Their Virgin Neighbor (13 page)

“
Like our
grandfathers.”

“
Yeah.” He shrugged. “Only
now Annie, well, she’s changed everything.”

She certainly had. For both of them.
“If we want her to stay we have to convince her that it is the
right thing to do.”

“
And how do you suggest we
do that?” Jack asked.

“
We continue to pleasure
her,” Lee said. “Continue to make her happy. When her time here is
up we put it all on the line and we be as honest with her as we’ve
been all along.”

“
We ask her to
stay?”

“
Yeah.”

“
And if she says
no?”

It was Lee’s turn to shrug now. “Then
she says no and we’ll pick up the pieces. But we have to risk it
all if we want to gain it all.”

“
Story of our fucking
lives,” Jack finally said, but he held out his almost empty glass
and Lee responded by clicking his against it.

“
Then we have a
plan.”

“
Yes,” Jack said. “Let’s
just hope it’s one that Annie agrees with.”

Chapter
Seventeen

Spring snuck up on Anna almost out of
nowhere. Had she been more observant she probably would have
noticed the leaves emerging from the trees, the grass rediscovering
its color, even the sound of the returning birds. But Anna wasn’t
being observant, not at all. She was too wrapped up in the bubble
that she, Jack and Lee had created.

The winter had unfolded slowly around
her. One moment it had been November and they’d embarked on this
crazy relationship of theirs. The next it had been Christmas and
Anna had skipped through every moment, enjoying it in a way she
could never have imagined just a few months earlier. And now? Well,
now spring had arrived, and her tenancy was officially at an end.
She had just a week left of her contract and then it was time to
move back to the city.

At least that was what she had always
thought.

Only everything was different
now.

She wrapped her arms around herself as
she walked past the cottage where all this had started. It was
midday and she was coming back from her usual walk. It wasn’t quite
warm enough outside yet to get away with just a tee, but she wore
only a thin jumper and a pair of jeans. Her trusty walking boots
completed the outfit.

Anna looked down at those boots as she
walked away from the cottage and onto the track that led back to
the farmhouse. The track was beginning to soften, mud now coated
her boots. It was no doubt due to the rain that had been constant
for the past fortnight. They’d spent the majority of that time
indoors, save for Anna’s walks. Anna had worked on her latest
project, a huge quilt for a woman who lived around the corner from
Sally. Lee had hidden away in his studio working on a project that
he wouldn’t tell any of them about, while Jack cooked increasingly
spicy food and bashed away at his laptop. Anna had passed it at one
point and spotted a balance on a spreadsheet that made her feel
faint even thinking about it. It was funny now to think that she
had once thought that his ‘online selling’ involved an eBay shop.
Of course, those activities only took up a few hours a day. The
rest of the time…Anna jammed her hands into the pockets of her
jeans and smiled…they spent it in bed. It had been months now, but
Anna was still surprised by the things they did together. Lee and
Jack pleasured her in ways that Anna had never imagined or
expected.

She loved being with them.

You love more than just
that.

Anna sighed as she trekked the route
home, because with just a week to go until she was due to leave one
thing had become very clear to her.

She did not want to.

The idea of returning to the city, to
her old home, to all the memories and hassle, just made her feel
sad. She wanted to stay here with Jack and Lee. She wanted her life
to carry on much as it had for the past few months. And it was
weird, because one part of Anna felt like she should be worried
about that. She knew the bubble she’d wrapped herself in existed.
It was there because it had helped her with her grief, helped her
to heal. But it had also kept her from considering the consequences
of her actions. Simply carrying on as she was with her lovers would
mean never facing up to the reality of what was happening between
them. That she, Anna, had chosen this crazy lifestyle. Had gone
into it willing, eyes wide open, no guarantees about the
future.

But leaving? She frowned as she
quickened her pace. Leaving would mean losing her men, and that was
something that Anna could not accept. It no longer mattered to her
that this set-up was out of the ordinary. That people would
probably frown and be judgemental about it. She was happy. And she
knew enough in life to know that happiness, the sort she had found
with her males, didn’t come along all that often in life. After
losing Grand, after the things Jack and Lee had experienced, Anna
didn’t see any choice but to grab at that happiness with both
hands. What would happen after that would happen. Maybe they would
have five years. Maybe they would have ten. Maybe there would be
babies. Maybe not. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was the here
and now, and Anna wanted to embrace it in every single way that she
could.

Except…

Neither Jack nor Lee had ever spoken
about the future, they hadn’t even discussed their feelings in any
great detail, but Anna was sure that there was more between them
than simply lust and friendship.

They
worked
.

Despite the craziness of the whole
situation they did. And now it was time, and then some, to put her
feelings on the line.

She passed the marker, which meant
there was less than a mile until Anna made it to the farmhouse. It
was wooden plaque in the shape of a kitten. She’d ordered them
online about six weeks ago, eleven in all. Each one was a different
feline, tabby, ginger, black and white, gray, because Anna had
always wanted a cat. Living in the city hadn’t really given her any
opportunity to have one. Too much traffic and not enough green
spaces. Here of course it would be different…

Anna shook that thought off as she
passed the marker. There was one at every mile marker from the
farmhouse to her favorite spot in the forest. Anna liked to see
them. They let her know how far she had to go and how soon she
would return. Lee had accompanied her to put them in place, that
afternoon they had made love on a bed of leaves…

Her men were waiting on the verandah
for her. There was a plate of food on the wooden table, a canter of
juice with some glasses, and a bunch of tea-lights were swimming in
the middle of the table where a huge bowl of water
resided.

“
Wondered where you’d got
to,” Lee said.

Anna shot him a smile as she took the
seat Jack was holding out for her. Once on it, she poured herself a
glass of juice and took a long swallow. The air was crisp, the
juice cold, the setting just about perfection. Without even
realizing, Jack and Lee had given her the perfect set-up to air her
thoughts, only now the time was here Anna was nervous. What would
they say when she explained her feelings? When she told them
exactly what she wanted? There was only one way to find
out.

“
My lease comes to an end
soon,” she said.

Jack poured himself a drink, nodding
as he did so. “It does.”

“
We’ll need to get in
there and apply a fresh coat of paint,” Lee said. “Every single
year we have to do this.” He shot Anna a grin. “Didn’t think we’d
have to this year.”

“
I guess you didn’t
imagine a lot of what has happened this year would
have.”

“
No.”

Silence settled for a moment. Anna
drank some more of her juice as she tried to frame the question she
wanted to ask. She should have known though, should have expected
it. Jack beat her to it.

“
What are your plans,
Annie?” he said. “Once the lease is over.”

“
I don’t know,” Anna said
honestly.

“
What do you want to do?”
Lee asked.

Deep breath, Anna thought, and then
she took her heart in her hands and did the only thing she could
do. “I don’t want to go back to the city.”

Her words fell between them. There was
a pause. The next thing Anna knew her men were grabbing her,
kissing her, telling her how happy they were. Anna couldn’t help
but laugh as kisses were planted on her lips, her head, her cheeks.
She was surrounded by them…and she loved it…had been right to say
the words.

“
Thank God!” Jack
sighed.

Lee laughed. “Thank God is about
right. We’ve been waiting for those words since
Christmas.”

“
You have?”

He laughed again. “Of course we
have.”

“
You definitely want me to
stay here with you?” Anna asked because she needed to be sure that
they were all on the same page. “Long term?”

“
Indefinitely,” Jack
replied.

“
We’ve wanted that for
months,” Lee added.

Anna’s heart swelled. Happiness filled
her to the very core, and it was the sort of happiness that she had
not imagined just a handful of months ago. Here, on the farmhouse,
with these men, she had not only healed from her loss, but she had
also found something inside of herself, that she had never
expected. A desire for excitement, a need for passion, a craving
for the pleasure they gave her both in bed and out of
it.

“
Me too,” she
said.

More kisses, more hugs, both men
smiling widely and suggesting what they might do to get everything
sorted. Anna let them, drinking in the sounds around her. After a
few moments though, she knew that she needed to bring up the one
stumbling block to their plan. It was not something that could be
ignored no matter how much Anna would have liked to.

“
What will people think?”
she asked. “When they realize, I mean?”

Lee narrowed his eyes. “Who gives a
shit what they think?”

Jack laid a hand on his friend’s arm.
A look passed between the two men that Anna couldn’t quite
decipher. She wondered if the day would ever come when she would
understand their silent communication.

“
Do you?” he
asked.

“
No,” Anna said slowly.
“Not really. I just…as much as I love this, as much as I want it, I
am not so stupid as to think that others won’t judge us.
This
is
crazy.
The three of us living here together? In a relationship? It’s the
sort of thing you see on those afternoon shows.”

Lee groaned. “You need to stop
watching those.”

“
It is though,” Anna
insisted. “There was this one on the other day where the man lived
with like three—”

“
Doesn’t matter,” he
interrupted. “We want you here, Annie.”

“
We do,” Jack agreed. A
pause and then, “You make us
happy
.”

The tone of Jack’s voice, the emphasis
on that word…it was enough to silence Anna’s objections. Maybe not
forever, but for now at least. “You make me happy.”

“
Good,” he said. “We want
to, and people? Yeah, they might judge. Some might even think we’re
crazy. So what? Out here? It’s just us.”

Lee nodded. “And we’ve all seen enough
tragedy in our lives to know that you have to grab at happiness
when it comes your way.”

His words were so close to what Anna
had been thinking that she couldn’t help but nod back. They wanted
this. She wanted this. Why let society and its rules get in the
way? They were all consenting adults. They weren’t hurting anyone.
They weren’t doing anything wrong. They looked after one another,
pleasured one another, and here, in this farmhouse, nothing that
happened between them could be in any way wrong.

“
I want to stay,” Anna
said. “To move in properly.” She paused. “It’ll mean heading back
to the city and getting the rest of my things. I’ll need to take
care of Grand’s things too. I’ve been putting it off.”

“
We’ll be there to help
with that,” Jack said. “I’ll being one of my vans for whatever you
want to bring back with you.”

Anna smiled. “Then we’re really going
to do this?”

“
We are,” Jack said and he
took her hand in his. “You belong here now, Annie. With
us.”

Lee took her other hand, gently
stroking along her palm as he did so. Years from now Anna would
remember this moment with perfect clarity. She would remember the
way Lee’s lips curved into a smile, the way the corners of Jack’s
eyes crinkled as he looked at her, and she would remember the
thought that rang through her mind, loud and clear.

This is your home
now.

Lee’s next words confirmed that
thought, and Anna knew the decision was made.

“
Welcome home, princess,”
he said. “Welcome home.”

Epilogue

“
How long until they get
here?”