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Phoenix turned and stalked away, leaving Cassie bereft. Jake’s hand tightened on hers, and she squeezed back. A moment later, he pressed his hand against his chest and pulled out his phone. He showed her the screen—a text from a new number.
Sorry. I was an arse. I know you came here looking for something, but it’s not them.
Cassie was her own woman. She prided herself on being independent and confident, but that possessive alpha in Phoenix rearing its head was like a drug to her. Jake was like that too—try to come between them and he flipped from his calm, laid-back self into a bear. And Cassie loved it. Jake smiled, that giddy grin she loved to see, added the number to his contacts and typed out a response, showing Cassie before he hit the paper plane sending the message.
Could it be you? We’d like it to be.It was spot on. That’s exactly what Cassie wanted. Was their meeting serendipitous, or fate? Cassie didn’t care either way, but Jake had been right the night before. They were going to fight for what they wanted, and Phoenix was it. She had to pace herself. Not get carried away with the possibilities. It was hard, and she was still wary, but the seed of hope had firmly implanted itself in her brain.
A moment later he responded.IDK. I want to say yes, but it’s been a long time. We’re different people, and I’m a mess. I don’t want my shit to affect you.
Jake ran his fingers through his hair and groaned, and Cassie’s heart broke for both of them. They had so much in common. The desire to protect others from things that weren’t their doing or fault was ingrained in both Jake and Phoenix, and Cassie wished she could take some of that burden from them.You still finishing at midnight? Maybe we can talk?
Phoenix’s response made him laugh, and when he showed her his phone, Cassie grinned, remembering the conversation like it was yesterday.My dad’s picking me up. Car’s in the shop, so I’m schlepping it with the old man. Next he’ll be tucking me in.A second message flashed up on the screen only a moment later, and Cassidy snorted out a laugh at the rambling.That sounded… wrong. He’s not gonna put me to bed. Not like that. Actually, not at all. Scrap the last part of that message.
Jake smiled indulgently. He’d been like that around Phoenix once upon a time too. It wasn’t lost on her how the tables had turned; Jake was a different person to the one she’d met a few years earlier. He’d shaken off that self-doubt, and she knew they could help Phoenix do the same. They would. She was determined.Call him and cancel. We’ll drive you home.
Okay.
That one-word reply was everything. He was opening himself up again, trusting them to look after him. Cassie’s heart soared and the weight on her shoulders lifted. They were by no means in the clear—not that she even knew what that meant in these circumstances—but that bubbly excited hope fizzed in her veins like champagne, and Cassie counted down the moments until they could talk again.
The remainder of Phoenix’s shift crawled, especially because the older man—his boss—directed Phoenix to serve the customers on the other end of the bar while he minded the section Cassie and Jake sat in. Cassie bit back her pout and had to coach herself not to stare daggers at the man. Considering Phoenix was still on trial, she didn’t want to rock the boat. The last thing she wanted was for him to lose his job because she’d been acting like a spoilt brat stomping her foot that the sexy bartender wasn’t serving them. On the surface, Jake handled things better, but Cassie knew he was on edge, and like shaking the bottle ready to pop the cork, it ramped up her excitement. Jake was staking his claim without words, not taking his eyes off their man the entire time.
When Phoenix’s interminable shift was finally over, and he slipped out from behind the pass to stand next to them, Jake lost his cool. He pulled Cassie against him and pressed his steely erection between her cheeks, groaning in her ear. Her clit throbbed and her breath lodged in her throat. Phoenix’s nostrils flared and Cassidy reached for him, tugging him closer. He moved, standing in their personal space. He was close enough that Cassie could feel the heat radiating from his body. She could reach out and palm the bulge he was sporting, watching Cassie squirm against Jake’s grinding hips and seeing her no-doubt glassy, half-lidded expression.
Phoenix inhaled sharply and Jake hissed, “Fuck.” He pressed harder against her, and ground out, “Want to bend you over right here so we can take turns making you come apart.”
Oh fuck.She wanted that. To be between them, right there and then. But she also wanted more than that, and she needed to be strong.
*****
Cassie peered out the front windscreen as Jake pulled into the farm Phoenix had pointed out. A white clapboard house that was well-loved sat at the end of the gravel drive, and Cassie could just imagine Phoenix as a kid riding around the area on his push bike. Darkness surrounded them except for the lone porch light illuminating a small staircase and a happy red front door. Even if there was traffic travelling along the country road that late, the house was hidden from view by a curve in the driveway and plenty of trees.
A dog’s barking broke the silence, and Phoenix hopped out, hushing him. It couldn’t be the same one Phoenix had had as a boy, but being there and seeing what he saw as a child retold in the memory he’d shared years earlier tightened the connection that had gone slack with the passage of time and distance between them.
“So, this is where you grew up?” Jake asked as he followed him out of the car, Cassie tentatively walking around the back to join them.
Phoenix turned back to them after patting the black-and-white dog and sending him back to bed. “Yeah. Far cry from Sydney.”
“Sydney wasn’t right for us either. What matters is whether you’re happy here,” Cassie assured him. “We all have paths to follow. Sometimes you end up in a different place to where you imagined you’d be, but the twists and turns in your path are what make life interesting.”
“The path has a pretty good view right now.” He smiled tentatively and Cassie bit her lip, hope surging in her. She hoped more than anything that she wasn’t reading more into the tentative steps forward they’d made. “But what I’m feeling scares me half to death.”
Jake reached out, linking their fingers together and tugging him against them. “What’s the scariest part?”
“You heard me at work. ‘They’re mine.’ No you aren’t. You can do whatever and whoever the hell you want.” His words tumbled out, a fast rant as he shared his insecurities. “You joined the club so that you could sleep with other people, and a day later I’m laying claim to you? How can I go from not knowing who I am any more, to knowing exactly what I want in the space of a few weeks?” He stopped talking, his eyes wide. It was as if he was shocked by the admission. He knew what he wanted? He wanted them? Cassie was floored. Only a moment ago she’d been schooling herself into not overreacting, not projecting her hopes and desires onto his reactions. She hadn’t stopped thinking about Phoenix for years, and it was hard to avoid the trap of jumping in headfirst when she saw him again thinking that they could pick right back up where they’d left off.
But hearing those words was a siren call.
“You don’t have to make a decision now, Phoenix,” Cassie assured him, going against her innermost desires. Curbing her hope and stopping that bubbly champagne-like excitement from exploding out of her was tough. If it was up to her, they’d turn around and head straight back to their place and stay there until they’d gotten naked and sated so many times none of them wanted to leave again, but this was more than sex. Phoenix had been struggling with his mental health and she wanted—no needed—to support him. To help him heal. “We didn’t come tonight to force you to choose us. We came because we just found you again, and we were being selfish. If you need us to stay away, we’ll do that.” Jake’s gaze flashed to hers. His eyes were wide and his mouth open in an O with shock. She slipped her hand into Jake’s and squeezed before leaning in to kiss Phoenix on the cheek.
He turned his face, bringing his hand up to cup her cheek and hold her in place while he brushed his lips against hers. Cassie’s eyes drifted closed at the gentle touch, the reverence with which he kissed her, stealing her breath. “I should tell you to go,” he murmured between brushes of their lips, his tongue stealing out to tease hers as he kept his touch gentle. Cassie’s heart flip-flopped, see-sawing between looping and swooping like a kaleidoscope of butterflies and clenching tight at his words. The ball of tension in her gut tightened when he pulled his lips away and he turned to face Jake. Their gazes locked, and they shifted closer together, the gap between them lessening as Jake pressed against him. This time, Cassie’s heart stuttered, hope stringing tight like an archer readying to loose an arrow. She didn’t breathe, didn’t dare move in case she broke the spell the two men were under.
They hovered there, breathing each other’s air as their lips were a hair’s breadth apart. Jake lifted his hand to Phoenix’s face, cradling it like he was a precious gift, and Phoenix murmured, “But I can’t seem to stay away.” Phoenix’s words snapped Jake’s apparent last thread of control, and Cassie could have sobbed with relief. She surged forward, hugging him tight as Jake slammed his mouth against Phoenix’s, licking and sucking, nipping and caressing him as he let the years of heartache bleed away. Cassie blinked back tears of pure happiness and kissed Phoenix’s neck, unable to pull away from his smooth skin and the rich scent filling her senses. Jake clawed at Phoenix’s shirt and vest, reaching for the warm skin he’d no doubt find underneath.
Phoenix moaned and tilted his head back, shuddering at Jake’s touch. Cassie closed her hand over Jake’s, and he sucked in a breath, the trembling calming instantly. He choked out a strained laugh and smoothed his fingers down Phoenix’s front before slipping his hand around the other man’s waist and bringing their bodies into perfect alignment. “Sorry, got carried away,” Jake apologized, and Cassie slipped out from between them, letting them kiss. Phoenix only broke away to join his lips with hers once more.
Jake’s breath caught when Phoenix brushed his hand against the one she had pressed to the small of Jake’s back. He moved down, squeezing Jake’s arse. His hips rocked forward, and Phoenix moaned, a choked sound coming from the back of his throat. Jake slid his hand lower, teasing the spot just above the waist of Phoenix’s pants.
“Touch me,” Phoenix begged into the quiet of the night before Cassie captured his lips again.
