being vulnerable but safe with them. Like I could let my guard down here.
And the happy fuzziness in my brain was blocking out most of the but what now? questions that had nagged me all day.
“You’re not really going to sleep on the couch, are you?” I asked Luke.
“As opposed to...”
If none of us moved, things would be perfect forever. “We could all sleep here. Like this.”
“It’s a tight fit.” Chase squeezed my hip. The gentle gesture felt possessive. And perfect.
“That’s what she said.” Luke grinned.
I laughed. Nothing had changed, except that we’d all just had the dirtiest sex I’d ever been part of. Just a teensy, tiny, tremendous thing.
Behind me, Chase shifted. “If you both want to stay here, I don’t mind. We’ll just have to snuggle close.”
“Yes, please.” That sounded so completely right. Even better than a week of regular sleep.
Luke kissed the tip of my nose. “Is this what you had in mind when you said sleepover?”
“It will be going forward. Past sleepovers for me have involved a lot more talking and a lot less fingering.” Not counting the experimentation with Lyn.
Chase sighed heavily. “Fantasies dashed.”
“What fantasies?” Luke looked past me. “You were in the same house when these things happened, as I understand it.”
“Yeah, but that was no man’s land,” Chase said. “I was not allowed in that part of the house when the girls were over.”
They’d confessed their long-term attraction. I could do the same. “I never would have minded.”
“See? You miss one-hundred percent of the shots you don’t take,” Luke said.
Chase made a gagging sound. “Did you just motivational-poster us?”
“It was kind of creepy.” I had to agree. “Can’t you say that in a funny voice—maybe Jerry Seinfeld or something—and take the edge off?”
“Out on the edge, you can see all sorts of things you can’t see from the center.” Luke finished the phrase with a stoic look that was disrupted by his trying not to smirk.
I knew that one. “Vonnegut? You’re full of wisdom tonight.”
“He’s full of something.” Every time Chase spoke, his chest hummed against my back.
Luke tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “Adoration, horniness, and fuck-you-till-you-screamitude.”
“You didn’t exhaust your supply with the last round?” I was pleasantly sleepy.
“Hmm...” Luke screwed up his face. “Gorgeous woman in my arms, and my naked cock pressed against your bare stomach? Easy supply to replenish.”
I smirked at the twitch against my abdomen.
“Wait. You’re buying this? I can do motivational quotes too,” Chase said.
I only had so much appreciation for that sort of thing, even wrapped up in two men and post-coital bliss. “Please don’t. Let’s just say I don’t like him because of the quotes; I like him in spite of them.”
“I could serenade you instead.” Chase sang the first few stanzas of “Twisted Transistor” by Korn, in the sweetest baritone ever.
“Hauntingly disturbing.” I did like his voice, though. In fact, everything about this evening was pretty much perfect.
THE FAINT STRAINS OF “Heathens” by Twenty-One Pilots infiltrated my dreams and dragged me awake. I forced myself to sit. The only custom ringtone I had, because Lyn, Sadie, and I all had the same songs for each other.
“’S’wrong?” Sleep lined Luke’s question.
“Nothing. Call from my friends. I need to get this.” What was I supposed to tell them? Would they hear the shower running in the background? Oh yeah, that’s Chase. No big deal. Hey, did you know your brother is hung like—
No reason to give them that level of detail. I’d be surface-level honest.
I raked my fingers through my hair, and pulled on a camisole as I dug my phone out of my purse. “Hey,” I finally answered.
My best friends’ faces smiled back at me. “We wake you?” Sadie asked.
“It’s only six here. I’m surprised you’re up before ten,” I teased.
She stuck her tongue out. “We were promised secrets. Now that we’re face-to-face, spill.”
“It’s not a big deal.” Saying that, instead of telling them made it sound exactly the opposite, didn’t it?
A door squeaked behind me.
“Do you want to build it up some more?” Lyn asked. “Add a few more qualifiers?” Her tone was light.
I let out a nervous laugh. “No. So here’s the thing—”
“Hey, guys.” Chase pressed into my back. His chest was hot against my exposed shoulder blades.
My stomach dropped into my shoes, as I stared at two faces working their jaws. This wasn’t the way I wanted to tell them. “There was a fuckup with our reservations, so Chase let us crash with him.”
That was innocent enough. Except the memories