“People who love each other fight, honey. It’s the way of the world. It’s the way relationships work. What doesn’t work is one member of the relationship holding everything inside, scared to talk freely out of fear she’ll piss us off.”
Bella shook her head. “It isn’t just about that, Harden. Maybe a smidgen, but most of the time, I hardly get to see you guys. You’re always on schedule. And I swear, I don’t mind. You’re both busy, because you’re so successful, but I don’t want to spend the little time we do have together fighting.”
“I get that, but that’s life. From this day forward, you have to promise me not to withhold your feelings from us. That’s just as damaging as Evan and I not telling you about what happened in LA. You see that, right?”
She blew out a breath. “I hadn’t looked at it that way, but yeah. I guess so.”
“If anything, it’s worse. You’re the glue, Bella. Without you, Evan and I are friends. We might be lovers now, but that’s only because of you. You’re our support system, love. You can’t hide things from us. If you do, we’ll just fall apart.”
Bella nibbled her bottom lip, unable to stop the tears that had pricked her eyes from falling. Swiping her cheek against the pillow, her voice was husky as she murmured, “Thank you for that, Harden. It means a lot.”
He nodded, tucking his head on her shoulder, embracing her tightly from behind. “Evan and I want you to stop taking your birth control pills.”
Bella froze. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. Seriously. What do you think?”
She licked suddenly dry lips. “Don’t you think it’s too soon? You two are just discovering each other, we’re all just starting to embrace this new angle of our relationship... We need time to get used to it all.”
“I know there’s a lot going on, but there’s never a right time for this sort of thing, and it might take years to get pregnant. It might never happen. Or, it might happen next month. We’re just saying, let nature work its magic and see where it takes us.”
She pondered his words for a moment, let them sink in. Let the meaning behind them actually work its way into her brain.
This was forever.
They were forever
She could do this. They could do this.
“Okay, I’ll stop taking them.”
Harden pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “Good.”
Epilogue
Four months later
“Evan? What’s wrong? What are you doing here?”
As Evan staggered into the kitchen, looking like he’d just been hit on the head with a hammer, Bella rushed over to him and guided him to the kitchen table. He sat down heavily, his bones colliding with the seat with a jolt that made her grimace.
He licked his lips, then whispered a word she couldn’t catch.
“Baby? What’s the matter?”
He stared up at her, eyes lost. “I quit.” He blinked. “I actually quit.”
Startled, Bella reached for a chair for herself. She sat down carefully, because there was no other alternative when you were eight months pregnant. “You handed in your resignation?”
He nodded, looking once more like a lost little boy. “I–I couldn’t take it anymore.” He started to shake his head, back and forth, back and forth. His astonishment at quitting far outweighed her own surprise. “I kept thinking of you here, alone. Me, in LA. Harden in Washington. I–I hated it. I hate that we’re all apart.”
Touched, Bella smiled at him. “You didn’t have to quit, Evan. Call them, tell them you were acting in haste. You’re a soon-to-be dad, they’ll expect you to be a little shaky on your feet.”
“No. I can’t work with them anymore. Egos, egos, egos...everywhere. It’s driving me mad. And I refuse to see my partner and little girl only in those moments when I’m not shooting some goddamn blockbuster in the making.”
“It might be a boy,” she inserted smoothly.
Evan shook his head, a cocky twist to his lips—he suddenly started to look a lot like himself. “Harden and I don’t make boys.”
She snorted. “Are you in touch with your little soldiers?”
“Of course!”
She rolled her eyes, then studied him cautiously. “Are you sure this is what you want? You’ve both been acting weird since I found out I was pregnant.”
It was Evan’s turn to snort. “Of course, we did. Dammit, Bella, we’re going to be fathers! That’s a pretty special moment in a man’s life.”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t mean you have to quit your job.” She frowned. “I’m concerned. I don’t want you to start resenting me or the baby when you get bored hanging out around here.”
Evan scowled at her. “Hell, Bella, is that what you think I’m going to do?” He hunched his shoulders. “I won’t lie, since Cyprus, I’ve been thinking of quitting. When Evie came to the hotel with that goddamn entourage, it pissed me off so much. And when Magdela insisted on every scene being edited, basically getting a kick out of ruining the rest of my vacation, I knew I’d had enough.
“I asked for four weeks’ break. When I work twenty-hour days, get up before the fucking cockerels, and go to sleep with the owls! Yet, what do they give me? Two weeks, two, before work comes to me and stays with me. You and Harden got to explore the bloody mattress, and I was stuck in a different hotel room. I wouldn’t have minded being stuck in the Corsakis if it had just been the three of us,” he grumbled. “Ever since then, it’s been in the back of my mind. Especially when you questioned why I even do what I do. Finding out about the baby just egged me on to quit.”
She sighed. “I don’t want you to regret this, even if I think it’s the right decision for you.”
“I won’t regret it. You were right, this job is no longer making me happy. It’s time I looked for something else.”
Bella smiled. “Try to do something that keeps our life out of the tabloid sheets, okay?”
He rolled his eyes. “Let’s see if the gossip rags can find a documentary director interesting.”
“It depends on the documentary, I guess.” She wrinkled her nose. “Let’s go for a really rare species of ant. They probably wouldn’t be excited by that.”
He grunted. “Neither would I.” Evan leaned back into his chair, a pensive look on his face. “It would be wonderful not to be in the public eye, wouldn’t it?”
She smiled. “Bliss. After Cyprus and the zit debacle, I’m just glad news didn’t spread about our relationship. We were lucky, Evan. And it would be pretty cool if Harden didn’t have to worry so much about being seen with us.”
Evan grimaced. “God only knows how we managed to keep it a secret that he was at the Corsakis at all. Thank God for service elevators, although it sucked Harden had to hide so much.
“Every other couple in The Corsakis was involved in a ménage, but no one on the production team seemed to realize we were. I hate that we have to hide what we are to each other, and I know when the baby’s born, it will be even harder, but we’ll just have to deal with it as and when the time comes.”
“I’m used to keeping you both a secret. Although, everyone on the island thinks we’re some kind of perverted kinksters.” She grinned. “I’m not too averse to having that label.”
“That’s because you are a perverted kinkster.”
“You do realize you just insulted the mother of your baby?” She gingerly patted her stomach. “In fact, I’m sure the baby is offended on my behalf.” When Evan just snorted, she stuck her tongue out at him.
If the guys were finding it hard to acclimate to the news she was carrying, that was nothing to how Bella was feeling. She’d been pregnant around that momentous night in LA when one kiss between Harden and Evan had completely tilted their relationship on its head. She’d been pregnant all the time she’d been on vacation, only she hadn’t been showing. At all. Hell, she hadn’t realized she’d been pregnant until she’d arrived home and still felt jet-lagged two weeks after getting back to Seattle!
It seemed
one bout of food poisoning this winter had obliterated the pill’s efficacy, and because she hadn’t had the wherewithal to do much more than sleep and vomit, never mind think about birth control, a miracle had happened. Bella was currently baking a bun in her oven.
Harden and Evan promised her that they’d both be the daddy. That the biology of it didn’t matter, but she knew that was bull. Bella knew her guys too well to believe that. She foresaw another child in her future. Even if the idea of one freaked her out, she’d have to deal with it.
Evan and Harden were actually adapting to the idea of having a kid, and so soon, better than she was, even if they were currently going through an overprotective phase. After years of never even daring to hope for a child, to finally coming around to the notion that she could have a family and with the guys she loved, well, it was hard getting used to the new mentality.
She’d expected a small transitional period, a small amount of time to prepare herself for being a mother. Instead, she was already pregnant, and the time she’d thought she’d have to prepare her head for the new role, had to be spent creating a nursery out of one of the guest bedrooms.
She wasn’t complaining, and she wouldn’t have changed a thing, but still, it was a lot to get used to.
“I love watching you do that,” Evan murmured, jolting her from her thoughts.
“Watching me do what?”
“Patting your belly. Every time you do it, it’s like you can’t believe there’s a baby in there.”
“That’s probably because I can’t,” she retorted with a smile.
“I know you’re freaked out about it, Bella, but you don’t have to be now. I’ll be here and we can do this together.”
“What can you do together?” Bella blinked as Harden’s voice appeared from behind her.
“What are you doing home?” she asked, half turning to find him. She didn’t have to look far, he ducked down and bussed her cheek, before sliding his lips across to kiss her mouth. Bella smiled at him, a lazy smile that had him tracing her jaw with a finger. “I didn’t expect you for another week. Either of you, for that matter!”
Harden’s smile was sheepish. “I don’t like that you’re alone here.”
Evan murmured his agreement, but she just rolled her eyes. “I’ve been perfectly fine before now.”
“Yeah, but times change.” Harden looked at Evan as he said, “We’re both going to be here more now, aren’t we?”
Evan sighed. “Well, I definitely am.”
“Why?”
“I quit today.”
Harden blinked. “You quit?”
Evan blew out a breath. “Yeah. I spoke with the company and they’re officially putting me on a sabbatical, but that’s just to stop the gossip train. I’m a free agent now. I don’t have to pander to anyone’s ego or have my vacation cut in two thanks to some vain, stupid actress.”
“How many films do you have in post-production?”
“Two. Once they’re done, I won’t have to return to LA.”
Harden sighed. “I’m happy for you, Evan. You’ve needed to do this for a long time.” He moved around the table, lowered his head, and cautiously pressed a kiss to Evan’s mouth.
Bella watched, frozen, not wanting to move to disturb the moment. Harden was affectionate by nature. More so than Evan. Evan never rejected Harden’s little touches, but he was usually more put out by kisses.
But not today. Evan sighed into the kiss, and when they pulled apart, Harden rested a hand on the other man’s shoulder, while Evan leaned into Harden’s strength. She sighed at the picture they made, and sat back with a smug smile on her face.
“What does that look mean?” Evan asked, cocking his brow in inquiry.
“It means that I foresee a lot more orgasms in my future.”
Harden grinned. “You, my love, are greedy.”
She winked. “That’s what happens when you get two for one.”
Evan snorted. “We’re supermarket deals, are we?”
Bella leaned forward and for the first time that day, pressed her lips to Evan’s. “You’re the bargain of the century.”
THE END
WWW.SERENAAKEROYD.COM
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Serena Akeroyd is a romanceaholic. She won’t touch a book unless she knows there’s a happy ever after at the end of it. Pathetic as it may be, because of this addiction, Serena decided to craft her own tales, stories that suit her voracious need for sexy romance. After all, a love story ain’t a lurve story without a bit of naughty!
A citizen of the world, Serena is a nomad at heart, and her novels enable her to travel the globe and all behind her computer desk. Naturally, she’d prefer the option of a private jet, but still, if wishes were horses, eh?
Always feel free to connect with Serena, she’d love to chat with her readers, as well as fellow romance addicts!
For all titles by Serena Akeroyd, please visit
www.bookstrand.com/serena-akeroyd
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Three's Never a Crowd [The Corsakis Hotel 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 9
