“Who sleeps in here?” she asked, getting a brief glimpse of it as lightning flashed again.
Quinten murmured, “The three of us.”
She hesitated, and Ben must’ve sensed it because he clarified, “This is our bed, for the three of us, if you want to share it. We had it made.”
She frowned in the dark as they pulled the covers back and helped her in. “You went to all this expense not knowing for sure if I’d be with you or not?”
Quinten said, “We’ve wanted you a long time, which included sleeping with you, not just making love to you. We wanted you to be comfortable.”
“No one else has slept in this bed with you?”
Ben’s gentle hand caressing the side of her face warmed her as much as his words. “Sugar, no one else has slept in this bed, not even us. It’s brand new. We wanted to share this bed with you, if you’re willing, that is. You’re the only woman we’ve ever brought to this house or this bedroom. We became roommates with the hope that you’d want to be with us, too.”
The mattress cushioned her knees as he helped her into the center of the bed, and she lay down on her right side. They’d made up the bed with three fluffy pillows and she rested her head on the one in the middle. A yawn overtook her as Ben pulled her back against his chest.
Quinten cuddled in close and kissed her lips then all over her breasts, his touch affectionate and loving, before he finally settled facing her. Lightning lit the night outside the French doors and the windows as he stroked her cheek, and she got a heart-stopping glimpse of the vulnerability in his eyes that matched his touch.
He whispered, “I love you, baby. You’re the one I want.”
“I love you too.”
Their answer was twin deep breaths that were released with what sounded like relief, and they both cuddled her closer. She envied them their relief at her declaration. She said the words, but a kernel of doubt and disturbing emotion had taken root inside her. Sometimes love wasn’t enough.
Discomfort tangled inside her as she recalled the way Ben had pushed her buttons earlier. Only one other person had ever reached her heart so quickly. Although she’d never loved Joseph Hazelle the way she loved Ben, he’d been able to draw her emotions and her heart to the surface with a look or a quietly voiced question or command. And he was a full-time, hard-core Dominant. She’d given over to him on numerous occasions and had known her heart was safe with him. He knew what he was doing.
Ben didn’t have the experience Joseph had, but he’d pulled the same response from her with seemingly little effort. It was uncomfortable having her secrets bared to him. He was more emotional and pushy as hell at times, and he knew enough about her now that he could hurt her deeply and not even realize it. She didn’t like it that he might lord over her the fact that he knew basically what made her tick. If this magical thing between the three of them went south like all her other relationships had, she’d be in a world of hurt because it was too late to stop herself from falling in love. She was already there.
Sleep evaded her while she shored up her emotional walls as best as she could. Men left. That was her reality, no matter how much she wanted to change it. It happened no matter how good she was, or how perfect she was. Men left, even when they didn’t mean to.
Chapter Eight
Quinten stroked Camilla’s hair lightly, needing to touch her but not wanting to wake her. It’d taken her a long time to settle, and he hoped she wasn’t more upset about the broken condom than she’d showed. She seemed certain that being on the birth control shot was enough, and he hoped it was. He didn’t want her put in the position of losing any more choices.
His heart had broken for her when she’d talked about being left on her own to mourn her mother. He wanted to do serious damage to a man so self-obsessed that he’d intentionally abandon a vulnerable young girl. He thought of what he had been like at sixteen. She’d pulled her life together and made something of herself, which filled him with even more admiration for her.
If he’d wondered somewhere in the deepest recesses of his mind if sharing with Ben would work, his fears were being laid to rest. He didn’t for a minute believe that there wouldn’t be any more clashes. He knew there would be. He’d seen the way her brow had creased as Ben had pushed her to say words that Quinten knew cut her to the bone.
He left me.
They were fools if they were to believe that one evening’s declaration was going to get her past that hurdle. His heart ached at the thought of her standing in her apartment, all alone, at age sixteen.