Page 99 of Filled

The configurations shift. Eli draws Cruz toward him and kisses him with a tentativeness that disappears about two seconds in. Dakota’s hands find my waist from behind, her mouth between my shoulder blades. I turn and catch her lips, taste wine and her.

Clothes start to go. Cruz peels his shirt over his head and tosses it. Eli unbuttons his. Dakota strips down to nothing without ceremony, comfortable in her body.

I pull my shirt off, drop my jeans. When I’m naked, I feel the weight of Brady’s eyes like a hand against my skin. I don’t look at him. Don’t give him reason to flinch, I just let him look, find his footing in his own time.

We end up on the bed. Eli’s hands on Dakota’s hips. Cruz’s mouth on my neck. Dakota’s fingers in my hair, then in Eli’s. Everyone touching, kissing, the heat building graduallly—inevitably.

I observe the way Eli’s body moves with Dakota. Sure. Possessive. The way he touches Cruz, slightly more careful, learning. The way his eyes keep flicking to me. Curious. Uncertain.

I shift, kneel up, find Eli’s gaze. “Take me first.”

His eyes go dark. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” I let my mouth curve. “Show us who you are, Daddy. Be yourself.”

The relief that crosses his face is so immediate, so naked, that I have to look away for a second. He didn’t know how to ask. Didn’t know it was an option. Asking him to surrender his autonomy, to make himself wholly vulnerable his first time with a man would’ve been like asking him to step off a cliff with no idea what lay at the bottom.

His hand comes up to my jaw. Gentle. Certain. “You’d let me?”

“I want you to.”

“Dante.”

It’s just my name. The way he says it.

“Wait.” Dakota’s voice. We both turn. She’s up on her knees in the middle of the bed, blonde hair loose around her shoulders, naked and gorgeous and thinking.

“We don’t have to do this in pieces.”

“Sweetheart?” Cruz.

“All of us.” Her eyes move around the bed. “Chain. Eli takes Dante. Dante takes me. Cruz… ” Her mouth curves into a mischievous smile. “Cruz gets my mouth. We connect. Everyone. Together.”

The room goes quiet.

“And Brady… ” She looks past me to where he’s still against the wall. “Brady gets to see the whole chain. How we all fit.”

Brady makes a sound, low and bitten back.

Cruz laughs, breathless. “Sweetheart, your brain is a goddamn weapon.”

“Yes or no, gentlemen?”

I look at Eli. He’s already nodding.

“Yes,” I say.

“Yes,” Cruz echoes.

“Yes,” Eli says, and the way he says it is rough already.

“Brady?” Dakota’s voice gentles. “You okay with where you are? You can watch. You don’t have to do anything.”

Brady nods. His voice is barely a thread. “I want to. I want to touch myself. While I watch.”

“Perfect.” Dakota’s smile is so warm it hurts.

We arrange ourselves carefully.