Chapter 165: She Wanted Both of Them Here

"I understood the attractive part," Edrik said, leaving his bag where it was. "I was waiting for you to tell me the rest."

Dove looked from him to Thorne and felt the unfamiliar difficulty of having nobody refuse her. There was no argument to win, no useful excuse to offer, and no system rule making the choice for her. She simply wanted her husbands close in a room that did not belong to customers.

"Dinner first," she said. "I’m not trying to compete with two empty stomachs."

Thorne laughed, the easy sound she had missed yesterday, and bent to kiss her forehead. Edrik offered to collect the food without turning that into a reason to disappear for the whole evening. She gave him one lingering kiss before letting him go, mostly because she could.

The hotel cook sent generous plates of pasta with meat sauce, vegetables, and bread. They ate at the little table near the window, taking turns making room for elbows and passing the extra dishes. Dove had enough food, a private bathroom, and men who looked pleased to be sitting with her. She allowed herself to enjoy it without checking what disaster might charge her for the feeling later.

Thorne asked about the crooked dock while they cleared the plates. She told him she would ask Nolan in the morning. The water had changed, but a quiet night would not supply an explanation, and standing at the window worrying would not raise the lake.

After her physical wash with retrieved pond water, she returned from the bathroom in a clean sleep shirt. The bedroom smelled of soap and warm food. Edrik looked up from removing his boots, and the slow change in his face made her glad she had not worn the oldest thing in her bag.

"You can say something," she told him. "Tell me that’s a good look. I actually found a clean shirt for you."

"I was deciding whether you wanted a compliment or honesty."

"Those had better be the same answer."

He smiled and held out his hand. She took it, letting him draw her close enough to touch his cheek. The roughness of his stubble was familiar now, something she sought rather than merely noticed.

Thorne came behind her and brushed a damp strand of hair from her shoulder. She leaned back into him without losing Edrik’s hand, and for a moment none of them tried to move the moment forward.

She wanted to explain why that mattered. Her life had become full of people who saw a woman, a shop, something rare, something useful. With these two, she wanted the right to be tired and affectionate and undecided without immediately becoming a problem somebody had to solve.

"I like that you ask," she said finally. "Even when you probably know what I’m going to say."

Edrik’s thumb moved over her fingers. "Probably isn’t the same as hearing it."

Thorne kissed the side of her head. "You can change your mind too."

She nodded, unexpectedly moved by how ordinary they made the permission sound. Then she turned within Thorne’s arms and kissed him properly, giving herself time to feel the warm certainty of him answering.

Edrik stayed close without assuming the next part. Dove reached for his shirt when she turned back, drawing him into the small circle instead of leaving him to decide whether he belonged there.

"I’m not sending either of you to another chair," she told them. "And if somebody knocks, they can develop patience."

Thorne smiled against her temple. Edrik lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles, looking at her in a way that made the room feel far more private than a hotel room had any right to.

She set the pace, asking for another kiss, then for a moment to breathe and laugh when Thorne’s tail caught the edge of the bed. Neither made the pause awkward. Edrik caught her before she lost her balance and accepted the blame when she accused him of being distracting on purpose.

She grabbed a fistful of Edrik’s shirt, then Thorne’s, and hauled them both down from where they stood like they were still waiting for orders. They came willingly, which surprised her, Edrik especially, Edrik who usually watched a room as though everyone in it ought to explain themselves to him. But he dropped to his knees in front of her without a word, eyes dark, jaw tight, and Thorne followed a half-second later with his attention fixed on her.

"Strip," she said, then watched both men take their time. "Now, before I get impatient."

That got them moving. Edrik’s hands went to the laces of his shirt first, his eyes on hers as he worked them loose. He took his time until she gave him an impatient look, and the corner of his mouth lifted. Thorne watched her as he removed his shirt, plainly enjoying the attention she made no effort to hide. His shirt came off over his head, and the muscle of his shoulders caught the lamplight, scarred and thick.

She took her time looking at both of them. Edrik was broader through the chest, scars crossing his ribs in pale lines, dark hair trailing down a hard stomach into the waist of his trousers. Thorne was leaner but no less big, long muscle instead of bulk, an old scar curving along one hip that disappeared when he shoved his trousers down.

They were both hard already, and she had barely touched them.

Dove licked her lips and made no effort to hide how much she was enjoying herself.

She cleared the hotel table beside the window and drew two wooden chairs closer, then brought the rope from their travel bag. The two beds stood across the room, with the bathroom door beside the entrance. Beyond the screened window, the lake lay dark. They had the room to themselves, and she intended to enjoy it.

"Sit," she told them, nodding at the chairs.

Edrik sat first, spine straight even now, even naked and hard and watching her as though nobody else existed. Thorne dropped into the other chair more loosely, watching her with an expression that said he already knew how this was going to go and liked it.