Throuple In Paradise, page 1
Throuple in Paradise
BOOK 22.5
FALEENA HOPKINS
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Cocker Brothers
The Tuck Yes Series
A Novel
Love Romantic Movies?
About the Author
Audiobook Available
Welcome to the sequel to Book 22 in Cocker Brothers. My characters tell me what happened to them and if I don’t faithfully type it out, they get very loud in my head. That’s how this story got a whole novella rather than being Bonus Scenes, which are here or on my website. So here we go! Don’t be mad at me. ;)
X, Faleena Hopkins
I am good, but not an angel. I do sin, but I am not the devil. I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love.
— MARILYN MONROE
Chapter One
MARION
My spine straightens as I spot the inseparable Cocker Sisters rounding the bend. That they’d be shopping in Trader Joes today at the same time as I am, and on the only day I’ve managed to get Jack to join Troy and I — to act like normal people who do their own shopping for once — is synchronicity at its most exciting.
I’ve been aching to show off my two hot boyfriends to Samantha, but there hasn’t been the opportunity before now. It’s not like I’d invite her over to our home. Even with her bring-everyone-to-my-hospital-room gesture, she and I will never be those kind of frenemies, hanging out and acting like we love each other when we clearly don’t. The tow-headed blonde and I keep a cool distance except when forced to dance together in a show, which hasn’t happened since the play Logan left town with.
Hell, not just left town.
Logan left the country!
I wonder how she feels about him gone for so long, her best friend traveling the world while she’s stuck in Atlanta where we all grew up. Borrrrrring.
I can’t wait to get out of here!
Sam must feel the same.
Who wouldn’t? Gawd!
It’s not like anyone would purposefully choose to stay here if given the opportunity of a lifetime that was stolen from me, dammit!
Not by her.
I’ll concede that.
No, Samantha Cocker wouldn’t hurt anyone on purpose — too good and kind and angelic and blah blah blah for such a cruel act as the one that befell me.
However, it still stings super bad that Sam became my replacement in the role of a lifetime. Especially after all the years of competition we’ve had, it just adds salt to my still-fresh wound.
In the frozen section today, however, she and her ginger-sister, Lexi, are about to get their minds absolutely blown by the gorgeous men I call mine.
Jack, my sexy beast of a lover and my father’s ex-best-friend, is drool worthy in dark jeans, a black tank top casually tucked in just at the front of his belt buckle, the rest loosely resting on the bump of his perfect ass that only I get to see every day.
Well, me and Troy.
Jack’s short beard and tribal tats complete to panty-dampening perfection, his rugged bad-boy style.
The tattoos absolutely scream I’m amazing in bed!
My other boyfriend, Troy, looks like a Viking trapped in a modern day world, somehow evolved to the point that he’s the one I talk about my feelings with, and you can see it in his kind eyes. Troy is tall and luscious in ripped, light blue jeans with a white t-shirt tugged across his gorgeous muscles, since I made him buy a size smaller than he should, for my own visual pleasure.
The man has thick, long black hair that flows freely and smells salty since the three of us fucked just an hour ago. Them on me, never on each other — it’s not their thing because they’re both straight and allllllll mine.
My lucky day?
My lucky year?
My lucky life?
I think so.
The weather is gorgeous this morning in Atlanta — per usual — so I’m in a rose-colored dress and flip flops, my dark hair I-just-got-fucked-well messy as it hangs to my shoulder blades.
Samantha’s got on cute white shorts and a yellow halter that matches her swaying ponytail, brown eyes fixated on her big sis, a quarter-full red basket on an arm cut with a dancer’s definition.
Of course she’s the one carrying the basket. Lexi never would.
People call me a bitch, but Lexi Cocker is my equal in the tell-it-like-it-is and don’t-you-dare-mess-with-me-you-fuck department, so her white sundress that punctuates those bright green eyes and straightened red hair so beautifully, almost makes me snort, the presentation so deceptively charming. Even innocent.
As if!
She’s chattering about something Sam’s clearly interested in.
Perceiving my sudden tension, Troy whispers, “Who’s this?”
Because he’s a dude, his whisper isn’t quiet.
The sisters look over at us.
Lexi’s chatter stops.
Thank God.
As if they are one person, they slow, both sets of eyes scanning our intriguing tableau. These men are strangers to the sisters — a feat in and of itself considering how much Lexi gets around.
Or so I imagine.
I raise my chin a little to ask, “Hi Sam. Miss your best bud, Logan? He’s been gone for a while, huh?”
Her sister protectively rears up. “You just had to go there, didn’t you, Marion!”
But Sam doesn’t take my bait. “Good to see you, Marion. I see your cast is gone.”
Troy instinctively reaches for me, his hand sliding until it rests on my tailbone.
He knows my history. How hurt I was when my chances were taken from me, that I was stuck in a damn hospital when I’d won the part and was meant to be on stage. I had trained my whole life for a role like that only to be stuck on a damn couch with a cast for months and months while Broadway beckoned everyone but me.
Samantha blinks to his provocative hand and meets my eyes again. “That’s amazing you’re all healed. I’m so happy for you.”
Her and her niceness!
Always so perfect!
So I run my hand down Jack’s tricep while Troy holds my tail, smiling as I answer Sam. “My cast came off without a hitch, thanks to the support my boyfriends mutually give me every single day.”
The sisters go slack-jawed.
Lexi takes a breath, blinking furiously as her French manicure floats up to point our way. “Marion, am I to assume what I think I am?”
My eyes widen with innocence. “I don’t know, Lexi, what are you assuming?”
“That you are romantically entangled with both of these guys?! Like, together? At the same time?”
I frown, “Romantically entangled? Who says that?”
“Are you?!”
“Wait, Lexi, let me get this straight. You actually used romantically entangled in a real-life sentence?”
“I was being polite.”
My eyebrows furrow deeper. “Trying something new?”
Her green irises darken, making her admittedly even more beautiful. “I’m going to let that one go, because I have to know…These are both yours? You have two boyfriends?”
Jack lifts my fingers to his lips and kisses them as I purr, “Disappointed they’re taken? Because I assure you, they are very taken.”
Troy chuckles, and Samantha hastily explains to him, “It’s always been like this between my sister and Marion. They respect each other, they just…”
Lexi and I cut off her attempt to give us more credit with simultaneous snorts.
“Do you have to be so freaking nice all the time?”
Lexi snaps, “You could take lessons.”
“So could you!”
Troy rubs my back. “The only lessons Marion needs are from me and Jack.”
The sisters go speechless.
What a day!
I throw Troy a look that says I’m-so-going-to-blow-you-later. “Just tell me where you want me to push this cart, boys.”
Jack slides his fingers up, fisting my hair, and pulling me into a kiss so sexy that Lexi gasps, “Oh. My. God!”
Jack breaks free to growl at me, “Let’s get you some cake.”
We strut off and soon overhear Lexi mutter, “So she can eat it, too?”
I’ve heard her fake whispers before. This one was genuine, but I have to say something anyway.
Because I’m me.
“You’re a clever one, Alexis! Keep that up. I find it pays off.”
And we’re gone.
Chapter Two
MARION
When we’re down another aisle and out of earshot I tell them, “She loathes being called Alexis! It’s her birth name.”
Jack raises an eyebrow — his form of saying I’m being lame in even thinking about her anymore. He played along for me and only for me.
Troy can’t help but be the voice of reason. “You just had to stick it to her one more time, didn’t you? That make you feel good?”
“It’s not about feeling good, Troy. It’s about winning.”
Troy snatches a loaf of bread from a passing shelf and tosses it into the cart. “Not sure anyone wins there.”
“Oh you are so wrong. I won, alright. I’ve got you.” Glancing to Jack I smile, “And you. Thanks for that kiss.”
He informs Troy, “It’s always about winning.”
Troy argues, throwing organic popcorn into the cart, “This isn’t business.”
“Everything is business.”
“What about love? Marriage?”
Jack chuckles, “You mean where you sign a contract to say you’re never going to leave?”
Troy mutters, “Oh. Right.”
Triumph glitters from Jack’s smokey irises as he slides a stack of six albacore tuna cans from a neatly organized shelf and hands them to me. “Double back for marinara sauce, Troy. I’m going to make pasta tonight.”
Troy’s face begs the question as to why Jack doesn’t just go get it himself, but he keeps his mouth shut. After all, our home is paid for by the man. And he’s doing the cooking. The least Troy can do is grab some sauce.
But it was the way Jack said it that gnawed at him.
As soon as we’re semi-alone — we are in a crowded grocery store, after all — Jack pulls me up against his hard body and searches my eyes. “I like your competitive streak, Marion. It matches my own.” He kisses me more intimately than the show he gave them, and I melt into it, savoring the heat from his chest, the feel of his arms holding me tight, and how sensual his tongue is.
Troy’s voice rounds the corner, “I didn’t know what kind to get so I…”
Jack doesn’t hurry to release me, his eyes holding mine for a beat before we separate. Using the pad of my thumb, I correct my lipstick, and we look at Troy, expecting him to finish his sentence.
But it seems the fetch-me-sauce-while-I-get-to-kiss-her combo irked him.
With the air tighter than I would like, I push the cart around the bend, shelves of nuts and dried fruits to our right. While my men pause to check their phones, I pick up a tub of dried figs.
As much as I enjoy causing a stir elsewhere in life, it makes me uncomfortable that my two favorite people are at odds.
Biting my lip I ask, “You want anything?”
Thumbs scroll away as they don’t look up, shaking their heads to answer me.
Hmm.
I toss the figs into our cart pretty loudly, snapping their heads up.
“Hi,” I smile. “Let’s get out of here.”
I start pushing the cart, passing them with an extra swing in my hips to catch their attention. For effect I swing my hair once, too.
Troy surprises me by deftly swinging me around, pulling me close and kissing me rougher than his normal style. It’s super hot, so I slide my arms around his neck, fingers diving into long, thick hair as my lips tell him I love him, too, and please don’t be jealous.
Jack’s got a knowing smirk as we separate. He chuckles, “Well played.”
Troy grins and off we go.
Glancing back I see Sam and Lexi, having come up behind us, frozen with their jaws on the tile floor.
Chapter Three
MARION
In line at registers each named after local streets, Jack has his hand on the small of my back while I’m talking with Troy, our bodies slightly touching as he asks, “If you could go anywhere where would it be?”
“Hmm, what a provocative question.”
Our bodies separate to move forward in line, but Jack’s hand never leaves me. As soon as the cart’s wheels come to a stop, Troy resumes the intimate distance, his fingers rising to touch my cheek as he says, “We need a vacation and Jack said he can work from anywhere.” Answering the question in my eyes he smiles, “We already discussed it, yeah.”
Excitement launches into my belly. A vacation! Away from Atlanta! Anywhere I want to go? There’s a whole world I’ve never seen. The possibilities are endless. “Can I think about it so I can find someplace amazing?”
Jack’s thick fingers caress me through the dress as he offers, “There’s a place in Mykonos you’ll love.”
“Greece?” I clarify, glancing back to his handsome face. “I heard Santorini was the place to be.”
Troy says, “They’re both beautiful.”
“You’ve been there, too?” My eyebrows raise.
“I have.”
“Together?”
He laughs, and nods hello to the checker now that we’re at the front of the line. “How’s it going?” Turning back to me, he explains, “No, I went backpacking right out of high school.”
“Do you have pictures?”
“Of course. Want to see ‘em?”
“Yes.”
As Jack and Troy explain why Greece would be a perfect destination, checker tallying our groceries, we’re all happy as can be so none of us is expecting to hear a nearby woman hiss, “Slut.”
My back stiffens.
Jack and Troy look over first. I’m too frozen to move. Jack’s hand drops from my back like he might punch someone. But it’s a woman, definitely of society and definitely not fight-able by two men. This stops him from taking immediate action, of course, their synapsis momentarily frazzled.
Just like mine.
My hard shell isn’t in place!
She caught me when I was all soft and gushy from happiness and somehow — a thing that has never happened to me before — I’m blushing, heart racing with shame!
Red.
Hot.
Shame.
Jack growls, “What did you say?”
Troy tells him, “Leave it alone. She doesn’t matter.”
The woman finds strength in the fact that now a lot of people are looking over at me, because she knows that many agree with her. “I said…SLUT.”
My skin tingles with horror.
Lexi Cocker shouts from two registers to my right. “Hey Eunice! Don’t fucking call her that! You haven’t been laid in a decade and desperately need a few choice strokes you know where!”
People titter with laughter, shutting the bitch up.
Speechless, I lock eyes with Samantha, surprised to find her pissed off and protective of me, too.
Emotion knots my chest.
Troy pulls me close as Jack pays for the groceries and says, “Take her outside.”
He sees I’m not myself.
I love him for that.
“Come on, Mar,” Troy murmurs against my hair, taking my hand and leading me away.
I croak, “I can love who I want!” trying my hardest to find my voice. Swallowing hard I cry out, “We all can! So fuck you, Eunice!”
Most of the people break out in applause, leaving the relics of judgment behind them, hopefully for good. But some stay quiet because they will always feel they are above what they can’t understand.
Outside I swear a few choice words I’m not even aware of, and mutter, “I don’t care if they judge me, just keep it to themselves!” as white hot anger pours into my blood. Troy tries to clear me from the door, and I allow him to, simply because I’m too agitated to have a grip on myself.
Jack appears, carrying two full bags. “Never a dull day.”
Troy smiles, “Boredom isn’t our problem.”
“You okay, Mar?”
I grunt, “Of course I am!” and walk between them as we head to his Tesla. Glancing behind me I spot who I’m looking for — the Cocker Sisters.
We lock eyes.
My chest tightens.
I call out, emotion barely restrained, “Thank you, Lexi!”
She solemnly nods and shouts, “Anytime, Marion, because fuck that!”
Samantha cups her free hand and yells, “Don’t listen to anyone but you, Marion!” the other arm wrapped around groceries.
I grumble to my boyfriends, “Dammit! Why do they have to be so fucking cool?!”
Chapter Four
TROY
You can never tell a place’s vibe from its airport because they’re normally located far from where people want to be — constant engine roar annoying as hell — so it’s usually impossible to predict what you’re gonna get.
Not so with Mykonos. I’d heard it used to be a crowded disaster, but they cleaned it up since then.
