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I swallowed my pride and laced my fingers through his. “I’m sorry for what I said to you. You were never a mistake, Vaughn. I never should’ve said that. When that stuff happened with Billy in The Swamp, I was just panicking and I could see people looking at us and it felt like the end of the world for people to find out about us and judge me.”
“Then I went and made your fears come true.” He rested his forehead on my bed and sighed. “You don’t have to apologize. This whole thing was my fault. You wouldn’t have been panicked about people finding out if I hadn’t gone psycho when Billy touched you. I caused all of this. I’m sorry to each of you.”
I had to touch him. Running my fingers through his hair, I gently scratched his scalp and watched Booth and Fisher. “Did he tell you that he tried to throw himself on the sword for you guys? He tried to shoulder the blame for everything and send me back to you two.”
Fisher leaned over and punched Vaughn in the thigh. “Fuck that. We’re a package deal. We all fucked up. We all made choices that hurt Ella.”
Mom strolled by. “Language, boys.”
“Shit. I mean, sorry. Sorry, Ms. Daughton.” Fisher flinched when Mom reappeared in the doorway. It seemed like he was a little afraid of Mom.
“I’m fucking kidding!”
I waited until she left to slip to the floor between them. “I like that, what you said. You guys are a package deal. I don’t know how I would pick just one of you.”
Fisher inched closer. “You don’t have to. This is okay with us.”
“Just us, though. To be clear.” Booth looked at me with a sternness that I wasn’t used to from him and it sent a shiver down my spine. “We accept each other getting to share you. No one else.”
I gave up fighting the urge and crawled into his lap. I sat sideways, though, in hopes that Mom would leave us be. “Have I ever given you the impression that I would ever want anyone else? I have what feels like half of the football team here. I’m not that greedy.”
He pressed his forehead to mine. “Just making sure.”
Fisher rubbed my back but I could see that his mind was still on Vaughn. “You would’ve sacrificed yourself like that for us?”
Vaughn nodded. “It was my fault.”
Booth kissed the tip of my nose and sighed before lifting me and settling me back down in Vaughn’s lap. “If you were willing to do that for us, the least we can do is let you two take a moment to make sure you’re okay. Fisher and I will try to distract the parents for a few minutes. Think they’d fall for me and Fish insisting on doing live replays of the game?”
Fisher scoffed. “Who wouldn’t? We’re division champions, man!”
Vaughn brought my hand up to his lips and kissed my fingertips as they left. I glanced over and saw that they’d pulled the door shut before shifting so I was straddling him. He groaned but kept his touches PG.
“Are we okay?” He searched my face. “I feel like I’m up against a mountain because of the ex step siblings thing. I heard what people called you. And I know that no one said a thing about me the whole time, when I’d done the same thing as you. Me being a part of this makes shit harder for you. I don’t want to hurt you in any way, Ella, but what if me just being me hurts you?”
I nodded because he was right. To an extent. “It does make things a little harder. It just doesn’t change the fact that I want to be with you, Vaughn. I won’t pretend like it wasn’t brutal to be called the things I was called, but I made it through it. Partly because of you three threatening to maim or murder people. At least that’s what I assumed you threatened because they all just stopped doing it to my face immediately.
“Maybe some people will always hear that you were my stepbrother for three years and think less of me. Those same people would probably think less of me for something, no matter what. At least if it’s this, I’ll be able to face them knowing you have my back. And that this thing between us is worth it. At least I think it is.”
He shook his head as a slow smile stretched his lips. “How do you do that? I should be begging you for a second chance and you’ve already gotten past that and are onto facing the future. For someone who isn’t supposed to be good at forgiving, you’re damn good at it.”
“For you.” I shrugged one shoulder at him. “And for them.”
“Thank you. I’ll earn that forgiveness.”
I ran my hands through his hair and gripped it tight so I could lift his face to mine. Lowering my mouth until our lips were a breath apart, I tried to be as clear as possible. “You don’t need to earn anything. It’s already been given. Now it’s time for you to forgive yourself. You’re not less than Booth or Fisher to me. I love each of you-”
Vaughn cut me off with a kiss that was possessive and made me feel worshiped. He held my face in his hands and stroked his tongue over mine, tasting me like he’d never get full. He hardened under me and I rolled my hips over him, forgetting where we were entirely. It was Vaughn who kept his composure.
He eased the kiss to an end and gripped my hips to keep me still. “You have no idea how much I need to bury myself inside of you, Ella Rae, but our parents are in the next room and I’m pretty sure your mom’s crazy enough to hurt me.”
I pressed my forehead to his shoulder and whimpered. My body didn’t understand where the orgasms had gone for a month and why it couldn’t pick them back up already. “I just want-”
“You said you love us.” He felt me stiffen and laughed, a sound of pure happiness. “You said it, Ella Rae. You said you love us!”
I covered his mouth with my hand and glared at him. “Be quiet! I didn’t mean to say it. It just slipped out. I’m not ready to scream it to everyone. I mean, we’re just getting back together. It’s too soon. I need to get to know you guys even better. We need to date. We haven’t even been on a date. I can’t say it yet. That’s crazy, Vaughn. So you just have to stay quiet about it. Okay? Okay?”
He licked my hand and when I yanked it away, he grinned at me with pure chaos in his eyes. I barely realized we were moving until he’d dumped me on my bed and ran to my door. I jumped up and chased him and quickly found myself in a pile of bodies just outside of my door.
