Chapter Eighteen — Bastian
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
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BASTIAN
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
I couldn’t stop blinking to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating, because Trinity was our custom-made Omega. The things we wanted were the things she wanted. And we weren’t only talking about mainstream things like blindfolds and handcuffs.
Her little handwritten notes made me smile. Like the one next to CNC and primal.
I don’t run unless I have to, but I’ll sneak and hide and fight like hell.
“This is real, right?” Theo said so quietly that I was the only one who could hear it.
“Very.”
Everyone was different, but if you’d compiled all our choices in the absolutely yes category, they were nearly an exact match for Trinity’s.
Even her hard limits weren’t things we cared about. I expected her to have more than she did, but our little Omega was just as curious and kinky as we were.
I risked a glance over at where she sat, looking at her phone, and smirked. Her eyes were wide, cheeks flushed, and she was fidgeting in her seat like she was trying to relieve… something. She was seeing what we were from the other side.
Everything she’d chosen painted a picture, not just of an Omega who matched us entirely, but of someone who wanted to relinquish control desperately. The way she’d blossomed at Element made so much more sense. Even the way she’d melted downstairs next to the car.
Trinity was exhausted in more ways than one, and it wasn’t simply a lack of sleep. She was fighting for control she didn’t want and to keep her head above water in a world that was hard to navigate alone.
A wave of perfume crashed over us, and I could no longer stay still.
I stood, went to her chair and lifted her up, savoring her squeak of surprise before I settled her back on my lap. Holding her tightly so she couldn’t move more than what I allowed. “We match,” I said quietly in her ear. “See?”
Slowly, she still scrolled through our lists. The one on her screen was Theo’s, with his love of high protocol, training, and rules. Other things too. We all diverged and overlapped in different places.
Trinity finished scrolling to the end and put her phone down. Awe seeped into her tone. “What are the chances of that? Like… you’re right. You match almost everything.”
She would know the real reason soon enough, and we couldn’t wait to tell her. We just didn’t want it hanging over her head when making a decision like this.
Instead, I turned her to the side and tightened my arms a little more. She reacted exactly as I hoped she would, the tension melting out of her in a reversal of what most people would feel.
The smallest whine reached me along with a whole new wave of perfume. “Got you,” I whispered.
“I could fall asleep just like this,” she said.
“I’ll tie you up, hands and feet and blindfold, and hold you just like this, and you can nap.”
She froze for a second, as if I’d made her short-circuit. “There’s no reason at all to make it sound better, but…”
“Does there need to be a reason?” My brother asked.
“I guess not, but it feels like there should be? In the same way that I have no idea why I want some of the things I do.”
Theo gathered up the papers of her list and stacked them together. “It’s always hard to reconcile when you want something that’s not considered normal. But since we want all the same things you do, I think you’re in a good place.”
“Yeah.”
Logan chuckled. “Bring her over here so we can talk this through.”
I did, sitting us in the middle of the throng and entirely unwilling to let her go.
“Fuck, you smell so good,” Brooks said.
Theo cleared his throat and shifted in his seat. “We’re all a little jealous of Bastian at the moment.”
“I can share—” she went to move, and I tightened my hold with a soft growl. Fresh perfume exploded, and if that wasn’t like being in heaven, nothing was.
Logan leaned forward, elbows on his knees and gaze intense. “You asked yesterday what ‘all of it’ meant for us, and we can finally tell you. But just like the list, there’s nothing that’s required, and nothing that’s permanent. The only way this works is if it works for all of us.”
Trinity nodded at the same time she leaned back on my shoulder. “I understand. But what’s the ideal?”
“A twenty-four-seven sexual power exchange with free use,” Theo said. “Meaning that at home, any of us can bend you over the nearest surface and fuck you. Or put you on your knees. Or lay you out on a table for us all to eat. You get the picture. At any time and for any reason.”
“Safe words always apply,” Logan said. “The same system Element uses. They’ll always be active, but free use means we won’t ask for permission first.”
“Everything else is up to personal preferences that we’ll talk to you about when the time comes.”
Trinity squirmed, and I didn’t let her move. She went still, then asked. “May I stand up, please?”
I kissed the space behind her ear. “Very nice words.”
When she turned to face us, her cheeks burned red. She’d marked that she liked praise, but she clearly wasn’t used to receiving it. We’d change that.
“When you say a sexual dynamic, do you mean only sex?” She asked.
Logan nodded. “Aside from the occasional scene, none of us want to control what you wear or where you go. But in the bedroom, or anytime we cross that line into something sexual, we are the ones in charge.”
“That makes sense.”
“I know a few people in twenty-four sevens,” Theo said. “Over time, the dynamic shifts pretty naturally to reflect where the submissive is willing to give up control and where they’re not, regardless of whether it’s strictly sexual.”
Trinity started to pace. It didn’t seem like anxiety. More like restlessness and the need to move. “You know people who do this?”
“We do.”
“So you’ve never done this before?”
“No.” I shook my head. “Not like this.”
It would be a lie to say we hadn’t shared sexual partners before, but we’d never had an official dynamic with anyone, and definitely nothing full-time.
She straightened and lifted her chin. “Good.”
“Feeling possessive?” Brooks asked.
“Maybe.”
Logan’s grin took on a feral edge. “We’re there too. Which is why this would be completely exclusive for both you and for us.”
“Good,” Trinity said again, stronger this time.
Brooks flipped through her list and pointed. “You checked off bratting.”
She winced. “Yeah. I don’t think it would be all the time or anything.”
Brooks smiled. “I never said it was a bad thing, baby. But there do need to be some rules for it.”
Trinity’s shoulders relaxed and her face cleared. Those little things shouldn’t have been enough to make me hard, but they were. Because the way our Omega settled when she found out there would be rules was fucking beautiful.
“Like what?”
“Pranks and funny things are fine. I love them, the others might, and you’ll most likely end up with a punishment, or a funishment.
Sassing is fine. But nothing that would actually cause harm.
No messing with food or medication. No unplugging electronics while someone is using them or while something important is charging.
No doing something that would affect someone’s job. ”
“Nothing that would hurt anyone or that would cause permanent damage,” she said with a sneaky smile. “Got it.”
“We’re in so much trouble,” Theo muttered.
All Trinity did was smile wider. “Do we need like… a contract or something?”
“If that would make you more comfortable, we can do that,” Logan said. “It’s not super common because of the way dynamics evolve.”
“I don’t need one, but I wanted to ask.”
The doorbell rang with the food delivery, and Brooks stood. “Ask all the questions, baby. We want you to ask all the questions.”
She chewed on her lip and looked at Logan. “What do we tell them?” Her father and Logan’s mother.
“I think we give this some time to figure it out for ourselves before we tell them anything.”
“Yeah, probably a good idea.”
Brooks carried in the bags of food. Rin’s grilled cheese looked to die for, and I wish I wasn’t on my fight diet right now. I’d simply have to supplement with her for dessert instead.
Theo looked at my chicken and rice and smiled over his pasta dish. “Jealous?”
I flipped him off.
“One day you’ll be retired and you can eat whatever you want, too.”
Trinity frowned. “Wait, what do you do?” She swore under her breath. “Other than Logan, I have no idea what any of you do.”
“Bastian is a fighter, and I’m his trainer,” Brooks said. “The real kind of fighting, not performance fighting like wrestling. Theo used to swim competitively. Now I don’t know what the fuck he does.”
“Asshole.” Theo laughed and kicked Brooks. “I haven’t figured out what I want to do full-time. I only stopped swimming a couple of years ago. For now, I manage investments that I’ve made. And that you benefit from,” he said, looking pointedly at my brother.
“So you’re all sports and kink,” Trinity said. “Guess that makes sense.” The moan she made when she bit into her sandwich made what little remained of my blood flow south. “Holy fuck, this is good.”
“The only thing on your yes list that we’ll say no to is choking,” Logan said.
Trinity tilted her head. Not upset, just curious. “Why?”
Brooks held up a finger so he could finish his bite of food.
“Because the truth is that there’s no safe way to do it.
There are ways that are safer, but there are a lot of risks and possible side effects, and we’re not willing to take those risks.
” Then he smirked. “But don’t worry. We can still make breath play happen when there’s a cock down your throat. ”
Trinity turned as red as her soup and went back to eating.
We fell into the kind of silence that only happened when good food was in front of you. The comfortable, companionable kind. Because there was nothing more to say until we told her the truth, and none of us wanted to do that while eating.
Brooks and I cleared the trash, and I grabbed a water bottle for Rin before settling back in the living room. This time it was my turn to be nervous. There was no proof of our claim, only hope, but we had to take the risk.
Looking around at each of us, Logan silently checked if we were ready.
As much as I ever would be.
“There’s one more thing we need to tell you, Trinity. Because a relationship like this can’t work unless everyone’s starting from a place of honesty, but we also didn’t want this to affect your decision.”
I wanted nothing more in the world than to reach inside her and erase the sudden fear in her eyes. Bring the color back to her skin because she’d gone pale. “All right.”
Logan cleared his throat. “We’re your scent matches.”