Young, Allyson - The Promise [Siren Publishing Ménage Amour] (19 page)

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Things?”

“Well, maybe you’re sad to have the week end. And you’re not certain what’s going to happen next. And there’s maybe a baby, too,” Peter said.

Jillian nodded. “All of that,” she confirmed. “I’m just fucking overwhelmed.”

Sean teased her, saying, “We are going to need to work on that mouth if you are going to be a mother. Hey! What was that for?”

Jillian pinched him again, this time on the underside of his arm, making him wince. “I don’t want you to talk about motherhood or babies or anything. I’m not going to think about it for the next two weeks.”

“Okay, babe. Now, figure out how to cover yourself, and we’ll take you home for some clothes you can wear to Oxford’s.”

Jillian extricated herself from his hold and walked to the doorway. She turned and looked at them both. “Kiss, now.”

Peter flinched, and Sean glowered. Jillian stared them down.

“Hug one another like you mean it and plant one, right now.”

Peter shuffled toward Sean and tried a man hug, awkward with the lack of spontaneity.

“Pretend your team just scored a touchdown, you big lummox, and hug Peter,” Jillian taunted Sean.

Sean, looking for all the world like he was going to his doom, put one arm around Peter and quickly hugged him, immediately dropping his arm.

Jillian tapped her foot and waited. Finally, using the silent communication they utilized when tag teaming her, Sean and Peter closed the gap between them, their opposite arms coming up to wrap around the other man, their lips touching for a nanosecond.

“Better,” she said and turned on her heel to move into the bedroom, the towel floating to the floor behind her.

“Fuck,” Sean said ruefully. “I can’t get hard, not even with looking at that ass. This has been a marathon, and I guess I do have my limits.”

“Same here. But, Sean? It was important for Jilly to see how deep our friendship was, and I don’t have a problem with that nor showing it. Just affection,” he added hastily.

Sean said, “I hear you. It was weird, but I get it.”

“Now I’m going to see if I can talk her into one of my least-favorite shirts to wear home. Ironing’s a bitch.” Peter hurried after Jillian.

* * * *

Brunch at Oxford’s gave them all a taste of what was to come. Both Peter and Sean wanted to sit by Jillian, and so they settled on a booth in order to put her between them. Then it was awkward for her to talk to them both without turning her head like watching a tennis match. Rock, paper, scissors was going to become part of their lives. The doorman had looked at them both narrowly when they had escorted Jillian upstairs to her apartment. She confided that he had never seen her bring a man home because she had never wanted to and had always been picky that way. It cheered the men immensely to understand that her lack of experience was indeed for real, but underscored how difficult it would be for her to have two men on either arm at the same time.

They decided to wait until Jilly found out if she was pregnant or not before coming out openly as a committed unit. Jillian insisted that she needed some time to get her head straight. She agreed that a baby should have a legal father on paper, but they didn’t immediately come up with a way to decide who would marry her on paper and who would be the silent, if equal, partner. If she wasn’t pregnant, then they would continue as a threesome until such time as she wanted to marry. Procrastination seemed the only option.

Chapter Sixteen

To say that the next two weeks at work was awkward would be an understatement. Jillian thought everyone could tell that something had happened between her and her guys just by looking at her. She knew that while she was stressed, she also moved and acted in a way that spoke of a mature woman thoroughly in touch with her sexuality. And then some. People commented on the change in her, wondering, but not able to put a finger on it, like those men in the erectile dysfunction ads. The decision to keep things under wraps now felt devious. She wasn’t ashamed of their relationship, and by their hot, covetous looks, directed at her no matter who was looking, neither were Peter and Sean. She just didn’t know how to tell people. It was hard enough to get back into the swing of things and begin on the new account she had been assigned to. Peter had been correct in surmising that the team would be split up, although Sean was still the in-house lawyer for her new account as well as most of the others. Peter was clearly unhappy that he would be traveling for the next few months, as the account he had been assigned required on-site attention, all the way across the country. He had been in the city for only a few days after they had returned to work.

And at the back of her mind was the countdown to the day when her period would or wouldn’t come. She had no idea of when she ovulated, really. According to every chart she looked at, she had been at her most fertile that week they had shared, but that was the norm for most women. Jillian wasn’t sure she was like most women, and her ambivalence about the possible pregnancy was making her crazy. She and Sean had lunch when their schedules allowed, and he had slept over at her place a couple of nights when Peter was out of town. Jillian knew that Peter had encouraged it, despite a hint of jealousy and longing, because she had begun to distance herself. She knew it and hated it, but it had always been her style.
Just in case, take protective measures. Don’t get totally involved and committed because it never works out.
Sean and Peter knew it, too, and she could hardly stand the anger in Sean’s eyes that masked his hurt and the blatant pain in Peter’s when he had kissed her good-bye before heading out to catch his plane. It was insane to fall back into old thought patterns when there was no doubt in her mind that they both wanted her, loved her, and wanted to be with her forever. It was the uncertainty about which direction the future was going to take that was causing her to build the wall between them. Jillian had now decided that she wasn’t ready to be a mom. She didn’t know if she ever would be ready, even with Peter and Sean’s reassurances of their faith in her ability and promises of total support. And if she was pregnant, there was no way she would terminate their baby.
God, it was so unbelievably stressful.

* * * *

Sean wandered through the office, searching for Jillian. She wasn’t anywhere to be found, and when he checked with the receptionist, he determined that she hadn’t called in sick. She just wasn’t anywhere he looked. It was too early for a break, and he was perplexed. Their woman had retreated from them. Peter had calmly explained all the reasons why, and maybe they made sense to Peter’s sensitive side and women everywhere, but Sean wanted to spank her ass. He dug deep for patience every day and had long phone conversations with Peter, who was in some fucking hotel several hundred miles away. He felt like a teenage girl, seeking reassurance from his BFF. It unmanned him, and he was tired of it. He then heard Peter’s voice and headed toward the sound, not realizing that his friend had returned.

“I thought you weren’t back until tomorrow,” he nearly accused Peter, although he was thrilled he was back early.

Peter faced him. “I caught the red-eye. I didn’t like the sound of things here.”

Sean backed down. Peter looked spent, his face drawn and his eyes shadowed. At least Sean had been able to sleep in the same bed with Jillian a couple of times, although he had to really work hard to make a place there for himself. He had managed to cop a few feels, not to mention that one time…He dragged himself back to the present.

“I’ve been looking for her, and she isn’t around anywhere.”

Peter grabbed Sean’s arm and steered him toward the break room, away from some interested faces and perked ears.

“Keep it down, buddy,” he advised. “We’ll find her.”

Peter walked toward the women’s bathroom, Sean right on his heels. Peter pushed open the door and headed inside toward the stalls, flaunting the bounds of propriety. The room seemed empty, but then they heard a tiny sob.

“Jilly? Jilly, honey, is that you?”

Silence.

Sean looked at Peter, a look of panic crossing his face. “Jillian? Answer us.”

A nose was blown, and then the toilet flushed. Clothes rustled, and the door to the end stall opened and Jillian emerged, eyes puffy, nose red, and her makeup smeared. Sean and Peter wrapped her up between them, just holding her. Neither wanted to ask, and the silence stretched out.

Jillian said, in a tiny voice, “I got my period.”

“Babe,” Sean said, dropping a kiss on her head, crashing his forehead into Peter’s descending chin in the process.

Peter cleared his throat. “How are you doing with that, honey?” he asked.

Jillian sniffled and choked back a sob. “I don’t know. I’m relieved, but I’m so sad. I guess I wanted your baby without really knowing it, when I thought I had decided I didn’t want to be a mom. I’m so fucked up.”

“We will give you a baby anytime you want, honey,” Peter reassured her. “You decide, and we’ll be there for you.”

Sean leered at her. “Our pleasure.”

Jillian managed a little laugh. “Okay. I guess now we figure out where to go from here, like who we want to know about our, er, relationship. All that stuff.”

Bianca from sales breezed in and slid to an abrupt stop, her eyes widening at the sight of three coworkers, two of them male, standing in a clinch in the women’s washroom. She backed up, stuttering an apology, and fled out the door.

Sean chuckled, “Well, I guess we don’t need to worry about who gets to know or who doesn’t.”

Jillian’s lips thinned, and she gave him a mutinous look as she pulled away to go over to the mirror. She started to clean her face and put herself back together.

“People can think what they like,” she stated, locking eyes with Sean in the mirror. “I don’t give a shit what they think. If the boss has an issue, he can find someone else to carry the load.”

Peter smiled at her. “We aren’t going to talk about anything to our coworkers, honey. I think it will be obvious to people we trust and like, and the others can go hang. Our families are a different matter, but we’ll figure that out later. I’m heading home to catch up on my sleep. I’ll see you and Sean after work, and we’ll talk then.”

“Just talk?” Jillian complained.

“Well, I think I’ll have my strength back after some shut-eye, sweetheart. Sean looks like a stallion who has been locked up away from the mares, so he can pick up the slack.”

Sean grunted in agreement. He would obviously have no problem occupying Jillian while Peter rested up.

Peter stooped to kiss Jillian gently. “Love you.”

“Me, too, you both. Forever. Promise.”

THE END