“It feels like you’re challenging me, Rourke”
“I am not challenging you.Hawthorne,” Dane says, waiting a beat before he adds, “But if I was, there would be no challenge.”
Dane and Nico launch into a debate about their dating skills, and I can’t help it—I giggle. This is the most I’ve seen them act like boys since meeting them. And that’s saying a lot, considering Nico’s general demeanor.
They glance at me, and I see their expressions soften, some of that competition washing away. Then, Cole speaks.
“If we’re talking about Lucy,” he says, with a simple air of knowing, like how he says everything. “I’d take her on the best date.”
That riles Dane and Nico up again, and they’re going back and forth once more, arguing about who would give me the best time on a date. It’s an interesting feeling, to have men argue over you, especially when you already belong to all of them.
“So, let’s do it,” Nico says, standing now, stopping his pacing in front of the TV. For everything it’s inspired, the show is suddenly forgotten. Hazel eyes sparkling a light green in this light, he says, “Each of us takes Lucy on a date. She’ll pick a winner.”
They all turn to look at me, and I hold my hands up, “As much as I would love to go on a date with the three of you, it’s not like I want to choose just one—that’s the whole point?—”
“You want to go on the dates,” Cole says, shrugging, and though he’s acting nonchalant, I can see a streak of competitive attitude in him, too. “So, let us take you on them.”
Again, they’re all looking at me, and I can’t stop myself from laughing. This is silly, and frivolous, and I get the feeling it might just have something to do with my melancholy over not being with my parents over Christmas.
The holiday is next week. By this time, at home, we would be having our annual baking weekend, in which we make every kind of sweet imaginable—thumb-print cookies, chocolate-coated pretzels, turtles, gingerbread men, chocolate chip—then divide them up into tins so everyone goes home with an equal share.
“Lucy?” Dane prompts, leaning forward and setting his hand on my knee. “What do you think? It could be fun.”
That, more than anything, softens me to the idea. Since I stopped working at Ember, I’ve seen less of Dane and Cole than Nico, and less of Dane than Cole. He’s always working, and I get the sense that when they get to the end of a business’s life cycle, he’s the one with the hardest time letting go.
Maybe we can help each other. Distract each other.
“Fine,” I relent, “but I amnotpicking?—”
I’m cut off when Dane leans on his knee and kisses me. His hand slips around to the back of my head and cradles me there, fingers tangled in my hair, and I open my mouth for him on instinct. He slides his tongue against mine, and our breathing gets quick.
And I’m acutely aware of the heavy stares on us, the rustling of Nico and Cole moving, sitting up, interested in what’s happening. It heightens my arousal, makes my core tighten further, and then I’m grinding my clit up against Dane’s hardening cock.
He pulls back quickly, breathing hard, but when Cole tries to move forward, to take over, Dane holds out an arm. “Hold on.”
Then, he stands and disappears.
I’m breathing hard, blinking back stars in my eyes from the kiss, and when I look at Cole and Nico, they’re both on the edge. Nico stands on the other side of the coffee table, running his hands through his hair, and Cole has discarded his laptop, swung his legs around.
Dane returns with a matte black box, and my stomach flips.
He hands the box to Cole and grabs an armchair from the corner of the room, dragging it over. Nico must get his meaning, because they work together, and suddenly there are three armchairs facing the couch where I still sit, breathing hard, flushed, waiting.
Dane sits on the far left, Cole in the middle, and Nico on the right. Cole opens the box. “Should I pick?”
Glancing at him quickly, Dane says, “They’re your creations. Which one would you like to see Lucy use on herself?”
I swallow, sit up, blink at them. My nipples are tight, my skin blazing, gaze jumping between the three men before me. Nico’s hand rests on his cock, as does Dane’s. Cole is staring down intothe box with a serious expression, the same one he wears when thinking about a “problem.”
Finally, he pulls out a toy, looks up, and meets my eyes while passing it to me. My arms move slowly, languidly, like I’m under water, as I reach out to take it.
I’ve seen this one before. It was in the box Dane gave me, but I wasn’t sure how to use it and didn’t want to look it up. Besides, the other two worked just fine for me.
Now, I turn it over in my hands, marveling at how the weight of it, the smooth, velvety feeling of the silicone, reminds me of them. Of holding their cocks in my hands, running the pad of my thumb just over the heads.
Cole makes a noise, and when I look up, I realize they’re all watching me. And I’m getting turned on just by holding this thing in my hand.
I don’t really want the toy—I want them. Want their bodies on me, against me. But I can see what Dane is doing, that this is another one of his power plays. That now, if they watch me touch myself, not getting to touch me, it’s going to make the next time even better.
