by Box Set
Jas waggles a pointed finger at me. “I just don’t want you to disturb her. Is there another cover we can share?”
I shake my head and grab hold of one end of the duvet. She doesn’t so much as grunt as I disentangle her. We climb back into bed on either side of her snuggly hot form.
“What happens tomorrow, Lorne?”
“A gloriously long lie in.”
“I meant how do we work things out with Mikayla?”
“I thought I told you, she won’t have a problem.”
“And I still don’t mean about that.”
I bay into my cupped hand as the most enormous, face-stretching yawn causes my cheeks to ache. “Spell it out to me. What are you asking?”
“If she’s in this with us going forward,” he says.
Oh hell! That’s not the outcome this was supposed to engender. “Let’s worry about that when we’re all awake.” I turn over, so my back is facing both of them. Fuck. Her part in this was only meant to be temporary.
Chapter Fifteen
Mikayla Ashton
I wake before both of the boys. For a while, I lie contentedly between them, listing to them breathe and smiling over the memories we made together. There’s a pleasant throb in my lady parts this morning and a great big tick next to the Have a Threesome item on my bucket list. After a short while though, I get restless. Truth be told, they’re both hot and sweaty, and I’m in desperate need of a cup of tea.
It takes a bit of manoeuvring to wriggle out from between them. As I climb over Jasper, his arms come around me.
“Where are you going, pretty lady? Don’t leave.”
“Um, I’m not.”
“Good.” He rubs his nose against mine. Then he rolls so that I end up back in the middle. “Stay and snuggle more.”
Okay, yes, snuggling is good, but the kettle isn’t going to magically boil itself, and there’s no phantom servant about to float that cuppa over to the bed. I give it a few minutes to make sure he’s drifted back off. Then make my escape by climbing over Lorne.
He doesn’t attempt to prevent my departure, which I chalk up to him sleeping like he’s dead rather than him desiring me less than Jasper. After all, he doesn’t even notice when I kneel on his fingers.
The world outside the kitchen window is still white, but there’s a patch of blue over the horizon, and the cruel wind that was blowing late last night has died down. I brew a big pot of tea and take it through to the lounge to drink.
The lounge reeks of wood smoke, sex, and potpourri. Curious, since all the loving took place in the bedroom. I open one of the windows a crack to let some air in, then set about relighting the fire.
I’ve been back to the bedroom, got dressed, and brewed a second pot of tea by the time Jasper tumbles out of bed. He wanders into the lounge with his Here Be Dragons T-shirt on inside out, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “I’m making a drink. Can I get you one? Tea? Coffee? I think Lorne polished off the last of the juice. Although, there could be another carton.”
“There’s tea in the pot if you grab yourself a mug.”
“Heavenly,” he croons after pouring and taking a sip. Then, “Isn’t it a bit crackers having the fire lit and a window open?”
“I can close it again now. It smelled stuffy in here first thing.”
“Whatacha doing in here?”
“Drinking tea, contemplating my research. I thought I might get on with some work while it was quiet, but I’m not sure where’ve I’ve left the file.”
“I noticed a bundle of papers on the floor in the bathroom last night. Is that likely it?”
“Probably. I was looking over a couple of things while I was soaking yesterday.”
“That’s dedicated, working while you wash.”
I expect him to launch into some anecdote about Lana Bow, but he doesn’t.
“What is it you do again? Some sort of ethnic medicine?”
“I’m a botanist. I work on cataloguing and collecting new species of plants and isolating active ingredients from them that can be used to create new medicines. I don’t know if you’re aware, but we’re facing an antibiotic apocalypse in the not-too-distant future. It’ll plunge medicine back to the horrors of the 1920s and 30s. I’d like to find an alternative to the raft of antibiotics we currently have, see if we can push that happening back a few decades.”
He listens attentively, while nursing his tea in his cupped hands. “Aren’t most antibiotics derived from fungi?”
“Actually, yes.”
“But you’re looking at plants.”
“And other things. Traditionally, botanists are also mycologists and phycologists.”
He nods. “Okay, too many big words, especially for this early in the morning.”
“They study fungi and algae, too.” I explain, and it’s well after ten, but I don’t think he’s aware of that.
“Would you like me to get your papers?”
Damn, he’s a sweetheart and boyishly charming too, the way he keeps rubbing his eyes and yawning hard into his cup.
“Why would I do that, when I’ve two perfectly working legs of my own?”
“I’m just saying I’m prepared to go.”
“It’s okay, there’s no rush as you’re up now.”
“Am I?” he says, dropping one hand down towards his loins. “Sorry.”
“I meant…”
He squeezes his brow with his fingertips and repeats the apology. There’s a pink tinge to his cheeks when he faces me again. “Might need to step outside into the cold just to kick-start my brain. I’ve never had a sex hangover.”
“You musn’t have been indulging enough.”
He peeps across at me through the feathery shield of his dark eyelashes. “That’s distinctly possible. There haven’t been a whole lot of volunteers around in the last year or so.” He scratches at the sexy bristles growing on his chin. “I’m probably too nerdy for girls to love.”
I snort. “In my world, there’s no such thing as too nerdy. It might help your chances if you put your shirt on the right way, though. And for the record, there hasn’t been a whole lot of action happening for me either. I spent eight months in South America with a couple of gay men who only had eyes for each other and whatever orchids we stumbled across, and then back home…Well, let’s just say most guys aren’t exactly interested in being with me. They want my superstar alter ego. Only she’s not real, and I’m not a big fan of dress up.”
“Yet you offered for me.” He tilts his head and looks at me curiously. “Okay, look—.” He sets his cup down on the table between us and reaches out to grasp my hand. “—I’m really sorry about my behaviour yesterday. I was embarrassing, and acting like a total dipstick. You just shocked the heck out of me turning up like that. It kind of blew my mind. And then you blew my dick.”
He shakes his head as if that fact is incomprehensible.
“That did happen, right? Last night…all of it…You, me, and Lorne?”
I nod.
He shakes his head again. “Amazing. I’m bowled over that you were even prepared to speak to me, never mind the rest.”
Now he’s making me embarrassed. Heat rushes into my cheeks, and the tip of my nose starts tingling. His exuberance is kind of cute, and he does have soul-stealing eyes and a mouth that’s ripe for kissing. What I therefore don’t mention is my bucket list of fantasies, and how that helped me to overlook a few things—like the fact he’s a massive Lana fan. I comprehensively ruled out sleeping with any more of those about six months ago. Or was it eight? Jasper has the dubious honour of being the first man to bed Lana Bow and be genuinely thrilled to find he woke up with Mikayla Ashton. Too bad Lorne’s already laid claim to him or he might have been a keeper.
“Okay,” he pushes back his chair and stretches in a way that exposes his rock hard abs. “I’m going to pull on some real clothes and then trek across and get your file.”
Definitely a keeper.
“Let’s both go.”
He scratches his fuzz again as if he can’t comprehend why that would be necessary.
“I wanna build a snowman,” I tell him.
Jasper beams from ear to ear. “Now you’re talking.”
We build three snow people and a dog, if you consider Snowy the Wonderpup to be anything more than a vaguely rounded lump with a stick poking from its rear. My research notes are comprehensively forgotten about. Sometimes it’s important to set things aside and live a little. Jasper leans in and kisses me on the cheek as I add the finishing touches to our snow children.
“What’s that for?”
“Thank you,” he says. “I haven’t had this much fun in ages.”
We’re cheek to cheek, and it’s the most natural thing in the world to kiss him back. I aim for the icy tip of his nose, intending to make my response playful, to let him know that I feel the same way without straying into dangerous waters, but somehow that’s not how it happens. Instead, my lips lock with his and our bodies slam together as well as thick winter coats allow. Jasper’s hand comes up and cups the back of my head, keeping me captive, while his tongue slips inside my mouth.
He tastes of milky tea, a strangely comforting mix that makes me groan and seek out more. Or maybe he’s doing the groaning, I can’t tell.
It feels…It feels like it did for a moment last night when I stood beneath the umbrello kissing Lorne. Lorne…who isn’t going to be thrilled with this development. We made a pact last night, me and him. Okay, nothing was officially spelled out, but we both knew that it was a one off occasion we were signing up to. I was only supposed to help get Jasper into Lorne’s bed, not steal Jas away from him.
I push on Jasper’s shoulder until he releases me. “Lorne,” I burble. “We can’t do this. He’s besotted with you. Jas, he wants you so much.”
“I know. I’m crazy about him too, but…” He falls silent and starts chewing on his bottom lip.
“Yeah, that. That’s the crux of why we can’t.”
“It worked for us all last night.”
“Yes, but in the real world.”
He tugs off his beanie, and vehemently shakes his head. “We’re not in the real world, Mikayla. We’re here in this snowy wilderness, where we can be whoever we want.” He takes hold of my hand and swirls us around in a circle.
“No. I’m sorry Jasper, but I can’t.” I shake my hand free of his.
Shit! My good mood has sunk into my boots. I turn away from him and the snow children and stomp back towards the cottage.
“Wait! Mikayla, wait.” He hurriedly falls into step with me. “What’s wrong?” He reaches out and stops me by grasping hold of both of my shoulders. “Please, explain.”
“Jas, I can’t play make-believe.”
“But last night.”
“I agreed to last night with Lorne.”
“Agreed?”
“I could see how tied up he was about you, and it was obvious that my presence had fucked things up. You’re good looking guys, it seemed like a reasonable solution, but I can’t make-believe that we’re going to get some fairy-tale ending out of it. We had a one night stand. That’s all.”
“I don’t do one night stands.”
I have no response to that.
“Seriously.” He grasps my hands. “I never have, and I never want to. You arriving didn’t screw things up. If anything it brought some well needed clarity to the situation. I knew what Lorne invited me here for this weekend. Do you really think I’d have come and hung out with him this particular weekend just to rehearse?”
I chew the notion over a moment or two. “On HBD4 release weekend, no.”
“Mikayla, listen. For me at least, it’s a big step agreeing to date a guy. I take relationships seriously, maybe too seriously for most people. I’m not even certain how serious Lorne wants us to be.”
“Serious. Though, I think he’s pretty easy going. I do think he might relish the thought of someone being all-in for him for a change though. I’m pretty certain his last relationship was totally unbalanced.”
“What about if we were both all-in for him?”
“Jasper. I don’t think that could actually work, much as the idea’s delightful.”
“We’ll talk to him about it,” he proposes and starts us walking towards the house again. I have a vision of him marching us straight into the bedroom and shaking Lorne awake so that we can discuss this. The outcome will surely be three unhappy people, sitting in three different rooms, trying to avoid one another until the snow clears enough to allow them to leave. I don’t want that. I want this weekend to exist as a compilation of happy memories.
“Wait. I think we should allow him to wake up naturally and see what happens. There’s no sense in forcing a confrontation when it might not even be necessary. There are much better ways to tackle this.”
I don’t know what they are yet, but stalling him will buy us time to think things through.
“You sound like a therapist.”
“Yeah, well I’ve seen a lot of them.”
He goggles at me. Guess that was a confession he wasn’t expecting.
“How come?”
“My family is fucked up.”
He waits patiently, clearly expecting further elaboration. He doesn’t get one. I’m not interested in a blow-by-blow account of my family’s particular brand of dysfunctional. That much crazy scares people off.
“Mikayla?”
“Seriously, let’s not go there.”
“Fine. What do you propose we do then?”
Not talk about things that are going to make us sad. I drop into a crouch, scoop, and then pelt him with the snowball I’ve made.
“Christ! If it wasn’t bad enough getting pelted by Lorne last night, now you’re up to ninja tactics.”
I don’t stick around. I run.
“I’m gonna get you for that.”
“Reckon you’re too slow.”
Ten exhausted minutes later, we’re both flat on our backs laughing and making snow angels.
“Do you think he’s awake yet?” Jas wonders aloud.
“If he was, I’m sure he’d be out here.”
“Should we wake him? It’s nearly midday. Or at least check on him and make sure he’s not dead.”
I go over to the door that leads directly into the bedroom from the garden and open it wide. There’s a clear view of the bed in its entirety. Lorne is sprawled on his back like an oversized starfish, taking up the space of three people. “Definitely still asleep and still breathing.”
“‘kay,” he mutters. “Budge yourself left a bit.”
“Huh?” I know what he’s planning even before I turn. Call it intuition. “Really? That’s super mean.”
“Mm!” He grins in a particularly boyish way. It’s totally endearing, especially the way it lifts his cheeks and lights up his eyes.
“Shift over, unless you want to get hit.”
I take a large hop sideways, then run back to join him. Meanwhile, he hurls a nicely compacted missile through the open door. It splats against the bedframe. The second snowball sails right over the bedspread and lands in the fireplace.
“You’re wicked.”
“Sometimes,” he agrees.
I stoop and roll a ball along with him. We both throw together. The double whammy hits Lorne, one in the chest and one in the face, causing him to wake with a start. He bolts upright, just like he’s been electrified, causing us both to fall against one another as we both dissolve into laughter.
Lorne rubs the snow off his face and blankets. Then glares at us through the open doorway. He mouths something that might possibly be “Bastards.”
“We should get him some more.”
“Now who’s evil,” Jasper says, but he’s right there with me, compacting the snow into a row of missiles, that we then hurl one after another. Lorne yells at us, and then takes refuge under the duvet. We run in closer, bringing the winter into the house and pelting him at close range with the last couple o
f snowballs.
“You filthy meanies.”
“Stay-a-bed.”
We peel back the covers and snuggle up either side of him.
“Aw, get off. You’re both freezing.”
His protest simply prompts us both to strip off our gloves and put our cold hands all over him until he’s curled into a ball.
“Fuckers.”
“You should warm us up.”
“Come here.” He grabs hold of my hands and blows onto them, then sandwiches them between his own and rubs. “Better?”
“Some.”
“Need me to rub your hands too?” he asks Jas.
“I’ve a sneaking suspicion it might lead to you rubbing something else, and I need breakfast and more tea before I contemplate anything else.”
“Coffee, black, and make it a big one,” Lorne calls after his retreating form. “And great to know I come second place to Tetley’s.”
“It’s PG,” Jasper hollers back.
“Get the door, eh?” Lorne adds to me.
I lock the winter outside. Then I shrug off my coat. Lorne pulls back the covers so that I can climb into the bed beside him.
“What sort of fun have you two been having without me?”
“Cold, wet, snowy stuff.”
“Anything I should be concerned about?”
I shake my head. Much as I’d like things to be different, I’m not going to mess with Lorne’s dreams.
“Has he said anything about last night?”
“A couple of things. I’m sorry it didn’t quite play out as anticipated, and that you didn’t exactly get into his pants.” Not in the very definite way you had in mind.
“Who said I didn’t?” He makes a ‘hm’ noise in the back of his throat and presses a kiss to my brow. “I’m not the only person around here who misses out due to sleeping like the dead.”
“You fucked him?” I blurt, then clamp both hands over my mouth. That’s good. In my heart I know it’s a good thing that they were able to surmount the barriers that had been in their way. On the other hand. Oh fuck! I’ve a feeling things are about to get horribly complex.
My family is so tormented by deceits that I refuse to get caught up in another one. “Lorne, he thinks that all three of us are going to be an item now.”