Switchy

by Tymber Dalton

  Finally, once the nurse escorted their mother out, Em felt like bursting into tears.

  Her mom had made a point of hugging everyone but Em.

  “So why is she fixated on me, huh?” she asked the doctor.

  “Like you and I talked about, it’s not you personally, even though it feels like it. It was the final catalyst to the meltdown that forced her into treatment. Don’t feel guilty.”

  “Oh, believe me, I don’t. But she’s going to have to start meeting me halfway and not treating me like that anymore.”

  “We’ll work on it.”

  When they were out in the waiting room again, she immediately went over to Jarred, who was closest, and hugged him, then Garrison.

  “Everything okay?” Garrison asked.

  “It’s just going to take time,” her dad said. “Go home and try not to worry about it.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Em had parked at the men’s apartment, and they returned there after the appointment. “That could have gone…” Em face-planted into the middle of the men’s bed. “That could have gone worse, but I’m not sure how.”

  The men stretched out next to her on either side. She hadn’t even bothered to get undressed yet, and neither had they. She wasn’t even sure about dinner at that point.

  All she wanted to do was unplug her brain.

  Jarred stroked her back. “Wine? Beer?”

  “Xanax?” Garrison joked.

  “Don’t tempt me.” She lifted her head and looked at them. She knew if she asked them to take over that night, they would.

  That was kind of what she wanted, but she’d quickly come to learn over the past two weeks with them that they had their own “code,” of sorts. Their own way of speaking.

  It wasn’t even a complicated code.

  Instead of waiting for them to ask for directions, she decided to issue some of her own, without feeling guilty about it. “Dinner. Leftovers, please. Eating on the couch. And a bottle of hard cider, if we have it.”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” they said, jumping up and heading to do it.

  She rolled over and stared up at the ceiling as she unbuttoned her blouse. If she’d been home alone, she’d be staring at the fridge, contemplating emptying an entire bottle of wine, and eating a bowl of cereal for dinner.

  Her men could do a lot of things, but they couldn’t fix her mom.

  They could, however, take care of her. That’s what they wanted to do. It wasn’t like it made them any less manly.

  Hell, at work she delegated jobs all the time to people, doled out assignments, and had no trouble with that. It was nice being able to chill out at the end of a stressful day and not have to worry about anything.

  Wasn’t that kind of the point?

  She sat up and pulled off her blouse, kicked off her shoes, and shed her jeans, bra, and panties.

  Ahh.

  She pulled one of the men’s T-shirts out of the dresser and pulled it on. Probably Jarred’s, if she had to guess, considering it had Deadpool on it. He had a whole collection of T-shirts emblazoned with cartoons and superheroes.

  She made her way out to the living room just as Jarred was heading back with the opened bottle of hard cider. He smirked when he realized what T-shirt she had on.

  “I didn’t think anything could make Deadpool more sexy. Congratulations.”

  He handed her the bottle and she took a very suggestive pull from it, with lots of tongue and lip action involved. “Thank you.”

  Barefoot, she padded out to the kitchen with the men. Garrison started to say something when next door, someone started yelling.

  The men frowned. “Greeaat,” Jarred said. “Just what we need tonight, the assholes to start in.”

  “What is up with that?”

  “Another reason for us to move,” Garrison said.

  “I’ve heard them raise their voices,” she said, “but that sounds worse than usual.”

  Garrison pulled leftovers out of the fridge. “That’s nothing. Cops have been called on them twice now. I don’t think I’ve seen cops in this apartment complex two times in all the previous years we’ve lived here.”

  The sounds next door died down after someone slammed the front door and a car screeched out of the parking lot.

  “Maybe we’ll get some sleep tonight,” Jarred said.

  They were snuggled together on the couch and finishing dinner when next door, someone pounded on the front door.

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Em muttered. She’d been hoping for a quiet night where the loudest sound was one or both of her men making her moan her head off.

  “Done?” Jarred asked, hand out for her plate. “I’ll take it.”

  “Thanks.”

  Garrison followed him to the kitchen. She picked up her bottle of hard apple cider, finished off the last swallow, then headed for the kitchen, too.

  Next door, the argument heated up and sounded like it was heading out the back door. Em was glad for the vertical blinds on the sliding glass door that led from the kitchen to the postage-stamp sized screened lanai out back.

  Unfortunately, they didn’t block sound.

  “Should we call the cops?” she asked. It sounded like two guys getting into it.

  “Someone probably already has,” Garrison said, sounding disgusted as he rinsed a plate in the sink.

  She leaned against the counter. “Do we have enough hard cider to get me through tonight?” she only half joked. “That’s ridiculous.”

  “I’ll put my pair of noise-canceling headphones on you,” Jarred teased. “Then I’ll get between your legs and eat you out so good you won’t care if they’re landing F-16s in the backyard.”

  “Ooh, you will, huh?”

  “Yeah.”

  She’d pulled him in for a kiss, but then she heard a couple of sounds that seemed simultaneous—what had to be several gunshots, and the sound of glass breaking.

  Next thing she knew, she and Garrison were on the floor, Jarred on top of them both.

  “What the—”

  “Stay the fuck down!” Jarred screamed, the fear in his voice silencing her. After it seemed the noises had stopped, he lifted his head and then sat up. “Are you hit?”

  “Hit? No, I think I’m okay.”

  “I’m fine,” Garrison said.

  “Stay down on the floor,” Jarred yelled, the same river of fear in his voice. “Crawl to the bathroom in the hallway, get in the tub, and stay there!”

  “But—”

  “Go!”

  Garrison had already started that way, grabbing her arm as Jarred jumped up and disappeared.

  “Where’s he—”

  “Come on!” Garrison had a death-grip on her upper arm and she knew if she didn’t go, she’d be dragged. They got into the bathroom and he shoved her up and into the tub first, crawling in and lying on top of her. She heard Jarred talking to someone, probably 911 from the sound of his voice, even though she couldn’t make out all the words from the ringing in her ears from the gunshots and the sound of her blood rushing through her veins.

  “What the fuck was that?”

  “Shh!”

  Somewhere, she heard sirens in the distance and closing fast. Then she heard Jarred’s voice, still on the phone, as he entered the dark bathroom. Next thing she knew, she had two guys piled on top of her instead of one.

  “We’re in our hall bathroom, in the tub,” he said. “Tell the responding officers that. Three of us, two men and a woman. We’re the end unit, ground floor. The shots came through our back sliders. I don’t know if anyone else got hit or who fired them. Right. Thanks, I’ll hold the line.”

  The men shifted a little, but neither of them would let her move. It felt like forever until someone pounded on their front door.

  “Okay, yeah, I hear them,” Jarred said on the phone. “I’m coming to the front door. I am unarmed.” He got up but when she tried to sit up, Garrison planted a hand in her chest and held her down.

  They heard t
he sound of the front door being opened and at least two cops coming in, sweeping through from the front to the back, to the kitchen sliders. Outside, it sounded like there were several more people yelling, the sound of a dog barking, and more sirens.

  Finally, the lights flipped on in the bathroom and Jarred stood there in the doorway, looking shaken. “Are you sure you guys are all right?”

  Now she realized he had a small trickle of blood on his forehead. “Ohmigosh!” She managed to untangle herself from Garrison and get up. “You’re bleeding!”

  He glanced in the mirror. “Yeah, I did that myself diving for my phone. Cracked my head on the coffee table. I’m okay.” He grabbed a washcloth and swabbed at it.

  “What the fuck, dude?” Garrison asked.

  A deputy appeared in the bathroom doorway. “Are you three all right?”

  Jarred turned. “Yeah, this is accidentally self-inflicted going for my phone. Did anyone get hurt?”

  “There’s a victim out back. Stay inside. We’ll have a deputy stationed at your back door for now. Call the management company and have them come board up your door.”

  “Thanks.”

  He nodded and walked back out to the living room, talking to someone else.

  “Okay, we are sooo not staying here tonight,” she said. “Once they come board up that door, we’re going to my place.”

  She grabbed Jarred’s head in her hands and pulled him in for a kiss. “What the hell was that about? How’d you know what was going on?”

  “Live fire training. Reflexes took over.”

  “If you’d gone for that nine, I would have kicked your motherfucking ass,” Garrison growled as he grabbed Jarred and pulled him in for a kiss, too.

  “Nine?” she asked. “Nine what?”

  “Shh,” Jarred said, but the deputies weren’t in the living room now. “I still have Janis’ Sig she used to carry when off-duty,” he whispered.

  “You have a gun?”

  He arched an eyebrow at her. “I have a concealed carry permit.” He pointed at Garrison. “And I’m fucking carrying from now on.”

  “You can’t carry at work,” he argued back. “And it wouldn’t have helped tonight anyway, except maybe gotten you shot.”

  “Then when I’m home.”

  “You won’t need to,” Em said, “because as of tonight you two are officially moving in with me. I’ll borrow a box truck from work tomorrow and we’re getting your stuff out of here.” She headed for the bedroom.

  “Where are you going?” Jarred asked her.

  “To put some damn clothes on. Call the management company. As soon as that’s fixed, we’re out of here tonight.”

  So much for her plans for the evening. At least her pulse and her hearing were both finally starting to return to normal.

  * * * *

  It was nearly ten p.m. by the time maintenance had secured the shattered back door so they could leave. In that time, Em had already packed all of her stuff and started toting it to her car when the deputies had given the okay for them to go out the front door.

  She had no desire to look out the back. The coroner’s van had just left with the victim a few minutes earlier.

  The men had packed as much as their cars could carry, and valuables like their laptops and the TV.

  Em made sure to grab Janis’ urn, and the pictures from the shelves. Hopefully no one would break in overnight, but these were not replaceable items.

  At her house, they unloaded everything into the empty bedroom, which left them staring at her bed.

  “It’s small,” Jarred said.

  “Fuck it.” She started shoving the mattress off the box spring. “It’s just a cheap bed frame,” she said. “Take it and the box spring into the guest room, and drag the mattress from that bed in here.”

  “Ahh,” the men said.

  “Smart thinking.” Garrison took over from her with the heavier mattress.

  “You sure you’re okay with this?” Garrison asked her a few minutes later as they stared at their makeshift bed on the floor.

  She pulled him close and kissed him. “Uh, yeah. Very. Glad you guys have a larger bed, though. We’ll get it swapped out tomorrow. Once the kitchen’s done at your place, we’ll move in there.”

  He smiled. “Yeah. Your bed would have been a tight fit.”

  “That’s what she said,” Jarred teased.

  “Guess we’re officially living together,” Garrison said.

  She nodded. “Absolutely.”

  The last thing on her mind should have been sex…but now that they were safe, that was the only thing on her mind. She started kissing Garrison, a desperate need, a hunger consuming her.

  Jarred stepped in close and before she knew it, they were pulling her clothes and theirs off and falling together onto their temporary bed. The energy had…shifted. She felt it and wanted to ride it all the way tonight.

  Jarred buried a fist in her hair and pulled her in for a kiss, hungry, deep, in control and melting her into a puddle of goo.

  “I know what I want to do tonight,” he said, his voice throaty, hoarse with hunger.

  “Me, too,” Garrison said.

  They pinned her down on the mattress, each man taking an arm and leaning in to lick and suck on her nipples. Her eyes fell closed, her body aching for them to fill her, fuck her, do whatever they wanted to her.

  And apparently, that’s exactly what they had on their minds.

  Garrison handed her off to Jarred and disappeared for only a moment before he was back. Garrison rolled a condom onto his cock, then climbed on top of her and started slowly fucking her. He reached up and took control of her wrists, leaning in to kiss her.

  But he wasn’t…fucking…her…fast…enough.

  He finally lifted his mouth from hers. “I feel you squirming, baby. You belong to us tonight. Ma’am can punish us tomorrow, if you want, but we’re not going to sleep tonight until we’ve shown you you’re ours as much as we are yours.”

  He kissed her again, a bruising, crushing kiss that threatened to make her come except he slowed his strokes.

  Whatever Jarred had been doing, he returned, and then she felt herself flipped over as Garrison rolled, taking her with him. But he wrapped his arms around her, pinning her arms at her sides. She would have maybe argued with him about that except she realized she could grind herself on his cock and hit her clit exactly perfectly.

  Then he spread his legs, forcing hers wide apart, and she felt Jarred kneeling behind her.

  When she realized what was happening, she froze for only a second before leaning in and kissing Garrison, hard, their tongues doing what she wished his cock was doing to her.

  Jarred’s lube-coated fingers slowly probed her ass. They’d introduced her to the fun of anal play, but they hadn’t taken her there yet, even though that was on her bucket list.

  Which, considering how close they came to kicking the bucket that night, she was good checking an item off same-said list.

  He worked one, then two fingers into her while she squirmed and moaned on top of Garrison.

  “Oh, I know, baby,” Jarred said. “I know how good that feels, believe me. That delicious cock of his stuffed up that sweet pussy, and you’re about to get what you wanted and have my cock up your ass at the same time.”

  She whimpered into Garrison’s mouth, the dirty talk only firing her need. They’d figured out she loved that, and when they switched things up and got Alpha on her in bed, they usually kept up a nonstop filthy narration of what they were doing to her.

  She whined when three fingers started out as a pinching burn that finally turned pleasant after Jarred coaxed her into fucking herself onto Garrison’s cock and his hand. Then his fingers disappeared, soon replaced by his condom-clad cock. He pressed the head against her tight rim and grabbed her hips.

  “Okay, baby,” Jarred said. “Time for you to take us both.” Garrison released his grip on her so she could brace herself on his chest. That freed his hands to re
ach up and cup her breasts, pinching and rolling her nipples between his fingers.

  The climb started, even as she slowly started working Jarred’s cock up her ass. Every thrust gained more ground and her swollen, throbbing clit rubbed against Garrison with every stroke.

  Jarred was balls-deep inside her ass when he made her sit up. Which she tried to protest, because she’d been so fucking close to coming.

  He reached around her, up to her throat, and gently cupped his hand around her neck, forcing her head back. “Shh, just relax.” He kissed her.

  Then she heard the click and hum, followed by Garrison pressing something against her clit.

  Her universe imploded. That was the closest descriptor she had as the Hitachi drop-kicked the pleasure center of her brain over the abyss. She squirmed and whined and realized every motion was only embedding Jarred’s cock a little farther in her ass, Garrison’s cock in her pussy keeping her from wiggling away from him.

  “You can take it, baby,” Garrison said. “We feel you coming on our cocks. Keep that sweet pussy coming for us.”

  Jarred was holding her up now, because it was like her bones had turned to jelly. One thing the men liked to do was push her to the edge with multiple orgasms, usually stopping just before she was about ready to safeword.

  Tonight, however, their Alpha sides had come out to play and weren’t going back in their cages until they were good and ready.

  Jarred’s cheek was pressed against hers, the stubble raspy against her flesh. “Oooh, baby,” he hoarsely said. “What a nice, tight ass you have. You keep this up, you’ll be able to milk orgasms out of our cocks just with your beautiful body. And don’t think we’re going to stop tonight. You’re ours. A man can only come so close to disaster without making sure the things most precious to him are safe. And we’re gonna keep you safe, and keep you loved, and take care of you.”

  She couldn’t even keep her eyes open. All she could do was sit there, Jarred holding her pressed against his body as Garrison used the Hitachi on her and alternated between tweaking her nipples.

  Had she thought sex was good with them before? Uh, yeah, and this made it feel like they’d been holding back.