Bend - Bromberg K. - Страница 101

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"Come here," Cain ordered quietly.

It was quiet for several moments. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, and for a second, I was worried that they could hear it too.

I crept quietly over to the door of the closet. The louvers allowed me to see into their room. They were wrapped tightly in an embrace, kissing one another as only people in love kiss.

I watched, curious to see what it was like with these men. I mean, I'd seen them show affection with one another before, but nothing heavy—nothing like right now.

Their lips fit perfectly together as they kissed. Their rock-solid arms were wrapped around one another, and I watched as Eli cupped Cain's chin with his hand, pulling his mouth even closer, allowing his tongue to trace his bottom lip.

Cain kissed Eli the same way that he had kissed me. It was signature. It was custom, I realized, as Cain's hands clasped the back of Eli's neck, pulling him in even further, as if he wanted to devour him. It was almost savage, but it was love, and it was beautiful to me.

Seeing their mutual love expressed so passionately and so fucking willingly to one another, took my breath away.

I decided that I wanted to be kissed like that again. The same way that Cain had kissed me before. I wanted it to happen again. I wanted more to happen because now I was perfectly clear on his feelings. So was Eli.

Cain finally broke away, and I wondered if I was going to see more of their love.

"Come on, Eli," he said, giving him a few more soft, butterfly kisses on his lips, "We'll talk more about this later, for now, we need to get the packages out of the trunk that Darcy sent over and under the tree before Paige wakes up. She gets so excited every time she sees another wrapped package added to the pile."

"Darce sent quite a haul over," Eli replied with a laugh. "I think this is going to be the best Christmas yet."

As soon as I was sure that they had headed back out, I literally came out of the closet, and scurried down the hallway towards my room.

Once inside, I crawled on top of my bed, bringing my legs up to my chin, and rested my head on my knees. I reflected upon the private conversation I'd heard—the one I had no business hearing, even though I was the topic of it. I thought of the way it had made me feel.

I felt warm and giddy inside with the knowledge that I was loved by these men. And I was also humbled by the fact that Eli was sensitive to the fact that with Cain, it was a bit different than it was with him. And he was okay with it. Because that's just how Eli loved.

Just as I suspected—or should I say, as I was made aware of due to my relentless snooping, I hauled in quite a bit for Christmas. I chastised both Cain and Eli for going overboard.

Eli argued that he had received a nice Christmas bonus at work, while Cain said the catering business had been making major bucks over the holidays, and they had picked up several steady clients for continuing business.

All I knew was that I was officially spoiled this Christmas, and I was a little in love with that.

"My UGG boots," I screeched opening the box and pulling them out. "Oh my God! How'd you guys know?"

That had earned an eye roll from each of them, as I shrugged them on, grinning like a kid who just had their first taste of chocolate.

I also received a leather jacket, a Coach purse, two sweaters, two pairs of jeans, a gold chain necklace, and an assortment of music C.Ds.

Darcy had gifted me with several pairs of earrings, a sweater, hat, gloves and flannel PJs.

Cain rolled his eyes as I pulled out the flannel PJs that had built-in feet. "Those aren't any fun," he teased.

Both of them had loved my gifts to them, totally impressed with my skills at knitting scarves, and they tried them on to show me how they looked.

"You guys have really outdone yourselves," I remarked, looking at my pile of gifts. "This is the best Christmas ever—and it's because of both of you, and the way that I feel about you guys."

It grew quiet as I felt their gazes wrap me up in very secure warmth. I suddenly felt nervous beneath their perusal because they sensed there was more that I wanted to say, and there was.

But I needed to say it to Cain first. And now wasn't the right time. I needed to let him know that, although I loved him—and Eli too for that matter, I wasn't going to be the person who came between them.

We busied ourselves in the kitchen later, getting our Christmas ham in the oven. I watched the way that Eli and Cain interacted and it seemed different—not a bad different, just a subtle quietness that blanketed them and it was new. It was as if a decision had been made; or maybe, a compromise of some sort between the two of them. I was unnerved by it, somehow feeling guilty of something.

I couldn't stop thinking about the conversation I'd overheard and now I wished like hell that I hadn't. And even though they had no clue that I'd heard it, it still hung like a pall over all of us.

Once everything was in the oven, I gathered up all of the boxes containing my Christmas haul, and headed to my room to start putting things in order. Dinner wasn't going to be ready for a couple of hours and I needed some alone time. I sensed they might need some as well.

I'd gotten everything put away in my closet and had made up my bed when there was a light tapping on my door.

"Paige?" It was Cain. "Can I come in?"

"Sure," I called out, plopping down on top of my bed, drawing my knees up under my chin.

He came in, closing my door softly behind him.

"You okay?" he asked, studying me carefully.

"Sure," I said, with faux sincerity. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"No reason. You just seem kind of quiet all of a sudden. Got the Christmas letdown?"

"What's that?" I asked, blinking in confusion.

He smiled. "You know, after the six week build-up and all of the anticipation that goes with it…Then on Christmas, the gifts are opened up and the mystery is gone and it kind of sucks the air out of all that build-up once you realize that it's over for another year."

I smiled weakly. "It's not that. I mean my Christmas was awesome and all. It's something else."

"Wanna share?"

I shifted nervously. "Actually, I was in your room yesterday when you guys got back from Darcy's," I said. "I was looking for boxes to wrap your gifts, and I…kind of panicked when I heard you come home, because I know you don't like me messing with your stuff…so, I uh…hid in the closet," I mumbled, feeling my face flush with embarrassment.

"Go on," Cain urged.

"Okay, so I heard the conversation you had…about me; and how you both feel about…me, and it just sort of seemed…to me that maybe Eli was giving you some kind of permission, you know, to act on it…and, well—I don't know how to feel about that," I finished, finally allowing a sigh to escape.

Cain was still studying me…intently. My admission hadn't seemed to have caught him off-guard, or evoked any major change in his demeanor.

"Paige," he finally said, "You can't pretend that you didn't already know how I've felt about you for a while now. I mean, I think it's been fairly obvious…to the both of us. And I think you reciprocate those feelings, too."

I rested my chin on my knees, and rocked back and forth on the bed slowly. "It doesn't mean that it's right," I whispered. "So, yeah, maybe I have been crushing on you…big time. But you belong to Eli and I know my boundaries these days—I mean, in case you haven't noticed, I'm not the same skank you first met last May, right?"

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