Sweet Addiction полностью

Lucas slid his fingers over her chin, gripped her jaw and gently turned her back to face him. “I would never do anything to hurt you, Ren. Not intentionally. I love you. You’re my fucking life. Neither of us deserves your trust right now but I’m asking you to listen to us. Listen to what we have to say. Please.”

The please threatened to shatter her control. Lucas never asked for anything. He certainly never begged but this was as close to him being down on his knees before her as it was possible for him to get without actually being there.

There was a rawness to his eyes that grabbed at her gut and twisted hard. What she saw in his gaze made her ache all the more because it wasn’t confidence, arrogance or even anger she saw. What reflected in those dark eyes was vulnerability and fear. Two things she’d never imagined seeing in this man’s face.

And then to her utter shock, both men moved in unison. Both knelt awkwardly in front of her, down on their knees so they were on eye level with her.

Lucas reached for her hand and brought her palm to his lips as he bowed his head. “We’re at your feet, Ren. Give us a chance to explain. It’s all we ask.”

Cole took her other hand, threaded his shaking fingers through hers and pulled it to lay over his heart.

“I’m not too proud to beg,” Cole said hoarsely. “For you I’ll get on my knees. I’ll do or say whatever it takes to make you give me one last chance. Just one, Ren. It’s all I’ll ever ask of you again.”

Ren stared back at the two men on their knees before her and a fresh round of tears squeezed from her already burning eyes.

“Please don’t cry,” Lucas said in a tortured voice. “You’re killing me, Ren. I’d do anything in the world not to make you cry.”

“What is it you both want to say?” she asked in a husky, strained voice.

Relief was stark in Cole’s eyes. His grip tightened around her hand but she could still feel the tremble in his fingers. He seemed terrified. Nervous. More unsure than she’d ever imagined him looking about anything.

“There’s a decision we want you to make,” Cole began.

She sucked in her breath and jerked her gaze between the two men as panic welled in her chest. Choose? She’d never be able to choose between them. How could she?

Lucas touched her cheek and wiped away the dampness from underneath her eye. “We aren’t asking you to choose between us, love. Never that. What we’re asking is if you can submit to two very dominant men.”

She looked first at Lucas and then to Cole before moving her bewildered gaze back to Lucas. “I don’t understand.”

Cole moved in closer, his hand sliding across her leg to rest on the top of her thigh. “What we’re asking isn’t easy. But then what ever is when it comes to love? If you chose to submit to us both, it would be difficult at times. We’re both demanding. You’d be pulled in opposing directions though we’d vow to work together as often as possible to alleviate any stress on you and our relationship.”

“Relationship?” she croaked. “Cole, I’m confused. What are you asking me here? Are you wanting to trade me back and forth? A week at your place then a week at Lucas’s?”

Lucas made a strangled sound and his lips came together in a thin line. “Hell no. We want you with us all the time. The both of us. What Cole is so delicately trying to say is that the three of us would enter into a relationship. Together. With you as the common glue, to put it crudely. You would be what binds us all together. We’d live together. Work out our differences. We’d swear to love you always and do everything in our power to make you happy.”

“Oh.”

It came out as a shocked whisper. It was the very last thing she’d imagined they’d say. A rush of hope so powerful that it made her dizzy blew in but close on the heels of that bittersweet emotion came doubt and a hundred questions.

“You asked me to marry you,” she whispered.

Lucas nodded. “I did. I want and need that commitment from you.”

“Then how?” she took a breath because her head had begun to pound. She rubbed at her eyes and then dug her fingers into her temples.

“We would still marry, Ren. As a couple we’d be inviting Cole into our lives. As a permanent member. Instead of one man in your bed, you’d have two. Instead of one husband, you’d essentially have two.”

Ren found Cole’s gaze, needed desperately to know his thoughts. What was he thinking? How could such an arrangement work when he was basically an outsider looking into a legal, established relationship?