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“No stick-handling jokes?” I smiled. “No talk about penetrating my crease?”
Axel chuckled outright. The others simply smiled.
“No one wants to take a five-minute penalty in my box?”
“Oh, I could go a lot longer than five minutes in there,” Zane chimed in.
“There ya go,” I egged him on. “Good. Now you’re talking.”
The tension, what little there was of it anyway, was broken. All that was left was the scent of the candles, and the sound of the music. The warmth of my wine. The rich, chocolatey smell of freshly-baked brownies…
“Look, you were the ones who suggested we go on practice dates,” I told them. “Considering how close we all are, and how much physical attraction we’ve historically admitted to… well, I guess we were all pushing the envelope. Playing with fire.”
Tyler considered my words. He nodded slowly. “That might be true,” he admitted. “But you and Zane…”
My gaze shifted to the gorgeous Italian hunk on my left. He was leaning back wordlessly, sipping a beer.
“Zane and I hooked up at our loneliest,” I explained, “after you’d both gone away. We were missing the hell out of you guys. We only had each other.”
“When we found out he’d taken your V-card, we beat the shit out of him,” said Axel.
I sat up a little. “You did not!”
“No,” Tyler admitted. “But we sure as fuck wanted to.”
“But why?” I asked.
“What do you mean why? Isn’t it obviou—”
“Would you rather I lost my virginity to someone else?” I demanded of them. “Someone clumsy or careless who I didn’t even like? Someone who didn’t respect me? Maybe a perfect stranger, or someone like Garth?”
The guys didn’t move, or speak, or say anything else. The candles flickered. The song changed.
“Isn’t it better I had that experience with someone I know and love?”
Love. The word was so heavy, so full of meaning. And yet we all knew it fit.
“The three of you made a hands-off agreement, right? A pact not to pursue me. And you were all okay with it.”
I paused, setting my feet on the floor. One by one they looked my way.
“But did you ever stop to wonder what it was like for me?”
With that I got up, drained the rest of my wine, and headed into the kitchen for more. I was tempted to bring the bottle back, but settled for another half glass.
“There were times when I wanted you, you know,” I said, making sure my gaze flitted to each of them in turn. “Times when I imagined being with you, or telling you, or just… I dunno, just going for it.”
“So why didn’t you?” asked Tyler.
“Because there are three of you!” I practically shouted. “Imagine having three hot guys as friends, and you’re overwhelmingly attracted to all of them! And they’re bonded like brothers. Bound by a loyalty that other people could only ever dream about having.”
I stood over them now, exasperated, my face flush from the wine. Frustrated that someone like me, who’d never even had siblings for fuck’s sake, could somehow understand these connections better than they could.
“Think I’d ever risk coming between that?” I went on. “Hell no! And so I could never even dream of—“
And with that, everything I was about to say became null and void; forgotten entirely in the wake of three men shooting up from their seats, all at once…
And kissing me.
