A little after eight that evening, I found myself sitting on one of two couches in the living room, sandwiched between Eric and Ryan with a glass of wine in my hand while the “inner circle” party kicked into high gear. Dressed in black jeans and a crisp, white Oxford shirt rolled up at the sleeves and open at the collar, revealing a tantalizing glimpse of his bare, hard, lightly tanned chest, Eric looked just about good enough to eat with a spoon. Ryan looked equally delectable, dressed similarly in dark wash jeans and a cream-colored collared shirt fitted just well enough to display the contours of his biceps, pecs, and six-pack abs. Up to this point, I’d only ever seen him and Eric in very battered jeans and t-shirts..
I was also a little dressed up myself, wearing the short, low-cut red dress that Jessie let me borrow. Like she’d thought it would, the dress fit me perfectly, hugging every curve; when I’d first come downstairs, trying to get used to wearing high heels again for the first time in over a year, Eric and Ryan’s eyes had just about bugged out of their heads.
Once everyone had had a chance to have a drink and get loosened up a little, Alicia put a CD in a CD player in one corner of the living room. “Does anyone want to dance to some slow country songs?”
That afternoon, she and Mark had moved all furniture to the walls in order to create a makeshift dance floor in the center of the spacious room.
In response to Alicia’s question, Jessie bounced up from a folding chair and grabbed her two husbands’ hands. “Come on. I love slow dancing. We’ll have to flip a coin or something, though, to see which one of you gets to dance with me first.”
Terry, who was one of Jessie’s husbands, flipped a beer bottle cap, calling “top up.” However, the bottle cap landed with its top down.
Groaning quietly, although while wearing an amused expression, Terry sat back down. “All right. They say patience is a virtue.”
A few people laughed, and Ryan gave my knee a squeeze. “What do you say? Should Eric and I flip a bottle cap too?”
I said yes, and soon I was out on the makeshift dance floor with Eric, who held me close in his strong arms while leading with strong, sure steps. Maybe halfway through the song, really beginning to feel the effects of the large glass of wine that I’d drunk quickly, I kissed him, to the sound of a few wolf whistles and cheers from people still sitting in chairs. Slightly embarrassed, I broke our kiss, apologizing, but Eric said there wasn’t anything to be sorry for.
“A woman should never apologize for giving a man a kiss like that.”
Smiling, I said, “So, do you mind if I give you another one?”
With his dark gray eyes twinkling, Eric snorted. “Just one? How about ten?”
We basically kissed our way through the rest of the song, and when it ended, I was disappointed, though not for long, because I was soon in Ryan’s arms, kissing him too.
For the next few hours, he, Eric, and I danced, kissed, talked, laughed, and ate. And by eleven o’clock or so, when the party began winding down, I felt like I’d known each of them for years instead of days. In fact, a little buzzy on a few glasses of wine I’d had, I started to have thoughts that I was maybe even beginning to fall in love with them both. This thought made me happy even though at the same time, it filled me with a little trepidation, just because I wasn’t sure if I should be trying to rein back my feelings. After all, the thing that had brought me to Silverfield had been a simple business arrangement, and I wasn’t sure if Eric and Ryan wanted it to be any more than that in the long term.
As the party guests began to leave, this feeling of uncertainty and trepidation made me head to the kitchen to pour myself another little splash of wine. Then, sipping it while nibbling on some pumpkin spice cookies that Jessie had made, I started to feel a little uncertain about what might happen once all the party guests left. The fact of the matter was that I knew that I definitely wanted to sleep with Eric and Ryan that night. I wanted to sleep with them both badly.
The only problem was that I was beginning to feel increasingly shy or nervous or something, I supposed just because having a fantasy about sleeping with two men at once was one thing, but having it play out in real life was another. Washing down a bite of cookie with a sip of wine, I wondered if it was even possible for the fantasy to be as fulfilling as it was in my mind. I wondered if the whole thing would be fulfilling for Ryan and Eric too, if they still both even really wanted to do it. They’d both seemed content to “share” me on the dance floor all night, although I knew that when it came to things in the bedroom, it was possible that one or both of them had changed their mind.
After eating two cookies, I began covering the plate with foil, for the first time, feeling truly homesick for the gymnasium. Although we hadn’t had electricity and running water, let alone hot water, and although daily life had been fraught with constant danger and uncertainty there, at least I hadn’t felt so conflicted emotionally. At least I hadn’t been in a situation where I was developing strong feelings for two different men but was unsure of how things in the bedroom might play out with the three of us.
I’d just finished covering all baked goods in the kitchen with foil when Jessie and Alicia came in, with Jessie asking me how everything was going.
Wanting to appear perfectly normal, I said fine. “I just came in here to cover all the cookies and cupcakes and things. Do you guys want me to cover all the hot food dishes too, so that you guys can take all the leftovers home?”
With her eyes glassy and unfocused, indicating that she was extremely buzzed and maybe even outright drunk, Alicia picked up a chicken teriyaki kebab from a platter, eyeing me with a frown. “Just go ahead and put all the leftovers in your fridge. That stuff’s not important right now. What is important is…why do you look so weirdly pale?”
I quickly ran a hand over my face, as if that would suddenly fix everything. “Am I looking pale? I don’t think I am. I mean…I’m not that nervous about being alone with Eric and Ryan once everyone leaves or anything. I mean…it’s not like it’s that big of a deal or anything.”
Alicia frowned even harder at me. “Do the three of you have some kind of a thing scheduled for tonight or something?”
Before I could respond, Jessie jumped in, leaning a hip against the counter catty-corner from me with a knowing little look on her face. “I’ve been here before, Ellie…and I totally get the nerves. The most important thing, though, is…well, are you receptive to things, if you know what I mean?”
Knowing what she meant and slightly embarrassed about it, I said yes, avoiding her eyes. “I want what I think Eric and Ryan want too…and I’ve kind of been wanting it for days, but…I just didn’t think I’d be so…so suddenly nervous about everything, I guess, when the time finally came.”
With a little smile that made me think she understood me perfectly, Jessie picked up a zucchini, chicken, and cheese appetizer from a tray, then took a tiny bite and chewed and swallowed quickly before responding to me. “Yeah…I’ve been here before. Just make sure that Eric and Ryan are patient with you, and if they’re not, just tell them to stop, and be firm about it. You’ll be okay. Even if things don’t get as far as everyone might want them to tonight, that’s still fine. Just remember that these sorts of things are best eased into very slowly sometimes, and remind Eric and Ryan of that too.”
Swallowing the last sip of my wine, I nodded. “Okay.”
Setting her uneaten kebab back on the tray, Alicia suddenly clutched her stomach with her free hand. “Guys, I don’t feel very great, to be honest. I was feeling good just drinking wine until I did that shot of whiskey a few minutes ago…but that just didn’t sit very well with me.”
After setting the rest of her zucchini appetizer on a dirty plate, Jessie went over to her, put an arm around her shoulders, and began steering her out of the kitchen. “Let’s just go find Mark and get you home right now.”
Alicia said okay, and Jessie glanced at me over her shoulder. “Everyone else has already left, so I’ll tell Eric and Ryan to come find you in here, if that’s okay.”
With my pulse accelerating, I said okay, hoping that the butterflies swirling in my stomach weren’t going to ruin the night.
*
I put the leftovers away, loaded the dishwasher, and then started it while trying to focus on what Jessie had said about it being fine to take things slowly. Trying to calm my nerves, I was sitting in a chair, taking slow, deep breaths, when Eric and Ryan entered the kitchen. A little startled by them, I stood, although a bit too quickly, borderline flying up from my chair. This had the result of making me feel a little embarrassed, which just further increased my case of sudden, unexpected nerves over what might soon happen.
Feeling the need to speak as a way to try to cover my embarrassment, I said hi to Eric and Ryan, not even waiting for a hi in return before continuing. “So, have all the party guests gone home, then?”
Eric said yes. “Which means that you, Ryan, and I now have the house all to ourselves. Most importantly, Ryan and I have given word to our men that we aren’t to be summoned for anything tonight, unless the Creepers are literally knocking down entire sections of the wall, which definitely won’t be happening. We have too many guards posted outside the walls for that to happen right now.”
Forcing my breathing to remain at a semi-normal rate, I said that was good. “So…are there any messes out in the living room we need to clean up right now? Any drink spills or food spills or anything, or any more dishes to pick up, or….”
I didn’t finish the thought, unable to even think of what else.
Slowly, as if they could tell that I was experiencing some nerves and didn’t want to startle me in any way, Eric and Ryan came over to me and kind of pulled me into a double embrace, with one of them holding me close on either side.
After pressing a few tender kisses against the side of my face, Eric spoke in a low voice near my ear. “We don’t want there to be any pressure on you tonight. We just want to kiss you and hold you…just for as long as you want us to. We won’t move on to anything else until you tell us to. We both promise.”
I really liked the sound of his voice near my ear, and I really liked what he was saying and the ghost of his warm breath on my ear, too. However, for some reason, I was finding it hard to focus on these things. Aware that my body had become somewhat rigid, the primary thought in my mind was how long it had been since I’d last had sex. Wondering how “rusty” I might be and what Eric and Ryan might think if I was, I felt the butterflies in my stomach intensify.
Swallowing, I suddenly wondered how they might react if I told them that I just needed another day or two, even before getting in to any further holding and kissing. Another day or two to do what, I didn’t even really know. Another day or two just to maybe psyche myself up for the experience of having my fantasy about having sex with two men at once actually come true in real life. Would Eric and Ryan get angry if I asked them for more time? Would they both leave the house, slamming the front door behind them? At any rate, I felt like I at least knew them both well enough by this point to know that neither of them would become violent or try to force themselves on me. I hoped I knew them both well enough to be reasonably sure about this, anyway.
Cutting through my rapid thoughts, I suddenly heard Ryan’s deep voice.
“Hey. I just thought of something. We can’t forget to do the tradition. The one you were telling me about, Eric. Remember?”
I looked at Ryan, wondering if whatever “tradition” he was talking about might be something time-consuming, distracting, and non-sexual. “What do you mean about a ‘tradition?’”
He gave me a sexy half-grin. “Eric told me about a shifter mating tradition in these parts. See, when a couple first gets mated up, and they decide that they want to officially be together, the shifter is supposed to carry his lady through the doorway of their house, kind of like when a man and a woman get married.”
Having a funny thought, I suddenly laughed a little. “And what about when it’s two men being ‘mated up’ with one female? Is the doorway tradition still kept then?”
Eyes dancing with amusement, Ryan said he was pretty positive it was.
I said all right. “But, even with that being the case, how would we decide which one of you gets to carry me through the front door?”
With his full, delectable lips twitching, Ryan rifled around in his jeans pocket and came up with a beer bottle cap. “Same as how we decided who got to dance with you first. We just flip a cap. Eric, which side do you want?”
“Bottom up.”
“All right. Top up for me, then. Let’s see who gets the honor.”
Flipping the bottle cap off his thumb, Ryan flung it into the air. However, his fling immediately struck me as a little off somehow, and the cap didn’t fall to the ground. Instead, before I could even take a step back to avoid it, it went right down the front of my low-cut red dress, which revealed more than a little bit of cleavage.
Thoroughly amused by what had just happened, I laughed, snatching the cap out from between my breasts. “Okay, you absolutely did that on purpose, Ryan. You had to have.”
Lifting his broad shoulders in a shrug, he fought a grin. “I don’t know. Maybe I did, and maybe I didn’t.”
“Well, I think you did. And because of that, now I get to flip the cap.”
Ryan grinned even harder. “Flip away.”
Laughing again, I flung the cap in the air, and it landed on the hardwood floor, top up.
Making a little gasp, I looked from the cap to Ryan. “Okay, why do I feel like you planned this entire thing to turn out in your favor?”
He shrugged, again fighting a sexy little grin. “I guess I just got lucky…but now, I get to carry you through the front door. While I’m at it, I think I might as well carry you out the door, too.”
Making me shriek, he suddenly scooped me up in his strong arms and began striding out of the kitchen. “One thing about this tradition, Ellie…there’s a tradition within the tradition.”
“Oh, yeah? And what’s that?”
“They say if the woman being carried hits her feet on the doorway, she then has to carry the man through the front door.”
Just mentally imagining this scenario, I laughed so hard I could hardly breathe for a few seconds. “Okay, then. I’m going to make sure to pull my feet in, keeping them at least a few inches from the doorway at all times. I wouldn’t want to have to carry you and accidentally drop you on your head or something…if I could even pick you up in the first place.”
Ryan carried me out to the brightly-lit front porch, where my continued laughter made a few people out for a late evening stroll in the road beyond look up with interest. Chuckling a little himself, Ryan then carried me over the threshold of the doorway and into the house, where Eric was waiting, watching us, with amusement softening his normally stern expression. After Ryan had congratulated me for not hitting my feet on the doorway or even coming close, he dipped his head and planted a tender, semi-lingering kiss against my lips. When he lifted his face from mine, I caught a glimpse of an expression of clear hunger and envy on Eric’s own face, which gave me an idea.
“So, now I think that Eric should carry me through the doorway and give me a kiss too. I’m not completely up to speed on all traditions around here, but I’m pretty sure that’s the way things are supposed to work when a woman is mated to two shifters. She gets two doorway carry-throughs and two kisses.”
Eric readily agreed that that was the way things were supposed to work.
Once he’d carried me through the doorway and had kissed me, I was enjoying the feel of his arms around me so much that I didn’t want him to put me down. “So, do you think you might want to carry me upstairs to my room now?”
Now, after losing my feelings of nervousness through my laughter, I was definitely feeling a little more open to the idea of kissing and holding than I’d been earlier in the kitchen. As for Eric, I didn’t have to ask him twice to carry me upstairs.
Once the three of us were in my room, he set me down on my feet and gently pulled me into his arms. “Is it okay if Ryan and I help you out of your beautiful dress before we hold you and kiss you?”
Surprising me, I realized that now that I was loosened up a little, I wanted nothing more than to be naked with the two of them right then, having them hold me and kiss me.
I responded to Eric’s question by saying that yes, he and Ryan could help me out of my dress. “On one condition, though…only if I can help you both out of your clothes afterward.”
With his eyes glinting, Eric said that he liked that idea. Ryan said that he did too. Caressing my bare shoulders, slowly moving the thin straps of my dress down while he did so, Eric suggested that maybe he and Ryan should light some of the candles on my dresser first. Currently, the only light in the room was light filtering in from the hallway through a crack in the door; I realized that I wanted to be able to see Eric and Ryan’s bodies probably just as much as they wanted to see mine, and the golden glow of candles seemed far preferable to the everyday electric lighting in my room, which was fairly bright.
Not to mention that, still feeling just slightly nervous and self-conscious, I wasn’t sure if I wanted Eric and Ryan to see my body with that kind of harsh lighting, at least not during our first night together. Maybe brighter lights were something we could ease into in time, I figured.
Each grabbing a lighter from a small porcelain dish on my dresser, Eric and Ryan set about lighting a row of a half-dozen white pillar candles of various heights across from my bed. While they did this, I just watched them, studying their broad backs and their strong arms with desire starting to simmer low in my belly.
Once the candles were all lit, filling the room with much brighter light than I’d thought they would, Eric and Ryan returned to me, with Eric reaching me first, which seemed to have been very intentional. To me, it seemed like he’d kind of hustled.
Since my dress had a zipper in the back, I turned and lifted my long hair so that he could unzip me, surprised when I felt him pull me close, bringing his mouth to the side of my neck. He then began planting a long, slow line of kisses downward, making me sigh at the feel of his warm, firm mouth against my skin.
While he continued kissing the side of my neck, giving me butterflies in my stomach, Ryan moved around to my other side and began kissing the side of my neck as well; the sensation of two men planting firm, warm kisses along my skin was one of such intense pleasure that I made a noise much closer to a moan than a sigh. I was also enjoying just picturing the scene in my mind, with me in the middle of two muscular, incredibly handsome shifters, the sole focus of their attention.
After a minute or two, just when I was becoming eager to lose my dress, I felt Eric or Ryan, I wasn’t even sure who, slowly pull my zipper down. Then, Ryan slowly moved around to my front, lifted the hem of my dress, and lifted it over my head, where Eric caught it and pulled it up and off me while I helped by extending my arms.
Then, there I was, standing in front of my heavily-breathing shifter mates in nothing but a lacy black push-up bra and skimpy black lace underwear. Finding that being partially undressed while they were both still fully dressed was really turning me on, I kind of shivered a bit, despite the fact that the autumn-scented breeze blowing in through the windows was fairly warm.
After they’d both raked their gazes over my body, with each of them making the faintest low growl sound while they did so, Eric undid the back clasp of my bra, removed it, and tossed it to the side to join the pool of silky red rayon that was my dress. Again, he and Ryan feasted their eyes, seeming to take in every inch of my bare breasts in the soft golden light from the candles. Next, they each had a turn kissing me while holding me close, which made my stiffened nipples rub against their chests, further igniting a dull ache low in my belly.
Despite the fact that I was starting to really want them to, neither of them actually touched my breasts with their hands. I supposed this was because Eric had told me that they’d just kiss and hold me first, and then see where things led, which was perfectly fine with me. I couldn’t deny that I was really enjoying the slow pace and the anticipation.
With eyes so wide it was borderline comical, Eric and Ryan took my underwear off together, both slowly pulling down a side to reveal my pussy. They both began breathing a little faster at this point, and I did as well. As much as I still held the faintest trace of nervousness and self-consciousness, I was finding Eric and Ryan’s inspection of my feminine parts to be almost unbearably erotic.
With every stitch of my clothing now gone, I stepped out of my high heels and pulled Eric and Ryan to their feet by the hands. “Now, it’s my turn to undress you two.”
They both looked so incredibly eager to join me in being naked that I had to work hard to suppress a laugh.