“Go go go!”
“Okay love you bye!” she said in a loud whisper.
And the call disconnected. I was left standing there with one tap still running in the cold, echoing bathroom. What was I going to do?
You could go in there and admit this was all a big mistake. You got carried away. You’re not the woman they think you are. You’re just Brienne.
But as soon as I crossed the threshold back into the other room I turned on like a light. Owen and Lyle both froze in mid-gesture and swiveled their heads toward me as I swished my satin dress a few steps toward the small, reflective table and dropped my handbag on it. The way they looked at me, it was so easy to slide right back into the role I had been playing all day. I felt a million times better than I had just moments ago, and all that doubt and fear seemed to evaporate.
“Thirsty?" Owen purred as his eyes swept me like a searchlight from top to bottom and shoulder to shoulder.
“I would love some water, thank you."
“You were really magnificent tonight,” Lyle said. “I am certainly glad you were on our team. You would have crushed us if we had been competing against you."
I shrugged just one shoulder, delighting in the way his eyes hungrily tracked that movement. They really didn’t hold back. Then again, they probably had never been turned down in their lives, for anything.
“Well, those questions weren't really that difficult. A couple of obscure ones, but they just happened to be things I knew. Nothing extraordinary about it.”
Owen handed me a fluted goblet filled with cool water. One side of his mouth was drawn up in an amused grin.
“Extraordinary people always say that.”
"Say what?” I said, sipping at the water gratefully. I could feel the cool, slightly sweet tendrils of it snaking through my torso and landing in my stomach.
“Right. The Dunning-Kruger Effect strikes again,” Lyle nodded with a chuckle.
"Oh, like how incompetent people think they're awesome and competent people always think they’ve failed?”
“Exactly. Your modesty is part of how brilliant you are.”
Brilliant. That’s me. Yup.
“Well then, what about you two? You seem pretty confident that you are at the top of everything,” I countered.
Lyle shrugged. “Well I suppose we are extraordinary in the way that ordinary rules of extraordinariness don't apply to us.”
I rolled my eyes theatrically.
“Ah yes, of course. How could I have assumed otherwise?”
“I would wager that you have never experienced anything like us,” Owen said in a close murmur as he slipped behind me, his breath tracing a line across my shoulder and the nape of my neck.
My body shivered deliciously. Owen stood at my back and I kept my eyes on Lyle who had dropped his smirk and was staring at me brazenly, his aquamarine eyes alight.
“You're probably right about that,” I agreed tentatively, my voice barely above a whisper.
“Would you like to?”
I shivered again. Though I knew what he meant, I wanted to hear it out loud. I wanted to hear the words in the room. I wanted proof that he wanted me. That they both wanted me.
Lyle left his seat by the window and crossed the low, textured carpet. His shirt had the top two buttons undone and his bowtie dangled, unknotted. He moved slowly and smoothly with a rolling gait, like a cat. I kept my eyes fixed on his.
“Would you?”
“Would I — what?” I whispered hoarsely.
Lyle smiled vaguely as his eyes traced the outline of my mouth. I watched his lips part and the shiny pink rim of the border of the interior of his mouth.
“Would you like to experience… Us?”
Get ready, bombshell.
“Yes,” I said, my voice ringing out clear and strong in the room.
So fast I barely knew it was happening, Lyle covered the distance between us with a single step, his hands rising to encircle my neck, his thumbs under my jaw, lifting my face toward him. At the same time, Owen came up behind me hard, aligning his body with mine and wrapping his hands around my waist, holding me.
Lyle's lips burnt against mine. He kissed me like he was hungry for me. Holding nothing back, he growled against my tongue, biting me lightly, sucking my tongue into his mouth while his brother bit against the back of my neck and pulled my hips hard against his pelvis.
I heard the zipper of my dress rolling swiftly down and hands were sliding the fabric off me. It fell to the floor with a sultry whoosh along with my strapless bra and then suddenly my arms were up, pinned over my head.
Lyle left me gasping as he broke the kiss and stood back. I opened my eyes in alarm, standing there with my arms raised like a real life version of the painting Birth of Venus. I wanted to reflexively cover myself but couldn’t move.