By the time I make my way back outside, only Kyle is left. It’s awkward for a second as his eyes find mine. He’s still in the pool so is looking up at me.
“You all on your lonesome?” I ask.
“They’ve got assignments to do.” He shrugs. Of all of the brothers, I find Kyle the hardest to read. Even in the early evening light, his eyes are dark blue and unfathomable.
“And you don’t?” I take my seat at the edge of the pool.
“I’ve finished mine.” His answer really surprises me. I would never have put Kyle down as the studious one; certainly not to the extent that he’d have a different attitude to learning to his brothers.
“Well, that’s organized of you.”
Kyle shrugs again, obviously not keen to show he’s appreciative of my comments. A few seconds tick by; long enough that I feel uncomfortable. I’m racking my brain for something to say when Kyle breaks the silence.
“So… how come you never get into this pool? You still thinking about that time with Jameson?”
It seems I’m not the only one with that past memory.
“I swam yesterday,” I say.
“Until we got in the water.” Kyle leans against the poolside and spreads his arms either side of him, biceps bulging. I don’t know if I’m the only woman in the world to get turned on by the sight of a man’s armpits, but damn.
“Yeah, you guys splash a lot. I didn’t want to get a face full of water.”
Kyle nods but his eyes are a little narrowed, as though he doesn’t quite believe what I’m saying. “So, did you have a good day at college?”
I think this might be the first normal conversation I’ve had with one of my stepbrothers, like, ever, and I’m not really sure what to do. It feels like a trap and I’m too used to stumbling into those, but I have to answer. There’s no getting away from it.
“Yeah. It seems nice…it’s just so big. I’m not sure what I’m going to do about finding my way around the place.”
“You get used to it. There are still places that I don’t know, but I don’t need to know them, if you know what I mean.”
I nod my head. “Like me and the football field.”
Kyle’s eyebrows wrinkle. “The football field is the most important place on campus.”
“If you’re a player.”
“And for anyone who likes to watch.”
“I don’t like to watch,” I say. It’s true. Football is too much about shoulder pads and posturing. And those ridiculous tight pants they have to wear. Don’t get me started.
“You just haven’t been watching the right team,” Kyle says. “You should come see us play.”
I shake my head. “I don’t think your brothers would appreciate that.”
Kyle runs his hand through his glossy, wet hair. “Why the hell not? It’s a free country.”
“I guess.” I want to ask Kyle if he’s had a lobotomy in the past hour because this man in front of me is not the mega jock bastard stepbrother that I thought he was. I’m used to only ever talking to them as a pack, but on his own, Kyle is completely different.
“Bring your friends. I know the guys would love to meet a load of new freshies.”
Ugh. So that’s what his game is. Trying to get me to bring along a load of fawning girls as fresh meat for him and his dude bros. I don’t think so.
“I only know one person,” I say.
“So bring her. We’re practicing tomorrow afternoon.”
“I’ll think about it,” I say. To be honest, I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing tomorrow. I really need to get more familiar with my schedule.
“You remember what it was like when you used to visit?”
“Yeah,” I say with a shiver. Why the hell is he bringing this up now? Just as we’re having a nice conversation.
“It was fun to have a girl around,” he says.
It was? I guess my face reveals my confusion because he laughs. “It’s still fun now.”
“It is?”
“Sure,” he nods. “You’re not like other girls who run away screaming every time we play a little joke.”
“Little joke?” I swear my eyebrows must be hitting my hairline. Is that what they think they’ve been doing to me? Joking around. Having fun.
Do they not realize that I’ve always felt as though they enjoyed torturing me?
“Yeah. Like the lizard. That was hilarious.”
“It was?” I say.
“Yeah.” He chuckles in a rumbling way that I find so ridiculously sexy, but the reason he’s laughing is pissing me off. I’m about to tell him so when Janice pops her head out the door.
“Kyle, honey. You need to come inside now.” Her eyes are fixed on me and I get the distinct feeling that she’s trying to get her son away from me.
“I’ve done all my assignments, Mom.” Kyle looks annoyed that his mom is telling him what to do, and he should be. I mean, I know we’re still living under our parents’ roof but we’re adults now, and we’re supposed to be capable of managing our own lives.
“You need to wash up for dinner.”
“That’ll take me five minutes,” he says.
“Kyle. Can you just do as I ask?” Janice isn’t moving and her face is so fixed with a fake smile that she almost looks manic.
“Mom…I’ll be there in a minute.” He doesn’t even bother looking over his shoulder to see Janice’s reaction and that makes me happy. Janice is a bitch and I would have lost a lot of respect for Kyle if he’d gone running when Mommy called.
Eventually, with Kyle not responding, Janice glares at me and then disappears back into the house.
“She’s an organizer,” Kyle says. “What do they call those people…A-types.”
“You think?”
“Yeah. Always has been. Maybe because she was left with five boys under three years old. She’s had a lot to deal with. We weren’t the easiest kids…you can imagine.”
I do try to imagine what that must have been like. I mean, the idea of looking after them as men seems daunting enough, let alone the trouble that five toddlers would have caused. I feel some sympathy for Janice then. Maybe life has made her the way she is. We’re all shaped by our experiences for sure.
“What happened to your dad? I don’t think I ever asked.”
“He left,” Kyle says without emotion. “I think the pressure of so many kids was too much. He was twenty-three. Mom never talks about him…we never ask any questions.”
“That’s tough,” I say. “I guess I’m lucky that my parents were older when they had me, and older when they divorced. And maybe that I’m an only child. I wasn’t that hard for Dad to look after.”
“If you’re gonna have kids, you should be prepared to look after them,” Kyle says. “But I don’t blame my dad. I can’t say what I would have done in his shoes. I hope I don’t ever have to find out.”
“I think the chances are pretty unlikely,” I laugh. “I mean triplets are pretty rare.”
“Yeah,” he laughs. “But you never know. I’m wrapping that bad boy until I’m thirty.”
It takes me a couple of seconds to realize that he’s talking about his dick and I blush profusely. Who knows why? It’s not the first time I’ve thought about his dick in my life. Not the first time today. Not the first time this hour for goodness’ sake.
“That’s probably a good idea,” I say, hoping my sunglasses are shading my cheeks a little.
“Yeah, there are too many skanks out there looking for a meal ticket. They all think if they hang out with players now, that they’ll be loaded when we go pro. And none of it’s guaranteed but I guess they think it must be worth taking a chance.”
“You want to go pro?”
Kyle nods. “I’d love to. I just don’t know what’ll happen if some of us make the cut and others don’t. We won’t always be able to play for the same team. We’ll be all over the country.”
“That could be good?” I say, imagining Kyle getting a chance to be his own person without the pressure of being one of five. Surely he must want to know what that’s like just a little.
He shakes his head, though. “I don’t know what I’d do without my brothers. We’re like…one person with many bodies.”
“You really feel that way?”
“Yeah. We’ve just always done everything together. I don’t remember a time when we’ve ever fought over anything, either. We rip on each other, yes, but never anything more than a joke. And they’ve always got my back. I know I can rely on them.”
“They’d still be around,” I say.
“Maybe,” he says, and there is genuine worry in his face.
“And even if you all end up staying in the same location, you’re gonna get married at some point and will have to get used to living without your brothers.”
Kyle shrugs. “Not necessarily.”
“You don’t want to get married…what about having kids?”
“I’d be okay with getting married, but…” He trails off and his gaze moves to the water, which is rippling from the movement of my feet and his body. He looks as though he’s struggling to know what to say next. “It’d be hard if we all went off and married different women. We don’t fight, but I think that women could come between us.”
I frown. “That sounds a little sexist…like you’re assuming that women will manipulate you against each other.”
Kyle starts to move from his place on the opposite side of the pool until he’s next to me, leaning up on the side. This close I can see that his shoulders are peeling a little from too much sun exposure. I guess that Jameson isn’t so thoughtful when it comes to rubbing sun lotion into his brothers!
“It’s not that they would do it on purpose…more that we wouldn’t be a team anymore. We’d be on lots of different teams, and that never works to create unity.”
“Does it all come back to football?”
Kyle chuckles. “Football and food…and sex.”
“That’s good to know,” I say.
He looks up at me, his dark blue eyes framed by such long lashes that are beaded with water like jewels. “I just don’t want to lose my brothers,” he says softly.
Wow. That is quite a confession, but I guess he’s already thinking about the end of the year when his older brothers could be moving on. “I don’t think that will happen.” I say. “You guys have a pretty obvious bond that I would bet on being unshakeable.”
“Maybe,” he says.
The next moments are strange. My heart feels achy for this man that up until today I would have considered to be one of my arch enemies. Kyle is so different from who I thought he was, and if he is, maybe his brothers are too. I’ve only ever been around them as a pack, but if they’re all like this as individuals, maybe I have them all wrong.
The thought has my head spinning.
Kyle’s gaze finds mine, and it’s like a jolt of electricity. He looks like he wants to say something low and maybe filthy, or maybe that’s just my pussy craving things it wants to hear. “You know, there’s these girls at college,” he says in the gruff voice that chafes over my clit in the best way. “They…well, they’ve hooked up with more than one guy.”
Oh shit. We really are in sex-land now. How the hell am I going to deal with this conversation without combusting. “I don’t think that’s unusual,” I say, trying to keep the squeak out of my voice. “Aren’t threesomes the new twosomes?”
“Not just for sex,” Kyle says. “They’re in long-term relationships with two and three guys.”
“Relationships?”
“Yeah. One of them is pregnant.”
I guess Kyle is talking about the basis for Sara’s favorite genre of romance novel. Polyamory.
It’s something I knew existed in the outside world but I had no idea it was alive and kicking at Eastern.
“Oh yeah.”
“And do you remember that story about the McGregors from last year?”
“Who are the McGregors?”
Kyle shakes his head. “I just remembered that you’re haven’t been around here for a while. The McGregors are one of the richest families from this area. There are ten brothers.”
My eyes must bug out because Kyle chuckles. “They all hooked up with one girl too…she used to go to Eastern.”
“TEN!”
“Yeah…they’ve had a reality show too…she’s had twin babies already and they’re all going strong.”
“Ten,” I say again with a whole load of awe in my voice. That is one dedicated woman with an iron vagina. How on earth does anyone cope with sex with so many men? I don’t think my pussy could. At least, not without some serious lube and a whole lot of foreplay.
“You’re thinking about the sex, aren’t you?” Kyle says. His eyes seem darker, as though the pupils have spread wide. He seems to like the idea of me thinking about sex.
“Aren’t you?” I say. “How does that even work?”
“They were quite open about it on the show. They all share the same bed. She has a relationship with each of the brothers that is completely open.”
“You mean that they all do it at the same time?” This is news to me. Every program I’ve seen on relationships like this has had an arrangement where the guy spends one night with each of his “wives”.
“Yeah,” Kyle says. “It’s all open and upfront.”
“It’s an orgy,” I say. “A daily orgy.”
“As long as they are all happy, what difference does it make to anyone else?”
“Do you think it could really be like that…a happy relationship with one woman and so many men?”
Kyle shrugs. “I don’t know…but I’d like to think that it could.”
Wow. Is he telling me what I think he’s telling me? That his ideal situation would be to hook up with just one girl and all of his brothers. In my stupid lust-crazed fantasies I’ve had thoughts that ventured part of the way there, or at least to seeing them all naked, but a relationship is a completely different board game.
A relationship isn’t just about sex; it’s about partnership and companionship and cooperation. That’s hard enough with just one man and one woman. Add another four men into the equation and it’s a recipe for disaster.
The toilet seat would never be down. The carpet would be obliterated from the sea of discarded used boxers and socks. There would never be any covers. And the snoring. Oh Lord. I can think of a million reasons why five men would be a shitty deal for any woman. Apart from the potential for the hottest imaginable sex ever, that is.
“Kyle,” Janice screeches again from the doorway. “You need to get in here right now.”
“Mommy’s calling,” I whisper, and Kyle rolls his eyes.
“No point in pissing her off any more than I have,” he says. He uses his mammoth arms to pull himself out of the pool and I gaze up at the sheer gorgeousness of him. The water has made his board shorts really clingy and I can see the outline of something that is definitely going to keep me awake at night. Shit. Even his feet are stunning.
“See you around, Mais,” he says.
And with that, Kyle leaves me with so many wild thoughts I can barely function.
