Chapter 8: All Four in the Lounge

That evening Tobias lit the fire in the lounge and called all of us in.

He stood by the mantel with his back to the flames.

Stefan took the sofa, Jonas the arm of it, and Felix sat on the rug with his knees drawn up.

I took the armchair that had been my brother's.

"Seidl arrives at dawn," Tobias said. "Whatever you decide about the share, you decide it tonight."

"We decide nothing," I said. "I decide."

"Then decide."

"I already did. I'm not selling."

"Fine," Jonas said. "That's one."

"What's the second thing?" Stefan asked me.

Every eye in the room was on my face.

For three days they had whispered about me in rooms I was not in.

Now I sat in the middle of the lounge in the firelight and nobody lowered a voice.

"I want to say the rest out loud," I said. "In front of all of you."

"Say it," Tobias said.

"I want all four of you."

Nobody moved.

The fire cracked, and a log shifted in the grate.

"All four," Stefan repeated, very softly.

"Tonight. In this room. With my eyes open and my mouth saying yes."

Felix put his face in his hands and laughed helplessly.

Jonas stared at me with his mouth open.

"You mean it," he said.

"You said it yourself. My body knows."

He swore under his breath and slid off the arm of the sofa.

He crossed to my chair, knelt in front of me, and took hold of the hem of my sweater.

"Arms up," he said.

I lifted them.

The sweater went over my head, and the bra followed, and the firelight lay warm on my skin.

Stefan was there next, pulling me up to my feet and kissing my neck from behind.

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