Betting on the Zebra Chapter 20

For Disclaimer and other details please see Chapter 1.

CHAPTER 20

Opening her eyes slowly Lenny was sure that for the next few minutes she had absolutely no idea where she was. She felt totally hemmed in on both sides and for an instant she felt the rising panic that such a feeling would cause in her. Moving her hands fractionally she realised that it was people lying on either side of her. Male people. Bumpy male people. She found herself blushing as the events of the previous night slowly began to seep their way back into her head. She buried her head slightly in the chest of the man on her left and then realised what she was doing and pulled it back. The last thing that she wanted to do right now was wake Kevin. In fact the last thing that she wanted to do right now was wake either of them. Plus there was also the fact that they had both definitely earned their rest.

No wonder she felt so damned tired. She was sure that she had only had an hour or so’s sleep. Blinking rapidly to try and wake herself up a little more she wondered what time it was. Then she sighed ... which slowly turned into a yawn. It didn’t matter what time it was. She was awake and for her that was a good thing. It was time to get a move on. She wasn’t sure why she had awoken this early but she was grateful that she had done. She didn’t want to wake up with them both. Then she felt like laughing out loud. She had woken up with them both but she meant that she hadn’t wanted them to be awake when she was. At least this way there was a considerable chance of her getting out of Kevin’s room without either of them knowing anything about it.

And that was definitely what she wanted. It wasn’t that she hadn’t enjoyed what they had all shared together. She smiled as she thought about it. Oh she was pretty sure that she had done but now it was over. She stood by everything that she had said last night. They were three consenting adults who had all wanted what had happened between them and there was no danger of anyone being hurt. She cocked a brow when she had that thought ... well not now. But it was morning and everything was different. The harsh light of day often brought with it the dawning of reality. And last night hadn’t been about that. It hadn’t been about reality at all. It had been about something else entirely. Mainly about mutual desire and need.

Turning her attention from one man to the other she found herself smiling. They were truly beautiful men and she should think herself lucky to be where she was right now. She did ... she did think herself lucky. Not for her just falling into bed with one totally unsuitable man. Oh no ... she had to compound everything by fucking two of them. Not that she had heard either of them complaining about it at the time. Nope, there hadn’t been any complaining at all that she could recall. There had been a hell of a lot of noise at one point but she was sure that there hadn’t been one complaint. Perhaps she should be feeling more than a little ashamed of herself at this moment but there was no way that she was going to let herself think like that.

It wasn’t as if she was someone who was guilty of just jumping into bed with whoever came along. Then she frowned. She was usually in some kind of relationship with the people that she slept with. Not so this time. Yeah perhaps she had been guilty of bad judgement a couple of times and slept with a guy on a first date but that first date was something that could be construed as a relationship. And not once had the guy in question never called her again. She wondered if that was perhaps because they thought she was easy. Oh well if they could see her now perhaps they would have an answer to that question. Then she rolled her eyes. “I am not easy.” She whispered to herself and then began to wonder how she could get out of this bed without either of them waking up. It wasn’t as if she was a master of that particular art.

Letting out a small sigh she rolled towards Paul. It wasn’t until she moved that she realised she didn’t have an awful lot of rolling room. About two inches at most. And the covers were pulled pretty tight across her. If she wanted to get anywhere she would have to climb over him and she had a slight idea of where things would lead if that happened. She shivered uncontrollably when she had that thought. That was something that she definitely could handle happening but not now. It was done ... they were over. Looking towards Kevin she knew that things wouldn’t be any different towards his side of the bed. Strange but she found herself drawn towards him anyway.

Nope, she wasn’t even going to begin to analyse that one. In fact it was something that she didn’t even want to touch with a bargepole. Looking around her once more she let out a light sigh. Then shrugging to herself she knew that there was only one way to do this. Perhaps it wasn’t the most ladylike way to leave the room but she couldn’t come up with any alternative. Then beginning to move and wriggle her body she slipped down in the bed. She caught herself before she could laugh out loud. That would definitely negate the whole getting out of here quietly thing that she had going on. All she could hope was that her small movements weren’t enough to wake either of the men sleeping on opposite sides of her.

Finally feeling her feet hit the floor at the bottom of the bed she continued to move till she was able to slip out of the bed completely. Then looking around the room she was glad to see her bag still sitting where she had left it when they had first come in here. She knew that she should just go into the bathroom, throw on her clothes and get the hell out of here while the going was good. But that would wreck everything that she was going for. She opened her bag slightly and began to rummage around in there. She had been carrying something in here for a moment just like this one. Ok so she had only been carrying it for around a week but still this was the opportunity that she had been waiting for.

Heaving a sigh of relief she pulled it free from her uniform and lifted it into place. She had only just done that when something happened that she definitely hadn’t expected. Paul stirred slightly and rolled over into the space that she had just left in the centre of the bed. For a moment she froze. Like a deer caught in the headlights she just froze there almost pathetically. Oh god it had happened. He was waking up and she was going to be caught before she could leave.

Then she was sighing again when she realised that he wasn’t waking up. He was merely adjusting position in the bed. And his new position brought him right up alongside Kevin! She smiled widely. “Perfect.” She whispered. “Absolutely perfect.” She repeated and lifted the item that she was holding a little higher.

-o0o-

A matter of minutes later Lenny was heading along the hall with a wide smile on her face. But instead of heading down to her own floor she headed for another room all together. Lifting her hand she knocked not so lightly. Yeah she was pretty sure that the occupant wouldn’t be happy about being woken this early but she didn’t really care. She had good reason to be here. She waited a minute or two then knocked again.

“God dammit!” Trish spat out as she yanked her room door open. “Someone better be dead!” Then she blinked as her eyes slowly began to focus and she realised exactly who was standing on the other side of her door. “Lenny?” She asked with a frown. “Is everything ok? What on earth are you doing here this early?” She asked then hurriedly covered the yawn that threatened to take over her whole face.

Rolling her eyes Lenny sort of rocked backwards and forwards on her heels. “Well I was just passing you know ... in the neighbourhood...” She let her words trail off as she shook her head in disbelief. “Why in the hell do you think I’m here at this time?” She asked almost frantically.

“Oh my god! No way!” Trish said far too loudly and grinned widely. “No way can this be what I think it is!”

“Just let me in!” Lenny said her desperation beginning to spill over. She kept on looking over her shoulder expecting to see someone heading towards her asking a million questions. “I feel like a dirty stop out standing here in the hallway.”

Trish just grinned wider. “Then why didn’t you head on back to your room so you can pretend that you’ve been there all night like a good little girl?” She asked and had to admit that she was loving this. It just blew her mind that Lenny had come through ... and so damn quickly too.

“You know why I’m here Trish.” Lenny said and leaned against the doorframe. “And you know that you want to let me in. Go with that feeling.”

Not able to help it Trish finally laughed out loud. “Get in here.” She said and jerked her head towards the interior of the room.

-o0o-

Yawning widely Paul rolled onto his back and rubbed at his eyes. He had no idea what time it was but he had to admit that he felt well and truly refreshed. He took a few deep breaths and then remembered why he felt this damn refreshed. Oh yeah. Last night. That had definitely been fun. And Lenny. Well let’s just say that girl was full of surprises. All of which he wholeheartedly approved of. He opened his eyes then frowned. He closed them again. That couldn’t be right. He let his eyes pop open once more. Somehow he had expected the view to be a whole lot better. Where the hell was Lenny? And how did he get all the way over to this side of the bed? Weird.

Oh well perhaps she was in the bathroom. He grinned to himself as he decided to go and check for himself. And rolling back to his side of the bed he swung his legs over the side and was about to stand up to walk over there. Then his eyes fell on something that was standing propped up on the bedside table. He frowned deeply and moved a little closer to look at it. It looked like ... but no ... it couldn’t be. It was! Oh hell no! There was no way that she had done this! “What the fuck is this!” He roared out loud as his hand reached out to snatch the Polaroid off the table.

“Who is being loud?” Kevin asked in a voice that was thick with sleep as his eyes popped open at the sound of a yell. Now that he thought about it he hadn’t even needed to ask that question. It was obvious that it was Paul yelling at the top of his lungs. Paul? Why the hell was Paul in his room? Then he grinned to himself, a small grin but it was there nonetheless. Oh yeah ... it was all coming back to him now. Slowly ... but he had no problem with that at all. Then he remembered what had woken him up, at the same time he realised that Lenny was no longer in the bed beside him. “Why are you yelling dumbass? Most women really do not find that attractive.”

Paul snorted out a bitter sounding laugh. “Oh yeah?” He asked with a voice thick with sarcasm. “Most women aren’t Lenny.” He pointed out and tossed the Polaroid down as if he had been burned.

“What’s this?” Kevin asked as he squinted to look at what had just been tossed at him. When it all swam into focus then he could feel the same fury that Paul so obviously had going on right about now. He gave the picture a cursory glance but moved on to the message that she had scribbled along the bottom. “Thanks guys ... I had fun. Hope you did too but judging by this picture I would say that you did.” He read out and then noticed a scrawled ‘L’ squeezed underneath.

Paul arched a brow. “Read the back.” He muttered and cringed as Kevin turned the photo and he saw it again. Shit, he couldn’t even remember snuggling up to Kevin like that ... but if he had then it was only because he automatically thought that it was Lenny.

“I’m sure that I’ll be seeing you both real soon. We will be talking about this.” He read from the back of the picture. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” He asked as he lifted his eyes to look at his friend.

Looking at Kevin as if he was insane Paul finally snapped and cuffed the guy on the head. “What do you think it means? She knows that we won’t want anyone to see that picture!” He said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Looks like the kitten has claws after all.”