Tanner, in the next heartbeat, said the worst thing ever. I hadn’t been able to imagine the horror of what his words made me feel in a single moment. “Which one is it gonna be, Elliot?”
My eyes widened with terror. “I…can’t…”
They watched me intently as I wished to tear my heart apart and give them each one half, then just die in a sad little heap of unrequited love. Except that the next moment, Tanner laughed rapturously and Damien joined him, shaking his head in reprimand. “I can’t believe you asked him that,” Damien said.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I couldn’t resist it,” Tanner was saying and heaving for air, rolling back on his blanket before he looked at me again. This time, he looked apologetic. “You should have seen your face, though.”
Fire finally lit inside of me. It roared like the biggest bellows fanned it. “And what about you?” I asked, a playful smile stretching my lips. “You’re putting us in the spotlight, but I know for a fact you’re hot for Damien.”
Tanner lifted his hands a little in defense. “Guys, I’ve got nothing to hide. I’m the one pulling the strings.”
Damien and I exchanged a look, but there was something different about it this time. After countless years of knowing each other, we caught each other’s gazes and paused. There was some vulnerable intimacy in his eyes for the first time ever. He looked at me like an insecure boy in a big man’s body. He looked like his deepest secret had been uncovered and he didn’t know how to live without it.
I knew that feeling all too well.
“I’m the one who put you up to this talk,” he said. “Damien, this morning. You, in the lake. Hell, I think I’m responsible for you two dummies talking behind my back, too.” He laughed and crossed his legs at the ankles. “I even told you my threesome story.” And then, he waved his hand down the length of his body. By now, I was getting used to him like this, so he pointed it out. “And need I remind you? I’m literally lying between you. Naked.”
My breath hitched in my throat and I blinked twice, then looked at Damien. His lips parted.
“Are you…?” Dayton trailed off.
“…suggesting…?” I continued numbly. My entire body was alert, senses sharp to the hammering of my heart and my heated blood flowing with an injection of adrenaline. I was acutely aware of the deafening silence around us. The crackling of the fire and the uncomfortable shifting of Damien’s body from the log down to Tanner’s blanket filled my ears. I watched as Damien licked his lips and let his gaze dart between us, a little frown creasing the space between his eyebrows. And I, too, parted my lips and breathed quietly as if not to ruin the perfection of our silence.
Tanner dragged his gaze from me to Damien, waiting, expecting, questioning.
One side of his lips was moving up until Tanner flashed us with one of his trademark lopsided grins and his dimples were all I could see. My heart hammered quicker. He wasn’t fooling around. He was serious.
“What are you dummies waiting for?” he asked.
“Are you sure about this?” Damien asked, gaze darting back to me as if I would have an answer.
I licked my lips. “I…wanted this since forever,” I blurted.
Damien’s eyes flashed with wonder and lust. “You did?”
Tanner only wore that smile of his and said nothing. He knew.
I nodded. “Since forever,” I repeated. Words were failing me, but Tanner and Damien came to my rescue at the exact same time. They both stretched out their arms toward me, Damien his left and Tanner his right. I suddenly found myself sliding off the log I’d been sitting on and falling to my knees by the fire. My hands hovered toward my two beautiful friends and the unattainable thing they were offering.
At the same time, they reached for one another. Damien’s right hand ran down the length of Tanner’s bare leg, then up to Tanner’s hip. And Tanner, simultaneously, closed his free hand around the hem of Damien’s underwear. He truly held nothing back.
“Forever’s a long time,” Damien mused.
“We should probably stop dragging it out,” Tanner added, snatching my hand just as Damien did, too. They pulled me closer and I looked from Tanner’s dimples up to Damien’s piercing gaze, eyes glowing with the reflection of fire. His bare chest rose and fell slowly and steadily while Tanner rested his hand above my hip.
“Elliot?” Damien said softly.
“Yeah?”
It was a wonder I could say that much at all.
“You wanted me all this time?” he asked.
I nodded.
A pained expression shadowed his face as he lifted his hand away from mine and to my cheek. His thumb brushed the side of my face as he shook his head a little. “And I never realized,” he said, chuckling a little but without humor. It was more like he was acknowledging the irony. “I figured I’d just let you two figure it out between yourselves and I would step aside.”
“I thought that too,” I said.
