Chapter 11: Two at Once

I spent the afternoon not asking.

I told them I needed the day, and I would hear it tonight, all of it, with everyone in the room.

Then I went and found Ellis and Garson at the sauna by the water.

The sauna was a small cedar hut with a woodstove and two benches.

They were stacking logs outside it, side by side, not talking.

"Ellis," I said.

He straightened.

"You owe me a thought."

He took off his glasses.

"I've been holding it for two days."

"Then put it down. Both of you. Inside."

Garson looked at me, then at Ellis, and set down his armload without a word.

The sauna was already warm.

I shut the door behind us and the cedar smell wrapped around the room.

I stood in the middle of it, in my sweater, and looked at the two of them.

Ellis was lean and pale, with dark hair on his forearms and a doctor's careful hands.

Garson was taller and harder, scarred and silent.

"I'm going to say what I want," I said. "Out loud."

"Please," Ellis said.

"I want you to kiss me while he watches."

Garson's mouth moved, almost a smile.

Ellis crossed the floor.

He put both hands on my face and kissed me, deep and unhurried, and the kiss went all the way down through me.

He tasted of mint and coffee.

I made a sound against his mouth.

Behind me, I heard Garson take a breath.

"Garson," I said, still kissing Ellis. "Come here."

He came.

He stood at my back, close, not touching.

"I'm taking this off you," he said, low, at my ear.

"Yes."

His hands slid under my sweater and up my ribs.

His palms were calloused and warm.

He pulled the sweater off over my head, and Ellis drew back to look at me, and his breath caught.

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