“How are you, baby?” I ask her, cradling Lily in my arms in the living room.

We’re all dressed now. Well, sort of, anyway. We have boxers on, so that counts, right?

Lily’s in a hotel robe, looking up at me like a butterfly about to come out of her cocoon. I’ve never seen her so blissful.

“I’m okay,” she says, blinking her eyes a few times, getting used to the light again.

I drop a small kiss on the top of her head and urge her to drop her head on my shoulder again. We’ve been hidden away from the rest of the world for hours and I’m not done with that yet.

I don’t think any of us are ready to face the music, so we go for the better option. Prolonging the fantasy.

Callum pulls up the blinds because it’s already getting dark outside. I hear Austin in the other room ordering room service. Lily rests, her breathing becoming more even by the minute. I think if I gave her enough time, she’d fall asleep in my lap.

I brush her hair with my fingers lightly, loving her scent as it hits me with each breath. Giving her up seems entirely impossible.

“You okay?” Austin asks, looking at Lily as he pads into the living room.

I grin and she giggles, nodding.

“I am. Callum, if you’re wondering – I’m alright. I’m just saving you from needing to ask,” she says, her eyes sparkling.

Austin chuckles to himself, shaking his head. He makes a beeline for the mini fridge and coaxes out some beers, tossing Callum one and bringing both Lily and I one as well. I’m slightly surprised when she cracks it open and basically empties it in one gulp.

“Well, look at little Miss Blue-Collar here! You wouldn’t even entertain the notion of drinking a beer with us commoners at the game,” Callum scoffs playfully, sinking into a chair across from me.

We share a look and grin. We’ve had plenty of women in our lives, but Lily? She’s above them all by a tall, tall margin. Claiming her was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. I would have never thought Callum and I could share with Austin without it being reduced into some macho bullshit within the first couple of minutes, but Lily has proven that the impossible can happen if you want something enough.

And we definitely all want her enough to make just about anything happen.

“Yeah, well, you didn’t exactly catch me in a similar state, now did you?” she sasses, smiling bright and sitting up a little straighter in my lap so she can get a clear look at both Callum and Austin, who are reclining back on the couch.

I can see the way her eyes hungrily trace the outlines of Austin’s abs, and then how she eats up the way the beads of water are still drying on Callum’s chest. I realize that we were fortunate – we got to see the way her beautiful face contorted with every moan and how her pussy stretched so nicely around our cocks, while she was completely denied the visuals.

Next time, I tell myself, battling away the thought that there might not be a next time.

Wasn’t that the whole point of today? That we’d have one round of no rules, everything goes, just to get it out of our systems?

I don’t think it worked. At least not on me.

If anything, I want her more now than I ever have. She’s consuming my mind and even having her in my arms is not enough, not when I know that she might never be here again.

“I ordered food,” Austin says lightly, stretching his arms over his head, his eyes resting on Lily.

“I’m famished,” she exclaims, falling back against me with a thud. “I feel like I could eat a horse.”

“Oh, we’ll show you what an appetite really looks like,” Callum promises with a chuckle.

And then maybe we’ll eat you for dessert, I add in my mind.

The food arrives quickly enough and after a while, Lily ends up sitting on Callum’s knee, eating pizza. The evening turns into night and none of us seem to be in any hurry to return to our regular schedule. We’ve skipped at least three activities so I’m sure our dad will be poking and prodding about what else we had to do than indulge his whims, but I don’t care. I wouldn’t give up the time spent with Lily for anything.

Lily looks like she has something on her mind as she wipes her fingers clean and curls up next to Callum. It’s weird, seeing her so relaxed and at the same time so tense. It’s pretty obvious that this woman is not very well-versed in the art of not giving a fuck.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, as that little frown that creases her brow persists.

“Oh? Nothing!” she says quickly, masking her thoughts with a makeshift grin.

It doesn’t convince me or Austin.

“Spill it,” he says, looking at her sternly.

I’ve always hated that skill of his. He can get any secret out of anyone just by giving them ‘the look’. Lying to him when we were younger just wasn’t something that happened.

She licks over her lips and I have to fight with my basic urge to go grab her out of Callum’s lap, pin her against a wall and fuck her senseless. Again.

Somehow, I persevere. Maybe it’s the slight muscle spasms in my thigh, which I haven’t felt since I stopped training to get beaten senseless on a weekly basis. Or maybe I’m just getting that fucking excellent at this whole self-control nonsense.

Whatever, I stay in my chair and drink my beer, waiting for what she has to say.

“I’m sad this has to end,” she finally says softly, her words barely louder than a whisper.

A silence falls over the room. I think we’re all in agreement with her. I know I don’t want it to fucking stop.

“Does it have to?” I ask, letting my thoughts echo out.

No sense in bottling them up.

I see a flash of hope in her eyes, but it’s gone in the next second. We all know how fucking insane this whole thing is.

“It does,” she says when no one else is willing to say it.

“I don’t necessarily agree,” Austin speaks up.

Lily turns to face him, quirking a brow almost as a challenge.

“Yeah?” she asks. “And how do you see this going? I get into a relationship with one of you and then everything else goes back to normal, you’ll all get along and I won’t get fired for dating a client?”

“First of all, none of us are your client,” Austin scoffs. “Second of all, I didn’t say you had to choose one of us.”

He quiets and Callum and I exchange a look. He grins privately, hiding it from Lily as he shakes his head slightly. Of all the crazy fucking things…

Well, I guess we’ve done the crazy fucking of this particular notion already, but what Austin’s suggesting is insane!

… Isn’t it?

“You can’t be serious!” Lily says, that pink flush of aggravation lighting her cheeks. “What you’re suggesting is… is…”

“Insane?” Callum pipes up, a very clear note of amusement in his voice. “You’ll find that we operate the best on the border of insanity.”

“Don’t you start now,” Lily groans, slipping herself off of Callum’s lap.

She stands in the middle of the room, looking at the three of us as if we’ve collectively lost our minds.

And maybe we have, but it’s the best idea I’ve ever heard and I’ve learned that if something feels right, it probably is right.

“I don’t want you to dismiss this outright,” Austin says, looking like he’s completely at ease and relaxed, though I bet his heart is pounding as hard as mine is. “I’m just saying it might be something to think about. I think the weight of the problems here would be on our shoulders,” he continues, pointing at me and Troy, “and if we manage to sort them out between ourselves then it might actually work.”

Lily’s mouth gapes open.

I don’t say what I want to – that it looks like she’s missing something in it, like a big fat Stephenson cock.

“You’re insane,” she quips, turning beet red now. “And I’m not going to entertain your insanity.”

“You don’t have to entertain it, you just have to think about it,” Austin calls after her as she storms out of the room, in search of her clothes.

I hear a muffled response but I think it’s something in the lines of our budding insanity again. I grin to myself, mimicking Callum’s headshake now.

“She might be right, you know,” I say when I think she’s out of earshot. “It might just be too insane. Even for the three of us.”

“The other option is that we lose her, period. I don’t know about you but I’m willing to test out insanity if it means I can have her with me,” Austin says grimly.

I can’t argue with that.