Chapter 10 #2
Gray rose and carried his plate to the sink.
“Nobody is having sex until the food is put away.”
I stared at him.
“You cannot be serious.”
“Fish.”
“Refrigerators exist in the morning.”
“So does food poisoning.”
Piper covered her face with both hands.
Cole took the remaining taco container and handed it to me.
“Help.”
“This relationship is oppressive.”
“We don’t have a relationship yet,” Gray said.
“Then I withdraw my complaint pending organizational recognition.”
Seven minutes later, the kitchen was clean.
I knew because Gray inspected it.
Piper stood near the back door with her cottage key in one hand.
She looked at the three of us.
“This is possibly the worst idea I’ve ever had.”
From the covered cage in the living room, Mango muttered, “Bad idea.”
Nobody spoke.
Then I said, “Four votes to one.”
Piper laughed and opened the door.
The cottage was dark except for the small lamp beside her desk.
Her monitor, printer, drives, camera cases, and charging station had turned one half of the room into unmistakably hers.
The other half still held the bed that had been shoved against the far wall during repairs and remade afterward with clean sheets nobody had slept in.
I stopped inside.
The reality of the room landed harder than the fantasy had.
Piper locked the door behind Gray.
My mouth went dry.
She leaned back against it.
“Well?”
I knew a trap when I heard one.
“Well what?”
“Rafe Soto has nothing to say?”
Gray looked at me.
Cole’s mouth moved slightly.
“All of you can go fuck yourselves.”
Piper smiled.
“Wrong arrangement.”
There she was.
I crossed the room.
Piper met me halfway.
The first kiss was almost a relief.
Her hands went into my hair.
Mine found her waist.
I had kissed her plenty since that equipment bay, but never while two other men watched.
Every touch felt louder because of it.
I could feel Cole behind me without looking.
Gray too.
My body wanted Piper.
My pride wanted to know what their faces were doing.
Piper pulled back.
“You’re thinking.”
“Occupational hazard.”
“That’s Gray’s line.”
“Contagious household.”
She kissed me again.
Then she slipped out of my arms.
There.
The moment I had been afraid of.
She went to Gray.
Jealousy hit before I could stop it.
Fast.
Hot.
Pointless.
Gray touched her face before he kissed her.
Not how I kissed her.
Not how Cole did either.
His thumb moved over her cheek. Piper leaned into him, then caught his shirt and dragged him down the rest of the way.
I watched her body settle against his.
Something ugly in me whispered that she looked just as hungry for him.
Then another part answered, of course she did.
That was why we were here.
Cole stood beside me.
“You okay?” he asked quietly.
“No.”
“Me neither.”
I looked at him.
He was watching Piper and Gray too.
His jaw was tight.
His hands were loose at his sides because apparently he was actively preventing himself from turning jealousy into a fist.
That helped.
“Still want this?” I asked.
His eyes never left Piper.
“Yes.”
Same.
Piper broke away from Gray.
Her gaze found Cole.
He went to her without being called.
I watched his hand settle at her hip.
Watched her tilt her face up.
Watched him kiss her with the intensity of a man who had apparently discovered earlier that restraint was optional.
Jealous again.
Still here.
Piper opened her eyes while Cole’s mouth was against her neck.
She looked directly at me.
Then she held out one hand.
That did something stupid to my chest.
I went to her.
She caught my shirt and pulled me close enough to kiss.
Cole moved to her shoulder.
Not touching me.
Not interested in touching me.
None of us were confused about the center of this arrangement.
Piper.
Gray came behind her on the other side.
His hand settled at her waist.
Four adults in a room that suddenly felt much smaller than four hundred square feet.
Piper laughed softly against my mouth.
“What?”
“This is ridiculous.”
“Deeply.”
Cole kissed the side of her neck.
Her laugh turned into a breath.
Gray’s fingers moved under the hem of her tank.
Piper looked at him.
He paused.
She raised both arms.
Gray pulled the shirt over her head.
Every coherent thought I possessed left the property.
She wore a black bra I had seen straps of all week and denim shorts that had become my personal enemy sometime Thursday.
Cole’s hand spread over her stomach.
Piper did not suck it in.
Did not turn sideways.
Did not pose.
She stood there in the middle of three men looking at her like we’d collectively been denied oxygen.
My chest tightened for an entirely different reason.
“Do not say anything weird,” she warned.
“I wasn’t going to.”
“Rafe.”
“I was going to say you’re beautiful.”
Her face changed.
“That’s allowed.”
Gray said, “Agreed.”
Cole did not say anything.
He kissed her shoulder.
That worked better.
Piper reached for me again.
I went willingly.
Her hands slid under my shirt.
I pulled it off.
Gray did the same with his own after she hooked one finger into his collar.
Cole’s shirt, now correctly oriented, lasted another ten seconds.
Piper looked among us.
“Okay.”
I laughed.
“That’s your response?”
“I am experiencing a lot of visual information.”
“Professional assessment?”
“Shut up.”
She kissed me hard enough to make obedience briefly possible.
Then Gray’s hand slid over her hip.
Cole’s mouth returned to her neck.
Piper’s breath caught.
Watching her react to someone else should have made me want to drag her attention back.
Instead, when she tightened her fingers in my hair, I understood something my jealousy had been too loud to hear.
She had not stopped touching me.
Gray unbuttoned her shorts.
He looked at her face.
Piper nodded once.
No ceremony.
No meeting.
Just attention.
The shorts slid down.
Cole’s hand moved over the curve of her stomach.
I kissed her.
Gray kissed her shoulder.
Piper made a soft sound that went through all three of us.
I knew because Cole’s breathing changed.
Gray’s fingers tightened briefly against her hip.
None of us needed a spreadsheet for that.
The bed was three steps away.
Piper backed toward it.
I followed.
She sat on the edge.
Then looked at me.
“Come here.”
I did.
She pulled me between her knees.
Her hands went to my belt.
Every thought in my body moved south.
“Jesus.”
“That is not my name.”
“I know your name.”
“Prove it.”
I kissed her.
Behind her, Cole sat on one side of the bed.
Gray took the other.
Piper leaned back between them.
The image was enough to destroy a man.
Gray’s mouth moved along one shoulder.
Cole’s hand slid over her thigh.
Piper opened my shorts.
I stopped breathing.
She looked up at me.
That expression.
Confident.
Interested.
Mine only in the sense that she was choosing to give it to me for this second.
Not owned.
Not scheduled.
Not earned because somebody else had already received more.
I touched her face.
“Piper.”
She smiled.
“I know.”
Her mouth closed around me.
My knees nearly failed.
I caught the edge of the desk before I fell into three thousand dollars of electronics.
Gray looked at my hand.
“Do not break the monitor.”
I stared at him.
“Now?”
“Especially now.”
Piper laughed around me.
I made a sound that should never have come from a human throat.
Cole actually laughed.
“You are all terrible people.”
Piper pulled back.
“You can leave.”
“Absolutely not.”
She smiled and took me again.
I stopped contributing to conversation.
Cole’s hand moved between her thighs.
I knew because Piper’s breathing changed.
Her rhythm faltered.
My eyes dropped.
Cole was touching her slowly through the black fabric still between them.
Gray kissed the other side of her neck while one hand covered her breast.
No one was rushing.
No one was competing.
At least not successfully.
Piper pulled away from me with a gasp when Cole’s fingers moved under the fabric.
I almost complained.
Then I saw her face.
Worth it.
Cole watched her reaction.
Gray did too.
So did I.
Piper’s eyes closed.
Her hand stayed wrapped around me while Cole touched her.
Gray’s thumb moved over her nipple through the bra.
Her back arched.
“Fuck.”
That was the first time all night she sounded overwhelmed.
I loved it.
Not because we had done it to her.
Because she had wanted too much and actually let herself have it.
Piper opened her eyes.
She looked at Gray.
“Bra.”
He understood.
His fingers found the clasp.
The bra came off.
I had already seen her breasts in pieces of stolen glimpses and wet fabric.
This was different.
No hurry.
No accident.
Piper under the lamplight, curvy and flushed and looking at all three of us like desire was not something she had to apologize for taking up space inside.
Cole bent and kissed one breast.
Gray took the other.
Piper’s hand tightened around me hard enough that my vision went briefly white.
“Oh, fuck.”
She laughed breathlessly.
“Useful?”
“Extremely.”