5. Luka
CHAPTER 5
LUKA
It’d taken me two and a half weeks to get used to Phoenix’s schedule despite already being an early riser, by that I mean six-thirty unless it was the weekend, so being conscious at four-thirty was a struggle.
Before our lives intertwined, and on a typical morning, Phoenix woke at five because he lived above his bakery. He’d stumble his way downstairs to create the delicious pastries and breads in distinct flavor combinations he changed up every week, while drinking copious amounts of coffee to wake at his own pace. Then he’d make his own mayo for the various aiolis for the sandwich offerings that day, among a million other tasks which made his bakery and the food he served spectacular.
Curious, I asked him why he opened at seven instead of earlier. His sassy answer made both me and B smile.
“Since there is a certain coffee chain on every corner, sometimes even right across the street from each other and they open at stupid o’clock, the early risers can get their coffee. Plus, people don’t eat breakfast right after they wake up. They also choose not to eat food trucked in, made from various vendors with differing results pulled out of packages and displayed as though they were homemade.” His growl impressed even me.
But the man’s ordinary days changed after the initial weekend we spent together. Friday afternoon exposed our desires and the truths we’d all be hiding for months, along with relieving the pressure of all the what if’s we’d had before he came home with B and I.
Saturday morning changed something fundamental in me.
The intimacy we shared, while intense because of it being our initial foray into revealing our connection to each other, settled those incongruent thoughts about our budding relationship. Phoenix was secure knowing that we wanted whatever was best for him and felt free enough to explore his sensual side.
In the minutes B and I left him alone in my bedroom, now our bedroom, Phoenix crawled under the covers and fell asleep. As if sensing my and then B’s presence, he kicked the covers off his striking body and allowed us to study him. His pouty lips pursed, even in sleep, an inducement if there ever was one. The paleness of his skin as it contrasted with the peach of his mouth, bringing his sexy physique into focus. His head turned toward me with his hand near his face, his other opened on his stomach, the picture of temptation incarnate, although I’d known it wasn’t on purpose.
The sultry side of the younger man staggered me when he stretched out on the bed, similar to a cat sunning himself. After getting his permission for me and B to touch him, he revealed flawless skin along with his cock, which matched his body type perfectly. The sight of his long, slim, and pale dick pressed alongside B’s thicker one sent heat rushing through me.
But what set me off was the direct, demanding side coming from the shy, enchanting man who knew the precise method to command us to do his bidding.
He reined in B, denying him control, and directed him to where and how he wanted him. I’d never seen my best friend so compliant, but the soft expression on his face and the spark in his emerald eyes told me everything I needed to know. B, like me, would go to the ends of the earth for our man.
I heard the back door open and the click of the girls’ nails against the wooden floor as they headed out to the backyard. After a moment, arms wrapped around my waist and hands opened over my stomach as he burrowed his face into my back as his unmistakable vanilla scent drifted up to me.
I sighed as a sense of peace washed over me and placed my sizable hand over his, savoring his touch.
“Sleep well?”
He nodded, rubbing his forehead against my back. His words made me chuckle.
“Yeah, I’ve never slept better. Although it took me several minutes to wiggle out of Burton’s hold. He was dreaming and didn’t want to let me go.”
After the weekend where we persuaded the younger man to spend those few days getting to know us and ingratiating himself as Stella and Ruby’s favorite human, Phoenix headed home Sunday afternoon to prepare for the week. As we dropped him off, it was as if I was missing a piece of myself.
That night, B and I barely slept. My king bed was empty without either man by my side, and B complained the entire next day about his ‘uncomfortable as fuck’ bed and no warmth.
But when we walked into Phoenix Rising and spotted our man leaning against the glass display, eyes heavy lidded with bruised smudges underneath, my heart stopped.
“What happened?” Without waiting another moment, I guided him into my arms and sighed when he burrowed his face against my chest.
Arthur glared at me, turning to B when he reached for a triple chocolate chip ice cream sandwich cookie and slapped his hand away.
“I’m guessing you two, since he’s lost the ability to speak. If you broke his heart, I’m going to find a boning knife and?—”
“I slept three hours last night. It wasn’t their fault.”
“Were you working late?” B asked.
Another shake of his head against me and I shivered at his touch. When I inhaled him in, another part of me melted.
After making a pivotal, split second decision to tell him the truth, I rubbed the younger man’s back in a circular pattern.
“Sunshine, both of us slept horribly last night and we know it’s because you weren’t with us. This isn’t a decision you should make lightly, but I?—”
“And me, too,” B added.
“What do you think about staying overnight with us and then I’ll drive you back here every morning?” I asked.
He leaned back from my chest and my hands froze on his back as he blinked at me. I growled at the sight of his red-rimmed eyes and puffy face. My finger traced over his cheek before I cupped his face, savoring his sigh and his touch when he leaned against my hand.
“I wake up so early, I’d disturb you two.”
“Ah, Petal,” B stepped closer and pressed a kiss to his mouth, lingering when Phoenix didn’t pull back, before he shivered as the younger man licked his bottom lip. “We’d sacrifice just about anything, even sleep, which it’s obvious we aren’t getting, because we weren’t in Luka’s bed together last night.”
“Wait,” Phoenix said. He rose on his tiptoes and tilted his head, giving me a fierce kiss, ending with a brief swipe of his tongue inside my mouth, leaving me panting and clutching him tighter to me.
When I spoke next, my voice rumbled out, “What, Sunshine?”
“You… two didn’t sleep together?”
“This is interesting,” Arthur said, shoving his face near ours.
I turned at the interruption, but Phoenix’s best friend’s face was far closer than I believed and I jerked back, taking Phoenix and B with me.
“Personal space would be great,” I grumbled.
“Yeah, he doesn’t know what that is. He’s seen me naked more times than I’m comfortable admitting and he comments on my grooming techniques. Every single time. It gets old because I’m never going to grow hair down there, only to trim it into a pattern. So stop asking me!”
Arthur winked at me before he patted my cheek, a wicked smirk on his face.
Phoenix stiffened against me as he sucked in a harsh breath, shaking his head. His friend froze when Phoenix exhaled a snarl.
Making no sudden movements, Arthur stepped back and moved his hand away from my face as our man bared his teeth. His eyes, wide and concerned, stayed on our man until he was out of Phoenix’s striking range when a wide smile broke the serious expression on his face.
Phoenix yanked on B’s shirt, despite the man already standing next to us, and brought his face close as he stared down at his friend.
“These two are off limits for teasing, walking in naked on, or wherever your sexually active imagination leads you, in order to see them in the buff. Which will never happen! I’ve never asked for anything, but the tenuous hold I have on my sanity at this moment leads me to believe I’ll either become murderous or sink down to the floor and weep. So, please?”
“Ah, honey, I wasn’t trying to cause you stress. I promise, I’ll behave.”
Tears formed in Phoenix’s eyes, and we wrapped him up close.
“Where can we find the stairs to his apartment?” I asked.
Arthur whispered, “Head through the kitchen. You’ll find stairs on your left. The key is in his back left pocket.”
Both B and I nodded at the man.
“Love you, Arthur, and I’m sorry.”
“No worries, honey.”
Sensing Phoenix didn’t have the energy to walk, I lifted him and nestled him close with his arms around my shoulders and legs wrapped around my waist as B dug around his pocket for the key and dashed up before us.
B unlocked the door and opened it, but when I tried walking through, B stood frozen just inside the threshold so I bumped into his back. I searched Phoenix to see if the movement jolted him awake, but found him sound asleep against me. Adjusting the limp man in my arms, I lifted my head, searching for his bedroom, and gasped.
Despite the brief way Phoenix described his apartment and the vivid proof of his obsession with anything green, enriching the aesthetics of his bakery, there was no way my imagination could conjure the jungle we walked into. With double-hung windows on three of the four walls, it opened up the space, filling it with light. But what stunned me was the overall representation of a garden eden.
Verdant plants scattered throughout greeted us. Monstera’s close to ten feet tall, devil’s ivy sitting on top of overflowing bookshelves, strung along the crown molding that circled the entire room. Spider plants, English ivy, several types of rubber trees, snake plants, aloe vera, lavender, and many, many others I couldn’t identify placed around the room on stands, shelves, and tables, leaving it feeling like a sanctum.
When I peered closer, each terra cotta pot was hand painted. Unicorns, rainbows, pastels of blue, yellow, green, and pink, along with glitter, some multicolored and others were rose, gold, hot pink, purple, aqua, all sparkled with the sunlight streaming in.
The cream and brown striped plush couch claimed the center of the room along with a coffee table, which looked to be a multifunctional piece. Empty pots, trowels, painting supplies, and an old-fashioned blue watering can lay next to books on plants and gardening along with an e-reader. The over seventy inch television was a bit of a surprise and so was the table of power tools in the corner near the kitchen, but at that moment my attention dropped away from the apartment when Phoenix shifted in my arms.
B pushed open a door, which contained even more greenery and art, but what drew my eye was the unmade queen bed, along with twisted sheets and a comforter crumpled on the floor.
After B spent the next few minutes making the bed, I lowered Phoenix onto the sheets, but he whimpered and clutched me closer.
“Don’t worry, Sunshine. We’re not going anywhere.”
As I pressed a kiss to his forehead, he turned on his side and brought his knees up to his chest. B covered him and the younger man tugged the thin blanket over his head before he let out a shuddering sigh and fell asleep.
Although exhausted and tempted to get into bed with Phoenix and B, I knew if I took a nap, I wouldn’t sleep later.
B closed the blinds, leaving the sun shining in through the tiny gaps. We left the door open an inch or two and walked into his living area. It also allowed us to hear him if he called for us.
“He never answered you about staying over?”
Concern outweighed the need to know if Phoenix would put us out of our misery. Despite his protests, he needed us as much as we needed him, and we’d compromise on the solution.
“Don’t worry, B. If he doesn’t want to stay with us, we’ll camp out here.”
It took a brief argument to persuade Phoenix to stay over after he woke up from his five-hour nap. That night, he packed most of his clothes and toiletries, which scenting Phoenix every morning during my shower left me hard more than once, along with a few plants, setting them in the windowsills in the kitchen.
“These are poisonous to dogs,” He pointed out.
I leaned closer and snagged a kiss, smiling against his mouth. “I wasn’t even worried, Sunshine.”
It was extraordinarily uncomplicated the way the three of us settled into a routine.
Waking early, eating breakfast that excluded sugar despite B’s heavy whines, and dropping Phoenix off before we headed to work. I’d pick Phoenix up around two and drove him home, heading back to work until five.
But every night as I cooked dinner with both men keeping me company, I found my craving to belong to someone satiated. Without knowing, the sensation that had gnawed at me over the years leaving me hollow fled because Phoenix and B gave me a sense of fulfillment nothing else in life provided.
It wasn’t about the sex, which was hot and astounding each time, but the bond forming between us, making me whole.
The pounding sound of B stumbling down the stairs brought me out of my thoughts as Phoenix tensed behind me. “Burton Maxwell Horváth, do not fall down those stairs! My heart can’t take it.”
When he rounded the corner, rubbing sleep from his eyes, he spotted us and stuck out his bottom lip in a pout. “I wasn’t going to, Petal. But the bed is cold and empty without you two in it.”
For thirty-one years, I’d never dreamed I could live my life with everything I’ve ever wanted.
Back in my early twenties, I’d grown tired of the dating and hook-up game, but after college and when B went back to dating women, there’d been several years where any hard dick would do. That grew old, especially when I found no satisfaction scratching that itch. I’d rather take myself in hand and use the variety of toys I’d purchased over the years.
Despite the countless blowjobs, frotting, and hand jobs we shared over the past few weeks, we hadn’t progressed further, despite our outspoken desire to do so. But with our early morning hours, we crashed soon after sunset. B still hadn’t adjusted all that well, but he made a valiant effort, which was how I ended up with him plastered to my chest when he stumbled over to us.
“This is the last morning we’re going to be getting up at the butt crack of dawn,” Phoenix announced with a yawn.
B perked up and leaned around me, staring at the younger man. “Oh, thanks to whatever deity who loves sleeping in for this miracle.”
“You love baking in the early hours? Who’s going to take over?”
Phoenix rubbed his forehead against my back before letting go and coming around to my other side so I could see his face. I searched it for any trepidation about his decision, but found a soft smile and a sparkle in his blue eyes.
“Charlotte graduated from culinary school and instead of working as a pastry chef in a high stress environment, she wants to take over the sweet creations at the bakery. She wants to start a line of cookies and chocolate confections, and whatever desserts strike her fancy. I’ll be proving the doughs in the refrigerator from now on. And since I already add the last ingredients in for the final proof, all I need to do is bake when I get in.”
B’s brows drew down. “Will it hurt your business?”
“I’ve been experimenting with the taste of different fermentation times of dough and found if I chilled the dough for forty-eight hours, the pastry and bread taste better. There’s been a lot of research in recent years, but it wasn’t until I needed time outside of work that I felt the need to change it up. But trust me, you’ll love them the next time you have your dark chocolate espresso croissant, Burton.”
I chuckled at B’s widening eyes, knowing how much he loved Phoenix’s creations.
“Eggs Benedict or latkes, a cheese omelet, and turkey bacon?”
“Ooh, latkes, please. I love how you make the edges crispy and the insides fluffy,” Phoenix said.
As I leaned in for a kiss, my heart leapt in my chest as he tilted his head up to meet my lips without hesitation, and I lingered on the lush softness pressed against my own. He kept his eyes closed and sighed when I stood, and B took advantage, sweeping in and licking around his plumpness.
Watching my two men kiss lit an inferno inside me every time.
B surprised me when he cupped the back of my head and leaned in for a lingering kiss. Although part of me expected him to not be as affectionate with me as he was with Phoenix, he astonished me whenever he sought me out and I savored each moment.
“Feed us,” B groaned against my mouth, making me huff out a laugh.
With my two favorite people in the world sipping coffee as I got to work, contentment washed over me, making my steps light.