Chapter Ten #2
“You are.” He lifted a hand, tapped her sternum with one finger.
She couldn’t feel it through the coat, but the impact sang all the way to her toes.
“What happens between us, doesn’t happen, when, how…
it’s all up to you. We’re yours for the taking, Chloe,” he continued quietly while she stared up at him with wide eyes.
“You crook that little finger and we’ll come running. ”
She didn’t know what to say, so she said the first thing that came to mind. “Wow.”
Jesse laughed, the sound strained but joyful, and Knox smiled. “Whatever you want,” he repeated. “Check your calendar, beautiful, and let us know.”
“Okay.”
He lowered his head, brushed a kiss across her mouth. “Good night.”
“Okay,” she said again, this time with a dreamy little sigh.
“Go inside, Chloe,” Knox said, giving her a gentle push. “Lock your door.”
“Right. Inside.” With the care of the very drunk or very befuddled, she turned, planting a hand on the knob.
It turned smoothly, the door opening with a soft creak.
She stepped inside and turned to close the door.
They stood there, bathed in the glow of the security light.
“Night,” she said, and with a little wave that made her feel ridiculous, closed the door.
She flipped the deadbolt, then stood on her toes to peer through the peep hole. Knox had turned and started down the stairs, but Jesse stood there for a moment, watching her door with a look on his face that made her knees wobble. Then he too turned and walked down the stairs, and out of sight.
“Well, it’s about time,” Bailey said from behind her, and Chloe muffled a shriek of surprise. “I heard the lock open like, five minutes ago. What were you doing out there so long?”
Bailey stood in the yoga pants and oversized sweatshirt that Chloe knew made up the emergency outfit Bailey kept in her car, her hair scooped up in a messy ponytail.
She had a bag of potato chips in one hand, the television remote in the other, and now that her ears weren’t ringing, Chloe could hear the muffled sounds of the television in the living room.
“Oh,” Bailey said, her eyes going wide. “That’s what you were doing.”
“Where’s Gwen?” Chloe asked in a weak attempt at evasion.
“She went home to sleep, and don’t change the subject. Nice beard burn.”
“I do not have beard burn.” Oh crap, do I?
“Do, too,” Bailey said gleefully, all but dancing in her yoga pants. “I’m so glad I decided to stay over. How was it?”
Chloe toed off her boots and unbuttoned her coat. “I need a shower.”
“Hot damn.” Bailey trailed after Chloe into the living room. “Tell me everything, and don’t skimp on the details.”
Chloe walked through the living room and into the bathroom. “Knox made spaghetti.”
“You can skip those details,” Bailey amended, following Chloe into the bathroom and perching on the toilet lid. “Get to the things like why you’re not wearing the bra you had on when you left?”
“I didn’t want to wrestle it back on,” Chleo admitted with a sigh.
Bailey grinned. “I’m so proud.”
Chloe stripped off her leggings, and the panties she was glad she’d put back on under them. “I’m happy to live up to your expectations.”
“That has not yet been determined,” Bailey gestured with a chip. “Start at the beginning.”
Naked, Chloe climbed into the tub, jerked the curtain closed, and turned on the water. Ice cold, it would take a second to warm up, so she tugged back the curtain to look at Bailey. “I guess that would be when I just flat out asked them if Sawyer had told them about the threesome thing.”
Bailey laughed so hard she almost dropped her chips. “Oh, shit.”
“I know.” Chloe grimaced, remembering. “Talk about humiliating.”
“Had he? Told them, I mean?”
“No, which is why it was humiliating. Then Jesse kissed me.”
Bailey wiggled with delight. “Yes, baby, yes. Then what happened?”
“Knox kissed me,” Chloe remembered.
“Which one was better?” Bailey wanted to know.
“I’m not answering that.”
“Spoilsport.”
Chloe ducked back to check the water. It was hot now, so she tugged the curtain closed again and turned the knob to direct the water to the showerhead. Stepping back to avoid the initial icy blast, she lifted her voice to be heard over the spray. “Where was I?”
“Knox kissed you,” Bailey answered helpfully.
Chloe ducked under the now warm water. “Right. That’s when I told you and Gwen I was staying.”
“Okay.”
“We ate dinner,” Chloe continued, tipping her head back to soak her hair. “And Knox started asking questions.”
“Sexy questions?”
“More practical ones, like what I wanted, how, that kind of thing,” Chloe recalled, then admitted, “But it sure felt sexy.”
“I bet. What’s on the threesome menu?”
“Spit roasting and double penetration.”
“Yeah, baby. Did you do all that tonight?”
“We didn’t do any of it tonight.”
“Bullshit,” Bailey protested. “I know an orgasm haze when I see one.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t come,” Chloe argued. “We just didn’t fuck.”
“Spill it, sister,” Bailey ordered over the crinkle of the potato chip bag.
Chloe grabbed her shampoo and spilled.
By the time she got out of the shower, Bailey was sitting on the toilet open mouthed, the potato chips bag forgotten in her hand. “They both ate you out?”
Chloe rubbed at her hair with the towel, then wrapped it around her body. “Yep.”
“And neither one of them got off?”
Chloe grabbed her moisturizer off the shelf next to the sink. “Nope.”
“Well, that’s… I don’t know what that is,” Bailey decided.
Pouring cream into her hand, Chloe propped a foot on the edge of the tub to slather it on. “Knox said this time, this first time, was about me.”
“Aw. He’s a romantic.”
Chloe let out a half laugh. “I know. He was really sweet.”
“Yeah, that’s the word I think of for a man who eats your ass like it’s a buffet,” Bailey said drily and blew out a breath. “I’m so jealous.”
Chloe switched to the other leg. “I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m really not.”
“Bitch,” Bailey accused mildly. “So, how do you feel?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, casual arrangements like this aren’t your usual,” Bailey elaborated. “You’re a relationship girly, not a fling girly. You going to be able to handle it?”
Chloe straightened to slather cream on her shoulders. “Sure.”
“Okay,” Bailey said agreeably, but Chloe heard the skepticism.
“I’m not going to fall in love with them, Bailey,” Chloe said, annoyed. “They’re married, and I’m not an idiot.”
“I never said you were,” Bailey said.
“Yeah, but you were thinking it.”
“I was thinking that in high-octane sexual situations, it’s easy to get caught up in feelings,” Bailey corrected. “And you should be careful.”
Chloe shifted to stroke cream down her arms and rolled her eyes. “Yes, Mom.”
“Fine, I’ll shut up. When are you seeing them again?”
Chloe struggled to set her annoyance aside. Bailey was just looking out for her, after all. “My next night off, which I think is Sunday.”
Bailey dug back into the potato chips. “I’m going to need more details.”
Chloe smiled, annoyance gone. “I’ll take notes.”
“Recordings would be better,” Bailey suggested. “Video and audio.”
Chloe refused to laugh. “Absolutely not.”
“Spoilsport.”
* * * *
Her next night off was indeed Sunday, which meant she had to wait nearly a week before she could get naked with Knox and Jesse again.
She wasn’t sure she was going to make it.
It would have been easier if she didn’t have to see them on the days in between, and could just put the whole thing out of her mind and concentrate on tending bar and making jewelry, and only think about them at night with a fully charged vibrator.
But they were in and out of the pub almost every day, or the apartment next door, and now that the ice had been broken, so to speak, the gloves were off.
If she’d thought Jesse was flirty before, it was nothing compared to now. The winks and the looks and the deliberate brush of his body against hers if they passed each other in the back hall were a maddening distraction, a tortuous game with no winner. And Knox, somehow, was worse.
He didn’t flirt like Jesse, didn’t rachet up the inuendo or invade her personal space.
But his eyes glowed when he looked at her, with that hint of a smile curling his lips, and somehow it reminded her, even more than Jesse’s bold winks and sly words, of what it felt like to be spread out on that couch, coming her brains out with his face between her legs.
And Mo noticed.
“What’s wrong with you?” she asked on Friday night, her eyes on Chloe’s flushed face.
“Nothing,” Chloe said, polishing a glass that didn’t need polishing.
“You’re all flushed,” Mo pointed out, pitching her voice over the Friday night din. “You’re not getting sick, are you?”
“I was just in the kitchen, that’s all.” Chloe explained. She set the glass down, picked up another. “Carrie had me check the chili, so I was standing over the stove for a few minutes.”
It sounded better than Jesse caught me at the back door when I was taking out the trash and kissed the back of my neck, and now my panties need changing.
Mo’s eyes narrowed the same way Chloe’s mother’s did when she was about to say “I’m not buying that for a hot second, young lady”, but a shout from the end of the bar for another round saved her from having to answer any further awkward questions.
On Friday nights the pub had live music, which meant she stayed busy until closing, and it took an extra hour to make sure the bar was well stocked for the following day.
She was half asleep by the time she dragged herself upstairs to her apartment, and it took her a moment to realize the yellow thing stuck to her front door was a piece of paper from a legal pad, folded in half.
She tugged it down, blinking away the gritty fatigue, and unfolded it.
Chloe,
We’ll be working next door tomorrow. Stop by and see us if you can?
Xoxo
Knox & Jesse
P.S. your neck is delicious—Jesse
She blew out a breath and opened her door. Good thing she’d left her vibrator on the charger.