Onyx: Heart

by J. S. Lee

  “You.”

  He reached over, clamped his hands around my waist, then lifted me onto his lap. “I can tell,” I agreed, feeling his erection press up against me. I stared down at him. “But I’ve told you, I need to talk to you all first.”

  Jiwon rolled his eyes, reached up and pulled my face to his. “Use those lips for something else,” he murmured against them. He closed the gap, only to gently clamp his teeth onto my lower lip. As his hands applied pressure to my waist, pushing me right up against his cock, his mouth tugged too.

  A growl seemed to escape from the back of my throat. “The clothes are staying on, Jiwon,” I warned him, against his mouth. The bite turned into a suck, and the next thing I knew, I was pushing my tongue into his mouth, just like he seemed to want. Jiwon’s hands found the gap between my jeans and my top. His hands, deliciously warm, ran up my sides, around the back and with a precision which had me convinced it wasn’t his first time, he’d unhooked my bra.

  When I tried to pull away, his teeth were biting on my lip again. It wasn’t painful, but it was enough to hold me in place. Making sure that we didn’t stop kissing, Jiwon’s hands retreated from under my shirt. Instead, one went to my shoulder, grabbing at the bra strap.

  Fuck it. I batted his hand away as I finally pulled away. Before he could say anything, my hand was up my sleeve. Without taking my top off, I removed my bra, flinging it in the vague direction of my wash basket. “Now what?” I asked him, my breathing already faster than it should have been.

  My top was nothing special – a baby blue tank top – but right now, it was showing off two very erect nipples. Jiwon’s eyes were locked onto them, staring at them like I’d presented him with his last meal. “Now I’m going to make you regret saying your clothes stay on,” he promised me. He leaned forward, taking one of my nipples in his mouth.

  My head lolled back. As it did, I unintentionally angled my core directly over Jiwon’s hard cock. I was mid-moan when his teeth bit down on my nipple, his mouth still sucking. While the bite was painful, the warm wetness of his tongue and lips was an incredible counter-sensation.

  He was right, I was regretting saying the clothes stay on. I wanted that fabric out of the way.

  “Oh, god,” I moaned. Jiwon turned his attention to my other breast, teasing at me with his tongue.

  Behind him, the buzzer went to the dryer. I looked up. At the same time, two things happened. Firstly, Jiwon was biting me once more; and secondly, the smallest of movements from the corner of my eye caught my attention. I was still processing the fact someone else was in the room as I pushed myself away from Jiwon.

  “Did I hurt you?” Jiwon’s eyes were searching mine, assuming I’d leaped back because he’d bitten too hard.

  I pointed behind him. “JongB.”

  “JongB?” Jiwon repeated, confused, before he looked to the door, seeing the younger member. “JongB!” he growled, irritated.

  JongB raised a hand in greeting.

  “How long have you been there?” I demanded.

  “I came down to tell you that we were done now, if you wanted to have that conversation.”

  “That’s not what I asked,” I pointed out.

  JongB shrugged. “Long enough to know I needed to lock the door and stand guard.”

  “On the inside?” I asked, arching an eyebrow as I did. “Were you just going to stand there and watch?”

  JongB stared at me, unblinking as he genuinely seemed to consider the question. Finally, he raised his hands, palms up.

  “Fuck off,” Jiwon snapped at him. “I’m not having you or anyone watching me.”

  “Then you might want to consider locking the door, hyung,” JongB pointed out, cheekily.

  I had to grab my discarded laptop before Jiwon tried to launch it at JongB’s head.

  제 2 장

  Just Tell Me

  Both JongB and Jiwon helped me carry my laundry up to my room. Rather than put it all away, I stashed it in the bathroom. When I came out, Xiao was also in the room. He and JongB were stretched out on the bed closest to the door, while Jiwon was sitting in one of the armchairs, still glowering at JongB.

  Trying to keep the smile from my face, I shifted one of my cases from the other bed. When I turned around, Jiwon was there with the other. “Thank you.” I moved back to my bed, sitting on the edge of it. Jiwon sat down beside me. “I have a question.”

  JongB, who was leaning back against Xiao, shrugged. “Ask.”

  I stared at the two of them, words momentarily forgotten. I don’t know what it was, but seeing the pair so at ease, stretched out around each other… Damn. I cleared my throat. “This… us…” I waved vaguely at the four of us. “How did it end up being just you three? What about Youngbin, MinMin and CX?”

  “We said you were hot,” JongB replied.

  I waited for him to elaborate. He didn’t. Apparently, that was his answer. “Yes,” I agreed. “That makes sense.”

  “Youngbin and MinMin didn’t,” Xiao added, looking regretful at having to share that information.

  “And CX?”

  “We never asked CX,” Jiwon said. He was watching me carefully. I swear he still thought I was going to try to call this off again.

  “OK,” I said, slowly nodding my head. “I’m going to tell you something, and I want you to wait until I’ve finished before you respond.”

  Jiwon folded his arms, his eyes narrowing, but he nodded. I looked over at JongB and Xiao. They also agreed.

  I took a deep breath. “While I can’t comment on just how attractive Youngbin finds me, I do think he likes me. He tried to kiss me in Jakarta.”

  JongB’s mouth actually fell open. “Shut the fuck up!”

  “I thought we agreed you’d do that,” I said, dryly, as I gave him a pointed look.

  “I’m sorry, but the last time I spoke to Youngbin about you, he was calling you annoying.” That earned him a jab in the side from Xiao. “Ow!” He turned and glowered at Xiao. When Xiao merely arched an eyebrow, JongB sighed. “Sorry, hyung.” He looked back at me. “I’m just saying, are you sure he tried to kiss you? Youngbin doesn’t like you like that.”

  “Actually, I think he does,” Jiwon said, quietly.

  “Did he say something to you?” Xiao asked, curious.

  Jiwon nodded. “It was just after the show in Jakarta. He told me he changed his opinion of Kate and he was going to tell her. I didn’t get to see him again until the following morning and we were never alone. By the time we got back to Seoul, I’d forgotten about it and he never mentioned it again.” Once more he was back to watching me with suspicion.

  “I didn’t kiss him back,” I assured him.

  “Did you want to?” Xiao asked, curious.

  I’d been thinking about this for the last few days. “Yes,” I replied honestly. “Which is why I wanted to talk to you all.”

  “You want to date Youngbin instead?” Jiwon asked, flatly.

  I shook my head. “I was wondering how you would feel about bringing him into this,” I said. Holly had spent the entirety of college (or so it felt), telling me I was far too blunt and needed to work on my delivery with sensitive items. When the words left my mouth, I realized this was one of those occasions.

  “You want to bring Youngbin into this?” Xiao repeated, watching me, carefully.

  Honestly, all the stares I was getting was going to give me a complex. I reached for a pillow, bringing it into my lap. Somehow, it made me feel a little bit better; like it was a shield. “I don’t know if he would go for it,” I told them, hurriedly. “And it’s not that I’m not happy with how things are right now, and I didn’t think he liked me either, and then that nearly happened, and now I feel bad.” I was doing it again… I took a deep breath. “If you’re not in agreement, I get it.”

  “I think we should ask him,” JongB said with a smile. He finally sat up, taking his weight off Xiao so he could face him properly. “It’s Youngbin-hyung. The only reason we said no before was b
ecause we didn’t think he was interested.”

  “I don’t think we should.” Jiwon said, shortly.

  As the three of us turned to him, guilt shot through me. I was asking too much of him. I was going to tell him not to worry about it, but he spoke first.

  “If this had happened in the beginning, I don’t think it would have been an issue, but after Bohyun?”

  “I think it’s more of a reason to tell him,” Xiao said, quietly. He moved down the bed so that he was sat with his feet on the floor, opposite Jiwon. “Bohyun kept secrets. I think we should tell him, regardless. He might not like it, but at least we’re not keeping secrets from him too.”

  “If we do that, we risk him making us end this,” Jiwon returned.

  “Then we have to keep our faith in our hyung,” JongB told him.

  Jiwon turned to me. “What do you think, Kate?”

  I shook my head at him. “I think I don’t have any more say in this.” I didn’t, but that didn’t mean I wanted this to end.

  Jiwon stared at me, once more, his expression dubious. Then he shrugged. “We should get Youngbin,” he conceded.

  Xiao nodded, rising to his feet. “I’ll go.”

  I reached into my pocket, handing him my keycard before he left. The second the door shut, Jiwon reached for me, pulling me into his lap. My squeal of surprise was silenced by his mouth. His kiss was hard, hot, and deep. When he eventually pulled away, my lips felt swollen and I was trying to catch my breath.

  Suddenly, Jiwon’s head whipped around to face JongB, scowling. “Were you fucking watching?” He leaned behind me, grabbed the pillow that had at some point fallen from my lap, and launched it at JongB.

  JongB fell backwards, giggling. “Then maybe you shouldn’t keep doing that in front of me!” He suddenly sat back up. “For the record, I’m not complaining, but…” he pointed at my breasts.

  I looked down, discovering that I had forgotten to put a bra back on, and there were still damp patches over my nipples. “I should probably do something about that before Youngbin gets here,” I agreed. I walked into the bathroom and dug around in the pile of laundry, finding my bra from earlier (the only one that was dry), and a fresh top.

  They really didn’t seem to mind me doing anything with any of them. At some point, it had stopped feeling weird for me too, I realized. I quickly changed. When I stepped back into the main room, Xiao was back. Youngbin was in the room too, watching us all in confusion from behind his glasses.

  JongB was still on the bed, and Xiao was next to him. Jiwon had taken to one of the armchairs and Youngbin was in the other. Somehow, it made me feel like I was on display again. I moved over to the bed I had been on, grabbing my pillow back from JongB before using it as a shield once more.

  The room fell into an uneasy silence.

  Youngbin let out a long sigh. “Are any of you going to tell me what’s going on, or do I need to bring out a crystal ball?”

  I chewed at the inside of my lip. Despite my bluntness, I had rehearsed the conversation with the others over and over in my head. At no point had I ever moved on to the next step and begun to consider what to say to Youngbin. Now things were getting awkward.

  Thankfully, Xiao came to the rescue. “We have something we need to talk to you about,” he said.

  Youngbin nodded. “I gathered that when you came into my room and told me you had something you needed to tell me. The thing is, you made it sound urgent, which is why I stopped recording-”

  “You were recording?” I blurted out, surprised.

  “Yes.”

  “In your room?”

  “I have a microphone I hook up to my laptop,” Youngbin said, frowning. He looked back at Xiao. “What is going on here?”

  “Do you like Kate?” JongB blurted out.

  Youngbin shifted uncomfortably. “That’s irrelevant. Kate doesn’t like me,” he said, though he did look at me while saying it, despite his discomfort.

  “That’s not strictly true,” I admitted.

  “It’s still irrelevant,” he shrugged. “You said you were seeing someone.”

  “That’s not strictly true either,” I said.

  Youngbin folded his arms as he continued to stare at me. “Then what is true?”

  “I’m not seeing someone, so much as someones,” I offered, looking helplessly at the others. Smooth. I was so smooth.

  Youngbin frowned at me, before looking at JongB. As his gaze moved to Xiao, his mouth fell open. “You?” He looked at Jiwon. “All of you?” Youngbin unfolded his arms, raking his hands through his hair. “Are you all fucking insane?”

  He jumped to his feet, but Jiwon was in front of him in an instant. “Just hear us out, hyung.”

  “What the fuck could I possibly hear?” he demanded.

  “We realized that we all liked Kate. Rather than make it awkward, we decided we would be happy if we were all seeing her,” Jiwon explained.

  Once more, Youngbin’s gaze swept around the room, and then… he burst out laughing. He doubled over before collapsing into the chair. “This is a joke, isn’t it?” he gasped.

  “Is this how it went for you?” I asked JongB, dryly. This wasn’t the reaction I was hoping for. Of course, it could have been worse.

  “Not exactly,” JongB murmured.

  Finally, Youngbin seemed to sober up, pushing his glasses up so he could wipe the tears from his eyes. “Thank you. I needed that.”

  “As we were saying,” Jiwon continued as though the outburst hadn’t happened. “We heard you tried to kiss Kate.”

  Youngbin dropped his glasses on his nose as he cocked his head at Jiwon. “Wait. Were you being serious? The three of you are dating Kate?” We all nodded. “Are you going to punch me because I made a move on her?” he looked at Jiwon, and then promptly burst out laughing.

  I let out a long sigh and lay back into the pillows, stretching my legs out in front of me. I felt the bed dip beside me, and when I turned my head, found JongB lying next to me. “I think I misjudged Youngbin’s sense of humor,” I murmured.

  JongB had a mischievous smile which puffed his cheeks out when he grinned, like they were doing now. If we were at school, he’d be the class prankster – and that cheeky grin would let him get away with a multitude of sins. “I didn’t think he had a sense of humor,” he told me, with a conspiratorial wink.

  I sniggered.

  There was another guffaw from Youngbin. “I’m sure this is where someone should tell you two to get a room, but now I’m beginning to think that if I suggest that, we’re all going to get naked.”

  I sat upright and arched an eyebrow. “I’m not completely against that,” I told him.

  “I am,” Jiwon snapped. He turned to Youngbin. “That’s not how this works, hyung.”

  “Then how does this work?” Youngbin demanded.

  “It’s us and her, not us,” he waved his finger between him and his leader. “And her. We like her, she likes us. Simple.”

  Youngbin’s hand was back in his hair. “Jiwon, that sounds anything but simple.”

  “Not really,” Xiao chimed in.

  “There’s no way this would ever work,” Youngbin continued to object, but there was something in his voice, something saying he wasn’t completely convinced of the words he was saying.

  “What if I told you that it was working? And that I knew someone else who was in the same situation?”

  “Who?” Youngbin asked, his eyes growing wide.

  Xiao shook his head. “I made a promise, but it’s working for us so far. We just have to trust each other and keep it a secret.”

  Once more, Youngbin stared at each of us. Finally, he slumped back in his chair. “How long has this been going on?” he asked, wearily.

  “Since Japan,” I told him.

  Youngbin blinked several times in quick succession. “And you managed to hide it?” When Jiwon nodded, he grew quiet.

  I wasn’t against speaking my mind. It had gotten me in trouble many times in t
he past. Yet, the idea of speaking up now had butterflies churning around in my stomach. But this was one of those things where I felt I needed to act like the adult I was and speak up.

  “I like JongB.” Beside me, JongB reached out and took my hand. “I like Xiao. I like Jiwon.” I fixed my attention on Youngbin. “And when you tried to kiss me, I really wanted to kiss you back because I like you too.”

  “Really?” He looked dubious, his gaze falling on my hands.

  As though he sensed what I was going to do, JongB gave my hand a squeeze, and then let go. With my heart pounding in my chest, I got off the bed and walked over to Onyx’s leader, offering my hand. His expression remained dubious, but he took it and allowed me to pull him to his feet. “Really,” I murmured, leaning in to kiss him.

  Thank fuck he kissed me back.

  He was hesitant. One hand still clinging onto mine, while the other hovered over my hip. There was a possibility he was a shy person, but I highly doubted it. I suspected he was more disbelieving. I let go of him, but before he could pull back, snaked my hands up and around his neck, clinging on.

  Finally, he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me closer to him.

  Definitely not a shy person.

  Just as Youngbin tilted his head for a better angle, his tongue starting to tease at my lips, Jiwon let out an irritated snort. “This is not the kind of show I want to watch.” I could almost hear him rolling his eyes at us.

  I pulled back, ignoring Jiwon as I kept my attention on Youngbin, my arms still around his neck. “The internet calls it a polyamorous relationship,” I told him. I’d looked it up. “It’s not exactly conventional, but it does exist.”

  “How?” he asked.

  It was Xiao who answered. “Trust.”

  I stepped back, breaking the little bubble so that the other three could become part of the conversation.

  “Trust?” Youngbin repeated.

  “Trust,” Xiao confirmed. “There’s no one I trust in this world more than you, JongB, Jiwon, and MinMin.”