Chapter 16
Eli
I woke to the soft rustle of sheets and the subtle dip of the mattress as Mioko tried to slip away.
The watery dawn light filtering through the thin curtains caught the curves of her naked body as she bent to retrieve her scattered clothes.
My first instinct was to reach out and drag her back into bed, pin her between Luke and me where she belonged, but I remained still, watching her through half-lidded eyes, curious to see what she’d do.
She moved silently, efficiently, gathering her skirt and sweater from where we’d tossed them the day before. Her dark hair hung loose down her back, no longer in its usual braid. We’d spent the day in bed and showered before sleeping, but I still felt ravenous for her.
“You’re leaving,” I said quietly, careful not to wake Luke, who was still dead to the world beside me, one arm flung across my chest.
Mioko startled, clutching her clothes to her chest like a shield. “I thought you were asleep.”
“No.” I propped myself up on one elbow, watching.
“I’ve called for a ride,” she said, her voice soft but steady. “Should be here soon.”
“You don’t have to go.”
Her smile was gentle, a little sad. “I know. But I think I should. You two need to work things out without me getting in the way.”
“You’re not in the fucking way, Mioko. You brought us together.” I studied her face, trying to read her dark, expressive eyes. “Do you regret what happened?”
“God, no. Yesterday was... incredible.” She put on her underwear, then stepped into her skirt. “I’m thrilled for you two. Truly. The way you love each other... It’s beautiful. It’s what I wanted.”
“And what about what we both feel for you? Or what you feel for us?”
Her hands stilled as she pulled on her sweater, her head emerging with her hair in wild disarray. Something flashed across her face—longing, maybe fear—before she masked it with a forced smile.
“Don’t worry about me. I’m happy I helped you find each other again. That was the point of my meddling, remember?”
I didn’t believe her—not entirely. There had been something real in the way she’d responded to us, in the way she’d whispered our names as she came, in the way she’d held us afterward like we were something precious. But I could see the walls going up, the careful distance she was creating.
And from what Luke had said about her past, she had reason to be afraid.
“We’ll see you later?” I asked, making it sound casual, like I wasn’t already planning ways to get her back into our bed.
“Of course.” She moved to the door, then hesitated, looking back at us with an expression I couldn’t quite decipher. “Take care of him, Eli. And let him take care of you. You both deserve to be happy.”
Then she was gone, the door clicking shut behind her, leaving me with Luke’s warm weight against my side and a strange twist in my gut that I couldn’t quite name. Loss? Anticipation? Both, maybe.
Beside me, Luke stirred, eyes blinking open slowly, that moment of soft confusion before awareness returned. He looked at me, then at the empty space beside us where Mioko had been.
“Where’s Mioko?”
“She left. Said she called for a ride.” I ran my hand down his side, feeling the warmth of his skin beneath my palm.
Luke sat up abruptly, the sheet pooling around his waist. “She just left? Without saying goodbye?”
“She said goodbye but didn’t want to wake you.” I watched the play of emotions across his face—confusion and hurt that mirrored mine. “She said she’s happy for us. That she’s glad she helped us find each other again.”
“Bullshit,” Luke muttered, scratching his head and making his sleep-mussed hair stick out in all directions. “That’s not—we’re not—”
He made a frustrated sound.
“Don’t worry. She’s coming back,” I said confidently, pulling him back down beside me.
He looked at me, brows up. “How do you know?”
“Because she’s already addicted.”
“Addicted?”
“To us. To what we can give her together.” I traced patterns on his chest, watching his skin pebble at my touch. “She was so into everything that happened over the past two days. I’m guessing she’s just afraid of how intense it all was.”
“You sound pretty sure of yourself.”
“I am sure.” I leaned in to kiss his collarbone. “She’ll be back. Who could say no to us?”
He laughed at my cockiness, but even as I reassured Luke, a nagging doubt lingered in the back of my mind. We needed to find out what Mioko was so scared of, and we needed to do it before she had a chance to pack up her van and race off to the next craft fair.
I pushed the thought away. She was here until after Christmas. We had at least two weeks to sort this out. Right now, she wanted space, so we’d ease up on the pressure and give her that.
Besides, I had Luke—warm and sleep-soft against me. I slid my hand down his back, tracing the curve of his ass, dipping between his cheeks to find his hole still slick and slightly swollen from yesterday’s fun.
“Fuck,” he gasped, his cock hardening against my thigh as I circled his entrance with a gentle finger. “Eli...”
I pressed inside, just the tip of my finger, feeling him tighten around me before relaxing, accepting the intrusion. His eyes fluttered closed, lips parting on a soft moan that went straight to my own rapidly hardening cock.
“I love how responsive you are,” I murmured, working my finger deeper. “How perfectly you take whatever I give you.”
“It feels so...” he trailed off, searching for words as I reached for the lube and slicked his hole before adding a second finger, stretching him gently. “When you’re inside me, it’s like we’re one. Like I can’t tell where I end and you begin.”
“I know,” I whispered, kissing him deeply as my fingers continued their gentle exploration. “I feel it too.”
Something primal and possessive surged through me, and in one fluid movement, I pushed him onto his back, hovering over him with my hands planted on either side of his head. His eyes widened, pupils dilating.
“Eli,” he whispered, voice wrecked with want.
I didn’t answer with words. Instead, I crashed my mouth against his, kissing him with the desperate hunger that had built inside me for years—since that night before he left for Boston, when he’d confessed his feelings and I’d been too scared and blind to admit I felt the same.
He opened for me instantly, his tongue meeting mine in a frantic dance as his hands clutched at my shoulders, pulling me closer.
I broke the kiss to trail my mouth down his neck, biting at the junction where it met his shoulder, marking him.
His skin tasted like salt and sleep and sex, like home, like mine.
I spread his legs roughly with my knees, positioning myself between his thighs.
My cock was already rock hard, leaking pre-cum at the thought of being inside him again.
I reached for the lube, squeezing a generous amount onto my palm.
I slicked myself quickly and lined up my cock with his entrance, the head pressing against his tight little hole.
“Look at me, pet,” I commanded, and his eyes snapped to mine, wide and trusting.
Without breaking eye contact, I pushed forward, breaching him in one firm thrust that had us both groaning.
The tight heat of his body gripped my cock like a vise, perfect and overwhelming.
I stilled, giving him time to adjust, watching every flicker of emotion cross his face—the momentary discomfort melting into pleasure, the vulnerability, the hunger.
“Fuck, Luke,” I breathed, overcome by how beautiful he looked beneath me, how right it felt to be inside him, joined to him. “You feel so fucking good.”
He wrapped his legs around my waist, ankles locking at the small of my back, pulling me deeper inside him.
“Move,” he urged, fingers digging into my shoulders. “Please, Eli. I need—”
I silenced him with another kiss, swallowing his pleas as I began to thrust. Slowly at first, savoring the drag and pull of his tight channel around my cock, then faster, harder, driven by an insatiable need to claim him, to mark him, to make him irrevocably mine.
The admission came to me with startling clarity: I was attracted to him.
Not just emotionally connected, not just possessive of what was mine, but genuinely, physically attracted to every inch of his body.
To the lean muscles of his chest beneath my palms, to the sharp cut of his hipbones, to the way his cock leaked against his stomach as I pounded into him, to the soft, desperate sounds that escaped his throat with each thrust.
I loved him. All of him. And I loved being inside him, connected to him in the most intimate way possible.
“Mine,” I growled against his mouth, punctuating the word with a particularly deep thrust that had him arching off the bed. “Say it, Luke. Say you’re mine.”
“Yours,” he gasped, his hands sliding into my hair, tugging with just enough force to send sparks of pleasure-pain down my spine. “Always yours, Eli. Always have been.”
I shifted my hips, searching for that spot inside him that would send him over the edge. I knew I’d found it when his whole body tensed, a broken moan tearing from his throat.
“There,” he panted, his cock twitching between us, untouched. “God, Eli, right there.”
I kept my thrusts targeted, watching his face contort with pleasure as I pushed him closer to the edge. My orgasm was building, tension coiling low in my spine, but I was determined to see him come first, to watch him fall apart under my hands, my cock.
“I love you,” I said, the words ripped from deep inside me, honest and raw and overdue by years. “Fuck, Luke, I love you so much.”
His eyes flew open, locking with mine, filled with such naked emotion that it nearly undid me. “I love you too,” he whispered, voice breaking. “I never stopped.”
That was what broke me. I drove into him harder, faster, chasing our shared pleasure, my hand moving between us to wrap around his cock. It only took a few strokes before he was coming, his body clenching around me, his release coating my fingers and his stomach as he cried out my name.
The sight of him coming undone, the feel of his body tightening around my cock, pushed me over the edge. I came with a shout, burying myself as deep inside him as I could go, marking him from the inside in the most primal way possible.
We stayed connected, breathing hard, my weight braced on trembling arms to avoid crushing him. Then I carefully withdrew, collapsing beside him on the rumpled sheets. He turned immediately into my arms, seeking my mouth with his, kissing me with a tenderness that made my chest ache.
We kissed lazily, coming down from the high of our shared pleasure, hands roaming over sweat-slick skin. It felt like a continuation of what we’d just done—not an ending but another form of connection, of love.
“I meant what I said,” I murmured against his lips. “I love you. Always have.”
He smiled, that full, bright smile that had always been like sunshine breaking through clouds. “Me too.” His smile faltered slightly. “But Eli... I’m still sad that Mioko left. I really like her.”
I didn’t need to ask who he meant. The space Mioko had left in our bed was almost a physical presence, a missing piece in what had briefly been perfect.
“I know,” I said, stroking his hair back. “We’ll think of something. But we can’t chase her, I don’t think. Not with her history. We need to give her space to figure things out.”
“So we just need her to do the chasing.”
I laughed. “I guess so.”
“You know, I don’t think you’re the only dominant partner in this throuple. Maybe if you let her tie you up, she’d learn to trust you.”
I smirked at him. “Not sure where to start with that. Is that a fantasy you have? Watching me get bound and fucked by a domme?”
“Just saying. She’d look hot in leather.”