I wasn’t sure how else to say it. It wasn’t like my parents were particularly conservative or traditional in the usual way. They wouldn’t yell at me for living with someone or for sleeping with someone that I was in a relationship with. But being with three men at once, being in a relationship with all of them; I was fairly certain my parents wouldn’t take that well.
“How do you know that?” Beck asked curiously, crossing his arms. “Have you done this before? Have you asked them?”
“No,” I admitted, but I simply wasn’t sure about this whole situation. “But… I mean, isn’t it an obvious thing that people wouldn’t exactly be accepting about…us?It’s not exactly a common occurrence, is it? Except, you know, on certain kinds of websites. I just don’t want my parents to think badly of me, or of you.”
“Look,” Calder said with a deep sigh. “I want to be with you. We all do.”
“Yeah,” Beck nodded along.
“And we don’t want to be some dirty little secret,” Ash added firmly. “We want an official relationship that nobody’s ashamed of. We want people to know that… That we’re with you. That…”
“You can say it,” Beck encouraged him, patting him on the shoulder.
“That we’re in love with you,” Ash finally relented. It seemed like it was difficult for him to admit, but the statement filled my heart with warmth. Still, I didn’t know if it was such a good idea to go public with all of this. People had their biases, and most of the neighborhood didn’t really know me.
“Don’t you think people will judge me?” I asked, uncertainty lacing my words. “I just moved in here, and it’d be the only thing they know about me. That I have three boyfriends.”
“Personally, I don’t care what they think,” Calder answered with a surprising level of confidence. “I know what I want, and I want to be yours, no matter what.”
“Are you sure?” I asked, feeling their certainty starting to flood over me. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. After all, I’d have the three of them on my side, and I didn’t think anything else really mattered as much as that. It was possible that, if my parents were open to getting to know them, if they knew who the guys truly were and how much they cared… Maybe they could eventually accept it.
“Absolutely,” all three of them said at once.
“I mean, I am in love with you, too,” I admitted, letting go of my arm and offering them a shy smile. “I am scared, though. But… I guess I am willing to try.”
“Great,” Ash said, stepping forward to trace a finger down my cheek. “Now that we have that out of the way…”
“What are you thinking?” Beck asked mischievously, and my eyes widened.
“Are you crazy?” I looked around the room, filled with mechanical bits and bobs and machinery. “Here?”
“Well, we are all alone in here,” Calder pointed out with a nonchalant shrug. “Nobody could hear or see anything, and with your parents in town, I’m not sure we’d have a better opportunity than this.”
“Plus, it’s safe,” Beck laughed. “We’ve made sure this place is 100 percent up to code.”
I started giggling, both excitedly and nervously. I’d never done something as crazy as this before; but the last while had been fairly insane. It was an adventure, and I trusted the three of them. They knew what they were talking about when it came to safety, and they were right about two things: One, we wouldn’t have a lot of time to fool around with my parents in town and two, nobody would hear or see us while we were in that room.
“Okay, okay,” I finally laughed. “I’m in, but no making a mess on me when I have no way to clean it up.”
“Deal!” They all agreed.
Ash was the first one to step forward to kiss me, his hands on either side of my face. His tongue was warm and urgent, almost wild as it moved in my mouth. I felt Beck’s hands slip beneath my dress and start to move up my legs, his fingers dancing in a way that gave me goosebumps right from the start.
I reached my own hand out to feel for Calder, who was standing beside me, and I slipped it under his shirt. The sensation of his skin beneath my fingers was already working me up, and I almost completely forgot about Jackie and the fire drama within seconds.
I shifted my hand to grip the edge of Calder’s shirt to lift it up, hinting for him to take it off entirely. Luckily, he caught on, and in the dim light, I saw him taking it off in the corner of my eye.I used my other hand to reach back to tug on Beck’s shirt so that he would do the same.
His hands left my legs for a second, but they returned with a fiercer energy, and moved upward on my thighs until he reached my underwear.
“Oh,” I said into Ash’s mouth and shivered as Beck started pulling them down. I lifted one foot, then the other, and then I was free of them. My nails dug into Calder’s chiseled stomach as I tried to use him to balance myself.
“I’d like a kiss, too,” he said, and Ash gracefully stood aside, taking his own shirt off as he did so. “And, Rhea, I believe we’d all prefer it if you were… Entirely naked.”
His words sent a bolt of electric energy through my body and I felt my face turn red. Luckily, my dress wasn’t particularly difficult to take off; all I had to do was lift it over my head and let it drop to the ground. One more swift movement from Ash and my bra joined it.
It felt strange, to be this naked with the festival all around us and all the people none the wiser. At the same time, it was exhilarating.
Calder reached for me, pulling me against him and sliding his hand around my neck under my hair. His kiss was just as fiery as Ash’s, hungry and powerful. I felt Beck’s hands on my legs, and leaned my waist backward slightly to spread them a bit for him. My breath began coming fast and the heat inside the room was already climbing. I felt Beck’s fingers start to explore me, and I sensed my own wetness, which heightened the longing at my very core.
