Then Kai was there, and everyone looked at me expectantly.
“I feel like I’ve been called into my professor’s office after I got caught cheating on a test.”
Asher snorted. “I don’t think you’d cheat on a test if lives were at stake.”
I smiled. “I guess it depends on whose lives we’re talking about.”
Finally, Asher took a deep breath. “All right. Since we are your professors, we, of course, have the curriculum set for the whole semester.”
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 deepbreath. “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?”
