MIA GRABS the throw blanket from the bottom of the bed and uses it to hide her lower half and those adorable purple panties with it.
Fuck. She looks better than I remember, with her pale blonde hair semi pulled up and loose strands tumbling around her face that leave the tan length of her neck exposed. I should look away, but I don’t. Can’t.
I let my gaze dip lower over the top of her cleavage, exposed by her white tank top, then drag further down, swallowing as I catch on the curves of her hips barely hidden by her makeshift skirt.
It’s been three years since I laid eyes on her, and here she is, laid out on my bed like my fucking dessert. If I’m dead, I don’t want to be resuscitated because this must be heaven.
Mia’s hooded green eyes travel over my bare chest, following the path to where my hand grips the front of my towel wrapped low around my waist. Her throat shifts with her swallow, and her tongue sneaks out to wet her bottom lip. The action drives all the blood to my rapidly hardening cock. Fuck. My dick twitches, and a squeak of a sound escapes her lips as her gaze shoots to mine.
As if finally noticing she’s still on the bed, she jumps to her feet, holding the end of her blanket in a death grip, and hisses, “What are you doing here?”
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that? This is my room.” I lean against the doorframe, a small smile pulling at the corner of my mouth as I loosen my grip and let the towel adjust an inch lower. Mia’s eyes darken, focusing on my abs before she shakes her head.
“It can’t be. My wrist thingie worked on the door.” She holds up her arm, and I mirror her, showing my matching yellow band.
“Looks like we’re roomies.” I say it straight-faced, but internally, I’m reeling. It was one thing to know she was going to be here for the wedding, but it’s a whole other thing to have her in our room. Her free fist opens and closes at her side, and she glances around the space as if looking for signs of an alternative reality. Oh, Kitten, this is all real.
She’s still shaking her head in disbelief when the door beeps and River steps in. He freezes as he takes in the scene, then lifts one black brow. “Hello, Mia.”
Fuck, he practically purrs her name, and she noticeably shivers. It brings back memories of the three of us dancing, her body pressed between us, before everything went to shit and she disappeared off the face of the Earth.
“Hi,” she breathes out on reflex, distracted by the sight of him. She takes River in the same way she did me. His black hair is styled off his face, with a few loose strands dropping over his eyes, and he’s rolled the sleeves of his crisp white oxford dress shirt to his elbows, revealing thick forearms that steal every ounce of Mia’s attention. Even I have to admit he’s a sexy fucker.
I clear my throat, drawing both of their focus. The intensity nearly knocks me off-balance, and I have to lean more of my weight against the doorframe. “So, Mia. What are you doing in our room?”
“This is my room.” She points at her wrist again, and I smirk.
“I thought we already went over this,” I say and hold up my wrist to show off the band.
“There must be a mistake.” She taps through her phone, then lifts it to her ear.
I highly doubt it. Sidney and Piper looked entirely too smug when they announced River and I would be bunking together earlier. Pretty sure one of them mentioned the nice size of our bed.
I can’t hear the other end of Mia’s conversation, but with each second, her brows pull together, forming a line between them that I want to rub away, and she chews her thumbnail.
River steps further into the room, closing the distance between them, crowding her until she looks all the way up, and her mouth drops open slightly. She thanks the person on the other end, eyes never shifting from his when she ends the call. Fuck, the tension radiates off them as he takes his time practically consuming her with his gaze. Buddy, I fucking feel you.
River’s always been controlled and silent, but that’s shifted over the past few years to a quiet dominance that makes you pay attention. I’ve caught myself on more than one occasion just waiting for him to say or do something. Just like Mia is now.
“Did they tell you what happened?” River asks, tone casual.
“Who?”
The corner of his mouth lifts. “The concierge. That’s who you called, right?”
She slowly moves her head up and down in response. Fuck, she is gone. He takes mercy on her and steps back, breaking whatever hypnosis he put her under. A flush crawls up her neck. “They apologize for the inconvenience, but it’s how the rooms were booked, and they don’t have any others. I’m going to kill Piper.”
I laugh, and warmth fills my chest when she glares. I’ve missed that fire.
“If I find out you had anything to do with this—”
River buries both his hands into his black dress pants pockets and rocks back on his heels. “You know we didn’t, Mia.”
Her shoulders slump, and for a millisecond, I think I see disappointment flash behind her eyes, and then she sinks back on the bed. “I’ll crash at Sidney’s.”
I choke on a laugh. “Oh, yeah, I’m sure she and Jax won’t scar you at all.”
Her eyes widen, and my smile grows. “Come on. You’re really telling me staying in here is worse than being in their room? You know Jax will totally fuck her while you’re there. It’s kind of their thing.”
Her face scrunches up in disgust, drawing a full laugh from my chest. “Exactly.”
“There’s only one bed. I’m not sleeping with you.”
Sleeping with you rings in my ears before I shake it out and glance up at River, who nods. “I’ll sleep with Riv on the pullout. You can take the bed.”
“Really?” She raises a brow. “You’re really going to share a bed?”
“Wouldn’t be the first time.” I shrug, leaving out the fact that I’d been passed out drunk those times and letting her imagine exactly what we could’ve been doing. I rake my free hand through my wet, dirty-blonde hair. I’m still only in my towel and love how every time she looks at me, she flushes a little more. “Plus, I have the perfect solution. I’ll build a pillow barrier to keep him on his own side.”
River side-eyes me but doesn’t contradict anything I’ve said. Instead, he opens the minifridge and pulls out three drinks, tossing me a beer before holding out a hard cider to Mia. “Do you still like this kind?”
“Yeah…” Her voice trails off. She seems as off-balance as I feel with this entire situation. The only one of us who appears unaffected is River, but I’ve known him long enough to know he’s just hiding it better.
He nods and twists the cap off before handing it over. I watch her throat expand as she takes three deep pulls from the bottle before speaking. “Just one night, and I’ll sort it out in the morning. Okay?”
“Okay,” he replies evenly.
Considering she’s been avoiding us since university, this feels too easy. Unease sits in my stomach, knowing how quickly she could disappear. She’s done it before.
“Alex.”
My gaze shoots to River’s. “Yeah?”
“Come talk to me outside while Mia settles in,” says the man that doesn’t talk. But I know what he’s doing, giving her a second to get dressed and let it all sink in without two giant-ass hockey players looming over her.
I grab a pair of shorts from my open bag and stand so I’m just barely blocked from her view by a high-back chair. I revel in the sound of her gasp when the terry cloth fabric hits the floor. If she keeps making sounds like that, River will need to tie me to the bed. A warm hum travels low in my gut, but I ignore it.
Once I have my shorts on, I grab my beer and follow Riv out the door, where we both lean our backs against the wood siding.
“I think Piper and Sidney are trying to kill me.” He lets out a long sigh and tips his head back, resting it on the wall.
“You and I both, buddy.”
We’re silent as the reality of tonight settles in. I’d planned on cornering her somewhere to get her to finally speak to me. Instead, she just walked right in and took my fucking breath away.
“Have things changed for you? Because they haven’t for me,” I ask and take another long drink of my beer and try not to tense up.
“No.” River’s tone is final, and I nod as dread settles low in my gut. We’re still in the exact same position we were back at university, with us both wanting her and her refusing to come between us. I’d admire her for it if it didn’t hurt so fucking bad.
I turn toward him and lower my voice, letting him know how serious I am. “I’m not giving up on this. Not when it’s likely my last chance.”
He faces me, one brow raised. “Neither am I. Will that be a problem?”
I slam my head back and wince when it connects to the villa behind me. “Considering that’s how we lost her the first time? Yeah, that’s a problem.”
“What if it wasn’t?” River faces the sky. “A problem.” He seems tense. Maybe even nervous. He doesn’t look at me when he says. “What if we share her instead?”
A jolt runs through me, and I freeze, a nervous energy buzzing up my arms and down my back. Does he mean together? Do I want that? I clear my throat. “What do you mean? Like having separate days?”
“No, not like separate days.” River’s deep, rumbled reply commands my attention, and I meet his intense black stare. The air around us grows thick, and suddenly, I crave what he’s suggesting. Fuck.
We’ve casually shared girls before, but something tells me that everything would be different with Mia. Every dirty fantasy of Mia pressed between us has my pulse beating in my ears. Even the thought of seeing him fuck her has my cock stiffening, and I have to reach down to pin it under my waistband. The two of them are both so hot they’d be like fire together. “What if she doesn’t go for it?”
River’s gaze follows the path my hand takes before piercing mine, and he straightens, confidence returning with the set of his shoulders. “What if she does?”
“You serious?” I have to check.
Black eyes pierce mine. “Dead.”
“Then we’d better start warming her up to the idea.” My smile grows, and I know my dimples are showing when I turn.
All the blood drains from my face when I walk inside, and my breath catches in my chest. River barely covers his groan when he comes up beside me and sees what I do. Mia’s standing backlit in the bathroom doorway, blonde hair cascading around her shoulders, in a gold slip nighty that grazes her thighs. The world could end, and I wouldn’t notice.
“Bathroom’s all yours.” She travels to the bed and pulls back the sheet, acting like she’s completely unaffected, but the goose bumps running up her neck give her away.
My gaze catches on the skin where her hem rides up while she gets into bed, and I take a step forward, only to have River grab me by the arm and haul me into the bathroom.
I’m totally fucked.
She watches River pull the foldout bed from the couch and lifts a brow. “The bed’s bigger. I can take the couch.”
“Not a chance, Mia,” River says, voice firm.
She huffs and faces away on the bed, her covers pulled up over her ears as if she’s afraid we’ll see a single inch of her. Too late. A slow smile warms my mouth as I picture the little piece of gold fabric she put on for bed. I’m never getting that out of my head.
I strip down to my boxers and grab a few pillows from the sofa, lining them up in the middle of the pullout bed. It’s significantly smaller than I thought now that I’m really looking at it. Couldn’t be larger than a double on a good day. Hell, the thing may collapse under the weight of two grown-ass NHL players.
“You okay?” River steps up to his side of the bed and raises a brow at my pillow divider. We’d flipped a coin, and the lucky bastard scored the side closest to Mia. Still out of touching distance but no more than a few feet away. Are we a little creepy looking at her? Probably. Am I going to sit here and pretend I haven’t been more than a little obsessed with her since senior year of university? Absolutely not.
My brows pull together in confusion. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”
He scans me over, and his features relax. “Do you want the sheet or the duvet?”
I bite my tongue against a smile at how this six-foot-four, two-hungry-fifty-pound man says duvet.
“Can’t we just share?” I fold the covers back and get in and immediately realize the problem. My hand slides easily to the other side of the bed since my little pillow barrier is above the blanket.
“We can, but something…” River looks at my makeshift wall, and the corner of his lips lifts. “…tells me you’re afraid we may accidently touch.”
I roll my eyes and toss the pillows to the ground. “Hey, now, I’m just stopping you from cuddling me. You know how I hate that.”
Quiet as always, he just shakes his head and snags the sheet, pulling it to his side and tossing the blanket my way. “Keep dreaming.”
We both settle under our individual covers before River reaches over and plunges the room into darkness.
Whereas everything felt like a lighthearted joke a moment ago, all my senses feel magnified now. I wasn’t kidding before when I said he and I had shared a bed before. But never like this, never stone-cold sober, and I’m hyper aware of the ways it’s making me feel. And none of them are bad.
I’m a naturally curious fucking creature, and I’ve caught River looking at me enough times to catch my attention. Normally I can shake the thoughts, but there’s something about feeling him shift a foot beside me that has my pulse kicking up a notch.
Having them both here is so close to every fantasy I’ve ever had. So fucking close it’s almost painful.
Somehow, we’ve landed ourselves a do-over, and this time, we aren’t screwing it up. This time, I don’t want her all to myself.
