Page 27 of The Triple Play

“That's it.” Cole grunted, still working me through it, dragging out every spasm, every wave of heat that flooded my core.

I could barely stand. I sagged against him, breathless, my muscles pulsing around his fingers still buried inside me.

He kissed me through it, slow and possessive now, as if he wanted to memorize the taste of me falling apart.

When I finally caught my breath, I felt his fingers slip from my body, and I whimpered.

His lips moved against mine with a desperate intensity, one I now struggled to match.

He was… perfect. So experienced.

The kiss broke, both of us coming up for much-needed air. My chest rose and fell so rapidly it almost hurt, and even as reality started to crash back into me, he didn’t let me go. He kept me held to him like I’d run the first chance I got.

And oh my god, I was going to.

What the hell was I doing?

My breathing faltered as I gently pushed back against his chest, trying to give myself a bit more space, and I watched as he held my gaze, his lips still parted, his mouth still close enough to feel the heat in his breath.

But he reluctantly obliged and released me, his hands moving so slowly I almost second-guessed myself.

“I-I’m sorry,” I murmured, panic beginning to rise in me. I wasn’t sure why I was apologizing — I wasn’t the one who’d initiated that. But I was definitely the one about to bolt. “I… I just need to go inside. I?—”

I couldn’t stay. I couldn’t.

I didn’t finish my sentence before I turned and moved back toward the door, my spent-stupid brain calling the shots and surging me forward. If he said something to me, I couldn’t hear it, and I slipped back inside with shaking hands fumbling the sliding glass door.

I shouldn’t have let him kiss me. I shouldn’t have kissed him back. And I certainly shouldn't have let him give me an orgasm.

But there wasn’t a single part of me that could deny how badly I’d wanted it.

How badly I wanted it from all three of them.

I didn’t know where I was going, just that I needed to get away, needed to breathe, needed to stop my mind from spinning. Needed to go home and put as much space between me and Cole and Xavi and Colton.

What had I just done? What hadwejust done?

I pushed my way through the house, everything a blur of confusion, a mess of panic. I was out the front door before I even realized it, my phone in my hand, the rideshare app filling the screen.

I didn’t even realize the door had swung open behind me until I was halfway down the driveway. The bright light of the streetlamps made everything feel more surreal, painting the ground around me in harsh yellows, my thoughts jumbled and my heart still racing in my chest.

“Annie?”

The sound of Colton’s voice cut through the tension like a knife. I froze in my tracks, but I didn’t have to turn around to know it was him. I could feel the heat of his presence before he’d even reached me, the unmistakable scent of his cologne fogging my nostrils.

“Where are you going?” I could hear the concern in his voice, the way it was tight and confused and tense, could feel it in the way he stepped closer so hesitantly like he was scared he’d frighten me. He didn’t want to push me, that much was clear, but his urgency told me he wanted to know what was going on.

My jaw tremored as I stood there, feeling like I was a second from cracking under the pressure of everything I was keeping behind my teeth. The fight with Elliot, the orgasm with Cole, the way I wanted to do far more than that with all of them, the mess of emotions in my head — I couldn’t handle it.

I shook my head in frustration, trying to keep my voice and breathing steady. “I just need some space,” I croaked, my chest tightening as I slowly pulled my arm from him. He didn’t try to keep his hold, didn’t try to pull me back. He let me slip out.

I felt the heat of his gaze on me, on my phone, on the car pulling down the road ahead. He just stood there and waited as the hybrid Honda Accord pulled up beside me, as I pulled open the door, as I slid into the seat and shut it behind me.

I didn’t look at him through the window. I couldn’t.

————

The city blurred past the window of the car, neon and traffic lights trailing across the glass. I sat there, curled into the corner of the backseat in Xavi’s hoodie, my knees up and my phone in my hand. Music filtered out through the speakers, something soft and jazzy, but I wasn’t really hearing it. Everything sounded like static against the roar of chaos unraveling in my head.

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