by Madelynne Ellis, Fleur T. Reid, Nan Comargue, Shannon Peters, Morticia Knight, Jordyn Mckenzie
“Fuck, Jarrod, it wasn’t supposed to go down like this. You want honesty? Fine. I was planning on breaking up with you today anyway. And yes, something happened last night that I didn’t plan. I’m sorry that it came at the price of hurting you.”
His face went through myriad expressions before settling on disgust. “You’re sorry. You’re sorry? Well, that makes everything better, doesn’t it? Are you fucking kidding me? And you were planning on breaking up with me today anyway? What the fuck?”
“This,” I said, gesturing between him and me, “this is not how I want to spend my life. We’re so different—you don’t like my friends, your family hates me—shit, we fight all the time… I’m done. College is over and it’s time to focus on being adults and getting a job and…”
“So, what I think doesn’t matter? I loved you, Lexi! I thought you were the one! But apparently one isn’t enough for you, is it?” he spat. Harsh.
“I think we’re done here, Jarrod. You should go now.”
Jarrod was incredulous. “You’re not even trying to deny it! You slut!”
For some reason that word started the water works for me, possibly because I thought it was accurate. What kind of person has sex with two of her male friends? At the same time? He blurred before me as my eyes filled with tears. “Why should I deny what’s true? I think we’ve said everything we needed to say to each other. Please, Jarrod. Just go.”
“Sure, yeah,” Jarrod sneered. “I’ll just go to my Mom’s for dinner now and when she asks where you are, I’ll be sure and let her know precisely.”
“Argh!” I screamed through my tears in frustration. “You know, that’s just like you to do something like that, Jarrod. You know what? Go tell your mommy, you tell her fucking everything anyway. Honestly, the whole miserable lot of you can just fuck right off! My days of being judged by them, and by you, are over! Now get out!”
Jarrod reached out and grabbed me by the throat, giving me a hard shake. “Don’t you ever talk about my family that way!” he seethed. “You fucking whore! You’re trash! Who the fuck do you think you are?” He squeezed my throat a little with each shake to emphasise each horrible word that came out of his mouth.
“Let her go.” Jarrod and I froze to see Damien and Parker standing in my doorway, looking mad as hell.
“Huh,” Jarrod snorted with an evil smirk. “I guess I can figure out who her partners in crime were last night.” He released me and shoved me towards the other two, hard enough to make me trip and fall on my knees, gasping for air in front of them. “Take her, she’s all yours. She’s even in the ready position for you.”
Parker helped me to my feet just as Damien crossed the room in a few quick steps and caught Jarrod in the jaw with a wicked right hook. Jarrod fell to the ground and received a few kicks in the stomach and ribcage from both Damien and Parker, before they hauled him to his feet and gave him the bum’s rush towards the door. “You stay the fuck away from her, do you understand?” Parker gritted. “Or next time we put you in the fucking hospital.” He shoved Jarrod out of the door and slammed it shut.
I dropped to the couch and began to sob, pulling my legs up to curl myself into the smallest, most insignificant ball of pathetic I could manage. Almost immediately I had a strong set of arms wrapped around me, and felt a hand rubbing and patting my back soothingly. “H-h-how did you know…? Why are you here?”
“Mark,” Damien explained. “He saw the text message Natalie sent to Jarrod. He tried to call you to warn you, so did we, but you didn’t answer. So we just came over. I’m glad we got here when we did; has he always been that rough with you?”
I shrugged, too ashamed to look either of them in the eye. “He’s never been that rough before. He was pretty pissed, I guess with good reason, considering…”
“You hush with that now,” Parker said, squatting down to my eye level. “I don’t care how angry a man gets, it’s never a free pass to rough a woman up.”
I couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. My chest heaved as I lowered my head to my knees and sobbed.
“Do you…do you want us to leave?” Damien asked hesitantly.
“No,” I rasped. “I really don’t want to be alone right now, please stay. If you don’t mind, that is.”
Parker got up from where he knelt before me to sit beside me on the couch, pulling me over to his lap. He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me close to his warm, firm chest, pressing a tender kiss on top of my head. “We’re here for you, sugar. Now go ahead and get it out of your system.”
I clung to him and allowed the tears to flow for a few more minutes. I felt Damien sit down beside us and resume rubbing my back, whispering soothing words to comfort me. When the tears had finally subsided and I was reduced to just snuffling hiccups, I sat up to face the two gorgeous men who had suddenly become so much dearer to me.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “I really don’t know where things go from here, but I just want to say thanks for being here for me, with me, this afternoon.”
Parker kissed my lips softly. “Why don’t you go get cleaned up and we’ll all go get something to eat?”
I looked at the clock and was surprised to see it was nearly seven. “Okay. Sure, give me twenty minutes?”
I went to my bathroom and cringed at my blotchy, swollen face. What a horrid mess I was, and these men still wanted to take me to dinner. The notion struck me as I washed my face in the sink—was this a date? No, it couldn’t be. It was merely three friends going to get some dinner. Something we’d done a hundred times before. Just because I’d slept with them wasn’t going to change that, was it? They’d been two of my best friends for years now. Our relationship wasn’t exactly like that of siblings, but nothing had ever gone beyond harmless flirting until last night. My stomach knotted at the thought that our careless action could’ve possibly ruined a great friendship.
I brushed on some foundation and made quick work of putting on some eyeliner and mascara. With a hint of blush and a quick swipe of lip gloss, I deemed my face to be once again suitable to be in public, and then pulled my hair back in a messy ponytail. Didn’t matter who saw my hickey now, and with the red marks Jarrod’s angry hands had left on my throat, I was looking especially trashy. Whatever. I resolved to have a good time with my boys tonight, just like old times. We could get beyond last night. We had to.
Chapter Four
We ended up at one of our favourite bar and grills, and I was thankful to see none of our other friends there. I wouldn’t have been able to face the eager curiosity in their eyes tonight. We sat in the corner at a round table with a curved, bench-style booth, me situated between the two men. I passed on my usual rum and diet and opted instead for beer, as did Parker and Damien, and we soon had burgers and fries on order.
“Feeling better?” Damien asked, looking at me over the rim of his glass before taking a drink.
I nodded. “Much. I know I was going to end it with Jarrod anyway, I just hate that it had to go down like that. And for real, I know she’s your sister and all, but I’m gonna punch Natalie in the face for that stunt the next time I see that fucking bitch.”
Parker chuckled. “And there’s the Lexi we know and love.” I was sipping my beer and choked on it a little when I heard him say ‘love’. It shouldn’t have affected me like that—I had told them both on numerous occasions that I loved them, and they had done the same. Why should it feel different now?
As though he had picked up on my train of thought, I felt Damien’s hand on my knee, stroking it comfortingly. “We do, you know,” he said softly, his tone suddenly too serious. I didn’t look at him, I was afraid of what I’d see in his eyes. “Alexis. Look at me sweetheart, please?”
Refusing to meet his eye, I picked at my paper napkin on the table. “Can’t we just go back to the way it was?” I asked.
Parker gently took my chin into his hand and turned my head to face him. “We could, but are you sure that’s what you really want?”
; I jerked away from his touch. “Just because we did that once doesn’t mean it can happen again, you guys. I thought you knew me better than that. I’m not just some whore you can gang-bang whenever you want.”
The server, of course, chose that moment to arrive with fresh beers. I felt my face flush bright red as he set the glasses down, eyeing my throat with an odd expression on his face before hurrying away. Could the floor just open and swallow me now? I reached for my glass and found my hand held fast in Damien’s. “Lexi, look at me.”
Sighing in annoyance, I met Damien’s eyes and gasped. They were so full of love, pleading for me to understand and hear him out. “Damien?”
He laced his fingers with mine, kissing the back of my hand briefly before speaking. “Before I say what I need to say, I want you to know that by no means did we plan what happened between us last night. Okay?”
“Okay…” I hedged and waited for him to continue.
He looked down nervously at our joined hands. “When we say we love you, I mean we really do love you. Like that.”
I felt Parker’s hand gently caress my knee, as he planted a quick kiss on my shoulder. “It’s true,” was all he said.
“I don’t understand.” Were they seriously telling me they both were in love with me? What the fuck?
“All that time you’ve spent with us, Lexi, the movie nights and sleepovers; I think we fell a little harder for you each time you stayed. At least, I know I did. It wasn’t until a couple months ago when I told Parker my intent to make a move on you that he let me know that he was in love with you too.”
I looked at Parker, who nodded with a bit of a smirk on his lips. “I can’t believe that conversation went so amicably.”
“Uh, it didn’t. Remember a couple months ago when you saw us with our faces busted up and we told you we’d been in a bar fight?”
Everyone had been at my and Tasha’s place for pizza and drinks. Parker and Damien had arrived with busted lips and bruised cheekbones, and had laughed about getting in a fight and how we should’ve seen the ‘other guys’.
“You guys fought? Over me?” I was incredulous.
“Sugar, we tried to beat the fuck out of each other,” Parker laughed. “I’d be goddamned if he was gonna make a move on my woman. Forget the fact you were fully involved with that prick Jarrod.”
“And it wasn’t one fight, it was three over the course of two days,” Damien added with a chuckle. I was glad they were finding this amusing, because I didn’t know what the fuck to think. “When we came to that party at your house that night, it’d been nearly a week since those fights and we’d by then come to a resolution—a gentlemen’s agreement, of sorts.” I snorted at his use of the word ‘gentlemen’, earning a mild glare from him before he continued. “We were both in love with you, but we weren’t going to make a move on you. Yet. We saw your relationship with Jarrod falling apart and figured we’d be there to pick up the pieces when it happened. If you happened to become closer to one of us, choose one of us, then the other would have to respect that and deal with it.”
“So the random movie nights you guys would invite me over for…”
“We wanted, hell we needed, to spend time with you, and it was the only way that made sense.”
“If you guys were so in love with me, what about the other women?” I couldn’t help but ask. They weren’t monks, after all.
“I haven’t been out with any other women in three months,” Damien said. “Honestly, Alexis, no one appeals to me. You’re all I’ve wanted.” I didn’t know what to say to that. I turned to Parker, who looked a little ashamed.
“I’m not gonna lie. I thought I’d be able to fuck you out of my system, but I gave up on that idea about six weeks ago. I took a few girls home, but it just wasn’t working.”
Our food arrived and I paused to take a few bites and absorb all this new information. I kept catching Parker and Damien glancing at each other nervously so I put my burger down with a sigh. “So does this mean I have to choose now? I don’t understand what it is you guys want from me.”
“That’s just it, Lexi. After what happened last night, Parker and I realised something—maybe you don’t have to choose after all.”
“So you’re suggesting I date both of you?” I felt my eyes grow impossibly wide in disbelief.
“Exactly!” Parker proclaimed with a pleased smile on his face.
Damien gave him an exasperated look and continued. “We’ve talked about it, and realised that it wasn’t terrible ‘sharing’ you last night. I wasn’t jealous at the thought of you with Parker, seeing it with my own eyes, and he wasn’t jealous of seeing you with me. In fact, being with you together was a huge turn-on for us both and I think it made us love you even more. You were amazing and beautiful and… What it comes down to is this—while each of us would very much prefer to have you to ourselves, if I absolutely had to share you with anyone, I would choose my best friend, whom I love like a brother.”
“And I agreed,” Parker added. “We both love you so much and we recognised that we both want the very best for you, to take care of you. I know it’s not conventional, and that the others are gonna freak out and have a heyday with this if we move forward together, but I’d like to, we’d like to, give it a shot.”
“Wow.” It was all I could say. I picked up my burger and took an enormous bite, chewing thoughtfully, before washing it down with a huge swig of my beer, draining the glass. I immediately flagged the server. “One more please,” I said, pointing at my glass. Parker gestured towards his and Damien’s glasses as well.
We finished our meal in silence. Once our server had delivered the round we’d ordered, I picked up my beer and guzzled down nearly a third of it, before setting it down. Steeling my nerves, I turned to Damien, cupping his face between my palms and kissed him deeply, sliding my tongue between his lips and tasting the flavour of his beer on his tongue. I nipped at his lower lip, causing him to groan as I ended the kiss, then I turned to Parker and repeated the action. He followed my lead only for a moment before tangling his hand in my ponytail and dominating the kiss, exploring my mouth with his tongue.
When he’d pulled away, I sat back in the booth and took another sip of my beer, saying nothing to the two suddenly flustered men. After a beat, Parker couldn’t stand the silence. “So is that a yes?”
“It’s a yes.” I looked over at Damien to see his eyes light up. “Now take me home.” The brightness in his eyes faded as quickly as it had come.
“Oh,” he said. “I thought you’d decided that…” He trailed off.
“I decided I want to sleep in my bed tonight.” I paused, taking in Damien’s look of disappointment at the same time I heard Parker sigh. “With my two guys.”
Parker mashed his lips to my cheek in a loud kiss. “Cheque, please!” he barked.
Chapter Five
The atmosphere in the cab of Damien’s truck during the ride back to my place was nearly electric with the anticipation of what was to come. I was seated once again in the middle of the bench seat between the two men, Damien at the wheel and Parker on my right, even though the back seat was now clear of camping gear. My stomach became full of butterflies when I felt Parker’s hand on my thigh, caressing it possessively. I looked over at him and, in the dim light provided by the modules on the dashboard, I could see his almost-hungry stare. I opened my mouth to speak, but before any words could come out, he’d cupped the back of my head and leaned his face to mine, claiming my mouth with vigour and need.
“I want you,” he growled against my lips, fisting his hand in my hair and turning my head to the side to give him free rein of my neck. “You thought last night was amazing,” he whispered in my ear, tracing his tongue along the shell. “We are going to blow your mind tonight.”
He moved his hand from my thigh up to my chest, firmly palming my breast. I felt my nipple pebble below his palm and it didn’t escape his notice, either. He rolled it between his thumb and forefinger as he contin
ued to nibble and suck his way down my neck. A moan escaped me and I suddenly felt Damien’s hand on my other side, stroking the inside of my thigh. “You two are fucking killing me over here,” Damien muttered. He managed to steer down the road with one hand as he crept the other dangerously higher and higher up my thigh until I felt his fingers trace the denim seam lying directly over my core.
“Drive faster,” I moaned just before Parker’s mouth claimed mine once again.
I was jarred out of Parker’s clutches when Damien finally skidded to a stop in front of my apartment building. Parker helped me out of the truck and both men walked with me, the three of us arm in arm in arm, to the front door. “Keys, keys, keys, keys…” I muttered as I dug frantically in my purse. Once they were in hand, I found I was having a hell of a time getting the right one into the lock.
Damien chuckled and plucked them from my hand. “Patience, sweetheart. We’ve got all night,” he said as he easily slid the key in and unlocked the door.
Once the door was shut and locked behind us, however, the sense of urgency seemed to rise again. Parker picked me up and threw me over his shoulder as if I were a sack of potatoes. “Hey!” I shrieked with a laugh, as he carried me towards my room. He deposited me on the bed, turned on the bedside lamp, and stared down at me as he pulled off his T-shirt. His frame was lean but muscular, with tattoos decorating his pecs, abs and shoulders. Damien sat down beside me on the bed, gathering the lower hem of my shirt in his hands to take it off me, but then paused to ask, “Are you sure you’re okay with this?”
At my nod, he peeled my shirt over my head, tossing it behind him, before sliding his hand along my jaw to cup my cheek and kiss me tenderly. It quickly became obvious to me that my boys—funny how easily it was for me to link the two of them in that vernacular—had two different styles when it came to lovemaking. Damien was tender and very attentive, while Parker’s style was much more determined and rather dominating. I smiled against Damien’s lips as I realised that fate had handed me the best of both worlds.