Jack smiles at me. “Why did you become a nanny?”
Cyrus throws up his hands in exasperation. “Why do neither of you understand that Truth or Dare is basically just foreplay?” He complains. “It’s an excuse to talk about what turns you on, and gradually remove items of clothing. That’s why it wasinvented.”
“I wanna know,” Jack insists.
“Well.” I think. “I told you that I grew up in the foster system.” Cy stiffens on my left. I look down at my plate. “I was raised with a lot of other children, and I’ve helped to look after babies ever since I was a kid. It just seemed natural to make a career out of it.”
Jack nods, eating another mouthful. “That makes sense. You’re a natural with Cami.”
Cyrus tugs at the hem of my dress. “I didn’t know you were adopted,” he says quietly.
“Fostered,” I correct, reaching out and patting his hand. “And it would be a bit weird if you did.”
He twists his hand, pressing our palms together and lacing our fingers. It’s such a sweet gesture my stomach flips.
“Um.” I shake my hair back, flustered. “My turn, right?” I turn to Jack. “So, um. How did you get started with this foursome thing?”
He cuts into his pasta. “It was back in university. We met in Com Sci classes, and we were all living in a shared apartment.”
“You went to uni together?” I didn’t know Cyrus had a degree. “All three of you?”
“Yep. Even me,” Cy says, a hint of sharpness in his voice. I frown, squeezing his fingers, and he relaxes again.
“We met a girl the year we graduated,” Jack says. “She was called Chloe. A trainee nurse. She was kind, and sweet, and gorgeous, so naturally, we fell in love with her.” He shrugs. “It just worked out well. Seb and I were working such long hours. I’ve had girlfriends complain before, that they’re not getting enough attention. And it always made me feel shitty. The last thing I want is to neglect my partner. But at the same time, it’s just the way my brain works. When I’m in that coding zone, I need to stay there for a solid few hours.” He takes a sip of wine. “The same thing was true for Sebastian. And Cy—”
“I just like watching girls get off,” Cyrus chips in by my shoulder.
I blink at him. “Really?”
He smiles. “Girls tend to be a lot more… stimulated, when they have multiple guys focussing on them. It’sverynice to watch.”
“Ignore him,” Jack says drily. “He was more in love with Chloe than any of us.”
Cyrus tosses him a black look.
I take a bite of pasta. “So what happened?”
“Nothing terrible,” Jack says. “She had a pregnancy scare. For a couple of months, we thought we were going to have a kid.”
My eyebrows shoot up. “Shit.”
He nods. “We agreed that, when the kid was born, we’d all share parental duties. We’d all act as the kid’s dads. It only seemed fair, since we were all dating her.”
“But she wasn’t pregnant?”
Jack shakes his head. “False positive. According to the doctor, a medication that she was taking was screwing up the tests. But the whole ordeal made her realise that this isn’t what she wanted, long term. She wanted a regular nuclear family. One dad, one mum, two-point-five kids and a dog. It hurt like shit to let her go, but we couldn’t really begrudge her that.”
I’m confused. “She didn’t want to pick one of you?”
“That’s just not how the relationship worked. The dynamic needed all three of us to balance each other out.”
“My raw sexuality is too potent undiluted,” Cyrus explains. “It could probably strike a girl dead.”
I snort, twisting the last bite of linguine around my fork. “I see. That’s very thoughtful of you.” I eat my last mouthful, then stretch out on the cushions, fully satisfied. “That wasgreat,” I mumble. “I think I need a nap now.”
Cyrus’s lip twists. Jack leans across the blanket and picks up a white bakery box I hadn’t noticed. “Room for dessert? Cy got cannoli.”He flips open the lid of the box, revealing twelve rolls of pastry bursting with whipped cream and pistachios and chocolate chips. My mouth immediately starts watering. I sit up.
“Yeah, well, maybe I havesomespace,” I decide, and they both laugh. Jack picks one up and offers it to me.