His Very Own Read online

  Her egg white omelets were nearly done when she heard the familiar creak of the stairs. Sasha looked up in time to see Scott and Adam amble into the kitchen, both of them yawning. True to form, Scott headed straight for the coffeepot, while Adam hung back, clearly unsure just how to proceed.

  “Cups are in the cupboard next to the sink,” Sasha said from the stove, gesturing with her spatula. “Milk’s in the refrigerator, but if you want special creamers, you’re out of luck.”

  “Thanks. Regular milk is fine.”

  Scott poured his cup and paused long enough to kiss Sasha good morning. Adam focused on his coffee more than Scott’s display, but he didn’t seem totally uncomfortable. Just shy.

  “What is this?” Scott gestured at the omelet. “After last night, we need some actual food to get our strength back.”

  “It is food.” Sasha nudged him away with her hip. “Not everything has to be bacon flavored to taste good.” She glanced over at Adam. “You’re not allergic to anything, are you? I forgot to ask.”

  “No. And I don’t require bacon flavoring either.” Adam settled on a barstool and wrapped his hands around the coffee mug. “But you shouldn’t go to any extra trouble for me. I can just pick up something.”

  “It’s no extra trouble. Weekends are Sasha’s breakfast times.” Scott opened a cupboard to take out plates, setting them next to the stove. “She would have fixed one for Colette, anyway.”

  Turning off the flame, Sasha used the edge of the spatula to divide the omelet into three portions. “I called your mom and told her we’d come get Colette around ten. That’ll give you time to shower before we head over there.”

  Scott paused where he was taking out the silverware. He frowned at Adam. “Fuck. You don’t have anything clean to change into if you shower, do you?”

  Adam looked surprised, like the thought hadn’t occurred to him either. “No, I don’t. All my stuff is still in my car. Which is still at the store.” He frowned. “Unless Rosco had it towed by now.”

  “Oh, no, he wouldn’t do that.”

  “We’ll go get it,” Sasha said. “Let Scott shower first after we eat, and then I’ll drive him into town to bring your car back. Problem solved.”

  Adam blinked. “Yeah, I guess that does solve the problem.” He smiled and accepted the plate from Sasha. “Thanks. For the breakfast, and for driving back to get my car, and for last night.”

  She softened at the mention of last night. It had been unexpected but very much wanted. How many times over the past year had she and Scott bemoaned what they had given up by moving from Raleigh to this ass-backward town? With his sad, hazel eyes and sadder, narrow smile, Adam Roper was a treat they would have savored no matter where their location. It was hard to believe their luck that he’d shown up here. It was even harder to believe that he was bisexual.

  But Sasha didn’t question good things that fell into her lap. She saw opportunities, and she took them. It was how she’d ended up with Scott, and that had been the smartest choice of her life. She wasn’t about to waste energy dissecting the circumstances of finding Adam. It had happened. Everybody had had fun. That was all that mattered.

  She joined them at the breakfast bar, choosing a stool opposite him. “Maybe we didn’t do it right last night,” she teased. “You’re sitting a little too easily on that chair.”

  Adam laughed softly. “Well, I thought if I complained, you’d get the wrong idea.” He shifted a little. “Not that I have a lot of experience when it comes to…what we did last night, but I’m pretty sure we did everything right.”

  “Your first threesome?” Scott asked.

  “Yeah. It was. And honestly, I never thought anybody would be asking me that particular question.”

  “Why?” Sasha frowned. “There’s no way you haven’t been with a woman before. And you’re too cute not to get noticed.”

  “Oh, I’ve been with women before.” Adam shrugged. “And I’ve been with men. But it never occurred to me that I should try both at the same time. Most of the guys I’ve hooked up with are pretty much just interested in other men.”

  Scott shot him a sly smile. “They don’t know what they’re missing out on then, do they?”

  “No, they don’t. And I didn’t know what I was missing out on either. I mean, it really is the best of both worlds.” Adam cut his eggs with the side of his fork. “But I suspect that you two in particular are to thank for the good experience.”

  “Actually, I think we need to thank Ida,” Sasha said. “But why don’t we just do that in our heads, okay?”

  Scott snorted. “You just don’t want to have to deal with her questions again.”

  “Can you blame me?” At Adam’s bemusement, she clarified, “Ida’s always been very tolerant of Scott’s sexuality. So much so that one year when I came home with him for Christmas, I had to put up with a two-hour Q&A on everything we did. She was so used to him being with guys that she wasn’t entirely sure what to do with the fact that we were together.”

  Adam’s brows knitted together. “You all are very…open, aren’t you?”

  “Sure, why shouldn’t we be?” She speared a red pepper. “Sexuality is a hell of a lot more natural than violence. I’ve never gotten why people around here are more comfortable sharing stories about their guns than they are about their sex lives.”

  Scott leaned closer, lowering his voice to a mock whisper. “Don’t get her started. It’s her favorite soapbox.”

  “That makes a lot of sense. I guess I’m just not accustomed to it. We never, ever talked about sexual things in our house. In fact, I thought it was normal for people to be attracted to both sexes until after high school.” Adam chewed thoughtfully for a moment before adding, “My mom believed I was a virgin until her dying day.”

  His soft tone reached into Sasha’s gut and twisted. That explained the haunted look in his eyes. “Parents always have blind spots when it comes to their kids. You should see some of the real winners I have to deal with around here. Most of the time, I kick the parents out so I can talk to the kids on their own.”

  “Sasha’s the local condom peddler,” Scott offered.

  “Because the schools are idiots, and most of the parents more so.”

  “That’s good. Not that they’re idiots. I mean, it’s good that you’re doing something about it. It probably means a lot to the people around here that they have somebody like you to trust.” Adam smiled. “I bet that means Colette’s the one all the kids go to when there’s confusion about the birds and the bees.”

  “Colette’s the resident expert on far too much,” Sasha said. She looked pointedly at Scott. “Somebody has seen to that.”

  “She’s smart. That’s not my fault.”

  “Oh, because you didn’t pass on any of those smart genes? Nice try.”

  Picking up his plate, Scott scraped the red peppers he’d picked out of his omelet onto Sasha’s plate. “You like that she’s inquisitive.”

  “She’s lucky to have the two of you. And Ida, too. I imagine you never tried to discourage her questions.” Adam scooped the final mouthful of eggs into his mouth and glanced at the clock hanging on the kitchen wall. “I guess if I’m going to make it down to Miami today, I should get going soon.”

  Scott rose from his stool. “I’ll go shower and change real quick. Be right back.”

  Watching his long, lean form leave the kitchen, Sasha shook her head. “He always does that.”

  “What?”

  “Gets out of cleaning up.” Picking up the plates, she carried them over to the sink. “On weekends, anyway. Which is probably fair, considering he spends the week chasing after me and Colette.”

  “That must be a full time job.” Adam stood as well. “I don’t mind washing the dishes, though. It doesn’t seem fair to make you cook, clean, and drive all the way back to town to get my car.”

  She tossed him a towel. “You can dry. I hate that part.”

  Adam caught the towel with one hand and joine
d her beside the sink. He watched Sasha wash the first plate and rinse it before asking, “So threesomes are…or were…pretty normal for you two? Do you ever get jealous? Does Scott?”

  He looked so serious when he asked the question that she took a long moment to consider it before shaking her head. “No, not really. I mean, at the end of the day, I know he loves me, and he knows I love him, and we both know nothing as trivial as sex is going to change the fact that we plan on spending the rest of our lives together. People get jealous when they don’t trust their partner.” She offered what she hoped was a reassuring smile. She liked Adam. She didn’t want him to think that he was doing anything wrong. “And I trust Scott.”

  “Yeah, I get that.” He took the wet plate from her hand and dried it carefully. She noticed that about him—he always moved very carefully. Each action was very precise, almost as if he was scared of mishandling something. Or breaking it. “I hope one day I can have what the two of you do.”

  “A guy like you?” Sasha smiled. “I think that would be one of the best bets I’d ever take.”

  * * * *

  Adam was sticky and sore and he smelled like he had stayed up all night fucking and perspiring and rolling around with two sweaty bodies. Even so, he was a little sorry to shower. It felt like he was washing away the physical memories of Scott and Sasha, and they were memories he wanted to hold on to as tightly as he could. By this time the next morning, they would be distant memories. Two people he met hundreds of miles away and would likely never see again.

  It surprised him how much he didn’t want that. Yes, the sex had been amazing. Fantastic. The most mind-blowing experience he had ever had. But he really liked them. He liked Sasha’s principled stances, her no-nonsense attitude, her obvious love for her family, her willingness to call the world exactly as she saw it. And he liked Scott’s easy smile, the laid-back twinkle in his eye, the way he doted on the women in his life.

  It would be hard to leave them. And impossible to forget them. He was deeply curious about them, and if the responsiveness of his cock was anything to go by, he was also still deeply attracted to them.

  But Adam was not going to beg them to let him stick around. He was not going to intrude on their lives any further.

  He heard somebody moving around the master bedroom when he turned off the water and wrapped a towel around his waist. He smoothed his long hair away from his face, idly wondering if he should get a haircut, and emerged from the steamy room to see Scott setting Adam’s bag on the bed.

  “So I guess you were right about the car not being towed.”

  “Yep. It was still there. Rosco knows if he’d had it towed, he would have had to answer to Mom.”

  “I don’t feel so special anymore, knowing she has the habit of luring strangers home with her.”

  Scott waved him off, grabbing the chair from the cluttered vanity and straddling it. “Sasha exaggerates. Mom is very choosy about the strangers she picks. But good for us, she’s got excellent taste.”

  Adam hesitated as he realized Scott had no intention of leaving and letting him dress in private. But there was no point in being shy—Scott had already seen parts of him that very few people had before.

  “You don’t usually bring home the strangers she chooses, do you?” Adam asked, only half-joking.

  “No, I can honestly say, you’re the first.” He paused, clearly considering his next words before speaking. Adam had his underwear and jeans on before those words were ventured. “Sasha and I were talking on the way into town. You’ve got a long drive ahead of you today.”

  “Yeah.” Adam pulled his shirt on. “I haven’t really checked an atlas or anything, but I think I’ve got about eleven hours to do. And that’s if I drive straight through.”

  “A long drive,” Scott repeated. “If you didn’t feel up to it today, you’re more than welcome to stick around. Like Sasha said, Miami will still be there tomorrow.”

  Adam had been rooting around his bag for a clean pair of socks, but he slowed, then stopped, as Scott spoke. Adam didn’t trust his ears, if only because he had been half-hoping to hear that very thing. He wasn’t sure how to respond. If he went with his gut and immediately agreed, would he look too pathetically overeager? But how could he look pathetically overeager when they were extending him the invitation?

  “I’d…really like to stick around, actually. There’s nothing waiting for me down there.” He smiled a little shyly before adding, “Nothing as pleasant as you and Sasha, at any rate.”

  It looked like Scott relaxed, but then that would mean he’d been tense in the first place, and that didn’t make any sense at all. “Good. We didn’t want to have to sic Mom on you to convince you to stay. Though personally, I kind of liked Sasha’s suggestion that we just fuck you until you couldn’t walk at all to keep you from making such an insane drive today.”

  Adam tilted his head. “Well, if that was the plan, then I am afraid I’m going to have to insist that I make that insane drive today. You know what they say. Gotta get the show on the road. Time is money and all that.”

  Scott’s chuckle warmed the room even more than his invitation had. “No, you’re not. But as soon as Colette goes to bed tonight, all bets are off.”

  Adam’s body instantly responded to Scott’s promise, but it immediately introduced a new question—what on earth was he going to do the next morning when he would face the prospect of driving away again?

  Chapter 5

  For the third morning in a row, Adam woke up stretched out in the middle of a bed that didn’t belong to him. He could hear Scott and Sasha move around the room, quietly getting ready for the day. Cracking an eye open, he watched Sasha pull her long hair back into a ponytail, and Scott slip on his shoes. They moved around each other easily, revealing their routine to him. It was one of the more intimate things Adam had ever seen, and so he pretended to sleep, surreptitiously watching them until Sasha left the room.

  Sunday morning had been similar to Saturday morning. He woke up much later than he intended, and when he did, Scott was wrapped around him, happily snoring against his back. Adam hadn’t dared move an inch. He merely listened to the morning unfold, and almost let Scott’s breathing lull him back to sleep. By the time he had showered and dressed, it was closer to lunch than breakfast, and it seemed silly to start on his long drive so late in the day.

  But now he knew it wasn’t too late. He also knew he didn’t want to leave. It occurred to him that if he kept his head down and didn’t mention leaving, Scott might not ask him to go. Even so, he was slow getting out of bed. The sheets smelled of Scott’s aftershave and Sasha’s lotion, and the vent overhead kept a steady stream of cool air blowing over his body.

  Adam finally got dressed and emerged from the bedroom after he heard Sasha leave for work. He was still on the stairs when he heard Colette’s, “I told you last week I had a 4H meeting today. We’re making plans for the county fair.” And Scott’s, “You didn’t tell me that. Your 4H meetings are usually on Tuesday. Why would it be changed to Monday all of a sudden?”

  When Adam entered the kitchen, their faces matched their tones. Colette looked frustrated and ready to fight. Scott looked more annoyed than anything. Adam found the mug he had used on Saturday morning and quietly poured himself a cup of coffee. “Good morning.”

  Scott shot him a quick, “Morning,” but Colette wasn’t letting the argument go.

  “I told you,” she insisted. “When we were watching The Crow. When he saved Sarah from getting hit by the car.”

  “Well, there you go. You should know better than to try and talk to me during The Crow. I love that movie.”

  “You just love Eric.”

  “And the difference is…?”

  Colette swung her attention to Adam. “Tell him this is important. He’s not listening to me.”

  Adam swallowed his coffee quickly. “I don’t really know what’s going on here.”

  “I have an important meeting this morning, and Dad wo
n’t drive me.”

  “I never said I wouldn’t drive you. I said I didn’t plan on driving you.”

  “This is your job.”

  Adam didn’t miss Scott’s slight wince, and he jumped in without thinking. “I can drive her.”

  While Colette brightened, Scott frowned. “You don’t have to do that.”

  “I know, but I don’t mind.” And Adam realized, he really didn’t. He didn’t have a lot of experience with children, but he liked Colette, and the prospect of being alone with her didn’t scare the hell out of him. “It’s not like I have any pressing business I have to see to.”

  “It’s at ten,” Colette jumped in, as if it was already a done deal. “At Adrianna’s house. I can show you how to get there.”

  Scott still seemed uncertain about the arrangement. “Are you sure? You don’t have to play chauffeur if you’d rather just hang out around the house.”

  “No, I’m sure. What time do we need to leave?”

  “You have time to eat breakfast,” Colette promised. “I’ll get you some cereal.”

  “You don’t have to…” But Colette was already standing to get a bowl, a box of corn flakes, and the milk. Adam almost protested again, but Colette looked determined. Scott merely smiled at him over Colette’s head. “Do you have work to do?”

  Scott shrugged. “I try to work, when this one doesn’t have me running all over the county.”

  “I don’t have you running all over the county. And I never see you working.”

  “That’s because you’ve always got me running your errands. Now give Adam his breakfast.”

  The kitchen lapsed into a comfortable silence as everybody focused on their breakfast. Adam realized by the time he got back from dropping off Colette that it really would be too late to get started that day. Once they were done eating, he hung back, watching Colette move in a flurry through the house, and then whisk out the front door without even checking to make sure Adam followed.