Chapter 28 #2
Kai muttered, “You three are too hung up on this school metaphor.”
Asher ignored him. Instead, he looked directly at me. “Do you know what the next lesson is?”
My heart gave a weird half-beat and then sped up.
“I’m not the teacher,” I said, my voice a little shaky.
Asher’s intense gaze was still on me. “But I think you know. With the things we’ve already done, I think you know what’s next. The question is, do you want it?”
“Yes,” I said, my voice small and barely audible with the noise from the diners behind.
“Yes, what?” Asher asked.
“Yes, please?”
Kai laughed, but Asher didn’t even crack a smile. “Tell us what you want to happen at the next lesson.”
“I want—” I trailed off. “Um… you know. Sex?”
This time, both Kai and Landon laughed.
“There’re all kinds of versions of that, some of which you already know how to do,” Kai pointed out.
Asher’s dark eyes were still trained on me. “If you can’t say what you want, then you’re not ready for it.”
“But I think you do want something,” Kai said. “And we want it too.”
Landon touched my back, rubbing his fingers lightly up and down. It was a comforting presence, not a sexual one. “Just tell us what you want , Zoe. Even if it’s nothing at all. There are no wrong answers here.” Then he leaned in close. “And remember, you’re brave as fuck.”
I took a deep breath. “I want you inside me.”
“That’s a good start,” Kai said.
“But it’s not enough,” Asher pointed out. “Do you want one of us or all of us?”
“I’m not ready for that,” I said quickly.
He rolled his eyes. “I didn’t mean all of us at the same time. I meant—it’s what Landon said back at the start. It’s supposed to be special. If you want just one of us there for your official first time, you can choose, and we’ll be fine with whatever you say.”
“No, I didn’t mean—” Crap. Why was this so hard to talk about?
But Landon sighed, his hand settling around my waist. “You guys are explaining this terribly. Look, Zoe, here’s what we’d like to do.
We would like to have dinner with you, a date night.
I know a chef who can prepare us an amazing meal.
We’ll eat, we’ll talk, we’ll drink—it’ll be fun.
And afterwards, if you want something to happen with one of us, then that’s what we’ll do. ”
“Dinner sounds good,” I said, ignoring all the scarier parts of it. “When?”
“Tomorrow night. We’ll make an occasion of it and get all dressed up.”
That thought was distracting, and a small laugh escaped me. “What, like you’ll wear your best ski pants?”
“We’ll wear suits, Zoe.” Asher gave me a level look that made me suspect he’d wear a dark suit better than James Bond. But that just served to make me feel self-conscious.
“I, uh, I don’t have a dress, just skirts.”
“You look good no matter what you wear. I mean, those skirts that hug your hips—they drive me fucking nuts,” Kai said.
I frowned. “Why did you guys bring suits to a ski lodge?”
“On New Year’s Eve, the staff all dress up,” Landon explained.
“They do?” Panic filled me. “Why didn’t anyone tell me before I came here?”
“Well, you don’t have a very traditional internship with a decent boss, but we thought of that.” Landon reached into his pocket and pulled out a little black envelope. He handed it to me.
I turned it over. It was sealed without anything written on it. “What’s this?”
“A dress,” Asher said with a grin.
I stared at the little black envelope. “If it is, it’s not going to cover very much of me.”
Kai snickered. “That’s what we like about it.”
“Ignore him,” Landon said. “That’s a voucher for the boutique on the third floor. You can get any dress you’d like.”
“What?” I hadn’t even set foot in that place because it was so expensive. “I can’t afford to go in there.”
“First of all, you can,” Asher said. “Anyone can go in there. And secondly, all you have to do is to pick out what you want and give them that.”
Did they really mean that? Was it like a blank check?
I’d heard from one of the staff members that the apparel up there was so expensive, it didn’t even have price tags on it because only the ultra-rich could afford it.
I didn’t know anything about the twins’ financial situation, but it didn’t seem like Asher had come from an affluent background.
“I can’t take this,” I said, holding out the card.
Asher raised an eyebrow. “You already did.”
“I mean, I can’t use it.”
“Yes, you can,” Landon said. “We want you to.”
“When you think about it,” Kai added, “It’s really a gift for us too, because we know you’ll look hot as fuck, which will make dinner a lot more exciting than just eating Asher’s food.”
“Hey!” Asher punched Kai in the arm.
I still couldn’t quite wrap my head around this. “This is too much, guys. I can’t—” I trailed off. “Sorry, I’m just a bit tongue-tied.”
Kai grinned and leaned across the bar, his head close to mine. “Want me to help you untangle your tongue?”
I laughed and pushed him away. “But seriously, guys, I can’t.”
Kai sighed dramatically. “How do we get her to stop fighting this?” he asked his brother and Asher.
Asher answered that one. “Easy. We make her tell us which one of us she wants to fuck first.”
My mouth dropped open. For a long moment, I couldn’t speak. But Asher was right—I was no longer focused on the voucher. “Y-you want me to choose?”
Landon nodded, a tad impatiently. “Traditionally, people get to decide who they want to have sex with.”
“But I want to have sex with all of you,” I said automatically. “I mean, not at the same time—”
Kai chuckled. “Okay, okay, we get it.”
“Couldn’t we just have dinner together with you guys all looking hot in your suits and then after dinner we could… um…”
“Just spit it out, Zoe.” Kai sounded a tad exasperated.
“All right,” I said slowly, stalling for time.
If I actually had a drink, I could take a sip to stall, but despite the fact that there were two bartenders and a chef within arm’s reach, there were no glass in front of me.
Hadn’t Kai said he was going to get me one?
He must’ve gotten distracted by the talk about sex.
But I could do this. I’d just take a deep breath and say it. So I did. “I know that somebody has to be my first, but could I also have my second and third that night so that I can be with all of you?”
For a moment, no one spoke, and I thought that perhaps I’d stunned them. I’d kind of stunned myself too. I couldn’t believe I was asking this.
“If that’s what you want,” Asher said slowly.
“And if it’s what you all want,” I said the words to all of them, but I was looking at Landon.
His blue eyes looked darker as he stared at me.
Finally, he nodded. “All right. But let’s call that a tentative lesson plan, subject to change at any time.
If we just have a good meal and a fun evening, that’s fine.
Or if you want to be with one of us and kick the other two out, that’s fine, too. Do you remember your safe word?”
“No.” I looked to my teachers for help.
Asher frowned, and Kai shook his head. “What was it again?”
Landon scowled. “You two are terrible instructors. It was champagne.”
“Oh yeah. But I don’t need it,” I said quickly.
“You don’t know that. If someone asks you to—” Landon started.
I interrupted him. “If someone asks me to do something I don’t want, I’ll tell them that, and they’ll listen. I trust all three of you.”
There was a moment of silence, and then Asher said, “Okay, then it’s a date.”
“Yes. Wait, where? At the hideaway?”
“No, we’ve got a better place. Can you be ready by eight?”
“Sure.” As long as I spent every second until then thinking about how I was going to do my hair and makeup. And oh yeah, getting a dress that probably cost more than a semester at Langley.
Kai smiled. “Looking forward to it.”
“Me too,” Asher said.
“Me three,” Landon added.
I looked at each of them and then took a deep breath. “Me four.”