by Krista Wolf
“Then what’s wrong?”
I put on my second-best smile. I figured my best one would be too much of a giveaway. A little too over the top.
“Nothing darlin’,” I said, doing my best to lie. “All’s good.”
“Bullshit.”
I winced, knowing it was coming. I shouldn’t have even tried.
Sammara glided into the room as she always did, moving with a lithe grace I’d always admired. She sat down next to me on the bed and scooped my hand into hers.
“Tell me.”
I had to tell her of course. That much was a given. But how much to tell her…
“It’s my parents,” I sighed. “Mostly momma.”
“I—Is she okay?”
“Oh yes,” I said. “She’s fine. Stronger than an ox. Stubborn as all hell, and—”
“Then what is it?”
I let out a long, drawn-out sigh. I’d known for days but I’d avoided it, even though I’d have to tell her sooner or later.
“She’s not coming.”
Sammara went quiet, her head dropping a little. I could tell she was disappointed. She began rubbing my arm.
“She’s not gonna accept this,” I said simply. “Daddy’s not fond of it, and he’s told me as much, but eventually I can see him coming around. But momma…”
My pretty little fiancé dropped my hand and swept me up in a great big hug. It felt wonderful, even if she couldn’t get her arms all the way around me.
“Oh Dakota, I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah, well I’m not.”
In truth I was angry. Angry at some of the things my mother had said, yes, but mostly angry she wouldn’t even listen. When it came to the nature of my new relationship, her mind was completely closed off to the idea. Worse yet, she interrupted me every time I tried explaining it to her.
“She doesn’t get it,” I said solemnly. “She’ll never understand how the four of us could all be in love with you at the same time… and you with us.”
Sammara tilted my face upward so that I was looking at her. There was sorrow — but not pity — in her eyes.
“Can you really blame her?” she asked. “Dakota, you come from a very conservative family. This is a pretty big ask.”
“But—”
“But nothing,” she went on. “Your momma’s loved you all your life, and she’s been preparing for a certain outcome. She’s expected you to grow up and fall in love with someone. To get married, to give her grandkids…”
“And I’m still doing all that,” I jumped in. “That stuff is still going to happen. That’s the part she doesn’t get.”
“Yes, but sharing me?” She blinked, and her blue eyes flashed silver for a moment. “With three other guys? That’s not something she ever expected.”
She was right of course, but it didn’t make the situation any better. And it didn’t assuage my anger toward my mother, who’d been pretty vehemently against coming over for the holidays… so much so that we’d actually raised our voices at each other.
In all my years, it was something I’d never done.
“We can’t get married in a church,” Sammara went on.
“So what?”
“So what?” she repeated. “Dakota, look at it from her perspective. That little fact alone might be crushing to her. And now she’ll have to share her grandchildren too. Not just with her daughter-in-law, but with other guys, who have children by me as well. Children she should see as her grandchildren but probably won’t.”
I swallowed bitterly. All she was doing was convincing me I was right. And that my mother was wrong.
“If she can’t accept you I don’t need her,” I said. “I won’t even talk to her anymore.”
“Dakota! Don’t say that!”
“No, I mean it. I’m serious.”
Sammara slid from the bed, down to the floor. She was kneeling before me now, hands on my knees. Pleading with me.
“Honey, you have a wonderful family. Parents who love you! I’m not going to let you throw that relationship away simply because your mother can’t get past what we’re doing here.”
Her expression changed, and I could see her eyes travel briefly to some far away place. Sadly, I knew where they were going.
“You’re thinking about your own parents,” I said. “Aren’t you?”
Solemnly she nodded. A lock of hair fell over one of her eyes and I swept it away.
“Look at me,” she said again. “What am I about to say?”
“That you lost them when you were young,” I replied. “You’re going to tell me to cherish mine as long as I have them. To not be so quick to throw them away.”
Her eyes were glassed over with tears, but there was a smile there too. It lit up her face. Made her even more beautiful.
“Yes, Dakota.”
“I— I get what you’re saying. But still, it’s you. I can’t let her disrespect you, even if she is my momma. Not now. Not ever.” I looked at her again, and this time I smiled back. “You’re going to be my wife, Sammara.”
Her smile grew wider. “Hell yeah I am.”
I could see the love in her eyes. The adoration and the compassion and the understanding. Sammara was the type of woman who didn’t need my mother’s validation. She’d love me the same no matter what, even if momma hated her.
But I could simply never let that happen.
“Damn, it’s so unfair!” I threw my head back and gazed at the ceiling in frustration. “Kyle’s family has already accepted you! Ryan’s dad… not to mention his sisters…” I shook my head. “And Jason has practically no one, so it’s already easy for him!”
It would’ve been nice to commiserate with at least one of the other guys on this, but luckily things had worked out for them. Kyle’s father had unfortunately passed, and his mother was a smiling ex-hippy who embraced our arrangement as ‘free love’. Ryan had only recently gotten in touch with his biological father — thanks to Sammara — so he adored her by default. Ditto for his two half-sisters. They’d actually come down for two weeks over the summer, laughing and playing and swimming in the lake. Not even once blinking an eye at the idea that we were in a five-way committed relationship.
“So what do I do?” I asked numbly. “I mean, what can I say to her to make her come around?”
“Nothing,” said Sammara. “Not now, anyway.”
She leaned forward and took my face in her hands. Her long, beautiful fingers felt warm on my skin.
“Give her time,” she said. “Give her space. Let your momma chew on this for a while, and after a while who knows? Maybe it’ll seem a little more normal, a little more permissible each passing day.”
I doubted that. At least right now. But even I had to admit, time was generally a good thing.
“Time smooths all things over,” she said. “Trust me. Pain. Heartache. Grief…”
I could see her drifting, but this time she caught herself. She shook a bunch of things out of her head and smiled again.
“I’ll deal with your momma Dakota,” she told me. “When the times comes.”
At that, I raised both eyebrows. “Uhh… I’m not entirely sure you know what you’re getting into.”
Sammara chuckled adorably. She stood up, kissing me on the forehead as she rose.
“Then we’ll deal with her,” she said. “Together.”
Fourteen
SAMMARA
It wasn’t until Halloween that we lit the fireplace for the first time. A few cold snaps aside, the warm Indian summer had finally given way to consistently chilly temperatures. I think we were ready for it. Looking forward to it, actually.
“C’mon,” growled Dakota, pushing his way forward. “It’s my turn.”
I shifted sideways, and his hands found my hips in the flickering shadows. Ryan slid away to make room for him, holding the lace trim of my little gingham dress up until he could get into position.
“There we go.”
Ohhhh…
Two
thick fingers made their way between my legs, finding me already wet. Dakota replaced them with the head of his cock, all slick and slippery and warm.
God, do I love Halloween…
Dressing up was a tradition, as much as anything else we did together. We’d gone as football players and a slutty cheerleader our first year together, and of course the guys had picked our outfits that time around. The next year was my turn, and I became a sexy police officer, with three escaped prisoners in tow. That evening ended with them using my own handcuffs on me, something I’d enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would… and something we’d definitely do again.
Last year had been very last minute, and Ryan was off on assignment. Kyle, Dakota and Jason had simply gone as Army Rangers, dressing me in torn-up fatigues, spiked combat boots, and camouflage underwear. I wore all three of their dog-tags dangling between my breasts, which for some reason I found very sexy. It made me feel owned by them. Even if just for the night.
This year however, we’d gone all out. Since there were once again three of them, I played Dorothy… and we dressed as the Wizard of Oz.
Dakota was the lion, of course. Right now only his mane remained, as the rest of his — and most of our costumes, really — lay scattered across the living room floor.
“God, just feel her! She’s soaked…”
I arched my back as he entered me from behind, sliding all the way up inside. I wanted to scream it felt so good. But it would’ve been hard, with Kyle feeding himself into my mouth.
“I know,” chuckled Ryan. “Who do you think made her that way?”
“The not-so-cowardly lion,” Dakota grinned. “That’s who.”
It was another historic Halloween night; bouncing between two of our favorite local dive bars before walking crookedly home. The cool air was invigorating. Sobering, even. And Ryan’s tin-man outfit was making so much noise, we laughingly made him peel half of it off right there in the street.
I really loved these times, these unspoken yearly rituals we’d somehow formed. It was like having a secret, just between us. Little events that bonded us that much closer as a tight-knit group, even when one or more of us couldn’t be there that particular time around.
I sighed around Kyle’s cock as Dakota sawed into me, guiding my ass back against him with his two powerful hands. Our rhythm was good, the angle amazing. All the practice together had made us near perfect, even with the myriad of pussy-tingling combinations that somehow always seemed different, every time they took me.
“You’re not in Kansas anymore…” Kyle murmured from above me. I laughed around his cock. Ryan smacked him in the arm.
“You said that one already.”
“I did? Oh, okay.” He reached down to pin my hair back behind both ears. It was tied up in two big golden braids that he let sift intentionally through his fingers. “Follow the yellow brick road?”
Ryan groaned and rolled his eyes. “Alright, that was even worse.”
“Says who?”
“Says me.”
I was too busy to get involved in the conversation, being taken from both ends. Concentrating on the deep enjoyment of being screwed so firmly from behind, while having the taboo thrill of Kyle’s manhood filling the back of my throat.
I had to admit it was cute watching them fight, though.
“I’ve got one,” Dakota grunted from behind me. “Where do you want to be oiled first?”
He pulled out of me for a moment and smacked himself across the surface of my ass. For a second I tensed up, ready for the thick splash of hot semen all over my naked back. But then, gratefully, he was inside me again.
“That’s not even a line,” said Ryan.
“Sure it is,” Dakota replied. “Dorothy says it to the tin man.”
Ryan snickered anyway. Line or no line, he wasn’t going to let his friend get away with it. “Now I think you’re just making shit up.”
In time I was laid out on my back, one lover spreading my legs while the other two knelt on either side. It was one of my favorite positions, because I felt like I could accommodate everyone. I reached out with both hands to take Dakota and Kyle in my two pumping fists, while Ryan slid between my thighs and begin fucking me in earnest.
YES…
I’d wanted it all night: a warm fire, soft pillows. To stretch out before the comfort of the flames, my three fiancés taking turns on me in a circle. One screwing me hotly while I stroked the others in my fists. Lolling my head from side to side, so I could take them in my mouth as well.
It played out beautifully, in a well-rehearsed symphony of sighs, whimpers, and groans. One by one they finished inside me; first Ryan, then Kyle, then Dakota at last. Each moment was powerful — a singular emotional connection as their eyes flared, their bodies went rigid, and they found me smiling back at them as they looked into my eyes.
They were each so different at the moment of climax, too. Dakota’s connection was always emotional, as if he were letting something go in that one, heated moment. Ryan was more intense, eye-fucking me savagely through a series of guttural grunts and groans. And Kyle… well, Kyle and I usually shared the same secret smile. The same one we shared the very first time, when we’d taken each other before all the others.
The afterglow was one of my favorite parts too. Drenched and overflowing, I’d lay there listening and laughing at the camaraderie between them. It was always amusing to me, how quickly my boys could go from the ferocity and teamwork of physically sharing me to throwing quips and jabs at each other again. I often wondered if it was like that on the battlefield. Them coming together to focus on some common goal, and then breaking that tension afterward by falling back into their same old routine.
“Now look what you’ve done,” Kyle teased. “I’m melting! I’m melting!”
He danced before the flames, pretending to shrink. Dakota threw one of my socks at him.
God, I love them.
Two arms went around my waist, and I was being pulled into Ryan’s lap. He spooned me from behind, kissing my shoulder and sending all new shivers down that whole side of my body.
“Everything okay, Dorothy?”
I felt warm. Sated. Contented, before the fire. Everything was perfect. Everything except Jason, but I’d promised myself, at least for tonight, to keep those thoughts from my mind.
“Everything’s perfect.” I paused, giggled, then rolled my eyes as I added my own joke: “There’s no place like home.”
Fifteen
SAMMARA
I bolted awake from the strangest dream. One in which I was flying down the side of a snow-covered mountain, only I couldn’t see my feet, or my hands, or arms. I could’ve been skiing, or floating, or gliding in a wing-suit. All I knew was I was accelerating at an incredible rate of speed, to the point where the sky melted into the grey horizon.
The dark blur of trees rose up on either side of me, only for some reason I knew they weren’t trees. They were people. When I turned to look at them they disappeared, one by one, until none remained. Dozens, maybe hundreds of them just faded away, until I was crashing through a cloud of shimmering white nothingness.
For some reason, I wasn’t afraid. The world spun by, faster and faster, as a sense of peace and calm stole over me. And then, suddenly, I was at the bottom. I stood stock still, utterly motionless, without even a sense of slowing down.
When I looked around… there was nothing there at all.
I was still dazed as I made my way into the kitchen, legs shaking. Normally when we slept in the living room I woke up in the arms of one or more lovers. Today I was alone, although the salty, savory smell of bacon wafted in from the kitchen to join me.
“Morning!”
Kyle raised his coffee mug in salute. His smile wasn’t as bright as usual.
“Eggs?”
I sat and nodded as Ryan scraped the rest of the eggs onto my plate. He added the remainder of the bacon too.
“What about Dakota?” I asked. “He ate already?”<
br />
Kyle and Ryan looked at each other. I knew right away.
“They came for him last night,” said Kyle. “Whatever it was couldn’t wait.”
I shoved back from the table angrily. “Why didn’t you wake me!”
“I’m sorry Sammara, it was quick. He practically flew out the door. Besides, you were sleeping so peacefully, and—”
“You should’ve woken me up!”
Kyle’s eyes dropped, something that only happened when he felt he was wrong. Suddenly I had no appetite. I didn’t want anything, not even coffee.
“Where’d they take him?”
“No clue,” Ryan said. “They wouldn’t tell us.”
“And that’s the truth,” Kyle added.
My heart was already beating so hard it felt like it might come out of my chest. I didn’t mind him leaving, I’d just wanted to say goodbye! Yet I knew from the start it was all part of the job, part of the process of being in this kind of relationship. Especially when it came to Rangers. Ranger Specialists, like Dakota.
“If it means anything, I don’t think it’ll be long,” said Ryan. “With something this urgent? It never is.”
I didn’t care. Or at least, I didn’t want to hear it.
Pushing the plate away, I got up and left the kitchen. It took only a minute to get dressed. Another minute to lace on a pair of sneakers, and tie my hair back in a ponytail.
Then I was outside, running. Down the driveway, down the block. Turning onto the next street and racing up that one too.
First Jason. Now Dakota…
It was something I did often, to clear my head. Running was something I could use to get my mind straight, whenever it began wandering to dark or dangerous places.
You have to tell them.
It was a subject I’d been dreading, and putting off. One I’d pushed so far to the side that I hadn’t even thought much about it myself… although it was still there in the distance, still nagging me.
They deserve to know.
I crested the next hill and raced down it. Faster and faster I sprinted, running until everything — every lamppost and stop sign and fire hydrants — just sort of faded away. It reminded me sharply of my dream. A feeling of coldness stole over me, even though I knew I was sweating.
