Elliott

“Hey, gorgeous.” A kiss lands on my cheek and the mattress sways, jolting me awake. My eyes shoot open to see Kameron laying next to me in a full suit, his head resting on his arm that's propped up.

“I can leave and come back in a couple of hours.” He lifts off of the bed slowly.

“No!” I whisper-scream, wrapping my arms around him, “You’re stuck here now!”

“Just how I like it.” He smiles at me, kissing my forehead.

“Why are you all professional Kam right now?”

“Well, to Everton I am going on a work trip for the weekend. ”

“Wait…” my eyes light up and I jump to my knees, looking down at him, “The whole weekend? You’re staying the whole weekend?!” I squeal.

“Yes I am.” He smiles the perfect smile at me and my stomach develops butterflies. “Now the question is, what should we do all weekend?” He wags his brows at me as he pulls me closer to him, his lips hovering over mine and I push him away. His brows furrow, “What’s wrong?”

How do I tell him that I kissed Hunter? How do I explain that I liked it without sounding like I don’t want him? Will he still want me?

Well, I kissed your best friend/ex-boyfriend and I liked it. Hell, I want to do it again. Oh and I don’t want to stop kissing you either. I want my cake and to eat it too…I want to devour it, actually.

“I have to talk to you, Kam.” I shift in my spot, pulling the duvet closer and covering a bit more of myself.

“Okay.” He sits up, “Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. I mean, I’m confused, but I’m fine.”

“Did I do something wrong?” He lowers his head, “Did I come on too strong, too fast? I tend to do that.”

I reach for his hand, “No, no, you didn’t do anything wrong. You are amazing. You know how I feel about you…” His face lights up and the worry eases from his eyes. I let his hand go, the guilt coursing through me, “I did something wrong.”

“I doubt that.” He chuckles.

“I did.” I shove my face into my hands, “I am so sorry, Kam. ”

“Hey, you can’t apologize for something you haven’t told me about.” He pulls at my hands but I don’t budge. “Elliott.”

I drop my hands, looking straight at him and let the words blurt out, “I kissed Hunter.”

I hold my breath as his eyes widen.

He hates me. He utterly and completely hates me now.

“ You kissed him ? Or did he kiss you ?” I look at him, scrunching my face in confusion.

“What? Does it matter? Either way we kissed.”

“It matters to me.”

I blush remembering how it felt to drag my lips against Hunter’s, the small breath he let out as I took him by surprise. “I kissed him.”

Kameron sits back a bit, a grin grows at the corner of his lips, “Interesting, very interesting.”

Why is he smiling at me? Is this Kameron mad?

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have–”

“You don’t have to apologize.”

“Yes I do.” I take a deep breath, “I really care about you and have feelings for you. I shouldn’t have kissed someone else.”

“Did you want to kiss him?”

I have to be honest with him, with myself.

“Yes.” I blush.

“Did you like kissing him?”

I squirm in my spot, “Yes.”

“Do you want to do it again?”

I frown at him, what is he doing?

The way he's looking at me isn’t like he’s mad or angry, no. There’s fire in his eyes, like he wants to hear this from me. “Yes.”

“I’m not mad, Elliott.” He pulls me closer to him, “I mean, I am a little,” my heart sinks and my eyes start to sting, “mad that I wasn’t here to watch it.”

My eyes widen at his words, “What?”

“Hunter, Marcus, and I live a different kind of life with each other. Well…used to.”

I look at him confused.

“We don’t just keep our love to one person, we love each other and want a relationship between us. It requires a lot of trust and communication, but we’ve always loved each other and been open and honest.”

“But you aren’t together anymore?”

“We still love and care for one another but we went on a break, I guess you can say.” He pulls me into his lap, “We’ve been together openly since we graduated high school, the town we lived in wasn’t very open minded.”

“I’ve heard.”

He cocks a brow at me, “Someone’s been opening up to you, huh?”

“You could say that.”

“Well, we've been in a relationship for years. We talked about adding someone and had the door open for a while. So when someone came along during training for new combat recruits, Marcus became really close to her. He fell head over boots for her, so we decided to let it happen. She was great at first, open to our relationship and it lasted for a couple of years. She seemed to fit perfectly with all three of us. That was until it became more apparent that she wanted a relationship with one of us, not all of us. Which happens in relationships like ours but she wanted them to leave our relationship completely and become monogamous.” He must see the confusion on my face because he clarifies further, “She wanted it to be just him and her only.”

“She wanted to just have a relationship with Marcus, and he didn’t want to leave your guys' relationships for it?”

“She didn’t want to be with Marcus.” He states softly.

“But…you said he was the one to meet her first, that he was falling in love with her.”

“And it broke his heart when she told him she wanted me. He even told me to leave because he wanted her to be happy. But I was never going to choose her, I loved him and Hunter way too much to let them go. When I told him no, something in him snapped. He fell into a deep depression. He missed her, we all did, but he was too scared to love again. He couldn’t fill that hole she burned into him, so he told Hunter and I he needed a break to heal, to figure out what he truly wanted. ”

“How long has it been?”

“Two years. We still live together and love each other, but he grew more distant with me than he did with Hunter. I think he blames me for what happened. Some of it was for her wanting me, some because I let her go.”

“But you did it because you love him.”

“Yeah and I will never stop loving him or Hunter.” His voice is stern.

“I don’t want to come between you all.”

“I want exactly that.” He cocks a brow at me and I playfully slap his chest at the crude joke. “I think you’re everything we need.” He adds.

“You want me to be with all of you?”

“I want you to be a part of this relationship, but I’m not the only voice here. It means they have to agree and you would have to want that.”

“Marcus hates me.” I say, not giving him a ‘no’.

Do I want this?

Hunter’s eyes pop into my mind, how they looked at me when I woke up from my night terrors, how he opened up to me about his past. There was something there. Something I couldn’t deny.

I didn’t want to deny any of it.

“Marcus hates everyone and everything right now.”

“And Hunter?”

“Oh Hunter most definitely does not hate you.” He chuckles sweetly, “He’s just waiting to see what I say about it.”

“What do you mean?” I blush at the notion of Hunter wanting me like I want him .

“Hunter looks at you like you blow his mind with every word you say. He’s just as taken with you as I am.

He just doesn’t come on as strong as me.

I wear my heart on my sleeve. You see, we aren’t whole right now and we haven’t even talked about where our relationship stands for a long time.

Partly because we’re scared of how that conversation would end, and partly because every time we try to, Marcus leaves the room.

So Hunter probably doesn’t know where he stands, where I stand, and if he’s crossing a line because of what he feels for you. ”

“I don’t want to cause more problems than I already have.”

“You aren’t.”

“It feels like I am.”

He lifts off the bed with me in his arms, lowering me to my feet before taking my hand in his, “Come with me.”