Later, after we’d cleaned up and dressed again, we met back in the kitchen. “So, you really liked last night?”
“Oh, yeah. I wasn’t certain at first. I mean there were four guys in that room with her.” I paused because he got this kind of ‘ah-ha’ look on his face but then I continued. “But it was hot. Kinky, yes, but hot.”
“Good. I’m glad you’ve decided to explore a little bit with me, then.” He leaned down and kissed me and that’s when something occurred to me. I touched his cheek and his jawline.
“I could have sworn you shaved this morning,” I said, and let my fingers play over the bristly stubble. “Oh well, I’m losing my mind. First I’m agreeing that I enjoyed our little voyeur session in the sex lair and now I’m forgetting things. I have to go before I lose any more of my mind. I have a test today.”
“Enjoy your day, my lovely. I’ll see you tonight.” A peck on the cheek, and then I left the house.
I could clearly remember his jaw being smooth this morning, but I guess my mind was playing tricks on me. I went to class, took the test with ease, and went on to work. I was doing well in class, at least, and didn’t have to worry about that. It was easy work. Some of it I’d even had in high school as a prep for my university courses, so for now, I was on solid ground there, at least.
I saw Becky in my afternoon English class, but we didn’t have a lot of time to talk. The prof had discovered one of the students had been cheating and spent the entire hour going on about how we could be expelled and about academic dishonesty. It bored me to tears, but I paid attention because she walked through the aisles and looked at each of us in turn, a little section of her speech directed at each of us.
She went on for so long, I was nearly late for work. Becky tried to beg me to stop, but I had to run across campus to get to the library. I pulled away from her as she’d grabbed my arm to stop me and raced away. “I’ll call you later.”
I tried not to see the disappointed look on her face or to feel too guilty for running away. I’d call her later, or maybe tomorrow. The weekend at the latest I promised myself. She’d reached out to me when I needed someone and I should be a better friend to her. I was just so busy now; I didn’t have a lot of time to call her. That was all.
I made it to work with seconds to spare and started my daily routine. I made my way back to that human sexuality section later in the day and picked out a book that didn’t look so clinical. Maybe I should read a little more about it even if it wasn’t erotica.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Colin
“Where the fuck did you take her last night?” I asked Keith when he came home later that day. “She caught me here when she came home early, and I had no idea what she was talking about.”
“I took her to the club. That club.” His grin told me all I needed to know about which club he’d taken Celia to last night. Well, that and what she’d said. I’d suspected it was the club, but I wanted to be sure and couldn’t exactly ask her, now could I?
“You need to tell us this stuff, Keith. It’s my day today, I needed to know what you did last night. Luckily, she kind of told me herself but if she hadn’t, I would have been clueless. Then she’d have figured out something was wrong.”
“Relax, Colin, I was going to tell you, I just didn’t have time to yet. By the way, she’s into it if you were wondering.” He had that smirk on his face, the one that made me want to punch him sometimes but this was good news. It meant we could tell her our secret when we were ready and maybe she wouldn’t freak out so much.
“The guilt is starting to get to me, Keith. I haven’t felt this before.” Grant came in then and sat down at the small table.
“It’s getting to you too, huh?” he asked and looked at us with an exhausted face. His gray eyes, so like mine and Keith’s, were dark and troubled. “I feel like shit, but it’s more than just a cold. She deserves better than to be lied to so much.”
“I agree. But how do we tell her, and when?” Colin asked and I leaned back against the fridge, not sure about the when part.
“I think we’ll just have to sit her down and explain it to her. Once she’s calmed down from the fact that there are three of us, then she’ll listen.” I said, but still, there was no idea of when even though we all wanted to tell her, I knew that we wanted to avoid it too. This little nugget of truth might send her running away.
“But when? When do we tell her?” Grant asked just as a sneeze exploded from him. Keith handed him a napkin and I waited to make sure he was done before I spoke again. I had a plan I hadn’t told either of them about.
“I’m surprised that she hasn’t found out already. Thank goodness for her not having any friends. I mean if she did, then she would know by now for sure,” I said relieved about the fact that we’ve lied to Celia this long and managed to get away with it. As if it was something to be proud of. “Halloween. I think we tell her then. We’ll all rent the same costume, take her out and when we come home, we reveal the truth.”
“That’s not too far away. You sure about this?” Keith asked, and that’s when I pulled the paper out of the pocket of the jeans I’d changed into once Celia left. “Yes, I’ve already rented the costumes for us.”
The paper was a receipt for three pirate costumes, the only things left in the store that would fit us all.
“Argh, ahoy matey!” Keith growled when he saw what I’d rented.
“No, seriously? Fucking pirates? Fucking hell. My head hurt already and that makes it worse.”
“Take some medicine and go back to bed,” I told him and picked the paper back up. “Don’t let her hear you coughing and sneezing either. In fact, you may need to go up to the third floor until you’re over that shit.”
“You’re right, even if that is a long climb. I’ll move some stuff and fill the fridge up there. Make it a little homier.”
“I’ll help you,” Keith volunteered, and I had to smile. There was nothing like a little brotherly cooperation, and Celia had inspired us all.
“That’s sweet, dude. Or are you just trying to get him out of the way faster?” I laughed at his face and patted his shoulder. “I’m only teasing, man. Let’s get him situated.”
We worked fast and by the time Celia got home, there was no sign of Grant at all on the first two floors. He was on the other side of the house too, so she wouldn’t hear his footsteps. It was my night, so I had dinner ready for her when she walked in, tired from walking so much today. And our little tryst earlier, I had to guess.
“Hi, babe. Glad you’re home.” I took her into my arms and gave her a bear hug. She sank into me and moaned with relief.
“Thank goodness the day is over.” She put her hand on my chest, pushed away to kiss me, then went to sit in a chair.
“Bad was it?” I filled her plate with spaghetti and sauce and then did my own. I went back for garlic bread and then sat down.
She poured red wine from the bottle into two glasses and took a sip. Wow, she must have had a rough day.
“Just long.” She didn’t touch her food, just sipped at the wine that she technically wasn’t supposed to have. It was my house, though, and if she wanted wine, I’d give it to her.
“Well, eat and then you can have a long bath and I’ll give you a massage to work some of those aches away.”
“That sounds like heaven. I think I’m coming down with a cold, too.” She sniffled to prove her point and I wondered if she had the same thing as Grant. Probably, I thought with a silent chuckle.
She was tired, so I left her to read a book in the bath and cleaned up. When she came out, we watched a movie in bed. Before the movie had even finished, she was asleep curled up on my chest.
I was certain I wanted this to last and even more certain that I might even fall in love with this girl. Or maybe I already had. She was smart, funny, and so vulnerable, but at the same time, she had a strength that so many people lacked in the world today. She would survive almost anything I was confident because she had a will to per
severe and reach her goals. Nothing could get in the way of that.
I just hoped that when we finally revealed our secret that we didn’t break her too much. I expected shock, anger, maybe even disgust, but I knew her and knew that what she felt for us, all of us, was real. She adored each of us for a different reason and when she added those things up, it made us perfect. I just hope she realized that when the time was at hand. She needed all of us, not just one of us.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Celia
The next day, I got up and my nose was stopped up and I could barely think straight because my head hurt so badly. I went into class anyway, because I didn’t want to miss a day but by the time I got to my English class with Becky, I wanted to just go home.
She cornered me as the class ended and dragged me down to the diner. “I need to talk to you. It’s important.”
She’d hissed the words in a way that told me she wasn’t just trying to get me to go eat with her. She really had something she needed to tell me.
“Listen,” I said with my head over the cup of coffee I’d ordered. I let the steam roll up onto my face and into my nose. It didn’t help, but it didn’t hurt either. “I feel like complete shit, so I’m sorry if I don’t seem interested. I am. I just don’t feel well.”
“I’m sorry, but I need to talk to you. I don’t know who else I could trust with this.” Her eyes welled up and she leaned closer to whisper. “It’s about Mike.”
I looked around but didn’t see the waiter anywhere. “Is he not here today?”
“No, he works later tonight.” She rolled her eyes and looked down at her hands. “He wants...”
She paused and I could see the way she struggled with herself as if she couldn’t believe what she was about to say. “He wants me to have group sex. He’s been accepted into some kind of club and they do stuff like that. I don’t know. It’s not what I had planned in life, you know? I mean, I know people do it, but not me.”
I remembered the place Keith had taken me to, that adult club with all the sexual debauchery in every room and wondered if Mike’s club was the same kind of place. Or even the same place, perhaps. Stranger things had happened, I thought and cringed a little. It would be a little bit embarrassing if Becky caught me there with Keith. I’d have to ask him if he knew Mike from the club.
“I, well…” I could feel the way my eyes fluttered, unsure of what to say to her. She was so adamantly against the idea that I had to wonder why she’d even bothered to ask my opinion. “If it’s not something you want to do…”
“Would you, Celia?” she asked in an accusatory voice, her eyes on mine. She was angry with me for some reason. “Anybody that would do something like that is dirty. It’s so… nasty.”
I was taken aback by how much she was against it. “I’m not saying I would, but I’m not saying I wouldn’t either. It would depend.”
“On what? On how much you want to subjugate yourself to a bunch of men that just want to use you as fucktoy?” She grimaced as she thought about it but I cringed.
What had she seen that made her think that was the only way group sex would happen? It must have been porn made for the male gaze. That kind of stuff was always cheap and horrible I thought and I didn’t watch it. I wasn’t a huge fan of porn, but I knew that it existed. I liked the erotic books and short stories I’d found online much better. Although some of those were written for the male gaze too, I reminded myself. Some were written for women, however, mainly by other women, it had to be.
“It’s not always like that…,” I tried to say but she cut me off.
“How would you know?” She hissed. “You don’t even know…”
But she stopped and looked away.
“I don’t know what, Becky?” I asked, and waited for her to answer, but she didn’t. So, I said something else. “I do know you’re the one that asked me here and now you’re treating me like shit. I really don’t get it.”
I leaned back in the booth and stared at her. She had the good grace to look ashamed, at least. “I’m trying to help you and all you can do is treat me like I’m wrong for having an opinion.”
I thought about that woman I’d seen in the other room. How she’d been the one in control and not a fucktoy at all. She’d been pleasured, worshipped which was totally different to what Becky had described. “It’s not always about the man, you know, or men in that case. Sometimes, if you’re the one in control, it can be about you and how you all get off.”
She stared at me speculatively now, then her shoulders slumped, her green eyes miserable. “That’s what Mike said, but I don’t believe him. It always turns out to be the men treating the woman like a slab of meat and not a human. And yeah, I’m sorry for being such a bitch. You don’t deserve it.”
I patted her hand across the table and smiled. She’d hurt my feelings but I let it go. I don’t think either of us was used to having relationships and this was new to both of us. I couldn’t blame her for that.
“Girl, listen. If it’s not something you want to do, don’t do it, Becky. It’s that simple.” I shrugged and sat back in the booth again. “But if it is, don’t let someone else ruin it for you, or let your own prejudices take away something that could be a good experience.”
“What does that mean?” Her face screwed up and she looked at me in disbelief. “Don’t tell me you’d do it?”
“I might, with the right men. Or group.” I smiled, then laughed. “But I doubt anyone would ever want to have group sex with me.”
“I think you don’t realize how beautiful you really are, Celia. Especially with that pink hair. I love it, by the way.”
“Thanks.” I touched my hair, and then took a sip of my coffee to hide my discomfort. “I’ll have it for a while, so I’m glad people like it so much.”
“It suits you,” she said and nodded her head. “You’re right too. I shouldn’t be so judgmental. I can’t help it sometimes. I have these strange ideas, which is why people don’t bother to get to know me well sometimes. They think I’m weird.”
“You are weird, girl, but that’s why I like you.” I winked at her and picked up the menu. “Now, what do I want to eat.”
“Chili with cheddar cheese, a toasted cheese sandwich, and some pickles.” I heard Becky repeat across from me.
“How did you know?” I was amazed she knew what I’d want.
“Because, it’s cold as fuck outside, and you always order it now.” She smiled knowingly and beckoned to the waitress that we were ready to order.
“I’m that predictable, huh?”
“Sometimes,” she grinned and looked up as the waitress came to us. When our orders were in and the woman left, she turned back to me. “Thanks, Celia. I still think the whole idea is weird, but you listened at least.”
“You can only do what you’re comfortable with, Becky. Some people are more open to things. Do you think it will be a problem for you two?”
“Maybe.” She leaned back to let the waitress put her cheesesteak sandwich and fries down and then waited. Once the waitress was gone, she chewed up a fry and then spoke again. “He keeps talking about it, mainly when we’re, you know…”
She sort of frowned then looked away. I grinned and leaned closer. “Doing it.”
I couldn’t believe the free spirit that seemed to be open to anything had such a hang-up about this subject, but then I thought about how I felt when Keith took me to that club. I’d felt the same and had a hard time with it until I thought about it and watched. Maybe that’s what she needed?”
“Maybe you could, I don’t know, watch?” I offered as I let the slice of cheddar cheese on top of my chili melt into the concoction in the bowl. I stirred it around and then looked at her. “Maybe?”
“Ugh. I really don’t know.” She took a bite of her sandwich and then looked around. She seemed to be searching for an answer from the outside world. She wouldn’t fit, I knew, because she had to find the answer inside of herself. “It’s just so hard.�
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“I know. We’re taught one partner, marriage, and then babies. But it doesn’t always have to be that way. And you’re an artist, Becky. You’re the one that’s supposed to be exploring all of this, not me. I’m going to major in medicine, I’m the one that should be telling people it’s unhealthy behavior and all of that shit.” I laughed at myself and took a bite of my food.
“You’re right. This doesn’t have to be that hard. Maybe I should go with him and… watch.” From the way she smiled, I wondered if she liked that idea even better than the idea of participating.
“Maybe it’s a compromise you can make,” I offered, more interested in my food now. She seemed to be appeased and I had skipped breakfast that morning, so I was starving.
“I think you could be on to something.” Her cheeks flushed pink and then she went quiet too.
We’d reached a solution for her I hoped.
We’d kind of reached one for me, too, though Becky didn’t know that part. I’d been on the fence about it all, and I’d done some research online when I was alone. I’d found out about the polyamory community. About the variety of groups sex that there were and so much more. I had looked at it all with disbelief, but now I knew that it wasn’t so strange. I wasn’t certain I ever wanted to be a part of something like that, but I’d learned that maybe it was something I’d like to try.
Now, I realized I liked the idea even more but still wasn’t sure it was something I’d ever take part in. Keith was it for me. He was the total package, and even though we hadn’t been together that long, I knew that nobody else would ever compare to him.
We finished our lunch and then I had to get to work. “Let me know how it goes. If you want to. If not, at least let me know how you are.”
She laughed, hugged me, and agreed that she would text me. I left her with a lot more on my mind that I’d planned. When I finally got to the library, though, I had a fever and had started to cough and sneeze. My boss sent me home early, with a warning not to come back in until I was better.
Triple Sext: A Reverse Harem Bully Romance (Accidental Stepbrother Book 4) Page 13
