by Lucy Smoke
I cursed silently. I thought Dex had been safe. The way his eyes looked at me, though, warned me that he was likely the most dangerous of all of them. Even in the dark, it was electric. Those images of handcuffs and ropes came back to my mind, making me stutter as I answered. “M-my neck,” I said.
“Nowhere else?” he asked.
Instead of reprimanding him, I shook my head. I wasn’t a virgin, but I wasn’t very experienced either. Both times I had let a guy inside me, the experience had been quick and rather dull. The foreplay had been the best part, but the moment they were inside me, it was practically a one-pump and done.
I looked around the room, at each of the guys, and knew, not that I ever expected to find out, that these guys? They didn’t seem like the one-pump and done kind of crew.
6
“Can we talk about something else?” My lips trembled as I asked the question.
“Do you want to stop playing?” Darren inquired.
“I’m hungry,” I replied instead, hoping to divert their attention. A part of me really didn’t want to stop playing. Maybe it was because I sensed it. The growing feel of something happening between us. Taylor and Darren’s eyes. Cody and Dex’s questions. I wasn’t sure yet if I was just making it up in my head or if it was something that they were feeling too. Whatever the case, it was definitely time to take a break.
“Yeah, I’m kind of hungry too,” Taylor admitted. I sighed in relief.
With a groan, Darren shoved away from the table. “Well fine then,” he said to Taylor. “Come on, you big baby, there’s a vending machine downstairs.”
“But the power is out,” I reminded them. “How are you going to get anything out?” Taylor got up from the table and moved beside Darren, heading for the door.
“I have my ways, sweetheart,” Darren replied. “Don’t worry. I’ll bring you back something.” Darren turned and smirked in my direction, the light from the window hitting his face as he crossed the window and headed for the door. Before I could say anything more, he and Taylor disappeared from the room and I was left alone, sitting between Cody and Dex with my face on fire and a strange tingling between my legs.
They were both quiet for several moments following Darren and Taylor’s departure before Dex shifted closer to me.
“I’m sorry if we made you feel uncomfortable,” he said.
“It’s fine,” I mumbled, twisting my fingers together in my lap. Breathe, Jamie, I urged myself. They’re just guys. College students. Classmates. Nothing more. They probably don’t even realize what they’re doing.
No sooner had I had that thought than one big hand landed on top of mine, stopping their movements. I jerked my gaze up to Dex’s.
“It’s not fine, Jamie. We’re sorry.” I flicked my gaze to Cody and he nodded.
“Dex doesn’t always speak for me,” Cody said. “But in this instance, he does. We’re sorry.”
I acknowledged their apology with a nod and we lapsed backed into silence. Dex didn’t remove his hand though, instead choosing to take my palm and spread it out on my thigh, moving his own hand to cover it. By comparison, my hand looked puny beneath his. I puffed out a breath and realized that the temperature had dropped even more. I would’ve thought that with all of the walls and everything, the heat would’ve lasted. But then again, this building was old—one of the oldest ones on campus. I was pretty sure that the window itself was single paned and it wouldn’t shock me if nothing in this building was well insulated.
Dex’s fingers plied mine. Against my hand, his felt incredibly warm. My skin lit under his attention, and I breathed shallowly. Still, my curiosity couldn’t be squashed. After several long moments of silence, I looked at Cody. “Why is your favorite color really blue?” I asked.
Cody’s head turned toward mine and dipped down. “I told you,” he said. “Because it’s the color of your eyes.”
“I’m being serious,” I deadpanned.
He reached up and smoothed his hand over my shoulder, flipping my hair back and out of the way. His fingers trailed along the side of my neck. “So am I,” he said.
My lips parted. “Do you…” Surely, I was wrong, I thought. No. It wasn’t possible. Cody had dated Victoria for months after all. But a sneaking suspicion wove it’s way into my mind. What if Victoria’s jealousy hadn’t been because of anything that I’d done? What if … it was about Cody all along? If that was the case, I had to know. “Do you like me?” I asked him.
Cody chuckled and over my hand, Dex’s stilled. “Yes,” Cody answered.
My heart jerked to a stop in my chest. I blinked. As we had sat there in the dark, talking about our truths and teasing and playing around, my eyes had slowly begun to adjust to the lack of light. What little there was became all I needed. I stared up into Cody’s face, into his eyes, and blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
“How long?” I asked. “How long have you liked me?”
Cody blew out a breath and sat back for a moment, thinking, I assumed. Then … “I think it started not long after you tried to join that sorority,” he admitted.
“Did you...” I swallowed around a dry throat. “Did you do anything about it?”
His lips curled down. “What do you mean did I do anything about it?” he asked. “This is the first time I’ve told you.”
“I mean … did you tell anyone?” I asked.
“Yeah.” I jumped when Dex’s deep voice rumbled next to my ear. “He did.”
I whipped back toward him. “You?” I clarified.
“And Taylor and Darren,” Cody said, making me turn back to him.
It was starting to come together. Why the sudden volatile hatred from Victoria. The sudden outcast from the sorority. He’d told his friends that he liked me and she’d found out. “But you were dating Victoria,” I stated.
Cody’s shoulders stiffened. “Yeah, believe me, I remember.”
“If you liked me back then…” There was something I was missing. “Then why did you stay with her for so long.”
“It’s complicated,” he replied.
“Cody.” Cody’s head lifted and he looked over top of me as Dex spoke his name. “You should tell her.”
“Tell me what?” I looked back and forth between the two of them.
Cody sighed. “Victoria was…” He trailed off, obviously struggling as his brows pinched downward as his lips twisted. “I know she kicked you out of the sorority because she found out I liked you and was planning to break up with her.”
“You were planning to break up with her?” That was the first question out of my mouth, but almost immediately after I’d said it, my mind supplied another. He’d known? About what had happened between Victoria and me, about me getting kicked out? Confusion and hurt warred within me and I pulled my hand away from Dex’s.
“Yes,” Cody answered. “She threatened to do something worse and I couldn’t let it happen. I figured you’d be okay without the sorority. You’d make new friends and move on. I just wanted to make sure you had the chance before she did something she couldn’t take back.”
“What did she threaten to do?” I demanded. I had a right to know.
“Do you know what her major is, Jamie?” Dex asked.
I turned to him. “No? What does that have to do with anything?”
“She’s in the graphic design department,” Cody supplied. Looking back and forth so much, I felt like I was ping ponging between the two of them. “And she’s good.”
“She threatened to fabricate a bad photo of you and circulate it around campus,” Dex said. “Cody agreed to stay with her to keep her from doing it.”
“A bad photo? What kind of bad photo?”
Dex and Cody both gave me a long look. “She had photos of you with the sorority, Jamie,” Cody said. “Think about it. She’s really good at making it seem real.”
“A fake nude,” I realized. It was the only explanation. Horror sank into me. If she’d done that—if that had happened—there wo
uldn’t have been any coming back from it. Even if it’d been fake, there would be people who would believe it was real. And if she posted it online … the internet was forever. Even years down the road, when I moved away from Winthrope, if a potential employer found something like that…
“It’s not real, Jamie.” Dex’s hands cupped my shoulders as he turned me to face him. “She didn’t do it. Cody stayed with her and she agreed not to.”
“B-but they broke up,” I wheezed. “What if she tries to do it now?” What could I do to stop her?
Cody’s hands slipped beneath Dex’s and he flipped me back to him, swiveling my chair to face him. “She broke up with me,” he assured me. “She’s not going to because she doesn’t want me anymore. Our relationship was never the same after that. She’s fucking some other guy on the football team. She doesn’t give a fuck about me anymore. It’s the reason why I was so comfortable with approaching you now.”
“I always wondered…” My voice sounded shocked. “She told me it was my fault. She said that I was trying to sleep with you. She told the others—” God, she’d told them so many lies. That I was a whore. That I’d called her names. They had all believed her. If there had been a photo, they would’ve believed that too.
“It wasn’t your fault, Jamie,” Cody said, his voice firm as he gripped my shoulders even tighter. “None of it was your fault.”
I practiced breathing in and out. In through my nostrils, out through my mouth. After several beats of silence and even breaths, I finally felt somewhat readjusted and calm. I looked up to Cody, reaching up and touching his wrists with my finger tips. He had stayed with her for me, I realized.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “I don’t know what else to say, but thank you.”
Cody exchanged a look with Dex over my head before looking back at me. “Why are you thanking me?” he asked.
“Well, because you stayed with her,” I replied. “You were her boyfriend for months—all so she wouldn’t make a horrible picture of me and send it to people. I can’t imagine what that was like.”
“Jamie, it was my fault you were ever in that position,” he said, shaking me lightly. “Don’t you get that? If she hadn’t gone through my phone and realized what I was planning on doing—”
I shook my head. “No,” I said, cutting him off. “You can’t blame yourself for what she did. That’s not on you or me.”
“She’s right,” Dex agreed.
I looked over my shoulder and gave him a smile. “It’s kind of funny, though,” I continued with a light laugh before looking back at Cody. “You said Dex, Darren, and Taylor were the guys you told—and you’re all here in the library with me. It’s almost as if…” I trailed off when I noticed the peculiar expression on Cody’s face. It wasn’t guilt, but it was … something else that I couldn’t quite name. Whatever it was, though, it made me suspicious. I flipped back to Dex who arched a brow at me.
“Did you guys plan this?” I blurted.
Cody grimaced. “Not exactly,” he started.
“We definitely didn’t plan the snowstorm,” Dex said. “Or to tell you about all of this tonight.”
“I didn’t know I’d see you in the dorm elevator or that we’d be going to the same place,” Cody continued. “But it does kind of seem like fate, right?”
“Fate?” I repeated, confused.
Dex’s warm palm touched my side as he swiveled my chair toward the table. Cody’s hands fell away from my shoulders. All that was left was Cody’s fingers brushing my neck on my side and Dex’s brushing my ribcage on the other.
“Yes, fate,” Dex said. “Cody forgot to mention the rest of our conversation when he first told us he liked you.”
“H-he did?” My core clenched as his hand slid down and cupped my hip. It was a bit awkward with the kind of chairs the study rooms had, but all I could think about was how hot his skin was against me even if it was over the fabric of my sweater.
“He wasn’t the only one who admitted to liking you, Jamie,” Dex whispered as he leaned in closer. “We all do.”
7
Before I could respond, a deep sound rumbled from Dex’s throat and his lips came down on mine. Initially startled, I was quickly swallowed by the sensation.
Never had I been kissed so completely, making my legs shudder in such a way that if I had not been sitting, I would have collapsed. Dex’s kiss was so unexpected; I couldn’t do much more than gasp as his tongue slid between my lips and stroked mine. I shivered and clutched his shoulders.
Remembering that Cody was in the room with us gave me the strength I needed—though, honestly, wished I didn’t have—to pull away. I jerked my head back, feeling out of breath—like I had just run a dozen miles in under twenty minutes—and removed my nails from his shoulders. I hadn’t even realized I’d been digging them into the muscles there. I panted and stood to move toward the door, away from him. I needed space. I needed room to breathe and trying to do that sandwiched between two walls of muscle was impossible.
Dex grabbed my hand to keep me from running, but I couldn’t look at him. I was too embarrassed. One little kiss and I had practically thrown myself at him. “Jamie,” Dex said.
“I think I just need to clear my head,” I choked out. “I’ll be right back.” I tried tugging my hand away to no avail.
Dex stood up and moved behind me until I could feel the heat of his breath on the back of my neck. I tensed.
“I want to make you a deal,” he said quietly.
“A deal?” I repeated.
“Yes, we both do,” Cody agreed.
My eyes darted to where he still sat in his chair, watching the two of us. “W-what kind of deal?” I asked.
“You give us tonight,” Dex said. “You let us show you what we want and if, in the morning, you don’t want it—then we’ll stop. We won’t try to convince you. We’ll just let it go.”
“Convince me of what exactly,” I replied. I shook my head back and forth, feeling dizzy. “I’m not even sure what it is exactly that you want.”
“You, Jamie,” Cody breathed into the darkness. “We want you.”
Dex’s hand released my wrist and trailed up my arm before slipping around my side and up to the front of my neck. He gripped it in his strong palm before bringing his other hand up to take my chin between his fingers. He slowly tilted my head until I was looking at him.
“You responded to me,” he said, “and I liked it. Did you?”
I was gasping, incredibly aroused, and wet. He had just asked me if I liked it. What. The. Fuck. Was I dreaming? I had to be. That was the only explanation. There was no way that Dexter Smythe was coming onto me—and yet, he was. His hand on my throat made me feel submissive in a way that saturated my panties. I’d never read any of my mom’s old romance novels, but I wondered if this was how the heroines had felt. Was this really happening to me? His hand on my chin made me feel controlled, and I found that I did like it. What would happen if I told him that?
Only one way to find out, I thought. Slowly, I nodded and was rewarded with a brilliant smile. Dex’s gaze strayed to the side as Cody stood up and came around both of us and stared at me with golden-brown eyes, the color of dark honey.
“And me?” he asked. “Do you like me, Jamie?”
I did. I liked Dex and Cody. Especially now that I knew what Cody had confessed to his friends and done for me. Had Dex helped him? Wait, what would happen if I let this happen? What if Victoria found out?
I struggled with my emotions for a long moment, shaking as my desire to give into them warred with my desire to protect myself. “What about Victoria?” I asked. “What if I say yes and she—”
“—finds out?” Dex finished for me.
I nodded.
Once more, they exchanged a look. “We’ve got a plan in place for that,” Dex admitted. “Darren and Taylor are in on it too. They’re going to help us take care of her if she threatens you again.”
I blinked. “They are?”
“Jamie.” Cody moved closer, and my body reacted. My thighs tightened and my throat grew dry. “When I said we wanted you, I wasn’t just talking about Dex and I.”
The realization slammed into me. He meant all of them. Dex, Cody, Darren, and Taylor. My eyes widened. “Really?” I breathed. “You all … want me?”
Dex ducked his head and ran his lips up the side of my cheek and to my temple before he answered. “Want is a very small term for what we all desire, Jamie Houston. What I want to know now, though, is if you’re going to say yes. Are you going to give us tonight and let us show you what being with us will be like?”
I thought about it, biting down on my lip as I considered what to do. It was only one night, but on the other hand, this one night could turn into more if I let it. If I walked away now, what would happen? What would I be giving up? The fact was, I’d never even allowed myself the fantasy of multiple men—multiple lovers at once—but now that it was being presented to me, I found that I really, really wanted it. I wanted to at least try.
Slowly, I nodded my head, giving my answer. “Yes.”
“Good answer,” Cody replied before bringing his lips down on mine. My mind spun out of control. His hands slid along my neck and Dex’s receded as he stepped away. Cody’s tongue delved into my mouth, tangling with my own. He toyed with me, played with me, and left me panting for more.
When he finally pulled back, I had to shake my head to clear away the fog he’d left me in. “Wait,” I breathed heavily, panting. “What about the others? They’re downstairs. Do they know—”
Dex moved in against my back, his hands dropping down and sliding around my waist to the front of my jeans. “I don’t think they would mind if Cody and I started this a little early,” he said against my head as he popped the button of my jeans and rolled the zipper down. “Do you, Cody?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Cody replied, his voice light and excited. He helped Dex remove my pants, rolling them down over my hips. He pulled off my shoes and then lifted both of my feet, one by one, as he slipped off each pants leg. “As long as you promise to give them a chance, too.” Cody stood back up after tossing away my jeans. I wasn’t short, but nor was I tall. I was as average in height as a girl could come, but these two were athletes—their bodies were designed bigger than the average guy. They were tall, wide, and incredibly ripped. “Do you promise, Jamie?” Cody whispered, leaning forward so that his mouth hovered over mine once more.