Chapter Thirty-Four

Harper

 

I'd bought my apartment outright with the advance for Gilly's Garden. The real estate agent had described it as "cozy," which really meant, "you can stand in the middle of the living room and touch both walls." But housing prices in New York were insane and I had always considered buying my own place — with three small rooms, east facing windows and no roommates — as my biggest accomplishment in life thus far. So it had never seemed small to me.

Until Cal and Gray walked in it.

The sheer size of both of them was enough to fill the apartment. It had never felt so small.

But it had also never felt so much like home.

"Do you have a soufflé pan?" Gray asked me, slamming cupboards in my kitchenette.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

"And can you please put on pants while you do it?" Cal muttered, stroking my hair. We were nestled together on my couch, him sprawled out over half of it, with me leaning against his comforting bulk, watching Grayson tie my frilly little vintage apron over his naked torso.

"There, you happy?" Gray grinned, turning around and wiggling his ass in our direction.

"Well, I know I am," I said, enjoying the sight of his sculpted ass with a big pink bow tied above it.

"Good, now where's your soufflé pan?"

"What do you need a soufflé pan for?" Cal asked.

Gray looked at him like he was a special kind of slow. "Well, Cal, that would be so I can make us a soufflé for brunch."

"You can make a soufflé?" I asked, sitting up a little. "I'm impressed."

"I know baby." He winked. "I'm quite impressive."

I stuck my tongue out at him. "But I don't have a soufflé pan." His face fell and I spread my hands to encompass the tiny space. "What? I live in a shoebox! I have space for exactly what I use every day and no more."

Gray screwed up his mouth for a second. "That's okay, I'll improvise. Do you have coffee mugs?"

"Now those I have. Top shelf above the coffee maker." I leaned back into Cal's arms. "Does he really know how to make soufflés?" I asked him.

"Let's just say with the amount I'm learning about him lately, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest," Cal said, moving his hands back into my hair.

I sighed and snuggled down next to him, taking a deep breath in and then exhaling again. Cal pulled back and looked down at me. "You okay?" he asked, brushing my hair back from my face.

I blinked. "I'm okay," I said, smiling. "Really, really okay."

He grinned back at me. "I know what you mean," he said, and pressed his lips to my forehead.

Gray slammed the oven door. "Okay! Just give those time to rise," he said, wiping his hands on my kitchen towel.

I pushed myself up to stand and went to him. "Thank you for feeding us," I said, throwing my arms around his neck. As he kissed me, I could feel his lips curling into a proud smile.

"There had better not be any hair in those," Cal said. "From your head, or anywhere else."

"Ew." I grabbed a throw pillow off my couch and chucked it at him. "Don't be gross.”

Cal laughed and ducked. "Hey, it's not your hygiene I suspect, it's his."

"Hey, you saw me put the milk away," Gray protested.

"Oh so you'll do it for her and not for me?"

"Damn straight I will," Gray said, shooting me a goofy, lopsided smile that made my heart squeeze oddly.

"What's that noise?" Cal asked. "Is that an alarm?"

I lifted my head to hear the faint sound of a Morse code S.O.S. "Oh shit!" I cried. "That's Cecily's ringtone! Quick, find my phone!"

Cal started rifling through the couch cushions as Gray rushed over to sift through the pile of clothes near the bed.

"Here it is!" I cried in relief, pulling it from the depths of my utensil drawer.

"Do you always keep your phone there?" Cal wondered.

I looked at the missed call on the screen. "No," I sighed. "I'd say this was a first, but I'd be lying. The other day I found breakfast cereal in the medicine cabinet. I'm losing my goddamned mind."

"I like it when you lose your mind," Gray murmured, coming up behind me and snaking his hands under my shirt.

"Stop it, I need to call her back," I giggled.

"Right now?"

"Don't you have soufflés to watch rise?"

"Something else is rising too," he said, kissing a trail down my neck.

"Call her," Cal ordered, with that look in his eye. I felt a flutter in my stomach that became a pulse in my core at the sound of his bossy tone. "Call her right now," he said as he slipped his hand into my waistband.

"Fuck," I breathed. This was a terrible idea.

"Are you dialing?"

I looked down at my stupid, traitorous fingers. "Yes," I groaned as his finger found my clit. Gray nibbled at my earlobe and his warm breath was making me squirm and..."Hi there!" I squeaked into the phone as Cecily answered. "Sorry, I just saw you called."

There were a few seconds of silence. Cal's ice blue eyes darkened into a dangerous sapphire as he watched me, nodding, as I tried like hell to hold it together.

"Did you get my message?" Cecily said icily.

"What? Ah, no, sorry," I said, breathless as Cal's fingers moved faster. Gray's hands were under my shirt already, and I felt my nipples stiffen the second he brushed his thumb over them. "Ah, what's going on?"

"I just wondered if you were feeling better."

"What?" My voice climbed an octave as Cal's finger slipped inside of me. "I'm fine, what? Um...what?"

Cecily took a deep breath. "You left the meeting with CTN early yesterday? Because you weren't feeling well?"

I could barely remember. That felt like a lifetime ago. How could I ever have felt bad when right now I felt so good...so good...so good...

"I'm good!" I said, tightly, gritting my teeth. My body was starting to betray me, rocking in rhythm with Cal's thrusting fingers. I felt Gray starting to lengthen against my back, and his breath quickened in my ear while in the other ear Cecily was saying...something... "What?" I said again.

" — at Monday’s rescheduled meeting?"

"Yes! Yes! Oh god, yes, I'm coming!" I cried as my whole body convulsed.

Cecily sounded pleased. "Good, I'll see you then," she said as she hung up the phone just in time for three things to happen: the orgasm making my knees buckle, Cal's arms sweeping out to catch me and carry me to the bedroom with Gray right behind him, and the smoke alarm alerting us that Gray's forgotten soufflés were starting to burn.