TIED: A Steamy Small Town Romance (Reckless Falls Book 3)

by Vivian Lux

  And then all three of us collapsed.

  For a moment there was only the sound of her breathing. I pulled her closer to me, wanting to feel her heart as it slowed down. She rested her head on my outstretched arm as Cal moved closer to kiss her and his head brushed against my hand and it didn't even fucking bother me that he was kissing her when I wasn't. In a way, it was like I was kissing her too.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Harper

  I'd bought my apartment outright with the advance for Gilly's Garden. The real estate agent had described it as "cozy," which really meant, "you can stand in the middle of the living room and touch both walls." But housing prices in New York were insane and I had always considered buying my own place — with three small rooms, east facing windows and no roommates — as my biggest accomplishment in life thus far. So it had never seemed small to me.

  Until Cal and Gray walked in it.

  The sheer size of both of them was enough to fill the apartment. It had never felt so small.

  But it had also never felt so much like home.

  "Do you have a soufflé pan?" Gray asked me, slamming cupboards in my kitchenette.

  "What are you doing?" I asked him.

  "And can you please put on pants while you do it?" Cal muttered, stroking my hair. We were nestled together on my couch, him sprawled out over half of it, with me leaning against his comforting bulk, watching Grayson tie my frilly little vintage apron over his naked torso.

  "There, you happy?" Gray grinned, turning around and wiggling his ass in our direction.

  "Well, I know I am," I said, enjoying the sight of his sculpted ass with a big pink bow tied above it.

  "Good, now where's your soufflé pan?"

  "What do you need a soufflé pan for?" Cal asked.

  Gray looked at him like he was a special kind of slow. "Well, Cal, that would be so I can make us a soufflé for brunch."

  "You can make a soufflé?" I asked, sitting up a little. "I'm impressed."

  "I know baby." He winked. "I'm quite impressive."

  I stuck my tongue out at him. "But I don't have a soufflé pan." His face fell and I spread my hands to encompass the tiny space. "What? I live in a shoebox! I have space for exactly what I use every day and no more."

  Gray screwed up his mouth for a second. "That's okay, I'll improvise. Do you have coffee mugs?"

  "Now those I have. Top shelf above the coffee maker." I leaned back into Cal's arms. "Does he really know how to make soufflés?" I asked him.

  "Let's just say with the amount I'm learning about him lately, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest," Cal said, moving his hands back into my hair.

  I sighed and snuggled down next to him, taking a deep breath in and then exhaling again. Cal pulled back and looked down at me. "You okay?" he asked, brushing my hair back from my face.

  I blinked. "I'm okay," I said, smiling. "Really, really okay."

  He grinned back at me. "I know what you mean," he said, and pressed his lips to my forehead.

  Gray slammed the oven door. "Okay! Just give those time to rise," he said, wiping his hands on my kitchen towel.

  I pushed myself up to stand and went to him. "Thank you for feeding us," I said, throwing my arms around his neck. As he kissed me, I could feel his lips curling into a proud smile.

  "There had better not be any hair in those," Cal said. "From your head, or anywhere else."

  "Ew." I grabbed a throw pillow off my couch and chucked it at him. "Don't be gross.”

  Cal laughed and ducked. "Hey, it's not your hygiene I suspect, it's his."

  "Hey, you saw me put the milk away," Gray protested.

  "Oh so you'll do it for her and not for me?"

  "Damn straight I will," Gray said, shooting me a goofy, lopsided smile that made my heart squeeze oddly.

  "What's that noise?" Cal asked. "Is that an alarm?"

  I lifted my head to hear the faint sound of a Morse code S.O.S. "Oh shit!" I cried. "That's Cecily's ringtone! Quick, find my phone!"

  Cal started rifling through the couch cushions as Gray rushed over to sift through the pile of clothes near the bed.

  "Here it is!" I cried in relief, pulling it from the depths of my utensil drawer.

  "Do you always keep your phone there?" Cal wondered.

  I looked at the missed call on the screen. "No," I sighed. "I'd say this was a first, but I'd be lying. The other day I found breakfast cereal in the medicine cabinet. I'm losing my goddamned mind."

  "I like it when you lose your mind," Gray murmured, coming up behind me and snaking his hands under my shirt.

  "Stop it, I need to call her back," I giggled.

  "Right now?"

  "Don't you have soufflés to watch rise?"

  "Something else is rising too," he said, kissing a trail down my neck.

  "Call her," Cal ordered, with that look in his eye. I felt a flutter in my stomach that became a pulse in my core at the sound of his bossy tone. "Call her right now," he said as he slipped his hand into my waistband.

  "Fuck," I breathed. This was a terrible idea.

  "Are you dialing?"

  I looked down at my stupid, traitorous fingers. "Yes," I groaned as his finger found my clit. Gray nibbled at my earlobe and his warm breath was making me squirm and..."Hi there!" I squeaked into the phone as Cecily answered. "Sorry, I just saw you called."

  There were a few seconds of silence. Cal's ice blue eyes darkened into a dangerous sapphire as he watched me, nodding, as I tried like hell to hold it together.

  "Did you get my message?" Cecily said icily.

  "What? Ah, no, sorry," I said, breathless as Cal's fingers moved faster. Gray's hands were under my shirt already, and I felt my nipples stiffen the second he brushed his thumb over them. "Ah, what's going on?"

  "I just wondered if you were feeling better."

  "What?" My voice climbed an octave as Cal's finger slipped inside of me. "I'm fine, what? Um...what?"

  Cecily took a deep breath. "You left the meeting with CTN early yesterday? Because you weren't feeling well?"

  I could barely remember. That felt like a lifetime ago. How could I ever have felt bad when right now I felt so good...so good...so good...

  "I'm good!" I said, tightly, gritting my teeth. My body was starting to betray me, rocking in rhythm with Cal's thrusting fingers. I felt Gray starting to lengthen against my back, and his breath quickened in my ear while in the other ear Cecily was saying...something... "What?" I said again.

  " — at Monday’s rescheduled meeting?"

  "Yes! Yes! Oh god, yes, I'm coming!" I cried as my whole body convulsed.

  Cecily sounded pleased. "Good, I'll see you then," she said as she hung up the phone just in time for three things to happen: the orgasm making my knees buckle, Cal's arms sweeping out to catch me and carry me to the bedroom with Gray right behind him, and the smoke alarm alerting us that Gray's forgotten soufflés were starting to burn.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Callum

  Her big green eyes widened just a little more as she searched my face. "Do you have to go?" she asked me for the millionth time.

  "Well, I mean, I don't," Gray piped up from the other side of the bed.

  Harper laughed as I swore at Gray and pushed my head up on my elbow, tracing a finger down her back. "Yeah, I don't like that idea," I said, keeping my voice low and even. "You're mine."

  "Ours," Gray corrected, glaring at me.

  "So what does that mean...exactly?" Harper asked, rolling onto her back and looking up at the ceiling. "Does that mean you’re both mine?"

  I looked at Gray and nodded slightly. "Yeah," he said, and there was something changed about his voice. I recognized it because that's how my voice would sound right now if I had the ability to speak. "We're yours."

  "My what?" she said, pushing herself up on her elbows and smiling playfully. "My boyfriends? With an s? As in plural?"

  "Okay Miss Children's Book Author, we get it. You don't need to ex
plain plurals to us," I grumbled. This was so fucking strange, but what was even fucking stranger was how okay it was. Here I was lying in bed naked with the girl of my dreams, having an amiable discussion about how she didn't totally belong to me. That should have pissed me right the fuck off, but instead, "Yeah," I repeated. "We're your boyfriends."

  "And you're our girlfriend," Gray interjected.

  Damn I loved her smile, and this was one of the biggest smiles I'd ever seen from her. "Okay then," she whispered, kissing each of us in turn. "I'm okay with that." She licked her lips. "More than okay with that."

  "Yeah you've seemed pretty enthusiastic about the arrangement thus far," I teased her, sliding my hand between her legs.

  She swatted me away with a giggle. "But wait," she said, sliding her legs up and hugging her knees to her chest. "You're okay with this being a long distance thing though, right?" Her eyes flashed. "Because my work...my life...it's all here. I can't just..."

  "We can come to you," Gray interrupted, looking at me meaningfully.

  I nodded slowly. "Yeah," I said while in my mind I tallied up all the tours I'd have to reschedule. I made most of my money on weekends, when people were off from work and on vacation, but if it came to making a choice between that and Harper...?

  Fuck, I'd pick Harper every time.

  I lifted her hand and kissed it, nodding. She leaned down and peered at my face. "You sure?" she asked.

  "What?"

  "Cal..." she chided me. "I know you too well to not catch on to something bothering you."

  "Just some scheduling things," I told her breezily, kissing her fingers again. "I'll figure it out."

  She smiled softly. "Well it's not like I can't come to you some times," she said.

  "You don't have a car," I pointed out.

  She sighed and rolled her eyes. "That's what rental cars are for."

  "I don't like the idea of you driving all across the state like that," I told her.

  "Seriously dude?" she said, sliding off the bed and pulling on her t-shirt. "I've flown all over the country giving talks and doing readings. I can handle driving myself."

  "I'd still rather you fly," Gray added and I mentally thanked him for backing me up. "We can come get you at the airport."

  "The airport is so far away that I may as well drive," Harper said with an exasperated sigh. She turned and padded her bare feet into the tiny kitchenette and I heard the sound of the tap running and the clinking of dishes.

  I turned and locked eyes with Gray for a moment before we both followed her into the tiny living room. "Look we're not trying to be pigs," I said to Harper.

  "Just trying to look out for our girlfriend," Gray finished, picking up the dish from her hand and drying it without comment.

  She looked at him, and then at me and I knew they were both looking to me — the lifelong control freak — to make the final call. "Every weekend," I finally said, clenching my fist and then letting go of all the money I wasn't going to make. "We come to you three times a month, you can come to us once a month."

  Grayson nodded in triumph. "I agree. And that means the vote is two-to-one. Majority rules."

  Harper acted shocked and swatted him with her dishtowel. "You guys are a pain in my ass."

  "Speaking of your ass..." I said, smiling meaningfully.

  She turned and gave me a grin that had my dick hard in an instant. "Weren't you just saying you had to go?" she teased.

  I sighed and looked at my phone. "Yeah," I said heavily, looking at Gray. He looked stricken and for a moment I thought he'd yell at me, tell me he was staying here with her, without me. Fuck, I might have done the same thing except...she wasn't my girlfriend.

  She was our girlfriend.

  And somehow the thought of being with her without him just didn't seem right.

  He must have thought the same thing, because he sighed heavily. "You have that thing in the morning, don't you?"

  "I can't refund another tour," I tried to explain to Harper. "I just can't."

  "I know," she said, standing up on tiptoes to kiss me. For a second her eyes glimmered and I willed her not to cry because then I'd fall the fuck apart. Gray looked like he was ready to start bawling enough for the both of us. "Next weekend?"

  "We'll be here," I said firmly.

  "We'll both be here," Gray agreed.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Grayson

  The whoosh of water in the pipes was my usual morning wakeup call, but this morning I was up even earlier than usual.

  Just because I had to check my phone. For like the fiftieth time this week.

  It was Thursday the 13th of February and we'd see Harper in two more days. I had run to the IGA and grabbed her a silly box of chocolates and a stuffed pink bear already, but Cal was probably going to send me back to get her a card. I wonder if Hallmark even made a card for our specific...thing. "Dear Girlfriend, Happy Valentine's Day! Love, Your Two Boyfriends."

  The whooshing pipes stopped with a squeak and a slightly worrisome crunching noise, which meant that Cal was out of the shower and on his way to the tour he'd booked last minute for today. I felt a twinge of guilt tighten my throat. He'd been working overtime to make up for the weekends we'd miss with Harper, and I could tell the stress was getting to him. I resolved to spend all of today applying for as many jobs as I could find. It would suck, but nothing could suck too badly when I knew I'd see Harper again in two more days.

  I rolled over and looked at my phone, just to see the calendar again and reassure myself, when my phone gave a sudden buzz that startled me so badly I almost fell on the floor.

  I looked at the screen and my heart splashed down into my stomach. I took a deep breath and then answered. "Hey man."

  "Well at least you're alive," Rett said, by way of greeting. "Where the fuck have you guys been? Is it my deodorant?"

  I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose with my fingers. "Yeah, sorry," I said, smoothing my hand down over my face. "I guess I kind of suck."

  "Admitting it is the first step towards recovery," Rett intoned pompously. "Glad you realize it. What's been going on?"

  Oh nothing, just busy double-teaming your sister. I bit my tongue as guilt twisted around my stomach. How the fuck could we even start to explain what was happening here? "Not much," I lied. "Same old same old. What's going on with you?"

  "Work," Rett sighed. He did something complicated for the county hospital system with their internal operating system, where he was like half-a-doctor, half-a-hacker. Something I was way too dumb to understand. "We're upgrading the equipment in the OR which is good because that shit's like from the last century..."

  He spiraled down into one of those things we used to call McCabe-moments, where he'd start trying to explain — in minute detail — things no one but him had any interest in. Which was fucking fine because even just sitting here listening to him had me squirming like when I was a little kid and Great Aunt Hilda would drag me to confession. Even though Rett was talking about upgrading servers and shit, I swore I could hear an undercurrent in his voice. Did you really think you could hide what you're up to?

  "So you'll be there?"

  "Huh?" I shook my head. Rett actually had been asking me a question... apparently. "What was that?"

  "Why are you being such a space cadet, Gray?" Rett sighed. "I'm talking about a job here."

  I sat up straighter. "Sorry man," I said, trying like hell to get my heart rate back down to normal. "I just woke up. Haven't had my coffee yet."

  Rett chuckled. "You'd better not be getting used to these late mornings. Cole's gonna need you there at like seven in the morning."

  "He is?" I tried to mentally backtrack. What the hell was he talking about? Job? Cole? "Hey man," I said, feeling about two inches tall. "I totally missed what you said about the job. Sorry. Can you say it again?"

  I swear I could hear Rett's eyes rolling through the phone. " Cole Granger," he said condescendingly. "You know the guy."

&
nbsp; "Yeah, yeah, I know him."

  "You know about how he bought Melton's land to make the town park?"

  I bristled a little. It wasn't exactly Cole's fault that I'd lost my job, since Mr. Melton was gonna sell to somebody anyway, but there was still that prickle of resentment at the name. "Yeah, I know all about that," I said sarcastically.

  "Well the permits finally went through this week. I ran into him at the gym yesterday, and he was saying he's having trouble putting together a crew to tear down that big-ass metal shed."

  That big-ass metal shed was where I'd worked since I was sixteen. "You make it sound like that thing's an eyesore. The Marina is part of the town's history," I bristled. "And mine."

  Rett's voice softened a little. "Hey, man, I know it's hard for you."

  "Fuck off."

  "You get attached to things. You're fucking loyal as hell, that's why you're a good friend."

  I felt that guilt twist in my belly again. "Sure," I muttered.

  "But you can't stay stuck in the past. Life moves on man. Melton sold. You lost your job. I thought it would be kind of poetic in a way for you to start a new job by tearing down the old."

  "Me? Tear it down?" I repeated.

  "I told Cole you had experience in demolition," Rett chuckled. "I didn't mention that said demolition was usually accidental."

  "Fuck off." I grinned.

  "But he said cool, he'd take you on."

  I jumped to my feet. "No shit, really?"

  "Yeah really." I could hear Rett grinning proudly. "It's going to be seven days a week too, because they're behind schedule, so you can make some bank with overtime."

  I sat back down on the bed. "Overtime."

  "Weekends and holidays, baby."

  "I..." I caught myself, just in time, before the words fell out of my mouth. So they had nowhere to go except stay there, banging around in my brain. I can't work weekends. That's the only time I can be with Harper. "Cool man," I recovered, lamely.

  "So you'll call him?"

  "What? Oh yeah, of course."