Chapter 45

Hayden

This was always bound to happen. Three brothers dating the same woman, and two of them living together, meant at some point our worlds would collide.

I just didn't expect it to be right now.

The front door opened and as I looked up from the couch, I expected to see my brother walk in. I just hadn't anticipated seeing Jamie pressed into his side. My eyes were everywhere at once, taking in the state of their wet clothes along with the brightly coloured beach towels wrapped about their waists, but that wasn't what caught and kept my attention. It was Hunter's arm slung around Jamie's waist, the casual possessiveness forcing my teeth to clamp down.

I hadn't felt this kind of rage since we were kids. Hunter taking one of my toys without asking, ransacking my room to get what he wanted. My hands became fists as they staggered in the door before Hunter pressed her into the wall of our hall. He murmured something in a low voice, in a tone I recognised. I'd used the exact same one with Jamie only days ago. He'd be telling her something sweet, something dirty, right before his mouth crashed down on hers.

In some ways, this would have been easier to bear if it was Brock doing the kissing, not Hunter. I wouldn't have experienced that weird moment of dislocation. That lips that looked just like mine were claiming Jamie's mouth, forcing it to part to let him in. I knew what it felt like, to claim that hot, wet territory, to feel her tongue tangle with yours, my own tensing in my mouth. His hands were my hands, sliding down her throat.

Except they weren't.

I wasn't touching the one woman I loved and I wasn't going to, so as I breathed through the urge to tear Jamie away from Hunter, I got to my feet. Run towards them, my heart beat. Tear her away from him. She belongs to you, not Hunter! He's had a million girls fall at his feet. He can claim one of them.

But I didn't.

Jamie was here because she wanted to be, I could see that in the arch of her back, hear it in her sighs. My eyes slid upwards, watching her rake at his wet clothes and knew exactly what was happening. She wanted to get to the body underneath as quickly as she could, because she'd done the same when she was with me.

My heart hurt, beating hard in my chest, but weirdly, so did my dick. It hardened so fucking fast it hurt, then throbbed in time with my heartbeat. It felt like my heart was breaking, right as I felt a burning need to tear Hunter away and replace his lips with mine.

Or add mine to the mix.

It felt like someone dumped a bucket of ice cold water over me, the thought hitting me like a slap. Mum always came in and lectured us on the benefits of sharing when my twin and I were bickering over toys, but Jamie was no toy. I shook my head as if to dislodge that thought, then went to leave them to it. Of course, that's when the two of them noticed I was there.

They blinked, like swimmers resurfacing, taking a moment to see me standing there, but when they did? Jamie looked stricken, her face going pale in a way that validated and hurt me all at the same time, but Hunter? He turned Jamie around, presenting her like a trophy that he'd won. My teeth locked together as he smiled.

"Evening," my brother said, like this was any other day. He'd just come home after having a beer at work or stopping by the beach for a surf. "Didn't think you'd be around."

"I fucking live here, dickhead."

My voice was pure poison, but it wasn't just my twin I was pouring it on. Jamie shrank back, all that sweet receptiveness of moments before fading away. A dark, unworthy part of me was glad, but the other… I knew my girl was going through a tough time right now, so anything that made her feel better was good. I didn't want to be the reason those shadows returned to her eyes.

"I should go," Jamie said, going to pull away from Hunter, but he stopped her. I frowned, taking a step forward, and that just made his grin widened.

"No, you should stay right here," he insisted.

"I don't want to cause drama." The way she pushed his arm away lightened my soul, but any relief I felt disappeared at the sight of her expression. Shuttered, that's how I would describe it, as if every part of her was piled up and shoved behind her defences, everything she was, hidden away. "I'll get a cab."

"No."

Hunter and I used to say the same thing all the time, something that made our families laugh, but it happened a lot less often now that we were adults. Each one of us was a separate entity with quite different personalities, and yet we both said the same word at the exact same time.

"No." Hunter repeated the word with entirely different emphasis, his eyes dancing. "No, you shouldn't do that. If you really want to go, if Hayden's gonna crack the shits, then I'll drive you home."

"Or?" I asked, unable to stop myself from prompting him to say what was going unspoken. He didn't answer me though, speaking to Jamie only.

"You told me to show you what I've got. What if we showed you what we've got?"

We…

The word seemed to stretch out, the syllable becoming nonsensical sounds inside my head as my mind struggled to grasp the implications. Jamie too, if her restless movements were anything to go by. I stared at Hunter, frowning as I tried to piece together what he was saying. It was easy on some levels. My hands ached from the memory of tracing Jamie's curves, my tongue longing for another taste, so a scenario where both Hunter and I led her to my bed and then fell upon her like hungry wolves was not hard to imagine.

But my heart…

It was selfish, vicious, wanting to snarl like an angry dog at my twin and drive him back, away from the girl I wanted to claim as mine.

Only to break Jamie's heart.

I swallowed, pushing aside my own self-absorbed shit for a second and then stepped forward. There was only one real opinion that mattered in this situation and that was hers.

"Is that what you want?" Being close to her, feeling the way salt and sand had crusted on her skin as I tipped her chin upwards, settled something in my chest. "Jamie?" Her eyes met mine, and that's when I saw it–one part anger at being put in this situation, but also something else. An emotion that burned with the heat of a thousand suns.

Desire.

I fucking loved that look in her eyes. There was something greedy about her, wanting to just grab and gorge herself on us, only social prohibitions holding her back. I saw it on her face when she got me naked, forcing me up inside her. Jamie wanted to take and take.

And I wanted to give everything to her.

"I don't want to hurt you," she replied.

"So don't."

Her eyes flicked back over her shoulder.

"I don't want to make things complicated." I wanted to tell her that we sailed past that point the moment the three of us realised we were all into Jamie, but that would've just given the little sensible voice inside her head more fodder to worry about. "If this is going to cause tension?—"

I glanced over her shoulder, meeting Hunter's eyes for a second, making clear what I thought about his bullshit. He'd brought Jamie home knowing I'd be here, had to have anticipated that this was going to be an issue. And just like he always did, Hunter forced things to come to a head.

"Mum made sure we learned how to share," I told her, smiling when she snorted.

"I'm fairly sure this is not what Heather had in mind."

I leaned down, my fingers twitching as I stroked one along the line of her jaw, loving the way her head tilted my way. She wanted me. She wanted Hunter too, her hips pressing back against him as his hand slid lower, but while that pricked at my pride, my focus narrowed down on the way her lips parted in readiness. My girl wanted to be kissed, caressed, forced to feel greater and greater heights of pleasure, and I could never deny her that. My grip on her jaw tightened as I finally gave in and kissed her.

"Mm…"

The little kittenish sigh as she melted into me, into Hunter, was everything. It felt like something in her surrendered, turning her soft as we got harder. My kisses were accompanied by the sounds of Hunter placing more along the line of her neck and I wondered whether this was some kind of sensory overload for her. Did she feel completely and utterly swept away by sensation? Our bodies pressing into hers, sandwiching her between us. Hunter's hips had to be rubbing helplessly against her, his dick needing the stimulation, just as mine did now.

The gap between her thighs widened as I kissed her, the thick cotton of the towel doing nothing to dull the throb of pleasure that came from rutting against her. My kisses grew harder, deeper, the need to take her over, drive her out of her mind with pleasure, riding me hard, but Jamie jerked away, blinking as she stared at me in question.

"Maybe not," I replied belatedly, "but she did teach us one thing, Dad too." I glanced at Hunter who nodded slowly, even as his hands slid up her ribcage. She arched into his caress, and I both wanted to knock his hands away and take over and also watch him tease Jamie to the point of gasping. "That the woman we're with, who we care for, she's the most important one. That we need to do everything we can to make her happy."

Hunter nodded, as if I was finally starting to see it.

"That sounds all very selfless," she said, shaking her head.

"Not really." I forced her eyes to meet mine again, because I needed her to see the truth of the matter. "Because there's a pleasure that comes from knowing that someone you…" Love, that's what I wanted to say. "Care for is happy and that you were the one to make them feel that way. So?—"

"Ready to make us happy by making you happy?" Hunter asked, his hands sliding under her breasts, but not moving any further without her say so.

"Well, you make it sound like a public service now, so how can I say no?"

That smile, I realised I'd longed to see it as much as I did to touch Jamie. It was an easy, spontaneous thing, lighting her up. My hand took hers, Hunter doing the same with the other one, and I tugged her down the hall. Deeper into our house, a primal need to keep her here and never let her go rising in my chest, right before I stopped outside the doorways of our rooms. I cocked one eyebrow, asking my brother a silent question, and he shoved his door open with his free hand, tugging her, and then me, after him.

"That was so fucking hot today," he told her, forcing me to wonder what the hell had gone on when he went around to Brock's garage to talk to Jamie about their date. "But this?" His hands went to her towel, dropping it to the floor, before moving to the hem of her top. "It's time to even the score. Hayden?"

I found myself in the position he'd taken, pressing my body against her back, my lips finding her neck.

"I'm in," I said, feeling the truth in those words now. "I'm all the way in."