Page 30 of Temptation

“I play The Sims and Stardew Valley, and I have a Switch. Quill and I have had every Nintendo console ever.” She chuckled softly. “I was also your typical introverted, nerdy gamer.”

“Seriously?” Tenn blinked in surprise and then smiled at her. “You game too?” A picture of them gaming on their individual laptops while cuddling on the couch came to him, making him hope for the second time since they met that he had developed the ability for premonitions.

“I do.” She nodded. “Not seriously, but I like the escape from life I get from it.”

“So, you know we're gonna have to have a gaming night soon, right?” Tenn wanted that picture of them to happen. Viki was never a fan of his gaming; the idea that Quinn was also a gamer made him extremely excited.

“I'd be down for that.” Quinn looked delighted.

Tenn shook his head, a massive smile on his face. She was perfect for him. “Quill was right.”

“He usually is. It's very annoying.” She laughed. “About what in this case?”

“When he first told me about you, he said I would like you,” Tenn explained, glancing at her in amazement. “He was right.”

“Yeah, for someone so logical and able to step back from his emotions, he's pretty good at figuring out relationships. He was the one who suggested Rilla and Bishop should be together, and they got married like a year later.” She smiled, and then it faded as she considered what she said. “I've wished I listened to him more than once.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, Bishop, Rilla, and I were in a thruple for a few months. He warned me it was a bad idea, but I did it anyway. And he warned me about Joel, too.” She sighed. “I really wish I listened to him about Joel… both times.”

“I'm sorry, a thruple?” Tenn furrowed his brow. “Like you were in a relationship with Rilla and Bishop together?”

“Rilla and I met, and I adored her from the beginning. She’s gorgeous and just has this way of making you feel like you’re the best thing that ever happened to her. She's bisexual, and it was the first and only time I've ever so much as even considered I might be interested in women.” Quinn said sheepishly as she shook her head. “We didn’t meet until the first semester of our second year. We had most of the same classes, but we were on different schedules our first year.”

“Bishop and I were already fooling around, but we have very different views on relationships, so we kept it as a friends-with-benefits relationship, but Quill wasn’t overly happy with it and made his opinion known, and it actually is the reason we don’t introduce people we don’t want to share anymore.” Tenn was watching her and noticed her cheeks went a little pink as she spoke about Quill's objections. “Then, when Quill met Rilla, he just knew Bishop and Rilla were meant to be together, and he was right. When we introduced them, they fell hard and fast for each other. They had all the same ideas about relationships, the same views about life in general, and they are perfect for one another.”

Rilla and Bishop discussed it; both agreed they had a lot of affection for me and asked me to join in. Quill objected immediately, but it was a few months before I realized he was right, and it wouldn't work. I hated sharing Rilla with Bishop; I hated sharing Bishop with Rilla. I wanted all the attention on me.” She laughed ruefully. “I told them I couldn't do it. I loved them both, but they belonged together, and I backed out. They argued and said we could work on it, but nope. I'm monogamous and straight. I had fun with and love Rilla but preferred Bishop and haven't been attracted to other women.”

“Wow.” Tenn laughed, glad she had figured that out about herself in college, and it was no longer a question. “Talk about experimenting in college. It never affected your friendships with them?”

Other than them - mostly - joking about me rejoining them now and then, nope. I hang out with them all the time, both separately and together. Rilla is still my person, Bishop is amazing, we never cross boundaries, and I'm happy for them. So, it's all good.”

They finished shopping for his locks; he explained he also wanted a new mattress when he remembered they said they'd had sex at both their houses, so they went and bought a new mattress set for him, arranging for it to be delivered that afternoon.

“Let's grab lunch and head back to the house,” Tenn suggested. “I'd offer to cook, but the best you'd get out of me is canned tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.”

“I love canned tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches!” Quinn teased. “But I can also teach you to cook if you're interested.”

“I'd love to learn, but I'm pretty terrible. My mom just got frustrated and gave up.”

“I bet I can teach you,” she said confidently. “But for today, I'm good with a greasy fast-food burger and fries.”

Back at Tenn's, they ate, and then Tenn set the security cameras up on his Wi-Fi network and downloaded the app onto his tablet, setting it up with a password so Viki couldn't access anything. They got started in the garage. Tenn positioned the camera while Quinn watched on the tablet and directed the exact positioning to cover as much of the area as possible.

From the garage, they moved to the entranceway, the living room, and the kitchen. They positioned one camera looking up the stairs to the second floor and then another looking down the stairs into the basement. Choosing to go down instead of up, Tenn led her down the stairs and immediately noticed Quinn looked impressed with his setup there. He felt an odd jolt of pride run through him. Besides the master bedroom, it was the only part of the house he’d had told Viki she couldn’t change when she moved in after she finished college and followed him to Boston. He had put a lot of work into his rec area, and it was where he spent most of his time, letting Viki have run of the rest of the house.

When he bought the house, the basement was open-concept and unfinished. He walled off the right end to make room for his workout equipment and a small three-piece bathroom. The center section had a huge, square, sectional couch that pulled out into a bed and a round coffee table. A huge 65” TV hung on the opposite wall over a small gas fireplace and was surrounded by shelving that held his old gaming consoles and books. Various pieces of art he had collected over the years hung on the light grey walls, and the heated flooring was a black vinyl planking.

The end to the left of the stairs had been walled off, and glass French doors led into his office/gaming room. To the right of the door, a built-in desk held his gaming setup. To the left was a drawing/painting table, and the rest of the walls were filled with built-in shelving that held his old cameras, art supplies and various old games and gaming collectibles. While they set up the cameras, Quinn asked questions about his collections and showed such genuine interest in his hobbies and interests that he could feel himself falling for her more and more. Viki never asked him about what he did for fun.

After they set up the cameras, Quinn curled up on the couch and watched as he changed out the doorknob to his office.

“Why did you marry Viki?” She asked curiously.

“By her own admission, she pursued me because she thought I was my brother first and then because she thought I played too. She was what the guys called a “puck bunny.” One of my friends thought it hilarious and suggested seeing how far I could take it. I never lied to her or claimed I was a hockey player. I just didn't correct her assumption, and she also tried to make it seem like she wasn't a puck bunny because the guys tend to use them but date other girls.” Tenn felt the need to justify how their relationship started; he knew what he did wasn’t right, but he also hadn’t expected to actually fall for Viki.

“When practice started, she asked why I wasn't there, and I asked her why it mattered. She said, “I thought you played?” I asked when did I ever give you that impression? And she couldn't answer me. By then, she realized she liked how I treated her better than the hockey guys, and we just kept dating. After graduation, she and my parents pressured me to propose, get married and start trying for kids. So, I did. Don’t get me wrong, I loved her and our relationship, and I wanted the same things, so it seemed like the next natural step.”

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