“Calm down, baby. Let’s just chill. If you’re having second thoughts, we can talk about it.”
“No, not second thoughts. Fifth, sixth, and seventh thoughts. Hell, maybe hundredth thoughts. I didn’t know what I was thinking. That you’d actually be interested. That you’d actually want me. I should never have presumed—”
The grip on her hand tugged her closer, and within moments she was seated on Cam’s lap, his arm curling around her waist to anchor her in place.
“What are you doing?” she demanded. “You said I could go whenever I want. I want—”
“You told us what you wanted, and now you’re getting something in your head that shouldn’t be there. You’re not leaving until we get at least a few things straight—and the first one is,we both want you more than you could ever imagine.” Cam whispered the last words directly into her ear, and the heat of his hand pulsed against her belly.
Travis dropped onto the couch beside Cam and squeezed her other hand. “The one thing that’s absolutely not in doubt in this room is how much we want you.”
“Oh,” the word came out on a breath. “Okay.” Well that was one less thing Lia needed to freak out about. Everything else still loomed large. Like what happened if they went for it and it didn’t work out. Now that she was between them, all the things that could go wrong—and cost her both of them—crashed down.
She struggled to stand, and Cam finally released her and she stumbled to her feet. Travis’s hand on her arm steadied her.
“I—I … maybe I was wrong. Maybe I can’t do this.”God, what a mess.
“Talk to us, baby,” Travis said. “Tell us what’s going through that beautiful head of yours.”
“I can’t lose you both,” she blurted.
She couldn’t find the courage to look at Cam, so she focused on Travis.
“You’re not going to lose us,” he protested. “No matter what happens, at the end of the day, you will always be able to count on both of us.”
“But our friendships? And the two of you—your friendship? What about that? You can’t tell me that if this goes south, I’m not responsible for destroying all of that.”
Cam stood, and his body pressed against Lia’s side.
“You can’t tell me you haven’t thought about this six different ways to Sunday. You’ve weighed it all.”
He was right; she had thought about every contingency, but she’d also somehow whitewashed all of the risks that were involved with sparkles and glittery rainbows. Because that’s what you did with dreams that were far off in the distance: You played up the benefits and played down the sharp edges. She was about to tell them that she needed more time to think, when Travis beat her to it.
“How about we just hang out tonight—as friends? We play some cards, have a drink, keep it low key. We’ve never really hung out with an eye toward something more. Let’s find our rhythm and see what makes sense for us.”
“Cards?” Lia repeated.
Travis nodded and pulled out the drawer in the coffee table, producing a deck.
Cards.She could do cards. Low key. Low stress. Low freak out. She could do this.
They were being hustled. That was Travis’s only thought as he shucked off his pants and tossed them to the floor.
“Cheers,” Lia laughed, toasting him with her shot of whiskey before she sipped from it. She didn’t toss it back and drink the whole thing. No, she savored it, because she’d said she didn’t want to waste it.
Travis didn’t care, though, because he didn’t want Lia to get drunk. The way things were headed, he could see tonight getting a whole hell of a lot more interesting.
He caught another look that Lia darted between him and Cam. Both of them were stripped down to nothing but their boxers. Socks were gone too. Lia, in contrast, had only removed her necklace and a single sock.
The woman was a fucking card shark, and goddamn if Travis didn’t find that hot as hell. He shook his head.
“How’d you learn to play cards like a Vegas poker legend?” Travis asked.
Lia shrugged, looking completely at ease on the cushion next to Cam. Which was fucking phenomenal. He wanted her chilled out and comfortable with them—and the fact that she wasn’t freaking when the clothes started to come off was a good sign indeed.
“My dad played when I was a kid. He taught my brother and me. I went to poker night once a week at my brother’s place until…” her words trailed off and her expression darkened. “You know. Until the shit went down.”
Both Travis and Cam’s attention landed on the same thing. “You have a brother? How the hell didn’t we know that?” Cam demanded.