Page 30 of Right Side of Paradise

Unexpected

“Fuck, Soul. Right there,” I moaned into the sheet.

Soul braced one hand on my right shoulder while his elbow dug into the groove of my left one, kneading away the tension I’d been babysitting for weeks.

He was straddling my back, and I didn’t care if he had to stand on me if it meant the pain and tightness would be gone.

“That feel better?” he asked after another minute of working through the knot.

I nodded against the massage table, but it turned into a moan when he pressed down on the center of my back. He worked from my spine up to my shoulders and chills of satisfaction pebbled over my skin at the instant relief.

“Oh, fuck yes ,” I groaned, letting the white sheet pressed against my face capture most of the sound.

“Still not as bad as last time.” He tapped my back twice, letting me know he was about to get off me and not to move. When he was standing beside me again, he asked, “How does this feel?”

He pressed down on my lower back with the heels of his hands and a string of gibberish flowed from my lips.

Soul laughed but worked down toward my tailbone, his touch gentle and firm at the same time.

This man’s hands could work miracles. I’d pay whatever he wanted but all he ever took me up on was a haircut in return. It wasn’t an even exchange, yet I still couldn’t make myself say no when he told me he had a light day and could work on me.

“Bring your arms back up on the table for me.”

I moved to tuck them at my sides.

“Good,” he praised, keeping his hand on the center of my back as he walked to the front of the table. “You’re doing great.”

After that, the silence was only broken by the whimpers I failed to keep trapped in my throat.

It felt too good, and I was feeling too much relief to stay quiet.

Tingles traveled up my neck when he started working there. “Fuck, Soul.”

“You got any words other than fuck ?”

“Sorry,” I groaned. “I don’t know what else to say.”

“I get that a lot,” he said, amused.

He walked away from the table to put more oil on his hands, and the citrusy smell instantly reminded me of Harlow.

I missed her.

After warming the oil with his palms, he came back to me. Diligently, he worked a kink out of my neck and rendered me speechless again.

“I’ve been doing some research,” he shared.

“About what?” I kept my eyes closed and bit down on my bottom lip. He’d heard me whimper enough today.

“This thing between the four of us.”

His thumbs skated over my nape.

“And?”

“I was looking up terms for it. How other people make it work long term.”

“Oh.”

“We’re a polycule. Or a quad,” he said brightly, working his way up to my head.

This was my favorite part of his massages. My eyes closed on instinct.

“Quad just means there’s four of us,” he clarified. “And we could choose to be open or closed.”

“ Closed ,” I said shortly. I didn’t care how much Harlow, Soul and Rico did with each other, nobody else was fucking touching them. And I didn’t want to think about why I felt so possessive of them when I was only involved with Harlow.

“I was thinking the same thing. But we have to talk to Rico and Harley.” He lifted my head off the table with ease and held it to one side while his fingers trailed over the side of my face.

“You want that?” I asked. “For all four of us to be together?”

“It’s all I think about.”

I wasn’t prepared for the honesty in his reply. His voice didn’t waver. He meant what the fuck he said, and blood rushed to my groin.

“I know I still need to talk to them, but what about you?”

“Me?” Why couldn’t I say more than that? A lump sat in my throat while a million different emotions assaulted me.

“Yeah, you,” Soul laughed lightly. “Harley would be with all three of us. Rico would be with me and Harley. And I would be with them.”

“What’s the question?”

“Well, you would only be with Harley. And as much as I want us to be exclusive, maybe it isn’t fair to expect you to close yourself off to new connections when?—”

“I don’t want anybody else,” I said firmly.

“Okay.” Did he sound relieved? Maybe even breathless suddenly. “Good to know.”

“How does it feel?”

“How does what feel?”

“Loving two people at once.” And I didn’t need to ask if he loved them. Soul couldn’t hide his feelings. He only slipped under the radar because outside of this house, not everyone knew how to read him like we could.

“Oh, that. It doesn’t feel like anything out of the norm.

It feels like what I was born to do. I love Harlow and I love Rico.

I’m in love with them.” He turned my head to massage the other side.

“It wasn’t a conscious decision. I just knew I loved them both and wanted them both.

Rico is so intense. So passionate and possessive.

He takes care of me when I don’t know I need it. I love that about him.”

I smiled at the love in his voice before it turned to pure adoration when he brought up Harlow.

“With Harley, I get to be clumsy and tender and protective. Her heart is as soft as mine and she’s always in my corner.”

Gently, he placed my head back on the table.

“I might not explain it well, but I love them both so deeply and differently.”

“Nah,” I said when he grabbed my hand. “You explained it perfectly.”

So perfectly my heart was now racing, and my mouth was dry. Unnamed feelings flowed through me as Soul pulled on each of my fingers.

“You’d be me and Rico’s metamour.”

“Metamour? What’s that?”

“It means you’re dating someone we’re also dating. And even though we aren’t romantically involved, we’re still together. You’re as vital to us working as anybody else in our polycule.”

The terminology he was throwing around had my head spinning. One day in the future, I’d ask him to run it back for me. But right now, my dick was poking the table beneath me and I needed to think about something else.

Otherwise, I’d have to explain why the thought of us all being together, officially , made me feel like everything was going to be okay. Like I’d finally be getting everything I wanted. Even though I’d never put words to what I wanted in the first place.

My dick jumped again, and I swore under my breath.

“You okay?” came Soul’s concerned reply. “This shouldn’t hurt.”

Still, his hold on my hand gentled, lightly caressing over my knuckles.

“It’s not that—I’m fine,” I answered, sounding as disjointed as I felt.

I kept my head turned away from him and breathed through the hard-on trying to fuck up the vibe. I didn’t know why I was turned on.

That was a lie.

Hearing him talk about our future, like we were all a sure thing, tipped me over the edge.

I wanted this. Wanted them. I already belonged to them. I’d known they were my platonic soulmates for a long time now. But could it be more?

From the way my body was reacting, it felt like I needed to find out.

“Okay, we’re done,” Soul announced, dropping my arm back on the table. Then he rubbed my forearm and my dick twitched.

Soul always touched me. It was his love language. His job. Him.

But that touch felt like more and I knew that was delusion speaking.

He’d just perfectly laid out what we would be.

Pushing up from the table while he was busy rearranging his essential oils, I stood and adjusted my dick in my boxers before rushing to pull my shorts and shirt back on.

“I’m going to get something to drink,” I told him, walking away before he could respond.

I exited the massage room Rico had set up across from his office on the first floor and walked to the kitchen.

Water bottle in hand, I stared at the picture from our first date on the fridge.

We were on the boardwalk at the nature preserve. The sun was setting. And we were all smiling.

Harlow stood on my right, head resting on my bicep. Rico was behind her, his arm wrapped around her waist. Soul was on my left, angled toward me but smiling at the tour guide we asked for a picture.

They were all leaning in my direction. And they all fucking looked like mine.

My dick grew harder instead of going down and I almost jumped when I heard Soul come in the kitchen behind me.

“Hey, wanna smoke?” He held up a beautifully rolled blunt between us. That was exactly what I needed. To smoke and calm my ass down. But instead of nodding and following him to the patio, I backed up.

Until my back hit the edge of the island and I winced.

“I—uh—need to go check on something at the bar.”

Soul cocked his head, confusion sliding over his relaxed expression. “I thought you were finally off tonight.”

“Something came up.”

I walked to the back door and only stopped when he called my name.

“Yeah?”

“You don’t have any shoes on.”

Oh, shit .

The other man looked me up and down, rolling the blunt between his fingers before he lifted it to his lips and pulled a lighter out of the drawer in front of him.

He didn’t stop me when I turned around to head to the shoe rack at the front door, but he did say, “I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk about it.”