Fuck!
I wanted to hang my head in shame. That wasn’t how I’d wanted to tell her, but I stood firm as always. Don’t show weakness.
Her head angled slowly toward me. “Everest and Phoenix are your brothers?”
The world wasn’t crumbling around me yet. “Yes. We didn’t want you to think we had to be together.”
“Okay.”
“Just treat us as three separate men, each with our own personalities, our own lives, and our own kinks.”
Her lips pursed and her eyes held a far-off look.
“Any questions about that?”
“Not right now.”
“Okay, then…” Did that mean we could talk about something else or was I being dense. The silence weighed on me. “How didyesterday go? Did you make friends?” Wrong question. I quickly recovered. “I mean, in your classes… did you learn a lot?”
“I met some people. Just acquaintances, but everyone was friendly.”
Good answer. Next burning question. “Did you try out anything you learned?”
“Not yet.”
Pressing my knuckles into my thigh, I avoided doing a fist pump. The weight of my stare must have been enough to let each of those acquaintances know to stay away from her.
“Did you learn about any kinks you want to try? After all, they say you don’t really learn something until you put it into practice.” Not so slick. Why did I have so much trouble controlling myself when it came to her?
I didn’t expect her to answer, but she said, “Blindfolds… and restraints. Nothing too… St. Andrew’s Cross-ish, but I think I would like my hands being tied.”
“We can?—”
“Hi, Penny. How are you today?” Everest’s light-hearted greeting grated on me as hard as the Barney song I’d heard Littles singing. But what did I expect in a place that embraced a lifestyle prone to liking that.
Phoenix was at his side. She smiled and greeted the two of them.
They both noticed my hand was on hers. I made no effort to make room for them on the bench. Normally standing over someone would be a position of power, but not when I was touching her and they weren’t.
Everest continued, “We tried to catch up with you yesterday to make sure we’re all on the same page about how… it went.”
“I liked everything we did.”
I withheld another fist pump.
Everest beat me to a response. “That’s good. We talked amongst ourselves afterward and felt that it went well too.”
Phoenix mumbled agreement.
I debated bringing up getting together again, but she filled the gap. “How long are each of you working at Rawhide Ranch? Are you all staying the same amount of time since you’re brothers?”
Shit. I hadn’t told her not to mention it. I couldn’t have told her not to. That wouldn’t be honest even though it would have been safer. She was one step closer to the core of our lie. The part that threatened to unravel everything.
Everest and Phoenix stared at me in shock. I shrugged. The less said about it now, the better.
But in the awkward silence, she asked, “Do you live around here?”
“No,” We all found our voices at the same time.
