"Kind of both," Krista said. She hadn't talked it over with Damien and Tyler, but apparently they had. Plus, last night with the two of them had been amazing. Tiffini grabbed Krista by the arm and pulled her across the coffee shop to a quiet corner.

"Okay," Tiffini said. "I know I've been really busy with my new job, but these are the kinds of things it would be nice to know about. I mean, you couldn't call me or text me or just show up at my house for some girl talk? A little over a week ago, you had no men in your life and now you have two. I mean that's the kind of thing I would think you would have told me."

"Damien only happened last night," Krista said. "And I didn't know that Tyler wanted to be in a relationship until yesterday."

"Well," Tiffini said, still pouting a little. "I guess that's not as bad. But you are lucky I have a missed call from you or I would still be mad. Anyway, explain how they know about each other and are cool with each other, but I need the cliff notes version because our class starts in fifteen minutes."

Krista opened her mouth to explain.

"Actually," Tiffini interrupted. "Why don't you just ride to the gym with me and you can tell me on the way."

"All right," Krista said. She walked over to the guys. "Tiffini needs a minute or two for us to talk. Can you guys follow us to the gym and I'll ride with her?"

The guys agreed and Krista climbed into Tiffini's truck. She hoped her friend wouldn't freak out. Tiffini had a tendency to be a little old fashioned about men and relationships.

"How do you see this working out, girl?" Tiffini asked.

"I don't know," Krista said. "To be honest, we haven't talked about it."

"Okay," Tiffini said. "So then what happened? I mean, don't get me wrong. They are both hot. But how are you going to date two guys? What do you switch off? One on one night, the other on the next?

"Actually, I kind of see them together," Krista said.

"So how do you guys have sex?" Tiffini asked "Same way," Krista said, feeling her ears get hot as she blushed.

Tiffini stopped her truck at the red light and turned to look at her friend.

"You dirty slut!" Tiffini said, smiling as she hit Krista on the arm.

"Yeah, well. I've never done anything like this before and my new theory is that every single girl in the world deserves a chance to be a dirty slut at least once in their lives before they die. It should be like a rite of passage or something."

"But it's what you want? Tiffini asked.

"Yeah I think it is. I don't know if it's going to work out in the long term," Krista said. "But for right now, it's perfect. Oh, and the light's green."

"Krista, we have to talk about your descriptions of things," Damien said as the class ended and the four of them walked out. .

"What?" Krista asked innocently.

"And I quote," Damien said, "aIt's the most fun you'll ever have,' end quote. Krista, there was nothing fun about that."

Actually, that's not true," Tyler said. "I did get to see you do all those crazy dance moves, but other than that, nothing fun."

"Pussies," Tiffini said, looking at the men judgmentally. "Plus both of you know you punked out when we started in with the weights. No way you should have done your sets with twenty pound weights. I mean I used twenty pound weights."

"That was the biggest size there was," Tyler said.

"You could have grabbed larger weights from the gym and you know it," Tiffini said, laughing. "At least you made it all the way through, though. All of the other guys that have tried always quit during the step portion."

"Yeah well, it's no wonder," Damien said. "What was the instructor's name? Pam? Yeah, she's obviously a nazi. On top of which those crazy steps you guys were doing at the beginning didn't even make any sense. She couldn't just use regular steps? I never did get that one she calls around the world."

"I love Pam," Krista said. "She makes the class fun. I probably would have quit by now if I had to do the same boring steps over and over again."

"Ditto," Tiffini said looking over at Krista. "You're cooking brunch, right?"

"Yeah, why?" Krista asked. "Don't I do it every Sunday?"

"Yeah," Tiffini said, impishly. "Just making sure you did have something... better to do."

"I do," Krista said, winking at Tiffini. "But I have to feed them or they won't have the strength."

"Krista," Damien said as he looked at all the food on her dining room table. "This is the breakfast version of thanksgiving dinner. You make this every weekend?"

There was bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, tropical fruit salad, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns and french toast.

"Pretty much," Krista replied. "Although I usually don't make as much of it. And sometimes I make pancakes instead of french toast."

"I take it back," Tyler said with a laugh as he sat down. "I love Pam's class and plan to go every Sunday if this is my reward."

"That's the only reason she talked me into it," Tiffini said as she dished up a helping of eggs and passed it to Damien. "You should have seen me for my first class, breathing hard and sweating like a crazy person. I mean I'm a smoker for christ sakes. I only went because Krista promised to make me breakfast after. Thus the tradition was born."

"These hashbrowns are amazing," Tyler said, lifting another forkful to his mouth.

"I said the same thing," Tiffini told him. "Her secret ingredient is love. I swear I make mine exactly the same and they just don't taste like that."

"It was the funniest thing," Krista said. "She called me one day from the grocery store and asked me which aisle the love was on because her food wasn't coming out right."

"I'm telling you guys, you should try one of her sandwiches," Tiffini said. "She even calls it a sandwich with love and after you eat one, you'll never be able to go back to regular sandwiches again."

"They're that good?" Damien asked.

"I'm telling you, my girl throws down in the kitchen," Tiffini replied.

"I just like to cook," Krista said.

As they ate their food, Tyler's phone rang. He pulled it out to look at who the call was from.

"It's my mom, guys," he said. "I have to take this."

"Aww, are you a momma's boy?" Krista asked, kidding with him.

"Not really," Tyler said as he hit the button on the phone to answer the call. "She just hasn't been doing very well lately."

"You can use my bedroom if you want some privacy," Krista said, feeling bad now for giving him a hard time.

"Thanks," Tyler said. He stood and walked out of the dining area talking softly into the phone.

"Hope everything's okay," Krista said.

"Yeah me too," Damien said. "His mom is really nice."

"I didn't know you two knew each other that well," Krista said thoughtfully.

"It's no big deal," Damien said, remembering the rules he had agreed to with Tyler.

A few minutes later Tyler returned to the dining room.

"I can't stay guys," he said. "My mom fell and did something to her hip. She's on her way to the hospital."

"Do they know if it's broken?" Damien asked.

"Not yet," Tyler said. "She says she's fine, but I just want to go down and make sure."

Krista stood and gave Tyler a kiss.

"Of course," Krista said. "I completely understand. I hope she's okay."

"Thanks," Tyler said. "I'll be back later as long as nothing's wrong."

"Cool," Krista said, looking over at Damien. "We'll be here. At least I think so. You're staying, right Damien?"

"Are you asking me to stay?" Damien asked.

"Well, yeah. If you don't have anything else going on," Krista said.

"Then we'll be here," Damien said. "I'm just going to walk Tyler down to his car. Be right back."

When the two men walked out of the apartment door, Tyler turned to Damien with an angry look.

"My mom's in the hospital and you're playing games?" Tyler said.

"No," Damien said. "I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't breaking any of the rules we set up. That's all."

"Whatever man," Tyler said, turning to jog down the steps.

"Hold on a second," Damien said, following him.

"What is it Damien?" Tyler asked, exasperation thick in his voice.

"I just wanted to know what hospital she's going to so I could send some flowers," Damien replied sincerely.

"Memorial," Tyler replied.

"Give her my love?" Damien asked.

"You could come with me and give it yourself," Tyler said, snidely. "I'm sure she would appreciate that more."

"You said she's probably fine," Damien said. "If it were something major, of course I would. Stop trying to make me into the bad guy."

"Sorry," Tyler said. "I guess I'm just worried about her. That's all."

"It's cool, brother," Damien said, clapping Tyler on the shoulder. "Call me if anything changes."

"Yeah, okay," Tyler said as he opened his car door and slid inside.

Damien watched him drive off. He really hoped Judith was okay. The woman had practically raised him after his father had died in a car accident and his mother had started drinking all the time. He pulled out his phone to order flowers for her as he jogged back up the stairs.

"All right, chic," Tiffini said, wiping her hands on the towel by the sink. "That's everything."

"Thanks for helping," Krista said.

After they had finished eating, Krista cleared the table while Damien rinsed the dishes and loaded the dishwasher. Tiffini had washed the skillets by hand since Krista never put them in the dishwasher.

"No biggie," Tiffini said. "After all, I didn't have to cook it all. Anyway, I'm going home to take a shower. Call me later. You still owe me details."

"It might not be until tomorrow," Krista said, thinking the guys would probably keep her pretty busy tonight.

"As long as you know what you're doing," Tiffini said, giving Krista a brief hug and grabbing her keys off the counter. "Bye Damien. It was nice to meet you."

"You too," Damien said, truthfully as he sat down on the couch. Tiffini was really funny and once she'd gotten to know him a bit, she'd relaxed and had a good time. Despite that, he was glad to see her leave.

"Thank you for helping with the dishes," Krista said, walking to the couch to sit next to Damien. She still had a hard time reconciling the dark, sinister man he became when they had sex with the fun, easy-going, helpful guy he was the rest of the time. It was getting easier, but he kept surprising her.

"You're welcome," Damien said, wrapping his arm around her and pulling her closer. "Like Tiffini said, you cooked everything."

"You're a hard guy to figure out Damien," Krista said. "It's almost like you can be two completely different people."

Damien shrugged his shoulders. "It just depends on the situation, I guess."

"So what's the situation?" Krista asked. "Now that you have me all alone."

"Now we're going to have some fun," Damien said. This was his opportunity to find out if he really was willing to change for her. It hadn't seemed to bother him that Krista had been with Stephen, Miranda or Elle. But he knew them. If he could share Krista with a total stranger, then maybe he could be what she needed.

"What kind of fun?" Krista asked, intrigued.

"Tyler gave me Eric's number and mentioned you had a bit of a thing with him," Damien said as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. "I want you to call him and invite him over."

"Why?" Krista asked.

"Because I want to watch him fuck you, slut" Damien said, his voice taking on a raw edge. "While you suck my dick."

Chapter 26.