AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Three
Emery
I feel the splinter, right down the middle, becoming two separate, empty shells of my former self. I turn to bury my face in Cabot’s shirt, the intoxicating mixture of cologne and him engulfing me as I choke out my muffled reply. “Don’t remind me, please. I know I don’t have to choose; already said I won’t. And before you even suggest it, no, I won’t let you two decide either. Face it, there’s nothing any of us can do, nothing more to say. And I can’t take another second of rehashing it, so I’m begging this time, just… just let me go. Home. Away. This hurts too much.”
“Minnow, baby, look at me.” Cabot’s plea is silken affection; a tone I’ve never heard him take. ‘Baby’ is also new. I like it. Even though it only muddles my mind further… I like it. “Stubborn ass woman,” he grumbles, though not angrily, and slips a finger under my chin to lift my face to his. “Hey there,” he polishes the words with flirty finesse, grinning. “You didn’t let me finish.”
A warm, familiar hand caresses its way up the back of my thigh, triggering sparks of desire to rapid fire in my belly. Breasts. Toes. Everywhere. “Hear him out, Em. Relax, open your mind and let go. We’ll take care of the rest. All the rest. The talking. Thinking. You. We’ve got you. Do you trust that? Us?” Cole’s hand climbs higher as he reassures me, hinting at my ass.
I bob my head once—I trust them both, completely, with anything—and Cabot’s grin grows in triumph. “I never answered you either, now did I?” That wink of his reaches through the darkness… or maybe my buddy in the moon turned up the voltage, just for me, so I wouldn’t miss a thing. “Emery McCall, my kind, angelic beauty, I love you. Always have, always will. You’re perfect; every single thing about you. You’re my absolute favorite person, and part, of this entire world.”
“When the hell did you grow a silver tongue?” Cole scoffs.
Cabot shrugs, scrubbing a hand over his sheepish smile. “Need to get this exactly right. Been waitin’ a long damn time, too long, for you to figure things out for yourself, Em. Done waitin’. Seems to me that you need it spelled out for you. I’m more than happy to help out with that. Gave sweet. Now, I’m gonna give it to ya straight.”
“Easy-” Cole begins.
“Fuck ‘easy,’” Cabot finishes. “She’s ready. Sick of the tiptoeing shit. Emery”—his intense stare locks onto my, what has to be baffled, gaze—“you’re ours. Mine. Cole’s. You belong to both of us, equally. You’re not going anywhere, ever, except our home, life, and bed. Starting right now. Until… the end. Understand?”
My head shakes back and forth wildly as my mouth opens, closes, over and again, a confused guppy… a million questions, scandalous thoughts, and vivid images unable to find voice. Meanwhile, Cole’s hand has slinked underneath my shorts, groping my bare ass… certainly not helping bring the blurry into focus.
“Whatever the hell you’re doing, let up, you greedy fuckin’ bastard; she can’t concentrate. I’ll be breaking your arms for that shit later too,” Cabot hisses, and balances out his brother’s overzealous touch by tenderly tucking my hair behind my ear. “Ask anything you want, Minnow. No need to be embarrassed. No shame. No more hiding. Ask.”
“Wh, I mean, how-” I gulp, pausing to take a deep breath and a much-needed moment to let the countless dots bouncing around in my brain stop and connect. “Cole, come stand in front of me too, please.”
“Likin’ where I am just fine,” he hums, firming his grasp on my ass cheeks.
“I’m sure you are,” I snicker, “but I’m only going to be able to say—ask — these things once, if that. So, let go of my ass and get yours where I can see you both at the same time. Need to see your eyes.”
“My eyes? Em, nobody’s thinkin’ ‘bout eyes right now,” Cole says, as he moves like asked.
He’s wrong. Someone’s very curious as to the why of my request, studying me intensely with his brows perked and a grin tugging at the corners of his full lips.
Cabot. My tenacious contemplator.
“Because?” he prompts on an intrigued drawl.
“Because, your and Cole’s eyes,” I pause, flipping my focus back and forth between them, my skilled eye easily spotting the glaring differences, “are my favorite books.”
“She’s saying she can read our eyes like books.”
“Got it, wiseass,” Cole quips, giving Cabot a shove.
It’s the truth. My Keller twins stand at identical, over six-foot height. They keep their dark, almost black, hair cut identically short. And strong, Romanesque jawlines, noses, and plump lips come with each. But their eyes—while the same size, shape, and shade of hunter green—hold stories as unique as… well, them.
And right now, in spite of night’s shroud, Cole and Cabot’s eyes are glowing with very different agendas.
Cole wants to pounce. Ravage me. Fuck me. In the woods, like a wild animal.
Cabot? Usually the “more aggressive, bullish one?” He wants finality. My doubtless, concrete acceptance of him, branded, his soul forever imprinted on mine.
So… I’ll have a life with Cabot after Cole gets a taste?
“You know better than that!” Cole snarls in reply to my obviously not internally asked question, his palm landing hot and heavy on my ass. “Some fucking credit, please? Just told you I love you, Em. How you gonna put me, especially before Cabot’s barbarian ass, in the one and done corner?”
“I didn’t mean, I just, I don’t know!” My cry’s desperate, a wail of confusion. Cabot moves in, and his brother aside, brushing the hair off my neck. “Please tell me what’s going on,” I whisper.
“Ah, Minnow”—his lips feather mine, words a warm tickle—“I think you already know. You’re just having trouble accepting it. Tucked it away as impossible. Unconventional. Whatever. Need ya to find it, pull it out, because this? This. Is. Happening.”
