Page 40 of Better When Shared
Nisha blushed, removing her hand from my crotch. I wanted it back. “I figured since you were new in class, you were the perfect guy to fool around with. After all, how likely was it that you knew my husband and something awkward would happen later?”
“Pretty damn likely,” Julian said, laughing.
The atmosphere shifted, charged with something beyond the standard reunion catch-up. Every glance, every innocent touch crackled with possibility. Julian's leg brushed mine under the table—accidental, perhaps, but he didn't move away. Nisha sat between us, touching both of us, creating a circuit of electricity that hummed with potential.
We ate dinner sharing college stories, professional updates, travel tales—normal conversation undercut by the current of want that flowed between us. Julian described their townhouse in the Pearl District. Nisha talked about her textile design work.I explained my consulting business, my escape from my family’s hotel empire, and my asshole of an older brother. All while, we were playing a dangerous game of tangled limbs beneath the table.
“We should do this again soon,” Julian said, as I put the meal on my room tab.
“Over already?” Nisha pouted, then flounced back against the seat with a sigh. She’d been groping my thigh again, but in this position, I could see that she had a hand on each of us. How had she found a hand to eat with?
I cleared my throat, panicked at the thought of them leaving. "My suite's on the top floor," I said, the words tumbling out before I could second-guess them. "Excellent view of the city. Would you both like to come up and er… see it?" Awkward.
Julian and Nisha exchanged a look loaded with silent communication, years of marriage distilled into a single glance. My heart hammered as I waited for their response, not daring to hope but unable to stop myself from wanting.
"We'd love to.”
Chapter 5
Nisha
In the elevator, Caleb stood a careful foot away, his eyes meeting mine in the reflection. The air between us crackled with electricity, thick with unspoken hunger. But none of us made a move.
“This moment is so familiar,” Julian murmured, elbowing Caleb, who laughed and shook his head.
“Every time.”
“Every time, what?” I asked, looking from one man to the other.
“Back when we did this in college, we had an elevator up to our apartment, and there was always this—”
“Panic?” Caleb asked.
Julian burst out laughing. “More of a pause, I’d say. In the elevator, suddenly the flirty fun you talked about all night becomes real. It’s a moment away, and you can feel it in the air.”
“And the awkward tension descends,” Caleb added.
“But it always passes by the time the elevator doors open. Well, assuming your room isn’t on the second floor.”
Caleb chuckled and shook his head. “No. The tenth.”
We stood in perfect triangular formation, the distance between us charged with intention. Ten floors to go. Nine. Eight. I stepped closer to Caleb, my hip brushing against his thigh. He sucked in a sharp breath, his pupils dilating, but he didn't move away.
Julian slid behind me, his chest pressing against my back as his arms encircled my waist. "He was always like this," he murmured into my ear, loud enough for Caleb to hear. "So fucking proper until he wasn't. Then he'd surprise you."
Seven floors to go. Six.
I reached for Caleb's hand, guiding it to my hip opposite from where Julian's rested. The symmetry felt right—Julian's familiar touch on one side, Caleb's tentative grip on the other.
"Is this what you wanted?" Caleb asked, his gaze flicking to Julian over my shoulder. "When you suggested the hall pass?"
Julian chuckled, the vibration rumbling against my back. “Well, I had no idea she was going to find you—that feels almost fated—but I was definitely trying to recapture our glory days. This is better than anything I could have planned.”
I poked his arm. “Julian, were you never going to use your hall pass? I felt so guilty about that.”
Julian grimaced. “Another woman… that’s not my fantasy. You’re the only woman who’s ever in my fantasies.”
Five floors. Four.
