Page 86 of Trouble

“We can’t keep doingthis.”

I glanced at Liam, who was still staring straight ahead at the road as he drove our Jeep through the busy London traffic back fromHeathrow.

“We can’t keep going on as if she was never there,” he continued, confirming that his thoughts, too, had been ofAudrey.

“I know,” Isaid.

“What do we do, Louis?” It wasn’t often that my twin sounded so lost. The last time I could remember was at our mother’sfuneral.

“What is there to do?” I clenched my fist and stared out the passenger side window, not wanting to see the pain on his face. “She was right. There is no way this can end well—if she chooses one of us, the other will…” Wither and die. I couldn’t quite make myself say those words out loud, but we both knew them to be true. If one of us were with her, the other would be alone. Forever. I didn’t know much about love, but I did know a woman like Audrey only came around once in alifetime.

This way, at least we still had each other. We might be in for a lifetime of bitter regret, but at least we’d still bealive.

“I know if she chose me, and you… I couldn’t bear to watch that, Liam. No more than I could bear to be the one she didn’t pick. Couldyou?”

“No.”

The silence spread between us again, blanketing us in the same misery we’d so desperately tried to avoid by burying ourselves in everything that came after our takeover of London. But Wesley was the last thread. There were no more places tohide.

“Louis.”

I glanced over at my twin again. Something in his voice, a note of… excitement, perhaps, piqued my interest enough to pull me out of mywallowing.

“What if… what if she didn’t have to choose?” he said. He was clutching the steering wheel. Yeah, something had perked him rightup.

I frowned at him, trying to work out what sort of devious plan was cooking in his brain. “What do youmean?”

“We could both be with her. Share her. That way she doesn’t have to choose, and she’d never get between us. Well, at least not figurativelyspeaking.”

“You mean…” It took my brain a couple of seconds longer to wrap around what he was suggesting, but my heart rate picked up as I tried to picture what that’d belike.

“It’d be like in the bothy. Except I wouldn’t feel the urge to beat your stupid arse every time I seeyou.”

A flash of Audrey, moaning between us like when we’d both fucked her in that bothy, made my cock stir. I glanced at Liam again, and knew he was having similar thoughts, judging by the smirk playing across hislips.

As many times as we’d fucked the same girl, we’d never been with one at the same time. Apart from Audrey. The idea had never even crossed my mind, before her. And after… it’d kinda been in the cards that it was a one-time deal, something that just happened in the heat of themoment.

I’d never considered making it a regular occurrence, never mind sharing her in more ways than just physically. And yet… It would solve everything, wouldn’t it? We’d both get to be with her, without ever losing eachother.

Perhapssocietywouldn’t approve, but when had I ever given any fucks about whatsocietythoughtanyway?

Could I share my wife withLiam?

I kept waiting for that twang of discomfort the thought of willingly sharing the love of my life with my brother should have brought, but it never came. I’d shared everything with him since the day I was born. Audrey was the first thing I hadn’t, until that afternoon in the bothy. It’d seemed so natural then, and the more I thought about it, the more perfect the idea of the three of us as a permanent unit seemed. In hindsight, it was the obvious solution. It’d always been me and him against the world. And Audrey belonged with us. Both ofus.

“D’you think she’ll agree to it?” I asked, turning more fully toward mytwin.

“Probably not,” he said with a grin. “But as long as we’re both on board, I’m sure we can find a way to, ah,convinceher.”

* * *

Audrey’s parents’house was exactly as stuffy upper-middle class as I’d expected. We’d gone to her flat first, but the angry old biddy across the hall had informed us thatMiss Waitsno longer lived there, and could we take our hooligan-selves off the property immediately, or she’d call thepolice.

So Liam had driven us to her parents’ house in a typical suburban neighborhood with typical, suburban garden and typical, suburban neighbors who peered out their windows when we walked up the path to knock on thedoor.

A couple of moments later, the door opened and revealed a small, slim woman in her fifties. The neutral look of inquiry on her face changed the second her eyes fell on us, turning pinched with disapproval. “Yes?”

If voices could freeze, we’d have both been gingericicles.

---