11. Ready Action
Chapter eleven
Ready Action
Griffin
I find Cami working on laundry in her room.
Because apparently the appropriate location for a follow-up to discussing a threesome in a BDSM basement is folding towels.
She smiles at me while she matches socks. “How’d the dungeon summit go?”
I lean against the doorframe. “Productive.”
“Anyone die?”
“There might have been a couple casualties.”
She smiles. “Ronan?”
“Me, mostly.”
Her smile fades just enough that I know she’s checking whether I’m actually joking.
“We’re good,” I assure her.
“Okay.”
After a few seconds, she stops matching socks and looks at me with raised eyebrows. “But?”
“No but.”
“Griffin.”
I walk over and take the socks out of her hands before stepping closer.
Her hands settle automatically on my chest.
My eyes hold hers as I speak. “I need to ask you something, and I need you to not answer immediately.”
“That’s ominous.” Her throat works as she swallows.
“It’s not.”
“That’s exactly what someone says immediately before saying something ominous.”
I kiss her forehead.
“Do you actually want me there?”
She stills. “What?”
“With you and Ronan?”
“Yes.”
“You weren’t supposed to answer immediately.”
“That’s a stupid ask when I already know the answer,” she chides.
“Cami.” Something in my voice gets through to her, because the teasing disappears entirely. “I’m serious.”
“So am I,” she says almost too quickly.
I run my hands slowly from her hips and up the ladder of her ribs.
“When this was first brought up, you hadn’t been with him yet.”
Understanding moves across her face.
“Griffin—”
My index finger rests over her lips. “I’m not asking because I think you changed your mind. I’m asking because now you know what the two of you are like alone.”
I pause and brush a stray strand of hair from her face.
“And maybe that’s something you want to keep between the two of you.”
“It’s not,” she assures.
“Or maybe having me there changes what you do with him.”
“It probably will.” Her tone is matter-of-fact, and it catches me a little off-guard.
“Okay,” I manage.
Her hands slide up over my shoulders and around my neck. Fingers start to play with my hair.
“But different isn’t bad, Griff. What Ronan and I do alone is ours. What you and I do alone is ours. What the three of us do together will be something else.”
“You’re annoyingly good at this sometimes.”
She smiles. “I’ve had a lot of therapy.”
I laugh.
Then her expression softens. “Griffin, I don’t want you there because I want you to watch or learn.”
That gets my attention.
“I mean, you can watch.” Her mouth twitches. “I’m not opposed to that.”
“Good to know.”
She reaches up and cups my jaw. “I want you there because I want you.”
It’s simple, direct, and devastatingly effective.
I turn my face and kiss her palm.
“And I want him,” she continues and then smiles. “And Micah and Dex. But those things don’t cancel each other out.”
“I’m getting better at understanding that.”
“I know.”
I study her face.
“My turn,” she suddenly says.
“What?”
“Are you sure you want this?”
I’m a little surprised by the question. “I was the one who asked.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
She knows me too fucking well.
“Are you doing this because you actually want to be there with us,” she asks, “or because you think being okay with it is something you need to prove, or you just think it will make me happy?”
I open my mouth.
Close it again.
Fuck.
“Cami, that’s not…”
She smiles. “You married me.”
“Under duress.”
A scoff leaves her. “You proposed.”
“A moment of poor judgment.”
We’re both smiling now.
She pulls me closer. “Think about it.”
So I do.
I think about the conversation with Ronan downstairs. I think about the times I’ve seen Cami respond to him. I think about touching her while he does.
I think about Ronan telling me what he wants me to do to her and me deciding whether I want to do it.
There’s uncertainty there.
I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t.
But underneath it is something much easier to identify.
I want it.
“I’m not trying to prove anything.”
Her eyes search mine.
“I think part of me probably was, at first.” That’s harder to admit. “When all of this started, I kept feeling like I was behind everyone else. Like I had to catch up and prove I could handle it.”
Her fingers move gently against my nape. “You don’t.”
“I know that now.” I smile at her. “If I wanted you all to myself tonight, I could tell you that.”
“Of course. Yes.”
“And you’d be okay with it?”
“Yes.”
I tease her a little, my mouth skimming her jaw and ear. “If I decided I never wanted to be in the room while Ronan or the others fucked you?”
“Then you never would be.” She says it with no hesitation.
That’s everything I need to know. “You want to know how I really feel about this?”
“I do.”
Taking her hand from the back of my neck, I guide it down between our bodies and press her palm to my very hard, very willing cock.
She gasps, and her eyes widen for a second.
“Cami, I want this,” I confess, brushing my thumb over her cheek. “I want to see you with him.”
Saying it out loud does something unexpected to my body—and hers.
Her eyes darken.
“And I want to touch you while he’s touching you.”
Her lips part.
“I want to know what it feels like to be there instead of imagining it.” I pause and look into her eyes. “And if I find out reality is different in a bad way…”
“We stop.”
I smile. “You and Ronan really are spending too much time together.”
“Probably.” She returns the smile.
“I do need to know that you want this,” I tell her. “Not just me there because you love me. Not because you think I need it.”
Her eyebrows pull together in a silent question.
“You wanting Ronan and me separately isn’t automatically the same thing as wanting us together,” I clarify.
She doesn’t answer right away.
Which is good—I want her to think about it.
Her hands slide up my chest, fingertips settling at the nape of my neck again.
Eventually, she says, “I want you both.”
Something in my chest loosens a fraction.
But she keeps going. “I want to know what it feels like when neither one of you has to step away.”
Fuck.
I stare at her.
There are probably a dozen reasonable things I could say to that, but a somewhat wicked smile crosses my face.
“There’s one other thing.”
“Okay.”
“Ronan said if you’re submissive to him, he’ll probably direct some of what happens.”
Pink immediately starts creeping into her cheeks.
Interesting.
“Yeah, that makes sense.”
“And you’re okay with him telling me what to do to you?”
Her answer is quieter this time. “Honestly? Very.”
Fuck.
That lands somewhere completely different. It’s a feeling I’m not sure I’ve ever felt before.
I stare at her without speaking for too long, and she bites her bottom lip.
“Well,” I finally manage, “that’s useful information.”
Her smile turns wicked. “You asked.”
My eyes hold hers. “You sure you can handle both of us?”
Her mouth falls open slightly.
And something different awakens in me—something I’ve felt, but not quite like this.
Cami’s eyes narrow at me. “Was that a challenge?”
“Maybe.”
A smile slowly pulls at one corner of her mouth. “Griffin.”
I back her up until she’s sitting on the bed, bend until we’re eye level, and brace my hands on either side of her thighs.
“What?” I ask with feigned innocence.
“You’re being… cocky.”
My voice drops lower. “I think I’ve earned a little cocky.”
She laughs, but there’s a flush climbing her chest and throat.
That day in this room, not too long ago, I watched Ronan talk her into this kind of physical reaction.
We’re not the same.
It’s not the exact same thing. Ronan has an entire fucking arsenal I’ve barely begun to understand, and I’m not stupid enough to think I’m suddenly playing his game because I lowered my voice and made her blush.
But I do know her.
I know the difference between her sarcastic smile and the one she is giving me right now—the one when she’s trying not to squirm.
I know the little hitch in her breathing when I’ve said something that landed harder than she expected.
I know that when she gets turned on enough, she presses her thighs together in this very specific way before she realizes she’s doing it.
Like she’s doing now.
“You know,” I say slowly, “Ronan and I spent a lot of time over the last few days talking about what we’re allowed to do to each other.”
Her lips part, and a tiny gasp escapes her.
I smile and clarify, “Through you.”
“Oh.”
There’s that little hitched breath again.
I slide one hand beneath her chin, tilting her face toward mine with the backs of my knuckles.
“Are you trying to compete with Ronan?”
The question doesn’t really catch me by surprise, but I do think about it for a second.
“No.”
Her expression says she doesn’t believe me.
Smiling, I admit, “Okay. Maybe a little.”
“Griffin.” Her tone is cautious.
“Not over you.” I brush my thumb along her jaw. “That’s the part I needed to figure out, the part that took me a while. He’s not taking anything from me. I’m not giving anything to him. You aren’t a fucking trophy we’re passing back and forth.”
Her expression softens.
“But if you’re asking whether I’m going to sit there politely while he gets every reaction out of you?”
She stops breathing entirely.
I lean closer.
“Absolutely the fuck not.”
Her fingers tighten behind my neck.
“I know you too well for that, Cami.”
She makes a tiny sound.
I grin.
Cami stares at me. “Who the fuck are you and what did you do with my husband?”
That makes me laugh, and I kiss her—it’s soft and slow, and not supposed to go anywhere.
Neither of our bodies got the memo.
Her knees spread around my hips as I move closer, and my hand slides into her hair, holding her exactly where I want her while I deepen the kiss.
When I pull away, we’re both breathing harder.
For a moment I just look at her, then I lean in until my lips are brushing the shell of her ear. “And what if I want to do things to you only we’ve done?”
My hand drifts down her throat, circling the front of her delicate neck.
Again, her fingers tighten against my neck.