by Lily Harlem
Quinn walked in, dropped his keys down and set a bottle of shiraz on the counter.
“She only drinks red.”
“Oh, okay,” I said, swallowing a bigger gulp of my wine than I should have. “She said yes then, about dinner.”
“She said yes to dinner. I didn’t tell her anything else.” I nodded, opened the fridge and reached for a bag of Parmesan shavings. “When will she be here?”
“In a minute. I’ll go change.” He paced from the kitchen, his shoes clicking on the hard floor.
I glanced out the window at the dark yard. My heart was tripping over itself with nerves—it was the most anxious I’d felt in years.
Suddenly I saw headlights flashing over the barn wall, accompanied by the low hum of an engine. A sleek red Audi set off the security light again.
The car lights died, as did the engine. The door opened and two long legs appeared, followed by an elegant body and a shimmering mane of blonde hair. Eve reached back into the car, lifted out an oversized handbag and a bottle of wine.
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I dashed to catch her before she went to the front of the house. We never used that entrance—who even knew where the key was? By the time I opened the kitchen door the dogs were barking around her legs.
“Hey, lovely,” she said, rubbing Drake’s big, flat head. “What’s your name?”
“Drake,” I said loudly to get her attention.
She looked up at me as Drake’s fat tongue looped through her fingers. “He’s lovely, but not much of a guard dog unless you want him to lick burglars to death.” She laughed and the sound tinkled around the yard.
I groaned at Drake’s dribbling behavior. “Yeah, you’re right.” I flicked my hands at him as he tried to get into the kitchen. “No, no,” I said. “Go and lie with Billy, you’re not coming in, not tonight.” I shifted sideways so Eve could step around me while I blocked Drake’s way. Shutting the door, I inhaled her sugary-sweet perfume. It laced my tongue like sherbet powder.
“Oh, this is lovely,” Eve said, looking around the kitchen. “It’s so quaint and welcoming.”
“Yeah, we like it.”
“Can I?” She gestured to the sink.
“Sure, go ahead.”
She placed her bag and the bottle of wine on the counter and washed her hands.
“Quinn is just getting changed,” I said, staring at her dead-straight hair. Quinn was right, it did look like silk and it flowed down her back right to her elbows, the ends cut blunt and precise. “He’ll be down in a minute.”
“Okay.”
I passed her a hand towel. “Would you like a glass of wine? Quinn picked up a bottle of red for you.”
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“Oh, how sweet of him. Yes please, that would be lovely. I brought one too, though I should only have one glass, I’m on call, as usual.” She smiled, flashing neat white teeth.
I uncorked the wine, wondering what was taking Quinn so long. He must have heard Drake barking and known Eve had arrived.
“Thanks for inviting me,” Eve said, leaning back against the counter near the stove.
I poured wine into a crystal glass and handed it to her. “Quinn wanted you to come.”
She pulled at her pink bottom lip with her teeth. “Just Quinn?” Her eyes narrowed and for a second she looked wary, hesitant.
“I wanted you to come too,” I said, reaching for my own drink. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Oh.” She gulped back an inch of wine. I drifted my gaze up her tall frame. She wore dark jeans with small diamante detail around the pockets and a soft blue sweater that looked slightly fluffy and had a deep V-neck. Her arms and neck were elegant, her chin a little pointed. She wore light makeup—black mascara and the same pink lipstick that had been smudged on Quinn’s collar. “What did you want to talk to me about, Ariane?” she asked.
Her gaze caught mine briefly then slid to look at Betsy playing with a pen lid on the floor. Was she nervous? Was she wondering why she’d been invited to our house? I liked to think so. “Don’t worry,” I said in a slow, steady voice that belied the tripping of my heart. “I’m not going to bite your head off for kissing my husband.” Her chest hitched as she snapped in a breath. “He told you?”
“Of course he told me.” I shrugged as if it wasn’t the big deal it had been. “We don’t keep secrets from one another.”
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“Ariane.” She pressed a hand to her cheek as though holding back a blush. “I am so sorry, really, I am. I don’t know what came over me. I was tired, he was there, it was late, it’s been so long since I…” Her excuses trailed off.
“He’s a great-looking guy,” I said with a flick of my brows. “Incredibly talented and committed, not to mention strong, determined and confident. I’m sure lots of women at the hospital want to kiss him.” I smiled and kept my voice calm. “But you’re the only one who’s ever been brave enough to try.”
“I really am sorry. I like him. He’s a good friend to have at work. I was worried I’d messed that up last night, my friendship with him.” I placed my wine down and stirred the chili. Set back my shoulders and pulled in a deep breath as I looked at the rich, red sauce bubbling away. “You didn’t mess it up, he still likes you.” I didn’t want to tell her yet how just much he liked her or what I was going to let him do to her later.
“I don’t make friends easily,” she said. “I’m always moving around with work and I let people down if I make dates, something always seems to come up.” She glanced down at herself. “Plus I think I intimidate people without meaning to.”
“Intimidate?” I shook my head. I didn’t think she was intimidating. Beautiful, sensual, eloquent, but not intimidating. “Why do you think that?”
“Well, I have to get results, which means a lot of nurses and surgical staff are not interested in forming a friendship with me. I make decisions that are not always popular. Plus I have to keep a certain distance from the people I’m in charge of. If I’m too pally, they run rings around me, take liberties. It’s happened in the past.”
“I think the word intimidate is wrong,” I said, tipping the Parmesan into a small yellow bowl.
“You do?”
“Yes.” I gestured at her with my hand. “Threatening is a better word.”
“Threatening?” Her brows shot up. “What do you mean?” 99
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“Just look in the mirror. You have the looks, a great career, you get results and you’re in demand as a top-flying hospital manager. People find success like that a threat. They think you want to take what’s theirs and add it to everything you already have.” I turned down the rice to stop it boiling over.
“But I’ve worked for everything I have, I’ve worked damn hard. The glass ceiling still exists in the National Health Services, you know.”
“I have no doubt it does.” I folded my arms. “But when you invited Quinn back to your bed last night, that was trying to take something that wasn’t yours.” She stared down at her feet and pulled in a breath. “I’ve apologized,” she said.
“And it won’t happen again, I promise.”
“It might,” I said.
“No, no it won’t.” Her expression was earnest. “I value his friendship and in all honesty,” she paused and swallowed, “I would like to be your friend too.” She gave a half-smile. “A friend who has nothing to do with the hospital and is as open and direct as you are would be a refreshing change.”
I thought of my life with Quinn, Liam and the girls. Hilary and Karl up in Merthyr with their three kids who came to visit us every summer and Christmas. I had plenty of people in my life, but if I were to choose another person to let in it would be someone like Eve. She was magnetic, alluring and I could see why Quinn found her so appealing.
If only she weren’t such a threat to my harmony, then yes, maybe we could have been friends.
“I’m
sorry to keep you waiting,” Quinn said, striding into the kitchen. He’d put on a crisp white shirt with black pants and a fresh dose of his spicy aftershave wafted in with him. He walked over to Eve and pressed a fleeting kiss to her cheek. I’d been right, they were exactly the same height.
“Mm, smells good,” he said, coming to my side, sliding his hand onto my butt and planting a lingering kiss to my temple. “Are you all right?” he asked quietly.
“Yes, fine,” I said, leaning into him. “Is Liam coming? This is ready.” 100
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“I’ll shout for him.”
“Would you like me to do anything to help?” Eve asked.
“Sure, get the plates out of the bottom of the Aga and I’ll dish up.” We sat at the large table, me next to Quinn and opposite Eve.
“So, Eve,” Liam said, glancing sideways at her. “Where did you work before Cardiff?”
“I was in Newcastle for six months and before that four months in Hammersmith.”
“You never stay anywhere long then?” Quinn asked, taking a sip of iced water.
“Just until the problems are ironed out, then they move me on.” She scooped in a forkful of chili. “This really is great,” she said, looking at me. “Just the right amount of spice.”
“I’m glad you like it. Liam and Rebecca would eat it much hotter, but then Quinn, Sophie and I can’t cope.”
“Is that the girls?” Eve asked, nodding at the sideboard behind me stacked with photos.
“Yes.” Quinn turned in his seat to point. “This is Rebecca with the blonde hair on her pony, Bramble. They’re a couple of speed demons, always dashing about and flying over jumps.” He smiled. “And this is Sophie with Jasper. They’re a little less wild, but only just.”
“They look delightful.” Eve turned to me again. “And Quinn says they board with their horses. It sounds the perfect childhood for pony-mad little girls.”
“They certainly love it,” I said. “But I’m glad they have each other. If they weren’t twins I would worry about them being lonely.”
“They don’t look identical,” Eve said, glancing back at the rows of photos.
“No, they’re not,” Liam said. “And you can tell by their looks and personalities.” He fell quiet and went back to shoveling in his dinner.
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I often wondered if he thought Rebecca was biologically his. I’d tried to bring it up in a conversation once and he’d snapped at me not to be so whimsical, his sperm had been killed with the nine months of chemotherapy Quinn had prescribed. But he and Rebecca really were very similar. She had the same color eyes as him, a dense navy blue, plus Rebecca was a lot easier going than Sophie, more relaxed in her skin. I’d never brought it up again—he’d seemed so irritated at the suggestion. Quinn, being a scientist at heart, just said it was one of the most unlikely probabilities he could imagine. I deemed it best not to dig.
“Can I ask something personal?” Eve asked, placing down her fork.
“Fire away,” Quinn said. He set down his knife and fork and undid the cuffs on his shirt before carefully folding them over a couple of times.
She paused and watched him. “I know you said you all live here, together, as a family.” She paused. “So do the girls consider themselves to have two fathers?”
“Yes,” Quinn said, picking up his cutlery again. “That’s right.”
“And whose surname do they have?” She gestured between Liam and Quinn.
“Gilbert–Rosser,” I said. “We double-barreled it for me when I married Quinn and Liam.”
She nodded slowly then twisted her mouth as if in confusion. “But isn’t it illegal to marry two men?” She circled her long, delicate fingers in the air, as if searching for words. “So how did you, you know, do it?”
“We’re not married in the eyes of the law,” I replied. “We had a commitment ceremony. A chaplain at the hospital Quinn knew helped us write vows that suited our needs and she performed a quiet and private ceremony in which we all swapped rings.”
“Ah, I see.” Eve took a sip of her wine then resumed eating.
“We changed my name,” I told her. “Sorted out wills so if anything happened to any of us everything would be taken care of, then when the girls came along we gave them the name Gilbert–Rosser too.”
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“So all three of you, in your eyes, became married after this commitment ceremony?”
“Not all three of us,” Liam said quickly. “I’m not married to Quinn, for crying out loud.”
“You’re not?” Eve turned to Liam, her perfectly arched brows raised.
“No,” Liam said with a bemused look. “Why would I marry a dude? I’m not gay.”
“But we do have a very strong bond.” Quinn glanced at Liam with a slight frown.
“Don’t we?”
“Yeah, sure we do,” Liam said. “We’re as close as brothers, if not closer, and I owe you a lot.”
“You mean with the…” Eve touched her hand to her head.
“With the fact he cut into my head and took out the bad shit,” Liam said. “Yeah, I owe him for the last fourteen years I wouldn’t have had if he hadn’t been brave enough to operate when no one else would.”
Eve nodded and my earlier suspicions were confirmed. Quinn had told her about Liam’s past. He didn’t tell just anyone—it proved the depths of the conversations they’d shared.
She took a sip of her drink. “So, let me get this right, Ariane has two husbands but you both have just one wife.”
“Yes,” Quinn said. “Liam and I share Ariane. We’re both busy, we both work crazy long hours, but sharing her means she gets plenty of love and attention. Individually we would neglect her, she would surely leave, but this way there’s nearly always one of us around to take care of her and give her what she needs.” He paused and touched his hand to my forearm, captured my gaze with his. “Is that right?” I smiled and nodded. “Yes, yes it is.”
“Wow, lucky Ariane,” Eve said, her eyes widening at me.
“I am lucky,” I said. “Probably the luckiest woman on earth.” 103
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Eve turned to Quinn. “But don’t you get jealous of the fact that your ‘wife’ sleeps with another man while you’re out at work?”
“No.” He scooped in the last of his rice and rested his knife and fork on his plate. “If I did, the relationship wouldn’t work. The same goes for Liam when Ariane and I get together at night when he’s in his office.”
We were all quiet for a moment. I could almost hear the cogs turning in Eve’s head.
“I hope I’m not speaking completely out of line,” she said, leaning forward in her chair and looking straight at me. “But if you have two lovers, Ariane, wouldn’t it only be fair that your husbands could both take another woman to bed too?” I looked into her hazel eyes, they were wide and challenging. She knew exactly what she was doing and she knew full well she was speaking out of line. Gone was the hesitation, the wariness in her expression. Eve was a clever negotiator and she’d been sounding me out, looking for a weak point to chip away at. But it was nothing I couldn’t handle.
“Quinn and Liam both agreed when we committed ourselves to one another that I could and would sleep with both of them.”
“What, at the same time?” she asked quickly.
“Of course.” I enjoyed the flash of surprise in her eyes. “If we’re all together and in the mood, then yes, my husbands both make love to me at the same time. If I am alone with Liam or Quinn, then we make love alone, as couples.”
“It’s fun,” Liam said, slugging on a beer then wiping his top lip with his index finger. “Like, really good fun—all together, alone, it’s just great.” He grinned and I knew he was trying to keep the mood light. “’Cause Ariane is just so damn sexy.”
“I wouldn’t dispute that for a second,” Eve said, licking her pretty pink lips. “You are one of the most natu
rally beautiful women I’ve ever seen, Ariane.”
“Thank you.” I held her gaze, looking for signs of insincerity in her face. I couldn’t see any. She appeared genuine in her statement.
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“And do you keep this threesome marriage a big secret? I’m guessing not since you were dancing with both Quinn and Liam at Hanrahan’s,” she directed at me.
“No big secret,” Quinn said. “But we don’t shout about it either. We just are, and I’d like it to stay that way. My private life is exactly that, private.” He gave a little huff.
“I don’t think anyone at work would dare say anything to my face about me being in a polygamous relationship and if there are rumors I’ve never heard them.”
“No rumors,” Eve said. “Everyone knows you’re married with kids, but I hear most stuff when the nurses are taking their break and I’ve never heard anything about Liam mentioned.” She paused. “But how do the girls explain and cope with two fathers?”
“Families are made up of all sorts of different relationships these days,” Quinn said.
“People often assume one of us is a stepdad and we don’t bother to explain. The girls know they have two fathers who love them and provide for them and would lay down their lives for them. That’s all that matters.” Eve nodded and lifted her palms. “Well, it all seems utterly perfect. You’re very lucky to have found one another.”
“We are,” I said, topping up Eve’s red wine. “Very lucky indeed.” I glanced at Quinn. The meal was finished, everyone had placed their cutlery down. It was time.
“Going back to what you said earlier, Eve.” My mouth was suddenly dry, my tongue heavy. “About my husbands each taking another lover to make it fair.” Eve shifted her gaze to Quinn then back to me.
“It’s funny you mentioned that,” I said. “Because Quinn and I were talking about it earlier on today. This morning in fact.”
“Oh?” She tilted her chin as she gave me her undivided attention and knotted her fingers at her throat.
“Yes.” I reached for Quinn’s hand under the table. “And he said that if he were to take another woman to bed, it would be you.”
