It was thrumming with need that was certain to go unrealized. At least, for now. But I didn’t care. Gliding my hands up his hard chest, I wrapped my arms around his neck and sank my fingers into his thick hair. It felt like silk against my skin, making me wonder what all of me would feel like against all of him.
We kissed and kissed, until neither of us had any breath left in our lungs. When Hayle finally drew back, I was grateful for the strands of lights that allowed me to see his expression. Because it was nothing short of worshipful, giving me hope that we could actually get past all of the obstacles to an us.
He placed a soft kiss on one cheek and then the other. “That was better than I’d even imagined, and trust me, I’ve imagined that a lot.”
“That wasn’t our first kiss.” Technically.
“No, but it was the first time that you kissed me back, so it might as well have been.”
“Well, I guess you kids finally made up.”
I jumped at the sound of Leo’s voice from the path right outside of the gazebo. Hayle shifted, so that I could see both of the other Sharpe brothers making their way toward us.
“Sort of,” I replied.
Even Tristin laughed at that. “If that’s sort of making up with you, I’d really like to see what making up looks like without the qualifier.”
“Me too,” Hayle said.
Leo held up a hand. “I think we can all three agree on that much.”
I shook my head at them, embarrassed but also not. Shouldn’t this be super awkward? Tristin and I had only been an item for the last three days, and now he and Leo had watched me making out with their other brother.
But it wasn’t all that awkward. Maybe because the guys were being so chill about the whole thing, and I was instinctively taking my cues from them. This three-or-four-way relationship, depending on whether Hayle and I managed to graduate to the official level, would only succeed if they were invested in making it work.
“Should we come back in fifteen?” Leo asked. “To give you time to do more than ‘sort of’ make up?”
I shook my head. “We’re going to need more time than that.”
Hayle huffed out an exasperated laugh. “You’re not going to make this easy on me, are you?”
“Would you expect any less?”
“Never.”
Leo and Tristin climbed the steps to the gazebo, and Leo picked me up and sat us both down on one of the love seats, with me on his lap. “Then, I guess we should go ahead and talk about Dad’s newest deal. I, for one, think it’s total bullshit.”
“It is bullshit,” Tristin said, sitting down next to us. “But I think we should accept it.”
I could feel Leo’s surprise in his sharp intake of breath. “Seriously? I was expecting that from Hayle, but from you? Not so much.”
“I know. But think about this for a minute. As it currently stands, none of us have access to our trust funds until our twenty-fifth birthdays. Dad is going to continue holding them over our heads until then, and there’s no way I’m putting up with his interference for another six years.”
“I agree with Tristin,” Hayle said. “Especially now that we know that Thea has a trust as well.”
“Thea doesn’t need a trust fund,” Leo said defiantly. “She has us.”
“Yes, but none of us can predict the future, and I would feel better if she had her own safety net.”
“So, what? You’re okay with spending the next three months making her your dirty little secret? Because I’m not okay with that.”
“She doesn’t have to be your dirty anything,” Hayle retorted. “Everyone already knows you two are together.”
“Guys, stop.” I pushed up from Leo’s lap and hobbled a few steps away, so I could easily look at all three of them. “I don’t want us to argue about this. Not any of us.”
“What do you want to do?” Tristin asked. “This involves you just as much as us. More, really.”
I looked from him to Leo and then to Hayle. Right now, this thing that was growing between me and each of them, much less all of us together, was so fragile. Too fragile. I’d had more time with Leo, but even that had been partially a lie. We’d pretended like his brothers wouldn’t come between us, and we’d both known better.
“I hate to say it—” Like really, really hated it. “But Vincent wasn’t all wrong.