The silence that followed was pure agony. What came next was even worse.
Cole let out a rumbling chuckle. “Can you believe how nervous she is?” he asked Ezra, his voice laced with amusement. The noise of the coffee shop faded into the background and my mind roared in panic.
What have I done? I’m an idiot. I’m a goddamn idiot.
I sprang out of my seat, ready to abort this mission.
Two hands landed on my shoulders in unison and pressed me back down.
Anger and embarrassment surged through me. “It’s fine. If you don’t want to do it—”
Ezra’s fingers landed on my thigh. “Adeline, calm down. Of course. Of course, we want to.”
“You’re too much, darling.” Cole leaned in, lowering his voice to a whisper. “Did you really think there was any chance of us saying no? Toyou?” His fingers brushed an errant lock of hair off my face. “Do you know how often I’ve imagined you splayed naked beneath me?”
My mind struggled to process their words, but my body seemed to get the meaning immediately. Heat bloomed between my legs and travelled down my inner thighs. “Oh,” I breathed out, leaning back in my seat.
As my vital signs began to drop back down to normal levels, it finally hit me. They’d agreed. This was happening.
What followed was a rapid exchange of glances. Cole looked at me with a sexy grin, his eyes filled with a hunger that made my nipples pucker. Ezra was rubbling circles on my thigh, a knowing smile on his face. Excitement was building inside me, but the blissful relief I felt at their agreement was short lived. I was about to live out a wild fantasy, and I’d been so consumed with worry about asking them, I’d spent little time thinking about what would come next. I cleared my throat. “Should we talk about how it’s going to go down? Put some rules in place?”
Ezra’s laugh was tense. “Maybe we should head back to my place for that part.”
I arched a brow at him. “Why not talk about it here?”
Cole bit on a knuckle and let out a muffled groan. “This seems like a family establishment.” He grabbed my hand away from my mug, pulled it under the table, and pressed my palm against the hardness straining against his jeans.
There was not a single cell in my body that didn’t react to that.
“Oh,” I said faintly, as he dragged my palm back and forth, letting me feel his entire length. When I looked back at Ezra shifting in his seat, I sensed he was in the same predicament.
Cole let my hand go. “If we want to leave this place without mortifying the children, we need to start talking about decidedly unsexy things.”
Fifteen minutes later, after we’d touched upon the highlights of cleaning lint out of a drying machine and stubbing a toe, we were ready to go.
Ezra dropped a twenty on the table, and we hurried out the door, grinning at each other like fools.
Before I made it to my car, Cole clasped my wrist, pulling me flush against him. “You’re driving with me,” he said against my cheek, his voice thick.
My eyes fluttered closed as his other hand landed on the small of my back and pressed me against his firm body until there wasn’t enough space for a sheet of paper to slide in between us. Being this close to him made me feel drunk. “I can’t leave my car here. We’ll drive separately and meet at Ezra’s place.” I forced myself to pull away, missing the contact immediately.
Ezra pulled up beside us in the Jeep. “I texted you the address, Adeline. See you there in ten.”
That’s how I ended up with only ten minutes to collect myself for the next part. Everything was moving at a breakneck pace, and I felt like a giddy teenager on prom night. My mind kept replaying the looks on the guys’ faces back in the coffee house. Their feral, unchecked desire had been focused entirely on me, as if I were an antelope, and they were two lions ready to tear me apart. Maybe I should be a little scared, but instead, all I felt was a dark thrill at living out my fantasy with them.
Ezra’s house was a ranch-style one-story home, and by the time I pulled into the wide drive-way, his Jeep was already there. I turned off the car and sat there for a few seconds, suddenly hit with another wave of nervousness.
A knock on the window jolted me out of my thoughts. I flung the door open, and Cole helped me get out before pulling me into his arms once again.
“Don’t psych yourself out of this, Adeline,” he said, his lips no more than an inch from mine. The gold in his eyes glimmered, and in the brightness of the afternoon, I could see a dusting of light-brown freckles across his cheeks.
“I won’t,” I promised. “I want this.”
His lips curled, emphasizing the perfect Cupid’s bow. “And I want you. Badly. You have no idea, Adeline. I’ve wanted you since the moment I first saw you.”
He looked at my mouth, and I stopped breathing. The world around us ceased to exist as he leaned in and pressed his lips to mine.
I’d imagined kissing him so many times, but as I tasted the mint tea on his tongue, I quickly came to the conclusion that my imagination had been severely lacking. In my mind, I’d never felt like this—like I was drowning. His scent, his taste, his touch—all of my senses were flooded with him, and I knew this moment would be forever seared into my memory. His hands moved into my hair, keeping my face firmly in place as he continued to devour my mouth. I wondered if he was also drowning in me.
