“Don’t worry about it.” Ryan waves his hand like it’s nothing. “We took a guess at your size. They’re bringing over a whole selection for you in the morning to try.”
I stare at him, “Who is they? And what about toiletries? I don’t have?—”
“Serena.” Graham places a large hand over mine, and when I glance down at how it covers my fingers completely, I’m reminded of the wanting I felt in the tent that night. “Anything you need, or want, we will make sure you have. Let’s just get through this flight.”
And with that, it’s settled. I’m not going to worry about it anymore.
Not at all.
It’s not going to run through my head that this time, instead of insisting on paying for myself, I’m letting the three of them pay for me. I’m not going to worry about the cost of the plane, or the kind of money I would need to get my own ticket and fly home if I needed to.
And I’m not going to worry about the fact that the three of them seem to be on the same page. That they’re all interested in my well-being. That, somehow, they’re not… fighting over me.
Does that mean they’re not interested anymore? Maybe when each of them found out I was involved with the others, they were turned off. It makes sense, but also makes my stomach sink.
Like a pressure valve finally giving way, the words come tumbling out of my mouth: “Are you guys, like… okay with this?”
They turn to me, and a wrinkle appears between Graham’s brows. “Okay with what Alex is doing? Of course not.”
I blush, swallow, and glance at each of them in turn. “No. I guess, I just thought… usually, guys would bemadat each other if they found out they were with the same girl.”
It doesn’t come out eloquent, mature, or thoughtful, and I blink hard, looking down at the floor, feeling impossibly naive. For fuck’s sake, it sounds like Iwantthem to fight over me. I don’t—that’s the last thing I want.
“Oh.” Travis nods, his jaw tightening. Then, he looks at Ryan and Graham.
“Here’s the thing, Serena,” Ryan says, sliding his hand over my knee and sending a cascade of tingling warmth up my leg. “We talked about it. And we were wondering how you would feel about a… unique arrangement.”
“A unique arrangement,” I parrot, looking at each man in turn.
“Yes,” Graham says, “an arrangement in which we can all be satisfied.”
“…like, what?” I ask, and Ryan laughs.
“None of us want to stop seeing you,” Travis says, and I can’t stop myself from narrowing my eyes at him. For a man who wants to see me, he sure has been doing a good job of avoiding me.
“So we figured…” Ryan squeezes my knee, redirecting my attention to him. The next thing out of his mouth makes my ears ring. “Why not share?”
Chapter 33
Serena
Why not share?
For what feels like the hundredth time in the last few hours, my mind is reeling as I try to process a new piece of information. The three guys are staring at me expectantly, and I can’t think straight.
Share. It’s a possibility that I haven’t allowed myself to consider. Of course, I’ve known that I didn’t want to have to choose just one of them—that I haven’t evengottento be with Graham yet, despite wanting to—but that’s not the same as actually thinking they would be okay with this.
I would never cheat on someone. It’s not in my DNA. So the moment they shut it down, demanded monogamy from me, I would either have to choose just one or leave them all behind. Both options sounded like torture.
But now, here I am, being told I can have my (very tasty) cake and eat it, too. That they would be okay in a casual sort of arrangement. One in which I could sleep with,bewith, all of them.
I open my mouth to say something, to respond to this, maybe just to shoutyes!like a crying fiancée at a proposal, but at thatmoment, the speakers overhead crackle to life and announce we are about to land in Italy.
The guys busy themselves with pulling on their seat belts, and Graham reaches over me, so broad and strong, his hand skirting along my hip, to grab my seatbelt from a hidden pocket and pull it over my lap. The air crackles with the weight of his touch, of what it means, of what’s left unsaid between us.
My hands grip the seat tightly as we land. Once the plane has come to a stop, we’re all moving, grabbing our stuff, and the staff is lining up a set of stairs for us to walk down. The sun hangs cheerily over the far hills here, which makes me feel like we’ve landed in some alien place. Just hours ago, it was the darkest part of night.
On the phone, Travis says, “Yes, bring everything you have.”