by Mia Ashlinn
Even though Ella knew Caedon and Micah didn’t technically have the right to treat her as theirs, she knew they believed they did. And she knew they would attend to her like she belonged to them. Hell, she also knew she would let them. Because they belong to me, and I belong to them. Fuck the fact that we’re not together. Fuck the fact that we more than likely will never be together. They’re still mine. I’m still theirs. That isn’t going to change.
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Predictably, Jaycee harrumphed. “Ella’s the one in the hot seat.
Not me.”
“Well, no shit, Sherlock,” Shannon snapped before picking up another napkin and wadding it up. She tossed it at Jaycee this time, giggling childishly when it connected with the side of her face.
“Ella’s men are going to enlist our men’s help. Damn them. They always stick together.”
“Pot, meet kettle,” Katie-Anne quipped as she ran her hand through her silken, two-toned hair. “We’re fucking super-glued to each other.”
Feeling ornery, Ella blew Katie-Anne a cheeky kiss. “I can’t imagine any other chicks I would rather be stuck like glue to. I would totally do any one of you babes.”
Katie-Anne smiled. “That’s not saying much. You would do a lot of people.”
Snorting, Ella clamped her jaw shut. She couldn’t exactly respond to that comment without incriminating herself. As the town flirt, people would be appalled to find out that she hadn’t taken a lover since Caedon. Before him, she’d been able to count her lovers on one hand and none of them had occurred after she’d met Micah. Yep, I’m a sucker.
At the tender age of eighteen, Ella had discovered that her heart had a link to her pussy, an evil connection that kept her perpetually aroused without a hope of getting it assuaged by a man. If it weren’t for her orange vibrator, Fred, and her blue butt plug, Barney, she would die a horrific, abstinence-related death. Oh the horror!
“She has you there, Ella.” Jaycee said. “You’ve probably been out on more dates than all of three of us”—she paused to indicate each of the girls at the table—“combined.”
Yet again, Ella kept her mouth shut. Let them think what they want about my love life. I’d rather be the scandalous harlot than the pitiful spinster. By technicality, Jaycee was correct anyway. Ella went out every Friday night on what people thought were dates in one of Three Rings and a Rose
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the larger towns around Serenity. But they couldn’t be more wrong.
She drove sixty-nine miles to the tiny Bohemian town, Luscious, where she spent the evening with her brother and his three best friends. His three very handsome, extremely sexy, and insanely hot gay best friends.
Even Micah wasn’t aware that her weekly jaunts to the tiny artistic community were for a night of sibling revelry. I do have my pride, after all. She preferred that he believed she went on a string of casual dates. Because I’m embarrassed to admit the fucking truth to him.
Her thought gave her pause, and she shook her head as she realized that she was being unfair to Micah. Fuck, I’m pissed because he couldn’t admit the truth to me. But I’m doing the same thing to him. Hypocrite much?
When Ella continued her silence, Jaycee piped up. “So…Since our friend here won’t share the dirty details of her love life, what’s the plan?”
Jaycee’s question came out of nowhere, blindsiding Ella. The other girls seemed disconcerted as well. Going from trying to figure out what the men were talking about to what they were going to do in retaliation was quite a leap. Then again, this was Jaycee, Shannon, and Katie-Anne. The heathens.
“Um, J,” Shannon said. “We don’t even know exactly what’s up with them. How are we going to come up with a scheme if we don’t know what we’re going up against? Besides, we are totally outnumbered.”
With a careless shrug, Katie-Anne examined her nails as though she were bored. But the smirk she attempted to hide gave her away.
Finally giving in, she grinned and muttered, “Since when has that ever stopped us?”
Jaycee twirled a curl around her index finger as she stared off in the distance with a thoughtful expression on her face. “This is just the kind of game we like to play. God knows, we’ve all been on good 98
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behavior for the past few months. I would hate for the men to get some misguided notion that they tamed us.” Shannon nodded enthusiastically. “This is true. They might actually believe we are good girls. We can’t have that.”
“Girls, I think it’s high time we remind our men what we’re made of,” Katie-Anne announced. “And I think I have just the plan to do it.”
“Ohhh, I want to hear this. Drumroll please,” Shannon said. Using her hands, she beat on the table, mimicking the sound of a drumroll.
When neither Jaycee nor Ella followed her lead, she scowled at them.
Chuckling, Ella joined Shannon. Then Jaycee chimed in shortly after that. As soon as they all had a rhythm going, Katie-Anne grinned. “I think we need to play a game of Truth or Dare . ” Ella’s heart stopped. She couldn’t breathe. Her mind didn’t work.
It was as though she’d ceased to exist inside her own body, as though she were standing outside of it looking back in.
Fuck. Her friends weren’t planning to help her with the men. She had no illusion about that. They were going to use the game to be matchmakers with her, just like they had been with each other.
Jaycee, Shannon, and Katie-Anne’s version of Truth or Dare had become legendary around Serenity because of its success rate. So in a lot of ways, the odds were in Ella’s favor. Not that she placed much faith in statistics. The drunken pact to play Truth or Dare had been initiated to shake up the monotony in their lives but concluded with all three women in the arms of their men.
Since the game had been finished, every single woman in town wanted to play. But Jaycee, Shannon, and Katie-Anne had sworn the game was over and done with. Obviously not.
“Why?” Ella inquired, her curiosity taking control of her brain.
She plucked a grape off Shannon’s plate and popped it into her mouth then chewed it up. Swallowing, she went on. “You three have refused to play with anyone but each other. Why me? Why now? Give me one damn good reason, and I’ll play.”
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Ella didn’t say it to them, but she would probably play even if they didn’t give her a reason. Despite her fears of getting hurt, she was honored they wanted to include her. Obviously, she didn’t understand their logic. However, for some reason, she felt special.
Besides, she wasn’t one to back down from a challenge—no matter what it was. Her willingness to live life to the fullest often put her in uncomfortable situations. But she still closed her eyes and jumped in. Looks like I’m about to take the biggest risk to date. And that was saying something. She’d bungee-jumped, skydived, flown a helicopter, and tried pretty much any adrenaline rush activity she could find. However, none of them had a thing on the adrenaline currently diluting the blood in her veins.
“Because you’re one of us now.”
Shannon’s matter-of-fact statement caught Ella off guard. Well, shit. Doesn’t that take the wind out of my sails? Ella didn’t exactly now how to respond. Her insides were all gooey—in a weird, girlie way that she wasn’t used to. Up until she started hanging out with them, Ella was all about having guy friends. Generally, they were gay guy friends. So this was a whole new world and damned if she didn’t adore every second of it.
“All right, I’m in.”
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Chapter 10
Caedon stalked through the boisterous crowd with one thing on his mind—getting through the next half hour. He wanted nothing more than to move past this meeting. His nerves were frayed, and he was ready for their true plan to be set in motion. He didn’t feel like dealing with this inane test. Not when he had so much at stake.
At Caedon’s side, Micah s
eemed as tightly wound as he was. His face was set in stone as though he’d been carved by a master artisan—
jaw clenched, eyes narrowed, and lips thinned. This was a man on a mission. Just like Caedon was.
Hell, all of the men surrounding him seemed intently focused on their upcoming meeting. They strode in a straight line, not deviating from their path. And neither did Caedon. He moved along with them easily, not even pausing when Leila grabbed his arm and tried to stop him or when numerous light bulbs flashed near him.
As he and the eight other men passed the other partygoers by, the people parted and stepped aside. No one apparently wanted to get in their way. Probably a good thing.
When Caedon had suggested they talk to some of the men in town about sharing, he hadn’t meant for it to be like this. He’d meant a casual talk over beers. Not happening now. They’d forfeited any chance they had of an easygoing conversation when they’d called for reinforcements.
Last night, while they were driving to Brooklyn’s apartment, Micah had called the people closest to Ella—her three girlfriends, Jaycee, Shannon, and Katie-Anne, as well as her brother, Tate, and her mother, Donna. However, he’d avoided calling Ella’s sisters.
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Apparently, the three women were not in a forgiving mood for either him or Micah.
They despised Caedon because he’d broken Ella’s heart.
However, they didn’t despise Micah. They hated him right now. After they’d overheard him talking to his brothers, Noah and Nathan, about his secret love for Ella and his lie by omission in regards to his sexuality, they’d given him hell when they weren’t avoiding him.
Trusting Micah to know who to enlist for help and who not to, Caedon had purposefully stayed out of her sisters’ hair. But now he was beginning to regret agreeing to include Jaycee, Shannon, and Katie-Anne. The women had turned their plans into a three-ring circus.
Thinking back, Caedon could barely believe that three women could be so diabolical. They were downright scary with some of their devilish schemes. Of course, their nefarious plans hadn’t been the worst part of including the female trio. Proving their worthiness had been.
The bloodthirsty hellions had demanded that both he and Micah prove their worthiness for Ella’s hand last night. And still that hadn’t enough. Tonight they had to meet the approval of the seven men around them.
Eyeing the men as best he could from the corner of his eyes, Caedon decided he was in a shitload of trouble. Although, he had to admit their approval didn’t change a thing. He wasn’t backing down either way. He just hated the thought of not fitting in with the people Ella loved most.
“In here,” Gray said, distracting him with his unexpected order.
Jaycee’s stocky, dark-haired husband pointed at a side alleyway then herded them around a corner and into a desolate back street. The narrow passageway felt tight—excruciatingly so. But Caedon wasn’t sure if it was because of the actual size or because of the seven men gathering around him and Micah as they trapped the two of them between their big bodies and the hard brick wall behind them.
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Jaycee’s other husband, Cade, spoke first. Crossing his muscled arms, the lean redhead frowned at them fiercely. “So, boys. Our wives asked us to talk to you and determine whether or not you are capable of sharing their friend, Ella. How do you plead? Capable or not capable?”
At first, Caedon was taken aback by Cade’s sterile, far-too-serious question. His wall of defense came up, and he was ready to fight. But when a smile spread on Cade’s face, Caedon knew that he was just messing with them. The rest of the chuckles around him cinched it.
These men weren’t going to test them. They were going to help them.
Thank God.
Caedon breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t been prepared to spend an exorbitant amount of time dealing with these men’s assessment. The limited time span he had been given prohibited him from taking too long in convincing them of his commitment to Ella and, if he was honest, Micah too. Not when he needed them to talk to Micah about permanent ménages. Caedon had his friend nearly convinced that this relationship would work. But he needed a tiny push to get him the rest of the way there.
Gray elbowed his husband then gave him a look. The kind of look Micah occasionally gave him when he was annoyed or pissed at him.
Only, Gray’s gaze seemed to indicate that his repercussions would be of the erotic kind. If only I could be so fucking lucky.
“Quiet, Cade,” Gray commanded, his deep voice whipping around them. “You’re going to scare Caedon off. We have too much to tell him before he goes in”—breaking off midsentence, he hitched his thumb over his shoulder and indicated a side entrance to what Caedon presumed to be the flower shop, Pretty Petals—“there with Ella. They both need to hear this.”
Cade grinned brashly, aiming his broad, mischievous smile at his husband. “What if I don’t want to, Mr. Blakemore?”
“Trust me, you do,” Gray countered with a scowl. “Or at least, your ass does.”
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Before Cade could respond in what was sure to be a naughty innuendo, his brother-in-law, Randy, smacked him on the back of the head. “Shut up. Seriously, we need you to behave for five whole minutes. Do you think you can handle that?” Cade appeared to ponder his decision for what seemed like five minutes then nodded. “I might be able to.” But instead of doing what he’d just agreed to, he wiggled his eyebrows and added, “If Gray will make it worth my while.”
Surprisingly, Gray barked a laugh. His dark eyes twinkled merrily, a hint of indulgence there for the world to see. This man obviously adored his husband. Anyone could see that. Despite his controlled façade, Gray didn’t hide his love.
Caedon found the obvious affection and sizzling heat between the men refreshing. This level of love wasn’t one he’d seen much of in his lifetime. People he’d known as a child in Pennsylvania hadn’t generally been this committed or demonstrative when it came to their spouses. God knew his parents hadn’t before their divorces. And shit, a good portion of his famous acquaintances found supposed love with the person who could help their career the most. Now that Caedon was here, he craved this for himself and Micah. He knew he would never settle for less.
Gray arched his eyebrows then asked, “When don’t I make it worth your while, Cade?”
Cade joined his husband in his amusement, chuckling darkly with a sensuality that was as evident as the wicked grin on his face.
“Never,” he said. “You’re damn good at making things worth my while.”
“All right then,” Gray clipped out. He smoothed his face out then slipped his arm around Cade’s waist and pulled him to his side. “Let’s get down to business.”
Micah crossed his arms exactly as Cade had a mere moment ago and frowned. “Sounds like a damn good plan to me. We don’t have a lot of time to piss around. You guys know that.” 104
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All of the men nodded and murmured their assents. When they quieted down, Shane said, “I don’t need you two to prove to me how much you care for Ella. First of all, it isn’t my place to judge your love for her. And secondly, my wife thinks an awful lot of you two after spending time with you last night. That says something.” He sighed. “Since I know how good of a judge of character she is, and I trust her opinion, I think you guys are capable of loving and taking care of a woman I have come to care for. But I think it’s important we talk about sharing a woman. You two haven’t shared before. Have you?”
Caedon felt a tightness in his chest that he hadn’t known was there loosen. This was what he and Micah needed. They had to understand the realities of a permanent ménage. For Micah, it was about knowing he could do it. But for Caedon, he was curious of the complexities. He had no doubt that he could share Ella permanently. He just didn’t know how. He’d never really seen it—other than a one-night sta
nd.
Now, that he knew how to do. Unfortunately.
“No,” Micah grumbled. “I haven’t.”
Technically, Caedon had—more times than he wanted to admit to himself or anybody else. Before he’d met Ella and Micah, he’d been a male slut. He hated to use that term, but it was the truth. He’d hated himself for it. But he hadn’t realized the reason he’d been like that until after he’d fallen in love. It was because he’d been seeking something he couldn’t find. So he’d turned to whoever would have him as he searched. Looking back, his sexual track record disturbed him. He shouldn’t have allowed his hormones to take pleasure in the flesh of a woman he barely knew. It was wrong of him.
As much as he wanted to deny his sexual nature to these men, he wouldn’t. He’d rather be an honest man than a deceitful one just to save face. “Yes, I have been with more than one woman at a time.
And yes, I have shared a woman with another man.” He halted to gulp before revealing the truth. “Sometimes there were more than two or three or maybe four of us. But it didn’t mean anything because I Three Rings and a Rose
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didn’t feel about them the way I do about Ella. I was a total ass.” That is putting it mildly.
The other men seemed understanding. Several of them nodded while others mumbled their approval for his honesty. Caedon felt himself flush. He’d expected them to be pissed that he’d had ménages before, especially when they weren’t loving, committed ones like in Serenity.
Caedon darted his eyes to Micah, desperately needing to see his response. But not surprisingly, he was stoic, his face an empty mask.
