by Cara Adams
She needed to treat this as if it was a case she had to solve. First, she loved them and wanted them, and they loved her. Second, her job had to have top priority in her life, therefore she couldn’t move in with them. Keeping the relationship secret was nonnegotiable, and besides, she needed her own space. But three, she would schedule them into her life every week, possibly even twice some weeks. That should be enough to keep them all happy, especially if they were careful to stay away from the kind of places her colleagues and clients frequented.
“Don’t do that, Sierra. Don’t do that to us,” said Fergus.
“What? Do what? I haven’t touched either of you.” Sierra was confused. She wasn’t even in the bathroom yet, just standing outside it.
“Your face has gone all blank and your eyes have stopped sparkling. You’re back in work mode, planning to ignore us, aren’t you? Whatever you need in a relationship, we can work it out together. Cam and I are flexible, we’re willing to rearrange our lives so this union is successful. We don’t expect you to give up your career.”
Cam stepped out of the shower, soap still in his hair and down his back. “Hell, no. We know how important your career is to you, that’s why we’re all here tonight, after all.”
“I love you, both. I really want to be with you. I would never have told you about my determination to be made partner unless I fully and completely trusted you both. No one else knows that. It’s never been written down or expressed anywhere except in my mind until I told you both last Monday. But my work isn’t nine to five Monday to Friday. It’s an all-encompassing thing that fills almost every hour of every day. Working eighty-hour weeks is pretty normal for me.”
Sierra could feel pain and hurt building in the back of her throat. She did love them and want them so much, and she didn’t want to hurt them either. They’d been so caring and wonderful to her. How could she be selfish and spiteful to them? But how could they have more than they already had? There wasn’t time in her life for anything. Hell, half the time she had to choose between doing a load of laundry or going grocery shopping. She couldn’t even find the time to do both. And that was without the issue of needing to keep their relationship quiet. It was vital for her, but would that make them feel demeaned? Second class? Hurt beyond measure?
Fergus put his hands on her shoulders and rubbed them gently. “Get in the shower and let us massage those tense muscles. When we’re all clean we’ll sit and talk. We can solve whatever is eating you up.”
Cam tugged her into the room and under the water. Even through the painful lump of stress in her chest that prevented her from swallowing, she wanted to laugh at the soap bubbles sliding down his spine and dripping off his ass onto the floor.
Sierra stood under the hot water and lifted her head up to the spray, loving the water pouring through her hair and over her body. Cam took the shampoo bottle out of her hand and poured a dollop of it into his hands then began massaging her head.
“Hey, you’re good at that. Have you considered becoming a beautician instead of a nurse?” she teased him.
“You’d be surprised how many women who’ve had major surgery get back to their room and the first thing they want is their hair washed. They’re still half-unconscious from the anesthetic, but all they ask for is having clean hair. It’s just as well they’ve invented that stuff to brush through hair to shampoo it, or I really may have ended up as a hair washer in a beauty parlor,” he said.
Sierra laughed, the lump in her chest dissolving with the tangles from her hair. She did love the way they made her smile and laugh, yet treated her as an equal. They didn’t talk down to her or patronize her, or place her on a pedestal. Instead they accepted her as who and what she was, with all her abilities and her flaws. Because they love me. They genuinely love me just as I love them.
When they were all clean, Sierra tied up her hair in a towel and they all wrapped towels around their bodies and went and sat back on the bed.
“Now spit it out, Sierra. What wasp is biting you?” asked Fergus.
They’re so sweet and kind and caring and I’m going to sound like a selfish bitch, but I can’t help it. This is my life, too. “I do love you both. I’ve said that several times now. But my career means everything to me. I’ve worked so hard, given up everything for it—to succeed, to make partner, to climb even higher than that.”
“We get that. We’re committed to helping you succeed,” said Cam.
“But don’t you understand? Any hint I’m involved in a ménage relationship and my career will come to an immediate end. None of those men will tolerate the thought that I’m involved with two men. They’ll crucify me and the clients will run a mile to get away from me. No company will employ me. And that’s just the first problem. I don’t have time to cook and clean, to pack you brown-bag lunches to take to work. Hell, half the time lunch for me is an apple and a cup of coffee. I work eighty hours many weeks. That means after I go to the gym and sleep six hours a night there’s no time left for anything else in my life.”
“Oh, Sierra, you silly sausage. Don’t you understand, we’ll add time into your week? We’ve both spent our entire lives hiding the fact that we’re wolves from everyone but our pack. One glance at those pompous self-serving idiots tonight made it quite clear we wouldn’t be able to live together openly. Keeping quiet about our sex lives, apart from our closest friends, is fine. Fergus is an awesome cook, and we both know how to vacuum floors and do laundry. We can take care of you. You don’t need to take care of us. And at night we’ll make sure you have so many orgasms you sleep deeper than ever for those six hours and wake refreshed and ready to give your opponents in court hell,” said Cam.
“Not only that, but we can find an apartment together that’ll be central to where you need to go, cutting your commute, too. You won’t need to be wasting time sitting in rush-hour traffic or construction zones going nowhere. I’m sure we could find a nice apartment right in town, near your office and not too far from the court. You might even be able to walk to work in fine weather, and that’d add exercise into your day and effectively save you more time,” said Fergus.
“In one of those big blocks with a lot of floors where no one will notice any of us coming and going,” interjected Cam.
“But that would make your own commutes longer,” Sierra objected, still in shock that they were not only willing to remain silent about the relationship to preserve her career, but also to do the cooking and housework. She’d known these men were sweet, caring, and generous, but hadn’t thought that might extend to taking over traditional women’s roles inside the relationship—the semisecret relationship.
“Since we’ll be traveling to work together most of the time, we’ll be able to multitask, too. One of us can do paperwork or answer e-mails while the other drives. We’re usually on shift together at the clinic and can make sure that continues. Oscar will understand. All the staff at the clinic will know we can’t talk about you. They’re all either shape-shifters or people who understand and respect shifters. They’re used to keeping secrets. See, I told you we could work it all out,” said Fergus.
Sierra wasn’t sure. “I understand you’re used to hiding your wolf personas, but an entire relationship is different. I like the idea of staying in a large apartment block. That old cliché about hiding a tree in a forest is good. We hide our relationship by staying in the midst of a lot of people. That will work. But being together is a lot more than that.”
“A relationship will succeed if the people involved want it to. I can assure you Cam and I are committed to making you happy.”
Cam pulled Sierra into his arms. “It’s still nighttime. We’ve done enough talking for now, don’t you think? We promised you lots of orgasms, so I’d say that’s the next item on the agenda to take care of wouldn’t you agree, Madam Attorney?”
“Lots of orgasms. I like that plan. I also like the idea that I get so many orgasms I sleep deeply every night. But turnabout is fair play. That should mean I
get the opportunity to give both of you lots of orgasms, too.” She pulled the red head and the brown one closer to her and kissed each nose, then each set of lips.
“With both of us working together, we can map your body twice as fast,” said Cam moving lower to take a nipple into his mouth.
“Absolutely.” Fergus mimicked him on the other side.
She placed a hand on each spine and rubbed gently up and down noting their muscled torsos and the rippling of their bodies as they moved over her. Perhaps she could work out how to arouse the two of them simultaneously as her part of the bargain.
There was still a very real danger that Cousin George Thorne would come up with some new way to gain hold of the clinic. But Fergus was right. They all loved each other and were committed to making the relationship between them succeed. The three of them were totally committed to having their own happily ever after despite what happened in the outside world. Therefore they’d work everything out.
THE END
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cara Adams adores erotic romance, especially ménage, BDSM, and shape-shifters. One day, someone said to her, “Why don’t you put them all in one book?”
So she did.
For all titles by Cara Adams, please visit
www.bookstrand.com/cara-adams
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
