by Mia Moon
I already knew I didn’t want it to stop.
When dawn crept in, I woke to find myself alone with Pax. I blinked up at the foil garland. Six wrappers. Three whole additional times. Sealed into my heart. Seared into my soul. But the warmth of the single, perfect man who was tangled around me still left me longing. Where were the others? Had the dream ended?
Pax’s heart beat a steady rhythm against my back. One arm circled my waist, my ass pulled tight around an erection he had no awareness of. His other arm was tucked under my neck. He was my pillow and my blanket. My comfort and strength. Would he leave me alone, too, when the sun broke over him?
I shook my head and reminded myself not to be silly. There was something here. Something big. I almost giggled out loud. Something big besides three enormous penises.
I stretched slowly, unraveling myself from Pax’s hold bit by bit so I wouldn’t wake him. That whirlwind was calm. I was in the eye of the storm. He was at peace, and he was still so very beautiful.
Sounds and scents registered in my senses and I peered into what I could see of the kitchen from my position on the floor. Ethan’s blond head appeared and disappeared. Soft humming of a Christmas tune joined the chorus of bacon sizzling in a pan.
I somehow managed to locate a shirt in the jumble of sheets and pillows. I slipped it on and padded into the kitchen where I found Ethan, fully dressed and icing a pan of cinnamon rolls.
Ethan stopped his work right away, coming straight to me and hooking an arm around my waist before he dropped a sweet kiss on my lips. It lingered only long enough to promise me there would be more before he backed away and beamed down at me. “Morning, sweetheart. How did you sleep?”
I chuckled and tugged at the hem of the shirt—Ty’s, I thought. “Like the dead,” I said, feeling a blush creep over my cheeks, “when I slept, at least.”
“I’m not surprised,” Ethan said with a laugh. “Seemed like we wore you out.”
“No complaints,” I told him.
“Now that’s what I like to hear, baby,” he said with a wink as he turned his attention to the bacon in the pan.
“Where’s Ty?” I asked.
Ethan’s lip twitched with a smirk. “Missing out already?”
I nibbled my bottom lip, and Ethan paused what he was doing again to look over at me. His brows lowered when I peeked up at him.
“He went out to check the conditions down below. It can be hard to tell, sometimes, from way up here in our castle. Why? What’s wrong?” he asked. His jaw ticked—not in annoyance, I realized, when he blinked and looked away, his shoulders sagging. He thought…oh. He thought I was going to reject them. And there I was, worrying they would reject me.
“Yep, missing out already,” I said, mirroring his tease, trying to lighten the mood back up.
Ethan was big and brawny. Probably often mistaken for a dumb jock. I hadn’t noticed it the day before, in the commanding way he carried himself. That friendly manner that had more than a hint of take-charge. But the way his blue eyes studied me in that moment showed me he was no dumb jock—no dumb cop, either. He was observant. Well, hell. He’s told me as much, hadn’t he? So, when he turned to face me, I wasn’t surprised to see the questions in his eyes.
“You thinking of cutting out on us, Hope?” he asked, straight to the point.
I wanted to answer boldly. To tell him how much my heart would ache to walk away from what we’d all found the night before. But in the light of day… I floundered. “Depends,” I murmured. “Are you guys ready for me to go?”
“Give me a sec,” he said. He turned the pan of bacon up, tipping the crispy contents out onto a paper towel-covered plate. Then he turned the stovetop off. “Come with me, baby,” he said, reaching for my hand.
I slipped my fingers within his and let him lead me back over to the sofa. In the makeshift bed, Pax’s head was barely visible where he’d shifted beneath the sheets, still deep in sleep. He’d definitely done his best to make up for the moment of time we’d lost before his walls tumbled down. My core clenched at the thought.
Ethan tugged me down into his lap, cradling me against him and putting a hand to my head, pulling me in so he could place a soft kiss on my cheek. “Told you we wanted this, baby,” he said.
“I know,” I said. “But…”
“No 'buts' on our end, sweetheart,” he said. “Not unless you tell us you don’t want us.”
“But how would it even work? In the light of day, I mean. Like…” I tried to collect my thoughts. If anything, I wanted to encourage him. To make him understand I wanted this. And I didn’t want it to be some dirty secret. “What if I wanted to introduce you—all of you—to my family?”
Ethan placed his hand over my heart. Sweet heat seeped through my shirt. “Friends,” he offered with a shrug. “Or you could choose one of us to say is your boyfriend. And the others are friends?”
“I couldn’t choose,” I whispered, heart squeezing painfully when I considered picking between them.
“Boyfriends, then,” Ethan said with a shrug.
“Fiancés,” Pax mumbled from within the sheets. “Or husbands. That’s even nicer.”
I laughed out loud, shocked, as I glanced back to where he was still bundled in the bed. “I can’t have multiple husbands. Literally not legal.”
The blankets shifted with the lazy shrug of his shoulders. “Technicalities. Commitment is commitment, doesn’t matter what you call it.”
Chapter 9
I thought he was joking, but when Pax lifted his sleep-rumpled head, his shy smile told me he was serious. “It can work,” he said. “It will work if we all want it to, angel.”
He mussed a hand through his hair before he rolled up onto his knees and crawled our way. “And we most definitely want it to.”
My body flamed at his approach. How quickly I’d gone from not knowing them to anticipating what I’d let them do to me next. But Pax stopped at Ethan’s kneecaps and simply tucked his head into my lap. No racing, reaching tongue or fingers. A simple connection that would have brought me to my knees if I’d been standing. I threaded my fingers into his soft, dark hair, holding him close.
“The question is, and always will be, do you still want us, Hope.”
The sentiment was spoken softly from Pax’s lips, but Ethan nodded in agreement. “All we want you to do is take it one day at a time. All we can hope is that you wake up every morning and choose us again and again.” Ethan tucked his knuckle under my chin and tipped my face toward his. “So, sweetheart, what are you choosing today?”
There was no hesitation. “You. All of you,” I answered.
That was all it took for Ethan to claim my mouth again. Pax stirred when I moaned, his fingers reaching for me.
The front door opened and shut. “Well, it’s official. The roads are wrecked for now. Frozen deathtraps. No one is going anywhere today,” Ty said. Then there was a hesitation in his footsteps and an intake of breath. “Man, you leave to check the road for one minute, and it all happens without you,” his teasing voice came from over Ethan’s shoulder.
The guys broke away with laughs, but when I looked at Ty, that dark swirl in his eyes was deeper than it had been the night before. His gaze met mine before his brows twitched and he looked away.
The threat of rejection looked different on Ty. It made him hold himself back, and he was too good for that to hinder him.
“Hey,” I murmured, making contact with both Pax and Ethan, looking between them. “Would you guys mind going and checking on the other people who’ve stayed behind again? Maybe warn them not to venture out?”
I thanked them both as much as I could without words when they read my face and caught on.
“Of course, baby. Great thinking,” Ethan said.
“That’s our girl. Only greedy in bed,” Pax teased, giving me one last squeeze. “Let me grab some real clothes. Won’t take more than a minute.”
“Breakfast when you get back?” I asked, letting Ethan help
me out of his lap.
“Sounds perfect, sweetheart.” He scooped me into a hug and whispered right against my ear, “He’s with us, too. I swear he is. He’s just scared. This is so new for us. I know you feel it, too.”
I smiled my understanding as he broke away from me.
I went around the back of the sofa to Ty. Even as dark as the clouds were in his eyes, he anxiously swept me into his arms. Clung to me like I was his raft. His anchor. “Hope,” he whispered, claiming my lips with a searing kiss.
“Cinnamon rolls and Christmas presents when we get back,” Pax called as he and Ethan eased out the door.
Ty didn’t break the kiss. I had to admit, it was shocking and wonderful—the way these men were capable of sharing me and of letting me have private moments. No jealousy. No possessiveness. Well, maybe directed to the rest of the world. But not between them. And I didn’t have plans to give them any cause to worry about the rest of the world.
“Merry Christmas, beautiful,” Ty said, burying his face in my hair as he kept me tucked tightly against him. His arms banded so securely around my waist, I almost had to dip back to look up at him.
“Merry Christmas,” I replied, reaching up to smooth his brow. “Seems like it could be merrier for you.”
He laughed and moved a hand to grasp my fingers, peppering kisses across the tips. Avoiding what I’d said.
“What’s holding you back, Ty?” I pressed.
He closed his eyes and held me there, swaying to unheard music. “It’s hard for me to trust people, Hope,” he offered. “To believe in their sincerity.”
Quiet fell between us as we continued to sway, but I didn’t speak. I could feel the story building in him.
“I know you’d never believe it by looking at me now,” he continued with a joking lilt in his voice, “but I was a bit of a nerd growing up.”
I tucked my head against his chest, listening to him talk. I could feel the tension in his muscles and the way he had to catch his breath as he opened up to me.
“I had a bullshit relationship with my family. My dad is big-time in banking. More money than brains. More brains than heart. He doesn’t understand the idea of helping people. Like…doesn’t get it at all. No care in the world except for himself. My mom and siblings are right there with him. It’s like all they want out of life is to spend Dad’s money and look perfect for all the events he drags them to. I never…” he trailed off, and I could feel the hard catch of his throat when he swallowed.
“I never was that way. Didn’t fit in. And when I was old enough to understand it—to realize I was different, I stopped trying. Refused to go to benefit dinners. Wouldn’t be seen anywhere I’d end up in a picture with them. Vapid. Soul-sucking. I hated it. I started doing volunteer work during those times. Not that we were big stars or anything. But my dad has his fingers in all the very best pies, so that was usually enough to end up in the newspaper or an article online.”
He continued rocking us in our gentle dance, and we drifted closer to the fireplace. Its warm glow lit the side of his face when I looked up at him. He was cast half in shadows, but those gold flecks swam with emotion.
“They all but disowned me,” Ty said. “I put myself through med school. Had to fight for every connection I made because my family was always there. They just wouldn't let me go—and it wasn’t because they cared. They wanted to wreck it all for me. It was like what we had wasn’t even real. Like I was some stranger who’d been dropped into their lives. Someone they hated but couldn’t get rid of.”
I reached up to cup his cheek. His face was scruffy with the pale dusting of a beard waiting to be, and when he leaned into me, the fine hairs tickled my fingers.
“I want something real, Hope,” he told me, threading his free hand into my hair and gazing into my eyes. “Someone who gets me. Who understands how much I hate the hospital dinners I have to attend a few times a year. How much they remind me of that bullshit part of my childhood. Someone who doesn’t roll her eyes when I have to take a call or when I’m too worried about a patient to leave the hospital. My family tried to force me to choose between caring for people and being with them. But they didn’t offer me any love. I’ll never understand why they can’t love when it feels like that’s all I can do.”
He closed his eyes as I continued to stroke his cheek. I pressed myself as tight as I could get to him, and still, it wasn’t close enough. Feeling his heaviness made my heart ache for him. I wanted to make him smile again—but I didn’t want to be disrespectful of the undoubtedly painful truth he was placing at my feet.
“Maybe,” I murmured, lifting on my tiptoes to plant a chaste kiss on his lips, “you got all the love. Maybe there wasn’t any in the rest of them because you got it all. I’m so sorry they couldn’t see that. Couldn’t see how big your heart is. What a good, good man you are, Ty.”
He sighed and leaned down to reach my lips, taking them with slow need—searching for reassurance.
“I can understand what’s holding you back,” I whispered, leaning back to search his face. “But, I promise you. I swear to you. I’m real. I see you. I get you.”
“You might leave,” Ty whispered. “You might take all the love I see in you with you, Hope.”
“And I feel the same way about you,” I told him.
He shook his head adamantly. “No. No way. Here for the long haul.”
I laughed and poked a gentle finger into his chest. “So easy to say, isn’t it? Do you believe yourself when you say that?”
He nodded and spun me around, bringing his chest to my back, tucking my close and leaning to whisper in my ear. “I’ve never been more certain of anything. And I’m a surgeon, beautiful. I have to be totally fucking certain every second of my life.”
“Then give me some credit,” I answered, turning my head to meet his lips. “I can be certain, too.”
He chuckled, burying his face in my hair. “Oh, beautiful, beautiful Hope. What the fuck did I do with my life before you came into it?”
“You mean, like, a day ago?” I teased.
He shook his head. “Can’t be that short. Feels like forever. Want it to be.” With those words, I felt the heavy nudge of his erection bobbing between my naked ass cheeks.
“I do, too,” I said against his lips. I ground myself back against him, feeling my cheeks spread around the thick bulge in his pants.
“Tease,” he said with a sweet laugh. He ground into me, just the same.
“Not a tease,” I murmured, stroking his arms, holding them against my waist to give me the leverage to push my ass back into him again. “An offering. A promise.”
He stilled immediately. “What are you saying, sweetheart?”
“Let me give you something I’ve never given anyone in exchange for the truth you’ve given me.”
He groaned, and his dick twitched so hard I thought it might tear through his pants. “That’s a big move, beautiful. What about Pax and Ethan? They’ve got their own truths.”
“And I’m sure I have something to offer them,” I said, arching back into him again. “Please, Ty.”
He moved a hand down my hip. “Love you in my t-shirt with that sweet ass just barely peeking out when you move the right way.” He slipped his hand around to my ass, bare under the long hem of his shirt. He lovingly stroked my cheek before grasping it lightly. The move stretched the skin. Pulled at my ass. “It’s not usually easy the first time,” he whispered, stilling his hand. “Are you sure?”
Now that I’d offered it, I was so sure if he didn’t do it, I’d implode. His teasing fingers so close to that tight, dark hole had my heart running sprints.
“Please,” I moaned when he circled his fingers closer to the cleft between my cheeks. “Give me all you can. I’m giving you all I have.”
He shuddered against my back. “Damn, sweetheart. You are greedy where it counts.”
I laughed and nudged my ass against him again. “I want what I want,” I taunted as I broke his hold and hau
led the shirt over my head.
My bare body ached for his touch as I backed away, teasing, taunting, tempting.
It took Ty no time at all to ditch the layers he was wearing and break open the box of condoms on the displaced coffee table. He tore one from the long chain that rolled out of the box and came to me, kissing, licking, tasting every inch of my mouth.
“You have to be relaxed,” he said against my mouth. “Want another one of my world-class massages?”
I laughed as I hooked my arms around the back of his neck. “I’ll never, ever refuse any of the magic you can make with your hands,” I told him.
With that, he tugged me down onto the mattresses.
Chapter 10
Ty positioned me face down. He wasn’t lying about those world-class massages—not that I’d have doubted him after the hot foot rub the night before. His well-trained hands worked wonders on me I’d never imagined. By the time he moved his hands to my ass, my pussy was leaking onto the bed beneath us.
“Fuck, beautiful,” he whispered when he saw the mess I was making. He reached around me to tip my hips up a little before he leaned in and cleaned me with his tongue. From hot massage to tongue bath—my very own little mini spa morning. I giggled into the pillows when he nibbled his way back up to my ass.
Those skillful hands started to knead my ass cheeks as he continued the sensual assault with his mouth. His tongue slid up and down my crack, relaxing me more with every pass. I gasped out and rocked against him when he stopped to linger at the hole. He teased it with his tongue, sliding around and around in circles before pressing lightly against me with just the pinpoint tip of his tongue. Precise. Surgical. But not impersonal or professional feeling.
He knew what he was doing. He was gifted. And I had no qualms with his accuracy. It seemed like every press of his tongue shot lightning straight to my swollen pussy. I could feel my own arousal dripping down my thighs in the angle he held me, and my legs shook.
I felt him lean over me and then he nudged my hips again, scooting a pillow beneath them. “Better?”
