A Desconian Happily Ever After (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (14 page)

“Remind you of anyone?” Drew asked, glancing at both Ally and David.

“Alex is in good hands,” Kallum said by way of agreement, but he couldn’t quite hide the grief of losing the future they’d so recently planned. Drew pulled him closer and held on tight as they watched the newly reunited family sleep.

* * * *

“Ally, go home and get some rest,” a deep, familiar voice said as a warm hand touched her shoulder. She sat up awkwardly, still half asleep as she checked her surroundings.

“Alex?” she mumbled questioningly.

“Drew took him to get something to eat.” David leaned over and touched her face the way he’d done the day Alex has been born. “You look exhausted. Go home and get some rest.”

“But I want to stay with you,” she said, rubbing her eyes a moment before she realized how it gave away just how tired she truly was. “What if you need something?”

He grinned. It was the same smile he’d given her when he’d put her on the ship to Descon. The confident one that said he could take care of himself.

“I’m fine here. I’ve had more visitors in the past few days than people I thought I knew. Somehow I doubt any of them are going to let me starve.”

She smiled at the reminder. David had saved a lot of other people since putting her on the ship to Descon nearly a full Earth year ago. Many young women and children—most from similar situations on Earth to Ally’s own—had dropped by to express their relief that he was alive, to thank him for getting them off Earth, and to offer their help should he need anything. David had smiled, assured them he was okay, and then asked them about their new lives on Descon.

Every one of them had told him happy stories—even the children who’d come with him and had landed on the planet only a week ago.

“Have Kallum and Drew claimed you yet?”

The question was completely unexpected, but apparently—thanks to all of his visitors—David understood more about the lifestyle on Descon than she’d realized.

“Not yet. We…ah…were…”
Practicing for the mubella ceremony
just didn’t seem the appropriate response. “We hadn’t set a date yet,” she said quietly. But they’d been in the process of doing so. Ally only had a couple of weeks left before her one-year anniversary of her arrival on the planet. By the previous Desconian law she’d been required to marry someone or leave the planet, but with that law now repealed she was no longer on a time limit.

In fact, since David’s arrival, neither Drew nor Kallum had mentioned the mubella claiming ceremony again.

“Ally, what are you doing?” She gave him a startled look, uncertain how to answer the question. “It’s obvious that Drew and Kallum love you and Alex. You have a happy life here. Why are you sitting beside my bed when you could be building a life with the men you love?”

“But I love you, too.”

David sighed softly. “No, Ally, you don’t,” he said gruffly. “You don’t even know me.”

“That’s ridiculous. Of course I know you,” she said, rising to her feet. Her heart was thumping hard against her rib cage, her palms sweating, a feeling of dread permeating every cell in her body. David was pushing her away and she didn’t understand why.

“No, Ally, you don’t know me. I’m just the man who tried to protect you when you were pregnant.”

“That’s not true. You did a lot more than that. You saved me.”

“Just like I saved lots of others,” he said quietly. “Ally, you have a good life here with Drew and Kallum. Don’t throw that away on what you imagine I might feel for you.”

Ally shook her head, backing away from David as emotion clawed at her throat. She couldn’t quite identify what that emotion was, but it left her with a hollow, gutted feeling.

“You’re wrong,” she said, trying to deny what David was very plainly saying. “I’m not one in many. I mean more to you than that.”

“I’m sorry, Ally, you don’t,” David said in a voice filled with emotion. “I will always care for you and Alex, but you need to get on with your lives and let me get on with mine.”

* * * *

Drew stood in the hallway listening to David lie his ass off. It was clear to anyone with eyes that the man loved Ally deeply. He may have saved many more people after he’d gotten her safely off the planet, but his heart belonged to her.

The way he was trying to push her away now said more about the man than any heartfelt declarations of undying love ever could. He loved Ally enough to want what was best for her, regardless of how that might make him feel.

Drew understood that feeling well.

But what surprised him was his growing affection for David.

Kallum appeared at the end of the hallway, Alex in his arms and a bittersweet smile on his face. Letting Ally go was draining the life from him. Drew knew his husband well enough to know he’d do what he felt was best for the woman he loved and the child he already thought of as his own, but now Drew found himself questioning their course of action.

Maybe letting Ally go wasn’t the best solution for any of them.

Drew listened to David still trying to convince Ally that he didn’t love her and made a decision he hoped would work for all of them. He moved toward Kallum, praying that he’d read his husband’s reactions to David correctly and hoping that he had the ability to explain what he had in mind.

* * * *

David’s chest was aching.

Pushing Ally into the arms of two men who loved her shouldn’t have been this hard. The more she protested, the more difficult it became to find lies to convince her that she wasn’t special to him.

He was almost glad when Drew and Kallum stepped into the room with little Alex and interrupted what was fast becoming an unwinnable argument. Ally was refusing to believe anything he said. In some ways he was hoping the other two men had at least heard part of the disagreement so that they could help him convince Ally that she was better off without him.

“Good news,” Kallum said as he checked over the information in the electronic reader at the end of David’s bed. “We can take you home today.”

“Home?” David asked weakly. It seemed a strange description for the overcrowded conditions he’d been told about at the compound.

“Of course,” Kallum said with a smile that seemed somehow shy and confident at the same time. “If you were moving into the compound I’d keep you here a few days longer, but since you’re coming home with us it won’t be a problem. I’ve got the next four days off, so you’ll have your own personal physician on hand should any problem arise.” He glanced at Ally and gave her a loving smile. “And it will be a chance for all of us to catch up on some sleep.”

“But—” David began, yet Drew cut him off as if he’d expected him to argue. Perhaps he had heard the disagreement he and Ally had been having.

“It’s already organized. We have plenty of room.” Drew wrapped his arm around Ally, pulling her into his embrace. The look he gave David seemed important, but he truly had no idea how to interpret it. The embrace didn’t seem as possessive as it probably should have.

“Why don’t you and Ally go grab something to eat while I get David’s discharge paperwork done?” Kallum asked cheerfully.

Drew reached over, grabbed David’s hand for a moment, and then stood back to let Ally press a kiss to David’s cheek. “We’ll be back in a few minutes,” she said with a soft smile.

As soon as Drew, Ally, and Alex left the room, David turned his attention to Kallum.

“Surely you know this is a bad idea.”

“I know nothing of the sort,” Kallum said with a very serious look. “Ally loves you. She deserves to be happy.”

“You and Drew make her happy. You don’t need me getting in the way and messing that up.”

“That’s exactly why we won’t let you go.”

David raised an eyebrow and waited for Kallum to explain that sentence. It certainly didn’t make any sense as a response to his own words. Kallum came closer to the bed, took David’s hand in his own, and pressed them both to his chest.

“You deserve to be happy, too. Ally makes you happy. It’s obvious to anyone who glances your way.”

“But what about you and Drew?” David asked, giving up on the attempt to hide his own feelings. Clearly that wasn’t working.

“She makes us happy, too,” he said, pausing a moment as he seemed to search for the right words. “You know life on Descon is different than what it was on Earth. Ally can love all three of us if that’s what she wants.”

“Drew is okay with this?” David asked, not really certain how to react.

“It was Drew’s idea,” Kallum said in a husky voice.

David shook his head slowly, wondering how he could have been so lucky to meet two such amazing men. He’d barely grasped the idea of people getting married and having sex and raising children in a society that encouraged that sort of behavior. Being asked to share Ally with two other men when he had no clue how that might work was disconcerting.

It was, however, something he desperately wanted to try.

“Please just come home with us,” Kallum said urgently, obviously interpreting David’s reaction as a negative response. “The details will work themselves out. Just give things a chance.”

“If it’s what Ally wants…” David said, uncertain how to finish that sentence.

Kallum smiled, nodded, and reached for the electronic medical file.

* * * *

Ally was so excited she could barely keep her feet on the ground. Drew’s suggestion that she remain with him and Kallum but also have a relationship with David was more than she’d dared hope for. She’d briefly considered suggesting it herself, but it had seemed horribly selfish to ask Drew and Kallum to accept another man into their lives when they barely even knew him.

Fortunately, the relationship they were proposing wasn’t even considered unusual on Descon. Ally’s friend Jenelle had three husbands, and many other human couples had joined with Desconian couples to build a family together, so their relationship wouldn’t be viewed as anything other than normal.

Well, almost normal.

Jenelle’s husbands were all in love with each other as well as with Jenelle.

That thought definitely put Ally’s feet back on the ground.

“What about sleeping arrangements?” she asked worriedly.

Drew pulled her into his embrace, laughing softly as Alex squirmed between them and decided to climb higher. Drew grabbed him just as he dug his toes into Ally’s ribs and tried to launch himself over her shoulder.

“Flying is not an option, little man. You won’t like the landing,” Drew said, dropping a kiss on top of Alex’s forehead. He gripped her son tighter as he released Ally from his embrace. “Personally, I’d like to keep my wife in the same bedroom, even if she is sleeping with someone else, but we’ll let David decide what he’s comfortable with. We have plenty of room.”

“So you still want to marry me?”

“Of course,” he said, smiling widely. “We’re inviting David into our lives because he’s a nice guy and deserves to be happy. The fact that he loves you is something Kallum and I completely understand.” Drew stopped walking and turned to her, his hand reaching out to cup her cheek lovingly. “You’re very easy to love, Ally. It wouldn’t feel right to deny David the same chance we’ve been given.”

“But it won’t be a true Desconian marriage,” Ally said, worrying that Desconian society might condemn them despite the seemingly easy acceptance of alternate lifestyles.

Drew frowned and seemed to search her eyes for a moment. “Don’t worry about things like that now. Just know that you have three men who love you dearly. The rest will work itself out in time.”

“I know you haven’t had a chance to learn much about Desconian life, but well, voyeurism and exhibitionism are a big part of our sex lives. We’d be honored if you would agree to take the bed beside ours,” Drew said as he showed David the huge room with three very large beds that was apparently typical of most Desconian households.

“You want me to watch you defile Ally?” David asked without thinking. He shook his head hard, shocked by the tone of his own voice. When had he become so judgmental? Drew looked like he was trying to hide how much that question hurt him. “I’m sorry,” David said quickly. “It seems that even though I don’t agree with the lifestyle on Earth”—he swallowed hard at the memory that Earth no longer had a lifestyle, no longer had life—“I managed to absorb some of the attitudes.”

“It’s okay,” Drew said seriously. “I used to counsel the refugees at the compound. I’ve heard many people repeat attitudes that they truly didn’t believe in.”

“I’m still sorry,” David said. “It’s obvious that Ally is very happy with you and Kallum. I just remember…” His words faded away as mental pictures of Ally’s injuries after she’d been raped filled his mind. “I’m just surprised that she would want to do something like that after the memories she must have.”

“It wasn’t easy for her,” Drew said, leaning against the wall casually as David hovered in the doorway, “but she worked through the fear because she wanted to be happy. She truly is an amazing woman.” He smiled as if remembering those specific times. “I assure you she very much enjoys our attentions now that she has good memories that outweigh the bad.” He gave David a speculative look. “I know that she’ll want to sleep beside you tonight.”