Oliver cackled, tossing his head back. “You’d be able to find all that out from an internet search. It would take two seconds,” he said. “You’re so full of sh—”
“How about the fact that you grew up in Alabama? Why don’t you tell anyone that?” Crim said, cutting him off.
“I lived in Alabama for the first thirteen years of my life. That’s hardly saying I’m from there,” Oliver reasoned.
His glass of champagne was trembling slightly.
“You grew up in Alabama. Your father was in with the wrong crowd. You don’t talk to him anymore. He left you and your mom when you were thirteen, so she took you with her to Kentucky to be closer to family.”
“That could be the story of anyone in my neighborhood,” Oliver said, his voice shaking a little.
“Oh yeah? How about your first boyfriend when you were fourteen? Greg or Craig? Yeah, Craig. He got a job driving a truck, then left you, citing that he had to work too much.”
“I—”
“He left you for someone else. But you didn’t find that out until you were sixteen, didn’t you?”
Oliver was visibly shaking now.
“Your next boyfriend was pretty much a carbon copy of Craig. You thought that maybe this time it would work. But he wounded you even worse, didn’t he? There’s still a gaping hole in you from that one…”
Oliver swallowed, paralyzed by what was coming out of Crim’s mouth.
“He left you because he said he had to go to college. He did — he went to Dartmouth. Immediately found another guy, told you something like…” Crim squinted for a second, “You weren’t ambitious enough, and that you weren’t going anywhere with your life. It was just like what your father said to you all those years ago when he was still around.”
Oliver swallowed another sip of champagne, clearly rooted to the spot. It was like watching a car accident; I felt bad for him, but I couldn’t look away.
Crim pressed on, as if each word was a blow. “That got to you. So you worked really hard and pretty much stopped talking to everyone around you. They didn’t understand, did they Ollie? They didn’t know what you were doing, toiling away in the room of that trailer. You picked up a mannequin that you found in the dumpster — it was broken, but still usable. Then you started making clothes.”
“Sheila. I’ll never forget her,” Oliver whispered.
I sniggered, but it was clear that no one else was in the mood.
“Then you got a stroke of luck and were accepted into Parsons. Good thing you built up that work ethic when you were trapped in Kentucky, eh? Because it wasn’t long before you were noticed. Noticed by a hardworking engineer,”
Oliver gave the slightest of nods. I could tell that Crim was about to go in for a slam dunk.
“But that wasn’t enough, was it? He made you feel like you were never good enough unless you worked yourself to the bone. Even then, he always made it seem like he was better because he was an engineer, and in his mind, you were some lowly plebeian who spent all day matching colors and stitching rags together.”
Oliver winced.
“The more popular you got on Instagram by posting your work — to people that would appreciate the type of work you do, right? — The more you were noticed; the more you felt seen. And that’s all you really wanted, wasn’t it Oliver? You just wanted to be seen. Then you were noticed by someone else. You were noticed by the producers of this show,” Crim said.
Oliver was tense. Even though his skin was tan, it was like he’d gone white.
“And good old engineer boy— he didn’t like that one bit, did he? He tore into you. He made you feel like you were less than him, but you knew better, didn’t you?”
Oliver’s lip was trembling. Crim must have been getting to him with his words.
“You knew you deserved more. And you didn’t know what more meant until you met Charlie.”
Chapter Thirty
My mouth dropped open. All three sets of their eyes were on me. I didn’t know what to think or do in this situation; I felt like a trapped animal.
“…me?” I asked stupidly.
Oliver opened his mouth to deny it, but then looked into his champagne glass. “Sure, I had a crush on Charlie,” he admitted. “But who here doesn’t?”
“Truer words have never been spoken,” Crim said, his face twisting into a smile. “There’s something about him, isn’t there?” he said, cocking his head.
I squirmed in the water, simultaneously loving and hating all of the attention on me right now. I was terrified and excited at the same time; wanting to jump out of this bath and run from those purple eyes, but I also couldn’t wait for it to be my turn.
“You’re afraid Charlie is going to make you feel the same way the engineer made you feel,” Crim said to Oliver. “He already kind of is.”
“Is that true?” I asked Oliver, my heart breaking for him.
“It’s… not untrue,” he said, sipping his champagne.
“You’re threatened by me,” I said, watching him carefully.
Oliver stiffened. “I mean, look at the way things have shaken out. You show up here, all glamorous and beautiful, coming out of middle-of-nowhere Ohio. And then you go and catch all of our eye— even Reese’s and Leo’s! You… you really have no idea of the effect you have on other people, do you, Charlie?”
I was completely lost for words. It must have been the champagne that was making him talk like this, because he sounded like he was losing his mind.
This felt too close; too comfortable. The last time I felt like this, I got hurt.
My eyes darted over to Mason. His scowl was deepening.
“Well? Did I nail it?” Crim asked Oliver. “Oh wait, I’ve got to sum it up. You’re miserable because you stack layers of work in between you and every other person around you, so you don’t have to be vulnerable. But Charlie fucks with that. Charlie wormed his way in,” Crim said with a smile.
“Fine,” Oliver said, swallowing hard. “You got me, just stop talking you crazy son of a bitch.”
Oliver retreated to the corner of the tub, crouching down, his green eyes the exact color of the water. He nursed his champagne with an almost inaudible slurp.
“Who’s next?” Crim asked. “That’s one out of three, Mason.”
I was just about to open my mouth to volunteer, but Mason stepped up. “Do me next. I don’t know how you were able to say all that about Oliver, but there must be some trick I’m missing. Go ahead and try to pull the same shit with me. Just try it.”
“Okay Pretty Boy,” Crim said without missing a beat. “How about this. You don’t feel like you deserve to be loved.”
“That could go for any one of us. That much is obvious,” he said, letting Crim’s words roll off of him.
“Oh, but yours goes deeper than that. You’ve been rejecting love from a young age. I’m guessing eight or nine? Nine. At nine years old, your parents stopped loving each other, and they stopped loving you. There’s alcohol there — lots of it,” Crim said, watching Mason’s face carefully.
There was a tightness to Mason’s shoulders, and I watched as a bead of sweat rolled down from his temple to his jaw.
“Daddy drank. Daddy hit you,” Crim continued. “Your parents were together because of the media. Oh, how would it look if the Vayne family split up. The scandal would be too much to bear — so they stayed together. You were raised by your actor parents, acting as though they loved each other, and you, in public, but in private you were neglected. That was too much to bear for you— there’s a big crack in your history around fifteen. What was it, Mason? Suicide attempt? You came back,” Crim said.
I half-expected Mason to lunge at him, to wrap his hands around Crim’s throat in the water, but he was stunned in the same way Oliver was. It was like he’d turned into a statue as he waited for Crim to finish.
I wondered if he was trying hard not to give any subtle body language hints away.
“You died and then came back. Yo
u woke up in the hospital all alone — it felt like a piece of you was missing. For a while, you wondered if you were still human.”
Mason shifted uncomfortably. I watched his pulse flutter in his neck.
“Then you learned that the only way you felt human is if you felt like you were in control. And what better way to feel like you were in control than to go searching for everyone’s secrets? It was easy for you, since you’re such a looker. People just tell you things,” Crim shrugged.
Mason’s nostrils were flaring, and I could tell he was trying very hard to remain still.
“You won’t let anyone close to you because it makes you feel human again when you have sex. Your shields come down. And here’s the best part— you love feeling human. You just hate that you do. You want to fantasize and trick yourself into feeling like you’re something more. Something important; something worth loving. But deep down, you feel like you don’t deserve it.”
“Shut up,” Mason said, his voice flat.
“You agreed to these terms,” Crim reminded him. “I’m not finished yet. You have this tether to Charlie that I’m seeing — oh, you two fucked? Wow, that’s a really impressive bond…”
“I said shut up,” Mason hissed.
“Oh, did I touch a nerve, Pretty Boy? Is being vulnerable scary for you? Is that why you ran out on Charlie? Because he touched that human part of you?”
My heart was racing in my chest as my eyes snapped back and forth from Crim to Mason.
“You done?” Mason asked, his face contorted into an expression of pure loathing.
I could feel the heat of desire coming off of him, and I wondered if Mason felt it too — that irresistible feeling of being known, of being truly seen, that Crim gave off. It was impossible to miss, like trying to ignore the light of the sun.
“Okay, I’ll take that to mean I’ve gotten two out of three now,” Crim said with a smirk. Then he set his purple eyes on me. “Now it’s Charlie’s turn.”
I gulped and took a step forward, submitting myself to this… otherworldliness. Stepping up to him was like tipping off a diving board. I knew I would hit the water, I just didn’t know how far away the board was from the surface of the water.
“Charlie. Sweet Charlie,” Crim said with a smirk, draping his arms on the edge of the tub. His fingers were curled around the stem of the champagne flute. “Where do I even begin with you?”
I felt anxiety swirl in my gut along with a strange, butterfly-like sensation that was fluttering around in there. I wanted him to really see me, but I was also terrified of what he might find.
His purple eyes looked deeply into mine, and the image of Hazel suddenly came to mind.
“You, Charlie, went through some shit back in the day,” he started.
I hoped and prayed he didn’t say the details of everything out loud — the things those kids did to me. The humiliation they made me suffer, and that thing that I did for someone who promised they’d make it go all away…
How many details could Crim sniff out?
“You were bullied in high school. Your relationship with your father— you didn’t have a bond with him. I see you tied to your mother, but your father was just like this flickering entity that moved around in your life. There’s no affection there, only pressure.”
Oliver eyed me. I wondered if this revelation made him feel closer to me. Crim saying that Oliver was originally from Alabama and then grew up in Kentucky certainly made me feel closer to him. I wasn’t the only one here from the midwest.
“My father was… he was a normal dad,” I said carefully. “He didn’t do anything wrong.”
“You defend others that wronged you because you take personal responsibility for how smoothly things go. Stop doing that,” Crim urged.
I felt like a sword was being plunged into my chest.
He knew. Somehow, he knew.
“It happened to you again in high school. You want to be seen as a good person so desperately, so you became a stickler for rules. This didn’t earn you many friends,” he said.
The sword in my gut twisted and my champagne in my hand began to tremble.
“There was… there was one person — who was it, Thomas? Tom,” he said with certainty, his red hair hanging low over his face. “He betrayed you. And wow, did that mess you up with trust.”
I clenched my jaw. I hadn’t thought of him — of Tom’s name — for a long time. It was as if I kept him as this nameless entity in my mind, it would be easier to forget. Forgetting was easier than forgiving.
“You blamed yourself. You took all of that hurt and directed it inward. That’s where all of this poison is coming from,” he said, gesturing to the area around me. “Though you’re doing a good job of getting rid of it. It’s already better than when I arrived.”
My breath caught in my throat.
“How do you… how do you know all this?” I asked.
He shrugged, his inked shoulders rising out of the water. “I just do. Now, the reason you’re unhappy… first of all, you haven’t forgiven yourself. You’re hard on yourself, Charlie. Stop that nonsense — we all like you. If you haven’t noticed, we all have pretty severe crushes on you.”
I was speechless as I looked from him to Mason, then to Oliver. All three of them were quiet as they stared at me.
“I— I— no way, there’s no way—”
“It’s true,” Oliver said quietly.
Mason looked off to the side, breaking his gaze. That told me all I needed to know.
My face flared as I felt the truth flood through me. All of these guys — all of them, had crushes on me…?
Crim looked over at Mason. “I think I’ve won.”
Mason regarded him with his arms crossed over his chest, his blue eyes trained on Crim carefully.
“What were the terms, again?” Crim said, taking a step toward Mason in the water. “You’re not going to chicken out, are you?”
I watched with bated breath as Crim moved closer and closer to Mason, giving him every opportunity to chicken out and run away. With each step, the grin on Crim’s face spread wider and wider.
Mason was trying to look calm, collected. His competitive nature wouldn’t let him leave.
It occurred to me that he could lie; he could deny that anything Crim said was true easily, and have an out. But I could tell he was curious, and he was attracted to Crim.
There was nothing for any of us to lose.
Then Crim was only an inch away from Mason, their noses almost touching. Both of them were about the same height.
I could see Crim ask Mason for permission with his eyes, and he drew closer and closer to Mason’s face, then stopped.
Mason closed the gap, pressing his lips onto Crim’s.
Oliver and I watched in silence as the two most attractive men either of us had ever seen made out.
I felt my mouth come open a little, longing to taste them on me as my cock sprang to life in my pants.
Oliver sat his champagne flute on the edge of the tub with a slight clink as he readjusted his posture. Then his eyes flickered over to me.
I stared into his eyes, eyes that were filling very quickly with lust. I’m sure that mine looked much the same.
Then we were kissing, melding our mouths together.
I loved the taste of Oliver’s thick lips on mine; they felt warm and gentle as they danced around mine.
This kiss was different than the lust-filled kiss a few nights ago when we had the threesome; that one carried a sense of urgency. But this one, this one was slow and tender. Oliver was taking his time.
Now that I knew Oliver used his work as a shield against me and he actually, truly had a crush on me, it made me feel closer to him.
His naked torso pressed up against mine in the tub, the water sloshing out from between us. Oliver’s glittering abs ground against my slim-ish body, and I could feel his erection gyrating against my own.
I reached up and cupped my hand on the side of Oliver’s face
, feeling his short stubble slide through my fingers.
“Mmm,” he moaned as I tilted his head to the side, then planted a trail of kisses down the column of his neck.
“Oh yeah…” Mason moaned from my right as Crim matched my movements.
Mason eyed me to his left, then snuck his arm around my back and pulled me away from Oliver. He kissed me on the mouth too, but it was way different than Oliver’s movements. Mason was kissing me voraciously like he needed me. Just like that night we hooked up, it was like he was getting lost in me.
Crim began to plant kisses on my neck, then trailed them down my back.
Oliver was at my front, gently trailing kisses down my torso.
I was cocking my head back and moaning at all of these electric sensations.
“You are so fucking hot, Charlie,” Mason said when he took a breath.
Hearing that made confidence swell in my gut as well as my cock; it was pressing against my speedo with incredible force.
My face was still crashing into Mason’s as I felt a pair of hands trail down my body — I assume Oliver’s since they were at my front. They slowly moved down to my groin, then pulled down the waistband of my speedo. A hand wrapped around my shaft, holding me gently.
I was still exploring Mason’s mouth with my tongue, lost in the sensation.
Oliver was behind me, moving his hands along the curve of my back and following it to the globe of my ass.
It felt like pleasure was exploding on different places on my body where all these guys were kissing and touching me.
The panting around me was steadily increasing in volume as the bath chamber was filled with our moans.
“Bed. Now,” Crim commanded in my ear, then licked the lobe.
The sensation went sparkling through me like a fuse to a bomb. If Oliver didn’t take his hands off my cock right that second, I would have come right then and there.
When Mason pulled his lips off my face, I searched around for what Crim meant by “bed.”
In the corner of this eerie green bath chamber was a large chaise lounge and a pile of cushions.
Excitement bloomed in my gut as I eyed it, and the three extremely hot, extremely cut, extremely famous guys in front of me headed right towards it.
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