My heart is racing. “I can’t believe I just did that.” I haven’t been up here since high school. There was no logical reason that would’ve warranted me coming up here. “I mean, it was totally dangerous and stupid.” Chance of injury was, and kind of still is, very high.
“But it paid off. It’s lovely up here.” We take a few seconds to take in the surroundings. There’s a decent view of the nearby area, and the air feels calmer. “I remember the last time I was up here. After those boys tried to… hurt you, you invited me to take a look.”
“I was surprised you said yes. I always thought you thought, I mean, if you thought of me at all, that I was a weirdo.” I was awfully quiet as a kid. Textbook nerd, going off on my own to read or build wood platforms. Not a full-blown loner, but not too far off.
“You were a bit weird but also intriguing. Your brother sometimes talked about you, but I didn’t know how to approach you. It seemed like you preferred to be alone. That day, I followed you because I was hoping we could maybe be friends… Stupid, right?” She looks away from me, a half-smile on her face. I think over her words, stunned. Scarlet Russell wanted to be friends with me in high school, and I was too oblivious to notice. All that time spent pining after her was wasted. I begin to scoot over to her and Scarlet turns to me. Her face begs a question in its expression, but she remains silent. I reach her and place my hand over hers. It’s small and warm. I bring it to my lips, placing a kiss on the top. She makes a small motion to jerk away but ultimately keeps her hand in mine. We put our hands back down on the platform, but then I place my other one against her cheek. She leans her face into my palm and takes a deep breath, eyes closed. I move my face until it’s inches away from hers. She opens her eyes, and we stare at one another.
“Do you still find me interesting?”
It takes a second for the question to register, but once it does, Scarlet lets out a small laugh. “‘Interesting’ is such a throwaway word. I find you unexpected.”
I don’t take the time to think about her response. Instead, I place a soft kiss on her lips. She kisses me back with a gentle tentativeness. I use my tongue to open her mouth and the kiss deepens. Her hand goes into my hair and tugs at it. She moans into my mouth, and I trail my hand down her body. When I reach the edge of her shirt, she breaks the kiss. We’re both breathing heavily. Scarlet places the back of her hand against her mouth, wiping it slightly. She removes her other hand from under mine. “I’m sorry.”
“No worries,” I say quietly. Honestly, I’m deeply disappointed. Maybe I’ve waited too long. She obviously feels something for me, but with the years we haven’t seen each other, I could’ve simply missed my chance. Story of my life.
“I think we should leave…”
Even if there’s no chance, I can’t let things lie. I have to at least make an attempt. “Scarlet, I know we’re going to my office to talk about selling your house, and I have a suspicion that once it’s out of your hands, you’ll leave town. But what if you didn’t leave? I know it’s been a while, but there’s something here and I think-”
“I just want to keep things business. I shouldn’t have let that happen. I can’t get distracted. But you’re right; I want to leave town. We should go meet your brother and see if what the two of you are offering is right for me.” She doesn’t wait for my response, opting to make her exit from the platform. I give her some space. She reaches the bottom and then I make my descent. The air between us is thick and neither speaks. She follows me back to the car, and we ride the rest of the way in silence. Now, it would appear I’ve missed my chance.
Chapter 5 – Oliver
Scarlet and Caden sure are taking their time. He texted me this morning that he’d be picking up Scarlet at noon. It’s almost one. Her house isn’t that far away from our office. It’s not like Caden to be late and typically he texts me if something’s up. They need to get here soon, so we can make our pitch to Scarlet. It shouldn’t be too hard to convince her to sell. Nothing’s keeping her in Coldgrove, except for that house. And she doesn’t appear to be particularly thrilled here.
Seeing her yesterday did catch me off guard. In high school, I’d pursued her with a lot of gusto, but she was not an easy one to understand. Call me pretentious but I’ve always had an easy time with women. But there’s something more than Scarlet not throwing herself at me. She’s really something else. A part of me wished she’d gotten less attractive over the years, because something about her made me feel out of control. It wasn’t just her looks, but it would help if I weren’t physically drawn to her. No luck. She looks better now but also ten times harder to get a read on her. I don’t want things to be confusing. Not that I don’t mind a challenge. It’s just I’m going in with less knowledge than I’m used to.
I check my watch and it’s a quarter past one. I’m about to call Caden when I hear a car pull up. I look outside and see it’s Nicholas with Scarlet and Caden. Finally! I take a deep breath and wait for the two of them to come inside. I sit at my desk, hoping that I look more collected than I feel. They enter my office and I immediately pick up on tension brewing between them. Scarlet’s being her typical standoffish self, and Caden doesn’t look exactly happy, either.
“What took you two so long?”
They glace at each other. Scarlet’s eyes turn downward and Caden looks at me. Something is definitely up.
“We ended up taking a small detour to look around the town. Scarlet wanted to see how it’s changed. Turns out not much is different.” Well, Caden’s lying to me. And he never lies. We’re open with one another. Did something happen?
“Where did you two go?”
They briefly look at each other again, and I’m starting to get annoyed.
“We went by the high school…” he says, and Scarlet nods in agreement, keeping up her silence. It’s time to stop beating around the bush. I directly ask,
“Did something happen between you two?”
Caden abruptly coughs and Scarlet blushes. Looks like I hit the nail on the head, not that it was especially difficult to figure out. I poke further, “Do you want to tell me what it was?”
Scarlet finally looks me directly in the eyes and says, “We just… It’s not important. We resolved it. It’s… We’re fine. We were talking and we… Like I said, we’re fine.” She’s stumbling over her words, clearly wanting to avoid giving me a satisfactory answer.
“So, you don’t want to tell me?” At this point Caden’s gone silent. Maybe he feels guilty. Good. He shouldn’t be letting things happen. Scarlet glances between Caden and me, confused.
“I don’t need to tell you. It was between Caden and me, and it’s over now.”
I move closer to her and stop when we’re almost toe-to-toe. “Did you kiss him?”
Almost immediately, Caden’s voices roars in my ear, “Oliver, that’s not-”
I turn to him, anger burning from my face, “Caden, I’m talking to Scarlet.” I turn back to her and ask again, “Did you kiss him?”
“I-” Her eyes go back and forth from Caden and me, not quite grasping the situation.
“Did you fuck him?”
“Oliver! Stop! We just kissed, okay? That’s it. Right, Scarlet?”
Scarlet doesn’t say anything but instead backs away from both of us. “I don’t know why he said that. We didn’t kiss. What’s going on? Why are you- Why is he asking me all of this?”
I look at her face and see she’s frightened. Now I feel bad. I didn’t want to scare her; I was angrier with Caden and took it out on her. But then again, she lied to me, saying they were only talking. “You want to know what’s going on? What’s going on, Scarlet, is that Caden and I? We share our women. It’s been that way for a while, but it looks like young Caden here wanted someone to himself for a little bit.”
Caden looks at the ground.
Scarlet whips her gaze back and forth between Caden and me, “I don’t understand. Caden, what is he talking about?”
Caden looks at her
and says nothing. He turns to me and looks defeated.
I realize I’m being more crass than necessary, but I need her to understand. “What I’m talking about is that the two of us, if we’re romantically or sexually involved with a woman, we do it together. You kiss my brother, you kiss me. You fuck my brother, you fuck me.” Shock spreads across her face. “And I can tell you want to do more than ‘talking’ with Caden, even if you won’t admit it.”
“Like what?” She’s gone quiet, her voice barely above a whisper now.
“Huh?”
“I said, what do you think I want to do with him?”
I look at Caden and arch my eyebrow. Does she really want to know? I’m surprised she’s still here. I thought by now she would’ve left. In a flash of hasty anger, I wanted to shock her, and even if we lost the sale, she needed to understand what Caden and I were about. The goal was also to hide my suppressed jealousy by putting Caden in his place, but things are going in a different direction than I expected.
My voice stays low and gritty, “I can show you. Would you like that?”
Scarlet’s eyes dart back and forth. For a second I think she might take me up on the offer, but I see her facial expression change; she’s not in. “No, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” She heads for the door. Before opening it, she turns around and says to us, “I’m not that kind of person.” She leaves. Was she trying to convince us? Or herself? Either way, it doesn’t matter. We may’ve just lost the Red house. I look out the window and see Scarlet walking home. Since her house isn’t too far away, I won’t chase after her. I turn back to Caden, angry and annoyed, but I also know I’m guilty of not helping the situation with my outburst.
“I’m sorry, Oliver. I shouldn’t have let anything happen.” Caden goes to his desk and buries his face in his hands. “The sale could be gone, and it’s all my fault.”
I join him and place a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “No, it’s not. I could’ve been more levelheaded. Saying all those things to Scarlet certainly didn’t help our cause.” We stay silent for a bit. I try to think about how to rectify the situation. We can’t go to her now. She’s probably still too shaken to want to speak to either one of us. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if she never wanted to speak ever again.
Caden looks at me, “What do you think we should do?”
“We should apologize. It can wait until tomorrow, though. Now is not the time. Let her regain her bearings. Cool down, calm down.”
Caden nods and I sit back at my desk. I resume work but spend the day thinking of how to convince Scarlet to talk to us again. We’ll need to approach this delicately. The only way this will work is if we can get her trust us. It’ll be an uphill battle from here, for sure.
Chapter 6 – Scarlet
I still can’t believe what Oliver told me yesterday. I woke up this morning still in shock.
“It makes no sense…”
I get up and have cereal for breakfast. He must have been bluffing. How would they know what I was thinking? I mean, there’s no way they did, but… what if they were having the same thoughts I did? If that’s the case, then maybe I should have taken Oliver up on his offer. Let the two of them fuck me. It wouldn’t have been so hard. I haven’t been with anyone in a while, and twins would be a fine way to start again. I almost cough out my cereal at the thought. I’m not completely naïve to sex, but never have I done anything remotely resembling Oliver and Caden’s arrangement. I finish my food and place my bowl and spoon in the sink. After washing them, I place my hands on the counter to steady myself.
I wonder what they would do to me in this kitchen. Would one of them fuck me up against the counter while the other watched? I feel a throb in my underwear and instantly know it’s something I’d be into. Would it matter which one it was? Oliver was so mad yesterday. He’d punish me for lying, lying about kissing Caden behind his back. As I imagine the scenario, I stick two fingers into my pussy and slide in and out slowly. I pretend Oliver is pounding his dick into me from behind as Caden touches himself. I can hear both of them groaning and it’s so sexy. I dig my nails into my palm as I orgasm. I withdraw my fingers then wash my hands before turning around, leaning against the counter. It doesn’t matter if I find the whole thing hot; I left yesterday, and now I need to figure out, on my own, what to do with myself. I still have a house to sell, belongings to go through and a town I hate.
I’m about to get the rest of my day started when I hear the doorbell. Maybe it’s Chloe coming over, which would be perfect because I need to tell her all about what happened with the Blakesley boys. She’ll never believe me. I open the door without checking the peephole, and I see Caden and Oliver on my doorstep. Thank God I’m wearing pajama bottoms. And that I washed my hands… I almost shut the door immediately, but Caden stops me,
“Wait!”
I stop myself and look at both of them. They’re both in suits, looking good of course.
“We wanted to apologize.”
I open the door a little more, letting them know I’m willing to hear them out.
Oliver sighs, “I’m sorry I got really heated yesterday. I had no right to get mad at you. I just wanted to shock you.”
I look at Oliver and start to wonder if maybe he was lying about the whole sharing women thing then. If he wanted to shock me, saying something like that definitely got the job done. I blush, remembering what I was doing seconds earlier. “I didn’t want to embarrass you. I was mostly upset with Caden and took it out on you.”
I don’t want to ask if what he said was true, because that might indicate that I’m interested in such an arrangement when I know I couldn’t do something like that. Fantasizing about it was one thing, but actually participating would be crazy. I mean, two brothers? I couldn’t… I wouldn’t. I try to play it cool with the crossing of my arms, “It’s fine. I’m not mad anyway.”
No one says anything, so I’m about to close the door when Caden stops me again. I catch his gaze and ask, “Is there something else?”
He smiles and says, “Yeah, we wanted to invite you to dinner to apologize. We hope we can still discuss an offer on the house. If you’re open to it.”
Would that be a good idea? It would solve my problem of finding a way to unload the house on my own, but would dealing with Caden and Oliver be appropriate? Even if they’ve apologized, things still got out of hand, and whether or not what was said is true, it was still said. Could business and inappropriate feelings remain separate?
“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea given what happened…” Both options have their pros and cons. If I decline, I don’t have to deal with my burgeoning feelings and fantasies, but then I need to deal with the house on my own. However, if I take them up on dinner, I could have an easy way out with the house, but then there would be the idea of sex with twins lurking in the back of mind.
“We want to make things up to you. I can promise you the food will be delicious.”
Well… okay maybe it would be harmless. I mean, it’s just dinner. How wild could it get? “Okay. Dinner would be nice.” I see them both relax, unaware they were tense in the first place. It seems we’re all tense around one another. How did this happen? How did we get here?
“Perfect. We’ll pick you up tonight. It’ll be kind of fancy, so dress up if you like,” Oliver explains. It’s a good thing I packed one of my nice dresses.
“That works. I’ll see you tonight.” We say goodbye, and the two of them walk back to their car. I close the door, wondering if I made the right decision. Whatever I’ve gotten into, I can only hope it won’t be too hard to disentangle myself. Since I’m going out now, I’ll need to clean myself up. A shower is for sure needed, and I might have to iron that dress. And I’ll have to do my makeup!
I take a seat on the couch and think. As long as I keep the conversation on business, nothing can go wrong. Kissing Caden led to complications, but if my feelings are kept in check, there’ll be no opening for either one to steer the conversa
tion into scandalous territory. Even though I liked kissing Caden and the masturbation count has reached two, I know I can behave myself. Just have to make sure thoughts stay thoughts and do not become actions. I’m an adult. I have willpower. With newfound resolve, I get up to take my shower. And I could really use one. It’ll be a symbolic way of cleansing myself of naughty inclinations – wash away the last two days. They never happened. So far I’ve gotten by with denying my feelings for this long; a few more times can’t do much more damage. This dinner will be nothing but breezy.
Chapter 7 – Scarlet
I’m dressed and waiting for the twins to pick me up. Oliver texted me earlier and said the car would pick me up around eight, but there was no mention as to where we were going. There aren’t many fancy restaurants in Coldgrove, and if we were going somewhere in town, they wouldn’t be so vague. It looks like they’re going for some kind of surprise.
At just about eight, the doorbell rings. I’ve been sitting around for a while, but that’s more my fault since I got ready extra early. I guess this dinner made me anxious more anxious than I thought. I answer the door and find Nicholas, Oliver and Caden’s chauffeur. He says hello then escorts me to the car. He opens the door for me, and I settle inside, expecting to see the twins, but the car is empty.
“Where are Oliver and Caden?”
“I will be escorting you to their location,” Nicholas says politely with a tip of his hat.
My eyes look around the car as if the answer to my many questions will reveal itself to me. Where are they? Why am I alone? Can I even trust this man to take me there? What if he kidnaps me? I start to pull out my phone, “I’m going to give them a call and find out what’s going on.”
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