Chapter 10
Christmas Eve
After lunch, I shower and take my time preparing. I shave everywhere, smooth my skin with the expensive lotion Leo bought me, and let my hair dry in soft waves. I’m basically prepping myself like a gift, and the ritual of it helps calm my nerves.
When it’s time to get dressed, I pull out the red dress from my shopping trip. It’s the one I bought knowing Leo would want to rip it off me. It’s soft and clingy, shorter than anything I’d usually wear, and it makes me feel sexy and powerful.
No bra. No panties.
Leo leaves mid-afternoon to pick up Dane from the airport. The kiss he gives me before he goes is hard and claiming, a promise of what’s to come.
“Be ready when I get back.” His voice drops low against my ear. “Dressed just like this. Waiting for us.” He pulls back to meet my eyes. “I talked to Dane. He’s very much on board with my Christmas gift to you.”
Heat floods through me at the confirmation. “Yes, Sir.”
Then he’s gone, and the house seems too quiet without him.
I’m perched on the edge of the couch, fingers twisting together in my lap, heartbeat hammering so hard I can feel it in my throat.
The Christmas tree glows. The fire crackles, and outside it’s snowing. Very Hallmark. Except in the Hallmark version, the heroine isn’t sitting here with no panties waiting to be shared by two men.
Instead, my breath comes tight and shallow, anticipation coiling low in my belly.
I tug at the hem of my dress. It rides up another inch every time I shift, a constant reminder that underneath I’m completely bare. The fabric against my skin feels electric, every nerve ending awake and waiting. Tonight, I’m going to get exactly what I’ve been craving. The thought makes me dizzy.
Can I really handle this? Will I fall apart completely?
The answer rises up from somewhere inside: I want to fall apart. I want to be taken apart by both of them and put back together again.
I trust Leo. And Leo trusts Dane. That’s enough.
The rumble of the garage door makes my heart stop.
Footsteps on hardwood. Low voices, too muffled to make out words.
Holy hell. This is real.
Leo appears in the doorway first, and the grin that spreads across his face when he sees me makes my knees go weak. His presence fills the room the way it always does. The man could make me wet by walking through a doorway.
“There’s my sweet lass.” His eyes rake over my body, hunger flaring in those hazel depths. “And looking delicious.”
He moves fast, lifting me from the couch. He forces my chin up, and the kiss steals my breath. I surrender immediately, a moan rising as his tongue slides past my lips. Mint and heat—I want to drown in the combination.
When he breaks the kiss, his eyes are dark with promise. “You look perfect, lass.”
Movement behind him catches my attention. Everything else falls away.
Dane steps into the living room.
He’s taller than I expected, with broad shoulders that fill out his leather coat and a quiet authority that hits different from Leo’s sharp-edged command.
His dark hair is slightly mussed, his jaw covered in scruff that only adds to his rugged handsomeness.
And his eyes fix on me with a heaviness that makes my skin prickle.
I can already tell he’s the slow burn to Leo’s blaze.
Both of them radiate the kind of confidence that comes with age and experience. They’re men who’ve lived almost twice as long as I have and know exactly what they want.
He moves closer, his steps unhurried. Controlled grace. The way he watches me isn’t the same teasing, claiming pleasure I’m used to from Leo. It’s more analytical. Like he’s cataloging me. My pussy approves.
Like he’s deciding exactly how he wants to take me apart.
He smells like spice and sandalwood, and I have to physically stop myself from leaning in.
“Alice.” His voice has a hint of gravel underneath. “Leo’s told me a lot about you.”
My response catches in my throat. Up close, the reality of him is overwhelming. He’s tall, commanding, and those eyes see way too much.
But I manage, “Good things, I hope.”
The corner of his mouth twitches. It’s not quite a smile, but close. “Very good things.”
Leo’s hand lands on the small of my back, and I lean into his touch instinctively. My dress rides up another fraction of an inch as I shift.
Dane tracks the movement. He’s watching me lean into Leo’s touch. When our eyes meet, I feel a jolt of desire. Leo looks at me like he wants to devour me. Dane looks at me like he wants to understand me first.
The difference makes me shiver.
“Leo explained what you discussed,” Dane says neutrally. “But I want to hear it from you. Tell me what you want to happen tonight.”
My breath hitches. He’s not giving me an easy out and letting me say a simple yes or no. He wants me to own it.
I meet his gaze directly. “I want both of you. I want to be shared, used by both of you.”
Dane doesn’t answer. The silence goes on too long to be accidental. He wants me to hear myself. To understand the weight of what I just offered.
“And if it’s too much?” His voice is quiet, but the question lands hard. “If you find yourself somewhere you didn’t expect to be?”
My throat tightens, but I hold his gaze. “Then I use my safewords. Red to stop. Yellow to slow down. Or I can tap out.”
Approval warms his dark eyes. “Good girl.”
The praise from him lands differently than from Leo. And somehow I know he doesn’t give it often, but when he does, it means something.
Leo’s hand tightens on my hip, and his voice drops to that rough Scottish rumble that always makes my core clench. “Then let’s not keep our girl waiting any longer.”
He guides me toward the bedroom, Dane close behind. I’m hyperaware of them both. Each step winds me tighter. My heart’s racing, and my pussy aches with an intensity that’s still new to me.
At the bedroom door, Leo pauses.
“Last chance, lass. You still want this?”
I look at him—my silver fox, my dominant—then over my shoulder at Dane.
Two months ago, I couldn’t have admitted any of this to myself, let alone said it out loud. I was looking for escape, a rough fuck to forget my problems. Nothing more. I didn’t know I was looking for this.
“Yes.” I turn back to Leo, letting him see everything in my eyes—the trust that’s only grown over these weeks, the certainty I didn’t expect to find. “I want both of you.”
Leo’s smile turns wicked. “Then Merry Christmas, pet.”
The bedroom door opens. I walk in. Even though I’ve been here plenty of times, tonight is different. The bed looks massive. My pulse pounds hard enough that I feel it everywhere.
Dane steps in front of me first. “Look at me, Alice.”
His voice is quiet, but the command in it is unmistakable. I meet his dark eyes, and what I find there steals my breath.
“You’re trembling,” he observes.
“I’m nervous,” I admit. “But I want this.”
Approval flickers in his eyes, subtle but unmistakable.
“Good. Nervousness means you understand what you’re giving us.
” His hand comes up to cup my jaw, tilting my face toward the light.
His touch is firm but unhurried, so different from Leo’s immediate heat.
“And what are you giving us tonight, Alice?”
Behind me, Leo’s thumb traces slow circles on my spine. They’re both waiting for me to say it out loud. To claim this desire with my own voice.
I swallow hard. “Everything.”
Leo’s groan is low and approving against my ear. “That’s my good girl.”
But Dane doesn’t smile. He holds my stare, his thumb brushing across my lower lip. “Then let’s begin.”
They guide me toward the bed, and as I move between them, I realize the last knot of fear has unraveled completely. What replaces it feels like jumping off a cliff and knowing someone will catch you.
I’m not scared anymore.
I’m exactly where I want to be and about to get exactly what I want.