Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77490 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77490 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Or have I been reading everything all wrong? I’m not so naive that I don’t understand that sex complicates things, and our situation has gotten plenty complicated.
“I need to get up.” Planning an escape to the bathroom, I attempt to extricate myself from between Brax and Erik, but both of them reach for me.
“Ava, wait.” Brax’s eyes are soft and full of concern.
“No one’s asking you to choose,” Erik says, wrapping his arm around my hip and settling me back down on the couch.
I sniffle. “Not yet, anyway. But I can’t manage to forget that a decision will need to be made.”
“Will it?”
AVA
It’s Gray who speaks, and he’s looking at the other men rather than me.
After a beat, Brax asks, “What are you suggesting?”
“It’s Ava’s call, but she says she’d like to continue dating all three of us. I’m happy with any arrangement that lets me see more of her than I have been. If she wants you too, I’m not going to stand in the way of that.”
His words take me by surprise, but they don’t ease my pain. It’s Gray who’s suggesting that he’s okay with this; Erik and Brax are much more conservative about things.
Erik’s hand strokes my leg. “Is that what you want, Ava? All of us?”
My heart should be filled with hope, but it’s heavy as a stone. “I do want all of you, but I also want to be married someday; I want a family. So, as much as I can’t bear the idea of any of you no longer being in my life, I can’t say that I want to keep dating forever. I’ve been having so much fun, but eventually, I need more than fun. I want to commit to someone.”
This is met with silence, and when I make another attempt to get up, they let me go.
When I close the door of Gray’s guest bathroom, I expect to dissolve into tears yet again, but they seem to have dried up. I inspect my puffy red eyes in the mirror like I’m looking at a stranger.
I spoke the truth, and I can’t regret that. I hope I haven’t hurt any of them. I hope none of them are feeling even a fraction of what I’m feeling—or what I would be feeling if I hadn’t gone numb.
I take my time, and after pressing cold water into my cheeks and onto my temples, I venture back into the living room, head held high, ready to face whatever I find.
I’m already hurting; I’m not sure they can hurt me more, and I trust that they won’t, at least not deliberately.
Their eyes are still filled with tenderness and care. Erik puts his arm around my shoulders and Brax’s arm goes around my waist when I return to my seat. No one says anything, and we return our focus to the movie that’s playing on the tv. Somehow, things don’t feel awkward, even though they surely should.
My head is full of questions, but I push them all aside. I’m too tired to think anymore.
When the movie ends and another one begins, I should ask for a ride home, but I don’t. I drift off at some point, but I wake up when more credits are rolling on the screen.
“Time for bed, Sleeping Beauty.” Gray picks me up from between Brax and Erik and carries me away in his arms. Up the stairs we go to his bedroom, and when we turn the corner, I see that the other two men are following.
I’m still tired, but I rouse when he sets me in the center of the bed and kisses my lips. When he moves to pull away, I anchor him to me with a hand on the back of his neck.
Gray gives me his special grin. “Not looking quite as sleepy anymore, but still very, very beautiful.”
“Be with me …” I raise my voice so all three can hear me. “All of you.”
They don’t make me ask twice. With ease, as if we’ve been doing this together all our lives, they work together to satisfy me utterly, thoroughly and completely.
It’s bittersweet, because this may very well be the last time we’re all together, so I record every moment in my heart, where I’ll keep it forever.
In the morning, we make love again, before any of us are fully awake. I shed a few tears, but they’re quickly absorbed by the downy pillow, and I don’t think any of the men notice.
Later, when I come out of the shower, I find a text message from my brother. “Where are you? I went to your apartment and you’re not there.”
I find the men downstairs in the kitchen, each of them with a cup of coffee in hand.
“Gray, is it okay if Aaron comes over?”
His trademark smile turns savage. “By all means.”