“Uh…” Her eyelashes flutter, remaining at half-mast. “What’s a code red?”

“It means you need some action. Badly. Hopefully he’ll read between the lines.” I trace her jaw with my lips, adoring the way she leans into the treatment, a shiver passing through her.

She swallows. “Can’t argue with that.”

“Mmmm. You like me now, love?” I breathe against her mouth. “Don’t you?”

“At this moment I do,” she whispers, looking into my eyes. “But no accounting for tomorrow.”

I slant my mouth over hers and send my tongue on a thorough tour of her delicious mouth, the way I’ve been dying to do since she arrived outside. “I’ll take it.”

Our phones ding simultaneously.

I only need a split-second to acknowledge the thumbs up on both of our screens before I have her wrist locked in mine and I’m leading her toward the stairwell.

* * *

Elise

There’s a scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory where the children and their plus ones get a tour of the mysterious plant. Everyone is oohing and ahhing. I used to rewind the scene where they enter the indoor park where every single object is edible. Flowers, mushrooms, the river—all candy or chocolate. For a long time that edible park symbolized utopia to me. Nothing would ever get better.

I never expected a stairwell to prove me wrong.

This is Shangri-La.

And all we’ve done so far is kiss, but it’s the anticipation, knowing what comes next that has tingles sailing through my bloodstream like the Willy Wonka paddleboat, but instead of traumatizing children, they are spreading excitement wherever they go. Stirring up needs that I would normally attempt to suppress or temper, but not right now. I let them ripple and dance. I’m riding too high to do otherwise. I’m in this untouchable bubble high above the ground knowing something wonderful is happening for Banks. That I stuck to my guns long enough to feel truly, wildly drawn to Tobias, body and soul. The very thought of Gabe existing makes my chest lighter.

It's almost as though Tobias is a representative of the three men, rather than an individual. They are all here with me while Tobias’s mouth feasts on my neck, suctioning an incredibly sensitive area beneath my ear until I make a frantic noise and he tears away, gripping my wrist and dragging me up another set of stairs.

“Where are we going?” I say, sounding like I just woke up from a bender.

“The roof,” he says unsteadily. “I can make a case for it being romantic.”

We round the metal rail and jog up one final set of stairs, a door marked No Trespassing ahead. “Do you care about this being romantic?”

“With you I do, Elise.”

My heart stuffs itself in the vicinity of my windpipe. This softie has been hiding behind the legendary sex god façade all this time, hasn’t he? “I’m on the same page,” I manage. “Watching your butt climb these stairs is very romantic. Like, I’m ready to buy it a steak dinner and serenade it with some Luther Vandross.”