“Cin?” he said, and I knew I wasn’t going to just let him stand there.
Not when all of me burned to see him, to hear what he’d say – if anything – as to the reason behind the twins’ disappearing act.
“Ok,” I said, opening the door.
Phone still at his ear, he said, “I’m sorry.”
I nodded.
“I’ve just, been dealing with some crazy work stuff and I wanted to see you, I just wanted to solve everything first.”
“And did you?”
Smiling gently, Owen held out a hand, lowered my phone. “No. But I couldn’t spend another hour not with you.”
I looked at him. Sentence fragments, question openers were all clamoring against each other in my head.
When he stepped inside, his body pressing to me, the door slamming behind him, none of it was a question. It was an answer to the main one, the one I hadn’t even thought to ask.
Yes, yes of course Owen wanted me – badly.
When his mouth claimed mine, I let him. There was something still itching at the edge of my consciousness, all the strings and unknowns still half-unravelled, but I left them there, there at the edge of things, while Owen’s hands proved the truth of his words.
They were shedding my clothes, layer by layer. And then his hands were on my breasts, clasping and claiming.
My head dipped back, and his mouth accepted the offering of my neck.
“You really missed me, huh,” I managed to groan.
His fingertips glided straight down my front. “You have no idea.”
My gaze shot to his, my eyebrows snapped up. “Tell me.”
The thoughts that remained in me were still uncertain and tremulous and I wanted him to put them to rest. Put all doubt to rest, leave nothing but this force of a feeling, this all-encompassment of an attraction.
His teeth bit into my ear and I jolted. “I jerked off to you yesterday, and the day before that.”
Butterflies were exploding in me as I ground my pelvis into him. “Not the day before that?”
He cupped my ass, squeezed it hard. “Didn’t want to overdo it.”
“Why not?”
Owen peeled back, freezing suddenly, his smile caught unawares. “Do you really not get it? How I can’t screw this up?”
“What are you talking about?”
For a moment there, his gaze was snagged on mine, his lips mouthing out what he wanted to say. But then he shook his head, shook it all away. And took me in his arms.
The way he kissed me, touched me, was like falling into butter. Smooth and sublime and were my knees actually buckling right out from under me?
It didn’t matter. Owen had his hands on my leggings, peeling back the last layer, taking his sweet time with it too.
After a few seconds, his reflective voice came over, “You have a damn fine ass. You know that?”
Without giving me a chance to respond, his lips suctioned onto a cheek and I squealed.
“Owen!”
Next second, his pants were joining the heap of clothes on the floor, although that wasn’t where he was looking. I turned to see that his gaze had never left me.
“Come here,” he rasped.
As if my feet were a magnet to his words, they obeyed. We kissed our way to the couch, him on top of me. He pinned one arm down and then another, smiling deliciously at me.
“Want me to stop?”
I glared at him. “You like teasing me?”
He smeared a kiss into me before pulling away, smiling naughtily. “It does have its appeal, yeah.”
With one sure thrust, Owen entered me.
“Finally,” he breathed.
“Finally,” I echoed, though there was no need.
As he dipped into my wet further, all of me was rejoicing with the word, the realization. Owen’s dick inside of me. Thrusting, pulsing into me. Finally.
It was a dance that had no real beginning or end, no moves but only actions and reactions, playing and exploring. Dipping and gliding and piercing and clasping. A shaking soundtrack, a groaning tapestry.
And, as our bodies moved from one position to the next, legs splaying, pulsing unceasing, shaking extraordinarily, it occurred to me what this was.
The perfection of body on body ecstasy, of my coming once and again, it was nothing short of sublime.
And the way Owen was looking at me. I thought there’d been adoration in his chestnuts of eyes before but turned out I had no idea. Not the slightest idea.
No, now, this, as we were joined and he spasmed into me, aiming for yet another orgasm, the half-lidded, hardly stirring fixated way he was looking at me – now that was adoration.
It was only fitting that, as the tidal wave of my third and most powerful release crested and threatened to crash, that Owen let out a muffled roar, his lips snapping open.
“You’re beautiful,” he said. “Funny and – unexpected – and– oh fuck yes, Cin!”
And then, we came.
25
Owen
She felt so damn good in my arms. So good that, when my phone rang, there was no way I was going to answer it. Except that it rang again. And again.
“Shit,” I grumbled, turning it off, though not before a glance at who it was that was calling.
Dad, great.
“They must’ve really wanted to get a hold of you,” Cin said.
“Guess so.” I leaned in to kiss her, but she turned, only giving me cheek.
“You tired?” I asked.
“No,” she said.
I glared at my hands. Stupid, not mentioning my Dad. But I felt weird about not wanting to talk to him about her, and weirder that I was actually considering it at all. Dad had what my Mom called an ‘acid tongue’ and was notoriously critical. And right now, I didn’t want that for me and Cin.
A glance over found that something was off with her. The silence would’ve told me that, if the expression on her face hadn’t.
I wasn’t sure what to say though, so I got up. “I should probably be going.”
She got up too and started getting dressed.
“Unless you’d want me to stay?” I asked.
“Do what you want,” she said lightly.
Although she was dressed, making ‘doing what I wanted’ hard.
Her gaze went to the bed, reading my mind. “You want another round?”
But again, there was something forced there.
“I think we both need sleep,” I said.
At least I did. I was starting to get all paranoid about what was happening between us.
“Sure,” she said.
I was almost out, when she said, “This is all just fun for you, isn’t it?”
That woke me up. I was speechless for a second, before, answering quickly, “No. Cin – what the hell?”
But she was already turning away. “You’re right, I think I am tired.”
Different excuses rose and fell in my head before I turned away too.
A few minutes later, once I was in my car, I called up Jake. Had I missed something the other night?
But Jake didn’t pick up either. Weird. I called a few more times, but no dice.
And there was no reason for me to think it, but part of me wondered if he was starting to figure things out.
26
Cin
Stop thinking about it.
I kept telling myself that, but it wasn’t getting any easier.
Owen’s and my steamy sex last night kept replaying through my head like a broken record. Then my feeling afterwards, that unmistakable sense that Owen was hiding something from me.
Now wasn’t the time to get into it; I was at work.
I shouldn’t have cared, but I did. Was it another girl? The twins seemed to be genuinely into me, but what if this was just fun for them? It was becoming more for me at a remarkably accelerated pace.
Viola’s abrupt voice surprised me from my chart-filling reverie: “Hyacinth.”
“Yes
?” I asked.
“Two guys here to see you. They said it was an emergency.”
As I started in the direction of her hand swing, her voice followed me, “You have ten minutes.”
Around the corner, Jake and Owen rose when I came into the waiting room.
“What are you doing here?” I hissed at them.
“Come to straighten a few things out,” Jake said, taking my arm.
“And buy you food, if it comes to it,” Owen said, taking the other one.
I couldn’t entirely hold back my smile as we made our way down the hallway.
“So what have you come to straighten out then?” I dared ask.
By now, we’d reached a basically abandoned lounge, so we were able to sit down and speak at a normal level.
Owen took both my hands. “That this is just for fun for us.”
“Don’t get us wrong.” A smile quirked on Jake’s face. “Being with you is fun as hell. Just, that’s not all this is.”
“No?” was all I could think to say.
Leaning back on the chair, I took a deep breath, the fluorescent lights fuzzing in my vision. I really hadn’t slept well last night.
“You ok?” Owen asked.
“I am hungry,” I admitted. “And tired.”
He rose. “While I can’t help the fatigue part, wait here.”
“He’s been looking for an excuse to hit up the cafeteria since we got here,” Jake admitted.
“Can’t say I blame him,” I said. “We do have a good ravioli.”
Jake nodded absently; it was clear he hadn’t heard me. Instead, he was scowling with a pained expression. As if he had something to say that wasn’t coming out.
Finally, he started talking. “You know, you are fun.”
I stared uncomprehendingly at him, before the realization set in. Owen must’ve told him word-for-word what had happened the other day. While I’d expected as much, I would’ve thought he’d had at least enough discretion to keep my exact wording to himself.
“Sorry, that came out wrong,” Jake was saying now. “What I meant to say was that, you are fun, but this isn’t fun.”
Another uncomprehending stare and Jake shoved his hands in his pockets. “Shit.”
“Ok.” He took a breath. “You are fun, but this isn’t just for fun. And it’s not fun, being here, not knowing….”
He trailed off, glaring at me. “Planning on contributing to the conversation?”
I glared on back. “Seems like you’re doing just fine yourself.”
He was silent. “You know what? Screw it. All I came here to say was that I really like you. And, if you must know, I don’t really like it at all, it’s weird and annoying.”
“Then why do it?” I cut in.
His eyes rested on me. “You know why.”
Suddenly, I was the one who was mad. “No, I don’t know. Tell me.”
His mouth was a snarl by now. “Because I have no clue where you stand. Yeah, we’ve said some things and done some things, but still.”
“You know where I stand.” The conversation had gone so fast, I wasn’t sure where I even stood now. “I really like both of you and want to see where this goes.”
“Then why the freak-out yesterday?”
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “Maybe it’s like you said. This is all new and freaky to me, a real rollercoaster of emotion.”
“I guess that’s fair,” he said.
Although right then, my attention was taken by the fact that he had grabbed my hand and was examining it. As if he’d forgotten that we were in the middle of my workplace.
“About later this week.” Jake’s pointer finger was stroking down the center line of my hand, a tickly sensation. “I have a big fight coming up. You’ll come to it?”
“You like brownies?” Owen shoved one right in front of my nose, before I could answer.
“I love tiger brownies.” I took a big bite of it, and he grinned.
“Good, ‘cause I do too.” He took an even bigger bite.
“You two are gluttons,” Jake declared as he took another bite.
By then, all that remained of the formerly bread-sized tiger brownie was a few stray crumbs. While Viola chose this time to reappear. “Nice to see you’re getting a second lunch in, Hyacinth.” Her kind tone did a 360 to hyper-bitch mode. “But now it’s time to work.”
“You’re right. Sorry,” I said, turning to say my goodbye to the boys. Jake and Owen both looked utterly unimpressed and I said a silent prayer that they wouldn’t say anything.
Instead, they took their sweet time giving me one beefy hug, both of them planting kisses on my cheek before leaving.
I hurried back to my workstation to avoid meeting Viola’s critical eye or having to talk to her. Although she caught up with me anyway. “Hyacinth?”
“Yes,” I said.
How many times had I told her that 99% of people called me Cin?
The expression in her eyes was unreadable, but her twisted scowl was clear enough. “Careful, now.”
I only nodded, turning away. I had only a few more steps before I reached the room I was stationed in, to get my thoughts in order. It wasn’t enough, of course.
All I knew was that I’d been overreacting earlier. That both twins had put my mind at ease. They really liked me – and I really liked them too. And it was scary and new territory. Maybe the best thing would’ve been to take it slower than we had been. But I could see in Jake’s eyes that he hadn’t said all that just to appease me; he really did care.
Back in the room, before getting to work, I sent him a text about his upcoming fight: I’ll be there.
27
Jake
Rodney looks like someone’s dad, was my first thought upon regarding him.
Someone’s mean dad, was my second.
While he had the perfectly circular bald patch and doughy middle, he also had a permanent-looking fuck-you glare. And a silver grill.
“Our deal still on?” he said when I was still a few feet away.
“It’s on,” I said. “I already agreed to it. Why meet here ahead of time to confirm it again?”
He gave me a long, hard look that I didn’t much like. I wondered how his already flat-ish pug nose would feel crunched under my fist. Not that it would need to come to that.
“I like to look a man in the eye when I make an agreement with him,” he said.
“You do that with my brother?”
His lips rose instead of his eyebrows. “You want to talk about your brother?”
“He’s good for it, I know he is,” I said to him. I still wasn’t quite sure how to wrap my head around the fact that Owen had borrowed money from a Neanderthal like this. Rodney only continued his long stare. Clearly, he didn’t see the need to justify my brother’s poor money habits.
Rodney turned around, apparently dismissing me. But I’d only moved a few steps away, when his growl reached me: “So tonight, I’ll be a very rich man.”
“Very rich,” I confirmed. My fists clenched.
If this was the right thing to do, then why did I feel so wrong about it? Telling Owen could backfire, though. I knew how he was about nobility and all that. He’d want to solve it himself, in whatever self-sacrificial stupid way that entailed. This way was easier. I could just explain to him after.
Back inside the boxing venue, Owen was waiting by the door.
“Where were you?”
“Doing my pre-match walk,” I said.
“Since when do you have a pre-match walk?”
“Since today.”
“Better be a damn lucky one. It’s only fifteen minutes until you’re supposed to start.”
Depends what your definition of luck is, I thought but didn’t say.
“Alright, alright,” I actually said.
Then I walked into the locker room.
28
Cin
Only seven more minutes, I thought as my gaze went to the dashboard clock.
&nbs
p; Was I more excited or nervous? There was no way of telling.
All I knew was that I was gripping the steering wheel so tightly, my fingers were going white.
Sure, the past few days Owen had been texting and trying to set up a date that I couldn’t go on, thanks to Viola’s vengeful shitty shift schedule she gave me, but Jake had been almost completely silent. Did he change his mind on what he’d said?
Another glance at the clock – five more minutes.
Once I pulled up, I’d decided that my feeling was definitely nervous, not that that made it any better. No, coming to one of Jake’s fights like this only made the contrast between them all the more striking. The last time I’d come here, I’d hardly known the twins, hadn’t even kissed them, and now… now I definitely knew them – in more ways than one.
I’d barely stepped in the place, when Owen was wrapping a protective arm around my waist and leaning in to brush his lips against my ear. “You came.”
“Hello to you too,” I said, a bit flustered.
Jake was supposed to be the more devil-may-care one. But Owen was clearly in high spirits.
“Let’s get pizza,” he suggested, already conveying me that way.
I didn’t miss the envious looks I was getting from both men and women as the handsome twin swept me through the crowd.
It struck me just how much more the twins had to be sacrificing to be with me than I was to be with them. I mean, being in the big boxing leagues, in the public eye at all, meant they probably had girls flinging themselves at them on a semi-regular basis. And yet, they’d picked me, and had all appearances of being ecstatic about the choice.
The pizza Owen chose was pepperoni, two slices each, despite my laughing protest. He was even the one who held mine as I munched away, actually eating both they were so good.
Although soon my attention was drawn elsewhere, namely by the hot-as-hell man making his way to the ring. Jake.
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