Contents
Copyright
Title Page
Synopsis
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Epilogue
Thank You
Other Books
About the Author
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2019 by Brianna Skylark.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, including information storage and retrieval systems, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
First edition August 2019.
www.briannaskylark.com
SHARING ROSE
BRIANNA SKYLARK
ROSE HAS ALWAYS wanted them, but she could never have them. Not both of them... at the same time. It wouldn’t be right… it would be naughty.
Jacob and Alex have known Rose for ten years, and they’ve loved her since the day they all met, but three years ago she ran away. Now she’s back and they’re not letting her go… even if it means having to share.
Three friends; two men and one delicate Rose.
Jacob and Alex are inseparable, and that's exactly how Rose wants them. But after seven years being seen as nothing more than a friend, Rose couldn't take it anymore and ran away.
When a camping trip in the Alps brings them back together again three years later, Rose begins to wonder if her fantasy of the pair having their way with her could come true after all.
Or could the reunion reignite old rivalries, and drive them all apart for good? If it’s worth having… is it worth sharing?
A Rose between two thorns… beneath a blanket of stars.
CHAPTER ONE
AS THE WHEELS of the aircraft touched down on the asphalt at Geneva Airport, Rose felt a wave of excitement wash over her. The journey had been smooth and on time, and as the plane had descended through the thin layer of golden cloud, the views across the crescent shape of Lake Geneva had been breathtaking.
Rose had watched with wide eyes as the plane had banked across the huge stretch of water which split the border between Switzerland and France, the sun reflecting off the surface like a swarm of golden fireflies. As the aircraft had continued to circle, the imposing sight of Mont Blanc had come into view to the south, its snow topped peaks and glacial northern slope appeared at once to be both glorious and intimidating.
Now as the plane slowed down, swerving gently from side to side as the brakes brought it to a stop, she felt elated and more than a little giddy. There were so many reasons for her to be excited.
For one, she was here for three nights of hiking in the Swiss Alps, which was, as far as Rose was concerned, the most beautiful place on earth. As a Geography graduate, she was in heaven.
Secondly, she was going to be wild camping which was her favourite type of camping experience, bringing her closer to nature, and as a budding conservationist, this was immensely important to her.
Finally though, and the real reason she was feeling both exhilarated and nauseous with anticipation, was that she would be doing this with her two oldest and closest friends, Alex and Jacob.
Rose had known the boys for ten years, since the very first days of secondary school. Back then, they had been summarily thrown together from different schools across the county, and whilst many of their classmates had arrived in pairs or more from the various feeder schools, Alex, Jacob and Rose were alone.
It didn't take the three of them long to find this small piece of common ground and by the end of the first day, Rose had lost all of the feelings of trepidation, intimidation and loneliness that had consumed her for much of the last few days of that long, hot summer.
Her family had moved down to the south of England from Edinburgh after her father’s job had forced him to relocate. He had managed to hold off moving the whole family until she had finished primary school, but over the course of that summer, Rose had said goodbye to her friends, (promising to stay in touch with a select few) spent quality time with her extended family, and cleared out a lot of old belongings, including a few beloved toys. It had been a painful time for her, and for her parents, but starting at a new school in a new part of the country, was exciting and she had been looking forward to it, even if she was a little nervous.
By the end of their first week at school, they were inseparable and although at times it had been complicated and confusing, they had navigated the next seven years together as close friends until they had parted ways for University. Although perhaps parted ways wasn’t entirely accurate.
Whilst Alex and Jacob had opted to stay in the area, applying for courses at their local University, she had left to live and study amongst the rugged mountains of Snowdonia in the north of Wales.
Now, three years later, she was taxiing across the runway of Geneva International Airport, less than half an hour away from seeing them again.
She had flown in from Manchester on an early morning flight having spent the night in an airport hotel reminiscing about their adventures together and stalking the pair of them on social media, obsessing over whether some of the girls in the various photos they had posted over the last year were girlfriends or ex-girlfriends or potential future girlfriends and then realising she was acting unnecessarily possessive about two boys (now men, she had to keep reminding herself, but they would always be the boys in her mind) whom she no longer really knew.
The plane came to a gentle stop at the gate and as soon as the seatbelt sign flickered off, she was up like a shot, popping open the overhead baggage and sliding out her cabin bag sized rucksack. She was near the rear of the plane, two rows forward from the toilets, which was always a bit of gamble but this time it paid off as the rear cabin door was unsealed and she was able to make a quick exit, stepping out into the bright sunshine and the crisp morning air.
The noise of the airport was a little disorienting but she made her way down the stairs and stayed between the painted pedestrian lines as she walked into the terminal. Inside she began to follow the arrows to the arrivals area, her excitement building. As she got closer she started to wonder if the boys would be waiting for her behind the exit barrier, holding up an embarrassing placard and grinning like a pair of morons.
She giggled to herself, drawing a brief disinterested glance from a fellow passenger as they stepped onto the travelator beside one another.
She had butterflies in her stomach.
She hadn't felt the sensation since she’d lost her virginity in the back of her first boyfriend’s car. The intrusive memory burst into her mind, and for a moment she pictured her fumbling, somewhat embarrassing first time, as Stanley, the floppy haired wannabe rockstar awkwardly humped her for a few minutes on the back seat, as she tried to ignore the cramp building in her leg. The act itself had been satisfactory, if a little painful, but the anticipation had been intense and exhilarating.
She loved the feeling as it coursed through her body again, like a flood of adrenaline. It was making her feel more than a little aroused and she had to get control of herself.
She remembered how much Alex and Jacob had hated Stanley and had barely spoken to her whilst she dated him. She hadn't dared to tell them that she’d slept with him, but it didn't take long for them to find ou
t after Stan the Man had bragged to all their friends about banging Primroses’s bush.
Alex had come to college the following day with a bloodied fist, claiming he’d been in a fight and Jacob had been sullen and withdrawn for a week.
The whole episode had confused and upset Rose, but their relationship had recovered quickly, much to Rose’s frustration, and before long they were all acting as if nothing had happened. Except for Stanley (who she’d dumped), who had still been proudly proclaiming his conquest to anyone who would listen, which turned out to be an awful lot of people. He probably still was.
She hadn't slept with Stanley because she loved him, or because she even liked him really. He was good looking in a traditional sort of way and he was a talented musician, arrogant and aggressively sure of himself, but that wasn't the reason she’d done it.
The real reason was that she was in love with both Jacob and Alex, and no matter how much she had tried to make this apparent to them, they had stubbornly failed to do anything about it.
At seventeen she was fickle, one week she would love Alex, the next Jacob, but it was always them and always had been. Eventually though, it became apparent to her that they either weren't interested, or had no intention of declaring their love for her, at least she thought so anyway. To them she seemed to be nothing more than their bratty little sister. But to her, they were her boys.
She had slept with Stanley to make them angry. And it had worked, and in some strange way that had made Rose happy. But then within a few short days, everything had gone back to normal and it had frustrated and upset her so much that when it came time to decide where to go to University she had chosen one hundreds of miles away from either of them.
She had done so to get away, because to have stayed would have broken her heart.
Since then she’d had a string of boyfriends, one night stands, and relationships, but there was one thing that was consistently wrong with each one.
They were not Jacob, nor were they Alex.
More than once she had lain awake at night and thought about them as she’d touched herself. Or laid back and pretended that the man fucking her was either one of her men. Sometimes both.
Often both.
Over time however, she had begun to heal, and it was going so well.
Until last week.
*
The email from the boys had come as a surprise.
When she’d left for University, they had all parted in good faith and Rose had promised them both that she would call, text and write to them all the time and that they could both visit whenever they wanted, but she hadn’t intended to keep her word.
She had hated lying to them, but she’d had to do it. If she kept on thinking that one day, they would realise that she loved them and they in turn, would then love her back, then she would lose her mind.
So to start with she had kept up the pretence. If she had cut them out, they would’ve thought something was wrong and charged up to Wales like a couple of bulls, ready to smash up the china shop. So for the first few weeks, she had kept to her promise.
Then as time went on, it became easier. The messages became shorter, and fewer and farther between.
She dropped the names of a few boys she’d met, and made it seem like she was happy.
In truth, she was happy. Although she missed them both dearly. But it was working, little by little.
She dated, she kissed, she made love, and slowly, she forgot, and after the first year, Alex and Jacob had started to seem like a schoolgirl fantasy.
But it was a fantasy, and it was one she often came back to. So whilst she no longer saw them every day, she thought of them often.
Often improperly.
When the email came she was walking back to her flat share from her part time job working at an outdoor hiking shop in the main high street. The money wasn’t great, but she was managing to pay rent and save a little whilst she applied for jobs working in conservation and habitat management. She’d had an interview a few days before, which she felt had gone well and she was expecting an email back from the organisation any day now, so hitting the refresh button on her inbox was becoming a relentless habit.
It was raining and her umbrella was struggling in the gusts of wind that were blowing down the street towards her. She had flipped her phone out of her pocket again and hit refresh and was about to slip it back inside the waterproof lining when she saw something unusual.
Jacob’s name had appeared.
She slowed to a halt as she saw it and as she did the wind turned her umbrella inside out.
She read the name again, wondering if it was just a spam message from a similar name, or maybe his account had been hacked and the email would be inviting her to click here to read the rest of my message.
She hadn’t heard from either of them in more than two and half years.
She tapped on the email.
Hi Rose,
How are you? We miss you! Alex and I were wondering if you’re doing anything next week? We know it’s short notice, but we’re flying out to Switzerland for a few days hiking in the Alps and we’d love to have you come and join us. It’s been a long time, and we figured that now we’ve all finished Uni, why don’t we get together for one more adventure before we all head out into the world of work. Jacob and I are actually going travelling together for a whole year soon so it would be really great if we could see you before we head off on our round the world adventure. Don’t worry if you can’t, we understand (but would be gutted!), but do let us know if you can make it. We’re flying out on the 8th.
Love Jacob and Alex
XxX
She stood still, the rain filling up her upturned umbrella. Half way through reading the email for a second time the umbrella tipped over, but Rose barely registered it.
A few days hiking in the Alps? She loved the Alps. She suddenly felt sick.
She couldn’t possibly say yes, it would destroy all the progress she had made over the last three years. She hadn’t even thought about them in a long time.
Well that wasn’t strictly true.
She hadn't thought about them socially, in a long time, but they were never far from her thoughts on a lonely night.
What harm could a few days do though, really?
No.
She would delete the email, or mark it as spam and pretend she never saw it.
She slipped her phone back into her jacket, righted her umbrella and headed back in the direction of her flat.
When she got there, after fumbling the key in the lock as the rain continued to pour down, she opened the door to the sound of her flatmate, Amber, shagging her new boyfriend Matt.
The sound was slightly muffled, and initially, as Rose hung up her wet coat and spread out her umbrella to dry, she thought they were both upstairs.
So when she opened the kitchen door to find Amber bent over the work surface, knickers around her ankles as Matt fucked her from behind, it came as a bit of a shock.
‘Oh shit, I’m sorry,’ said Rose, and slammed the door closed, turning around and heading upstairs to her own room.
As she got part way up the stairs she heard Amber calling after.
’Rose?’
She kept on going and reached the landing before Amber (who was still pulling up her knickers) appeared at the bottom of the stairs.
‘Rose, I’m so sorry.’
‘It’s fine,’ she said. ‘Carry on,’ before closing her bedroom door.
She sat down on her bed, utterly mortified, trying to shake the image of Matt thrusting into her friend. Then she heard them talking quietly.
‘Is she okay?’ said Matt.
‘I don’t know, she just said to carry on,’ said Amber.
Matt laughed. ‘Bit late,’ he said.
‘Oh gross,’ said Amber. ‘Clear it up.’
‘Why don’t you see if she wants to join us?’
‘Don’t be a dick, Matt.’
‘She’s hot, I’d love a go.’
‘Fuck off, put your fucking trousers back on and clean the fucking floor. You’re such a dick sometimes.’
‘You love it.’
Rose turned on the radio, she’d heard enough.
She lay back on her single bed, the wind whistling in through the small gap in the double hung window, and looked up at the gradually spreading damp patch on the ceiling and made up her mind.
She picked up her phone, found Jacob’s email and began to reply.
*
Rose was even more breathtaking than Jacob had remembered.
He had seen her straight away, as soon as she had stepped through the arrivals gate, and for a brief second he was back at school, eagerly waiting for her to walk through the door of their classroom in the morning.
Jacob had spent the majority of his teenage years, desperately and hopelessly in love with Rose. She had been kind, sweet, funny, and boundlessly enthusiastic. He still vividly remembered the first time he ever saw her, all those years ago on the very first day of school.
As the new starters had gathered together after filing in through the school gates, they had been assembled in the sports hall to be introduced to their new headmistress before their induction sessions. Jacob didn’t know anyone, having moved to the area with his family over the summer before and at that point, surrounded by hundreds of other children who were laughing and joking together as they’d all filed in, he had started to become tearful.
Several teachers had welcomed them into the hall and spread them out in a large horseshoe around the central stage where a podium and microphone had been erected for the head. As the voices of all the children became hushed, Jacob who had been lined up on the front row, had looked down in shame to hide his tear filled eyes, but as he’d done so he had caught sight of someone looking at him.
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