Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 65083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
“But you and I lost that one,” I recall.
“Totally worth it to be tied to you. You might not remember, but that event was all my idea.” He pulls me much closer to him than I was that day and gives me a kiss that makes me forget he was ever a boy.
Kai pulls me into his lap when I walk over to him. His expression is serious when he says, “This is very special, but you didn’t have to get us anything. All we want is you.”
I don’t know what to say to this, especially because he still has me locked in his gaze, and there’s an intensity there that goes beyond even his normal level of fierceness.
He kisses me then, tenderly at first before he deepens the kiss, and then he stills but doesn’t pull away, as if he’s waiting for me to take the lead, which is unlike him. It’s a question, and I’m not prepared to answer.
I kiss his closed lips and then pull back, covering my discomfort with a smile.
Kai hands me the red gift bag. “This is for you.”
I find a long, thin box inside. After shimmying off the ribbon that wraps around it, I open the box to reveal a delicate gold necklace.
“It’s beautiful,” I say immediately, touched that they’ve given me something as romantic as jewelry.
Kai arranges it so that I can see it better. There are three sparkling diamonds set along the chain, and the piece has a beautiful artisanal quality, making me wonder if they had it made specially for me.
“Oh, wow,” is all I can say. They didn’t need to give me a gift, because all I want is them.
“One gem for each of us,” he says.
“It’s gorgeous. Thank you.” I kiss him again, and this time it’s a smooth give and take as his hands slide up my sides, his fingers holding onto me possessively.
But then he breaks away and turns me so that I can go to Gage, who takes me in his arms again, wrapping me in his warmth, his lips brushing mine as our bodies fit together like they were meant to be.
I start to thank him, too, but find that I’m getting choked up, memories both near and distant filling my mind, and when he passes me to Thorn, I have to keep myself from blinking so tears don’t fall.
Images of the tattoo on Gage’s chest … the mural at the park in our old neighborhood … little edible treats Thorn has brought to my desk at work … meals together now and in the distant past … the four of us racing each other on foot as kids, running so hard that we’d lose our breath and collapse together in a heap on the grass … the four of us tangled up in bed as adults—all of this and so much more speeds through my mind like a movie on fast forward and repeat.
Every moment is beautiful and impermanent, and it feels like it’s all of those memories that make up who I am. Like they’re holding me together, and I’ll fall to pieces or fade away without them.
The tears are uncontainable as Thorn strokes a hand up my arm. When he starts to speak, there’s a quaver in his voice that catches me off guard. “Lexy, I love you. I’ve always been in love with you, even as a boy.”
More tears come, and somehow, thankfully, I manage to keep it from turning into a full-blown ugly cry, which is what I really need to let it all out. The men assume I’m touched by the gift—and I very much am, but that’s not why I’m crying.
It’s just all so unbelievably bittersweet. I’m so in love with them, hopelessly and endlessly, and it’s so cruel that love and life don’t work that way, a woman being in love with three men.
And it’s not fair that their lives are on such different paths than mine, but the paths they’re on are what’s best for them, and maybe if I hadn’t moved away, they wouldn’t have found the success that they did. Maybe I would have held that back, and that’s the last thing I want to do.
Thorn holds me, Gage and Kai gather in around me, and the three of them wipe away my tears and place their gift around my neck, settling the diamonds at the center of my chest. They bathe me in kisses and caresses until I almost forget my cares.
Then they carry me into the bedroom for the most tender, most pleasurable, most heartbreaking experience I’ll ever have.
LEXY
It’s raining in Atlanta, a cold, gray, dreary winter day.
The weather in my heart is much the same.
I miss my men so much. I’m miserable here without them. I did my best to be cheerful over Christmas for my mom’s sake, though I know she wasn’t fooled, but now that the holiday is past I can’t seem to shake the gloom.