As she moved toward the door with a grin, she saw Chris rolling off one side of the bed and Geoff rising from the other. "Sam."
She turned to meet Geoff's now sober expression. "I meant what I said earlier. From here forward, if you want to get off with your vibrator, you bring it to me and ask. Or you ask Chris, if I'm not here. If neither of us is here, you wait." He glanced toward Chris. "Agreed?"
A delicate power play. Geoff had taken the lead, as he naturally did. However, he'd acknowledged the unresolved nature of what his and Chris's relationship was in all of this, by asking for accord on how the two of them would top her. While all the possibilities of such a dynamic could make her light-headed, it brought tension as well. Until that element was resolved between them, it was going to be a sensitive area. But it wasn't going to be solved in a day. She'd do better to immerse herself in watching it happen than worrying about it crashing and burning.
Chris had pulled on his pants, leaving them unhooked at the waist. He didn't answer Geoff right away, instead looking toward her. She could almost see him considering all the angles of it, and wondered if he was imagining watching her use her vibrator to climax again. The sparks in his eyes sent another rocket launch effect through her brain.
A draft from the hallway made her shiver, and the men shifted gears. As quickly as they could arouse her libido, they could melt her heart just as quickly with their care for her. Geoff picked Chris's T-shirt off the bed almost at the same moment Chris reached for it. Geoff passed it to him with a neutral nod and Chris brought it to her, sliding it over her head and letting it fall down over her body.
"Agreed," he said. A glance up into his brown eyes, kindling with a heart-stopping heat, told her he was answering Geoff's question.
"Sam?" Geoff drew her attention to him. "Do you understand?"
"Yes sir." Calling him that was au
tomatic when he used that tone. Chris's expression shuttered, holding so much she didn't yet understand. She could only hope it meant good things.
"I'll go finish up in the bathroom so you can get showered and dressed, too," she told Chris. Then she dashed off, leaving the two men alone in her room.
*
It was both lovely and bemusing, how the relaxed banter among the three of them while they prepared for their outing was the same as it always was. What was different was that the sexual undercurrent that had vibrated below the surface for so long was now right up top.
Geoff's hand slid along her lower back and lingered on her buttock as he moved past her in the kitchen. When he reached over her head to pull down a cup, Chris sandwiched her playfully against the counter, but then wound his arm around her waist so he could kiss her throat before he released her.
When Geoff put on the TV news and started getting worked up over the politics as usual, Sam gave Chris a subtle look and he snapped it off before Geoff could get too far along. Geoff of course,complained and Chris pointed at her as the guilty party. A moment later, she yelped when Geoff pinched her ass, hard, as he put his coffee cup in the dishwasher. Chris, packing up the cooler with drinks and snacks, followed up Geoff's punitive measure by leaning over to give the offended cheek a soothing pat.
"If he gets too mean, you let me know and I'll beat him up."
"You can try," Geoff said dryly. He'd parked himself on a stool at the counter and eyed the man in challenge. Chris shrugged with another hard-to-read look, and then disappeared down the hall to retrieve something else from his room.
She watched him go. Geoff was so in charge, she didn't worry as much about what he might be thinking and feeling, but it was second nature for her to worry about Chris, because he could be so quiet about his feelings. She didn't think he could be pushed into doing things he didn't want to do, but his comment made her wonder if he really thought Geoff was being mean to her. Maybe she should . . .
She jumped as Geoff cinched an arm around her from behind, drawing her back against him with a decided thump. She hadn't even heard him move. "Stop worrying, Sam. He'll work it out. Just give him space. I swear, you're like a terrier."
"Did you bring a ball to throw for me at the dog park too?" she asked tartly.
"No, but a collar might not be amiss."
She had a rude response for that, but she couldn't hold on to it because her mind was invaded by the thought of Geoff putting a slender collar on her throat. She thought of how Chris had gripped her there. At Naughty Bits, there'd been a wealth of collars . . . What would Chris think of that? Or Geoff?
Geoff tipped up her chin and locked gazes with her. "Sam, I'm going to make this easy for you. I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. Leave it alone. Just because he isn't as up front about it as I am doesn't mean that it's okay to push. Respect him. You understand?"
"I do respect him. I--"
"Not what I meant, and you know it."
Chris returned and Geoff broke off the conversation. As they finished their preparations, Sam considered his words. Geoff had put both of them over the "vibrator permission" clause, sending a not-so-subtle message that Geoff viewed both of them as her tops. He was telling her to trust them, and to let go. Let them take the lead on this.
There were plenty of things she did better than either of them, and they deferred to her lead on that. She was a better driver, Geoff too much of a road rage troll and Chris too absentminded to pay attention to things like stoplights or when he was meandering along at fifteen miles below the speed limit merely because he was enjoying a sunny day. She had a better head for numbers, so she tracked the house expenses for all three of them, and she'd prepared all their tax returns.
But the subtle things on which she deferred to them were significant. It was hard to quantify them in a manner anyone else would understand. She'd automatically bring Geoff a cup of coffee when it was empty at his elbow, or give each of them her full attention if either man was speaking to her, listening carefully to what it was they were trying to tell her so she'd know the best response to please or help, because that was what gave her joy.
If she was napping on the couch and one of them came home, she'd start to get up, even if they hadn't asked her to do anything. Interestingly, the men responded in similar ways to that ritual. A touch on her shoulder, a murmured command for her to stay where she was, that they were fine, that they didn't need anything right now.
On the surface they were supposed to be three roommates, equals sharing household chores and conducting separate lives, so there was no reason she needed to get up and do anything for them. Yet she hadn't ever questioned why they said it that way, any more than she challenged her compulsion to try to get up. Both responses complemented her nature.
She doubted Geoff had ever questioned it, either, for the same reason, but maybe Chris wasn't aware of it. Which meant both of them might be responding to her in an intuitive way, playing on her nature as well as respecting their own, even if it might be unconscious.