“And when are we talking?”
His mouth was full beneath his beard, his lips wet as our faces drew nearer. His breath smelled sweet, like whiskey.
“Now.”
Twenty-Eight
KARISSA
They took me from all sides, guiding me back toward the nightclub’s exit. Roderick produced my shoes and I stepped into them. Arm in arm, with me in the middle, the four of us made our way outside.
“My GOD that feels amazing!”
The ocean breeze was near-orgasmic, as we made our way along the sidewalk. A small path led down to the water. We walked it together, cooling down, catching our breath. Moving away from anyone else, until we were leaning against an old wooden railing, looking out over the bay.
“So…” I purred, turning into the wind. I pinned my hair back over both ears and smiled. “Let’s talk.”
The guys were adorably awkward for a moment, glancing at each other to see who’d take the lead. I expected it to be Roderick. This one time however, he took a step back.
“Well we had our own talk,” said Camden. “Just as you asked.”
I arched a mischievous eyebrow. “And?”
“And we all decided the same thing,” said Bryce. “We all loved what we did with you. None of us would’ve changed a thing.”
“I see.”
“Maybe we’d have been more transparent about it with each other,” Camden added quickly. “But that’s water under the bridge now. None of us blame the others for… for…”
“Breaking your vow?”
They nodded in tandem.
“And what exactly was your vow?”
“To collectively leave you alone.”
I turned my face into the wind and laughed. “I guess we can all see how that worked out.”
“Yeah…” Bryce said sheepishly. “It’s just that, well—”
“We hired you on instinct,” Roderick finally interjected, “and we kept you on for your abilities. When it became clear you were exactly what we needed, you became even more attractive to us.” He paused for a beat, his dark, penetrating eyes burning into mine. “And you were pretty damned attractive to begin with.”
“So were you,” I noted. With a smirk, I added: “Still are.”
“Maybe,” shrugged Camden. “We weren’t considering that part, though. We were more focused on trying to not want you.”
“Not want me?”
“Yes.”
I chuckled. “I don’t know whether to be flattered or disappointed in that.”
“Be flattered,” replied Bryce. “And trust us it wasn’t easy. Obviously we didn’t want to scare you off, or mess up a good thing. But you’re beautiful, Karissa. Every single day you stomped around our worksite looking amazing and breaking our hearts, all because we couldn’t have you.”
“But you could,” I mused. “And you did.”
“Yeah, well… we went about it the wrong way,” said Camden. “We were weak. We gave in to temptation. For that we’re sorry.”
“No apologies necess—”
“But what we’re not sorry for,” interjected Roderick, “is how we feel about you. All of us.”
A ships horn rang out, somewhere out on the distant horizon. For a few long seconds, no one spoke.
“So what now?” I asked. “Obviously we can’t put the genie back in the bottle.” I sighed and leaned back against the railing. “Not that I’d want to, personally.”
“Well we talked about it,” said Bryce, “and we came up with three different possibilities.”
I nodded, my lips curling into a smile. “Ah, choices. Now you’re talking.”
“First and foremost, we could go back to the way things were,” said Camden. “We keep things professional, all four of us. The whole thing lives on as a happy memory, and we chalk it up to letting off some pent-up sexual steam.”
The idea was practical, but also a letdown. It made me a little sad.
“Or?”
“Or we could keep having fun, if that’s what you wanted,” said Bryce. “Go about what we’ve been doing, pretty much. Only without the secrecy and without the guilt.”
My stomach erupted with butterflies.
Holy shit.
“Without the secrecy and guilt sounds nice,” I admitted.
“In that case we’d keep everything out in the open,” Camden added. “Nothing hidden. No hard feelings. We’d just be… well…”
“Fuckbuddies,” I blurted.
He shrugged, almost apologetically. “Yeah.”
I rubbed at my chin, thoughtfully. Fuckbuddies. With three individual guys — all living under the same room. Could I really do that?
Aren’t you doing it already?
“Or?” I asked.
They looked at me and blinked. Like they were trying to figure out what I was thinking.
“Or what?”
“Well you said there were three choices,” I replied. “So what’s the third?”
This time it was Roderick who stepped up. He stood before me, his expression placid. His eyes soft, yet serious.
“Or you could be our girlfriend.”
Twenty-Nine
KARISSA
If my stomach had butterflies before, now they’d had babies. Somewhere deep in my belly, I felt an eruption of warmth and heat.
“Girlfriend,” I repeated flatly.
“Yes.”
“To all three of you.”
My mouth was suddenly dry. I tried to swallow, and found that I couldn’t.
“And h—how would that work?”
Roderick took another step, until we were toe to toe. His face looked different. Like he was about to say something of extreme importance, for once without a hint of sarcasm.
“You’d date all three of us,” he said. “Exclusively. And of course you’d get the same from us.”
“So…”
“We’d be a four-way relationship,” he explained. “Which isn’t that far from the three-way relationship we already have with each other, only we’d be adding you.”
Bryce cleared his throat noisily. Roderick smiled a little.
“Okay, and we’d be adding sex, too.”
“Three… boyfriends.” The words seemed to weigh a thousand pounds each. “Simultaneously.”
“Well not simultaneously,” Camden chimed in. “I mean, not always, anyway.”
“No, no,” I managed, with a sly smirk. “Simultaneously is good.”
“He means all three of us would be your boyfriends at all times,” said Bryce. “No pick-your-day-of-the-week bullshit. No ‘taking turns,’ or anything like that.”
“Oh.”
“We’d share you,” Roderick said, and the word sent a lightning bolt of excitement through me. “Other than there being three of us instead of one, it would be like any other relationship you might’ve had.”
Oh I doubt that, the little voice in my head snickered.
“Of course, we’d want to know a little more about you,” Roderick went on. “More than we know right now anyway, which is virtually nothing.”
I paused for
