“I did,” he said, ripping my shirt off the rest of the way.

Even though he’d said it before, it was as hot as the first time. Then there was him burrowing his face between my breasts, inhaling like he just couldn’t get enough of my scent. When he bit down on a nipple, I cried out.

Good thing the door was closed. It was embarrassing enough, thinking that Owen was out there watching the movie while we were in here doing this. This holy-fuck of a making out which was throttling toward our bodies joined again. Finally.

When the suction of Jake’s kissing lips reached my nipple, I arched into him. Already, his hand was sliding down to where we both ached for it to be.

My own fingers had already closed around the hardness that wasn’t where it should be – not yet.

“Please,” I groaned, his fingers probing my most sensitive flesh.

“What’s that, beautiful girl?” he asked, two fingers dipping into my wetness.

“Please… I… give it to me.”

I clamped my lips shut. Where the hell was this coming from? Sure, I was turned on, but still.

Although my words only seemed to fuel Jake’s fire. Next thing I knew, he was ripping down my panties and sweatpants in one go, clambering over top of me.

“Your wish is my command,” he growled.

My breath caught in my throat as I looked down at him in all his naked glory. Jesus, he was so hard and huge and glorious.

Jake taunted me by playing his cock along my lips lightly, holding himself back from sinking into me like we both wanted... “What do you want?” he asked, his voice husky.

His question surprised me. All I wanted was him inside me, so I pulled him to me close. But again, he stopped with his dick infuriatingly close by not yet where it needed to be. When my pelvis ratcheted up for what it needed, he held me down, his face blank.

“What. Do. You. Want.”

Frustration throwing me into motion, I grabbed onto him. “You. I want you.”

That was all it took. Jake flipped me over and, grabbing my hips, brought me down onto his rock-hard cock.

“Yes Cin, yes,” he groaned as I started to move.

I threw my head back as I rode him like a rockstar.

“That’s my girl,” he said, cupping my breasts.

I ground onto him harder and he grunted.

We were both close, I could tell. His ragged breath matched mine and his fingers were insistently pressed into my flesh.

“God you feel so good Jake,” bit out as I quickened my pace and clamped my pussy around him as I rode him harder.

One hand still holding and guiding my hip, Jake slipped the other one across my belly and applied the slightest bit of pressure to my clit with his thumb. The sensation sent me over the edge and I spiraled down the dark hole of an earth-shattering orgasm. With one final thrust and a grunt, Jake followed me over the edge.

We lay like that on the bed, breathing, shaking, for I don’t know how long. Jake smiled vaguely at me. “That was…”

“Amazing,” I finished for him with a smile.

Although I tried relaxing into Jake, being ok with cozying up in the bed, my hunger pains gave me no choice but to throw on my bathrobe and leave the room.

Back in the main room, on my way to the kitchen, I was surprised to see Owen still in front of the movie. What had gone down with Jake felt like it had been hours of ecstasy, and yet, there Owen was, as awake as ever, still watching The Shining.

As I grabbed the first chip bag I saw – Salt and Vinegar Lays for the win – I thought about that. And, when I passed by, I paused.

“Do you… I don’t know, maybe it’s weird, but would you want to join?”

When Owen turned with a great big smile, I knew that ‘weird’ was the last thing on his mind. “Join you for chips?” he asked innocently, though I knew he knew what I had meant.

Back in the room, I mumbled, “Yeah, so Jake is.”

“Naked.” Owen tossed a chip in his mouth. “I figured.”

I clambered into bed, Owen coming in beside me. As he reached for another chip, he cast me a sidelong glance. “You guys had fun, eh?”

I focused on breaking the chip I had in my hand into teeny tiny pieces. “You heard?”

Owen chuckled. “I’m more surprised that your friend didn’t hear – between that and Jack Nicholson terrorizing his whole family.”

“Here’s Johnny!” Jake said in a crazy voice, and we laughed.

He reached over, grabbing some chips out of Owen’s hand. “Hey, thanks.”

“How do you two ever work together?” I asked, giggling as Owen lunged over me to get his chips back.

They paused, a thoughtful look touching their features.

“You know,” Jake finally said. “It’s probably that we have one major thing in common.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked. “What’s that?”

“We like winning,” Owen said.

“It’s what we were bred to do,” Jake said, his voice taking on a somber tone.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Our dad,” Jake started, then closed his mouth and shook his head.

His words made it occur to me just how little I really knew about Jake and Owen. Sure, I knew the basics – they were ex-military, a boxer and a manager, and had a tight bachelor pad, but that was about it.

“We don’t exactly get along with him,” Owen explained. “If you didn’t get that from Jake’s expression.”

“More like we hate him because he’s a controlling asshole,” Jake grumbled moodily. His head dipped to my shoulder, so he could glare his wrath into my plain white ceiling. “Ever since we were little, the bastard tried controlling us. Enough chores to kill a mule, so many rules even Hitler would’ve been put off.” A smile tinged his lips. “At least we got away and pissed him off all in one go when we joined the Army.”

“It was a good way out,” Owen agreed.

“What about now?” I asked. “He must be happy you guys are doing so well in the boxing world, right?”

“You’d think,” Owen said, crunching down on a chip. “Thing is, Dad has his ideas and isn’t easily dissuaded from them. His thinking is we should be working nice cushy office jobs, not crazy unpredictable ones like what we have now.”

“Needless to say, our visits are limited to Christmas and Thanksgiving,” Jake said, before taking two handfuls worth of chips.

“A bit hungry, are we?” I asked him, though he only grinned.

“Speaking of families, how come you never talk about yours?”

“Don’t I?”

“Not really,” Owen agreed.

“Hm, not sure,” I said. “I’ve got a pretty standard family. Nice and supportive Mom and Dad, judgemental neurotic older sister, Lorraine.”

“The kind who definitely wouldn’t approve of us,” Jake said, grinning.

“I don’t know,” I said, even though I did.

“Cool, when do we get to meet her?” he asked.

Owen reached over me to whack Jake. “Ever heard of too much too fast?”

“Nope,” Jake said blithely. “Far as I’m concerned, the sooner people know about us, the better.”

“The sooner people know what, exactly?” Owen shot back.

An awkward silence was the only response his question got. Their words brought up some good points. We were still taking this as it was coming. And while so far it was going well, that was just so far. There were still some big questions hanging over us – ones that I was none too keen to actually look at closely.

“On that happy note” – Owen grabbed the chips and wrapped me in his arms – “Less talk, more action.”

I giggled, my arms wrapping around him too. “I can get into that.”

“Hey,” Jake said, burrowing under the sheets with us. “No fair.”

As he wrapped himself around me too, I grinned. Something told me that tonight was going to be one hell of a cozy night.

--

It turned out I was right. Too right, since the knocking on the door seemed so far-off and unwanted, that it seemed preferable to ignore it entirely. Until it gradually progressed to the door being opened.

I could only gape helplessly as Penelope’s face arranged itself in my consciousness. Quickly, I scrambled out of bed and out of the room, careful to close the door behind me.

“So,” she said, eyeing me oddly.

“So,” I said. “It’s not what it looks like.”

Only her perfectly shaped eyebrow quirking was enough to make me sigh. “There were no threesomes, but Jake and I, yeah.”

“I figured.”

It was then I noticed that Penelope had her purse on her arm and her hair arranged into a high pony. “You leaving?”

“Yeah, I just wanted to peek in to say goodbye, but then you raced out.”

“Here, how about we go to the coffee shop?” I was a good few steps toward the door when I remembered.

I sighed, looking down. “Still in my bathrobe.”

Penelope giggled. “I’ll give you five bucks in you go to Dunkin Donuts like that.”

I shook my head, already heading to the closet, where I luckily had a stash of rarely-worn sweats. “No amount of money would be enough for you to ruin my one minute away coffee run spot, since if I showed up like that, I could never show my face there again.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Penelope said, though she was still smirking. “You might even get a free Timbit or two out of it.”

“Great.” Now out of my bathrobe and in my dust-colored sweats, I threw my purse strap over my arm. “A free fifteen cent Timbit for baring my half-nude self to the world.”

“They’re actually twenty-five cents now,” Penelope replied smoothly as we made for the door.

“Oh, how times have changed.”

It occurred to me, a minute or so later as we walked to Dunkin’ Donuts, that times really had. I’d opened my heart to meeting someone – and not just one, but two someones had fallen in.

Before we got into line, Penelope paused eyeing me.

“Just say it,” I said with a small sigh.

Having Penelope bite back something was not only unheard-of, it was pretty nerve-wracking.

“It’s just… don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame you for falling for the two of them, but do you really think it could work for the long run?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted.

My sullen gaze landed on a couple going into the glass doors beside us. They weren’t holding hands and looked no happier than me on a day when I forgot my coffee.

“Seems like most relationships don’t work out these days, so is it really a risk trying this?”

Penelope’s curly strands waggled as her head turned to regard me. “Is that what you have with them – a relationship?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “It’s still the early stages, ok?”

“Ok. Fine.”

But it wasn’t ‘ok’ or ‘fine’, Penelope’s words had lit up a reserve of uncertainty already inside me.

“This is a bit of a dream world,” I said, biting at my lip. “But that doesn’t mean it can’t work out. Just that, it might be hard.”

“Have you told your family about them?”

All this about the family again.

“You know what?” I said suddenly, getting out my phone. “Screw donuts. I want brunch.”

It was only when I was away from Jake and Owen that I started feeling doubt encroach. Besides Franz’s breakfast special lifted the worst of my moods.

But calling Jake’s cell only left me listening to it ring and ring. Two times I called, and two times I reached his voicemail. Same thing for Owen.

Finally, I had to turn to Penelope with a scowling shrug. “Guess Timmies it is.”

A few minutes later, back at my place, we found the front door unlocked.

Penelope and I exchanged a nervous look. What the hell was going on?