Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Phoenix
Not sure if Everest would come back after giving Penny a massage, or what that even meant, Atlas and I waited in my room with the door open. Everest had some explaining to do.
“What the fuck, man?” Atlas jumped up before I realized Everest was heading toward our apartment.
“That was a dick move,” I added anti-climactically.
“Give me a fucking second to explain.” Everest stepped inside, slammed the door, then rested against it.
“No. You had your second. What were you thinking, giving our stepsister a massage?” Atlas wasn’t just hot, but ready to boil over.
Everest motioned for Atlas to control himself, which only irritated our brother more, but he got the point. If we made too much noise, we could get found out, or worse, kicked off the Ranch.
Everest continued, “It was strictly a massage. Nothing more… other than we walked around and talked beforehand.”
“Why?” I grumbled.
“To learn what she wants out of her stay at Rawhide Ranch… and make sure she’s safe. I’m getting to know her. Did either of you have a plan?”
“Yeah, we could all three get to know her.” Atlas had no patience for Everest taking the lead, and tried to get in his face but Everest kept him at arm’s length.
“Not at the same time.” Everest shoved Atlas backward and stepped to the side.
“Easy for you to say since you got her naked and rubbed all over her first.” Atlas was about to blow a gasket.
Sometimes, I loved watching my brothers go at it. Not right now with so much on the line. I motioned for Atlas to back off. “Take a corner.”
Giving Atlas a few seconds to mope across the room, I said, “Atlas, you wouldn’t have doubled back and talked to Erica privately about Penny, if you didn’t have your own motives.”
He puffed his chest. “Oh, yeah, what kind of motives do you think I have for our stepsister who’s eighteen years younger than me and needs a babysitter?”
“You want to fuck her. I saw it in your eyes.” I didn’t beat around the bush.
“That’s not why I checked with Erika.”
“Right. Then tell us how you feel about her.”
“Let’s admit it, she’s not what any of us expected.” True to form, Atlas cut off any chance of talking about emotions.
Everest laughed. “Admit it, the second you heard she might be a sub, you were ready to ask her to strip naked, get on her knees, and present.”
“Fuck off.” Atlas paced the few steps across his end of the room.
“Fuck Penny is what you wanted to do—without getting to know her.” Everest pursued the thread more seriously than he normally would.
“She’s here to have sex.” Atlas thought he was pointing out the obvious, but Everest shut him down…
“She’s here to explore kink, which may or may not include sex.”
“Where’d you get that quote, the dictionary? And how were you going to keep her safe? By occupying all of her time. A massage, car repair… what next?”
“We told Dad we’d make sure she’s protected from jerks, and after meeting people at the Ranch, we’re the only jerks.”
Everest was right, at least about him and Atlas… they needed to get themselves under control.
“I’m not being a jerk,” Atlas grumbled.
“Arguing over who spends time with her first… that’s missing the bigger problem. We need a game plan for telling her who we are.”
“Fuck no.” The reaction was out of my mouth before I could stop it.
“Nice of you to join us, Phoenix.” Atlas turned his ire toward me.
“You can’t tell her who we are.” Was it possible to get through to them while they were both so worked up?
Atlas stopped pacing. “Why? Because you have the same fear as me… that if we tell her we’re her stepbrothers, we have no chance of getting anywhere with her.”
Shit! He’d actually come clean—moved past the babysitting facade.
“We’re not getting anywhere with our stepsister.” Everest continued to protect her despite his own obvious desires.
“Am I the only one who can admit it? We all want her.” Atlas called us out.
The hum of the fan became wildly prominent as the arguing paused.
Atlas shrugged. “I mean, if I saw her on the street and she was closer to my age, I would date her.”
“Yeah, same, if it wasn’t so weird,” Everest mumbled.
Shit. Date her? That’s more than just having fun at the Ranch.
I wasn’t good at opening up and considered leaving it at that, but I didn’t want to be overshadowed—the curse of being the youngest of three brothers.
The sting of my recently rejected marriage proposal didn’t help either.
Giving myself a mental shake, I questioned why I’d even consider a new relationship, especially when I’d have to fight the two of them for her.
The good thing about being considered the grumpy brother was that I didn’t give a fuck if I pissed either of them off.
But Penny… how could she be so captivating when I hadn’t said a single word to her other than hello.
It must be because we’re at a kink ranch and she’s off limits—the unattainable rebound. It had to be. But playing it off as not caring about her didn’t seem right.
All three of us seemed mired in thoughts we didn’t understand how to handle, or at least I was.
I barely knew Penny and I wanted to swing big for her—a ridiculous thought. In a matter of days we’d be back in the real world.
I shouldn’t have even bothered except I had to throw my hat in the arena. If either of these guys managed to make it work with her, and I hadn’t, I’d lose my mind.
There was no way I could face her as a sister-in-law without ensuring she knew all of her options. What the fuck was going on in my head? She was our stepsister.
Atlas sat on the bed opposite me and Everest took a chair. With the tension in the room easing off, I attempted to get us all on the same page.
“Let’s just say that she connected with one of us while we’re at the Ranch, and maybe it could turn into something more… could either of you deal with it if you weren’t the one she chose?” I glanced at Atlas first.
Everest was better prepared to answer. “If one of you made her happy, I would accept her choice. Never cause trouble again, but I’ll do my best to get to know her until then.”
Atlas stood up again, towering over us. “While you’re painting nails and rubbing her feet, I’ll burn the fucking world down for her.”
“Less for you to carry.” Everest’s comment was barely audible.
Atlas stepped closer. “What was that?”
Everest scoffed. “Does a comment like burning the world down work on first dates? Or do you save it for after you’ve forgotten her birthday or something big?”
Back to the arguing. If I didn’t keep them focused, these two would argue the entire time she’s here. It would be a viable way to keep them busy, but also the most likely way to ruin everything. “Just answer the question, Atlas. Would you respect her decision if she chose Everest or me?”
“She’s not that stupid.”
“And yet, I’m the only one who’s spent quality time with her.” Everest peacocked his rare triumph over Atlas.
“Answer the fucking question…. Can you respect that she’s an autonomous human who will make her own decisions regardless of whether they make sense to the world burner?”
“I’m not an ass.”
“Debatable,” Everest muttered.
I motioned for the two of them to return to their corners.
“Taking that as full agreement, let’s get up to speed on Penny. Everest, how did the massage go?”
“It was a massage,” he answered way too defensively.
“Clothes on? Clothes off? Happy ending? Or did she rush out, leaving you alone to jack yourself off after you popped a boner?”
“Do I have to remind you two that I am professionally trained and licensed? It was a normal massage.”
“Would she give the same answer?” Atlas couldn’t hide his irritation that his little brother had bested him.
“She wouldn’t know because it was her first. Don’t bug her about it. She’s not like the women you go after.”
Atlas grumbled but I cut him off. “So what did you find out?” I asked under the guise of getting us up to speed, but on the inside, I was desperate to know everything about Penny.
“She’s… innocent.”
“As in a virgin?” Atlas coughed the question out.
“We didn’t talk about that.”
“Or you just don’t want to tell us?” I wasn’t sure if I could trust Everest.
“It didn’t come up. I was just getting to know her.”
“Okay, so she likes long walks on the beach and getting railed in a dungeon, what else?” Atlas fumed.
Everest looked like he was going to come unglued, a sure sign he felt something deep for her. He was clear competition and Atlas knew it. Plus, if Penny was interested in a guy like Everest, she might not be into alpha male world burners.
Everest took a moment to consider what to say.
“She does like long walks in nature. That’s how she calms herself, because when she’s in groups of people, it’s stressful.
She likes to be alone or with small groups she knows well and likes…
and she’s okay with being near groups of people as long as there’s no pressure to join.
So when you two jackasses rolled up wanting to jump in on a massage, you freaked her out. ”
“We didn’t know. You could have said something.” Atlas entered full defend-and-blame mode.
“I did, but you were too busy trying to stop me from having time alone with her. Not everyone wants to fuck the first person who offers just because we’re at a kink ranch. You could respect boundaries and give me a minute once in a while.”
“Fine. You had your minute. Now it’s my turn.”
It seemed like a good point to force them back to the other consideration. “What are we going to do about telling her who we are? Take turns having fun while we’re here, then when we head home and our parents want us to get together, we’ll be like, hey, imagine seeing you here.”
“It’s too far-fetched. Plus, her mom could reveal the whole fucking plan. We’ve got to get on top of this while her mom is the bad guy.” Atlas finally moved into semi-rational mode.
“Slow down. Nobody has to be the bad guy.” I wasn’t sure I believed that.
Atlas shook his head. “Really? You think a parent snooping around in your sex life wouldn’t make them a bad guy?”
The complexity of the problem weighed on me. “Okay. Yeah, it’s not going to be comfortable, but how do we tell her who we are without telling her that her mom knows she’s here and sent us? Sounds like the best way to ruin her stay at Rawhide Ranch.”
That seemed to bring us into agreement.
“Let’s sort out what we know,” Everest said. “It was her choice to come here.”
“Right, and she only has five days. We can mitigate that time by curating how much knowledge we share.”
“Don’t you sound fancy with your five-dollar words, little brother.” Atlas laughed.
“I can use smaller words if it will help you follow.”
“Fuck off.” Atlas shoved me playfully. Finally, we were back to normal—brothers with plenty of differences, but always there for each other.
Everest sounded more enthused after picking up on the renewed energy.
“Penny’s on a mission. Let’s help her fulfill that mission.
It’s not going to do any good to tell her that her mother asked our father to ask us to keep an eye on her…
too complicated, even if it is because her mother worries that Penny’s a little different. ”
“Curate the fuck out of that statement.” Atlas came fully out of his defensive mode and showed the more admirable side of his personality, getting down to business.
“That’s not what curate means.” Everest’s comment drew a glare from Atlas.
“She needs time and space.”
“We only have five days.”
“Then we have to use them wisely,” Everest said. “So are we in agreement that revealing what her mom is up to isn’t going to enrich Penny’s experience?”
“Agreed,” Atlas said. “She doesn’t know who we are. We didn’t know who she was. Why do parents meddle so much? Dad’s been sneaking around with Penny’s mom then sent us on this mission before we meet either of them. I don’t get why he’s being so secretive about his relationship.”
“It’s like we’re not getting the full story.” I had to agree with Atlas. “That’s a problem for a different day.”
“Key takeaways.” Atlas assumed control. “None of us breathe a word about being her stepbrothers. Let her stay on her terms. We make ourselves available. If she doesn’t like any of us, we back off. We don’t interfere with each other’s time, and we respect her decisions.”
I wanted to tell him to go screw himself for summarizing, as if the whole thing had been his plan, but that was the wrong battle.
Everest added, “We haven’t mentioned that we’re brothers, so let’s keep that quiet.”
We’re in sync, but time was not our friend. “Sounds like a plan, and we should read up a little more on kink, just in case she does want a Dom. We could do some of the workshops or talk to one of the counselors to be sure we understand the roles.”
“I’m not going to a fucking counselor.” Atlas retreated to his corner.
“Nobody’s forcing you. I’m just pointing out that if she wants to learn—we should have something to teach.”