Three Men and a Woman: Evangeline (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (17 page)

“She’s a single mom, Gi. How would it look, her having three men banging her?”

“Why do we have to care how it looks? What matters is how we feel.”

Chase clutched his head in frustration. “And how is that, exactly?”

“I love her.” As always, Giovanni was easy, uncomplicated. “I want her. If you guys want her, too, I’m willing to, what? Take turns? Share?”

“It’s not unheard of,” Briggs commented. “You see it occasionally in Hollywood. A man with a couple of women. Or, sometimes, men sharing one woman. It’s called a ménage.”

“That’s California,” Chase pointed out. “And we’re talking about the mother of our child.”

* * * *

Evangeline smiled at that.
Their child
. Just the way she thought of Maisy. She might have objected to a lot of what she’d heard when she’d padded silently down the stairs. But she loved hearing that.

She’d been aware when Gio had left her bed, had heard, even, when Chase instructed them to meet downstairs. She’d have loved nothing better than to stay where she was, loved into oblivion, tucked in her bed.

But she knew her guys, knew they’d be down there deciding her fate for her. So she dragged herself out of bed, cleaned up a bit in the bathroom, and pulled on a little camisole and short skirt combo. And nothing else.

She stepped quietly into the room, taking a fine moment to enjoy the view. Her three guys. They’d tucked their remarkable man parts back into their jeans—she didn’t think a one of them had gotten any further than unzipping enough to get down to business. Each had pulled on his shirt, but none had bothered to button up. They lounged in her deep leather chairs, their long, lean legs and muscled abs a sight to see.

An embarrassment of riches, to be sure.

Giovanni was the first to see her. He leapt up and came and took her hand. “Baby.” He kissed it and pulled her back to his chair.

Evangeline was entirely sure that he expected to tuck her into his lap and snuggle her up.

He was so sweet. And she’d have been happy to do it, to be there, warm and loved.

But she needed to be on her feet for this, so she tugged her hand back. Giovanni stopped, like a puppy disappointed he didn’t get to play.

She smiled but nudged him into his chair, then turned to face Chase.

“Giovanni is right. You don’t get to decide my life for me.”

He tugged at a curl, the same habit Maisy had.

“Tell us what you want, Evvie.”

“I told you. I love you all. I won’t choose.”

“Sweetheart,” Chase said. He stood and walked to her. He came close but seemed to know not to touch. “Those are the feelings you had as a child. No one had loved you, no one cared for you, until you met us. It would be natural to grow up thinking you loved us. But how realistic is that now?”

Evvie shrugged. “It’s what is. I’m not a child. Don’t treat me like one.”

“We can’t all be with you,” he said. “Imagine how it would be. How would we explain it to Maisy? To her community and yours? This isn’t California.”

“It could be,” Briggs pointed out. “You could easily get a job there, Chase. Gio can fly out of almost anywhere. And it doesn’t matter where Evvie and I work from, right, babe?”

Evvie stopped to think. No, her work didn’t require her to stay in the Finger Lakes area. But she and Maisy had a home there, and family, at least of the heart.

Chase chimed in before Evvie formed an answer. “You’re jumping too far ahead, Briggs. I think we need to give it some time before we start uprooting people. Maisy has lived here since she was born, is that right, Ev?”

She nodded. It was true, and it meant something to both of them.

“We should all be thinking of her first.” He looked pointedly at her. Yes, he was right. She of all of them should consider what was best for her daughter.

“And, Evvie, you should consider this, too. Gio’s halfway to an idiot, and he’s likely as not to act before he thinks. Briggs goes for days at a time without coming out of whatever book he’s working on, and even when he does, he doesn’t necessarily see what goes on in the real world. You spend a little time with them,
you
, as an adult woman and a responsible mother, and the shine might wear off a bit. You’re not just a wide-eyed girl hungry for love from whoever offers it anymore.”

Briggs had gotten to his feet halfway through that rant. “Chase forgot to say he acts like he has a stick up his ass most of the time and doesn’t remember how to have fun anymore. That could get old fast.”

“I didn’t forget,” Chase countered. “I just knew I could rely on you to point out my faults.” He turned again to Evvie. “My point is the same, sweetheart. You love us for what we were to you in the past. Obviously we were important to you, and you to us. But that’s not the same as being
in love
, as having responsible,
grown-up
, caring relationships.”

“That’s psychobabble bullshit. Evvie.” Giovanni strode to her and put his hand at her waist. “Marry me now. That’s the best way.”

“No!” Evangeline suppressed the urge to tear at her hair. She tugged away from Giovanni and turned her back on them all. When she reached the window to the back fields, saw the neat, enduring rows of vines, she calmed. After a moment, she drew a deep breath and faced them again. She looked at Gio first and spoke gently. “I’m sorry, Giovanni.” Then she looked at the others. “This can’t work. I can’t choose, and I can’t stop loving each of you. It was okay when you were away, when I didn’t see you. I could do that. I can’t do this. You have to go away again. All of you. Go find your own lives.”

The thought of it made her want to cry.

Two weeks ago, she’d been perfectly happy alone with Maisy. These three men were her foundation, critical to the happiness and stability of her life, but essentially out of view.

Now, she wanted all of them, felt like she couldn’t live without them. For the first time ever, they were breaking her heart.

She’d taken three men into her body, and she would never stop wanting them. She had to wonder if Fancy’s slut genes, after years of dormancy, hadn’t just decided to bloom and shine.

Briggs walked close to her, close enough that she felt his heat even though he didn’t touch. “We can’t, Ev. For one of us, part of our lives is right here, growing up without a father. We have to think of Maisy and our responsibility. And
I
can’t, because I want to be with you. I want to—
need
to—learn what we can make happen between us.”

“So do I.” Giovanni.

She looked at Chase, and he nodded.

“I can’t do it.” Evangeline rubbed her arms, feeling a chill she knew was all psychic. “You’ll make me feel like a whore.”

Briggs put his hands over hers, warming her with ridiculous ease. “Did you feel like a whore, Ev, upstairs, when we were all loving you?”

No, she hadn’t. And he knew it, even though she didn’t answer.

“We’ll come back here, one of us, or two, or all three of us. You’ll let us in. And we’ll love you, in any way you want, and you won’t feel like a whore.”

It was hopeless. Any protest was doomed to fail because her heart wasn’t in it. She nodded. It was true. If they came, she would let them in. She would love them and let them love her. She would never say no.

She really, really
hoped
she wouldn’t feel like a whore.

Briggs went on. “Anytime this doesn’t work for you, you say so. Anytime you want to call a halt, or make a choice, all you have to do is say the word.”

“If I say the word now?” Could she? Could she tell them to go away and really mean it?

“Is that what you’re doing? Is that what you want?”

She couldn’t look into those green eyes and lie. “No.” She sighed. “Okay. We’ll try it.”

Giovanni walked closer. “What about Maisy?”

Chase answered. “Let’s give it a while, don’t you think, Ev? I mean, we all want to know her, to be with her, but if…”

Giovanni got where he was going. “If one of us becomes her dad and the others her uncles—”

Evangeline choked on a laugh. Yes, that was what it would be. If, in the end, she chose one of them, the others would be Maisy’s uncles. Like they were three brothers, an essential truth.

“Yes,” she said. “That would work. We’ll wait a bit for you to meet her.”

“We’ll open an account for Maisy, Ev.” That was Chase, the group’s most grounded, practical member. “And one for you.” He cut her off even as she started her objection. “We owe it to both of you. Certainly, you can’t object on Maisy’s behalf, and, as for you, well”—he looked around at the others—“you may need to cut back on your work hours.”

She started to protest once more, but Briggs squeezed her arm to silence. “You’re going to be busy. You’ll have three men coming to your home.”

“Or you come up to Chase’s place, right, man?” Giovanni looked to confirm the invitation with Chase. “He’s got a bigger bed.”

She so didn’t need that visual.

“Yeah, sure. Anytime. Get me your phone, Ev. I’ll put our numbers in it.” Chase already had his phone in his hand. “And I’ll want you to e-mail me your schedule and Maisy’s. What will she be doing over the summer?”

Evangeline felt like a runaway train had caught her up. Or, no. That was her three men. “Day camp,” she said vaguely.

Chase lifted his head. “Nothing sleepover?”

“No, but…”

Three men waited alertly for her next words. “The Victory families do Saturday night sleepovers, all the kids at one place. Maisy is included.”

“I love the Victorys.”

More than one of them had volunteered that.

Evangeline smiled. She’d always been a bit lonely on sleepover nights at the other homes. She guessed she wouldn’t be lonely anymore.

“So,” the ever-practical Chase went on, “I’ll want to know when you’ll be alone and when you’re not pressed with work. I imagine you have deadlines, just like the writer here.”

“Yes. That’s right.” Evangeline said.

Chase looked like he was about done with her phone. “Are we good, then?”

“Yes,” she said again, her heart full of hope and, she had to admit, a wicked thrill of excitement.

“All right.” He walked closer, kind of nudged Briggs out of the way. “So I’ll work out a schedule and let you know. We’ll move forward and see where we get. Okay?”

“Yes, okay.”

“What we’ll expect is that this will work itself out, right? That, within a few weeks or months you’ll settle into a relationship with one of us that you want to keep. When that happens, the other two will back off.” He gave the others a look that was meant as a command. They didn’t seem impressed.

Like the good little girl she’d always been, Evangeline nodded to please him. But she didn’t necessarily mean it. More like she didn’t believe it would ever happen, and so her agreement cost her nothing.

“If you get pregnant,” Chase continued, “we’ll get testing. The father of the baby will marry you, and that will be that.”

She wouldn’t give him a nod this time. There was likely no “if” about that particular deal. She’d already calculated it. She’d been pretty close to the middle of her cycle during that sex-fest weekend. When she’d said the timing was good, she’d meant it, though not in the way they’d assumed.

“It might be better to use contraception until things settle, don’t you think?”

“No.”

Chase’s brow lifted, and she let him see. She wasn’t that needy girl anymore, willing to agree to anything in order to be loved.

He inspected her at length then finally gave a wry smile. His little girl had grown up. He managed to look both annoyed and pleased.

With that smile still in place, he cupped her head with his hands. She reached up and twisted a finger into those curls she loved. He pulled her close and kissed her, long and sweet. “All right, then,” he said, before another kiss. “All right.”

Giovanni came next, taking her mouth much more carnally—or maybe that was just the way he slid his hand up under her skirt, along her ass. He lifted his head to stare down at her when he discovered she wasn’t wearing undies. He didn’t share the fact with his friends. He just pressed in, watching her as he found her most sensitive spot. Okay, and then, maybe her
other
most sensitive spot. He circled there, and she had a little trouble with her breathing.

“You know what I’m going to be thinking about?”

She was too dazed to answer, could barely breathe, what with that thing with his fingers.

“I’m going to be thinking about how one woman can give pleasure to three men.”

“Oh,” she said. And, “oh,” again, as she got the significance—helped along with a little dual action happening under her skirt. With an erotic shudder, she stepped further into his embrace. He was hard, and she moaned a little, and then more when he palmed her breast.

“She’s fucking hot, Chase. Are you sure we have to leave?”

“What time does Maisy get home, Ev?”

She was pretty sure Chase asked the question twice before she heard it. “What? Oh. I leave here to walk down to the bus stop at two forty.”