And I paused for a breath.
“And so I had to find my own peace. I talked to others, I took a lot of walks, appreciated what St. Venetia had to offer and realized, finally came to the conclusion, that I’ve got to be happy by myself first. I can’t depend on others for happiness, the way that I hung my star on our ménage. I used to live and die by our relationship, my moods would go up and down depending on your moods, if you were happy, if you were sad, if you’d had a good day or not. And I can’t be that girl anymore,” I said softly, shaking my head. “I’m my own woman now and I row my own boat, come hell or high water.”
The men looked stunned.
“You’re eighteen,” growled Kato. “You can’t be in a boat by yourself, metaphorically or not.”
“I’m nineteen now,” I replied softly. “And I’ve been rowing my own boat in Cambodia just fine for the past few months.”
“But it can’t go on forever like this,” frowned Kristian. “There’s no permanence here for the babies, there’s no Venetian heritage, no Venetian language, no sense of home. Come with us, little girl,’ he said persuasively. “We’re ready for a fresh start.”
And I sighed and shook my head. They really hadn’t understood, really hadn’t listened to what I’d been saying.
“Don’t you get it?” I asked softly. “I’m not Venetian, I never was, and neither are my children, so the Venetian heritage argument is useless if not downright offensive given everything that’s happened. And as for me, I’m “home” for these children, where I am is “home” for them, wherever in the world that might be. So please, leave us be, we’ll be just fine,” I finished.
And I turned back to my papers, looking down although I couldn’t see the words, the sentences a blur.
“And now if you’ll excuse me, Annelise is still waiting outside. She’s got an idea for a small rice farm, and I’m excited to take her through the business plan. Thanks for stopping by.”
The casual farewell did it. The fact that I’d dismissed them without so much as a kiss, a promise, a next meeting, struck the men like an anvil to the forehead. Their massive shoulders slumped, and they turned and exited quietly without saying a word, big frames departing silently. For some reason I should have been happy, happy that I’d maintained my cool in a trying encounter, that I’d had the final word. But instead my heart ached, the lump in my throat hot and heavy, making it hard to swallow. But isn’t that what love is? The happy and the sad … inexorably entwined.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Kato
I would have done anything to re-write history, to re-do everything that had transpired.
“Fuck!” I raged, pounding my fist against the door.
We were in our hotel room, having taken up residence at the nearest Starwood. “What the fuck is wrong with us?” I raged again, practically spitting I was so incensed.
“Cool it bro,” rumbled Karl. “We need a plan.”
But I shook my head.
“She’s pregnant,” I roared. “What plan? What the fuck? This is so unfucking-believable.”
Of course, I didn’t mean that the pregnancy was unbelievable, that was totally to be expected, our little girl swelling with our seed. Tina was a sweet, fertile, nineteen year-old after all, who’d been fucked by three men night and day, it was only a matter of time. But everything else that had happened this afternoon … it was like a punch to the gut, leaving me breathless and gasping for air.
“We’ve got to get her out of here. Back to St. Venetia, fuck back to Kansas if that’s what it takes,” I said grimly, balling my fists in rage. “We’ll go back to the farm, strap her down to a bed if she tries to leave.”
And the thought made my cock spring out, the image of our beautiful Tina nude and tied up, ready for us. And shit, fucking her while she was pregnant, that big, naked belly filled with our babies? It made me cream even harder, my tip getting wet, dripping at the thought of her fertile form ready and willing. I wanted her even more, even harder, ever so desperately.
But Kristian was calm, or at least seemingly so.
“She’s got a point,” he began. “We were assholes, to put it lightly. The three of us left St. Venetia in what? A week after the events at the palace? We left her on her own with no forwarding address, no contact info, just some promises that we’d be back someday, no telling when. No wonder she’s pissed as hell.”
“But she’s pregnant,” I raged. “We’re the fathers, what the fuck, is she going to have those babies on her own?”
A pause again.
“Evidently so,” replied Kristian slowly. “Evidently so.”
And that just confounded us all the more. Because seeing the little girl, how transformed she was, was astonishing. And amazing. And utterly wonderful. No more did we have a sweet thing completely dependent on us. Instead, the brunette was standing on her own two feet, making decisions, the hotshot head of a budding non-profit, all in a foreign land no less and heavily pregnant to boot. We were proud as hell, proud that she’d become a woman in her own right, with her own means, her own way of seeing the world, the prism clear and focused, able to make a difference and affect others.
But still … having two kids on her own? Without us? Hell no, there was no way that was going down, in any way shape or form, in whichever universe we lived in. No way were we not going to be a part of our kids’ lives, especially given our twisted family history. So yeah, the question was getting back into her good graces.
“We’ve got to get her into bed,” ground out Karl. “Only then will she listen to us, if her pussy’s creaming, that little twat stroked and touched, filled with cock, she’ll come home with us.”
But I wasn’t so sure.
“Dude, she’s not letting us touch her, are you fucking kidding me?” I asked, disbelieving. “Weren’t you there? Weren’t you listening? She hates our guts.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say hate,” mused Kristian contemplatively. “That’s a strong word, but yeah, I’d say something more like ‘dislikes intensely.’”
I snorted.
“Whatever, dislikes, hates, detests, repulsed by, we’re toast, man,” I said disgustedly. “We came here to propose, and instead she’s turned her back, wants nothing to do with us.”
Because yeah, we came to Cambodia with a ring in our pocket. Or three rings is more like it. Instead of a diamond solitaire, we invested in a tri-color ring, a ring with three bands of silver, rose gold, and yellow gold twisted together, locking to form a beautiful medley, pulling apart so that they form three circles, touching but still interconnected. It represents us, our foursome, Tina’s finger the center around which we orbit. She’s everything to us, and yeah, we want to get married, make it permanent.
But that seemed impossible now, given our last encounter.
So we were silent, trying to think up ways to win our best girl back. Fuck! This was so fucked up, I shook my head in rage. And recent events were all the more ridiculous given the woman she’d become because Tina had matured … and was even more perfect for us now. Perfect to handle three men, three separate male egos, three differing personalities, three careers, and a fourth career, her own. And the maturity was even more valuable now because her workload was about to double with the new babies, the new responsibilities that came with being a mother.
So we wanted the brunette so badly that it literally hurt, wanted Tina in our lives and by our sides. Where else would we find her sweet intelligence, depth of knowledge and understanding, coupled with a sensuality so heady, so exciting, that it was enough to handle three men, milk the sperm from all of us while bringing us to undiscovered heights? And yet the brunette had dismissed us with a flick of the wrist … and we weren’t sure if there was a way back.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Tina
“There you go,” I said, handing the cash to Annelise. “It’s capital for your business, use it like we discussed,” I said encouragingly.
The small woman smiled, so thin that
I was surprised when I’d found out that she was a farmer. Annelise had stopped by my office two months ago explaining that her family planted rice, and needed a loan after a crop failed last season.
“Thank you Miss Tina, it’s going to make a huge difference,” she said gratefully. “Last year, my husband managed the planting, but this time I’m in charge. Your investment is going to make all the difference.”
“Good,” I said with a smile. “Take the reins from your husband, you’re the boss now.” Because the truth is that a lot of men in Cambodia don’t have great heads for making money. Khmer Outreach, like its famous forbear Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, has discovered that women entrepreneurs are a much better bet than male ones. The women are enterprising, hard-working, with a 99% payback rate. Male entrepreneurs, on the other hand, seemed lazy, shiftless, and only too happy to let their wives do the work. So K.O.C. focuses on women-led enterprises, an otherwise underrepresented minority in this land of fifteen million.
Annelise turned to go, but then hesitated, looking over her shoulder at me curiously.
“What about you, Miss Tina? What about those men who stopped by your office last week? I couldn’t help but hear,” she said quickly, “but it seems you were in a romantic relationship with them?”
I paused for a moment.
“Yes, I was. In fact, they’re the fathers of my baby,” I said softly, wistfully.
“Fathers!” exclaimed Annelise. “All three?”
I nodded, not saying any more. It was too complicated and I was still heartsore after the encounter, staying up nights, unable to sleep, replaying the conversation again and again in my head. Had I done the right thing? Had driving Karl, Kristian and Kato away been the right thing to do? Maybe I’d been overly harsh, too much the alpha female and should have taken a gentler approach. Maybe I should have waited until the babies were born before turning them away at least. Then again, maybe I’d done everything right.
But Annelise was impressed.
“You were wonderful,” she said with a big smile. “I couldn’t help but overhear, but you were the boss!”
And I smiled sadly then.
“Yeah, I was, wasn’t I?” I said softly. “I wore the pants that day, didn’t I? Maybe I should have been nicer, I don’t know,” I said, sighing. “It’s too late now.”
Annelise was silent for a moment.
“I know what you mean,” she said slowly. “I know what you mean about being the boss. Because like we talked about, I’m running the family business now, I’m not letting my husband hold the reins anymore. I’m the daughter of a rice farmer, the granddaughter, the great-granddaughter of rice farmers. Rice is in my blood, and I know how to plow, how to harvest, how to market rice better than anybody else, including my husband.”
“But Miss Tina, it’s more complicated than that. Because I’m in charge now, but my husband and I, we’re still a partnership, don’t you see? For our family to succeed, personally and professionally, I need him. I can’t just send Mr. Peuh away. My husband is still my everything, even if I’m CEO. So be kind to your men, let them into your heart,” she said.
I smiled wryly.
“Oh Kristian, Karl and Kato are in my heart, there’s no doubt about that,” I said. “If you knew how many sleepless nights I’ve had since they showed up, how much I’ve thought about what happened.”
“But that’s it,” Annelise replied slowly. “You didn’t do anything wrong, it’s just what they asked for wasn’t totally wrong either. They asked for time, and that’s not so crazy. You think my husband was okay with me being the boss immediately? Heck no! Mr. Peuh, he sulked and skulked around the house for weeks, even months, after I told him I was taking over the business. It was a change, and I had to give him time to come around. Isn’t it the same for your men?”
I thought for a moment.
“But I was pregnant and alone,” I said softly. “That’s no way to leave your woman.”
“Did they know you were pregnant when they left?” asked Annelise.
“Well no,” I frowned. “But they should have known because, we were, ah… how do you say it?” I blushed.
“You were making love every day,” finished Annelise, smiling mischievously. “Twice a day. Trust me, Mr. Peuh and I have seven children, Cambodians believe a big family is a prosperous one.”
And I gasped again. Annelise was so small, so thin, not to mention young, and she was the mother of seven children? Again, the Cambodian woman was full of surprises, and I looked at her with renewed respect.
“Well, what would you do in my case then?” I asked. “I was so harsh with them when they came by last time, telling them to scram, how I never wanted to see them again. What should I do? Beg for their forgiveness? Crawl on my hands and knees?”
And here Annelise laughed.
“I don’t think you need to be so dramatic,” she said mirthfully. “I was outside waiting when they came out, remember? And the men, when they came out … those aren’t men who hate you, Miss Tina, those are men who love you. They looked terrible, sad and upset, but you can’t beat down a good man who has his heart set on something.”
And I perked up, feeling hope blossom in my chest.
“Do you think so? Do you really think so?” I asked tentatively. “After seeing me scream at them, do you think I still have a chance?”
“I know so,” replied Annelise firmly. “And I have one other piece of advice. Mr. Peuh and I, after we fight, after we struggle over something, we always get into the bed and make love. It works like magic, the anger dissipates, and oh! He feels so good in me. How else do you think we have seven children?” she said mischievously.
And I blushed then, my core growing warm as I rubbed my stomach gently, a little kick fluttering against my palm.
“Well, we’ll see,” I said, blushing. “They haven’t seen my new body yet.”
“Why not try it?” asked Annelise, “Go to them, you have nothing to lose.”
And I sat back, thinking. I wasn’t totally sure about what Annelise was saying. I understood her point, that change takes time and any shock to the system takes a while to settle in. But I still wasn’t sure I was in the wrong, that I’d been too harsh. After all, Kristian, Karl and Kato had left me during a trying time, and aren’t partners supposed to stick together through thick and thin?
I shook my head miserably, the confusion overwhelming. I missed the men, I craved Kristian, Karl and Kato desperately, thought about them all the time. But my path was unclear, the future uncertain. And what did I have now? Nothing, I thought unhappily. I had nothing.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Tina
I knocked on their hotel room door tentatively. I’d gotten Kristian, Karl and Kato’s room number through my friend at the front desk, bringing him dragonfruit as a half gift, half bribe. I knew he appreciated the red, fleshy tropical berry, it was a delicacy here in Cambodia.
“Please?” I begged. “Please, please?”
And Tot had agreed, telling me it was Room 505.
“You better not do anything bad!” he admonished. “This dragonfruit’s not worth it!”
And I nodded, smiling over my shoulder in a rush to get to the elevator. “I won’t!” I called backwards. “I won’t,” I promised.
But the minute Karl opened the door, my promises evaporated because the man looked so good, so gorgeous that I could hardly focus. All I wanted was to do something bad to this man, with this man, something so dirty, so filthy that I was already feeling weak in the knees, my balance unsteady.
But fortunately, my pregnancy was the perfect excuse.
“Watch it,” he growled, grabbing me, one big hand on my arm and the other on my ass to support my weight. “Come in,” he said.
And I sighed, leaning against him heavily.
“Thanks,” I said softly as I sat on the bed. There were two huge beds in the room, plus a giant sofa, a giant TV, and an office area. Clearly, the men hadn’t held back, mercenaries com
mand high prices for their work.
“Here,” rumbled Kato, handing me a glass of water. “Drink it, you’ll feel better.”
And I took the glass gratefully, letting the cool liquid run down my throat, moistening my lips before I began to speak.
“Karl, Kato, Kristian,” I said slowly, not quite knowing where to begin. “I wanted to say …”
But before I could say anything, the men were kneeling in front of me, their eyes serious.
“Before you can say anything,” began Karl.
“We wanted to apologize,” finished Kato quickly. “You were right, we took off like three fools, three cowards, leaving you in the middle of a mess and that was the wrong thing to do.”
I was stunned, looking at them with shock. I’d expected to be the one crawling on my knees, I didn’t think the men would jump the gun and tell me that they were sorry. But I was in for more.
“I guess what it is,” said Kristian with a wry glance at his brothers, “is that we have some kind of abandonment syndrome.”
I looked at them with a puzzled expression. Abandonment?
“Yes, abandonment,” said Kristian, his face sober. “I felt abandoned because my mother was never really in the picture. I mean Agatha,” he clarified quickly. “Agatha was never interested in me, as you’ve probably guessed,” he said. “I never saw her when I was growing up, I was raised by assorted nannies, our family butler, whoever happened to be around,” he shrugged. “Agatha was always getting her nails done, her hair done, having lunch with friends, who knows? It sounds crazy but I wouldn’t see my mother for two weeks at a time, even though we lived down the hall from one another.”
“Anyways, I buried my feelings of abandonment,” he said wryly. “I had a lot of other things to keep me busy, judo, lacrosse, wrestling, and after a while, politics and economics, the things a young prince was expected to take up. I didn’t realize how hurt I was by Agatha’s lack of interest until recent events, when I saw how Violet jumped through hoops for the twins, acting crazy even, doing anything to protect Kato and Karl.
TRIPLE PRINCES: An MFMM Menage Romance Page 18
