Page 47 of The Triple Play

Colton’s voice barely registered for me. “But I’ve got a king?—”

“If we’re doing this, we’re keeping the space neutral,” Cole said, cutting him off.

“All right, all right.”

“Xav,” Cole grunted, his fingers gently moving a strand of hair behind my ear before sliding in around the back of my neck, holding me gently. “Let’s move her.”

Xavi didn’t loosen his grip. I felt him tense, arms like iron bands around my waist, his mouth still working mine like he could swallow the moment whole. He hadn’t heard them, or he didn’t care — if anything, he took the space they’d left behind, his arms wrapping around me like a vice, holding me flush to him as his mouth ravaged mine, a low growl vibrating in his chest like he could anchor me there.

“Xavi,” Colton said, his voice firm, irritation creeping in. But it only made Xavi grip me harder.

In truth, I didn’t want to pull away either, but I could feel the stubbornness in Xavi’s body and his reluctance to release me warring with what he knew he should do. I hadn’t seen this side of him, but my god, it was intoxicating — he was possessive in a way that made my chest ache.

I reached up slowly, threading my fingers through his overgrown hair, and tugged gently until he broke from my mouth. He looked dazed, his eyes dark and wild and locked on mine, his eyelids hanging low. “Hey,” I whispered, dropping my grip on Colton’s wrist and bringing that hand up to Xavi’s cheek, brushing my thumb over the corner of his lips. “We don’t have to stop, we just have to move. You’re coming with.”

He didn’t say anything, just stared, his pupils blown so wide I could barely see the stark blue around the edges.

“So unless you plan to build a fort around this kitchen island and never let me leave, you’d better help me down off the counter,” I teased softly, trying to balance the weight ofhimwith something lighter.

His brow furrowed like it physically pained him to back off, but slowly, achingly, he did. His hands slid down to my hips, still holding but not gripping, his eyes locked on mine. I slid off the counter myself, my knees a little wobbly from the insanity of all of this, and something warm and strong came to rest on the small of my back to steady me — Cole’s hand.

“Come on, Annie,” Cole said softly, pulling me into the side of his chest, my bare skin and bra pressed against his black shirt. His other hand cupped the side of my head, and he leaned down, pressing a kiss against my temple.

Xavi came up on my left as Cole started to walk with me, my head still spinning, my heart pounding in my chest. He led us back toward the front door but down the opposite hallway, past the open door of a home gym with a glass wall on the other end of it, past an office space.

Colton caught up behind us, and I felt him before I clocked him — his hand ruffled through my hair teasingly, then gripped down, pulling it just a little that my head tipped back in Cole’s hold, just enough to make my legs stop working for a second. “You realize you’re not gonna walk right for a week after this, right?” he quipped, his tone light and his voice anything but.

Xavi’s head turned, and even though I was barely paying attention to anything but the overwhelming buzz that made my skin tingle, I could hear the irritation in his voice. “Keep talking like that, and you’re the one who’s gonna be walking funny.”

Cole tightened his grip on me just a little. “Can you both shut up?” he grunted, pushing open the matte black door to the guest room. Light from both the streetlamps and the moon poured in through the massive wall-length window on the other side, matching the one I’d glimpsed in the home gym. Cole flicked on one of three light switches, and two lamps on either side of the king-size bed illuminating and lighting the space in a soft, warm glow. “We’re supposed to be making this easier for her, not making her worry about being torn in half or you two going at each other’s throats.”

Colton slipped past the three of us and entered the space, striding across the room in a few quick steps and throwing the curtains closed. “I’m being perfectly civil, thank you,” he said, throwing a grin over his shoulder that was mostly aimed at Xavi.

But Xavi was already clawing me out of Cole’s grip.

“Hold on, hold on,” Cole said, shifting me a little out of Xavi’s reach. “Ground rules. Boundaries.”

Xavi’s jaw steeled. “We already went over that last night.”

“Not with her, we didn’t,” Colton chimed in, yanking open the top drawer of the bedside table and pulling out a bottle of what could only be lube. My pulse skyrocketed.

Cole looked down at me, using his body to block a little bit of the view of the room behind him, wedging himself between me and Xavi. “Right, An. Have you ever done anything like this before?”

My eyes went wide as I looked up at him, my throat tightening. “Is that a serious question?”

“I’ll take that as a no,” he chuckled lightly, his hand coming up to cup my cheek gently. “That’s okay. We just want to go over a few things to make sure you’re comfortable.”

“O-okay,” I swallowed.

Cole glanced over his shoulder before turning and pulling me toward the bed, his hand sliding down to mine and squeezing it gently. He locked gazes with Xavi as we moved, a hint of a warning in them, and stopped me just at the edge of the foot of the bed, his hands gently coaxing me to sit down.

My rear hit the soft comforter, my jeans digging in a little tight around my waist, and Cole kneeled down in front of me as Xavi and Colton came up on either side of him. My face burned relentlessly.

“If you don’t want to have sex with the three of us, now would be a good time to say that,” he said seriously, but there was a tiny twitch at the corner of his mouth, a threat of a grin that didn’t come out too often.

My eye almost twitched. My skin felt like it was on fuckingfire. His bluntness was refreshing, but my god, the thought of it was making me vibrate. “Is this going to be an at-the-same-time kind of situation?”

“Yes,” Colton answered. He took a step back and reached over his shoulders, fisting his hoodie around the back and pulling it up over his head, leaving him in a plain blue shirt and sweatpants.

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