Chapter Eleven
In the apartment next to Chloe’s on Saturday morning, Knox was laying flooring. The vinyl plank was an easy install, methodical, monotonous work that let his mind wander while his hands were busy, and his mind was wandering to its usual place—the apartment next door, and the woman in it.
“You think she’ll come over?” Jesse asked from the kitchen, where he was installing the water line for the refrigerator.
“I don’t know.” Knox angled in the next plank, dropped it into place, and used the block and mallet to tap it home. “If she doesn’t, it’s your fault.”
“My fault?” Jesse popped his head out from under the sink to scowl at his husband. “How do you figure?”
“You’ve been panting after her like a lovesick puppy all week.”
“Excuse me. I do not pant.” Jesse reached for a wrench. “I beg, and I sometimes drool, but I never pant.”
Knox snorted out a laugh.
“And what do you call what you’ve been doing?”
“Me?” Knox sat back on his haunches. “I haven’t done anything.”
“Please.” Jesse scoffed, waved the wrench. “You’ve been just as bad as I have. More subtle, maybe—”
“Definitely.”
“But just as bad. If I’m a lovesick puppy, then you’re a lovesick cow.”
“A cow?”
“Mooing all over the place,” Jesse said with relish. “Trevor even asked me what was wrong with you.”
Knox frowned, appalled at the idea. “He did not.”
“Okay, he didn’t,” Jesse admitted with a grin. “But he said you were smiling a lot, and that was weird.”
“You ass,” Knox said, exasperated, and hefted his mallet like he was going to throw it.
“You damage the cabinets, you gotta pay to replace them,” Jesse warned him.
Knox lowered the mallet. “Back to the topic at hand—”
“There was a topic at hand?”
Knox rolled his eyes. “Yes. If she comes over, we’re just going to talk to her.”
Jesse nodded. “About tomorrow night, right.”
“And we’re not going to do anything else.”
Jesse frowned. “Nothing? Not even kissing?”
Knox hesitated. He wanted to say no, but he could no more stick to that agreement than Jesse. “Hello and goodbye kissing.”
“I can work with that,” Jesse decided.
“Okay,” Knox agreed. “You remember the plan for tomorrow.”
“I remember.” Jesse ducked back under the sink, then reemerged. “What if she doesn’t like the plan?”
“Then we’ll come up with a new plan, I guess,” Knox said with a shrug, but he was frowning.
“Maybe we’re going about this wrong,” Jesse said.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, double teaming her all the time.” Jesse scratched his nose, nearly bonked himself with the wrench, and tossed it aside. “It’s kind of a lot.”
“That’s what she wants,” Knox reminded him, but he was thinking.
“Yeah, and I’m not saying that shouldn’t be the goal,” Jesse said. “But maybe we should ease her into it with some one on one. Show her that it doesn’t always have to be all three of us at once.”
“You’re thinking too far ahead,” Knox protested.
“I knew you were going to say that. Look, I know we’re leading with the sex because that’s what she wants, and frankly, it’s hot as shit,” Jesse began. “But if our ultimate goal is a relationship, well, then shouldn’t we show her what that would look like?”
“That’s a point,” Knox admitted reluctantly. “I just don’t want to scare her off.”
“We won’t.”
“You’re so sure of that.”
“She wants us, babe. I’m sure of that. And if it doesn’t work, well, then we’ll go back to your plan. But I think it will.”
“Okay,” Knox allowed. “You can try. But if she balks, then back off, all right?”
“Scout’s honor.”
Knox rolled his eyes. “Like that means anything.”
Jesse grinned, then jerked his head around at the knock on the front door. “Showtime.”
“Easy, remember?” Knox climbed to his feet.
“Yeah, yeah.” Following suit, Jesse called out, “Door’s open!”
It creaked open, and Chloe’s blonde head appeared in the crack. “Is this a good time?”
“Sure it is, sweetheart.” Standing hipshot, a cocky grin curling his lips, Jesse beckoned her in. “Come on in.”
She stepped inside, closing the door at her back, and took the half dozen steps to bring her into the living space. She was holding herself stiffly, dressed in a pair of jeans, an oversized black sweatshirt, and fluffy pink socks, and looking around. “Wow. You’ve gotten so much done.”
“This will be done before downstairs is,” Knox told her. “Couple more days and we’ll be punching out.”
She tucked her hands into her jeans and blinked curious eyes at Knox. “Punching out?”
“Down to the final details,” Jesse explained and stepped forward. “Hello, beautiful.”
“Hi, handsome,” she said back, laughing when he scooped her up for a dramatic kiss.
“Something funny?” he asked.
“No.” She shook her head, still laughing a little. She’d relaxed when Jesse had kissed her, and now she lifted a hand to fluff at her short cap of hair, shot Knox a flirtatious smile. “Hello.”
He didn’t answer, just took the two steps to bring them together and cupped her face, took her mouth. Soft and sweet, so she’d sigh into it. He could get addicted to the way she sighed into his kiss.
He eased back to smile into her eyes, into those dreamy pools of blue. “Hello, yourself.”
“Better than coffee,” she murmured.
“I’ll say,” Jesse chimed in.
She tipped her head back to look at him. “You’d know.”
“I do,” Jesse said with relish, and no small amount of satisfaction. “I do know.”
“Braggart,” she accused, but she was laughing.
“Hell, yes.” He grinned down at her. “God, I could just eat you up. Too bad there’s not a bed in here.”
Pink bloomed in her cheeks. “There’s one next door.”
Jesse’s eyes lit and had Knox choking on a laugh. “Jesus, you two. Do I have to get the hose?”
“You can come, too,” she offered guilelessly.
“Behave,” Knox admonished, and pointed a finger at Jesse. “You, too.”
“He’s so strict,” Jesse whispered in her ear.
“I know,” she whispered back, her eyes still on Knox. “It’s kind of hot.”
Behind the fly of his work jeans, Knox went stone hard. “Is it, now?”
Her eyes went wide and her lips parted, and she flushed to the roots of her hair. “Oh, my.”
“Word of advice?” Jesse said, a laugh in his voice. “Don’t tug the wolf’s tail unless you’re ready to wrestle.”
“Good note,” she croaked.
“We did have a reason for asking you to come over,” Knox said, enjoying the way her throat bobbed and her tongue swept out to wet her lips.
“Sure.” Her tongue snuck out again. Her lips must be really dry. “What, um, what was it?”
He knew he should take pity on her, but why should he be the only one suffering? He smiled, letting her see the wolf had fangs. “I want to talk about tomorrow night. And anal.”
Her throat bobbed again, and her eyes got impossibly wider. “Oh. Anal. Uh-huh. What about it?”
Shooting Knox a look, Jesse stepped from behind her into her line of sight and leaned back against the kitchen island. “You said you’d never done it.”
Some of the strain in her voice faded when she looked at Jesse. “No.” She darted a glance at Knox, then back to Jesse. “The other night was as far as I’ve ever gone with that.”
“But you liked it?” Jesse asked.
She nodded.
“You said you wanted double penetration,” Knox reminded her. “That’s a lot, especially if you’re not already experienced with anal.”
“I know.” She rubbed her hands on her thighs and blew out a breath. “I was kind of hoping we could practice.”
Jesse’s eyebrows went up, and his eyes darted to Knox before looking back at Chloe. “Practice, how?”
“Well, I bought a butt plug,” she began.
Jesse sagged against the counter. “Oh, Jesus.”
“Are you okay?” Chloe cried out, alarmed, and lurched forward to grab his arm.
Knox was laughing. “He’s fine, darling,” he assured her. “All the blood just rushed to his dick, is all.”
“Oh.” Straightening, she eyed Jesse, who was still doing his best impression of a Victorian maiden having an attack of the vapors, then Knox. “How’s your dick?”
“Also commanding most of my blood supply, but I’m less prone to drama.”
She looked at his crotch, blushed, then looked up again. “Okay. Well, as I was saying—”
“Hang on, let me sit.” Jesse slid down the island to sprawl on the section of floor Knox had already laid. “Safety first. Okay, I’m good. Go ahead.”
“Like I said,” Chloe began, lips twitching, “I bought a butt plug—”
Jesse moaned, clutching his chest dramatically, and Knox booted him in the hip.
“—and I’m hoping that’ll help, you know, prepare me.”
Knox could picture it all too easily. He knew what her asshole looked like, having been up close and personal with it Wednesday night, and the thought of it spread open, her pretty cheeks held apart by the base of a plug, was almost enough to have him blubbering on the floor next to Jesse.
Ordering himself to keep it together, he nodded. “It’s a good idea,” he began.
“It’s a great idea,” Jesse interjected.
Knox booted him again. “Can I ask a couple of questions about it?”
She was blushing again, but nodded easily. “Go ahead.”
“What’s it made out of?”
“I think silicone?” she said, brow furrowed in thought. “The lady at the store said I should only use a water-based lube with it.”
He nodded. “That makes sense for silicone. How big is it?”
“I’m not sure. I’d have to check the packaging. But it’s like, this big?” She held up her hand, her thumb and forefinger about three inches apart.
Jesse’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. “It’s that thick?”
“No, it’s that long. The insertable part, anyway.” Jesse clapped a hand over his heart, and she looked at Knox. “He’s just being dramatic again, right?”
Knox swallowed a laugh. “Right. So it’s about three inches long?”
She thought for a second. “Yeah, about that.”
“And how thick?”
“Less than an inch, I think.” Her brow furrowed, and she gave a little hip wiggle. “Though it sure feels bigger.”
“You’re wearing it now?” Jesse whispered, and Knox locked his suddenly wobbly knees.
She looked down at him, a sly smile curving her lips. “Yes.”
Knox was staring at her, at the knowledge in her eyes, the glow of power that lit her like a candle. “You little minx.”