When you have that sleepy look on your face. It gets me every time.”
Over the weeks since we have been home, I have found little notes everywhere. Each one telling me something Maverick loved about me or about how I made him feel. It’s starting to crack the wall around my heart, especially since I didn’t think he thought much about me anymore.
I barely got any sleep last night because of being alone in a huge bed, so I end up stumbling out of my room in the morning in desperate need for coffee.
I’m rubbing my eyes when I hear a soft “Fuck,” and I freeze in place. Slowly, I look up to see Ice sitting at the island staring at me with heat in his eyes.
He swallows hard before his eyes come up to lock on mine.
“You-coffee-hot,” he blurts out.
I raise an eyebrow at him before looking down at myself and realize that I’m in my soft yellow tank top that is very thin, so I’m pretty sure he can see my nipples through it right now, and the yellow short shorts that go along with it. It’s my usual sleeping attire. I find them extremely comfortable.
Since he’s looking at me with desire instead of disgust, I decide to go with it instead of feeling embarrassed about my body.
“Oh coffee’s hot?” I say innocently.
I walk over to the coffee machine and grab a cup from the cupboard above it. When I make it how I like it, I turn and lean against the counter to catch Ice clearly staring at my ass before he squeezes his eyes shut.
“Please tell me there’s coffee,” I hear Maverick say before he walks into the room.
My brain must short circuit like Ice’s just did because he’s walking in with no shirt on in jeans that are still unbuttoned. His hair is a mess from sleep and he looks like complete sin.
“Coffee-hot,” I blurt out.
Maverick looks at me in confusion before he sees how I’m looking at him. He gets a smug look over his face.
“Very hot,” I hear Ice whimper very quietly. I don’t think I was meant to hear.
Then Maverick takes me in and his eyes blaze with heat just like Ice’s did.
“Fuck, I need a shower,” Ice says standing up quickly.
I look back over at him and see he’s wearing sweatpants without a shirt. I didn’t take much notice before because I was trying to fight the urge to cover myself.
“Have fun!” I say before immediately covering my face with my hands and groaning. I hear a chuckle from Maverick before he pulls me into his arms.
“I’m sure he will have fun in the shower,” he whispers in my ear.
“Maybe I’ll go have some fun in the shower too,” I say, pulling away to grab my coffee and walk to my room. I don’t miss the sharp intake of breath that Maverick takes.
“Why don’t we have three fucking showers,” I hear him say as I close the door, causing me to laugh quietly.
We won’t need three showers if this goes the way I can see it starting to go.
Maverick “Viking”
I don’t know how much more of my fucking hand I can take.
Since we have been back, there hasn’t been any sex. Ana will let me hug her for a short period and kiss her lightly, but nothing else. I understand it; I completely do.
It still sucks I have to fuck my hand every day; sometimes more than once.
It’s not only being around my wife, but also Ice and those sinful sweatpants he wears that expose Every.Single.Fucking.Thing.
I had to bite my knuckles to prevent the moan that wanted out the first time I saw him in them.
I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel about Ice. Ana and I haven’t really had a conversation about him, but I knew we needed to.
As far I can tell, she’s not angry about it. More hurt that I kept it from her.
I knock on the bedroom door once I hear the shower turn off and wait a couple minutes.
“Ana?” I call out softly.
“Come in,” she says after a moment.
I walk in and close the door before taking in my wife who put on a summer dress that’s light purple. Fuck me, I love her in dresses.
“What’s up?” she asks when I don’t say anything.
“We need to talk about what I admitted before you father’s funeral,” I say before sitting down on the bed with a sigh.
“About you liking men? Or Ice?” she asks while taking a seat beside me.
“Both I guess. I still feel this strong attraction to him, but I don’t want that to mess up anything with you. We haven’t had a chance to talk about it all. If you have a problem with it or not,” I say.
She’s quiet for a couple minutes, and I start to worry, but she speaks before the panic can truly take over.
“I wish you had told me this earlier, but it doesn’t bother me. If you were out there fucking other men and hiding it from me, that would be a different story. He is also very attractive so I can’t be mad at you for looking at him when I have to,” she admits.
“I never fucked anyone else since I have met you,” I tell her while looking into her eyes so she could see how serious I am.
“Do you want to be with Ice?” she asks hesitantly.
“I would want us to be with Ice,” I state.
Her eyes widen at my words.
“Us?” she whispers.
I nod my head. “You just told me you found him very attractive. Normally, that would make me jealous but, for some reason, not with him. When I think of you with anyone else I get pissed; but when I think of you with him, there’s no jealousy.”
“There’s no telling that he would even want us like that, or me for that matter. I’m plain, just me,” she says, dropping her shoulders.
“If he would want us, are you willing to give it a shot?” I ask.
“What if it doesn’t work out? And our relationship gets even more damaged?” she asks, and her eyes well with tears at the thought.
“I can’t promise to never hurt you again because, let’s face it, I’m bound to fuck up again at some point; but nothing has been more important to me than you. All we can do is take it one step at a time. I don’t want you to just try for me. You have to want it too.”
She blows out a breath. “I do feel a connection to him. Also, when I imagine you and him, I don’t get jealous. I just worry that while we are still working on us, something will happen to make me lose you both.”
“I will try to be better at communicating with you than I have been in the past. At some point, I stopped talking to you and created this big hole between us. Maybe Ice will be the one to help us fix that hole and make us stronger,” I say softly.
“That was really cheesy,” she says with a small smile.
“I’ll be cheesy every day if it gets you to smile,” I tell her.
“We don’t even know if he wants us,” she says.
“We can test it out. See if he feels the attraction too. Then we will approach him,” I say with a grin.
“That could be fun,” she says with her own grin.
“How about, right now, I take you out on a date?” I ask, standing up and holding my hand out to her.
“Date? Where? Do I need to change?” she asks, looking down at herself.
“We will take your vehicle since I don’t want you to take that dress off,” I say, looking down at her with heated eyes.
“You don’t want to take your bike?” she asks in shock.
“I think the next time you are on the back of my bike should be the same day you put your ring and cut back on. When you fall in love with me again.”
Her eyes well with tears as she looks up at me.
“Okay,” she whispers softly.
Levi “Ice”
Ana and Viking just left for a date, and Tank took Serena out of here over his shoulder.
I’m just sitting in the house alone.
I think about going to the club since the house is too quiet right now.
I’m assuming both couples will be gone all day, and I don’t want to sit here all alone.
Most people would call me crazy or stupid for staying here with two couples, but I just couldn’t say “no” to Ana’s puppy dog eyes.
The pull I feel to her and Viking has just gotten stronger over the last couple weeks.
There have been so many times I just want to grab either one of them to kiss them, but I have to hold myself back. When I see one of them bending over something, it takes everything in me not to walk over to him or her and do what I’ve been dying to do.
Fuck. How do I get myself into these situations?
Why do I always want people who either don’t want me or are taken?
I get up and decide I need to head to the club, or I will be thinking about them all day. I need something to take my mind off them.
With my mind made up, I head out to my bike and make the short trip to the club.
Brothers greet me, and I smell something delicious coming from the kitchen which leads me in there.
I just know Mama is making something heavenly.
When I get to the kitchen, I see that Mama is making fettuccini alfredo with garlic cheesy bread. My mouth instantly waters.
“Ah potato fucker, perfect timing. Dinner is ready,” Mama says, and I groan with a shake of my head. I’m never going to live that down. I don’t think she will ever stop calling me that.
One time I got too drunk and fell asleep hugging a bag of potatoes. I don’t know how I got in there to be honest, or why I was spooning a bag of potatoes.
Some of the brothers come in to grab some food, so I bullshit with them. Once everything is done, a club whore comes up to me.
“Hey, you look like you could use a release,” she purrs.
I shake my head. “Not tonight,” I say, and grab her hand before she can touch me.
She walks away in a huff.
“Something on your mind, brother?” Knuckles asks, sitting beside me.
“It’s nothing,” I say lowly.
“Nothing wouldn’t happen to be a certain couple who you live with?” he asks quietly.
I look over at him in surprise. He raises an eyebrow at me and shrugs. “It has been obvious from the first party that you were attracted to them. You barely took your eyes off them. No one is going to have a problem with it if you want both of them.”
“They might have a problem with it,” I grumble.
“I think you are wrong about that. I’ve seen the way they look at you. There’s something in the looks they give you, but it’s whether they admit it to themselves or each other that will be the question,” he says.
“I won’t get in between them. They are already going through a lot,” I tell him. I refuse to hope that anything could happen.
“Just keep an open mind and don’t worry what anyone else will think. None of the brothers will have a problem with it,” he says before he gets up and walks away.
Maybe I need to spend less time there. Watching and being around them all the time is starting to get too fucking hard.
It might be time I think about moving out.