Fifty-Four
Skye
The first day of Winter had come.
I didn’t wait in the warm entrance lobby of the apartment building like Leo wanted me to do. I was outside in the frigid air, suitcase settled between my legs as I sat on the bench, watching the snowflakes fall. I knew if I turned back I’d see Leo by the glass doors, watching me. I couldn’t stand to see his sad face. It was going to be hard to be away from him, but he promised he’d see me a weekend every month.
I missed Hunter.
My legs bobbed with anticipation as I waited for the rough sound of his car engine to fill the air. It still didn’t feel real. This was actually happening. We had formed an arrangement, and there seemed to be light at the end of the tunnel.
Maybe…
Maybe we could make this work.
When they had come to me both that very night I’d been with the two of them, I expected conflict and more turmoil. I felt like I had fucked everything up irreversibly. I’d awoken in Leo’s bed to both of them in my room, and when I turned to see them standing there in the darkness, I felt…defeated.
“Are you here to break my heart?” I’d asked, and what a silly question that was. But it had been so tense, the direction of our relationship so uncertain. It was surprisingly easy to presume that perhaps they would want to move forward on their own without me.
Leo came to me then, slipping into bed to look closely at me. He was bloody and hurt, but he was smiling at me, and the sight of him bleeding and smiling startled me. “Never, Skye.”
I brought my hand to his face, stroking his bloody lip in horror. “Why are you hurt?”
“I’m not,” he assured me. “I haven’t felt this…light in so long, Skye.”
I sat up slowly. “What do you mean?”
He stared at me deeply, and I held my breath, anxiety intensifying. “Hunter and I have agreed on something…”
I tore my eyes from Leo and looked at Hunter. He stood ominously still in the centre of the room, watching me. As I looked back, I felt Leo’s hand cupping mine.
“It’s something unusual,” he continued carefully. “It…may not please you.”
I slowly returned my gaze back to him, my heart thudding faster. “You can tell me anything.”
It was impossible to predict what he would say. I didn’t have the faintest clue, but whatever it was, Leo seemed…at ease.
“We both want you, Skye,” he told me passionately, bringing my hand to his mouth to kiss. His chest moved faster with his breaths as I felt tight and nervous. “We want you entirely. Every inch of you. But we want you to ourselves.”
My heart had bottomed out. “Leo—”
“I want to feel like you’remine,” he cut over, squeezing my hand now. “Hunter wants to feel like you’rehis. We don’t want to share.”
Tears immediately flooded my eyes as I brokenly whispered, “I can’t choose one of you. I can’t. I won’t.” Now I began to plead. “Please, please, I can’t do it. Stay friends, Leo, and choose Hunter instead—I’ll be okay, I promise. I’ll leave and this will be a sweet memory…”
My words were tumbling out of me hurriedly. I wasn’t making any sense, but I knew that I would walk away that very second if it meant the both of them were okay with each other. They had a connection, a brotherly love that was more important than me.
“Stop,” Hunter suddenly spoke, firmly. “Breathe, Skye, and listen.”
“You wouldn’t have to choose,” Leo assured me. “You’d have both of us, Skye.”
I didn’t understand. I waited patiently as he added, “What we want is unusual—”
“You might not like it,” Hunter inserted as he drew near. “You might say no.”
I found it hard to believe I would ever say no to them.
But then Leo held his breath, waiting patiently as Hunter rounded the bed and came to the other side of me. Before I knew it, both of them were in the bed. Leo wrapped his arm around my middle and tugged me into his chest, burying his face into my hair. Hunter was on his side, facing me, bumping his nose along mine—