🔥STEAMY ALERT—some recapping of previous chapter & strong imagery :D🔥

♫ You were like my lover and my best friend
All wrapped in one with a ribbon on it ♪
(Rihanna—Rehab)

Blowing a clump of tangled hair out of her face, Coralie opened her eyes. Blurriness welcomed her, and she blinked once, twice, three times until her vision adjusted. In the daylight, and without the smoky atmosphere from the incense, Chester's studio was just a regular, slightly messy man's apartment in the aftermath of a crazy night.

The black satin sheets were wrapped around her, but one of her breasts had escaped, exposed to the morning light. She'd been curled in Chester's arms, it appeared; and as she lifted and craned her neck left and right, she noticed they were alone. Lyla had departed.

"Fuck," she whispered, dropping her head back onto the pillow, rehashing the night's events.

A threesome. She'd had a threesome. With Chester, no less, and with another woman. A sexy, confident, skilled redheaded goddess who'd almost convinced Coralie to open up to a relationship with the same sex.

But her focus on Lyla had shifted after their duet; once she'd managed to avoid surrendering to her caresses. She smirked as she recalled what had happened after she'd taken a taste of Lyla's wetness. The creamy, surprisingly decadent moisture had tipped Coralie overboard, and Lyla had to tug her up to get her to stop. They'd forgotten about Chester—who'd been stroking himself faster and faster as the girls devoured one another—and chose to include him, at last. Both got to their knees and pleasured him, licking the length of his shaft until he was so close to explosion he couldn't sit up anymore.

They'd then taken a quick break; Lyla and Chester snorted lines of white powder, and Coralie took a few shots of Malibu Rum. They'd resumed, and urged by Lyla, Coralie had straddled Chester, lowering onto his cock after he'd put on a condom. She'd ridden him until they nearly lost consciousness, breathless with lust for one another. Lyla fondled her from behind, moaning in her ear, rendering the experience so hot that Coralie came several times before they switched spots. Chester bent Lyla over the bed, with Coralie lying beneath her, flicking at her nipples, gliding her fingers over the top of her labia. Lyla squealed and climaxed, and they once more swapped positions. Mere minutes later, Chester finished and fell on top of Coralie with a groan of pleasure, completing the wild adventure, leaving them all spent and satisfied.

It had been so intense, so out-of-this-world, that as she reviewed it all in her mind now, Coralie had to pinch herself. Had she gone down on a woman? Had she shared another man's penis with that same woman? And had she delighted in every single act, every single second of the naughty night?

Yes.

It was real, it was all real. She still felt the soreness in her lower lips and heard the moans ringing in her ears. Still tasted Lyla's juiciness, the sweetness of her kiss, and sensed the warmth of Chester inside her.

Wait til I tell Delilah about this...

Before Chester could wake, she hurried to his bathroom to check her reflection. She'd be flushed, with pillow marks all over her face, for sure.

Sure enough, as the fluorescent light flickered to life above the mirror, they frightened her, and she gasped at the vision before her. There were a few bruises on her shoulders, a tiny bite mark on her neck, and her nipples were swollen, reddened, sensitive to the touch.

She and Lyla had played quite a while, and enjoyed one another, but Coralie doubted she'd ever indulge in such activities again. No matter how she'd vibrated and twitched and screamed in ecstasy at Lyla's talent, it was Chester's final stroke that truly sent her over the edge.

Disgusted by her appearance, she fixed the smeared mascara under her eyes and rubbed a damp cotton ball over her eyelids to wipe off the eye-shadow residue. And after tiptoeing back out into the main room to grab her powder, she dabbed the substance over her blotchy cheeks and nose and pressed it over her still sweaty forehead.

She grimaced at herself. After meeting Lyla, she was well aware of her inferiority; of her minimal appeal, her less plump, less perky boobs, the horrid bumps around her lower lips, from shaving. She despised her lanky arms and her saggy belly and her far-from-perfect ass, and wrinkled her nostrils at her lack of poise, of polish, of sensuality. How had any man ever desired her? Compared to Lyla, she was gross.

Instead of relishing in the fun she'd had, she'd brought herself down by comparing herself to an actual queen of beauty. It wasn't fair to herself, and it wasn't fair that Chester had chosen Lyla as the first and only woman Coralie would have intercourse with. It set an impossible standard, a ridiculous tone that she'd never attain. And she wasn't positive she'd ever forgive him for that.

Sulking, she padded to the bed, snatching her phone from her purse on the way. She had two missed calls from Ryan, and another from Michael, along with a text to make sure she was all right, since she didn't say goodnight.

"Shit," she said to herself, locking her cell and tossing it onto the nightstand, between two extinguished candles. "I suck."

"Mmmm." Chester stirred awake and drew her close to his bare chest. "Suck. That you did. My dick. It was glorious."

Though she smirked at his joke, Coralie tried to squirm from his arms. "Yeah, but Lyla did it better."

"Hey." Chester rolled on top of her, pinning her down, forcing her to look at him. "No comparison, okay? You were both exquisite. That's not what this was about." He spoke so eloquently for someone who'd just awoken, squinting at her as he slid a strand of hair behind her ear. "Did you go fix yourself in the bathroom? Where's that delightful rosiness I love waking up to?"

Her cheeks overheated and she bunched her lips. "I... um... can't stand my morning skin. Or my skin at any given time. So yeah, I tidied this shit up."

He caressed her jawline and planted a kiss on her nose. "Stop that. You're beautiful, with or without makeup, with or without clothes on." He put his forehead against hers. "You're comparing yourself to her, and you shouldn't. Lyla's a freak of nature, snorts coke several times a week, and can't wear high heels to save her life because she's constantly drunk. You, my sweet, are perfect. In every way."

Hearing of Lyla outside of the cocoon of a room they'd been locked in overnight prompted Coralie to frown. The truth about the dazzling beauty took away all her allure and started to calm Coralie's erratic thoughts... but not for long. "But is she fucking two other guys while fantasizing about you? Is she a cheating piece of shit?"

"Cora." Chester kissed her to shut her up. "Enough."

"But," she shoved him, "is she? Answer me. This doesn't bother you? Me?" She slithered out of his embrace. "My situation? My boyfriend and my other lover? Don't you wonder where you fit in?"

Chester chuckled. "Wow, that's a lot of overthinking so early in the morning."

It wasn't that early—Coralie remembered seeing eight o'clock when she'd checked her phone.

"It... never turns off." She nudged him away as he attempted to lull her into his arms again. "I came here with a purpose, Chessy. To get answers. And you distracted me with a smoking hot chick and your... dick." She snorted. "So... start answering."

He accepted defeat and lounged on his back with a sigh. A flutter of sunlight from his poorly covered window glowed over his torso, but his lower half remained concealed under the silky sheets. "No, Cora, none of it bothers me. I've never been monogamous, remember? I don't have it in me to be jealous, or to demand that others remain loyal to me and only me."

She slid onto her side and propped herself up with her elbow. "And you don't wonder where you fit in? You're not curious why I keep coming back when, technically, I have no room for you in my life? My heart? Heck, my vagina?"

He chortled. "It is a tight space," he said, but laughed harder as Coralie swatted at him. "Okay, okay, in all seriousness... I do wonder, yes. I've been observing you for a while, but never thought you'd give in, not like this. Not with all you already have going on. I didn't expect to have a slither of a chance to sneak into your schedule, and yet... you came to me."

"You seduced me," she said, her voice more clipped than she'd meant it to be. "You caught me in the elevator, you teased me atop a rooftop bar, you lured me here with your promises of plans and fun."

"And didn't I deliver?" He raised his eyebrows as he studied her. "Look, I never meant for it to go this far, and I never meant to complicate things by," he air-quoted, "seducing you. But didn't I always keep my promises? I don't make them unless I'm certain I'll pull through. In fact, I'll make another one right now."

She groaned, bracing for him to swear he'd enroll her in an orgy or take her sky-diving, or some other insane activity she'd never participate in. "Fine. Go for it."

He took her hand, brought it to his mouth, and kissed her knuckles. "I guarantee," he said, his warm breath brushing over her skin and animating tremors to trickle down her spine, "that in the end... you'll choose me. That we'll both be happy."

She stilled, her arm tensing, her hand still captured in his. "Choose you? For what? What do you mean?"

He squeezed her, keeping his lips levitating near her fingers. "Choose me over Michael and Ryan. Yeah, I've added myself to the equation, Cora. This—you, me, our time together, this game we've been playing—is serious. It means a lot to me. I hadn't anticipated you'd let me back into your life, but you did... and it's no coincidence."

"What?" She ripped her hand from him. "No coincidence?" She scoffed. "You spied on me, dude! Of course it's no coincidence! You ensured we'd get to this point, lying here naked, having this discussion! You're a control-freak, always have been. Needing to be the ring-leader, to entice everyone into your bidding, to—"

"—hey, don't make me into a villain, Cora." He flipped onto his side, and the covers fell off his front, exposing his lower half. Coralie did her damndest not to stare, especially since his manhood was quite awake despite their argument. "I'm not a control-freak. Nor a manipulator, like your exes, or even that Ryan dude. Yes, I like being in charge, but because everyone wants me to be. I react well under pressure. And I'm good at organizing. But this?" He pinched the bridge of his nose and returned onto his back. "This isn't a maneuver, or a trick. It's the fucking truth, okay? I want to be considered. I want to be in this race for your heart."

Coralie grabbed the cushion from behind her and sat up, hugging it to her torso. "But why? Why get mixed up in all this, and after so long?"

She bit her tongue before saying any more. Had Delilah been right? Did he have feelings for her, the same he'd had back in the day? If that was the case, what was she supposed to do? She'd never planned to consider him, to make him one of her options. She'd sought to blow off some steam, assuage her curiosity, fool around a bit to get him out of her thoughts, and to cross sober sex with him off her bucket list.

"You're not dumb, honey." Though he averted his gaze, he extended one arm to tap under her chin. "You've figured it out. Delilah has too, I bet."

Coralie's breaths sped up. "The book... the poems?"

"You read them?" Chester heaved himself into a seated position. "So you have figured it out. That I have feelings."

"For... me? Really?" She turned to him, half hiding her face behind the pillow.

Chester seized the cushion and lowered it, to better gauge her expression. "Yes, for you. For years. Never stopped, Cora. It's probably why my other attempts at monogamy failed. Because it was you, always you, and I was a drunken idiot not to realize it sooner."

"Fuck." Coralie crammed her nose into the pillow, wedging it between her knees as she drew them up to her chest. "And you're positive I'll choose you?" Her words were garbled as her mouth rubbed against the satin fabric. "How? Why?"

Though she couldn't see him, she heard the smile in his voice, perceived the positivity dripping from the intonation. "Because the universe didn't put us on the same path again for no reason, Cora. I might have stalked you out a bit, but we didn't reunite on purpose. Seeing you perform in San Fran, bumping into you at the office... those were fate."

Fate. The word rippled down her esophagus and jammed into her heart, pinching it. Hadn't Ryan said something similar, not that long ago? Fate, the universe giving signs, undeniable pulls towards one another, reconnections—hadn't she experienced some version of those with all three of the men in her life?

"I... need to go," she said, leaping off the mattress before Chester could bat his lashes and convince her to sleep in later with him. "Gotta pop in at the label and finish some..." she cringed before saying lyrics about you, "stuff."

Chester pouted. "You'll call me? We'll meet up again?"

As she straightened up, ignoring a chill coursing up her legs, she located her underthings and threw them on. "Sure, whatever," she muttered, unconvincing and distracted. She scouted the area for her dress. "We'll see." Once the maxi-skirt skimped over her body, she fetched her shoes and put them on. And after she retrieved her oversized purse, lugging its strap over her shoulder, she sent a final glance to Chester. "Take care."

As she hastened into the elevator, then ran out the building, she knew she had no intention of reaching out to Chester anytime soon. Nor did she plan to respond to Ryan's calls or Michael's text message. What she needed was space, time, quiet; a moment to gather her thoughts, to digest Chester's confession, to dig deep into her soul for a solution.

Fate. The universe. Why would it hurl all three of them at me at the same time?

Once she'd settled into her Lyft ride, she turned her phone off and stared out at the bustling morning streets of New York City. In her brain, she revised the words of a recent composition—finding flaws in every verse—and wished there were some hole she could bury in, some closet where she might hide until she'd made up her mind. Somewhere safe from these men and their... temptations.

♥♥♥