Happenstance Read Online Tessa Bailey

Categories Genre: Contemporary, Romance Tags Authors:
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Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 100060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
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“Me?” Tobias winds the sides of my skirt in his hands, dragging the material up my thighs, landing my now-bare bottom in Gabe’s lap. “I’ll tend to the pussy, of course.”

He starts to kneel—

The lights turn on in the tram car—and it jolts into movement.

A voice crackles over the loudspeaker, the words as impossible to discern as before, but the jarring feedback is enough to send me screeching back into reality. I’m sandwiched in between three men I just met. I’m kissing one of them, another is fondling my breasts and I have no idea what the third man is about to do, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen him do it before on the screen of my phone while turning up the speed setting on my vibrator.

We are going to be on the other side of this ride in like, under a minute and I’m flushed, shaken, breathing like I just surfaced after a dive to the bottom of the ocean. In a way, I have. I’m so aroused, I’m almost disoriented while stumbling free of the three-way tug-of-war they’re playing with my senses, gulping down air while attempting to straighten my clothing.

“What was that?” I ask to no one specific. Or maybe I’m asking myself. “I don’t know what that was,” I clarify haltingly. “But I don’t just…I don’t do things like this.”

I cringe over the clichéd statement. It feels like something women are supposed to say to hide the fact that they enjoy sex, when we should be allowed to own it. I do own it on occasion. But this—three men I know so little about—commandeering my entire being like this has unnerved me. I’m an impulsive person when it comes to changing professions and trying new things. However, I am the opposite when it comes to personal relationships. My constant job hopping is the perfect guarantee that I don’t have time or energy for friendships or romantic entanglements. And this four-person affair, which I’m not entirely sure isn’t a shared psychosis, is nothing if not a giant tangle. As such, I’m desperate to break free of this shared bubble and get some fresh air. Get some space to think and breathe.

I make the mistake of glancing back at Banks, Tobias and Gabe. It’s a mistake because they all very obviously want me back between them, even if they seem a little thrown by what just happened, too. What prompted the whole thing?

Right. I asked out Gabe.

He’s looking at me now from beneath hooded eyebrows, as if he wants to revisit that invitation very badly. Now. But…I find I can’t do it. My mouth won’t form the words that will establish a second meeting with him. I won’t use this guy for my story. It feels wrong.

The door of the tram opens and I propel myself off, ignoring the baritone chorus of voices calling my name behind me, their footsteps hitting the sidewalk several yards behind. I hail the first yellow cab I see, resisting the urge to turn around in my seat as it flies down Second Avenue, secure in the fact that I’ll never see these men again.

And surprised when that realization makes me sad. Restless.

But I bite down on my lip to stop myself from asking the cab driver to go back. I’m not going to get distracted from the story. I’m not going to forget my purpose for the sake of something that has no viability. No chance of lasting. I’ve done that way too much throughout my life—and the cycle stops now. It has to.

I open my purse to get my credit card out, so I can pay for the cab when it arrives outside my building. After some increasingly frantic rooting around, my pulse skitters like dimes across a hardwood floor.

My Times badge is gone.

Chapter Four

Banks

* * *

We all stand beneath the tramway watching Elise go, oblivious to the sudden pandemonium at the tram station. While we’ve been stuck above the river, news stations have arrived, concerned loved ones have gathered and…apparently I’ve been dropped into an alternate universe where I become starved for a woman at first fucking glance.

I’m not sure about Tobias and Gabe, but I’ve certainly never had the impulse to run after a member of the opposite sex before. I’ve got more discipline than to follow through on the urge. So apparently do the other two men, though it’s obvious we’re all considering it.

I’ve made my living in rugby. It’s in my nature to adapt fast, to strategize and make the most advantageous choices, but at this very moment, I’m at a loss.

What happened on that tram?

Tobias is the first one to speak. Obviously.

“What in the bloody hell was that?” says the Brit in wonder, ten fingers buried in his hair. An adult film star. I’ve just shared a woman with an adult film star—granted, we didn’t get any further than making out. Still, this was definitely not on my bingo card. I should be on the phone with Vankman’s replacement, scheduling extra training sessions to get him ready for the match on Tuesday. I should be on the phone with my mother’s landlord, trying to convince them to take a payment from me, despite my mother expressly forbidding it.



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