Chapter 21
June
My bed was cramped with three people in it, but I didn’t mind.
I was in the middle, with Cole to my right and Rhett to my left.
We were all still nude, skin touching up and down our bodies.
It was such a strange sensation snuggling with two different men at the same time, feeling the intimacy that came with that.
It wasn’t weird, though. It felt wonderful!
“Sorry for crashing your date,” Rhett said. “I really didn’t think you two would go home together.”
“So you just intended to swoop in after our date and sleep with her?” Cole asked.
“Don’t act like I’m an asshole for that.” Rhett put an arm behind his head and grinned across me at his teammate. “I was already sleeping with the lovely lady before you came into the picture.”
“We slept together once,” I pointed out. “A couple weeks ago.”
“And we’ve been trying to repeat it ever since.”
“Then why haven’t you?” Cole asked.
“Because my schedule, as the face of the Atlanta Reapers, has been all over the fucking place,” Rhett complained. “I know we get paid a stupid amount of money to play hockey, but sometimes I wish I had regular hours. Like a desk job.”
“I’m the face of the team,” Cole said.
“You’re the captain,” Rhett countered. “I’m the pretty boy on half the posters around town.”
I rolled over to snuggle against Cole, and whispered, “We can let him think that.”
“His ego can’t handle the truth,” the captain agreed.
“Hey!” Rhett spooned me from behind, lowering his voice to whisper in my ear. “You keep teasing me like that, and I’ll find another sexy physical trainer to secretly bang.”
I snorted. “Good luck finding one.”
“I was just kidding. I don’t want to stop doing this any time soon.”
“Amen to that,” Cole agreed.
“So you guys want to do this again?” I asked.
“Why wouldn’t we?” Cole asked.
“I don’t know. I thought you might just want to get it out of your system and move on. Pro athletes always have women throwing themselves at them.”
“We’ve learned to avoid hockey groupies,” Cole said. “We call them puck bunnies.”
“Our first threesome was with a puck bunny,” Rhett added. “And it’s the reason it was a one-time thing.”
“Yeah? What happened?”
Rhett kissed me on the back of the shoulder and sighed. His warm breath stirred my hair. “She was just using us.”
“And not for sex,” Cole chimed in.
“I wouldn’t have minded if she used us for sex!” Rhett said. “I’ll happily be a fuck-boy every day of the week, and twice on Sundays.”
“She hooked up with us,” Cole explained. “It happened at my place. While cleaning up after, she stole all my toiletries from the bathroom.”
I sat up in bed, grabbing a handful of sheets to cover my bare chest. “She stole your toiletries?”
“Toothbrush, cologne, deodorant. She even stole my contact lenses.”
Rhett reached up and tugged at the sheet that I was using to cover my chest. I playfully smacked his hand away, which made him grin.
“She sold it all on the internet,” Rhett said. “Apparently there’s an entire underground market for personal items belonging to athletes.”
“Above ground market,” Cole said with a grimace. “It was all on eBay! She didn’t even try to hide it. My lawyers had to submit a take-down request.”
“That was really dumb of her,” I said. “If she’d waited until you were asleep, she could have stolen a bunch of your underwear, too.”
Rhett roared with laughter. Cole glared at me. “Good thing we came back here instead of my place.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll never steal anything from your place.” I cuddled up against him again.
“Good.”
“Since I’m a trainer, I have access to your locker. I can steal game-worn clothes and underwear whenever I want.”
Rhett laughed even harder. “Shit, should we be selling our own stuff? This feels like a missed opportunity.”
“I don’t even want to think about that,” Cole replied, his Canadian accent poking its head up when he said about. “I have enough on my shoulders during the season to worry about selling my dirty underwear.”
“Obviously, we would hire someone to do it for us,” Rhett said. “Want a part-time job, June?”
“Pass.”
“That’s why we haven’t done it again,” Cole said, steering the conversation back on track. “It’s been tough to trust anyone.”
Rhett caressed my back with his fingertips. “But we already trust you with our physical health. Personal items are meaningless compared to that.”
I rolled over and kissed Rhett. “That’s nice to hear. I trust you guys, too.”
“Although you have ridiculous opinions on Davids,” Cole added. “Michaelangelo’s statue is not overrated.”
“It’s just stone!” I insisted. “David Rose is an actual character, with a personality and a story arc.”
“He’s fictional. The statue is real. You can visit it in Florence!”
“I stand by my opinion.”
Cole leaned down and grabbed a fistful of my hair. “It’s a good thing you’re gorgeous, or I would storm out of here in anger.”
He used his grip on my hair to pull me into a kiss.
“I don’t understand what’s happening right now,” Rhett said slowly. “Why are we talking about artwork?”
We shared more pillow talk, and then I eventually drifted off to sleep. I knew they wouldn’t spend the night, but I was happy to share as much cuddle time with them as possible.
But when I woke the next morning, I still had two large, muscular bodies on either side of me. Rhett was snoring softly, but Cole was quieter while he spooned me.
I snuggled with Cole for a little while, then pulled Rhett closer to spoon him. I savored those fifteen minutes between them while replaying last night’s events in my head.
Then one of their alarms went off.
While Rhett rummaged around on the floor to fish his phone out of his pants, I got up and went to the kitchen to tidy up. There was a glass of water next to the sink, which I poured out first, then began cleaning the dishes that had piled up.
By the time I was done, Cole came into the kitchen. He frowned and asked, “Where was the glass of water that I left here?”
“In the dishwasher,” I replied. “If you need another, my glasses are there, above the microwave.”
Cole groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “My contact lenses were in there.”
I rounded on him. “You put them in a drinking glass?”
“I didn’t have my lens case, so I improvised. Shit. I think that was my last pair.”
“I’m so sorry! If I had known, I—”
Cole cupped my chin and smiled down at me. “Stop apologizing. I’ll get another pair from my optometrist. Not a big deal.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure that I want to go for round two right here in the kitchen.”
I bit my lip and looked up at him through my eyelashes. “I’ve got some time.”
He kissed me, but it was full of warmth rather than lust. “Unfortunately, I don’t. I have a media appearance downtown in an hour, and I need to Uber home first, since I can’t drive without my contacts.”
“I’ll give you a ride, buddy,” Rhett said while joining us. He was fully clothed, too, which made me sad.
“I don’t want to owe you any favors,” Cole said. “But I’ll take the ride.”
He turned back to me. “Thanks for a wonderful night, June.”
“Thanks for the second date,” I replied with a grin.
We shared another kiss, and then a long hug. “Meet you downstairs,” Cole told his teammate as he went out the door.
Rhett frowned at me. “I still don’t understand why that was your second date. When was the first?”
“It’s an inside joke.”
“Why don’t we have any inside jokes?” Rhett asked, pointing a finger back and forth between us.
“Good question. I guess we’ll have to keep going out, until we have some.”
He sighed dramatically. “Fine. But I want to take you out on a real date. To see a movie or something.”
“I’d love that.”
His kiss was a little bit longer than Cole’s, which felt intentional. I liked the light competition I felt between the two men’s affection toward me. Like I was a prize they both intended to keep.
I was on cloud nine the rest of the morning.
I floated around my apartment, catching up on chores while thinking about last night.
Having a threesome with two men had always been one of my deepest fantasies, but I never actually thought it would happen.
Those things only happened in porn movies.
In real life, men were always too competitive to share a woman.
But Cole and Rhett had done it easily. Like they were born to do it.
I guess that was the benefit of sleeping with two men who were teammates. Their teamwork came naturally.
It was a chilly, windy day, so I drove to the arena for practice that night instead of walking.
I worked with Elias first, helping him go through a series of stretches that would hopefully relieve some of the tension on his oblique muscle.
The massive goalie did everything I asked of him without complaining and politely thanked me when we were done.
Coach Jay was waiting in my office when we were done. “What are you and Nystrom doing?” he asked. “Anything I need to be aware of?”
“Just some stretches,” I said, which wasn’t technically a lie. “Working on his range of motion.”
Coach Jay bought the story, nodding once. “Question for you. What were you up to last night?”
My entire body froze in fear. I was getting double-teamed by two of your players. Did he know? Was he trying to get me to confess? If I was in trouble…
“You weren’t here at the arena, were you?” he added.
“Um. I think I left around five? I had to rush home. I had a date last night.” Even though I was omitting the fact that my date was with Cole, it was the truth. I felt like I was walking a tightrope, not wanting to tell Coach Jay too much, while also not wanting to seem like I was hiding something.
“Thought so, but wanted to make sure.” He glanced at the locker room behind him, then turned back. “Gonna have an all-hands team meeting when Cole gets here. You might be shocked by what you hear, but I just wanted to tell you that you’re safe, June.”
“Uh… why wouldn’t I be safe?”
“You’ll hear about it in the meeting.” He glanced at his watch. “Where the hell is Cole…”
For the next half hour, I catastrophized about the team meeting. Cole and I had gone out in public. Maybe someone had seen us. Coach Jay might be announcing that relationships between players and staff were strictly prohibited. Maybe I was going to lose my job.
I wanted to ask Rhett about it, but he was sitting in the corner of the locker room, chatting quietly with some teammates.
The whole team was sitting around, waiting, by the time Cole walked into the locker room. “Where the hell were you?” Coach barked at him.
“Optometrist. Had to get new contact lenses.” He glanced at me, but only for a heartbeat. “What’s going on?”
Coach Jay waited as everyone gathered around. He held up a piece of paper dramatically, then gazed around the room.
“Yesterday,” he announced, “someone slipped this note into Rhett Lawson’s locker.”
“What is it?” Cole asked.
Coach glanced at me, then back at the captain. “A death threat.”