Chapter Seventeen

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

I was always his boy.

From the very beginning.

~ Zayne

THE VIEW FROM the apartment balcony was absolutely incredible as Chloé stared out over the glittering lights of Paris.

Today had been long, but amazing.

From seeing this apartment for the first time, to taking Ethan and Zayne to JULIEN and cooking for them, she was having the time of her life, and the buzz from the wine at dinner—and the two glasses of champagne she’d had since getting home—had left her feeling goood.

Never in a million years could she have imagined this was where she would end up after that first night she’d gone to The Office. But as she sipped on her champagne and kicked her feet up on the railing, there wasn’t one thing she would change.

Thiswas everything she’d ever wanted. Well, not exactly this, because a beautiful French villa overlooking Paris hadn’t even been on her radar. But Ethan and Zayne, and the relationship they were all falling into? That was everything she’d ever wanted.

In the last couple of weeks, she’d felt cherished, desired, and protected by her men, and if there’d ever been questions as to whether she wanted this kind of dominant/submissive relationship, then they’d all been put to rest.

Ethan and Zayne had not only shown her a new sexual side of herself but had invited her into something that was real and true. This afternoon had shown her that.

She was an integral part of them, and she knew she was falling. She could feel it deep in her soul. She was falling hard and fast, and this trip was only amplifying it.

“Ah, so this is where you disappeared to.”

Chloé glanced over her shoulder to see Zayne stepping out onto the balcony, a bottle of Veuve in hand, and two more glasses.

“I didn’t disappear,” she said, relaxing back in her seat. “I just wanted to take advantage of this beautiful view.”

He placed the glasses on the table beside her and took up a seat on the other side of it. “Funny, that’s what I came out here for too.”

“Sweet talker.”

He peeled the foil off the bottle. “It’s strange seeing you drink.”

She chuckled, drained the rest of the bubbly liquid, and held her glass out to him. “It’s weird to me when I don’t. I cook with it so often it feels odd not being able to order something to pair with a meal. But I was lucky enough that my fathers would let us indulge a little with them once we turned eighteen.”

“Indulge, huh?” Zayne pulled the cork free, then refilled her glass and poured two more. “Is that what you’re doing now?”

“Mhmm.” She waggled her brows. “I looove indulging myself.”

“We still talking about the wine, Red?”

She stroked a foot up her bare leg and sighed. “Hmm, maybe.”

He scoffed. “Ethan and I used to sneak beer into his dorm room.”

“Beer?” Chloé screwed her nose up. “I’m not much of a beer drinker.”

“Neither are we, now. But back then it was cheap and easy to get our hands on.” He laughed and added, “Then again, so was I when it came to Ethan.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Definitely.” Zayne relaxed back in his seat and crossed his ankles. “All he had to do was look at me, and I did whatever he asked.”

Chloé giggled, imagining the two of them getting up to all kinds of trouble. “Whatever?”

“Yep.” Zayne gave her wry grin. “Whatever.”

A delicious thrill zinged through her at the devilish gleam in his eyes, as all kinds of filthy scenarios flashed in her mind. She shifted on her seat, and Zayne chuckled.

“You okay over there, Red? Your cheeks are looking a little flushed.”

They were definitely flushed, and while part of that might’ve been from the alcohol, the other reason was imagining Ethan and Zayne all hot and heavy in their dorm room.

Then before she knew it, she blurted out, “What was it like?” Blame it on the alcohol, blame it on the night, blame it on the two men she wanted to know every single thing about. But she wanted to know. “You know, back then? What was it like with the two of you? He was your first, I know he was. Were you his?”

Okay, her tongue was a little loose tonight. That was definitely the alcohol. But Zayne didn’t seem offended in any way—if anything, he seemed amused.

“His first what?”

Chloé rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on.”

“You come on. Be. More. Specific.” He sat up and turned in her direction. “If you want to know something, Red, ask.”

Zayne was such a contradiction in moments like this. One minute he was easygoing, and the next that switch flipped and he was dishing out a lesson from dom to sub.

“Okaaay. Were you his first kiss?”

“Yeah, I was.”

Chloé sighed and placed a hand over her heart. “That’s so sweet.”

“Hmm, funny, I don’t remember it being…sweet.”

“No?” She lowered her feet from the rail and shifted so they were facing one another.

“Nope. Definitely not sweet.”

“Was there tongue?”

Zayne swiped his tongue along his lower lip. “Lots of it.”

“Hands?”

“Oh yeah.

She hadn’t realized it, but somewhere in her line of questioning she’d leaned in over the wrought-iron table, closer to Zayne. “Did it make you hard?”

“Hell, it’s making me hard right now, Red.”

She laughed and fell back into her lounger, the alcohol and night air making her feel free as a bird and bolder than ever.

“That’s not an answerrr.”

“What’s not an answer?”

Chloé and Zayne whipped their heads toward the door as if they’d been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Something Ethan must’ve noticed, judging by the way his eyes narrowed.

“Okay, what’s going on out here?”

Zayne shrugged and picked up his glass. “Red’s got a few questions she’d like to ask, that’s all.”

“Questions?” Ethan grabbed his wine and moved around the two of them to lean back against the rail. “What kind of questions?”

That sneaky Zayne… He knew exactly what he was doing. With him, she could volley and kind of flirt her way around a situation, but with Ethan? If he asked a question, she felt the immediate need to respond.

“I was asking about your first kiss.”

“I see, and what did Zayne tell you?”

“That it wasn’t sweet.” She gave him a sassy wink.

“Just how much have you had to drink tonight, Chloé?”

“Umm… This is my—third…?—glass since we got home.”

“Maybe it’s time to head to bed, then? Hmm?”

“Nooo, not yet.” She batted her lashes, and the bright lights began to blur over Ethan’s head like a halo,which had her laughing all over again. Because there was no way he was an angel.

Maybe she should slow down.

“I want to hear about the kiss.” She took his hand and leaned forward, close to begging him now. “Please tell me, and then I’ll go to bed. Promise.”

Ethan looked at Zayne. “You started this.” He tugged Chloé to her feet and took her seat before pulling her down in his lap. “You can finish it.”

“Yeah.” She snuggled back into Ethan’s arms, her eyes locked on the sexy man now staring at the two of them. “Tell me a bedtime story, Zayne.”

* * *

ZAYNE STOOD OUTSIDE Ethan’s dorm room and counted back from twenty, trying to calm the sudden case of nerves that had taken hold of him.

This was stupid. He was stupid. He’d been to Ethan’s dorm so many times over the past couple of months that he almost knew it better than his own. But as he stood there now staring at the door, he had the sudden urge to run.

“Quit being such a pussy,” he told himself as he shrugged the strap of his backpack up his shoulder. “You’re just going to study. You do it every afternoon with Ethan.”

Well, not it, and that was the problem. The more time he spent with Ethan, the more he was thinking about it, and the fact it was with a guy instead of a girl was the least of his problems.

From the moment he’d set eyes on Ethan, he’d been drawn to the guy. But ever since he’d started spending actual time with him, he’d found that draw had turned to more of a crush, and the crush more of an…obsession.

He couldn’t stop thinking about him. Not in a creepy I want to carve your initials over my heart kind of way. More like he couldn’t stop thinking about his eyes, and the way they seemed to glow when he was concentrating on something—and lately, that something had been Zayne.

If that had been it, maybe he could forget about it, but that wasn’t it. There was his mouth, and the way it was always so serious. It took everything Zayne had to get Ethan to laugh. But man, when he pulled an actual smile from the guy, he felt like he’d stumbled on gold. It lit him up from the inside, and the way it made him feel had him locking his dorm room door to enjoy it in private—and he’d been enjoying it a hell of a lot lately.

When he was awake.

When he showered.

When he slept.

There was something so intense about Ethan, and he just couldn’t put his finger on what exactly it was—but it excited him.

The sound of the door opening snapped him out of his thoughts, and he came face to face with the boy he’d just been mooning over. Before he could think up a reason for lurking around his door, Ethan frowned.

“Did you just get here?”

Yeah, there you go, Zayne. Go with that.

“Yeah, was about to knock. Why?” He flashed his most charming grin. “You listening at the door waitin’ for me?”

Ethan cocked his head, probably wondering if he’d lost his mind, and Zayne shrugged, feigning nonchalance as he pushed by.

“It was a joke, E. Remember I told you what one of those were months ago?”

Ethan shut the door, and Zayne tried not to focus too hard on the fact that they were now alone in such a small space.

“I thought I told you not to call me that.”

“E?”

“Yes.”

Zayne tossed his bag on the single bed pushed up against the wall. “It’s just a nickname.”

“I hate it.”

Zayne laughed. “I know.”

Ethan took in a breath as though trying for patience, before he walked over to his desk and took a seat. “Then why do you do it?”

“Because it gets a response.”

Ethan’s eyes narrowed as Zayne kicked off his shoes and moved to his usual spot when they studied—the end of Ethan’s bed.

Yeah, that didn’t help with his current situation.

“You have a funny way of treating your friends.”

Zayne snorted and grabbed a pillow to shove behind him against the rail. “You should talk.”

“I am talking. But let me get to the point, I don’t have friends. So I don’t treat them in any way.”

Zayne wasn’t sure why, but that stung. They’d been hanging out for a while now—ever since Ethan had told the senator he was an asshole—and he’d really thought they’d become friends despite Ethan’s weird ways.

Guess not.

“What’s wrong?”

Zayne looked up to see Ethan had spun his chair around to face him. “Nothing.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“And I don’t fucking care.”

Zayne wasn’t sure where that had come from—actually, that was a lie; he totally knew where that had come from—and he couldn’t curse his stupid dick enough.

What the hell had he been thinking? That Ethan might feel the same way as he did? That he might want the same things?

Ha! Ethan didn’t feel any-fucking-thing. So yeah, good job, moron.

“Zayne,” Ethan said, getting to his feet.

But as humiliation and a rejection he hadn’t expected washed over him, Zayne knew he had to get out of there. He had to get out while Ethan still had no clue he’d just gutted him like a fucking fish.

He swung his legs off the bed and jammed his feet back into his sneakers, sure to keep his eyes on the floor. He didn’t want to look at Ethan, didn’t want him to see something he couldn’t hide. But before Zayne could get both shoes on, Ethan stopped in front of him.

“What are you doing?”

Zayne swallowed, trying to think of something, anything, to say that wouldn’t make him sound like a desperate loser. But when nothing came out, Ethan reached out and—holy fuck—lifted Zayne’s face so he was staring up at him.

“I asked you something,” Ethan said, as though that meant Zayne should automatically answer. “What are you doing?”

Zayne swallowed, his cock now pounding as hard as his heart, and all he wanted to do was get the hell out of there before Ethan noticed.

“I’m leaving,” he finally managed, and shoved to his feet. He booked it for the door, determined to get the hell out of there. But as he reached for the handle, Ethan wrapped his fingers around Zayne’s wrist and spun him around.

“Why? We haven’t done our work yet.”

Was he kidding? Jesus. Zayne knew Ethan was new to the concept of having a friend and that he was being overly sensitive, but surely he wasn’t this fucking dense.

“Why? Maybe because you’re being a dick?”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you fucking are.” He was about to turn and pull open the door when Ethan took a step forward. What the hell?

Not knowing what Ethan was doing, Zayne took an automatic step back until he hit the door, and his bag fell to the floor.

“You’re mad at me.”

“No shit.”

Ethan’s eyes glowed—fucking glowed—and Zayne’s breath caught in the back of his throat as he tried to think of something to say. This was as close as they’d been since that day Ethan had saved him, and he wasn’t sure what the hell was going on.

“Hmm… Interesting.”

Okay, that sounded real close to a fucking purr, and it did jack shit in helping Zayne’s hard-on.

“Interesting?”

“Yes.” Ethan took another step forward and placed a hand by Zayne’s head on the door. “You said you call me E because I don’t like it, and it gets a response.”

Okay, where the hell was he going with this?

“So I did the same thing.”

When Zayne just stood there, a smile that would forever be ingrained on his brain slowly curved Ethan’s lips. Fuck, that was hot.

“I don’t have friends,” Ethan whispered, and placed his other hand on the door, caging Zayne in. “I don’t know how. But I have you…Z.”

Zayne’s chest rose and fell as Ethan’s eyes dropped to his mouth. He had no idea what was going on, but that was the first time Ethan had ever called him Z, and he was pretty damn sure he’d beg him to keep calling him that for the rest of his life.

“I…” He swallowed and tried to focus, but with Ethan so close after months of wishing and wanting it, he was finding it difficult to think. “What does that mean?”

The intensity in Ethan’s eyes was unlike anything Zayne had ever seen before.

“It means you’re mine, and I’m yours.”

Zayne nodded, not even caring what that meant to Ethan in that moment. He knew what it meant to him.

“Yes?” Ethan asked, and then leaned a little closer. Zayne balled his hands into fists by his side, not knowing what to do with them.

“Fuck yes.” He wasn’t sure what he expected to happen next, but when Ethan gently brushed his lips over the top of his, Zayne’s knees almost gave out.

Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit.

Ethan slipped his tongue out and slowly traced it along Zayne’s lower lip.

Zayne’s heart hammered as he stood paralyzed by the door, trying to work out if this was really happening, or if he’d slipped into some kind of dream. But when Ethan moved a hand to the back of his neck and dug his fingers in, Zayne decided he didn’t care.

Dream or no dream, if this was the only chance he got to get his hands and mouth on Ethan Holt, then he was going to take it.

He reached for Ethan’s waist and pulled him in the final few inches. Ethan wedged a leg between his, and Zayne punched his hips forward in automatic response.

Fuck. How long had he thought about this? How long had he wished this would happen? And now here he was with his hands on Ethan’s ass and his tongue in his mouth. Ethan rocked against him a little harder, and when he felt the erection grind up against his, Zayne groaned.

Ethan smiled against his lips. “My boy, Z.”

Zayne blinked—was he serious? “Your boy? Z?”

“I like it.” Ethan rolled his hips against Zayne’s. “You do too.”

Okay, so Zayne couldn’t exactly hide that. “Don’t think I won’t come up with something for you.”

Ethan nipped at his bottom lip and took a step back, tugging Zayne with him. “Whatever. But come up with it later—we have homework to do now.”

“Yes, sir.” Zayne pushed off the door to head back to the bed, and on that day, very little homework was done…

* * *

“YOUR BOY Z…” Chloé whispered, looking up at him, and Ethan kissed her softly on the lips.

“Mhmm. He’s always been my boy. Isn’t that right, Z?” He glanced over at the gorgeous man that young, rebellious boy had become.

Zayne winked at him. “From the second I laid eyes on you.”

“Aww, that’s so swoony.” Chloé sighed and wrapped her arms over the top of his, squeezing them around her tight. “You were meant to be. Right from the very beginning.”

“We were, yes,” Ethan said by her temple. “And so were you.”

“Me?”

Zayne got to his feet and made his way around the table to hold his hand out to her. “Yeah, Red. You. The second we laid eyes on you, we knew you were meant to be ours.”

Chloé slipped her hand into Zayne’s, and he drew her off Ethan’s lap, wound an arm around her waist, and brushed a kiss across her lips.

“Time for bed now. Let’s go inside.

Ethan nodded and followed the two of them into their bedroom, switching on the bedside lamp. Zayne pulled the covers back, and Chloé slipped out of her robe and climbed in.

Zayne was next, removing his jeans and shirt, and as he curled in around Chloé, Ethan moved in behind him.

“Can I tell you both a secret?” Chloé whispered as they settled in for the night.

“Anything, petite fille.”

There was a pause, and then she confessed, “I don’t ever want this to end.” The mattress shifted as she rolled to face both of them.

“This?” Ethan said.

“Yes. This feeling I’m having, like…I’m really yours.”

Zayne chuckled and reached out to stroke a finger down her cheek. “You are ours, Red.”

“But I mean forever,” she said wistfully as she closed her eyes. “I want to be yours forever…”

Ethan pushed the covers back and climbed out of bed. He came around to the other side, then he and Zayne shifted in under the covers until she was nestled in between them.

Ethan stroked her beautiful hair. Her glazed eyes fluttered open, and he could see she was somewhere between reality and dreams.

“Sleep now, beautiful girl.”

Zayne leaned down and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “We’ll talk about forevers in the morning.”

“Promis?”

Ethan nodded. “Je te le promets.”

He wanted them to talk about this, but not now, not when she was tipsy and slipping into sleep. As her eyes drifted shut, Ethan mouthed to Zayne, Forever?

Zayne whispered, “From the very beginning.”