“Because if we come near you, you can’t think straight, right? We’re distracting?” Josh said, taking a step around the coffee table.
I watched him pivot around the couch as my heart rate increased. The house was cool, yet my skin felt molten with each measured step he took. I had an exit to my back and to my right—into the entryway and into the kitchen—but I didn’t move. I didn’t move until Josh turned the last corner around the couch and was directly in front of me. Only then did I take a hesitant step back, directly into a hard chest. Looking over my shoulder, my eyes connected with Reed’s as he looked down at me.
His stance was casual—hands tucked into the front pockets of his joggers and his shoulders were relaxed—however, the sharp line of his lips and the set of his jaw told me he wasn’t going to let me escape.
As I turned back around, I wasn’t surprised to find Josh had closed the short distance between us. I could feel the combined heat of them at my front and my back, a sensation I hadn’t experienced in so long that I’d nearly forgotten how good it felt.
Then there was the mixture of their deep, masculine scents combined with the sweat from moving heavy shit all day that nearly drove me mad.
It was all I could do to suppress the quick breaths that wanted to escape through my lips, and as much as I wanted to pull myself from their orbit, there was an equal part of me that couldn’t help but stay. Even with neither of them touching me, I was imprisoned by them—that’s the pull they had, and it was the pull that scared me.
“We should—” I began, only to be interrupted by an odd sound to my left. There was a mechanical whir, then an odd mixing sound before I spotted the dog camera and a small, brown treat plopped out onto the wood floor.
“Umm…” Reed muttered behind me, but I braced myself for what I knew was about to happen.
“Hey, guys, if you’re gonna fuck, could you maybe not do it where I can see you? I’m not much into voyeurism. Thanks!” Hazel’s voice was clear as day over the small two-way speaker. I berated myself for forgetting the camera they set up to keep an eye on Sadie while they were out of the house.
“I think that’s our cue to go,” I mumbled to them and stepped around Josh to find the dog treat. I replaced it in the container at the top of the camera.
“A dog treat? You could have just called me or something,” I said, knowing full well she could hear me.
“They were pawing all over you like dogs, so I figured it would distract them,” she said and I couldn’t help but laugh as I watched the two men mutter to each other and head to the front door.
NINE
Amanda
Before we even got back intothe truck, I established a gag order on all dating discussions until we got back to my apartment, which meant we mostly sat in silence because that was all the three of us could think about.
With the tension growing and my anxiety reaching a level I hadn’t known in years, I considered what the conversation would be when we stepped through the door to my apartment. I couldn’t imagine the two of them letting me off the hook, but I contemplated the possibility of locking myself in my bedroom for the foreseeable future and refusing to leave until they promised to drop it.
“Oh!” Josh said out of nowhere. “That was aTwilightreference you made earlier—the werewolf and the vampire.”
I chuckled but nodded, glad he understood it thirty minutes after the fact.
“Wait, which one am I then? Because that chick ends up with the vampire, right?”
“I didn’t mean to assign you one or the other. I said it because it’s a love triangle situation.”
Reed chuckled next to me, pulling the U-Haul back into the spot near the door to my building. “I’d be the vampire, then.”
Josh scoffed, reaching behind me to push Reed’s shoulder before he jumped out of the cab. “You wish.”
“I’m just saying—” Reed began, but I held up my hand.
“Not until we get upstairs. Damn, guys.”
They both trudged upstairs like teenagers being sent to their rooms, and the minute I closed the door behind me, they turned to me, leaning against the counter in the kitchen.
“You both seriously think this is going to turn out well?” I asked, taking up a spot on the other side of the kitchen island.
They nodded simultaneously, and I rolled my eyes at how in sync they were.
“There are so many issues with this whole idea,” I said.
“Okay, name them,” Reed instructed.
“You think you both can put aside your alphahole bullshit long enough to do this? Or to do this without ruining your friendship or our own? And I’m not saying I will, but what if I do pick one of you at the end? You can’t tell me that isn’t going to screw everything up, and I don’t want to be put in that position.”