chapter thirty-one
Wren
The kitchen island is laden with snacks, and the refrigerator is stocked with drinks. Colton is finishing up putting away the books and blankets we had strewn about the living room, and I wait by the door with Angelica perched on my shoulder. Her talons feel sharp on my skin, so I move her over.
“Stop it,” Angelica demands.
“You stop it. Your nails hurt,” I murmur back.
She digs them in harder.
“Ouch! I’m going to put you outside with the wild birds if you do that again.”
Angelica clicks her beak threateningly in my ear.
Colton comes around the corner while talking into his earpiece. “Thank you.” Then to me and Angelica, “You two fight like siblings.”
My retort is interrupted by the doorbell.
“Gemma and Lance are here,” Colton provides unnecessarily.
I squeal and open the door. Gemma hasn’t been to my house yet, so she’s looking all around the outside. Lance is approaching the house, holding both of their overnight bags and looking mildly irritated.
“Babe!” Gemma screams and pushes into the house and hugs me tightly. “Your house! You have a house!” She kisses all over my face, leaving prints of her red lipstick all over.
I giggle as she lathers me with kisses and squeezes me tightly.
Angelica makes a sound like she’s clearing her throat, and Gemma turns the kisses to my parrot.
“I’m not kissing you,” Lance says to Colton.
“Then my cherry lip balm was for nothing, thanks,” Colton replies.
“Hello, Blade,” Lance greets Angelica.
“Lance,” she says curtly back.
“How come we’re all called ‘bitch’ and Lance gets his name?” Colton asks her.
“My name is Blade,” Angelica preens. Lance is the only person who obliges her own chosen name, therefore he is the only one she calls by their name.
Gemma and I giggle as I pull her through the entryway and to the kitchen. I give Gemma and Lance a tour of the house and soak in the praise of my best friend. Having her here is one of my favorite things.
“You made so much food!” Gemma says when we return to the kitchen.
“And every single item is unhealthy and delicious,” I say, and hand her a plate.
“Lance, get that wine I brought,” Gemma demands.
“Oh, I forgot,” Lance says and finds their bags. He comes back with a bottle of wine, a small box, and a bottle of amber liquid. He hands Gemma the wine and the other items to Colton. “Got approval for us to have some of this, too.”
The men go out to the patio where I see them light up cigars. I wrinkle my nose.
Gemma entertains me with a story about a recent photoshoot she had with an influencer in the city while we fill up our plates with food. There are pastries, mini pizzas, appetizers from two of my favorite local places, tiny cakes, and so much chocolate. We eat in the sunroom so we’re far from the plumes of smoke from the guys. Our first plates go quickly, and Angelica moves to her perch.
It’s not until Gemma and I take a plate of chocolates and a second bottle of wine up to my bedroom that we talk about Colton. We hear occasional faint laughter from the guys as they grab something to eat in the kitchen.
“So, tell me,” Gemma prompts with a sly grin.
I feel the blush burn on my cheeks.
“Oh, my god!” she squeals.
“Stop it!”
“No, you are totally obsessed with Jay! Tell me!”
I pour us more wine. “Well, his name is Colton.”
“Colton,” she says and swirls the wine in her glass. “I could moan that.”
“I did last night.”
“Tell. Me. Everything!”
I regale her with the broad strokes details of how Colton and I started. She listens with rapt attention and many interruptions for questions. My wine never goes empty with her holding the bottle and refilling my glass.
“With his tongue!” she screams and kicks her feet.
“I had a hard time remembering the alphabet.”
“Could you remember your own name?”
“Barely. I knew what name to moan, and that’s all that matters.”
“Well, was it everything you hoped and dreamed it would be?” she asks, her expression serious.
I nod. “It’s exactly what I needed.”
“It doesn’t sound like he was rough with you.”
“Not really. I’m not sure if that’s what I need now. Do I like that? Sure, yeah, it’s fun. But I don’t know if I need it.”
“What do you mean?”
“With Maxwell, for example, I wanted him to get rough because it would have meant his feelings for me were big. I thought that passion would feel… extreme. But now I wonder if what I was looking for was trust?”
“And who else to trust but your bodyguard?”
“Exactly. I think because I genuinely like him as a person and I trust he’ll keep me safe, I don’t require a test of that trust? Ugh, I don’t know how to explain it. I still liked when he choked me. It was still exciting. But I don’t need it?”
“No, I get it. You don’t need him to prove anything to you. You already know it.”
“I mean, I definitely test him,” I giggle. “I made him crawl to me this morning.”
Gemma screams her delight.
“You girls alright?” Lance’s voice calls up the stairs.
“We’re fine!” Gemma and I both yell back.
“Okay, so I have a crush on Lance,” Gemma says, not looking at me.
“What?!”
“Yeah, I guess falling for our bodyguards is contagious,” she says, and a blush covers her face and neck.
“Have you…?”
“No, nothing,” she groans.
“Why not?”
“I keep hesitating. He’s fifteen years older than me, for one thing.”
“Colton is like nine or ten years older than me,” I say with a shrug.
“We sure have a type, don’t we?”
“Older men who will not waste our time? Yeah,” I say, and we break into fits of giggles.
“Tell me about the crawling!”
“He likes when I get bossy.”
“Dominatrix style?”
“I think?” I say with a hesitant shrug. “He enjoys being degraded and used.”
“That’s why he stayed!” Gemma cackles. “All those times you bullied and degraded him before would have sent other Jays packing. He stayed because he thought you were sexy and fulfilling his kinky desires.”
I laugh. “That’s why I stopped trying to get him to quit. He liked it and it didn’t rile him up.”
“Or it did, and you weren’t ready for how it riled him,” Gemma adds.
I groan and bury my face in the pillow I had been leaning against.
“So how does this translate to your relationship?” Gemma asks and twirls my hair.
“In what way?”
“Do the dominant and submissive roles carry over to your non sexual life?”
“No. Nothing has really changed there,” I reply. “We pretty much keep it to the bedroom. Or, really, just sexy time activities. And I let him off leash once I’ve had my fill. I let him take over.”
“He’s a switch?” Gemma asks.
“A switch?”
“He can switch between a dom and a sub.”
“No, I gathered what it meant. I just… I don’t know. I guess?”
“Honestly, I think that would fit your needs best. You’re a woman who likes to have control when it suits her needs and is happy to give it up under the right circumstances,” Gemma explains. “You’re a switch, too. Sometimes you need a strong person to put you in your bratty place, and sometimes you need to be in charge.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“No, I think it’s healthy and balanced.”
“How do you know so much about this stuff?” I narrow my eyes suspiciously at her.
She snorts. “Why do you think we’ve been best friends since we were practically toddlers?”
“Uh, we have the same kinks?”
“No, we complement each other’s needs. Sometimes you are the friend in charge of planning our adventures and sometimes it’s me. Sometimes you’re the one crashing out and making a mess and sometimes it’s me. When we’re both fucking up, well, we know we can just come back in a few days and try again. And when we’re doing great, then there’s almost nothing the two of us can’t figure out. We’re unstoppable.”
We cuddle under the covers together, our smooth legs tangling together and our hands clasped together. We’re murmuring about what movie to watch when Colton and Lance appear in the doorway.
“I knew girls did stuff during sleepovers,” Colton says as he looks us over.
“Arts and crafts?” Lance asks, his eyes narrowed in confusion.
“Heavy on the scissors,” Colton deadpans.
Gemma and I giggle and snort. Lance’s eyebrows disappear into his hair.
“We only ever made out the one time, at… was that Theodore’s party?” Gemma asks me.
“Bethany’s sweet sixteen party. In the hot tub with Theodore there. That’s why you’re confused.”
“Oh, that’s right! But it was at Theodore’s graduation party that we, you know.” She stops to waggle her eyebrows.
There were no other instances where we made out or anything else. But I catch on to her ruse. “When you… with your-?” I giggle and bite my lip.
“When she what with her what ?” Lance asks and comes into the room.
Colton remains leaning on the doorframe with a look that could melt the clothes off of anyone.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Gemma tosses her hair over her shoulder.
“Know? No. Seeing is believing,” Colton says, a challenge in his tone.
Lance laughs. “Anyway, we were just coming up to let you both know we locked up the doors and we’re going to play some video games. If you need to go outside or leave the house, talk to us first.”
“You’re tucking us in, Daddy?” Gemma teases in a high-pitched voice.
“Sing me a song!” I demand with a childish pout.
“I want a story!” Gemma adds.
“A glass of milk!”
“Rub my back!”
“Another story! Don’t skip pages!”
Lance rolls his eyes and waves a hand at us as he leaves.
“They’re both brats,” Colton grumbles as he moves back to let Lance exit my room.
“Their daddies didn’t spank their asses enough growing up,” Lance says to Colton.
“Hm, well, it’s a good thing we have you two, now isn’t it?” Gemma pipes up next to me. I pinch her side under the blankets as both Lance and Colton stop and slowly turn to face us. Lance looks unsure, while Colton looks like he’s promising that spanking for later. Gemma and Lance’s gazes are locked on each other and I watch as he goes from unsure to curious to that same promising look as Colton but for Gemma. Her hand snakes to mine, and she squeezes me until he breaks the eye contact.
The guys leave saying nothing else and we wait until we hear the TV starting up downstairs before we say anything.
“So, about you and Lance?”
Gemma squeals and ducks her head under the covers. I pat her head.
“Wait, did you eat anything with beans?”
I laugh and wiggle my butt under the covers. “No, but basically everything we ate had some sort of cheese.”
She screeches and scrambles out of the covers and leans back against the pillows like she’s in a coffin. “He’s so handsome.”
“He is.”
“He’s so nice to me.”
“He’s employed by you.”
“So is Jay! I mean, Colton,” she challenges me and goes up on her elbow.
“I know. I’m just walking you through the same questions I have to see if we come up with similar answers,” I explain.
“He’s a lot older than me,” she continues.
“I don’t think men have biological clocks like women do,” I say. “So his age doesn’t matter.”
She wrinkles her nose. “I never said I wanted to have his babies.”
“I know, so his age extra doesn’t matter.”
She groans and covers her eyes.
“What else would his age change? He already goes with you everywhere and on every vacation and work trip. It’s not like he can’t keep up with you.” Now it’s my turn to twirl her hair. The silky blonde locks slide smoothly between my fingers. “Besides, I’m pretty sure you can teach him all the references to pop culture as you see fit.”
She giggles. “In order to date me, you must be able to sing all the Hannah Montana songs.”
“Well, obviously.”
“Ugh, he’s got a nice ass,” Gemma says and sighs into my hair twirling.
“Objectively speaking, yes, he does.”
“I had a terrible day last week. I didn’t tell you about it because I think I was just hormonal and tired. But he held me and let me cry on his chest and then slept on my couch to make sure I was alright.”
“Gem! That sounds serious!” I admonish her. “You could have called me.”
“It really wasn’t serious. Just pre-period hormonal stuff,” she says dismissively.
“That was nice of him to stay with you.”
“When he was holding me, he was saying the nicest things to me and stroking my hair. He didn’t need to, but he did. He could have dropped me off at home and left like he usually does when I’m done for the day. Instead, he held me and let me cry on him and then stayed until morning. I made him breakfast and everything.”
“Next time, offer him pussy for breakfast instead of eggs and see what happens.”
“Is this what Daddy Issues look like?” she asks me.
I cackle. “I think this is what being cared for by good men looks like.”
“Wicked. We should do a podcast about it,” she says in her Frat Guy voice.
“Bro, nobody knows relationships like we do.”
“Bro, we sure know how to get good tits.”
“Bro, and ass. The both of them are totally caked up.”