The Arrangement

“Right now your stuff feels disjointed because your lives are disjointed. Your doors are closed. You’re trying to write one story while living three different lives.”

I finished, and rested my hands on my hips. I was grateful to have gotten away with reading their story without permission, but even more thrilled to have spoken my mind.

“And what about you?” Chase asked.

I shrugged. “What about me?”

“Do we still stick to our arrangement?”

I laughed out loud. “Have you even been listening? Fuck the arrangement.”

He appeared wounded all of a sudden. The look was absolutely adorable on him.

“Oh come now,” I teased, sauntering over to him. “It’s not nearly as bad as you think.”

In full view of the others I climbed into his arms and kissed him. Instinct took over as Chase kissed me back. My pulse sped up. Heat rushed through me.

“I’m still yours,” I said, finally pushing away. Spinning slowly, I turned to the others. “And yours. And yours, too.”

I walked to each of them in turn, kissing them one by one. Feeling the weight of their hard bodies against me, their heat of their lips nuzzling my neck. I went to Nathan and then Burke, dropping into their laps. Every kiss we shared was full of passion and promise. Long, lingering kisses, that left things between us breathless and open-ended.

God, this is fun, I giggled to myself as I finished. Really fun.

“I’m still your girlfriend,” I said unnecessarily. “You can all still have me, all three of you. Only now there’s no schedule. You can take me anytime you want me. And I can take you…”

Chase and Nathan stood on edge, their eyes wide. Burke shared the same hungry look, only his was different. More singularly possessive.

“So what do you think?” I asked. “Dissolve this whole ‘my day, your day’ thing? Get a little more solidarity going between the four of us. Do things more as a team… together?”

All eyes fell on Burke. If anyone was going to be difficult about the whole idea, it would be him.

“Yeah sure,” he shrugged after a while. “Why not? As long as I get my writing in.”

“Oh you’ll get it in,” I winked, watching as the joke almost went over his head. Eventually he smirked back at me. “You all will. In fact…”

An idea suddenly occurred to me. Acutely aware they were all still looking my way, I hooked a finger into the corner of my mouth.

“We’re all taking the day off,” I declared abruptly. “Every one of us. Me included.”

The sunroom fell silent. The guys didn’t disagree, or even say anything. They only shifted in their seats.

“We’re doing something fun today,” I said, finding a smile. “Something cool. And definitely something that gets us out of this house.”

“You’re not dragging us to one of those team-building exercises,” Nathan joked. “Are you?”

“Fuck no.”

“Good.”

“Showers then,” I muttered, collecting coffee mugs. “Quick ones.”

They got up slowly, and filed out of the room. It was wildly flattering, how much they listened to me. A month ago I was nothing more than their cook. Now...

Now I was…

What exactly are you, Kayleen?

That part I hadn’t worked out yet. Inspiration? Check. Girlfriend? Lover? Sure, definitely. But is that all I was?