“Anytime, Banyan. Tell him I still want a rematch at Pebble Beach next year.”
Banyan spoke, his chin on my head. “I’ll do that.”
Maven approached slowly, his hand coming to my lower back. “Let’s get out of here.”
Chance still hadn’t spoken to me. Not once. We’d made our way outside, Maven and Banyan on both sides before he rounded on me. “You couldn’t answer your fucking phone once in ten days? Or respond to a text.”
“Chance,” Maven spoke through clenched teeth. “Maybe save it.”
“Oh, don’t mind him, Giovanna. He’s been in this mood for over a week. The car is over there.” Banyan indicated the parking lot across the street.
“Answer the question.” Chance panted. “You broke up with them. You never talk to me, and you can’t even answer my fucking texts? Your voicemail is all screwed up. Answer me.”
I shook my head. “My parents didn’t pay my bill. I don’t have a phone right now.”
“Fuck.” Chance bent over, gripping his knees.
“I told you there was going to be an explanation and it was all going to be fine. It’s going to be fine. We had a misunderstanding, and it’ll be worked out.” Banyan sighed.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” Chance lifted his head, staring right at me. “You told me you wouldn’t go anywhere and then you broke up with me through them? I don’t accept it. I’m not broken up with. Not until you talk to me one-on-one.”
Maven cleared his throat. “She’s had a very long night. Maybe we could do this elsewhere.”
The sun was coming up in the sky. What time was it? I didn’t have any idea. “Was anyone hurt?”
“This time some people were. No one is dead. Three people are in the hospital with injuries, but not from the fire, from the crowd.” I shuddered. That had almost been me. Chance still had his gaze on mine. “Giovanna, not one of us was going to cheat on you. Do you understand? They were nothing dates. We had to go. We’re administration.”
R.J. had said something similar about their by-laws.
“You weren’t going to want to go. So we asked three girls who would find it beneficial to their sorority standings to go. It wasn’t a real date. Everyone knew that.” Maven held up his hand. “I realize now that it was ridiculous not to discuss it with you. I realize what happened because of bullshit and jealousy and… that fucking website that you got the wrong idea.” Maven touched the small of my back again, leading me forward. “I apologize. Things are so screwed up. Everywhere. I let it go and didn’t tell you. I’m sorry.”
I burst into tears. And not pretty, dainty, easy tears. No, this was the floodgate. It was open. I might never get it closed again.
Chance had me in his arms almost instantly. I found his shoulder and wept, my body shaking in violent bursts of movement I had no control over.
“I’m sorry.” I barely managed to get the words out.
“Okay.” Banyan kissed my cheek while Maven stroked his hand through my hair. “We’re all sorry. No more sorry. This is over. It never was. I never accepted it to begin with. This was a bump. Fuck it. It’s over. Oh, please stop crying, Giovanna. You’re killing me.”
I wanted to. I just couldn’t. Not yet.
Chapter 12
I woke slowly. I was stiff and not at all sure where I was. Warm breath tickled my neck. A hand thrown over my waist kept me pinned to the body behind me while on the other side Chance slept—his eyes closed, his arm thrown over his head. Under his lids, his eyes danced in sleep. On his other side, up a little bit on the pillow so that he was quasi sitting up was Banyan. He snored lightly, his head draped a little sideways.
That meant it was Maven holding me. I exhaled. I didn’t even remembering getting to wherever we were. I think I had conked out in the car the second Banyan had pulled into traffic. There was tired and then there was exhausted to a breaking point.
That was where I’d been.
Chance’s eyes opened slowly, and he smiled at me, scooting closer. He kept his voice low as he whispered in my ear. “Hi, lovely. The world feels right again.”
“What time is it?”
His breath was a caress. “Early. Ridiculously early. Like two in the afternoon.”
I laughed, trying to keep the sound low. “Chance, I was going to text you.” There were things that had to be said. “I’d never have just vanished. I didn’t have the ability.”
He scrunched up his nose. “I’m glad you didn’t. I kept holding on to the idea that you hadn’t so it wasn’t over. Got me through the week. Sort of. You might have thirty to fifty texts of me begging you to answer me.”
“So you have to take those girls to your dance. I shouldn’t have overreacted. I’m just all alone in the world right now, and I’m doing things that are arguably making things worse. If that’s possible.”
Chance scowled at me. “You didn’t let us explain and that wasn’t okay. But we were the ones who left you in a position to doubt. That’ll never happen again, Giovanna. You’re going to know how we feel because we’re going to be better about telling you.”
“How did you find me?”
He leaned over to kiss me gently on the lips. The warmth moved through me like a hot bath. I had been so cold. Inch-by-inch I was warming and that was dangerous. He lifted his eyes to meet my gaze, a question in them. Could he feel how I had to hold back?
“That stupid website. I haven’t looked at it in almost two years, but I was feeling a little desperate for information on you so I peeked. Someone posted you were there with Lee. I may have freaked out a little.”
I raised my eyebrows. “A little? You were going to punch him.”
Banyan shifted on his pillow. “Yeah, but that’s why he’s glad he has me. He hasn’t broken his no violence rule, and I broke that fucker’s nose. I did it for him and for me. I have no personal standards against pounding on assholes.”
Chance grinned, grabbing his pillow and swatting Banyan with it. All of the moving must have woken Maven who leaned over to kiss my neck before making a noise somewhere between a groan and a laugh. “How’d you sleep, Giovanna?”
“Really well, actually.” That was both good and bad. It was so easy to fall in with them. Now I knew how hard it would be to lose them. What was I supposed to do now? “Guys…”
Maven lifted his head. “Hold that thought, Giovanna. You look very beautiful in your gold dress but you’ve been in it for too long. And it isn’t the gold dress that I bought you, so I hate it. Besides, we all had this idea. Lying there late at night staring at the ceiling while we waited for the pledges to get their shit done, we talked. In this case, for once, we’re all on the same page. It was what would we do if we got Giovanna back.”
Banyan shook his head. “There was no if for me. I kept saying when.”
“I kept saying I hadn’t lost you.” Chance added.
Maven bit my shoulder, lightly. “Okay. I said if. Because I live in the real world and these two fools are ridiculous. I thought we could get you back, but I was fully aware of what had happened during our conversation. Or whatever you want to call how you yelled at me then left me to handle a pissed off campus security officer—which forced me to turn days into minutes so we could get out of there without a citation. We had to leave two days early. It turned into the longest week of my year. Or I hope it is.”
I could see how from his perspective that was what I’d done. “Do you have any idea what happened that morning? How this girl couldn’t wait to tell me she was your date and how she had sex with you last year?”
Maven scowled. “Who?”
“That girl. The one you had sex with last year.”
He raised a blond eyebrow. “Who? I can’t think of another woman in the world other than you, Giovanna, so I can’t possibly imagine there was anyone else I had sex with ever.”
I groaned and Chance laughed. “Very funny, Maven.”
Maven got on his knees. “I am. I am very, very funny. And I have plans for you.”
He scooted to the end of the bed. “That would be all three of us with you at the same time.”
“At the same time?” We’d never done it exactly like that before.
Chance scooted off the bed. “You might have to put up with some stumbling through this. We’ve never done it this way before. Not all of us with the same girl.”
“What girls?” Banyan winked at me. “Didn’t you hear Maven? There were no other girls. Ever. None that I can remember.”
I shifted until I leaned against the headboard. “Funny? I seem to remember there are some girls who are going to a formal with you?”
Chance shook his head while he walked to the edge of the bed. “Nope. There are not. That was a poorly thought out thing. Not happening.”
“Huh.” I tried to keep my face passive even as all I wanted in the world was to leap off the bed. “I’m not sure what to make of that. I mean, I…”
Banyan tugged me back against him, my back to his chest. “We aren’t letting you go. The pain you’ve had? Maven had it, too. Not me because I never believed it. But Maven did.”
Maven rolled his eyes. “Right. Because you weren’t flipping the fuck out on everyone. You didn’t ask me what you were supposed to do now because she’d become your whole world and how could we not have talked to her about it. You didn’t do any of that?”
“I might have had a momentary freak out before I remembered that this girl would come to her senses and take our apology and say that she missed us, too.”
He turned me around in his arms and then his mouth was on mine. Banyan’s tongue pushed through my lips, and I had no doubt this was a claiming. These were the gentle caresses I was used to from him. I threw my arms around his neck and held on.
I moaned, the sound coming from deep inside of me. There was no doubt. I needed this man. I needed them all.
Like I’d summoned him with that thought, Maven came up behind me. He pressed against my back, kissing my neck. He unzipped my dress, slowly. I moaned, grinding closer into Banyan, and they both reacted with soft noises in their throats.
They were serious about this.
As though I needed any more proof, Chance crawled onto the bed. He kissed my cheek, his hand squeezing my thigh. “Don’t ever, ever leave us.”
I let go of Banyan, intending to answer him. Things were complicated. We had to talk. But I couldn’t seem to find words. What were words?
Chance bit my shoulder, I was sure it would leave a mark. I closed my eyes. This was sensory overload, and I dove into it headfirst. I couldn’t have stopped if I wanted to, and I didn’t want to.
Maven slipped my dress off, each one of the guys moving slightly to accommodate for the undressing. Banyan threw off his own clothes. Behind me I heard Maven do the same. Chance pressed against my side, and I tugged on his shirt.
“I think we’re getting naked.” I grinned at him, and he nodded.
“Just wanted to hear you say yes before I assumed.” He raised his eyebrows. “Is that a yes?”
He was so sweet. They all were. I nodded. “Yes.”
Chance pulled off his shirt. “Good.”
Banyan kissed me hard on the lips before he squeezed my breasts, his finger coming over my nipples with a rough brush. My core clenched. Yes, I wanted this so much. Maven kissed my back, his hands massaging my spine.
“Lay her down,” Chance said, and Banyan nodded. “We might have to work some of this out.”
I leaned back on the bed. “I like that you’ve never done this with anyone else.”
Chance kissed me, biting down on my lower lip. “You’re ours. Do you understand? Whatever else goes wrong in the future, we talk about it, we yell about it, and we never, ever stop knowing how much we want you.”
Anticipation caught my breath. “What now?”
Chance tugged on the edge of my hair. “Whatever you want. Always.” Maven handed Chance a condom and then one to Banyan. I swallowed with anticipation.
I ran my hair through Chance’s soft hair, remembering suddenly the dream in the mall. We’d all been together, but they couldn’t hear me. They could now. I’d never felt like I had so much complete attention. “I want to not feel so alone. I want to feel… completed. I know that’s not your job but…”
My voice trailed off as Maven kissed me, caressing my mouth with his own. He answered me, not in words, but in how he touched me. I swore for that second I could feel him in my soul.
He was there with me. I just had to reach out.
But was it real? Could I trust it? I decide right then I didn’t care if this could have a future. I might drown in this later but for now I could swim.
It was messy. One person would no sooner start to kiss me than another one would want to. They’d imagined this, but they’d not choreographed it and that was perfectly fine with me. Maven pushed my legs down, dropping toward the ends of the bed to make love to my pussy with his mouth. I moaned. Yes, I loved that. I couldn’t get enough. I trembled with need. It was Banyan whose mouth drank down my cries while I could feel Chance next to me, his cock hard, pressed against my side while he sucked on my breasts.
I reached for his length, stroking him, and he closed his eyes. The sound that came from his mouth was pure pleasure. His cock jumped in my hand. I squirmed. Maven’s ministration on my clit shot electricity through me, and he drove his hips into the bed as he pleasured me.
Banyan leaned over, biting down on my breast. I cried out, and he smiled, a wolfish grin that said he knew just who had made me react like that.
It was too much and not enough. I couldn’t think through each moment, couldn’t catch my breath, couldn’t leave the present to get lost in my head. There was too much. And yet I needed to come and that wasn’t happening yet either.
I didn’t want to rush the moment but completion was as necessary as breathing. Maven stroked my clit with his tongue before biting down on it, lightly. The pinch of pain was so surprising it set me over the edge. I exploded, my hips lifting from the bed, my hands fisting seemingly of their own volition to grab onto whatever I could. That turned out to be Chance’s shoulder and Banyan’s chest. Neither one of them seemed to mind.
If anything, the action spurred them on.
Maven lifted his head to meet my gaze, winking at me which made me even warmer inside. I loved when he was playful. Banyan tugged me toward him, and I straddled his lap. He kissed both my cheeks before he was inside of me, pushing fast until he was balls deep. We both cried out. On my knees, I rode Banyan hard.
There was something so hot about knowing Maven and Chance watched. Chance stroked his hand down my back. This wasn’t going to take long. I was close and so was Banyan.
He pressed his forehead to my own. “Next time this is longer, love.”
“I…” I didn’t get to finish that thought. As his cock surged inside of me, lengthening to an almost painful thickness, I exploded. I saw stars. Banyan kissed me everywhere he could reach while I settled. He spoke nonsense words in my ear, and I nodded against his shoulder like I understood.
I didn’t. Life had just become feelings, and they were glorious.
Chance wasted no time. When I could function, he scooted me toward the headboard. I gripped onto it. I was already sensitive, and it was almost too much. But then I leaned against his chest, his hand splayed over my stomach while he pushed inside of me.
“You okay?” His voice was hardly a whisper.
“Yes,” I answered him in equally as reverent a tone.
Chance was gentle with me as though he understood. Still, as I held onto the headboard, my back to his chest while he thrust in and out of me, each of his moves stroking my clit, I could feel the restrained tension inside of him. Chance always kept himself on a leash. If we were doing this, and it seemed we all were, I wanted the full picture.
“You can’t hurt me.” I knew he’d understand. He didn’t need to hold back.
He ki
ssed the back of my shoulder before he surged up inside of me. I cried out. “I need you to stop doubting this. I need you to know what I know—things like this don’t come along very often and they are lasting.”
“Chance,” I panted his name. “It’s hard for me to believe there can be happiness for me.”
Maven made a sound by my side, reaching out to stroke a finger down my cheek.
“We all feel that.” Chance didn’t stop pleasuring me. “But I want to make you happy. I want to make you so happy. You can believe. I promise.”
I cried out. “I do.”
“Good.”
When he finally came inside of me, it was gentle, a stark contrast to how worked up he’d been. I loved the feeling. Chance was spent. I, however, wasn’t. My eyes met Maven. We weren’t done, yet. I knew it and so did he.
Maven rolled me over until we were face to face. He raised his blond eyebrows. “You still okay? We can stop right here. I’m just glad to be here with you.”
I stroked my hand down his cheek. “I want you.”
He nodded once. “This is just you and me. Understand?”
I agreed, and he must have seen that in my eyes without me having to say anything else. He took my breast in his mouth and sucked. My body was on high alert. Even the small pressure was almost too much.
He lifted his gaze. “Hurt?”
I nodded, and he let go. Instead, he spread my thighs just a little bit before gently slipping inside of me. I was so full with him, and unlike the rapid fire of the rest of the night, this seemed to make time slow down. I lifted my hips to meet his gentle movements. I wanted to kiss him, so I did. His lips were firm, soft. He tasted like Maven. I’d never thought about it before, but he always had the slightest touch of mint on his tongue.
I loved it.
Maven kissed me while he moved and before long I was coming, hard, around him. A minute later, with his hand clenched in my hair, and his thumb stroking my forehead he followed me.
I lay on my stomach, feeling the cool swipe of air from the ceiling fan above me moving air in the room. I could pull the blanket up over me, but I couldn’t bring myself to make the slightest adjustment at all.
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