Chapter One

 

So, okay, you know what the problem of hanging out with guys is? They're not very mature. And they're prone to taking ridiculous risks and showing off. Not to mention they're obsessed with sex. All of these and more make it challenging putting up with them.

That's especially so if you happen to be a girl who likes to have a little dignity, a little maturity, and not be constantly subjected to either getting hit on, or 'look at me!' behavior as they try to show me how studly or hot or athletic or whatever they are.

Liam was not my boyfriend. Liam was not mature enough to be my boyfriend. He was my roommate. One of two roommates I had. Liam was, however, a fuck-buddy because well, he was there, he was cute, and he was fairly good with his hands, and trainable.

That was the good thing about fuck-buddies. You can tell them stuff without worrying too much about hurting their feelings. The problem with boyfriends is at first you're really trying to make things good for them, right? Trying to impress them, wanting them to enjoy themselves. So you tend not to tell them when they're doing some stuff wrong.

Then by the time you're more solidly together they're in the habit of doing things a certain way and you've always told them you like it so... it's hard to get them to change. Particularly without admitting you didn't really enjoy what they were doing all along.

But fuck-buddies don't come with the same emotional commitment and earnest desire to please. So I'd been training Liam and he was, of course, paying attention. I mean, it wasn't like he had much choice. He was only there to give me pleasure so he'd better produce.

Does that sound cold? I suppose it does. But I do try hard not to have any emotional attachment between us beyond 'buddies', friends, roommates. I don't mean I don't care for him, of course, but no way is he boyfriend material. He's too self-centered and too consumed with sports. He's also not what you'd call real sensitive to my needs.

He's got a nice body on him, though. I'll give him that much. That was a big reason why he was a fuck-buddy. And he'd done his best to show it off as a roommate, too, taking every opportunity to be shirtless around me, doing a lot of flexing and stretching and stuff.

Our third roommate was Aaron. Except Aaron had abruptly left, leaving us in the lurch. Bastard. So now we needed to find a third roommate fairly quick or splitting the rent three ways was going to become two ways, and neither of us was exactly rich.

Liam is a pharmacy technician, and I work at Home Depot in the flooring department. I've learned an awful lot about tiles, hardwood, carpeting and other stuff we sell, but I'm hoping to save money to take a college course to become a sound technician.

When I got home from work Liam was there, which was unusual since I usually got home first, and he had a guy there. Liam is tall and athletic, but this guy had really wide shoulders and was taller still. The second I saw him I felt like giving a wolf whistle. I mean, he was hot! As it was I sort of did it internally.

Liam was perched on the edge of our sectional while Wyatt had been sitting on the sofa, but rose as I entered the room.

Liam was pretty. This guy was handsome, in a rough sort of way that made my nipples tingle.

"This is Wyatt," Liam said, and then pretended to burp.

You get it? "Wyatt ... Urp."? Yeah, pretty mature, right?

Wyatt reached over and put a beefy hand in the middle of Liam's chest and shoved so he fell off the sectional onto the floor.

"Pleased to meet you," Wyatt said to me with a broad smile.

He didn't even look at Liam, which told me these two knew each other and he wasn't expecting Liam to get pissed off. Nor did he. He rose, smirking.

"I'm Harper," I said, holding my hand out.

It disappeared in his big one.

"Wyatt is looking for a new room," Liam said.

"Oh yeah?" I asked, trying not to seem overly enthusiastic.

"He's a college boy," Liam said.

Liam didn't consider himself a college boy, though he'd gone to college, because it was a one-year diploma course at a college. From the way he was acting Wyatt was going to university.

"I'm taking Physical Education," Wyatt said.

"He's on the football team," Liam said.

He knows I hate football and am not overly fond of football players due to previous experience.

"I'm not on the team, actually. I'm helping the trainers to get some real-world experience."

"I gather you two know each other."

Which was odd because Wyatt had a western accent. And Liam had never gone south of Maryland.

"We both did a stint as landscaper's assistants for the same company a couple of summers ago," Wyatt said.

"Where are you living now?"

"I'm homeless," he said with a shrug. "There was a huge flood in my building and I had a basement apartment. They're going to have to rip out all the drywall and replace it, the wiring, you name it. It's going to take a while."

"So did Liam tell you how we're set up here?" I asked.

"You're in charge and Liam does whatever we tell him," Wyatt said.

"Nuh, nuh, nuh. I got seniority over you, cowboy!" Liam said.

"Rent is due a week before we have to pay it. You can transfer it to my bank and I forward the combined rent to the landlord. If you don't pay me I start nagging you and the nagging gets worse by the day until you want to claw your eyes out just so you don't have to see me in your face anymore."

He grinned broadly. "Honey, there is no way I could possibly not want to see you in my face."

"Trust me, there is," Liam snorted.

"You rinse off the shower after using it, and we take turns cleaning the bathroom every week. God help anyone who fails to flush or who leaves any trace of himself on the floor or on the toilet seat. Any mess you make in the kitchen is yours to clean. Label all food and if you borrow someone else's, replace it fast."

"Let me make a counter-proposal," he said.

I looked at him warily.

"I'll buy all the food. You two will contribute a third each. It will be community property, and I will make dinner every day, as long as I'm here."

"How do I - ."

"Know I won't buy crap? Physical training includes nutrition, Harper. Good, solid food. Lots of stuff from all the major food groups properly prepared. I worked as a chef's assistant one summer and I'm a pretty good cook. I even considered becoming a chef but they don't pay well enough."

"Hmmm, we can try it," I said.

"And I will nag both of you to exercise properly. You can be my test subjects."

"Dream on," Liam said.

"I exercise," I said mildly.

"Do you? Make a fist."

I frowned. "I'm a girl."

"Girls have muscles."

"Not many," Liam said.

Wyatt gripped my wrists and lifted them up and out. Having his big fists wrapped around my wrists did something dark and hot to my lower belly.

"Now show me your biceps."

"That's not a line I've ever used on a girl before," Liam said sarcastically.

I hesitated but clenched my fists and Wyatt slid his hands up over my biceps, such as they were, and squeezed gently as his eyes bored into me.

My nipples tingled even more!

"Harper's a lesbian, just so you know," Liam said.

I gave him a dry look.

"No, you just want me to make out with girls so you can have a more active fantasy life."

Wyatt grinned.

"Keep your arms out at your sides."

"Why? I - !"

He lifted me up smoothly into the air, with my arms out to my sides and my fists clenched, then set me down.

"You're in pretty good shape for a girl," he said. "But I'm sure I can improve your fitness."

Liam was looking at him suspiciously.

"Okay, well, we'll see how it goes," I said.

***

I'm virtually certain Liam let him know that I was 'his' property, which was why I made it very clear I was a free agent and that Liam had never and never would be my boyfriend.

Liam was right that I normally didn't have a lot of time for college boys. They tended to be full of themselves and look down on anyone who hadn't gone to university. But in my experience they were no smarter than a lot of other people, and in some ways dumb as rocks. They might know a lot about their specific subject but almost nothing about everything else.

They were not, in other words, any better than anyone else, and certainly not better than me!

Wyatt, though, didn't give any such impression. Maybe it was because he was taking a physical sort of job. I mean, physical training wasn't exactly super brainy stuff, right? He was from Texas, but not exactly a farm boy or anything. He'd grown up in Dallas before his parents moved to Boston when he was sixteen.

Anyway, I expected that, them being guys, there'd be a rivalry between them for me. I knew Liam wouldn't like being shut out of my bed, and I knew Wyatt (like every guy) would love to have access to it. What I didn't expect was them cooperating to convince me to let BOTH of them into my bed!

I had been working on convincing Liam that just because we were sleeping together that did not allow him to cop a feel every time he passed by me and Aaron wasn't looking. He loved squeezing my breasts! I can't count how many times I'd be at the kitchen counter and he'd come up behind me, slid his arms around me and squeeze them! Or how many times he'd squeeze one when he passed by in the hall, or when I was doing the laundry or... whenever!

He honestly didn't get it. I mean, if I was letting him have sex with me where he could fondle, lick, suck and chew my breasts what was the problem casually touching my boobs now and then!?

Sigh.

He became more daring around Wyatt than he had been around Aaron, as if he wanted him to know he had free use of my body to point out his 'ownership' of me. But I didn't want Wyatt to have that idea because frankly Wyatt was hot. And he might even be boyfriend material. He was certainly seeming like it. I mean, he was more mature than Liam at least.

That didn't mean he wasn't still a guy, though.

We were watching TV, with me in the middle of the sectional and them on either side - neither too close. I had ostentatiously put a large pillow next to me between me and Liam. Anyway, an ad came on the TV for Victoria's Secret.

"Harper shops there all the time," Liam said.

I blushed slightly. "I do not."

"I thought I saw your bras marked with their tags."

I knew he was once again trying to demonstrate to Wyatt that he had a certain relationship with me.

"I told you to stop going through my dresser drawers, you pervert."

"I saw it the last time I took one off you," he retorted smugly.

I flushed again.

"Girls get so much sexy underwear they can wear that I'm kind of jealous," Wyatt said.

I turned and looked at him in confusion, while Liam taunted him.

"Maybe you should identify as a woman and buy some!"

"I mean, have you ever considered the wild variety of stuff women wear under their clothes, not just in styles and types but colors? And for guys it's boxers or briefs and that's it."

"You can wear a thong," I said with a smirk.

"You have to have a nearly perfect body to get away with that as a guy," Wyatt said.

"Harper wears thongs," Liam interjected.

I glared at him.

"Harper has a near-perfect body," Wyatt said.

"How would you know? I've seen it naked."

"I'm a very good judge of these things," Wyatt said.

I turned and glared at Liam. "Are you saying I don't?"

"Fuck no. You have an incredible body, and the best boobs I've ever seen in my life, even in porn videos."

"Which you watch way too many of!"

I realized Wyatt was studying my breasts and I crossed my arms across them.

"They give me ideas of what to do with you."

"Well, I'm glad something does since you're clueless yourself!"

"Oh I got lots of ideas, trust me."

"Most of them bad."

"That's cause I'm a bad boy," Liam said with a grin.

"Some of us like men, not boys," I replied.

"You don't say that when you're begging me for sex."

"Oh that'll be the day! You pester me worse than my little sister used to when she wanted something."

"I think the idea of a beautiful woman begging a guy is one of those fantasies men have had for ages," Wyatt said. "What guy doesn't want to possess a gorgeous woman and have her totally willing to do whatever he wants?"

"Yeah, well, nobody possesses me!"

"Maybe we can turn her into our sex slave," Liam said.

That raised a sudden little twinge of emotion in me because he'd said 'our' for the first time and I suddenly had an inkling that he might be interested in 'sharing'. At first, I was indignant, but then the idea swirling in my head was of me with BOTH of them at the same time. And that was just so fucking hot that my nipples instantly got hard.

I mean, it was hot and thrilling as a fantasy! But not something I would go along with in real life! I mean, God, that would be so slutty!

"I believe slavery is illegal in this country," Wyatt said.

"Yeah!" I said.

"Unless, of course, someone wants to be a slave."

"Yeah, well, good luck finding a girl who wants to wait on some boy hand and foot!"

"I wasn't thinking of, like a maid type. I was thinking of a sex slave."

"Yeah, I'd like one of those," Liam said.

I rolled my eyes.

"I think I'm going to go and check my Instagram," I said, getting up.

Liam had his legs across the narrow space between the sofa and the table.

"Move," I said, jabbing my leg into his.

"Say please."

"Please."

"Say please master."

"Oh bite me."

He snorted and drew his legs back, which meant sitting up. I slid past him and he grabbed my hips and then bit me on the ass before I could react.

"Ow! You asshole!" I shouted, jumping away as he laughed in amusement.

Wyatt just grinned.

I glared at them both and went to my room.

What would it be like? Both of them!? Whoa! That would be... just fucking wild!