Chapter Thirteen - Grand Grana Padano
“IT’S NOT WHAT it looks like,” I shout and tumble off the bed for my abandoned clothes. My blouse is by the door but where the hell are my pants?
“You’re saying you didn’t make the beast with two backs on a bare mattress?” Cam asks. He scoops up my shirt and dangles it on the tip of his finger. Staring me dead in the eye, he smiles. “That’s a shame.”
I yank my blouse off and try to dress while hunched over as if he didn’t just get a full view of my naked body two seconds ago. “I can explain.”
“Oh, really?” Cam sits on the edge of the bed then dramatically crosses his legs like I’m about to spill hot tea. Brie is stuck behind him unable to go anywhere. Leaning back, Cam asks him, “On top or below?”
Brie’s face heats and he flashes guilty eyes at me. “On top,” he whispers.
Cam slaps his bare hip and gives a raucous, “Good man.”
“You’re not…mad?” I freeze with my pants halfway up my thighs.
“Mad? Of course not. Surprised, however. Brie is quite the dark horse. Though it is nice to learn you’re not…unplowed soil as I had once feared.”
Unplowed…? “I’m not a… I’ve been with men before. Two of them.”
Cam stands. With a swagger giving nothing away, he walks up to me so his chest presses into my shoulder. With his lips perched in a grin, he whispers, “At the same time?”
“Uh…” My brain shorts out and I shake my head. Two men…together? The burn of embarrassment reaches the deepest level of hell as forbidden thoughts roam through my mind.
Drawing his fingers down my arm, Cam brushes his lip against my ear. “Would you like to?”
I gasp and he catches me in a kiss. His lips command me to throw away my clothes and join him in bed with Brie. Holding my chin, Cam guides my head to deepen his love potion kiss. He takes the waist of my unbuttoned jeans and starts to undo my panicked work.
A great pounding shakes the floor below us. I try to leap back from the earthquake, but Cam wraps me in his arms. Instead of explaining, he glances at the toppled table I nearly slammed into. With a weary sigh, he releases me. “I’m afraid that offer will have to wait. Roq does not wish me to have a moment’s peace.”
“I…I should come,” Brie says.
“Again?” Cam chuckles. “That’s impressive.”
Brie stares at him in confusion before his eyes widen. His cheeks burn red and he keeps shaking his head. Brie hobbles into his clothing by shoving one leg down his pants, then hopping to try to get the other. With a sigh, Cam rights the table, tugs Brie’s trousers around for him, then gathers up the scattered mess of supplies.
When his shoe kicks the roll of condoms, his eyes light up. “Sheepskins? How naughty.” He tears off three and pockets them while staring me right in the eye.
Another summoning bang erupts under us. “I’m coming,” Brie shouts to Roq and he barrels to the door without his shoes.
Cam slips in beside me to say, “That sounds familiar.”
“I…I…”
“Oh, I’m sorry my dear.” He cups my cheek tenderly. “You’re just so adorable with your face pinked to a rose’s blush.”
“You really don’t care?” I shake my head, struggling to understand any of this. Don’t men get punchy over sharing the same toy?
“I care that you found enjoyment in your brief time with our little Brie amongst this squalor.” Cam lifts a bottle of glass cleaner and haphazardly sprays it in the air. “But, as I told you before, we four share…everything.”
Including me?
I try to process the idea by taking deep, long breaths. Four lips, four cocks, eight hands and legs—okay, now it sounds like a demented, sex spider. But two of them sweaty and thrusting, kissing, licking…maybe even three?
“Lady Vi?” Cam asks, glancing his palm to my back.
Maybe if one’s lying down, another from behind, and the third standing… “Yes?” I pant.
“You’re breathing rather hard. Do you require a bag?”
I shake my head fast, trying to keep from breaking into giddy giggles. “No. Nope. I’m all good.”
“Fantastic. Now, while I must return to the basement, I think you’d like to see what Chedward and I have managed.” Cam sticks out his arm like he did while taking me home.
I start to slip my arm around his when he suddenly grips my ass, spins me around, dips me back, and kisses me. All the blood rushes to my head, leaving me floating out of my body. I run my fingers through his shoulder-long hair as a tether back.
Cam damn near growls against my mouth. “I hope I’m next on your dance card.”
He heaves me back to my feet, the world rushing past. By the time I steady myself, Cam’s already holding my shoes and smiling. “Now, shall we see what’s got Roq’s cock in a knot?”
“You’re never going to guess who got in first, Cheddy,” Cam shouts the second he’s through the door.
I stumble in beside him, regretting that I didn’t take the time to lace up my sneakers when I discover what they’ve been doing in the store. For two days, it’s been nothing but chunks of wood, sawdust, and bent nails across the floors and counters—from the door to the back wall.
It’s all gone. Gleaming shelves in a dark mahogany stain line both walls, ready to hold cheese. Cheddy’s sweeping away the dust, revealing a beautiful floor that’ll just need a good mopping and waxing to be finished. It’s like they scrubbed twenty years off of this place. I feel like I’m five years old—frog barrettes in my hair—about to skip around the place nicking samples before my uncle catches me.
Cheddy pauses in his manic sweeping, sending a cloud of dust into Roq’s face. He drops the dustpan and starts to cough while rising to his full height.
“Who?” Cheddy asks.
Cam stretches over to grab Brie. I didn’t even see him in here. He’d been hiding behind the counter that’d been scraped clean of every old cheese sticker. With a beam of pride, Cam says, “Our little Brie has cut the ribbon, so to speak.”
“Really?” Cheddy shouts, abandoning his broom. Roq reaches out to catch it but he’s too late. With a deep groan, Roq shakes his head and bends over to finish the job while Cheddy approaches Cam and Brie.
“I caught them entwined together in a little love nest. It was quite adorable.”
“You did it in the trees?” Cheddy asks Brie who’s once again gone bright pink. “How do you keep from getting a stick up your bum?”
“I dare say there are some who enjoy that,” Cam adds.
I don’t know if the happy-go-lucky cheddar understood that, but he slaps Brie on the shoulder then shoots a thumbs up at me. “Congrats.”
“Are you finished?” Roq grumbles while wielding the broom like a sword.
“The night is young,” Cam declares and Roq scoffs.
“There is curd to be squeezed downstairs.”
“I wouldn’t mind if my curd got a little squeezing,” Cheddy says with a big grin, then he bounces his eyebrows in my direction. My bones melt and tongue catches on fire. I turn away to stop my brain from once again puzzling over the logistics of getting three pegs in three holes.
Roq hurls the broom at our feet with such force it nearly cracks. “Bah!” He stomps for the basement. “If any of you want to get serious and stop wasting your time on such…frivolities, I’ll be doing real work.” He climbs down a few rungs, then drops right to the bottom. In the quiet, Roq’s enraged steps echo up from the basement.
I get it, he hates me. Maybe because of my uncle, maybe because of me. I shouldn’t care.
I don’t care.
Why do I feel bad that he hates me?
“What curdled his milk?” Cam takes both of my hands and pulls me toward the center of the room. “Now, my lovely, what do you think? Is the store ready to release our cheese upon the world for a bit of coin?”
When the place was covered in mold and dirt I was certain reopening would be impossible. No one in their right mind would come in here willingly. But they worked a miracle in just a few nights, making it look as good as new. I frown at the stains on the walls and the cracking plaster in the alcoves. Almost as good as new. “It could use a new coat of paint. And…I still have to figure out what I need to do to run a business.”
“Oh, we can help with that. Brie happens to be an expert in all manners of commerce.”
Brie nods at the mention, then Cam adds, “Assuming he can use his pen for something other than filling your ledger.”
We both sputter at Cam’s crass remark, but Brie peers up from below his brows and gives me a little smile.
“Now.” Cam slaps his hands together and worries them. “If you’re not too weary, Chedward and I will draw up yet another list of requirements for the morrow. With any luck, we should get enough coin back in your pocket for a proper feast to celebrate.”
I’m really doing this. I’m going to run a shop with four men who turn into cheese by day.
This is insane. I can’t do this. I don’t know how to do any of this.
Cam, Cheddy, and Brie roll up their sleeves. Together, they bend over to pick up one of the old pallets. I bite my lip at all the hot, flexing forearms on display. Maybe I can handle this, for a little bit.
At least until I figure out this whole three-peg challenge.