Page 58 of The Triangle

And then there’s a moment when she goes still and stiff. And I realize—this. This is what she’s like when she comes. And every time I make love to her, from this day forward, I will be looking for this sign.

This signal of utter and total surrender.

I press my whole body against hers. My cock buried as deep inside her as it will go. My chest against her breasts, my hands gripping the outer edge of her upper thighs. And then I close my eyes, bury my face into her so-familiar hair, and I come inside her without giving it a second thought.

And when I open them again, when she has stopped shuddering and our hearts have synchronized in their beats, I see Alec.

Standing outside on the shore of the choppy lake

Hazy mist swirling around his body like a cloak as he stares up at us.

And smiles.

Ten minutes later I find him in his office. I had to wander down a hallway that could be described as either a walled-up glass bridge or a human-sized hamster tube. But there was a small stream filled with smoothly polished river stones running under it, so I guess it’s a bridge.

The office is a large room with floating shelves lining one wall. There are no books on them, just… art. Probably priceless art, knowing Alec. And there’s a large executive-sized desk made of steel and glass. Fits with the décor, I suppose. And two chairs in front of the desk with a small glass table between them on which sits a bottle of brandy so nice even I’ve heard of it, and two snifters, both with the appropriate amount of liquor in them.

“Where’s your shirt?” He nods to the drink, then the chair and stares unapologetically at my bare chest as I pick up my drink and take a seat. I put my leather back on after I took off the t-shirt. But he still stares.

“I used it to clean up Christine.”

“Where’s Christine?”

Hmm. So he’s got nothing to say about that. I shrug internally. “Taking a bath.”

We both smile at the same time. It’s just so Christine to take baths in the middle of chaos.

“Well, good,” he says. “Because we need to talk about what comes next.”

I take a sip of the brandy. I don’t much care for brandy, but I’ve had enough of it in the company of Alec to appreciate the taste of this one as it goes down. “What comes next?” I ask. Then answer for him. “The usual, I guess. Hole up here, wait for some information, and move along. That’s how it usually goes.”

“I don’t think it’s going that way this time.”

“Why not?” I ask, setting my snifter down.

“This is different.”

“Different how?”

“We didn’t just do a job,” Alec says. He’s annoyed with me, but I can’t tell if it’s because he saw Christine and me having sex or if it’s something else. “And… I don’t know. I can’t put my finger on it. Something just feels… off.”

“Hmmm,” I say. “Could it be… oh, let me take a stab at this… that I just took Christine away from you?”

He smiles. Manages to huff out a laugh. “That’s not how I see it.”

“Maybe you didn’t get a good enough look?”

“Grow up, Fortnight.”

I shrug.

“And besides. Nothing has changed. She doesn’t want you, she wants us.”

And there it is. Didn’t take long, did it?

I make a promise to give her everything she wants to keep this going.

And what she wants is the only thing I can’t give her.