Perfect Alignment

Chapter 9-1

Chapter Nine

Emma woke to the faint smell of coffee. Since she was wrapped solidly around Drew, she figured Toby must be an early riser. Though she couldn’t see the clock without moving, she was pretty sure it was too early to be waking up, so she snuggled in closer and tried to go back to sleep. That plan died a quick death when Drew’s hands began to knead her ass.

She gave his chest a light thump. “Don’t get too eager down there. We should finish our conversation.”

“The one about blow jobs?” he asked in a hopeful tone.

She laughed. “As if you don’t get one any time you want. But hey, if you don’t want to return to a discussion about Toby’s s*x life, I won’t force it.”

He gave her a little pinch, but it was fake and didn’t even hurt a little bit, so she just laughed.

He sat up and leaned against the headboard, which forced her to sit up too. She propped her elbows on her knees, her chin on her arm, and waited.

“How are you feeling about taking this to the next level with Toby? I don’t want any guessing games here. We’re going to be very clear, one way or the other.”

“I like him and I want to help him. I kind of want to cuddle him up and make him happy, but I don’t really know how to do that. But I trust you to know what I’m comfortable with, and I trust you to know what he’s comfortable with, so if he’s okay with it, and you’re okay with it, then, well, then I guess I’m looking forward to it. Though I’m kind of nervous, which seems strange.”

Of course he wouldn’t leave it at that.

“What part makes you nervous?”

“I guess—”She broke off when he frowned. “Okay, okay, no guessing. The biggest thing is the emotions. I don’t want to mess up what we have, and I don’t want to mess up your relationship with your best friend.”

He nodded. “If we do this, my two main concerns are making sure that doesn’t happen and making sure I don’t make things harder for Toby, instead of better.”

“That’s a lot of responsibility for you.”

“Your responsibility is to help me with that by making sure you let me know exactly what you’re thinking and if you have any hesitations at any time.”

“Still doesn’t seem quite fair.”

“Think about it this way. If you don’t tell me when something becomes too much for you, you’ll be punished.”

It was her turn to frown, but she couldn’t really argue. And she was finding the idea of seeing what Drew would do, how things might go, the feel of all those hands, the idea of the guys touching… She licked her lips.

“Are you…umm, are you going to touch him? Let him touch you?” she asked, having to clear her throat to get the words out clearly.

His lips twitched, but he showed no other reaction. “Would that bother you?”

“No,” she said quickly. “Nope, wouldn’t bother me at all.”

He got off the bed without further comment. “Come on, let’s not leave our poor guest for too long. There won’t be any coffee left.”

They pulled on clothes and made their way to the kitchen. She led the way, so she saw the sadness in Toby’s eyes as he stared out the back window, his hands wrapped around the large mug that still looked pretty full. No steam rose from the coffee inside, and she wondered how long he’d sat there, not drinking. He jerked slightly when they entered, and offered a bright smile.

“It’s a beautiful day.”

“Looks like,” she agreed. “We should go fishing.”

Toby blinked and looked skeptical. “Fishing?”

Drew edged past her, brushing her ass with a caress as he made his way to the coffeepot. “Great idea.

Toby shrugged. “Okaaaay,” he drawled, clearly not enthused but not exactly horrified. Emma opened the fridge and began tossing things to the guys, and with all of them working on chopping, toasting and cooking, they quickly had omelets on the table. They chatted about nothing and everything, politics and entertainment. They didn’t talk about Emma, the nakedness from the previous day, or where the day was going to take them. Emma knew that she still shouldn’t assume something would happen, but she was pretty sure it would. She’d wait for some sign from Drew that the time had come, and until then, she’d enjoy her day with two fun and interesting guys.

The weather was perfect for another day outside. Instead of the crisp, clear ocean air of the previous day, they made their way through the trees and sat by the river in the shaded tree line. The air was heavier, but not in an unpleasant way.

Arms full of supplies, they crossed Drew’s land to a section of the river that he’d brought her to before. They’d needed a break after a particularly intense scene, and he’d suggested the walk. Used to cities, even small ones, it hadn’t occurred to her that he could have his own bit of river.

The nice thick blanket she carried went down first, then they set up camp chairs and the fishing gear.

“So,” Toby said as he watched Emma and Drew prepare their poles. “You’ve done this before.”

She smiled. “Yeah. About a month after my brother died, my dad woke me up at five in the morning and dragged me out to the river. I had no idea what he was thinking. I still don’t really know, I’ve never asked. It was a tough time for us. We were—are—a close family, but we still had a hard time talking about Michael.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” She gave him another smile. “It still hurts, it still sucks, but it’s been a long time. Anyway, like I said, I’m not sure what my dad was thinking, but it worked. He and I sat out there for an hour, hardly said a word, but I felt so much better by the time we went home. We started going once a month or so. We talked more. Not about Michael, at least not for years. But we talked about other things, important and silly. And we were quiet.”

Drew handed him his pole. “Actually, I’ve never gone fishing with anyone else. And never on this side of the country.” Which was why she’d let Drew decide what bait they’d be using, taken what he’d selected.

Soon they had their lines in the water and were seated on the bank. “Do you mind talking about Michael now?” Toby asked.

“No. Now I like to. It makes him seem more real again, if that makes any sense. I know it’s not the same with Caroline. And it won’t be, not for a long time.”

He nodded. “She’s still almost too real. Still so here, and yet…not.”

“I can’t imagine how painful that must be. Do you want to talk about her?”

She flicked a glance at Drew, who was watching his friend intently. The pain she saw on his face as he clearly wished he could do something to help Toby nearly made her heart break. They loved each other so much. As she’d thought earlier, here was Drew’s family. But how close had he been to Caroline? Was he still grieving the loss of a friend? Most likely, but he’d subvert that in the face of his friend’s pain.

“I haven’t wanted to. Not really. At the funeral I did, but it nearly broke me. After that it was too painful.” He met Emma’s eyes. “I was thinking about her a lot last night. About the time that we…” He glanced at Drew.

“I told her. It’s cool.” Drew’s voice was soft, as if he was afraid to interrupt his friend.

“I know it would be different. Very different. It was a special thing for me, though, and last night was the first time I was able to remember something like that, think about one of our scenes, and be happy instead of sad, you know?”

Emma swallowed hard. “I’m glad.”

Toby gave a small smile. “I thought about this.” He twirled his finger around to indicate the three of them. “When Drew mentioned the possibility. I thought about it, of course. It was theoretical, since I hadn’t met you, so I thought about all the different ways it might be. Of course, none of them are right, now that I’ve met you.”

“It never really works out the way we think it might, does it?”

“I don’t know. Drew, how did you think it would go, pulling a speeder out of her car and slapping her into handcuffs with the sole intention of getting her naked? That seems to have worked out well for you.”

Emma put her face in her hands to hide her blush. Why she was embarrassed, she had no idea. The guys laughed and she stuck her tongue out at them.

“Yeah, that worked out really well, but I never in a million years imagined it would go as well as it did. But to be honest, it’s not as if I was imagining what would happen. It was much too spur-of–the-moment. Hell, if I’d thought it through at all, it wouldn’t have happened.”

“That’s because every scenario you imagined would have ended up with you being brought up on charges.”

“Exactly. Never would have happened if I’d taken a minute to think about it.”

Emma had known that in theory based on other conversations they’d had, but she’d never really thought about it, and it made her curious.

“So, why did you?”

He laughed. “Honestly, I have no idea. You looked so carefree and innocent. You actually smiled at me when I walked up and it wasn’t the ‘Gee, officer, what do I need to do to get out of this ticket’ smile. And then, just as my brain starts to process the fact that you must be as sweet and innocent as you look, I see the necklace.”

Shaking his head at the memory, he reeled his line in and checked that the bait was still there, then recast. “So the whole time I was running you and writing up the ticket, I’m picturing that necklace, wondering what your favorite activities were, making the huge assumption that you were a sub, wondering if you were collared and wearing the necklace as a public version.”

That thought had never occurred to her. But then again, it wasn’t as if she’d been wearing it as a lure for a potential Dom. It had just worked out that way. She laughed, checked her own bait, then Toby’s. “And you weren’t imagining me in your handcuffs during that time?” she asked.

“Nope. I walked back to you with every intention of handing you that ticket and walking away. At the most, maybe I’d have asked you where you were headed.”

“But?” Toby asked. Setting his pole on the ground with no regard for its safety, he went to the cooler and pulled out a bottle of water. He offered it around and opened it when they declined.

“But. f**k, Toby, she smiled at me again! As I handed her the ticket. And it wasn’t fake, it was this amazing smile that said ‘I’m having a fantastic day, and I hope you are too.’ What the hell was I supposed to do?” He looked at them both as if they could tell him what his other options could have been.

Emma’s chest warmed from the inside. Knowing she’d affected him like that made her so happy she was sure she was grinning like a damn fool, but she couldn’t help herself. She watched Drew, who was watching her, and the heat flared brighter, moved lower. She licked her lips and Drew’s gaze flicked down to watch. Hell, he was so gorgeous. Especially when he looked at her like this. As if she were the only thing in the world he could ever want.

She set her pole down without paying any attention to it and stood. He did the same. And then she was screeching, Drew shouting, as they were both splashed with cold water. They turned to Toby, who was waving the bottle back and forth, arcing the cold water between them, a maniacal grin on his face.

One more quick look at Drew was all it took. They both launched themselves at Toby, tackling him into the dirt, water splashing everywhere.

“I can’t believe you did that!” she yelled, tickling his sides as Drew held him down, their legs entwined.

“You bastard,” Drew huffed. He was bigger, but Toby’s wiggles appeared to be hard for Drew to contain.

“What?” Toby gasped. “You wanted me to keep fishing while you two ravished each other in front of me? I don’t think so.” He was laughing and struggling and Emma leaned down and bit him on his side. His shirt had ridden up, exposing a vast expanse of flesh. Not nearly as much as she’d had her hands on the day before, but somehow this was different.