Page 21 of The Circle

CHAPTER TEN

“Are you both insane?”

It’s a fair question Danny asks. Not just because of what’s happening right now, but because of everything we’ve ever done. Are we all insane? All three of us? Probably. So no sense in getting worried about the details now.

But there’s another reason we need to do this.

“What if it’s the last chance we ever get?” I ask. “To… be together?”

“It won’t be,” Danny says dismissively and, in my opinion, with a shitload of unearned confidence.

“Danny,” Alec starts, “come on, bru. We’ve been luckier than any of us have a right to have been. You just noted as much. And here’s the thing: My brother is dead. My child has been taken and we don’t know where or if we’ll get her back. You’re about to come face to face with the man who did all that; the man who, it would seem, wants to kill Christine, wants to kill you. I could go on and on, but the simple reality is… we’ve been walking between raindrops for a long time, the three of us. I don’t know if it’s realistic to think we can keep on going and not get soaked. So, if we’re going to get wet anyway, might as well do it on our own terms.”

“Is that supposed to be a clever turn of phrase?” Danny asks.

Alec shrugs, smiles, and puts his mouth on Danny’s neck.

“Alec, for fucking real… Christine—”

But I already have my mouth on the other side of his neck. And now we’re both kissing him, gently. Sucking and licking at his skin.

I can tell he hates how much he loves it. I know Danny Fortnight very, very well.

He lets his head drift back as we continue caressing him with our mouths. I press into him. Into his strong, familiar chest, with my soft breasts and suddenly hard nipples. Alec is reaching down to unfasten the top button of Danny’s pants so he can work his hand down and take hold of his cock.

“You’re a couple of fucking assholes,” Danny mutters without much fire.

And then…

Danny cups his hand between my legs, and I feel the warmth of his palm through my jeans, pressed against my pulsing pussy. He pulls me closer to him so that I’m forced to lift my mouth from his neck and look him in the eyes. I feel the fingertips of Alec’s free hand slide between my legs from behind, cupping my ass and making contact with Danny’s fingers as he holds me from the front, these two men who I love very differently but in equal measure holding me in the place I feel safest: between them.

Alec’s now pressing into me from the back as Danny continues gripping me from the other side. All the while, Alec keeps his other fist wrapped around Danny’s now rock-hard cock, pulling it above his waistband so that the tip of it touches my naked belly.

Alec’s head remains leaned around mine as he keeps sucking at Danny’s neck, but Danny and I never break eye contact, my shallow, expectant breathing causing my naked breasts to heave against his chest.

Gently, Danny takes my face in his hand and I allow my chin to rest on his palm. Then he forces my mouth onto his and we consume each other’s breaths, passing the air back and forth with our kiss, sharing our life’s energies with each other like we’re rescuing one another from having just nearly drowned.

I feel Alec pull back, drawing his mouth away from Danny’s neck and releasing the hand gripping his dick. He removes his other hand from my ass. And with both newly freed hands, he begins taking down Danny’s pants. Once he has them and Danny’s underwear around his ankles, he takes one of my hands and places it on the shaft of Danny’s cock where his had been seconds before. I squeeze hard and an involuntary groan emerges from within Danny’s throat.

“Alec…” Danny starts.

“Shh, my dears,” Alec says. “This is how we are meant to be.”

There’s something… prophetic?… about the way he says it. Not sure if that’s the right word, but there’s something about what Alec is doing now that suggests he wants us to be with each other. Me and Danny, I mean. Something buried in his tone that…

I don’t finish the thought because now Alec reaches his hands around my waist, unfastens the top button on my pants as well, and slides my jeans and underwear down my trembling legs. I lift one foot, then the other as he pulls the denim and lace free from my ankles and tosses the tangled fabric to the side on the bathroom floor.

I am now completely naked, the whole of my body pushing harder against Danny as we don’t let go of the kiss that’s locking us together.

Breathing hard, I open my eyes just for a second. Long enough to see Alec’s reflection disappearing from the mirror as he goes down onto his knees behind me. I hear myself make a tiny sound, a kind of an “mmm,” as Alec begins kissing and nibbling my ass and then I emit a higher-pitched squeak of surprise and pleasure as he spreads my ass cheeks apart and licks at my asshole with his tongue.

The whole time, I never stop gripping and stroking Danny’s shaft as he pulls me in tighter, trying to consume my mouth with his as he slides a finger inside me.

I feel my already weak knees buckle, but Alec and Danny keep holding me up.

Alec has now risen to a standing position and he palms the sides of my hips, digging into my skin with his strong fingers. It hurts, the way he’s holding me, and I never want the pain to cease. He begins lifting me. And he keeps lifting. And keeps lifting. Pulling me up and free from Danny’s finger as I strain forward to make sure my mouth isn’t pulled apart from his.

I want to ask questions. “What are you doing? Why are you…?” Whatever. Any number of questions. But questions never have answers that make it worth the asking. Sometimes not knowing what’s happening or why is for the best. I trust these two probably more than I should and certainly more than I have any right to, but in this moment I make the choice to just let whatever’s happening happen and worry about the whys and wherefores another time. Alec wants to watch me and Danny together. It wouldn’t be the first time.