Love Under Three Titans (23 page)

This certainly wasn’t the picture Maggie had had in mind when she’d decided to bare her heart and soul to the men she loved. She’d hoped for a nice, candlelit dinner, maybe some soft music in the background, and some delicious, full-bodied, and very potent wine.

Potent just in case she got set on her ass and needed it.

A stark but functional room in the town’s clinic, with its ghastly show-every-flaw lighting and antiseptic ambience, really was not the most ideal setting for the declaration she had in mind.

She was aging a year a second, waiting for Kevin’s response to her question.

“No, baby. No, I’m not changing the subject. You have to know by now I’m a smart-ass down to the bone. Sometimes I say things without even thinking.” He shrugged and gave her that little-boy grin of his. Then his expression sobered. “I’m sorry. I can’t help it.”

She saw remorse in his eyes and hated it. “I’m glad you’re a smart-ass. I am, too. We speak each other’s language, you and I. You have to know how special that is.”

“
Maggie
.”

She could see in his eyes her words touched him deeply. He leaned over and kissed her lightly, his lips almost reverent.

She turned her attention to Trevor. “You and I connect, too, in a way that feels special. You seem to know my moods, understand when I need you to touch me or encourage me. There’s a part of me, an emotional part, that I’ve mostly had to protect, keep hidden all my life. That’s a very lonely way to live. Since meeting you, that part of me isn’t lonely or in hiding so much anymore.”

“Thank you, sweetheart.” Trevor kissed her much as his brother had.

She turned her head and looked up. Richard was watching her in that silent, motionless, and very sexy way of his, and she felt her heart turn over and her juices begin to gather.

“You get me. I’ve been accused by more than one friend of being the most literal, anal, and linear thinker they know. I can’t help it. When I was five, I used to line my stuffed animals up in alphabetical order.”

“With me, it was my army men. Rank first, alpha by last name second.” Richard grinned.

Maggie grinned right back at him. “What I’m trying to say is that each of you completes a part of me. I never could have dreamed such a thing would be possible, even though you told me it was that very first day, at Tamara and Morgan and Henry’s commitment ceremony. But it is, and you do, and I want more than just fun and games with you. I love you. I love each of you, equally and totally and completely.”

Maggie felt her heart racing and her palms begin to sweat. There, she’d said it, and she wanted to scream as the men—
her men
—just stood there, looking at each other, communicating in that psychic way they had.

“Yeah, about the fun and games thing,” Kevin said.

Trevor inhaled and then cleared his throat. “Yeah, about that. We have to come clean.”

Richard said, “We lied.” He shrugged. “We had a plan. We were going to tell you it was fun and games and give you all the sex you craved.”

“That way,” Trevor said, “we figured your body would become addicted to us.”

“We hoped that eventually you’d realize that you loved us. And, loving us, would ask us to marry you.” Kevin’s gaze never left hers.

“But we’ve changed our minds,” Richard said. He tilted his head to one side. “We’re the ones who want to do the asking.”

Someday when Maggie was old and gray and needed a cane to walk, she was going to use it to hit Richard over the head for that two-second delay. Her heart had damn-near stopped between one sentence and the next.

Maggie looked at each of the brothers in turn and couldn’t prevent her eyebrow from rising. “I’m not hearing any questions here, gentlemen,” she said.

They grinned like the unrepentant teases they all three were.

“Margaret Mary Morrison, we love you with all our hearts.” Richard looked at each of his brothers and then turned his attention back to her. “It was never fun and games for us, love, but the most sacred of quests. We knew, the moment we laid eyes on you, that you were the one for us.”

“We’d given up on finding you, sweetheart. And then,
finally
, there you were.”

“If anyone asks us in the future to define love, or joy, or forever, baby, the definition for all three concepts would be the same. It’s you. We simply can’t live without you, because you complete us, too.”

Richard brought her hand to his lips. Heat spread through her body from that small, chaste kiss. “Please marry us, love. Be our wife, our lover, and our best friend. Be the mother of our children and grow old with us.”

Maggie had never believed such a moment as this would ever be hers. She’d put herself firmly in the old-maid column on the spreadsheet of life and considered it a miracle when she discovered she could at least be an aunt and a great-aunt.

Wife and mother were dreams she’d surrendered. Yet here they stood, waiting for her to claim them. Maggie felt her vision blur and her throat tighten.

And she felt so much love swell within her, she didn’t know how she could hold it all in.

“Yes. Oh, yes please. I want so very much to marry you and have your babies.”

Richard’s smile was so beautiful, so love-filled, she couldn’t help but reach for him. His lips took hers, hot and wet and so damned delicious. Their tongues tangled, and Maggie felt her nipples pucker and her pussy lips begin to hum in anticipation.

Richard eased his lips from hers, and then Trevor leaned down. He kissed her as she’d never been kissed, a sweet yet totally carnal kiss that thrilled and aroused, that soothed and warmed.

Trevor’s taste was still on her tongue when Kevin’s mouth devoured hers. His tongue swept and smoothed and savored her, and Maggie knew she was the luckiest woman in the world.

She’d discovered the elixir of life, the nectar of the gods, and the secret to eternal happiness. Her very own personal man-cocktail of one part Richard, one part Trevor, and one part Kevin filled her up, heart and mind, body and soul. She’d discovered love under three titans, a treasure more precious to her than any fortune could ever be.

“Please.” She smiled at each of them and sighed when they each laid a hand on her, touching her and connecting them. “Please, let’s go home. I want to be with you. I want to be filled by you. I need your flesh on mine and in mine. I want us to be one.”

“All right, Maggie, love. Let’s go home.”

The men wanted to carry her, but she insisted on walking out of the clinic under her own steam. Maggie was moved to tears that so many people filled the waiting room, there because they cared about her. They cheered when they saw her. It took her a while to make her way through, but that was okay.

She could truly say she’d never mattered to so many people in her life before. Her men had been right. She did belong to Lusty now. And Lusty, thank God, belonged to her.

Kate Benedict hugged her hard. Then she stood back and examined Maggie’s face. “You’re going to have a bruise, but the other guy looks a lot worse, and good for you.” Then the diminutive matriarch reached out and grabbed Richard’s right hand, turning it over and showing Maggie his bruised knuckles. “I should say,
both
of the other guys look worse.”

Maggie looked up at Richard, and he actually blushed. “It’s a bit of a long story, love. Briefly, there was an intelligence agent—a friend of Dev and Drew’s, actually—who’d been playing Conrad. When that bastard asked for personal details on me, he gave him your name and the fact that we were involved.”

“To be fair to the man, that was when he, and the rest of us, thought Conrad was harmless.” Devon Wakefield stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her. “Glad you’re all right, Maggie.”

“Actually, Connor Talbot invited me to deck him and stood there and took it.” Richard flushed again, and Maggie thought he looked cute.

“I was a little upset at the time,” Richard concluded, “and so took advantage of the opportunity.”

“Actually, you
hogged
that opportunity all to yourself,” Trevor said.

Kevin nodded. “We both would have liked a piece of him, too.”

“My heroes,” Maggie said. Then she smiled. “I think I’m going to have to apologize to this Connor Talbot at some point.”

“Nah,” Drew James said. He hugged Maggie, too, and then stepped back. “Talbot’s a big boy. He can take it.”

Julia stood between her men but stepped forward to hug Maggie as well. The young woman seemed awfully weepy. She stood back and tried to laugh through her tears. “It’s been an emotional day. I just found out that my triplet brothers aren’t the jerks I’ve always thought they were.”

Maggie wondered if that was all there was to it. But she said, “Of course they aren’t. They’re just your brothers, and they love you very much.”

“Yes, I’m finally getting that.” Julia had a smile as beautiful as her brothers’. Maggie was looking forward to making a good friend in her.

Soon they were out on the sidewalk, and Maggie inhaled deeply of the warm Texas spring air. No, she couldn’t smell the ocean here. She was beginning not to miss it quite so much.

* * * *

Maggie had nearly forgotten that Ginny and Samantha Kendall were waiting for her back at the inn. She’d dreaded stepping back into her parlor and facing whatever mess she’d left behind.

She needn’t have worried. The bookcase had been righted, and the books put back exactly the way she’d had them. The room smelled fresh and airy.

She turned to Ginny. Her niece smiled. “You left your computer on. When I called and asked Richard about the books that were all over the floor he told me you’d have a spreadsheet.” Then Ginny laughed. “Boy howdy, Aunt Maggie, you have a
lot
of spreadsheets.”

Maggie hugged her niece, whose use of her title was surely one of the sweetest terms of endearment she’d ever heard.

“I do, indeed. But I’ll bet Richard has more than I do.”

“Don’t worry, love.” Richard set his hands on her shoulders and squeezed gently. “I’ll help you catch up.”

“I can see nights in our future of these two with their heads together as they commune at the temple of Excel,” Trevor said.

“Maybe I can film a documentary on the subject,” Kevin said.

Maggie laughed and then gave Ginny another hug. She saw the tears glistening in the younger woman’s eyes and understood the emotion. Ginny was trembling, and Maggie needed to assure her that she was fine. “I’m okay, honey. It’s just a concussion.”

“And a bruise,” she said softly. “Just like last time.”

“Busted
that
SOB’s head, too.” Then Maggie recalled the detailed account of her niece’s single-handed capture of that same bastard. She grinned. “Eventually the word will get around that folks better not mess with the Morrison-Rose women,” Maggie said.

“That would be Morrison-Benedict and Rose-Kendall,” Richard said.

Ginny’s eyes lit up at the backhanded announcement.

Maggie smiled. “I stand corrected.”

Then she gave Samantha a hug, too. “Thank you so much for taking care of things here.”

“You’re welcome. There’s a large pot of soup on the stove, and fresh bread wrapped in foil on the counter. Abby’s still in Houston, but Bernice will be by later with dinner for y’all.”

Maggie felt torn between wanting the women to stay and wishing them already gone. She wanted to be with her men.

Both women laughed as if they completely understood her. All things considered, Maggie guessed they probably did.

“You call if you need anything,” Ginny said.

Maggie looked behind her and met the gazes of the three men, who’d formed a bit of a cadre behind her. Then she turned to her niece. “Thanks, but I think I’m in pretty good hands, here.”

Ten minutes later Maggie wanted to take back that last statement.

“But I feel
fine
. Really. I just want us to be…I want us to be
one
.” Damn it, did she have to spell it out for them? Maybe she did.

Because at the moment they were tucking her into her bed.
To have a nap
.

“I want to make that picture y’all painted for me. I want Kevin in my mouth, Trevor in my pussy, and Richard in my ass. I want you all three inside me, all at the same time.”

“Do you think we don’t want that very thing ourselves?” Kevin stared at her and then reached down to the front of his body. His hand caressed over his cock, and Maggie understood he was already hot and hard and horny.

She noticed then that both Trevor and Richard were in an identical state.

Richard stepped forward, picked her up, and laid her in the bed. Then he covered her with the blankets and bent over so that she had no choice but to meet his gaze. “Do you have
any
idea how terrified we were this afternoon? We
knew
Conrad had gone after you. Jesus Christ, Maggie. We were terrified we were going to be too late.”

Richard’s voice, for all its unfamiliar fierceness, broke. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply as he rested his forehead on hers.

“I’m sorry.” Maggie had seen their faces, the tension and the fear. She just hadn’t understood how deep their emotions had run. “I’m sorry. While it was happening, all I could do was hope that somehow y’all would get the telepathic SOS I was sending you.”

When he opened his eyes, she saw an expression in them she’d never seen before. “Then, not an hour ago, we had to stand quietly by and listen as you confessed to the sheriff how totally reckless and brazen and foolhardy you had been.”

Maggie felt the urge to shrink back even as she swallowed. A quick check of her other lovers told her that they were right there with Richard. She realized they were furious—and that anger was directed at her.

“Um… I’m sorry?”

“Do you think she thinks if she says ‘sorry’ enough times that we won’t punish her for endangering herself and putting us through hell?” Kevin’s tone sounded curious.

“If she does,” Trevor said, “she won’t for long.”

“So you’re leaving me alone in this bed as punishment?” Maggie thought that would make the absolute worst punishment of all time.

“No, love. And we aren’t going to leave you alone in this bed. Two of us will be with you constantly. We’re just not going to make love to you. Not until Robert declares you sufficiently recovered from your injury.”

“But that’s not for three whole days!” Maggie was totally unashamed of her petulant tone. At that moment, three days felt like a life time.

“Nothing is more important to us than you being healthy and safe, Margaret Mary Morrison, soon to be Benedict.
Nothing
.”

“Which is why, as soon as Robert gives the okay, we’re going to turn you over our knees and spank the living daylights out of you.” Trevor’s announcement was the last thing she ever thought he’d say.

“You’re going to
what
?” Oh, how hard it was to look and sound incensed when what she really felt was intrigued and aroused. Still, it wouldn’t necessarily do to let them know just the thought of being spanked got her horny as hell.

“Christ, she’s creaming herself just thinking about it,” Kevin said.

“Let me explain what’s going to happen, love, so there is no misunderstanding between us. As soon as you are pronounced recovered from your concussion, we are going to bring you here, or to our place—either one, doesn’t matter. Then we are going to spank you as punishment for endangering the one thing in all the world we cherish above all else.
You
. Then, and only then, we are going to make love you. And, Maggie, we’re going to make love you for the rest of your life. Are we clear?”

She would have nodded, but her headache hovered in the background, just mild enough to make her think twice about it.

“Yes, we’re clear.” She could say that even as she wondered about the way her pussy was already clenching, thinking about that spanking.

“Good. Now, scoot over to the middle of the bed, love.”

Maggie did as he asked and then forgot all about her headache. Richard and Kevin were stripping for her, and she could honestly say she was completely torn as to which one to ogle. They were buff, positively gorgeous, and sinfully sexy.

They were also all hers.

“I’m going to head out and get a few groceries and then stop by the house and grab us some clothes.” Trevor bent over and kissed her. His tongue boldly penetrated her mouth, letting her know without doubt where he’d really rather be. He pulled back and grinned. “Do you want me to get you anything?”

“Just you. So hurry, please. I’ll sleep better knowing you’re here with me, too.” Maggie had no hope of ever keeping any of her desires a secret from these men. Why should she even try?

She didn’t want anything at all to come between them.

Richard climbed into the bed on her left. Kevin got under the blankets on her right. They all three of them looked at her as if she was the sun and the moon and the stars.

“That brings us to a question we need to ask you, love.” Richard looked serious. “In ménage families where there are more than two brothers who are husbands, sometimes there’s an extra bed or two in the master bedroom.”

Maggie blinked. “Whatever for?”

Trevor shrugged. “Some people might think that two brothers sleeping side by side in a bed with their wife and another brother were indulging in an incestuous relationship.”

“We don’t think that way,” Kevin said, “and we don’t care. But if you’d rather—”

“No. I want all my husbands in bed with me.” She scowled. “I mean, really? People think that? What are they, ignoramuses who don’t even know the meaning of the word ‘incest’? There’s a world of difference between being intimate and being incestuous.”

“We know, love.” Richard kissed her forehead. “We didn’t mean to upset you.”

“You didn’t. I always get annoyed by stupidity, though it could be something even more than your garden variety of stupid at work in
that
kind of thinking.” Maggie sighed as Richard eased her into his arms.

“What more could it be?” he asked.

“It’s been my experience in this life so far that when people point fingers and hurl accusations, it generally tends to be about things they’re personally guilty of themselves.”

“That’s what Grandma Kate always says.” Trevor nodded. “Now you settle down and go to sleep. I’ll be back, and in bed, before you know it.”

Maggie didn’t really think she was all that tired, although it had been a very emotional day, to echo her future sister-in-law’s words. The heat from the two naked bodies that cocooned her penetrated deep into her, body and soul. And while she doubted she’d sleep, she did close her eyes. It couldn’t hurt to rest, just for a few minutes.

Maggie felt herself falling and gave up her fight to stay awake.