by Cara Adams
“I can scan it right now.”
“Good, thanks. I’ll get back to you.”
And she was gone. Oscar shrugged and scanned the pages, searching for her e-mail address in his contacts while the scanner whirred. As he clicked Send he shook his head. “I have absolutely no idea what George wants, really I don’t. Unless he needs money. That’d make sense, I suppose.”
* * * *
Ambrielle stood under the hot stream of water in her own shower. The men had been loving, caring, charming, and funny all at once. They’d entertained her, looked after her, and made her feel special every moment they’d been together. They’d treated her as an equal thinking adult in their conversations, listening to her ideas and giving her opinions as much weight as their own, unlike so many men who only wanted to talk about themselves and all the female needed to do was gaze into their eyes and nod occasionally. She smiled. Oscar and Danny hadn’t been like that at all. They’d asked her questions and listened to her answers, discussed ideas with her not just imparted their own views. And she’d loved every moment they’d spent together.
Then there was the sex. Awesome, mind-blowing, fulfilling sex. Oh yeah. Ambrielle wiggled her butt against the mattress. Yeah, she was a tiny bit sore, but just enough to remind her of what had happened. Two men, oh wow! But again, they’d put her first. She’d been an active, integral part of the sex. She’d not just been possessed. She’d been cherished.
What a wonderful memory. Something she would hold close to her heart forever.
Now, the big questions was, had they enjoyed the evening as much as she had? Would they invite her out again? Would they want to fuck her again?
I don’t care. I’m happy with what happened. On Monday I’ll be all professional and hard working. If they don’t say anything I won’t either. I’ll leave it up to them. But I can hope they ask me out again. I suppose I could ask them, but I’m not going to push my way into their lives, I’d rather just see them at work than annoy them and have to leave the clinic. Thorne House Clinic. I like that name, and I like the people, and most of all I like being with Oscar and Danny.
Ambrielle’s apartment was very small, but it didn’t matter because there was just her in it. The best part was because it was at the rear of the building she was able to wheel her motorbike up the loading ramp and into the building. She didn’t have to leave it in the parking lot, which wasn’t a very safe place at night. Instead it sat in her hallway on a thick rug she kept there on purpose for it.
Saturday was the day she did all her chores. If she was good and did everything on Saturday, then Sunday was her day for doing fun things that pleased her. That kept the motivation strong for her to get out of bed and get cooking and cleaning on a Saturday.
As soon as she was dressed, she grabbed her dirty laundry, a small carton of orange juice, and what she termed her “Saturday bag” and headed down into the basement. This was another not particularly safe place, but Saturday morning was a good time to go because the people who tended to cause trouble were still sleeping off the night before’s alcohol.
She filled one washing machine with her sheets, towels, and jeans, and the other with the rest of her clothing and underwear, and set them both going. Then she sat on a bench and opened her carry bag, pulling out a plastic container of cereal. Into it she tipped the carton of juice, then grabbed a spoon and ate her breakfast.
Once that was done she dragged out a hairbrush and some hair ties and brushed and braided her hair, trying several styles before deciding on one she was happy with.
Right on schedule her two washing machines beeped and she transferred her laundry into the driers.
Once they were organized she took out her nail polish remover and some wipes and cleansed the shiny blue from every second finger, then pulled out jar after jar of polish. Purple? No, it doesn’t look right with the blue. Green? No, I had that on earlier this week. Pink? Boring. Red? I wear that too often already. Orange? Oh yes, I haven’t used that one for ages. Orange it shall be.
By the time her nails were dry, she’d decided on what groceries she’d need for the week and wrote herself a shopping list. She’d only just gotten everything tidied away again in her carry bag when her laundry was finished.
“Nice multitasking,” she told herself, folding her clean laundry into her basket. “And tonight I’ll plan a special ride to go on tomorrow as a reward.”
But her smiles were also because of the mental images of Oscar and Danny firmly front and center in her mind, no matter what her hands might be doing.
When she arrived back upstairs at her apartment, a huge bouquet of flowers was sitting in front of her door. Bright gerbera daisies in red, pink, orange, yellow, purple, and blue. Ambrielle was stunned at their beauty. She took her Saturday bag and her laundry inside and raced back for the flowers, holding the container in both hands, turning it this way and that to admire every flower.
Tucked in the box was a note that simply said, “You brighten our lives. Danny and Oscar.”
* * * *
Danny and Oscar had chosen the flowers for Ambrielle first thing that morning. It had taken them quite a while to decide which ones to buy, but as soon as they’d seen the brightly colored gerbera daisies they’d agreed they were perfect.
Now Danny looked around the huge third floor of the old farmhouse. It’d been used as children’s bedrooms and a nursery back in the day when children stayed out of the sight of adults. There was even a small kitchenette which could form the basis for the new kitchen.
He measured and checked all his ideas, then casually sketched an outline for an apartment for him, Oscar, and Ambrielle, because he knew he wasn’t going to give her up any time soon. They might have just had one date and one glorious night in bed together, but as far as Danny was concerned, she was going to be in their future, a very important part of their future.
The entire third floor was far too much space for the three of them. Danny planned to close off the hallway and use the back half of the house for the apartment, leaving the front half untouched for whatever Oscar decided he might need it for later. Possibly more patient rooms eventually. As well as being easier to make private, simply by putting a doorway closing off the hall, the back was also better, as the plumbing was already there, so making the small kitchenette into a kitchen and adding a proper bathroom—big enough for three people—would be easier. Besides, from what would be their living room there was a nice view out over the land to the lake and he liked the idea of standing at the window, gazing out.
When he was happy with his sketch, Danny went down to see if Oscar was around. He didn’t want to do any detailed layouts until he’d run his thoughts past Oscar.
Oscar was in his office sitting in front of his computer. Danny tapped on the door and stuck his head in. “Can I talk to you about the third floor?”
“Yeah sure. But read this first.”
Danny took the letter, surprised at the heavy, embossed paper, and began reading. “What? Is this even in English?”
“No, it’s in legalese. Keep reading.”
Danny sat down and paid more attention to the words on the paper. A couple of times he had to reread a sentence to get the meaning, but in the end the message percolated through the long, wordy sentences. “George wants the house.”
“That’s the way I read it, too.”
“Did your grandparents promise it to him?”
“I have no idea. My grandmother wasn’t the kind of old lady to be always talking about her will. She was full of energy and was more likely to talk about politics than anything else.”
“Fair enough. So what are you going to do?” There wasn’t much sense in him building an apartment for the three of them if the clinic would be closed and the building given to Cousin George.
“Buy it from George if I have to, I guess. But for now I’ve sent the letter to my attorney.”
Danny stared at Oscar. “Can you afford to buy it from him?”
“Well, the thing is, he g
ot the money and investments and I got the house. If he gets the house, I should get the money. Then I’ll pay him the money for the house. But it seems stupid to me because that means he’d be exactly where he is already. He’ll have cash and I’ll have the house. I suppose he might have more money, but it’d be easier for me just to give him a couple of thousand dollars if he feels he didn’t get a fair share.”
“But nowhere in American law does it say someone has to give their descendants equal portions, does it? The law doesn’t legalize a fair share. I mean, I can understand that you love him, and he’s family, and you want to treat him right, but your grandparents could do anything they wanted to with their own personal property, so why should George be able to challenge that?” asked Danny.
“I suppose I feel a bit guilty that maybe the investments weren’t worth very much anymore and George didn’t get what Grandma had originally intended him to have. But I haven’t got much cash myself. I had to get a loan to refurbish this place and I’m not paying myself a fair salary yet. I’m just taking what I need to buy the supplies and equipment. Once we get better established with more patients I’ll go back to claiming a full salary.”
“Well, I hope the attorney knows what she’s doing. She seemed pretty acute the time I met her, but I don’t really know anything much about that side of things. I actually came to talk about turning the third floor into an apartment, but I guess you won’t want to be moving ahead on that project until all this is sorted out.”
“No, we need that apartment. I want Ambrielle and the only way we can have her is if we’ve got somewhere private to take her. I mean it’s not just sex, but it’s the whole ‘getting to know her better’ thing.”
Danny hid a grin. Oscar had almost blushed when he’d mentioned the word sex. And he was a doctor, for fuck’s sake. But he knew what Oscar meant. To get to know someone required long hours of talking privately together, and an office was definitely not the place for that.
Danny jumped up and walked across to Oscar’s desk, leaning over it and spreading out his sketches. “This will be a door to make the back half of that floor private. Here is the living room, which opens into a kitchen. The bathroom is next to the kitchen and over here is our bedroom. This small room will be a guest bedroom with a wall of closets for storage. What do you think?”
“How big is the shower?”
“It’ll be big enough for three, I can guarantee that. I was thinking of installing a seat in it, too, for…well, you understand.” Now it was his turn to feel a fraction embarrassed.
“Hell, yes. That looks good. I think that’s all we need. We all work here and can use the gardens or the public rooms if we want a larger indoor space or an outdoor entertaining area,” said Oscar.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. But are you sure you still want to go ahead with the alterations? Plumbing and tiling isn’t cheap, you know.” Danny didn’t say anything, but he had money saved, and if he was going to be living here he didn’t mind chipping in for the expenses. But likely Ambrielle might want to have a say in color schemes and things like that. Those decisions were a long way ahead yet, but he didn’t plan to take too long before they dated her again, not even as long as a week. He wanted this romance to progress and fast.
Oscar looked at him. “She seemed to enjoy herself. I certainly enjoyed myself. I hope she likes the flowers.”
Danny nodded. “Me, too.”
“Right, so begin the changes upstairs, and on Monday let’s invite her out again. I was thinking maybe a movie this time.”
“Yes, a movie would be good. We can ask her to choose which film we see and that will tell us about her and her tastes, as well as ensuring she enjoys it.”
“And if she picks some girly chick flick?”
Danny laughed. “We suck it up like men.”
There was a beeping noise. Danny stared at Oscar and Oscar looked at his cell phone. “It’s a text message from Sierra, the attorney. I didn’t expect to hear back from her so soon, or even at all, possibly.”
Danny waited while Oscar read the message and handed the cell phone to him to see it.
“Check your e-mail. I need some papers pls.”
Okay. Now what?
Chapter Five
For Oscar the weekend passed in a blur. He spent time with his patients, especially a young female werewolf who’d narrowly escaped death in a car accident and whose self-confidence was at a rock-bottom low. He’d listed her for extra physiotherapy, but he also wanted her to talk to other patients and staff members. Staying out of cars would not keep her safe. Even if she locked herself in her house she couldn’t avoid danger completely. She needed to be encouraged to get in a car again before her confidence totally disappeared, along with her skills. He made a note to refer her to a defensive driving course. Likely that’d help her get back on her feet as much as the exercises he told her to do would.
It took him many hours of going through his parents’ and grandparents’ old papers to find and scan the documents Sierra had asked to see. Why she needed birth, marriage, and death certificates he had no idea. His grandfather had been dead for six years and his father for four. Anyway, he did as she asked.
He and Danny had asked Ambrielle to go to the movies with them as soon as she’d gotten to the clinic on Monday morning. She’d taken so long to answer that he’d begun to worry that she hadn’t enjoyed their date on Friday night. It’d seemed to him she was having a good time, but he was well aware women were a foreign country and not for men to understand. Or maybe she hadn’t liked the flowers? But she’d smiled so happily as she’d thanked him and Danny for them.
Eventually she’d nodded. “So which movie are we going to see?” Ambrielle asked.
“We thought you might like to choose,” Oscar said, trying to tell from her body language if she was happy or not.
“I can choose? Really?”
“Yes, really. Although if you pick a chick flick and I fall asleep, I’d appreciate if you didn’t wake me up until the closing credits,” joked Danny.
Ambrielle laughed. “I’m more likely to choose an action movie. Oh, I wonder if the James Bond movie is still showing. I meant to go see that over the holidays and never got there.”
“James Bond? Car chases? Explosions? That sounds like the kind of film I’d choose myself,” said Oscar.
Which just proved that either she was trying to please them and had gotten it exactly right, or that they really were well suited to each other and liked the same sort of things. He hoped it was the latter.
His day continued in a blur of frantic activity until he was finally sitting beside her in the theatre, grateful Danny’d had enough smarts to buy them a huge container of popcorn to nibble during the show.
He had so many things on his mind right now. He wanted her with every breath in his body. She was perfection personified. Bright, vivacious, smart, and talented, yet also able to be quiet, helpful, and unobtrusive when he needed her to be. All wrapped up in a body that was so delicious he had absolutely no control whatsoever of his cock when she was nearby. He only had to see her to want her desperately, and yet he had no time to think about her because there was too much other stuff going on.
The last thing he’d needed right now was George. Oscar was still trying to get the clinic set up properly, for everything to flow efficiently, to hire a few more staff, to quietly make himself known to the various shape-shifter communities so they knew about Thorne House Clinic and its services. He wanted to spend time with Ambrielle, to get to know her better on a personal level, not to be wasting his thoughts and his breath wondering what had upset his cousin.
He relaxed back into his seat, taking her hand in his, gently stroking a finger over her inner wrist. Her skin was so soft and sweet. And she smelled so good. Even after a day’s work she had a light floral scent about her. He supposed she kept a vial of perfume in her purse or something, but whatever it was, it appealed to him. It wasn’t a heavy, cloying, overpowering scent
. It was just right for her, light, barely there, but adding a hint of enticing mystery to his woman.
The movie was as exciting and engrossing as the James Bond shows always were. A fraction light on plot, but heavy on car chases, explosions, and fights, which Ambrielle seemed to enjoy just as much as he and Danny did.
It was only as they were returning to the clinic Oscar realized he hadn’t spent a single moment planning what came next. He hoped Danny had. That was the advantage of having another Dom in the triad. Oscar felt guilt well up inside himself, though. He should have thought about the evening. He sure as hell wanted her, so why hadn’t he gotten his act together enough to plan a scene? Not necessarily a BDSM scene. That was a conversation they still hadn’t had, and one they needed to get to as soon as possible. But any kind of sex scene at all.
Really, he was a mighty poor sort of a Dom if he couldn’t even plan a scene with a woman he desperately wanted to get to know better.
Ambrielle asked the question he was madly trying to plan an answer for. “Where are we going?”
Danny answered immediately. “I thought Oscar and I might show you around upstairs where I’ve just begun the renovations.”
Thank you, Danny!
“I’d like to see that. You’re making it into your own apartments, aren’t you?”
Oscar relaxed and let Danny handle the conversation. But he absolutely had to remember to have the BDSM conversation tonight. Or at least introduce the topic.
Danny pulled his car around back into the all-purpose barn. Ambrielle had started parking her motorbike there, too, out of the way of casual visitors to the clinic. Staff had their own parking lot at the side of the building. They walked the short distance across the back garden following a concrete path that led them to the back door. It was locked but they all had a keycard to open the door. That was another thing he needed to think about, security. Even the front entrance was only staffed from eight ’til five. At present all the staff had keycards, but really he needed to get a better system so there was no chance of doors being inadvertently left unlocked at night. The patients deserved better security than he was currently providing.
