“How about we all take a moment to breathe?” Shane pushes between me and Alex and has to forcibly move us. I can’t deny I’m pissed and breathing heavily, but I let him do it because he’s probably the most rational of us all right now.
Whirling, I throw myself on the sofa next to Jace, who smiles and puts an arm around me, pulling me in next to him. I snuggle closer and breathe in his masculine scent, taking a moment to calm down.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Shane quietly whispering to Alex who relaxes as we watch, losing the stiff frame and the balled up hands. I decide to put him out of his misery.
“If you really must know, I am one hundred percent acting as his beard.” I roll my eyes and explain exactly what happened. By the end, Jace and Shane are looking less stressed, but Alex still looks upset. “To be honest, I had no clue he was bi. I thought he was gay this whole time.”
Shane sits down and pulls Alex down with him. Alex runs a frustrated hand through his hair and blows out a breath of air.
“Ash and I were a thing. I was completely and utterly in love with him. I thought he was the one, but we were young and stupid, and I assumed he would happily come out of the closet so we would live happily ever after. I failed to realize how important it was for him to carry on the family title. His horrid grandmother told him that they will have nofruitsin their family and even sent him away to ‘gay camp’ to have it beaten out of him. He learned how to pretend, and he keeps all his male dalliances private and secret. I got sick of coming second to a title, so I gave him an ultimatum and was fucking devastated when he chose the title.”
Shane takes over talking. “Alex and I had worked together before, but we had always kept it platonic even though I was extremely attracted to him. I knew how much he loved Ashton. I could tell every time they were together. We ran into each other about three months after they had broken up. Alex had gone a little bit crazy, fucking anything he could get his hands on, and he tried to seduce me after a shoot one day.”
Alex chuckles and looks affectionately at his partner. “Yeah, that completely backfired on me. I found myself bent over a hard surface with Shane spanking me for all my bad behavior. I fell for him right there and have never looked back.”
“Alex just wanted to come first in someone’s life, and I gave him that. We’ve regularly shared partners, I know Alex isn’t made for monogamy, but you two are the first people we’ve ever wanted to permanently add to our dynamic,” Shane shares, and I feel a warm tingling rush run over me.
“Are you going to keep sleeping with others?” Jace asks, and I can hear the worry in his voice. “Are you like Jilly, wanting an open thing with us, because I kind of thought it would be closed eventually.” Shane and Alex exchange a glance, then Alex gets down on the floor, crawls over to where we are, and lays his head in Jace’s lap.
“No, sweetie. I’m perfectly happy with you two and Shane. It’s everything I’ve always wanted,” he assures him, stretching up to kiss him. He turns to kiss me, but I hold up a hand.
“You might want to wait until you’ve heard what the plan is.”
I tell them everything. Well, everything except for the fact that I need to use drugs to be able to go anywhere without crippling anxiety, but that’s none of their business. Or that’s what I’m going to tell myself. There’s a part of me, the mature adult part, that says they’ll need to know that eventually if I want a real relationship with them, but I’m ignoring that part for now. “Hope thinks it would be good for me to be seen dating Ashton. Even if we’re partying all over the town, it might settle the shareholders,” I finish up, and none of them look happy.
Shane rubs a hand over his chin, pulling at his short beard. “I don’t like it, but I understand. Your family is everything to you, and I don’t blame you for wanting to help out in this situation.”
“I think it’s a crap plan, but what do I know about public relations? I trust Hope and Cole aren’t leading you astray,” Jace says, placing a kiss on my head.
“Alex?” He’s awfully quiet. It’s not like him to have an opinion and not share it. He reaches out and grabs my hand.
“I just want you to be careful. Ashton is very easy to fall for, and I don’t want you to get hurt when you’re inevitably done with the charade. Though who knows? Maybe he’s the one who needs the warning. He might fall just as hard for you. I know I did.” I lean down and place a kiss on his lips. He tries to deepen it, but a knock at my door has me groaning into his mouth.
“Fuck, lunch. I’m not even dressed yet.” I push him out of the way and hurry back over to the bed, grabbing the outfit I planned to wear. I move into the bathroom while Shane gets up to open the door. As I shimmy into the dress I picked, I hear Riku’s sexy voice enthusiastically greet my guys, and they return it equally. I smile at the thought that at least these four get along.
“Hey, why don’t you guys come to lunch with us? I can introduce you to my aunt,” I suggest as I grab my handbag and slip on a pair of heels.
“Is this the aunt who owns Sugar and Spice?” Alex asks, sounding more enthusiastic than he’s been since he walked into the room.
“Yeah, but I warn you, she is somewhat of anacquiredtaste.”
“I’m pretty sure my ass is bruised from where she pinched it,” Riku confesses to the three guys.
“Oh, I would not miss it for the world!” Alex says as we leave my room and make our way downstairs.
“I was looking at the in-room special menu,” Jace says, using his fingers for quotation marks. “You can hire an expert to give you all kinds of sex lessons.” He sounds slightly bemused.
The elevator is empty as we step in, and the doors close behind us. “Yeah, and they’re hands-on too, if you want them to be. It’s how we’re getting around Hawaii’s prostitution laws. By offering it as a class, whatever happens behind those closed doors is up to our ‘expert’ and their ‘student.’”
“So… if I hired someone to give me a blow job class, I could get a blow job?” Shane asks, sounding slightly surprised.
“Well, yes, but on paper, you’re hiring them for a demonstration and some tips. The women and men are all highly trained escorts from one of Aunt Merideth’s establishments. They are all here because they want to be. None are being coerced or have to do it for money or anything. All of her people enjoy their jobs.”
The elevator opens, and we step out. I don’t continue to talk about it because you never know who’s listening, and prostitution is illegal in Hawaii.
We make our way to the dining room where everyone is already seated. The noise coming from our table sounds joyful but loud. I feel a little sorry for other diners, but as I gaze around the room, there don’t seem to be many others around.
“Ah, there you are!” Aunt Merideth can’t wait for us to approach. She stands up and waves, her eyes widening then zeroing in on the fact that Shane has his hand on my back. Riku melts into the background with the other security while I ask the hostess to place three more chairs at the table.
