Page 96 of Twins for Three Bad Boys

I step back again, this time more carefully. My heart is beating out of my chest, but I try to play it cool. I laugh awkwardly.

“Okay, yeah. I'm good. Totally good.”

Wayne just watches me, his hand still hanging in the air as if he’s waiting for me to come back. I don’t know what it is, but his expression is different, like he's waiting for something more.

But I can’t do this. Not now.

“Uh, good night!” I say too quickly and almost bolt up the stairs, my footsteps loud against the wood, my brain whirling in a thousand directions.

I don’t look back.

I get to my room, shut the door, and lean against it as if the wood will keep Wayne and the rest of the world out. My pulse is still sprinting. My lips are tingling. My skin feels sensitive, like it’s carrying fingerprints.

This is ridiculous!

I peel off Fletcher’s jacket and drop it on the chair, but not before I bring it up to my face for one mortifying half second and inhale.

Yep. Still smells of him.

“This is not me,” I mutter, hanging it over the chair back. “I do not get to have this whole… situation.”

Especially not considering what I’m running away from, all those poisonous rumors about me that ruined my life. Am I trying to live up to them?

Whatever it is, I can’t seem to stop.

Wayne’s hands on my waist.

Fletcher’s mouth on mine.

Rex’s lazy smile from the riverbank earlier this week, the way he looked at me as though he had all the time in the world and intended to spend it figuring me out.

What is happening to me?

I used to be careful. I used to overthink ordering coffee. Now I’m out here in Redwood Run apparently collecting emotionally complicated men like loyalty cards.

I change into pajamas on autopilot and crawl into bed. The house is quiet but far from silent. Every small sound feels amplified. The hum of the heater, a board settling somewhere downstairs, the faint echo of Wayne moving around.

Is he thinking about that almost moment?

Is he thinking about me?

I roll over and shove my face into the pillow…

Sleep eventually drags me under, and I find myself very much not alone in my dreams.

“Hey, darlin’.” Rex is looking at me, his lips curling into a smile. “Nice to see so much of you.”

Oh… shit! I realize I’m very much naked. And Wayne and Fletcher are there too, both smirking happily at me.

I don’t even know who moves first, but suddenly, I’m surrounded by them all. Wayne crashes his lips to mine, Rex’s hands move over my back, Fletcher’s mouth is on my neck, sending little shivers down my spine.

I’m burning up and shivering, dizzy and high, and so alive that I can taste sunlight in my mouth. Wayne’s breath is hot on my cheek, his hands hard and certain where they cradle my hips. Fletcher’s fingers slip under my hair at the nape of my neck and tug gently until my mouth falls open against Wayne’s, and then Rex is behind me, pressed so close his heartbeat throbs at the base of my spine.

There’s not nearly enough air in the world.

My name, spat out and worshipped, bounces between the three of them.

I laugh, or maybe I moan, and their hands move over me, rough and greedy, vying for every inch of me as if I’m the prize in a carnival game and none of them wants to lose.