Switch

I told Ethan in the kitchen while Seth was still in the shower, hoping he'd calm down enough to not let it bother him.

"What's a couple of days?" Ethan asked.

"I don't know," I said, shrugging. "Maybe at the end of finals... all that stress needs to be handled with something other than alcohol."

The corner of Ethan's mouth lifted. "Sex, the new addiction of Cassie."

I gave another shrug and let a teasing smile linger on my lips. "What can I say?"

"Can we have sex after you stop taking birth control? We'll just use condoms..."

I shook my head. The doctor said it was fine, but an accidental pregnancy would put a stop to everything. All that prep to becoming a surrogate would be pointless then. "Condoms break, plus I really don't like them. I don't want to chance it, but you can still use my mouth," I said, adding a saucy wink with the last part.

Ethan bit his bottom lip and took a few steps towards me, settling his hands on the counter, caging me in his arms. He leaned forward and touched the tips of our noses together. "And it will get a lot of use, but speaking of sex in the now," he whispered against my lips before shifting his hips to bump into mine.

"Mm, yes please," I whimpered and slithered my arms around his waist, slipping my hands in the back of his jean pockets to cup his ass and pull him closer, but the height difference made it awkward.

With a deep rumble in his chest, Ethan lifted me onto the counter, spreading my legs so he could go between them. The edge of the granite was biting into my ass he'd pulled me so close to him. Ethan was drinking me in, stealing my breath as he devoured my mouth. His fingers clenched in my hair, keeping me still, but his other free hand was settled at my hips, encouraging the bump 'n grind I was doing against his dick.

I pulled away, needing to breathe. "Ethan, Ethan—" The mantra of his name were breathless whispers.

Ethan, seeming as gone as I was, dropped his face into my neck, my hair covering him. I could feel his warm pants against me as his slow pace picked up. Who'd a thought dry humping with clothes on in the kitchen was so hot... I trailed my hands down his back feeling the strain of his muscles, tiny grunts escaping me with every snap of his hips.

"Yes, harder," I cried out. "Oh fuck, I'm gonna—"

Just as I was about to have a very satisfying surface orgasm, Ethan stopped, but his breathing was still heavy as he pulled his face away from my neck. His cheeks were pink and he looked like he was in a lusty haze. "Can't," was all he managed.

I whined, trying to gyrate my hips against him, but this time, instead of helping me, he held me still. I tried to get around it, but his grip and strength were firm, keeping me in place. "Ethan, please. I'm so close! Just a little longer..."

He exhaled slowly. "Have you ever heard of orgasm denial?"

"What? Ethan, please," I said and wrapped my arms tight around his lower back.

If I couldn't move, I'd make him move.

"We can't. We have somewhere to be. Where's Seth?"

Speak of the devil-like he was cued, Seth walked in, a terry white towel wrapped around his lean hips. Another towel was in his hand as he vigorously dried his hair and every muscle in his torso seemed to flex with every move he made.

"Oh fuck me," I whispered before biting my lip hard. I sat back more fully on the counter... if I did it right I could cum from moving on its surface and staring at a mostly nude Seth. "My mouth is watering," I said.

Seth paused as he stared at us, and then offered his slow shit-eating grin. "If you don't stop sexually objectifying me I may just have to pout," he said, wiggling his eyebrows at me. His gaze shifted to Ethan. "How was the group?"

"Good, until I had to start shaking people awake."

Trying to keep the tiny whimpers at bay with the subtle back and forth movements I was making on the countertop proved to be impossible, and the hard slap to my ass made me yelp. The sting completely stopping my movements, and I turned from Seth, staring at Ethan in shock. "D-did you just spank me?"

Ethan's lopsided cocky grin was quick, but he didn't answer. He did pull me off the countertop. I scowled at him as I stumbled from my jelly-like stance.

"Group was good," Ethan said. "And before that, family game night was a hoot. You know, I think Mom and Dad actually hinted that you two could come."

My heaving breath slowly subsided as my potential orgasm slipped from my fingers. I folded my arms across my chest and settled against Ethan's side. "I always liked game night when I was a part of the family."

Ethan frowned down at me. "You are a part of the family. You just stopped coming and then it got kind of routine for you to not come. It was nothing more than that."

Maybe or maybe not... I didn't want to go into that now, especially if both Seth and I had an invite for next time. "Did you tell your group not to study anymore?"

Ethan settled more comfortably against the front of my body, making my back bow a little more into the hard edge of the countertop. "I did, but most people can't stop the worrying and will end up opening the book anyhow."

"They've done their studying. They know the information and last-minute studying will make them get stuff mixed up. You explained that, right?"

"Are you sure you don't want to be a teacher, Cass?" Ethan asked with a teasing tone. "You'd be a good one."

I nodded. "I know I would be, but not all students are like you and me!"

"Hey!"

Trying to keep the grin at bay, I shifted my gaze towards Seth. "What?"

Seth walked forward and settled his hip on the counter so he could face us. His slightly damp chest brushed against my bare arm and I shivered.

Seth gave me a pointed look, "I think what you meant was 'not all students are like you, me, and Seth.'"

"No, I had it right the first time," I said, still managing to keep my face straight even his closeness was kindling another fire inside my groan.

Fuck.

I wanted to fuck.

Now.

Seth's arm shot forward, his fingers curling in my hair as he tugged me away from Ethan and towards him. Seth's tongue shot out, giving my closed lips a straight lick up. "You're being mean," he said, and then his teeth pulled at my bottom lip. "I suppose it's a good thing I booked a room at Subspace for tomorrow night."

I frowned at him. Was that what Ethan meant when he said they had somewhere to be. "I've never heard of a hotel called Subspace. We don't need to go somewhere and stay." I paused and then raised an eyebrow. "I mean, there's always my apartment."

"Oh. I see, now you're being funny."

"Seth, you've never been to my apartment. I'm starting to feel cheated."

"If I had my way it wouldn't be your apartment. That place is a death trap. And Subspace is not a hotel, it's a BDSM club." Seth stopped a minute to let it sink in. "You're still game, right? You said a while ago that you--"

I held a hand up and tapped my finger under my chin to shut my mouth. My mind was lagging, but catching up. When we'd talked about it I thought we'd do it here, in Ethan's apartment. "BDSM club?" I squeaked. "Are you yankin' my chain?"

Seth snorted. "No, but if you're into chains..."

"There is not either a BDSM club!"

I could feel Ethan's chest shaking as he chuckled. He settled his chin on top of my head and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me back to him in a tight hug.

"What part of that sentence was supposed to make sense?" Seth asked.

"They're real, Cass," Ethan said, his voice still tinged with amusement.

"I feel like you guys just gave me evidence that Freddy Krueger is real."

Ethan stiffened and slowly pulled away, frowning at me again. It was such a fast shift that all I could do was stand and stare at him. "What does that mean?" he asked.

"Ethan." Seth's voice took on a soothing tone and his hand dropped to Ethan's lower back. "I don't think she meant it how you're taking it."

"Did I say something wrong?" I asked.

It was a rare beast when Ethan misunderstood me, and to have Seth be the one calming things down even more rare. The role reversal of the two shook me as I looked up at Ethan. He looked like a wounded, feral animal about to either attack or run.

"Ethan needs you to explain why the comparison to Freddy Krueger," Seth said, with his firm, yet soothing voice.

"Oh? Is that all? You know how hard I crush on the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. He's fucking hot! I'm mean, obviously his killing doesn't appeal to me, but his sense of humor... and that laugh. Do you know how often I've had sex dreams about him? It's crazy, right? It's weird too though. If he was real, and I could talk him into not killing me and my friends, I'd totally want to—" I cut off in the middle of my impromptu fantasy as it finally registered why what I said needed explaining.

Not everyone liked what I liked, not even Ethan and he hated horror movies, especially those movies. Plus, his need to be dominated wasn't something he shared with everyone—well, anyone other than Seth. I'd only really just found out myself.

"Oh, oh Ethan," I started, lifting my arms up to rub my hands up and down his forearms. "I wasn't judging you. I'm game. I want to go. I just didn't know clubs like that were real. You may not like my choice in villain-fantasy, but my comparison of him to the BDSM club was me being excited... and maybe only a little afraid."

Ethan had already started to loosen up, but it was my last sentence that really completed the process. He looked relieved as he exhaled slowly.

"We have an appointment in an hour, so Cassie can look around and get the paperwork done."

Ethan nodded. "Is Kell gonna be there?"

"Tonight, yes, but not tomorrow, so he'll talk with us before we leave."

"He's not handling Cassie's membership?"

Seth shook his head. "Gabe is."

"Who's Kell? Who's Gabe? Talk to us about what?" I asked.

Ethan rubbed the back of his neck, looking uneasy as his gaze darted to Seth for him to answer. It felt like Ethan had already slipped into his sub role. Maybe it had been too long and he was starting early. I glanced up at him watching him watch Seth as if he held the answers to the secrets of the universe.

"Ethan's been a sub from the beginning with me, yet he's everything but submissive when it comes to you. That makes him a soon-to-be Switch, someone who switches between dom and sub. He's never done any dom, but as a sub, he knows what he likes and we've been doing it long enough that I know what to do, but with you, we don't know. Kell owns Subspace and he's a professional dominant. Gabe's an employee. He's one of the monitors who make sure nothing goes too far and that everyone follows the rules." Seth glanced down at himself. "I need to go get dressed. We gotta go. Don't want to be late."

He turned and started towards the bedroom, but stopped. "Cassie?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you okay?" Seth asked, not turning around.

"Yeah. Kind of nervous," I mumbled.

In truth, I didn't know how I was feeling. Afraid, nervous, excited, happy that I would finally be immersed into this side of Ethan and Seth... mostly the last, but it was all lumped together, running one after the other, all too quick for me to process.

"But you want to go, right?" Ethan asked. His voice was soft with a small tremble that I wouldn't have heard if I hadn't been so focused on the situation.

"Yes, I have no doubt of that, but I—well, you both know I tend to not have a filter between my brain and my mouth. I don't want to say something that's going to hurt either of you or anyone else for that matter. Look what just happened!"

Ethan bowed his head, looking sheepish. "I'm sorry about that."

"Don't be sorry. Just tell me that you'll let me explain if I say something that doesn't sit right with you or Seth, okay? I don't want you to fly off the handle and leave me alone there."

"I promise not to fly off the handle," Ethan said, a small smile curving over his lips. He reached forward and tugged at one of my curls. "Thank you, by the way."

My shoulders sagged. What was happening now? "For what?"

"Thank you for being so open-minded about this." It was Seth who answered, but almost immediately after saying it he walked away to get dressed, leaving me alone with Ethan in the kitchen again.

Ethan stepped towards me, stooped down, dropped his arms gently on my shoulders, and locked his wrists together behind my head to pull me to him. Once I was close enough he shoved his hands into my hair, holding me in place as he captured my lips with frantic, open-mouthed kisses that made my knees weak.

When he pulled away, I whimpered and tried to initiate the kiss again, but he refused. His hands tightened an instant in my hair, pulling so that my head bowed backward. The heat in his eyes as I watched him scorched me from the inside out. After his hands pulled away, I kept my head in that position, waiting... hoping he would kiss me again, but he didn't.

His pleased expression told me I did something right.

One of his arms dropped and wrapped around my waist, his other hand caressing the contours of my face. I closed my eyes, getting lost in his exploration, but his voice interrupted my descent into Happyland.

"Keep your eyes open."

My eyes popped open instantly.

"You're so beautiful," I whispered as I stared into his eyes.

His mouth twitched but didn't morph into the smile I wanted to see. This was intense. He hadn't really done anything, yet the atmosphere around him had morphed into something I couldn't put my finger on. "And you are so fucking sexy," he whispered back to me. "I've missed you. Four days is definitely too long. Seth felt like you'd abandoned us."

I tried to pull away and protest, but Ethan's grip tightened. "I told you both I had to study and the double shifts were killing me. I figured if I came here we wouldn't be sleeping and I needed that."

"You should know better than any of us that this relationship isn't based on sex alone. We can be around each other and not have sex."

I rolled my eyes. "You clearly haven't looked in the mirror lately," I grumbled.

Ethan chuckled but sobered quickly. "Move in with me."

Not this again. "Ethan—"

"Just think about it. Seth's lease is up in a couple of months and I've been talking to him about it too."

"I don't think your apartment is big enough for all three of us."

"Well, then we find another place."

"I don't—"

He placed a hard, silencing kiss against my lips. "Just think about it. Please."

Ms. Mischief is running amuck in my brain. I raised an eyebrow. "I could probably be persuaded."

It was Ethan that looked warily down at me this time. "Persuaded how?"

I stood up on my tiptoes and whispered dirty things—things I was only partially serious about—in his ear that had him laughing so hard he had to pull away to clutch his stomach. He wiped the tears from his eyes and tried to get back to his serious demeanor again. "I thought you were gonna ask for a quickie, but that—that I can make happen. I'll need a few days."

My mouth dropped open. "You're joking!"

He shook his head. "Those ah-role play costumes are pretty specific, but--" His snort of laughter interrupted him.

"What I miss?" Seth asked.

"Cassie has a cartoon porn fetish and wants to role-play."

I gasped in outrage and slapped him in the chest. "It's not cartoons, it's anime!"

Another bout of laughter attacked Ethan and I turned to Seth for some understanding, but the way he was dressed almost killed me. "Whoa. You look amazing!"

"Thank you," he said, his eyes twinkled with mischief. "Don't try and change the subject though. What type of cartoons?"

"Anime! Ani-may!"