33. Annie
Chapter 33
Annie
T he pen hovered over the page, just above a half-scribbled chorus I’d written and rewritten a dozen times. I’d finally found the rhythm again, or at least the beginning of it. My fingers itched to grab my guitar from beside me on the bed, wanting to play the melody one more time that hummed at the edges of my brain?—
The loud clatter of a saw cutting through something outside jarred the thought clean from my head.
I groaned in frustration, the vibration from it reverberating through the walls. “Storage shed,” I grumbled. “This place is fucking massive, why do we need more storage?”
The racket kept up like an industrial jackrabbit, pulling me from any solid idea I had. I kicked off the bed, yanked open the curtains, squinting against the bright midday sun. The crew of men in yellow vests were mostly packing up, a handful still drilling something into what I imagined was the back side of the tarp-covered structure they were working on.
Finally. At least the noise would stop.
I stomped down the hall once they’d gone, finding Cole and Xavi lounging on the couch, watching a replay of last night’s game. Cole had paused it on a zoomed-in shot of Xav, halfway through saying something about a failed deke, but Xavi was sprawled out sideways with his feet in Cole’s lap, his phone in hand, barely paying attention.
I stepped in front of the television. “Hey.”
Both of them stared at me, blinking.
“When is the construction out back going to be done?” I asked, my voice tight in irritation. “I’ve been trying to write for almost two weeks now, and I’ve barely managed more than a verse. I keep getting inspiration and then it dies the second a drill starts up.”
They glanced at each other, then back at me.
“We don’t need more storage,” I continued. “This house has, like, eight bedrooms, and two of them are empty .”
Xavi snorted. Cole covered his mouth with the remote.
“You’re laughing,” I said, narrowing my gaze at them. “Why are you laughing?”
Cole grinned and set the remote aside. “Well, we were going to wait until it was fully done, and Colton’s not home yet from his run, but I guess we can go ahead and tell you that it’s not a storage shed.”
What?
Xavi smirked and kicked his feet off Cole’s lap. “Did you really think we were building a whole-ass shed for Christmas lights and extra helmets?”
My brow furrowed as I stared between them. “It’s not a nursery, right? You two are smart enough to know we can’t put the baby outside .”
Cole started full belly laughing as he pushed up off the sofa, coming up beside me and tucking my irritated frame into his chest. “No, darling. It’s not a nursery.”
“Shit, we should have done a nursery, too. That would have been cute,” Xavi said. I shot him a look.
“Come on, I’ll show you,” Cole grinned, pulling me toward the back door.
“Wait! I want to see her face when we show her.” Xavi hopped up off the couch in an instant, running to the glass and pulling it open.
My suspicions flared as we stepped out into the midday sun, the rays harsh for this time of year, the wood of the back porch warm under my bare feet.
“Get the tarp,” Cole said to Xavi, then turned to me instead. “Close your eyes.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously,” he grinned.
I closed my eyes and let him pull me toward the structure, my feet sinking into the grass as we crossed the ten or so feet from the back porch. I heard the sound of plastic scraping, the tarp coming clean off, and then Cole stopped us, moving around until he was behind me.
“Open!” Xavi chirped.
I blinked my eyes open, staring at the shed-like structure, not quite understanding at first.
But then I saw through the glass doors.
My knees nearly buckled.
Xavi grabbed the door handle and pulled, throwing it open and gesturing for me to look inside, a shit-eating grin plastered to his cheeks. “Have a look.”
I stepped in, my breath knocking loose. Thick soundproofing lined the walls in charcoal, a wide desk holding a studio-quality mixing board with dual monitors on the far end. On the opposite wall, shelves were already stacked with recording gear — interfaces, microphones, leads, two brand new Taylor guitars, pedals, the whole nine yards. Across from the window, a small, plush loveseat with one of my old lyric journals sat on a cushion.
I turned around, staring at them both through the open door, my breathing stuttered.
“We didn’t want you to give up music,” Cole said quietly. “We were worried you might before you started trying to write again. We didn’t want you to have to choose.”
“We want you to have everything,” Xavi added. “The baby, us, your dreams. You shouldn’t have to worry about giving anything up.”
I blinked fast, trying to stop the tears that were burning my eyes, but they came anyway. I pressed my hands to my face, trying to breathe, but it turned into a muffled sob. “You dicks,” I croaked. “I didn’t think—I— thank you . Oh my god, thank you.”
Cole stepped into the studio, his arms wrapping around me in an instant, pulling me into his chest. “You don’t need to thank us.”
“You really don’t,” Xavi chuckled, stepping in too, his hand petting the back of my head. “It’s the least we could do.”
“Bullshit, this must have cost thousands.”
Cole shrugged. “So?” He leaned down, pressing a kiss to my lips. “We wanted to.”
Xavi gently coaxed me from Cole’s arms, wrapping one of his own around my waist as Cole let me go. He gripped my face in his hand playfully. “ You are giving us the greatest gift we could have ever asked for, baby. If we can’t give you a few nice things in return, then that’s not exactly fair, is it?”
He let go of my cheeks, but kissed me before I could move my head, his mouth moving languidly against mine, sticking around unlike Cole’s peck. His hand moved to the back of my neck, cradling it.
What started soft morphed quickly, quicker than I anticipated. Xavi always kissed like he meant it, like every moment demanded it, and I should have expected it — he kissed me no differently this time, but the act of receiving what they’d given me already had me too weak to want anything but more from both of them.
I felt Cole’s hand between my shoulder blades as I exhaled into Xavi’s mouth, my fingers fisting the front of his shirt, just trying to keep myself upright while his lips moved against mine, deliberate and slow, but not gentle. The warmth spreading through me pooled between my thighs as he tilted his head, his tongue brushing mine in a way that screamed more .
He groaned under his breath, almost like he hadn't meant for it to escape, and I felt it down to my bones. “Fuck it, we’re christening the studio,” he said against my mouth, and Cole laughed, grabbing the door and pulling it closed.
“Colton will be pissed,” Cole murmured, pressing a kiss to the back of my head.
“Then he should have run faster,” Xavi growled, letting his mouth roam across my face instead, kissing down to my jaw, my neck.
Cole’s hand dragged down my back, over Xavi’s arm, and hooked beneath the bottom of my tank top, pushing the fabric up. “Fair enough. Let her go for a sec.”
Xavi let go just long enough for the fabric to come up over my head before his mouth was on me again, leaving a little trail of kisses and nips down the side of my neck, his arms wrapping back around me like a vice and exploring the divot of my side, the curve of my ribs, anywhere he could reach.
Cole reached around to the front of my bralette, finding the oddly positioned clasp and undoing it, and he peeled the fabric off my back and down my arms in one quick motion. His mouth came down on the opposite side to Xavi’s, trailing across the top of my shoulder.
My heart thudded heavily in my chest, my head starting to spin a little from their mouths alone. I reached back with one hand, fisting the bottom of Cole’s shirt, and grabbed the neckline of Xavi’s in front of me, trying to urge both of them to take it off but feeling too scatterbrained to figure it out.
“Already had you this morning, darling,” Cole chuckled against my skin. “I’m happy to just help.”
I groaned my frustration as I let go and turned my attention to Xavi instead.
“More for me, then.” Xavi smirked against my lips and pulled back just an inch to rip his shirt over his head, tossing it back onto the desk. He kissed me like an animal uncaged as he got back on me, my hands working at the button and zipper on his jeans.
Time blurred as we moved. Cole got my leggings and underwear off before I’d even fully registered it, and Xavi ended up entirely bare on the small sofa, his legs spread and his arms resting over the back of it as I kissed Cole instead, feeling wholly exposed in comparison to his fully clothed body. Cole lifted me gently as he walked me back toward Xav, then set me down gently in his lap, skin on skin on fabric.
My back pressed into Xavi’s chest, and I moaned at the warmth of his head teasing against my entrance, his hands coming up beneath my thighs and pulling them apart. Xav’s hips surged up, burying himself in me in one even, hard thrust, and my head tipped back, abandoning Cole’s mouth, the sensation drowning out the rest.
“Fuck, baby,” Xavi groaned, nipping at my earlobe and lifting me just enough to drag himself out a little before dropping me back onto him, filling me. “It’s a crime how eager you always are.”
Cole dropped to his knees between our spread thighs, and I let out a breath that sounded more like a squeak.
It wasn’t that I didn’t love it when the other two used their mouths on me. I did. I lost my mind for it. But Cole — Cole was on another level. I hated comparing them when it came to how they touched me, but this specifically was something I couldn’t help. Cole made my goddamn knees weak constantly at just the thought of it.
His mouth came down on me, and I just about lost my mind.
Tilted. He always tilted his head, always came at me almost sideways, and I moaned out a broken sob as his tongue swept across, gentle at first, then more pressure, back and forth and up and down, covering every area possible.
“Christ,” Xavi muttered, my walls clamping down on him hard enough to make it difficult to move. But I couldn’t help it, not with Cole on me like that. “Gonna need you to teach me whatever you’re doing down there, Cole.”
He laughed, the sound muffled, the little vibrations of it only adding to the sensation.
I saw him, then. Movement outside the little studio caught my attention, the glass back door to the house opening and closing. He was still in his running gear, leggings under his shorts, a long-sleeved black top, his over-ear headphones resting on top of damp hair that had fallen out of his ponytail. He leaned on the railing of the deck, his gaze directed right at me, no more than fifteen feet from the door of the studio.
He rested his chin on his fist, sucking his teeth, and raised a single brow.
God, why is that hot?
“Colton,” I whimpered, turning my head into Xavi’s a little, my release already starting to coil in my gut from Cole’s incessant tongue and Xavi’s movements.
Xavi snorted. “So out of it you forget who’s fucking you, baby?”
I shook my head. “No. Colton .” My hand found his face, urging him to follow my gaze.
I could feel the laugh shaking Xavi’s chest. “Ah, shit, we’ve been caught.”
Colton’s eyelids lowered halfway as he watched, making my spine prickle, my nerves feeling like live wires.
“Fuck with him,” Cole muttered, his voice muffled as he sucked my clit between his teeth.
Xavi chuckled and let go of one of my thighs, trailing his hand up my abdomen instead, letting Colton see every slow, tantalizing inch he touched, his hips still pushing up into me with measured and timed precision. My breathing stuttered as he dragged his fingers through the valley of my breasts and higher. Higher. Higher .
Xavi stared Colton down and wrapped his hand around my throat, making my breath catch. It wasn’t a tight hold, just enough to set me on fire, especially coming from Xavi for once instead of Colton — but I caught the way Colton’s nostrils flared.
A warm breath fanned across my cheek as Xavi turned his head slightly into mine. “ Mine ,” he growled, the single word enunciated so heavily for Colton to lip-read.
Colton moved immediately.
He stalked toward the door like a man possessed. Xav muttered something I didn’t quite catch to Cole, not with how quickly I was building, how much it was turning me on just to be watched and used like bait as they fucked with Colton, and I caught Cole’s foot going out behind him, blocking the door from opening.
“Let me in ,” Colton said, his voice flat through the glass.
The laughter died on my tongue as it morphed into a gasped, desperate moan, Cole’s mouth driving me further, Xavi’s cock pounding into me with newfound roughness just to piss off Colton more. I broke in an instant, pleasure ripping through me, drowning out everything but the way they made me feel, the way they touched me.
And they kept it up for as long as I could physically handle.
“You fuckers,” Colton grumbled.