Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79332 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79332 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
“Finished?” Colby steps forward, looming over Ellie, but she doesn’t flinch. “Oh, we’re not finished, Princess. We’re only just starting.”
“What do you mean?” she asks, turning to find Seb and me in the room, eyes scanning our faces for answers.
“I mean, you don’t get to just fuck us and leave us, Ellie. We’re not allowing you to push us away like you usually do before we can get close.”
“That isn’t what I do,” she says quickly, her lips tugging into a grim line.
“Of course it is.” Colby reaches out to touch a strand of her hair, looking at it intensely. He folds in his bottom lip in the way that Hollywood heroes do in romance movies, as though he’s remembering how she tastes. “Even Dornan admitted that’s your MO.”
“Dornan?”
“Just admit you liked it,” Colby says as Seb moves closer.
“Just tell us what you want,” Seb says.
I decide to get in on this conversation and take it to a less confrontational place. This is about more than sex and desire. This is about feelings. Maybe my brothers aren’t comfortable acknowledging it, but I am. “Just tell us how you feel,” I say softly, knowing full well that I’m asking Ellie the toughest question.
“I feel nothing,” she says. “Other than pissed off that you’re not listing to me.” When she steps back, Seb crowds her from the behind, restricting how far she can move. We have her penned in, but I’m still unsure if the flush creeping over her cheeks is arousal or fury. With Ellie, those two emotions seem intrinsically linked.
“Oh, you feel something,” Colby says.
“It’s okay to admit it,” Seb adds. “Because we do too.”
“We do,” I blurt. “We don’t want to walk away from this, even though there are a million reasons right now that say we should. Doesn’t that tell you something, Ellie? Can’t you see how much we’re willing to put aside for what we have between us?”
“You’d risk fucking up our parents’ marriage for good because that’s what will happen if they find out about this.”
“So we keep it a secret,” I say, raising my hand when Colby looks as though he’s planning to interrupt. “We keep it a secret until they’re in a better place, and then we take the heat - and there will be heat - because this is worth it.”
She blinks, still clutching the pasta bowl close to her body like a shield. Her face, although flushed, is impassive, and I can’t tell if I’ve gotten through to her. So I do what I vowed I wouldn’t do.
“I dare you to have a relationship with us.”
Colby and Seb stare at me as though I’ve broken a cardinal rule. I know this isn’t the right thing to do. We’re at a juncture where Ellie should be willing to take a step toward, but she’s not ready, and I’m not willing to risk things falling apart.
“You can’t dare me to do that,” she says softly.
“Can’t I?” I raise my eyebrows and move closer, looking down at the dark-eyed girl who stole my heart the moment I laid eyes on her. She has no idea how far I’d go to keep her in my arms and in my bed.
“Sex is one thing, but relationships need a whole lot more. Dares don’t work when it comes to love.”
“The dare won’t make the love, Ellie. I know that. But maybe it’ll give you enough time to see that we mean every word we say.”
“You’re daring me to fall in love with you?” she asks, looking between us all. Her wide eyes remind me of Bambi’s, innocent but also fearful.
“I’m daring you to let yourself go and see what you feel,” I say, taking the pasta bowl, easing it from her clenched fingers, and placing it on the countertop.
Her shoulders lower as we move closer, taking places around her like three points of a triangle, with Ellie at the center. I take her right hand, and Colby takes her left. I bring it to my lips, kissing it softly. “It’s okay,” I whisper, knowing she needs to hear it. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
When she collapses into my arms, I wrap her up against my chest and let her cry. It’s like a dam has burst, and every emotion she’s been bottling up comes rushing out. Colby’s worried, and Seb is confused, but I nod, knowing this is part of Ellie’s healing process. She has a lot to let go of, and we have show her that between the three of us, we will create a safe space for her. We can’t let her down. Not ever. Because if we do, there will be no doing back.
Not even a dare could fix it.
23
ELLIE
For two weeks, while our parents are away, we live like we don’t have a single care in the world. We camp out in the living room, bringing two huge mattresses from upstairs and creating a comfortable platform for us all to sleep.