11. New And Enchanting Possibilities

11

NEW AND ENCHANTING POSSIBILITIES

I drifted awake still pressed between Beau and Flora. The winter sun had risen higher in the sky, but I was cocooned and cozy in their body heat. Flora was wrapped around my front and Beau curled around me from behind. His breath feathered the nape of my neck, his chest hair was coarse against my skin, and his cock, semi-hard even in sleep, was a distracting presence.

I let my lips dance along the top of Flora's head. Ran my fingers through her tangled hair. Skimmed my palm between her shoulder blades then followed the dip of her waist, the curve of her thigh hitched around mine. Before, every touch between the three of us felt like a false promise. A stolen moment to feel guilty about instead of enjoy. But our secrets had been dragged into the sunlight, laid bare and handled with exquisite care.

It was as thrilling as it was terrifying.

Flora stirred awake beneath my touch. She gave a feline stretch then blinked her eyes open, wearing a sleepy smile that had me leaning in to kiss her. Because I wanted to.

Because I could.

I'd meant for the gesture to be sweet, but Flora arched against me and deepened the kiss. Our mouths moved slowly, sensually. Learning each other, tasting each other, enjoying the delicious feel of our naked limbs entwined. I fisted my hand in her hair and tugged, angling her face up so I could kiss along her throat. She shivered and rocked into me, pressing her pussy against my thigh.

And suddenly I had a second set of hands roaming my body. Beau's gravelly chuckle vibrated against my hair.

"She wasn't a dream, Flor," he rumbled. "She's real."

His fingers found my chin, turning me so I could receive another sensual kiss. My back hit the mattress while Flora's tongue teased below my ear.

"Did you…did you think I'd vanish?" I managed.

She hummed. "A little. But you're still here, still ours to play with."

"And how fucking lucky are we to have Paige Presley all to ourselves," Beau drawled. One big hand cupped my breast, pinching my nipple. Flora kissed my belly, moving lower.

I was already squirming beneath their combined focus. "You're not tired?"

Another chuckle from Beau, this one dangerous at the edges. "You don't have to worry about that. We're just gettin' started."

He joined Flora, each holding one of my legs open. They teased along my inner thighs. Kissed my knees, sent their breath coasting across my clit. Every time my hips rolled, they'd push me back down, pinning me. When Flora licked my pussy, I watched Beau's gaze turn starved and ferocious. He nudged her out of the way and did the same thing, until Flora got impatient and stole his spot.

Their tongues were wet and confident, yet different in their size, the amount of pressure, the speed of their circles. The dual sensations were like nothing I'd ever felt before. If I wanted to, I could have floated my body right to the ceiling, utterly buoyant on sheer pleasure alone.

Flora twisted her fingers in Beau's hair and yanked him back. One eyebrow arched in amusement. "You want me out of the way, darlin'?"

She kissed his cheek with a toothy grin. "You just fucked Paige. I want a turn."

Their eyes slid to mine, and I couldn't help my own teasing smile. I dragged my toes up the ridges of Beau's stomach, the planes of his chest. He grabbed my ankle and pressed an open-mouthed kiss there.

"You heard the lady," I said. "It's her turn. But you can watch."

He closed his teeth around my skin with a playful growl. "I won't survive it."

Flora pushed him back onto the bed with a laugh. He reached for her face, pulling her down for a kiss they smiled around.

"When did you get so bossy?" he asked.

"You love it when I'm bossy," she countered, wrapping her hand around his cock and stroking. He hissed out a breath and groaned. "You can jerk off while you watch. But you can't come until we do."

"Yes, ma'am," he said. And I had only a few seconds to take him in—gloriously naked and reclined on the bed, fingers wrapped around his thick cock and his eyes boring into mine. Then Flora pinned my arms to the bed and straddled my waist. Her blond hair fell in waves around her shoulders, and the strands were soft on my skin when she bent down to kiss me. With our mouths still fused together, she shifted position, aligning her wet cunt onto mine. She gave an experimental thrust, and our clits rubbed together.

"Oh shit ," I gasped, breaking our kiss.

She bit her lip and smiled. "Is this okay?"

"God, yes." I grabbed her hips and we moved together, another decadent slide of our bodies. Flora reached forward, gripping the headboard. I gazed up at her in sheer wonder, entranced by the sinuous circling of her lower body. Her pink nipples, high and tight. The dreamy expression fixed on her face, every choked moan and whisper. And when I turned my head, Beau's tattooed forearm flexed as his hand worked on his shaft. His breaths were fast, ragged. Arm muscles bunching with the effort.

"She's so fucking gorgeous," he gritted out. "Every time she rides me like that, I lose my damn mind."

Flora's head fell back, exposing the lines of her throat. She kept grinding and grinding against my clit while I was suspended between ecstasy and adoration. She angled her upper body forward so I could touch her breasts, roll her nipples against my palm. The room filled with the sounds of Beau's fist on slick skin and his harsh breathing. The slight creak of the bed, Flora's growing sighs, my own chants as I was reduced to a babbling, obsessed mess. My hold on her hips tightened and I started to thrust up to meet her, each point of pressure coiling tighter and tighter in my belly.

"You feel incredible," she gasped. "I never wanna stop."

She dropped her hands back to the bed and bent over, kissing me until stars exploded through my brain. I rocked her faster on top of my body, my climax hovering at the base of my spine.

"Goddammit, I'm so close," Beau said through clenched teeth. "I've never seen anything as sexy as the two of you together."

Her legs shook as she ground down. "Please come with me," she begged, throwing her head back and grabbing the headboard again. "I need you, Paige."

And that was all it took. A sharp orgasm took me completely by surprise, bowing my spine off the bed as I wailed. Flora followed, chanting "Yes, yes, yes ," as she trembled through every last tremor. Beau gave his cock one more rough stroke then groaned in relief. His head tipped back, and his come spilled onto his flexing stomach.

Both of them, beautiful.

Both of them… mine .

"Oh fuck ," Flora said with a laugh, collapsing onto my chest as I blinked at the ceiling in dazed wonder.

"Oh fuck is right," he panted. "I'm a ruined man after that."

"Ruined in a good way?" I asked.

He tossed us a crooked grin that lit up the room. "The only way I know how."

My own smile gave way to a freeing laughter, and once I started it was impossible to stop. Flora giggled against my throat. Beau rolled towards us, still grinning, and gave us each a loud, smacking kiss on the cheek.

"Much as I'd hate to leave this bed, I feel it's important as the resident medical professional to make sure we're fed and hydrated," he said, standing and pulling on his sweats. "I shall return with cake, water and pain meds."

"You're my hero, Beau Duvall," Flora said sleepily.

He winked and swaggered out of the room. I gingerly pushed myself to sit against the headboard and snorted when I caught sight of my snarled curls in the mirror. But then my eyes tracked across the bed—our discarded clothing, the bunched sheets, Flora's fingers tangled with mine.

Reality crashed back around me, as jarring as a stack of plates falling off a table.

Beau and Flora weren't breaking up. Beau and Flora were in love with me.

I must have made a sound, some gulp of disbelief, because Flora appeared by my side, sweeping the hair from my face.

"Hey," she said, "I know it's a lot. It's a lot for us too. But this wasn't some random fun or a one-time thing for us. We meant every single word that we said. I want you to know that, okay?"

I nodded, releasing a shaky exhale. "Okay. I do and I…I trust you. It all just hit me at once. A dream come true that I assumed was impossible."

Her brown eyes softened. "You were my New Year's Eve wish, by the way. My new and enchanting possibility."

"Oh, Flor," I whispered, breath lodged in my throat.

This next kiss was all sweet affection and poignant memory. It was the kiss that hovered between us beneath my poncho that day, the kiss that threatened to destroy me in that club bathroom. The one I knew would fully unravel us that night on the couch, when Beau lay only a few feet away.

I felt the shiver that wracked her spine when our tongues met. Wanted to worship the whimper she made when my teeth nipped her lower lip. We only parted when Beau returned a moment later, his expression filled with so much reverence I had to duck my head, hiding a blush.

He brushed his lips at my temple, and I felt the shape of his smile.

"Can't leave you two alone for one second, huh?" he teased.

Flora tugged him forward by the waist of his sweatpants. He smoothed her hair down and kissed the crown of her head. Then he pressed pain meds and glasses of water into our hands. With a flourish, he presented a plate full of gingerbread cake.

"Meds in case you're sore. Water because we're clearly dehydrated. And cake for our ravenous hunger."

I gulped down the glass of water and eyed the cream cheese frosting, suddenly fucking starving . I moaned around a bite, shaking my head. "Who knew having wild threesome sex with my engaged-to-be-married best friends would work up such an appetite, huh?"

Beau laughed, sliding onto the bed next to us. "Is this how you expected to spend your New Year's weekend?"

I scoffed. "Not in the least. I expected to get pretty fucking tipsy at the New Queers Eve dance party and spend most of the night missing you both and wishing you were there."

They paused, mid-motion, to stare at me. My hand flew to my mouth, an absurd attempt to shove the words back inside.

"I'm…sorry," I stammered. "That was weird to say, right?"

But Beau gently grasped my wrist, pulling it free. "It's all different now, Paige. We don't have to pretend around each other anymore. We can tell the truth. And the truth is that if you hadn't gotten trapped here, we would have spent the weekend missing you too."

"Really? Even in this beautiful place, on your special romantic getaway?" I asked.

Flora settled her head in my lap, her long hair spilling everywhere. "Yes, really. You're the missing piece, and you always have been."

So much emotion crowded the back of my throat, I had to focus on my breathing. Beau draped a hand on my knee, stroking my skin with his thumb. "I know Flor and I have been acting real weird the past few weeks and probably been a pain in the ass to boot. We're so sorry about all of it. It was never our intention to make you worry or upset. We were just…confused and scared, is all."

"For the record, I really did think you were breaking up. Or at least in some kind of turmoil," I said. "And that gave me all these…these complicated feelings. I never wanted you to break up so I could pursue one of you separately. It was never about that. It was…" I picked at the sheets, unsure of the wording. "It was this, right here. The three of us together, equal and committed."

His hand tightened on my knee. "I like this, right here, a whole hell of a lot."

"Me too," Flora said. "You know, we always had a crush on you, Paige. He and I both, even before we started dating. It was part of who we were as a couple—falling in love with each other while acknowledging we had a totally normal crush on a friend we cared deeply about."

"A big crush," he added. "Gigantic. Enormous. The biggest one the world has ever seen."

I batted my eyelashes to the best of my ability. "An enormous crush on little ol' me ?"

Flora sat up, and Beau looped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her against his chest as she laughed. "We're infatuated with her, and she barely knows it, Flor," he said. "Looks like we'll have to keep her in this bed until she accepts it."

I let myself get tugged into the other side of his chest, smiling when they tried to kiss me at the same time. "Okay, okay, I believe you. I'm sure it was totally obvious I was obsessed with you too, right?"

"God, we hoped you were," he said. "Because that crush didn't go away. When you moved to California is when we realized how fucking miserable we were without you, missing you more than the way we'd miss a friend. We ached for you, gorgeous. Every day and every night. So much so that when you moved back and started planning our wedding, we finally had to acknowledge what those big, gigantic feelings really were. We were in love with you."

"And we have so many queer friends in all kinds of relationships," Flora added. "We're surrounded by these amazing examples of what romantic love can look like. Poly folks, open relationships, couples who date other couples. Beau and I truly believed our love was expansive. As infinite and vast as the universe. It wasn't about scarcity or deprivation, only this abundant love we never wanted to limit or censor. We'd had plenty of conversations about the topic, but saying ‘ hey, actually, I also love this other person ' was way more terrifying than all of our philosophical ideas."

"Honestly…I thought I might lose Flora," Beau said hoarsely. "And that scared me shitless. I don't even like thinkin' about it. But hiding what I was feeling felt like the worst kind of betrayal. I just had to figure out how to say, ‘I'm in love with Paige but it doesn't make me love you any less. In fact, I love you both more because of it.'"

It was like my heart had entered some kind of cartwheel competition. It twirled and spun, rejoicing at hearing my near-constant thoughts reflected back to me.

Not less, but more . A love that was limitless and all-consuming. I'd been at a loss for words to define how complex my feelings were. It often felt undefinable, even as a person who specialized in planning weddings that celebrated exactly that kind of love. A love beyond boundaries and binaries, a love that rejected all the bullshit societal rules.

Flora pressed her face into Beau's neck. "I don't think Beau expected me to say, ‘wait, you too?' when he confessed he was falling in love with you."

Their shared laughter warmed me like a burst of hot sun on a chilly day.

"I am sorry for not being braver sooner . For making you worry and feel confused, Paige," she continued. "The problem with our wedding was never this frivolous quest for a perfect venue. We could care less about any of it. But we didn't want to be in a relationship without you in it. And I was terrified that marrying each other would make us lose you. And that telling you the truth might make us lose you too. So instead we were…dragging our heels."

I cocked my head. "And the argument last night?"

Beau scrubbed a hand down his face. "Not an argument necessarily. We'd both spent the day trying to find a way to tell you and completely failed at it. A sudden snowstorm traps us in this cabin together? With no other people and nothing to do but talk? If we didn't tell you here, we never would. But we know what you've been through, especially with Em and Dorothy. We hated the idea of making you feel betrayed or abandoned."

Uneasy tension traveled up my spine. Being loved by Beau and Flora felt too good to be true. Yet I trusted their desire, understood their fears and hesitations because I had plenty of my own. Everything leading up to this moment—here on this bed, surrounded by snowy mountains—was the culmination of a slow, steady burn. The constant heat that had simmered between us from the beginning.

But even though we'd been wrong together in the end…Em had once been too good to be true. So had Dorothy. When I first moved to California, I couldn't imagine my life without them. And they'd still left me.

Quite easily, in fact.

I hated that they still lingered in the back of my thoughts, poking a hole through my hope. But I knew that pretty words meant nothing without actions. If we weren't careful, if we weren't honest, Beau, Flora and I could lose so very much. Our love, our friendship, each other.

And that meant accepting that I deserved their love, this bold and radical thing I helped other people celebrate all the time.

"I love you, Beau," I said. "And I love you, Flora. Have loved you both so much for as long as I can remember."

My breath hitched as Beau dragged me into his lap. He cupped my face and kissed me, that tremble back in his fingers. The kiss was long and thorough, a gesture of relief and joy and gratitude.

When we parted, he murmured, "Say it again."

A smile split my face in two. "I'm in love with you, Beau Duvall."

The look he shared with Flora was so profound, so intimate, that tears threatened to spill over again. I understood that look, when you've finally been given the one thing you ever asked for. He kissed her forehead before letting her sweep me into our own thorough kiss, let her lips smack against my cheek over and over while I laughed.

"You're in love with me ?" she said.

I brushed her hair back from her face. "Painfully so. But I was as scared as you both. I really did think it was this…this secret I could never tell. I assumed you were monogamous, that no matter how much you loved me as a friend it could never be more than that. Thought if I came clean about it and you rejected me, we'd have no reason to stay friends any longer. And that was a future I refused to acknowledge. So it became easier to hide it, easier to pine for you in private, easier to plan your wedding than risk losing you."

Beau smoothed his palm across my back in big, soothing circles. I sagged a little under the weight of all I'd been carrying, a weight they seemed prepared to help me release for good.

"We are monogamous. Or we were ," Beau said quietly. "Until you. Until we realized we needed to imagine a different kind of life for ourselves. A life with you, if you'll have us."

My mind filled with dozens of questions and scenarios, all my anxieties stacking up like the firewood outside. But I raised my chin and held their gazes, staring at these two people whose courage inspired my own.

"I have a lot of questions. And we have plenty to figure out. But I'm ready to imagine something different, to create something new. Together."

Flora wiped her cheeks and sniffed. "Well then, it's settled. Tonight's New Year's celebration will be extra special. Which means I need to start cooking immediately."

She moved to stand, but Beau caught her hand. "Not so fast, darlin'. I think we deserve a little fun after all that heavy talk."

She arched a dramatic brow. "Yes, sir. And what kind of fun did you have in mind?"

"I'm also interested in that kind of fun," I said.

Beau hugged me to his chest with a rumbling laugh. "Slow down, perverts. We had sex like seven minutes ago . I'm talking about something wholesome." He sent his focus to the landscape outside, where soft piles of snow beckoned. "I say we go sledding."