A Desconian Happily Ever After (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (5 page)

“We haven’t really talked about the future for a long time,” Kallum said, feeling both sorrow at the loss but also hope now that their life together was finally back on track, “but maybe it’s time to consider finding ourselves a mubella.”

Drew stiffened in his embrace, and for a moment Kallum thought maybe he’d misread Drew’s attitude. “I don’t want to find a wife. I want Ally.”

Kallum smiled at his husband’s reply. He wanted Ally, too.

“Perfect,” he said a moment before lifting up to capture Drew’s lips in a kiss. He deepened the contact, almost wishing they’d held on to the habit of being naked in their own home, but also grateful for the reminder that they had a young child in the house now. “We’ll talk to Ally over lunch.”

“You’re okay with this?” Drew asked, sounding a little bit shocked.

“Why wouldn’t I be? Ally is a lovely woman, a great mom, and someone I would love to get to know better.”

Drew shrugged, looking embarrassed again. “I guess I’m still adjusting to being fully recovered.” It sounded like a strange thing to say, especially coming from the man who’d spent the past several months trying to convince Kallum that he was fine. “I’m not sure I can explain it, but I spent so long thinking I was going to die that it’s like a part of me still expects to be denied the future I want.”

“Oh, babe,” Kallum said as he pulled his man closer. He should have anticipated this. They’d spent so long not knowing why Drew was ill and rearranging their lives to accommodate his gradual physical decline that it was actually natural for them to still hold on to those feelings months later. Many doctors had been baffled by Drew’s strange collection of symptoms—Kallum included—and had literally given him only a few more months to live.

Kallum had never felt more frustrated or more useless in his entire life.

It had only been by chance that a medical student had been studying the symptoms of an extremely rare parasite the same day that Drew had been admitted to hospital for yet another round of invasive procedures in the hopes of finding something to explain his symptoms. Thankfully the more experienced doctor in charge had ordered the test. It had most likely been to prove to the young student doctors that it was easy to imagine the symptoms of diseases they were studying at the time, but had instead revealed the tiny parasite lodged deep in Drew’s brain. Ironically, removing the parasite had been rather easy, but it had taken months for Drew to recover from the debilitating injuries it had caused.

But even though he’d recovered physically, Kallum should have been prepared for the lingering emotional issues. If Drew had been one of his patients he might even have warned the patient and their family of the possibilities, but with his husband he’d literally been too close to the problem to see it clearly.

“I’m sorry,” Drew said as he shook in Kallum’s embrace. “I didn’t realize I’m still such a mess.”

“Don’t,” Kallum said, cutting off whatever else Drew was going to say. “Don’t ever apologize for the way you feel. It’s natural for us both to still be affected by what happened.”

Drew laughed softly. “It took so long to accept that I was dying. It’s kind of strange that it’s taking so long to accept that I’m going to live.”

“Strange, maybe,” Kallum said, running his hand up and down his husband’s spine, “but also quite normal. We’re only noticing it now because Ally is here. She represents a future we didn’t think we would have.” He eased back so that he could see his husband’s face. “But it’s a future I would like to explore with you and Ally.”

“I’d like that,” Drew said, leaning down to press a kiss to Kallum’s lips. “I’d like that a lot.”

They were still cuddled together, lost in thought, when Ally came into the kitchen. She mumbled an apology and turned to leave.

“Ally,” Kallum called, beckoning her over with his hand without actually breaking the hold he had on his husband. “Is Alex asleep?”

She smiled, as she always did when speaking about her son. “Out like a light. I think that crawling game really wore him out.” She looked at the way they held each other, hesitated, but then asked her question anyway. “Is everything okay?”

“Of course,” Kallum said as Drew reached over and gripped her hand lightly. “We were actually talking about you.” He saw the fear in her eyes and cursed his poorly delivered words.

“In a good way,” Drew said, gently drawing her closer. Kallum brushed a hand over her shoulder and held his breath as she came to them both willingly. Carefully, they embraced her between them, giving her ample time and space to move away if she felt it necessary. Fortunately, she cuddled into them instead of freaking out.

“We were wondering if you would consider extending your stay with us. Maybe even get to know us better.” Kallum tried to keep his touch on her shoulders light, surprised to realize he had to hold back a rather possessive need to hold her closer. It would seem his feelings already ran deeper than he’d realized.

“I can’t abuse your hospitality like that,” Ally said, apparently missing his point. “I truly appreciate the chance to give Alex a break from living in the compound, but sooner or later you’re going to want your space back.”

“What we mean,” Drew said, touching her face lightly, “is would you consider staying here and perhaps exploring the idea of a future for the three of us?”

“Three of us?” she asked, sounding confused.

“You know Desconian marriages come in threes,” Drew said, seeming confused by her confusion. “Don’t you?”

“Um, yes, I know they come in threes. I just didn’t realize you were looking for a wife.”

“Ally,” Kallum said, beginning to worry that they were frightening her with their badly worded suggestion, “it’s okay to decline. We’ll still be your friends and you and Alex are welcome here anytime. We just thought it might be nice to explore the possibilities. But it’s okay if you don’t want to.”

“I want to,” she said, sending joy zipping through him. Hell, they’d known Ally and her son for months, but this was the first time Kallum was identifying the feelings that had been growing for her. As much as he loved little Alex, it was his mother who’d first captured his heart. “But, well, wouldn’t it be easier to find a wife who isn’t”—she gave them a sad smile and dragged in a deep breath as if she couldn’t quite breathe properly—“broken?”

“Sweetheart,” Kallum said, drawing the woman closer despite realizing it was probably the wrong thing to do, “you’re not broken. You’re traumatized. We can help you through it. Drew and I can show you what it feels like to be touched lovingly.”

“But there’s no rush,” Drew said quickly. “We can wait until you’re ready. You said this morning that you hoped one day soon you’d be able to let someone love you. Let that someone be me and Kallum.”

“Just say you’ll think about it,” Kallum said as he leaned over and pressed a kiss to Ally’s forehead the same way he’d done earlier that morning.

“I’ll think about it,” Ally said with a half smile.

* * * *

Ally felt guilty for the nervous, bubbly excitement building in her belly. It was true that they were friends, but it didn’t guarantee things would work out for the three of them if they pursued a deeper relationship. She’d heard one of the counselors at the compound talking about “emotional baggage” and the description seemed to fit her perfectly. She carried an awful lot of emotional baggage with her.

But she didn’t want to any longer. She wanted to feel whole, to feel normal, to feel loved.

“Can you kiss me?” Drew asked in an echo of her own words earlier that day.

She grinned, realizing exactly what he was doing. “As long as it’s okay with Kallum,” she said with just a hint of a laugh in her voice. It actually felt kind of freeing to be able to talk with them like this.

“It’s definitely okay with me,” Kallum said, grinning widely. “In fact, I might even ask you the same question when you’re finished.”

Determined to take this step forward, Ally lifted onto her toes and pressed a light kiss to Drew’s lips. As had happened earlier, a single touch simply wasn’t enough and she found herself lifting up again, smiling against Drew’s mouth as he brushed their lips together over and over. Instinctively she pressed closer, surprised to realize that his arms fully encircled her waist. The incredible part was that, not only wasn’t she freaking out, but she actually felt safe even in the middle of two men capable of hurting her if they so wished.

That last thought sent a lightning bolt of fear arcing through her, but she refused to give it power, refused to give in to the terror that was in her past. The euphoria that decision created was completely unexpected. She giggled quietly and leaned back to look up at Drew.

Obviously her strange reaction confused them because both men were nearly frozen in place. She hated that her history meant they were tippy-toeing around her like that.

“Sorry,” she said quickly, hoping to reassure them, “that was a good laugh. I just never realized that actually facing my fears would be less frightening than
thinking
about facing my fears. I know that probably doesn’t make any sense, but kissing you and being held by you both are far less frightening than I imagined.”

“Perhaps a part of it was that you had no comparison, nothing but your awful memories to go by,” Kallum offered.

“I like the sound of that actually,” she said, feeling a worry that she’d held since learning of Descon’s immigration laws dissolve from her mind. “I can build new memories starting now.”

“So you’ll stay?” Drew asked, sounding cautiously excited.

“I would really like that, but only if you two are in agreement.”

“Absolutely,” Kallum said, gently turning her in Drew’s embrace. “Can you kiss me now, please?”

She nodded happily, lifted her face up to his, and started building happy memories.

“Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom,” her son chanted happily as she quickly cleaned up the chair, the floor, the kitchen, her hair…Rice paste was definitely off the menu.

“Again?” Drew asked as he came into the kitchen.

“Afraid so.” She concentrated as she replied, careful to pronounce the word “afraid” correctly. Since landing on this planet she’d only just begun to realize how poor her language skills were. She’d spent considerable time trying to learn the correct pronunciation of the words she knew and even more time learning new ones since landing on the planet. There was no way she wanted to pass such a disadvantage on to her child.

“I think we can safely say this little guy knows what he wants. Rice paste is definitely not on the list.”

“Agreed,” she said with a laugh. “Are you going into the compound today?”

She’d been here for several Desconian weeks now and Drew hadn’t shown any inclination of returning to continue the good work he’d been doing with the humans who’d arrived recently. The only times they’d gone into the compound were to do the official paperwork, gather her meager possessions, and say good-bye to the women she’d known. Considering that many of the women she’d arrived with had already met and married Desconian partners, it hadn’t taken very long.

“Not today,” Drew said casually, too casually if she wasn’t mistaken.

“Why not?”

He came over, picked a glob of rice paste out of her hair, and then held her close. She no longer felt any fear when Kallum and Drew held her like this, even when they held her tightly and kissed her possessively, but neither of them had pushed her for anything more—something she was both grateful for and a little annoyed by.

“I’d rather stay here with two of my favorite people,” Drew said with a shrug.

“Is it because you don’t want to leave me and Alex here alone?”

“I suppose that’s part of it,” Drew said before lifting her onto the bench and pressing his lips to hers. She sighed, opening her mouth wider as his tongue swept inside and explored the dark recess. His hands roamed her back, pressing her closer as the kiss went on and on and on.

Of course the mood was broken when her own personal cheer squad started to chant her name once more. Drew moved away, laughing softly as he helped her off the bench and back onto her feet.

Ally pressed her lips together and tried to remember what they were talking about before Drew had done such a good job of distracting her.

“We’ll be okay by ourselves here,” she said, trying to get back on track. Drew and Kallum’s apartment was actually located in one of the most secure buildings in the city. They very literally had a squad of highly trained security guards specifically to keep unauthorized people out of the building.

“I wish that was true,” Drew said, surprising her with his sad admission. “Human women capable of producing children are rare and, unfortunately, highly prized. The fact that you already have a child places you in even more danger.”

“Seriously?” she asked, feeling more than a little unnerved by Drew’s honest words. “I never realized Descon was such a dangerous planet.” Echoes of the fear she’d felt living on Earth shuddered through her. Drew was quick to pull her back into his arms. She clung to him in a way she never would have dreamed of doing with another person on Earth.

“I’m sorry,” Drew said, running his hand over her hair and down her spine. “I phrased that badly. We have no reason to believe that any of our neighbors would do something so despicable. We’re just being overly cautious. Descon is actually a very peaceful planet. It’s only in the past decade or so that the birthrate has dropped to alarming proportions. Desconians are becoming desperate to start a family and unfortunately there are greedy people out there willing to make that possible.”