Page 137 of A Ballad of Betrayal and Beauty

He takes a shallow breath. “My whole life I’ve been waiting for you and I didn’t even know it. Key was waiting for you but didn’t want to admit it. The two of us, we love each other in a way that transcends friendship, in a soulmate kind of way. And you know what I realized? I don’t want you to choose. He doesn’t want you to, and I don’t think you do either. I think you want to be with both of us, and we want to be with you. We want to keep being soulmates, except you’re here now, and neither of us has to wait anymore.”

My heart might be exploding. I don’t even know if I can speak through the blubbering mess I’ve become.

“You know, we’ve done it before. I don’t think either of us has mentioned it, but in the past, we’ve been with the same woman at the same time. Nothing like this, of course. It was just a hookup preference we both enjoyed . . . Who knew we were just getting ready to welcome you into our lives?”

I blink. Then blink again. Maybe I was in the accident too, because what Joel is saying right now doesn’t make sense. “. . . at the same time?”

“Do you understand what I mean?”

“I—”

“It was just for sex, but for you it would be everything. I’m telling you this because you could live in a world where you don’t have to choose.” He takes a deep breath. “The three of us could be together,” he says. “If that’s something you want.”

“The three of us . . .”

“Together.”

What does he mean, the three of us? As in . . . be with both of them together? Us all living together in the one house? Where would we sleep? Would I have my own room? Would I sleep with Joel one night and Key the next? Odd versus even days? Or do they mean . . .

“So, Key and I would date, and you and I would date—but at the same time?”

He smiles gently. “Well, yeah?—”

“Would we keep a schedule?”

He chuckles. “I?—”

“Would we draw straws on whose turn it is to . . . oh god, how would sex work?”

He clears his throat. “It would be up to you. It could be you and Key or you and me or . . . all three of us at once.”

I think I’m starting to finally understand. “Oh.”

“I know it’s not natural for most people to think about?—”

“You wouldn’t be jealous of me sleeping with another man?”

He grins. “I thought we already established that I’m not the jealous type.”

“But me talking dirty on the phone is a bit different than sleeping with your best friend down the hall,” I argue, then remember the revelation of Baby. “Speaking of, I guess if we’re laying everything out on the table . . . Key is the reason I quit the fantasy phone job.”

He frowns. “What?”

“Turns out Key and my connection even transcends the phone lines,” I admit with a shake of my head. “I swear I didn’t realize it was him. He didn’t recognize me either. But there was something between us there too.”

He smiles and pushes back my hair. “That must have been hard. That you had to lose him all over again.”

Tears spring to my eyes, but I hold them back. “I was getting too deep with someone over the phone, but you . . . you were real. I had to leave that behind to give this a real chance. I wanted to give all of myself to you.”

Joel chuckles and shakes his head. “Just another reason why you should give this a chance. He is destined to be in your life. One way or another.”

I play with a loose thread on his pillow. “And if we—” Now it’s my turn to blush. “If we were all together?”

With a gentle touch of his hand, the heat from my face spreads to my chest then down to my belly. “If you were with Key and me, well, I’m already imagining you pinned between both of us.”

My pussy clenches hard at the visual.

“Dusty,” he whispers, gently pulling my attention back to him. “I want to have you in my life, and the thought of Key having you in his doesn’t make me jealous. It makes me ecstatic. He’s the best person I know, and he deserves to love and be loved by a woman like you. And I do too. And you deserve more love than you can handle, which we would both give you. You’re not mine and you’re not his. You’re ours.”

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