Page 52 of Tempting Fate

Chapter Twenty-Two

Jamie

I can do this. I can do this.

Except Em pulls the zip on my trousers down, and if he goes any slower, I might just die.

I might die anyway. I’m not joking when I say it—they look incredible together. Patch is beautifully responsive to Em. To both of us, maybe. And he kisses like…

Well. In a strange way, I’m even more fucked off that he said no a few weeks ago because it would have been a spectacular night.

Not quite like this, though. Em slides his hand down with the zip and then cups me through my trousers, squeezing just a little, but it’s enough to have me grabbing at the duvet as my hips cant up into his hand. “F-fuck.”

“I like that,” Em says, breathless.

Some of my resolve—the resolve I have to remain in charge, to protect myself, to avoid falling too deep—melts away. We all know it, even if Patch can’t quite fit the pieces together yet. Em’s in charge. Not just because we both like him, both want to care for him.

We both want to submit to him, too. My tongue swipes over my lower lip and Patch tracks the movement as his hands move over Em’s hips. Em squeezes again, a bit more firmly this time.

“Take your shirt off,” Em says, and my fingers are working at the buttons long before my mind catches up. Em spins in Patch’s arms to kiss him again, one hand coming up to cup the back of Patch’s neck. When he squeezes, Patch lets out a whimper that makes my cock throb. Oh, fuck. He’s so needy. My heart races.

I’m going to want this again. That much is obvious. It’s obvious, too, that they’re meant to be together. Already, they move in sync; when Em ends the kiss, Patch works at his trousers and helps him out of them before they both turn their faces to me.

“Fuck,” I mutter. My shirt is only half unfastened.

Em chuckles. “Help him,” he says to Patch, then busies himself getting supplies out of the bedside table. I shuffle further back onto the bed so Patch can climb over me, and he does, planting a knee between my legs before he unfastens a button.

He doesn’t look at my face, but I don’t mind that. Not when silver swirls in his eyes again, like earlier, at each piece of skin he reveals. I grab his hand. His eyes meet mine. The silver fades away and I mask my ridiculous disappointment.

“Kiss me.” I need some balance back, somehow. And the doubts all vanish when his mouth lands on mine, are barely imaginable when he stops kissing me and Em takes his place, tongue leisurely exploring.

Patch gets my shirt off while I’m distracted, and I tear my mouth from Em’s when he starts working on my trousers. His hands go still, fingers just brushing the skin on my lower stomach.

“Can I…?” He looks away again, not quite able to finish the question. A muscle in his jaw ticks. Em frowns and pushes up onto his knees.

“Hey,” he says, then when Patch still won’t look at either of us, adds, “Hey. Look at me, please?”

He does as he’s told. I think he can’t help it any more than I can.

“What’s going on?” Em asks. “It’s okay if it’s too much. If you want to slow down or stop. I just need you to tell us.”

Us. My heart skips a beat. I don’t dare move because Patch’s hands are still on me, even if his entire body is taut like he wants to run.

“I don’t—This isn’t—” Patch blows out a breath. “It’s fine. I’m fine.”

I push up onto my elbows. Em sighs, sitting back. “We’re not here for fine,” he says. “Tell me. Please.”

“It’s not—” Colour claws its way up his throat, into his cheeks, and I sit up properly, grabbing Patch’s hands before he can withdraw them.

“You thought you’d be the dominant one, huh?” I ask.

Em makes a quietly pained sound when Patch nods. This has happened to him before.

It’s happened to me, too. Plenty of times. I’m even shorter than Em, slighter, and there are plenty of bigger guys who don’t want to submit even as every sense is telling them to. I raise one of Patch’s hands to my face and kiss the back of it.

“Whatever we do in here is just for us,” I say against his skin. “Just the three of us. It’s no one’s business but ours.”

No one’s business but theirs, after tonight, but I’m here now and I mean it. Even if Patch wanted something neither of us was into, it wouldn’t leave this room.