Chapter 18 — Make Him Choose
Make Him Choose
The house went quiet behind us.
Not empty quiet. Not the old bachelor kind, where silence meant the refrigerator humming and me standing alone in a kitchen I had bought because the lake looked good from the windows.
This quiet had weight in it.
The other four were still inside somewhere, giving us space with the kind of coordinated generosity that made my chest hurt if I thought about it too long.
A lamp glowed through the sliding door. Someone had left a towel folded over the back of a deck chair.
The lake beyond the railing was dark and calm, the surface catching thin strips of light from the dock.
And the hot tub waited at the far corner of the deck, steam curling up into the night like it had been warming for exactly this.
Reese and Eden led me toward it shoulder to shoulder.
That shouldn't have done what it did to me. Walking. That was all. Two women crossing my deck in tiny string bikinis, bare feet quiet on the boards, bodies still damp from the pool day and shining under the low amber deck lights.
Fine.
Maybe it should have done exactly what it did to me.
Reese's bikini was coral and criminally optimistic.
Thin strings at her hips. Small triangles over breasts that didn't believe in small triangles as a concept.
The wet fabric clung to the full, soft weight of her, darkened by water, the edges pulling gently against tan skin every time she breathed.
Her hair was loose down her back, honey-brown and damp at the ends, and when she glanced over her shoulder at me, her smile had warmth in it.
And trouble.
Reese trouble was quieter than Tatum trouble. Less fireworks, more open door. Less explosion, more come here and find out.
Eden wore navy. Barely. The top looked like it had been selected by a woman with strong opinions about structural failure.
The strings at her neck and back were thin enough to make my fingers flex without permission.
Her bronze skin glistened in the steam, and the water beading on her chest and stomach caught the deck light until every curve of her looked deliberate.
Eden didn't glance back.
She knew I was looking.
That was worse.
My swim trunks were already losing the war.
Not gradually. Not politely. I was hard before I reached the first step, my cock thick against the wet fabric, and if either woman failed to notice, she deserved an award for mercy neither of them had ever shown me in their lives.
"Coming in?" Reese asked.
Her voice was soft. Sweet, almost.
The smile wasn't.
"Trying to remember how legs work," I said.
Eden stepped down into the water first, slow enough to be mean about it. Steam moved around her thighs, then her hips, then the bottom edge of that navy bikini top, and the waterline did nothing to hide the fact that her breasts were too full for the suit and getting less covered by the second.
Reese followed from the other side with a small, pleased sound as the heat took her.
She sank into the water to just below her breasts, which meant the hot tub had decided to be helpful and then immediately changed its mind.
Her nipples pressed against the coral fabric, visible and hard, and she watched me watch her with open delight.
I got in before my body embarrassed all of us more than it already had.
The water wrapped around my legs, hot and heavy, and the night air stayed cool above my shoulders.
For one second, nobody said anything. The lake breathed somewhere beyond the deck.
Steam drifted between us. Reese floated closer, all golden skin and soft mouth.
Eden came in from the right, dark hair slicking back from her face, eyes bright with intent.
Then they closed the space at the same time.
Reese climbed onto my lap like she belonged there.
Not tentative. Not asking. Her thighs settled over mine, her hips above my hips, the heat of her body pressing through the water and the thin fabric of my trunks until my cock jumped against her.
My hands went to her waist because there was no world where they did anything else.
Eden slid in beside us, then over, pressing her body along my right side. Her hip found mine under the water. Her arm looped behind my shoulders. One breast pressed into my bicep, slick and warm, and she made a small sound in her throat when she felt how hard I was.
"Already?" she murmured.
"Look at you."
"I know what I look like."
"Then why are you asking?"
Reese laughed against my mouth before she kissed me.
Warm. Open. Deep enough that the rest of the deck dropped away.
Then Eden's lips found my jaw, my neck, the place below my ear that had apparently become public property.
Reese's mouth stayed on mine, her tongue sliding slow and lush against mine, while Eden kissed down the side of my throat with the focused confidence of a woman who had read the manual and disagreed with every safety warning.
Both of them were on me.
Both of them.
Reese in my lap, her breasts pressed to my chest, her thighs bracketing mine. Eden along my side, mouth on my neck, hand flat on my stomach under the water, fingers spread like she was measuring what she planned to ruin.
I made a sound.
It didn't qualify as language.
They both laughed.
"He's gone," Eden said.
Reese pulled back enough to look at my face. Her eyes were warm and bright and very pleased with the damage. "Completely gone."
"I'm sitting right here."
"Physically," Eden said. "Mentally, no."
Reese's hips shifted against my lap, a slow roll that dragged a groan out of me before I could swallow it. "Maybe we should give him something simple."
"That feels dangerous."
"It's," Eden said. Her hand moved up my chest, palm slick with hot water. "We made a game."
I looked from one to the other.
That was my first mistake.
Reese looked sweet enough to be trusted by every mother in the summer circle. Eden looked like she had already written the rules, found the loopholes, and planned my funeral.
"What kind of game?"
"Make Him Choose," Reese said.
She said it softly. That was the trick with Reese. She could deliver a line like that with honey in her voice and sunlight in her eyes and still make my entire nervous system stand at attention.
Eden's smile sharpened. "Rules are simple. I kiss you. Reese kisses you. You tell us which kiss is better."
"No."
"That's not one of the available answers."
"It should be."
Reese's thumb traced the side of my neck, slow and warm. "You have to pick."
"I don't."
Eden's hand slid lower on my stomach. "Then there are penalties."
"Of course there are."
"First round," Reese said, and took my face in both hands.
She kissed me like she had all the time in the world and every intention of using it against me.
Her mouth opened over mine, soft and certain, tongue teasing in slow passes that made my hands tighten on her waist. She kissed with her whole body.
Hips pressing down. Breasts flattening against my chest. Fingers threading into my hair like she wanted to hold me exactly where she had me.
When she pulled back, her lips were wet and her breathing had changed.
"Okay," she whispered.
Eden's turn wasn't gentle.
She caught my lower lip with her teeth first. A warning.
A claim. Then her mouth covered mine, tongue sliding in with wicked confidence, one hand at the back of my neck, the other still low on my stomach.
She kissed like she had never once believed in half measures.
She kissed like winning was beside the point because ownership had already been established.
By the time she pulled back, my pulse was useless.
They looked at me.
Reese was warm and flushed and smiling like she already knew. Eden's eyes were dark, satisfied, waiting.
"Well?" Eden asked.
"No."
Reese laughed. "That's also not one of the answers."
"I can't choose."
"Penalty," Eden said immediately.
"That was fast."
"We anticipated failure."
Their hands went under the water.
Four hands. One drawstring. Zero mercy.
My trunks loosened, shifted, and then they were pushing the fabric down my hips. The hot water moved over bare skin, and my cock sprang free, hard and heavy between us. Reese's breath caught. Eden's fingers closed around me before I could say anything, thumb dragging once over the head.
My hips jerked.
"Better," Reese said.
"Much," Eden agreed.
Reese wrapped her hand around me too, just below Eden's, and for one dangerous second they both held my cock in the hot water, both of them watching my face while I tried not to come from hands alone like a teenager with no survival instincts.
"Round two," Eden said.
"You still have to choose," Reese added.
"I hate this game."
"No, you don't."
I didn't.
Reese kissed me again, harder this time, her hips grinding down on my lap with the tiny strip of coral fabric still between us.
Her breasts moved against my chest. Her tongue slid deep.
She made a low sound when my cock brushed the inside of her thigh under the water, and that sound went straight into my spine.
Then Eden took my mouth from her.
She kissed me with one hand around my cock. Not stroking. Holding. Making sure I knew exactly how little distance remained between game and disaster. Her tongue pushed against mine, her fingers tightened, and when she pulled back, she looked almost smug.
"Choose."
I looked at Reese.
Warm. Golden. Mouth swollen from mine. Eyes full of laughter and hunger.
I looked at Eden.
Wicked. Possessive. Her hand still wrapped around me, her wet body pressed to my side like she had never believed in personal space.
"Impossible."
Reese's smile went soft and bright. Eden's went sharp.
"Told you," Reese said.
"I knew," Eden said. "But I wanted to watch him realize it."
They reached for their bikini ties.
My brain stopped doing anything useful.