3
CELINE
A loud beeping noise behind me cuts into my sleep like a dagger. I cup my ear with my hand to muffle the sound and open my eyes a crack, finding shadowy shapes I don’t recognize in my line of sight.
Despite my pounding head and the fact that my tongue has fastened itself to my palette, I fling myself into a seated position and search the darkness.
"Celine," a husky voice whispers from the shadows. "It's okay. You're okay."
"Celine," another husky voice whispers from my left where I can make out another bed. "It's okay. We took you to a motel. Me, Elias, and Travis."
"A motel." Instinct drives my hands between my legs, but I don't feel any post-fuck soreness or wetness. I'm still fully clothed.
"You lost your keys. Don't you remember?" Elias's voice comes from the end of the bed where I can make out his shadowy shape sitting in a chair.
"I have no idea what you're talking about. Where is Travis?"
"I'm down here," a gruff voice mumbles from the floor. I glance down to find him stretched out on what looks like a bearskin rug, shirtless, with his jeans unbuttoned.
Lordy.
That is one fine stretch of man-torso right there. It's a shame I was too drunk to appreciate the opportunity that surrounds me on all sides.
Elias stands from the chair I can make out at the end of my bed, stretching his huge, muscular arms over his shoulders. He's still wearing his shirt, which is a shame, but even in the darkness and through a layer of gray fabric, I can make out his dinner-plate-size pecs and the tightness of his abs. His athletic physique is still scorched onto my brain from our previous shared night of torrid pleasure.
Dornan rises from the bed and swaps places with Elias.
"You set an alarm so you can switch?" I ask.
"Yep. We've got practice tomorrow. We need at least some sleep."
"So why didn't someone share the bed with me?" There's a beat of silence before I comprehend what gentlemen they've been while I've been in a drunken coma. "Dornan, get over here. You can't sleep in that chair."
"Why Dornan?" Elias, who has already made himself comfortable in the adjacent bed, props himself up on his elbow and fixes his devil-black eyes on me. Even in the dark, they have a strangely opaque reflective quality that sends a shiver up my spine. Those eyes stared into mine as he made me come, and it felt like he turned me inside out emotionally as well as physically.
"Because he's the one in the chair."
"Damn," Elias mutters, flopping onto his back and folding his arms behind his head. "I knew I should have stayed in the chair."
"Stop fighting over Celine." The sound of rustling follows Travis as he moves to his side.
"Maybe Travis should share with me, and you guys should bunk down together?"
Dornan is already spread out beside me and nudges my arm with his elbow. He's mirrored Elias's posture, and it amuses me how much they are alike, even through their obvious differences.
Elias is all sharp edges with his razor tongue, dark piercing gaze, brows that are like slashes across his forehead, and a sweep of black hair as dark as ink. Dornan is all lightness with his broad smile, blue eyes, and blond hair, which are an angelic contrast to his bulk and height.
They’re so different and yet sexy in their own right. More so tonight because I can still remember what it felt like to kiss each of the men sharing the room with me. Their kisses rest like butterflies on my lips.
"I'm sorry about tonight," I say softly.
"What for?" Dornan's fingers brush mine, the contact forming a lump in my throat, which presses up, threatening tears. I don't want to cry in front of them. I don't even want to cry in front of myself.
"For kissing you all like a rabid animal."
"I didn't get rabid animal vibes." Dornan twists to grin at me in the dark.
"Yeah. It brought back nothing but good memories for me." Elias turns, too, and shoots me the wicked smile that seduced me in the first place.
"No complaints." When I lean over the edge of the bed, Travis is grinning. He presses two fingers to his lips and holds them in the air like he captured my kiss on their tips.
Jeez.
Not what I was expecting.
"I guess…what Eddie did was so fucking humiliating. I just want to prove to him that I don't give a shit. No loss…and all that." I wave my hand dismissively, even though they’ll struggle to see the gesture in the darkness.
"You don't need to prove anything to that douchebag," Elias says fiercely. "Seriously, if he didn't value what he had, then he's an idiot."
"Yeah." Dornan turns toward me a little before I have a chance to swoon at Elias's compliment.
An engine rumbles to life in the parking lot, and a ripple of female laughter cuts through, reminding me of where we are. Molly's for flip's sake.
"Once a cheater, always a cheater." The bitterness in Travis's tone makes me wonder if he's experienced his own cheating heartbreak.
"I wish I could find a way to get even."
"What about a fake relationship?" Elias has now moved to a sitting position, the conversation taking all his attention. My head is still fogged from sleep, and I’m probably still drunk, so his comment takes a while to settle.
"A fake relationship?"
"Yeah. I mean, I can stand in to make Eddie jealous. Seeing you with me would make him crazy, especially because rumors circulated the last time we hooked up, and I know he heard them."
"Rumors?"
"Someone saw us leave together, that's all."
"So you didn't go bragging all over the locker room?"
"Hell no." He sounds offended, but I'm not sure why he would be. I've heard him talk shit about girls before. Elias Mazur isn't exactly what you'd call a gentleman or even a good guy. In fact, I've always seen him as a bad boy, through and through.
Dornan makes a grumbling sound in the back of his throat as though the idea of me even fake dating Elias doesn’t sit well with him. "I can stand in."
"I'd be up for it," Travis says. "Eddie doesn’t know me and me being older might make a fake date even more effective."
"We could all do it," Dornan suggests, and my mouth drops open. Is he serious?
"Three fake boyfriends?" As I say the words, the idea becomes real and interesting. Eddie would hit the roof if I dated Elias, but he'd be apoplectic if I was dating three men.
Ellie's idea for me to get over my feelings was rebound sex. Rebound fake dating doesn't quite have the same ring to it, but maybe it could be a little of both. Fake relationship, real smoking-hot sex. And not just with one man. With three!
I'd get to see how my two best friends live every day and dust the Eddie cobwebs away.
I don't tell them my embellished ideas. That part can come in time. "Three fake boyfriends. Now that's what I call a proposal."
Seemingly satisfied by my decision, the room quietens, and I settle back against the pillows. It's strange to sleep in the same bed as Dornan. We're close, but this is a big step into new territory. He doesn't encroach on my space, which under the circumstances is a relief, but as he closes his eyes and falls asleep, I can't help but imagine what it would feel like if he did at some point in the future. If all of them did.
Saturdays always feel like a drag. Ellie's busy with family life, and Gabriella tends to stay in bed for at least half the day. I hate my weekends becoming focused on chores. When I was dating Eddie, we'd also hang out in bed, go for brunch, and then return to bed. I spent a lot of horizontal time with my ex. And vertical against the wall.
Ugh.
I don't want to think about sex with Eddie.
I want those images burned from my brain. Most of all, I don't want to feel like the same stupid girl I was. I need to be someone new to mark a line in the sand.
This Saturday morning started out a little different. Waking in a motel room with three half-naked, gorgeous men. Awkward goodbyes and a walk of shame when Travis dropped me home, and Dornan stayed with me while I retrieved a spare key.
Their proposal is like a little light shining, but not enough to drag me from my dark mood, so I do what I always do when I'm feeling down. I hit the shops with my dad's credit card in hand and no idea about what I'm going to buy. I start off in my favorite shop, grabbing some jeans and a pretty brown silky blouse to try on. In the mirror, the same me stares back. Flaming red hair and bright green eyes, the same style of clothes I've been wearing since I was a teen.
I twist my hair into a bun at my nape and study myself again. I cover my hair with my hands, wanting to see what my face looks like without the distinctive hair. Maybe that's what I should do. A big change. Dye my hair so it's dark and dramatic. Chocolate brown, maybe, with some caramel highlights.
I hang the clothes back up and return them to the sales advisor, then stride out of the shop and into a boutique I've never entered before. It's filled with darker, more dramatic clothing that would wash my red hair right out but would probably look amazing with a tumble of dark curls.
I trawl the racks, searching for black jeans and tops in a range of colors I usually avoid like the plague. I find three knockout dresses more like something Ellie would usually wear as an option for my fake dates. The total bill is wildly extravagant, but I don't feel guilty. It's been over a month since my dad called me. Since the divorce and his escape overseas, he's proven that he has very little interest in me or my life. The only way I can connect with him is with money. Spending money on his credit card stupidly fills me with a little hope that he's thinking about me somewhere and has my best interests at heart.
There's a hair salon in the shopping mall, which is my next stop. When I tell the hairdresser what I want, she practically weeps in front of me. "You can't cover up all this beautiful color," she moans, waving her hands around on both sides of my head. "It's perfect as it is."
"I want to be a new me," I say. "I just need a change. A big change."
"I can't do it," she says, but when I tell her about Eddie, she rests her hand on my upper arm, sympathy raising her brows. "We've all been through it, sweetie. You do what you need to do."
It's so weird to see her painting my hair from root to tip with gray-looking cream. The smell is acrid, and my scalp is weirdly cold. I flick through the messages from Ellie and Gab with photos of last night attached, zooming in on Dornan, Elias, and Travis.
The hairdresser leans over my shoulder. "Now, those are the kinds of men I would go for if I was a few years younger."
"But they're all so different," I say.
"They're real men, though. Look at those muscles and those determined jaws. Is one of them your ex?"
I tell her about what happened last night, including the afterparty at Molly's and the slightly awkward goodbyes in the morning. When I explain their proposal, she whistles. "You're going to go on dates with them all."
"I guess."
"Who are you going to pick to go first?"
"I don’t know. Dornan's a good friend, so he'd be the safest option. Travis is my friend's hot older brother, and his sexy, mature vibe would make Eddie intrigued. But Elias is Eddie's true nemesis. He hates him with a passion. And Elias won't get bogged down with feelings. He didn't last time." Plus, he's the most likely date to lead to the sex I desperately want. I don’t tell the hairdresser that part, though.
"Him." I enlarge Elias's photo, and the hairdresser whistles again.
"Lucky you, darlin'. Lucky you."
I leave the salon an eon later with a cascade of soft chocolate brown curls and feeling like a different person.
And with three fake dates on the horizon, I'm starting to feel more in control of my life, too.