“You did not.” I laugh.
“I swear to God. Smith was busy with Chella so I stepped in. I’m that kind of guy, Rochelle. I step in.” He holds his arms out, like this is a done deal. And I’m a little off my game right now, not sure what the next move is, but handing him Adley can’t be a wrong move, no matter what, right? So I gently slip her into his waiting arms and watch his expression change from badass Bric to melty Elias in the same moment.
“We could make him happy again, brat.”
This time when he calls me brat I don’t feel defensive. It feels… like affection.
“He’d be my friend again. You’d be my lover. We’d be what we were, Rochelle.” He looks up from the baby and stares at me. “But we’d be better.”
A new take on an old twist. My head is whirling with ideas, and possibilities, and… maybe even regrets. Did I bow out too soon? Did I not give them enough credit? Did I misinterpret every signal they ever sent me? “I have a car here, remember?” I say, almost whispering.
“We’ll have someone bring it to Denver. We’ll get you your own place if you want. It might be weird if you stayed with one of us. Quin won’t want you at my place and vice versa. It would be much better, Rochelle. I promise. We won’t play that game anymore. We’ll start something brand new.”
“Something… real?” I ask, almost afraid to hope.
He gives me that slow nod one more time. “Something very real. I’ve missed you. And I know you think I was never invested—and that’s fair. I probably wasn’t. But I am now, Rochelle. I am. We could start again. Pick up where we left off, but with new rules.”
“What rules?” I ask, my heart sinking at the thought of all those fucking rules. I can’t do that again. It was way too confusing. The best thing that ever happened was Smith distancing himself from our game and letting Quin and Bric do whatever they wanted.
Bric shrugs. “Make them up as we go, you know? I don’t know what this might turn into, but I’d do just about anything to get another shot at it.”
“Do you love me?” I ask, confused.
“Yes,” he says, no slow nod this time. Nothing but commitment. “I love you in my own way.” He shrugs. “We all loved you, Rochelle. We just didn’t pay much attention to that feeling until we realized you were gone.”
“We’re not supposed to turn back,” I say.
“Fuck that,” he says softly. “We make our own rules. There’s nothing wrong with admitting you made a mistake and then correcting it, right?”
I let out a long breath. “I don’t want to get hurt. What if Quin—”
“He won’t,” Bric says quickly. “He loves you. He really does. He’s fucking miserable, Rochelle. If I bring you back to him…” He trails off, shaking his head.
“I’d be your gift to him?”
“Yes,” he says, smiling down at Adley. “And her too.” He looks up at me again. “I have a jet waiting. We can’t leave until morning but one night alone won’t hurt, right?”
Jesus Christ. I’m instantly horny. “But it’s Monday.”
He laughs so loud, Adley starts crying. I take her, laughing with him, because my immediate reaction was to morph back into the game. Then shush her until she’s settled again.
“Well?” Bric finally asks, his fingertips playing with my hair. “What do you think? Should we break all the rules tonight and start something brand new tomorrow?”
I look up and bite my lip. Some of this feels wrong. The one night alone with Bric, for sure. Because I’ve never wanted him. Not alone. It’s Quin I dreamed about at night. It’s Quin I really love. It’s Quin I wanted a million different ways for the rest of my life, and couldn’t have.
But I am lonely. I have been so lonely for so long I forgot what it feels like to have someone. Someone you know. Someone you love, because I do love Bric. Not the way I love Quin. But I do love him. He’s someone I trusted, even though I knew better. And now he’s here, asking me to reconsider.
It feels… wrong, but right. Because Bric and I are not going to be a couple. We’re going to be a ménage with Quin again. A kind of family.
It’s not how I imagined it when I left. Not what I wanted back then. But that’s because I didn’t think Bric would be interested in a real family. I thought he’d kick me out and they’d all walk away.
But this… this is what Quin wanted, right? The three of us forever?
Just imagining myself with both of them again. God. It was good. All the fun Quin and I had. The way he made me feel so cherished when he came over every week and made love to me. All the crazy shit Bric likes to do in private. The way he was careful with me even though he wanted to do so much more.
All the… sharing.
We’d stopped that for a while because Bric was always looking for more submission. But the times we did share… it was amazing. I loved the way it felt to wake up between them both in the morning.
Why did I leave? Was it the hormones? Was I just mentally unstable?
“OK,” I finally say. “It’s been so long I could use a night of rule-breaking.”
Maybe he’s right. It could be good again. It could be so much better. Maybe some part of him has changed? Maybe he’s not the selfish, narcissistic player I thought he was? Maybe my time away has made him reconsider the dark part he hides inside that head of his?
I get a big Bric smile for my answer. “Good.” And then he leans in and kisses me. One hand touches my face with honest affection, while the other drops to Adley’s soft tufts of blonde hair. “Good,” he says into my mouth.
It’s like I never left. Like we didn’t have a year apart. I didn’t have a baby. And all three hundred and sixty-five days between then and now never happened.
It’s like a second chance.
“Do you want to spank me?” I tease. And then I immediately feel stupid. What is wrong with me?
You’re lonely, Rochelle. And sad. You’re just really good at hiding it.
“I really do,” he says, pulling back from the kiss. “After we put the baby to bed.”
We?
We?
For some reason that gives me a little panic attack. Did I just agree to share my child with them too?
But Bric stands up and offers me his hand. “Come on. I hear this dinky town has an amazing hot spring. Let’s go have some family fun.”
It’s just one night without rules. I can handle one night, right? I’m a professional game-player. I did this for three years.
But if Bric came to get me, that makes him number one. And we all know why I shouldn’t fuck number one.
I’ll get attached.
And where will that leave Quin when I see him tomorrow?
Elias Bricman thrives on control. If I let him control me again, nothing will have changed. He’ll be the same guy, with the same motivations, as he was when I left last year.
I don’t want what we had last year. I need more than that.
“I change my mind,” I say.
Bric squints his eyes at me, frowning. “Which part?” he asks.
“All of it.”
Chapter Four - Quin