“You’ve been thinking about it, fantasizing about it, for eight years.”He leaned forward, one hand on the table, and his hair fell forward to form a silver curtain around that dreamy face.“Something must have sparked your decision to take this step now.”
“Oh.”She looked down at her plate, empty but for a few smears of sauce, then looked up.“January first is my birthday.”
“New Year’s baby,” Jesse said with a grin.“Happy belated.”
“Thanks.”She cleared her throat.“Anyway, my friends and I—Bailey and Gwen—we always spend the night before our birthdays together, and we always make a birthday wish at midnight.Like a goal for the next year.And this year, well, that was my wish.”
“Great wish,” Jesse said enthusiastically.
“No argument there,” Knox said.“Why us?”
She was blushing so hard it felt like her face was on fire.“You’re both really sexy, and not assholes, and I’m…”
“You’re what, Chloe?”Knox asked, and though his voice was soft, there was a thread of iron in it that told her not answering wouldn’t be an option.
“I’m really attracted to you both.”
“But you didn’t ask us.”
“I couldn’t,” she managed.
“Why not?”
“Because you’re married,” she blurted out.“And I presumed monogamous, and I didn’t want to upset you or offend you, and…well, it just didn’t seem like an option.”
“Oh, it’s an option,” Jesse said fiercely.
Knox’s gaze was just as fierce.“So you went to Sawyer.”
“Not at first,” Chloe admitted.“I thought I should get on some hookup apps—”
Jesse jerked, knocking over the basket of garlic bread.“Tell me you did not do that.”
“No,” she said, looking warily between him and Knox.Knox had let out a sound like a snarl, and he didn’t look happy.“Gwen and Bailey shot that down pretty fast.”
“Good for Gwen and Bailey,” Knox muttered.
Jesse, who had sagged with visible relief, nodded.“That’s when you found Sawyer?”
“No.”She didn’t know why they wanted to know this, but she didn’t mind sharing.“We talked about maybe a swingers club.”
Jesse frowned.“Are there any swingers clubs in Braxton?”
“No, but there’s one in Kenning.”
“Michigan?”
Chloe nodded.“But it felt weird to cross state lines for sex.”
“I’ve crossed state lines for sex,” Jesse mused.
“Then what, Chloe?”
She turned back to Knox, relieved that he looked a little less feral now.“That’s when Bailey found Sawyer.He seemed safer than apps or swingers.”
“Considerably,” Knox agreed.
“I can’t really afford his fee,” Chloe went on, “but Bailey and Gwen offered to chip in.”
