Page 250 of The Lies We Play

Her lips part. No words come out.

That little victory goes straight to my cock.

I stand at the side of the bed and finally let myself look at them together. Liv spread across Halston’s sheets, naked and flushed, her body marked by our mouths and the ink she chose for us. Halston beside her, shirtless, controlled, watching me like he knows I am one breath away from either taking charge or dropping to my knees.

Both are true.

“Take off your pants,” I tell him.

Halston’s eyes lift to mine.

A pause.

Not defiance. Recognition.

He likes this version of me. The one that sounds calm because the alternative is begging. The one that gives directions because if I stop directing, all this want will spill out of me in some humiliating, permanent way.

He reaches for his belt.

Liv watches.

Of course she does.

Her eyes follow his hands as he opens the buckle, pulls the leather free, and lets it fall over the chair. Then the button. The zipper. Each small sound lands in the room with obscene clarity. Halston is quiet while he undresses, but his body gives him away. His stomach tightens. His breath shortens. His cock is already hard beneath the fabric, and Liv sees it at the same time I do.

Her hand slips down to the sheet.

She grips it.

I catch the movement.

So does he.

Halston pushes his pants down, then his briefs, and steps out of both. He stands there naked, lean and toned, all controlled strength and beautiful restraint, his cock flushed and thick, jutting toward his stomach, already wet at the tip.

Liv inhales.

That sound does something vicious to me.

I take my time with my own clothes because they are watching me now.

Both of them.

Halston with that dark, watchful hunger. Liv with her lips parted, eyes too bright, trying to look bold and failing in the prettiest way. I pull my shirt over my head and drop it. My belt follows. My pants. My briefs. The cool air hits my skin, but it does nothing to calm me.

I am hard enough to hurt.

Liv’s gaze drops, then lifts quickly like she has been caught doing something impolite.

I move onto the bed and crawl over her body, not touching where she wants me yet. My mouth goes to her hip first. Then her stomach. The center of her chest. I kiss her like I have time, even though my pulse is driving too fast and my body wants inside every possible version of this moment.

Halston climbs onto the bed on her other side.

Liv’s breath changes when the mattress dips.

That is the sound I will remember.

The tiny shift of a woman realizing both of us are coming for her and neither of us plans to leave her unattended inside it.