Exchange

by Katherine Rhodes

  “Hurry up, Foster, I had some—ouch! Will you be fucking careful? You stabbed me!”

  “Sorry, Maguire. Apparently, I need to get this sharpened.”

  He rolled his eyes and looked away shaking his head. “You would think you’d have someone do that for you.”

  “Yeah, I meant to give it to my man, but it just slipped my mind. Not every day you need to cut someone out of a seat belt.” The plunger was all the way down and I was able to slowly draw the needle back out and saw through the rest of the seat belt.

  I slipped the used needle into my coat pocket and dropped the utility knife into the other pocket.

  The seat belt flopped away, and Maguire threaded it out of the buckle and climbed after me out of the SUV. Fischer finally appeared to get the door open.

  Maguire rubbed where I had stabbed him with the pocketknife and didn’t think twice about it. He marched around the car and grabbed Fischer by the collar.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “Sorry! Sorry!” Fischer said, putting his hands up. “Seriously, I saw you, but I thought you were moving faster than that. Honest accident!”

  Maguire leaned in and sniffed at Fischer. “You sober?”

  Fischer brushed his hands off him. “Yes. I’m sober. I’m just tired. Back off. We’re trying to help. I know I effed up.” He glanced over at the SUV and back at the car. “Cops? I’m willing to just write you a check for the damage.”

  “Try new vehicle. I don’t drive damaged goods.”

  Holy shit, this guy was an arrogant asshole.

  “That’s fine. I’m good for it. Let me call you an Uber and a tow truck?”

  “I’m only going another two blocks,” he said. Maguire looked at his driver. “You handle this bullshit and come to the house after.”

  “Yes, sir,” he said.

  Leaning back in, Maguire grabbed his briefcase and marched away from the accident. The driver let out a sigh, and turned to Fischer.

  “Let’s just get this done. He’ll ask you to make the check out to me, if you’re really going to do that, and I’ll take care of everything.”

  He nodded and turned to me. “You can call the tow truck?”

  “Of course,” I answered and pulled the phone out of my back pocket. “Uber for the driver?”

  “I’ll walk. It isn’t really that far.”

  I had the tow company on the line a moment later to pick up the SUV and the beater that had now outlived its usefulness.

  Wren

  One week later…

  I pushed the door open and motioned the twins into the house.

  “Welcome home, you two.” I smiled.

  Slowly, the two kids wandered through the front door into the foyer, looking around. They had been chatty in the car, but they weren’t now. The house was a bit overwhelming, so I couldn’t blame them.

  “We’re really going to be living here?” Tabitha looked back at Paige.

  “Yep.” She smiled. “Lincoln will be back later, after work, but Wren and I wanted you out of the hospital. This is better.”

  “This is so much better,” Timothy hissed.

  “Hi.”

  Ellie stepped out from the kitchen with a huge smile on her face. I felt a pang of regret that it wasn’t her brother we were bringing in the front door, but she seemed genuinely happy to meet the twins.

  The two of them ducked back a bit, and watched her with their eyes wide. Paige smiled, and moved so they could see her. “Hey you two. This is Ellie Stavros. She’s Wren and Fischer’s daughter. Or, she will be soon.”

  “Is…is she our sister?” Tabitha asked.

  Ellie smiled. “If you want me to be, I will be.”

  They glanced at each other and Timothy nodded. “That’d be cool.”

  “You want some cookies?” she asked.

  Timothy’s eyes lit up. “Can we?”

  “I’m not the one you should be asking,” Paige said, pointing at me.

  “Can we?” Tabitha asked, her eyes wide.

  “Yes, of course.” I smiled. “Cookies and milk. And then we’ll go up and check out your room.”

  They sprinted toward the kitchen and Ellie put a hand on each of their shoulders as they turned and walked in. I waited until I heard the refrigerator open before I turned to Paige.

  “Anything?”

  “Nothing yet,” she said, quietly.

  “Damn it,” I hissed. “The longer he’s gone, the more unlikely we’ll find him.”

  “Lily is going in first thing in the morning so we should have some better idea of what’s going on then. We’re going to get Ben and the other girl out. I swear it.”

  “You’ll forgive me if I’m not entirely able to believe that,” I said.

  She sighed and shook her head. “I guess I deserve that.”

  “It’s not you, Paige,” I said. “These people are cruel and ruthless. It would shock me if they still had Ben anywhere near this city. The girl, too.”

  She still seemed sad and upset, but soldiered on anyway. “Well, I need to see the kids’ rooms before I leave to mark down they do actually have adequate shelter provided.”

  I laughed. “It’s a two million dollar mansion.”

  “And my paperwork doesn’t care.” She grinned. “Also, I heard Lincoln went a little overboard, and I want to see what multimillionaire overboard looks like.”

  We climbed the stairs to the second floor. Lincoln had gone overboard, but apparently he had in the townhouse as well. He and Fischer had spent two days prepping the room here, with the help of painters and movers and I had to say I was impressed.

  Pushing the door open, I led Paige into the room Timothy and Tabitha would be sharing for now. It was massive, and was half yellow and half royal purple. There were two screens to give them the illusion of a wall, but we had all agreed they needed to share a space for now.

  Lincoln and Fischer had brought in all furniture that had been set up in the townhouse for the kids. They were really and truly set up and ready to go.

  “So nice to be rich.” Paige laughed.

  “This was all Lincoln.”

  “Yeah, but the house is all Fischer.”

  I nodded. “Just remember, he bought those kids. He’s going to spoil them because of everything that went down. Don’t be shocked if he wants to adopt them.”

  “He does,” she said, tapping her portfolio. “But I’m waiting to hear from the guardians in Ohio. Haden is handling the contact with them, and she’s holding back most of the information from them.”

  Balking, I stared at her, and swallowed hard. “Don’t let them know.”

  “I’ve seen their reactions.” She nodded. “I know. Not until we have real word from their guardians and a real chance to talk to them.” She tapped the folder again, this time thinking. “There are legal avenues here I want to explore. There’s questions. So I’m totally on board with not letting them know that we’re talking to their guardians.”

  “Good.” I nodded.

  “Meanwhile, I’ve seen enough here. I knew it would be fine, I just didn’t want to lie if someone asked me. I’ll be in contact to make sure everything is going well.”

  “Thank you, Paige,” I said, pulling her into a hug. “Honestly, thank you.”

  She stepped back shaking her head. “I messed up bad with Ben. I need…” Cutting herself off, she turned and walked out of the room without another word.

  I only partly followed her. I waited at the top of the stairs, listening. The front door clicked closed and I could hear Ellie, Timothy, and Tabitha giggling in the kitchen.

  What Paige hadn’t seen was the room down the hall, next to mine and Fischer’s, that was now full of Lincoln’s stuff.

  The pretense had been that it would be easy for all three of us to help him with the twins for the time being. That was what we told anyone who realized he’d moved in. The truth was that we all felt better in close proximity to each other.

  And he hadn’t slept in
his bed once since being in the house.

  I was sure at some point he was going to want his own space, and it was there, but he’d been coming to lay with us every night. He and Fischer had talked about installing a door between the rooms so he didn’t have to traverse the hall, and nearly get caught by the twins or Ellie.

  Though I was sure that Ellie knew exactly what was going on.

  I couldn’t understand how this happened, or how I was in love with Fischer and falling hard for Linc. But there it was. The animosity between my two men—my two men—had dissipated a lot, and things were settling.

  Glancing back at the hall, I had the strange feeling that whatever was going on, this house was going to fill to the brim with people. Allies.

  Allies for what? Allies against whom? It didn’t make a lick of sense, but then, neither did my daughter having black wings and a flaming sword.

  The kids were starting to sound a little rowdy, so I let go of the line of thought and headed down the stairs to check on my new little family. Also, to make sure they weren’t having a food fight.

  Because that was totally something Ellie would do.

  The door to the bedroom snicked open, and in the low light I watched as Lincoln stole into the room.

  “We need to do something about this sneaking,” he said, walking boldly to the bed once the door was closed.

  “I’m having a contractor come in to put in a door on the other side of the bathroom,” Fischer answered, appearing in the bathroom doorway. “We’re already annoyed after just a few days.”

  “Mm, good,” Lincoln said, walking to the chair in the corner. “I was going to offer to have someone come in and figure that out.”

  I watched, mesmerized as he pulled his pajama bottoms off and folded them, and then pulled his boxer briefs off and folded those, too.

  Well, then.

  He turned and walked to the bed, his cock half hard already. I lifted the sheets and he slipped in next to me, his lips finding mine quickly.

  “Shit,” I heard Fischer whisper from the bathroom door. A moment later, the light went off and we were left with just the soft light of the lamp on Fischer’s side of the bed.

  Lincoln had no interest in waiting for him to finally get in bed. His mouth found my breast, and he was very busy entertaining himself with his lips and teeth tasting me.

  Fischer’s hand ran down my back, and caressed my ass, teasing my hole and trailing down to the entrance of my sex from behind. I couldn’t help the gasp.

  “Are you…”

  “Not tonight, little bird,” he whispered. “We had other ideas.”

  “Filthy ideas,” Lincoln said. “Do you have…?”

  Fischer rolled back a bit and I heard the drawer opening. “I do,” he answered.

  I heard the sound of a buckle and let out a hiss of anticipation.

  “Lift your leg, gorgeous,” Lincoln said, running his hand up the inside of my thigh. He used it to guide my leg up, opening my sex wider as Fischer threw the covers to the end of the bed.

  The leather of the belt slipped around my leg, just above my knee, and had the velcro cuff attached to the end. Fischer pulled it tight to fasten it, and trailed the rope he had rigged up to the headboard. He tied it there, and smiled at me.

  “Let go,” he whispered. “Let the weight of your leg rest on the belt.”

  I did, somewhat hesitantly, but it worked. “What are you doing?” I whispered, only managing the words around the feel of Lincoln teasing my nipples.

  “We’re going to fuck you,” Fischer whispered.

  “At the same time,” Lincoln said.

  “I don’t…”

  Nibbling on the shell of my ear, I felt Fischer’s lips curl into a smile. “Trust us, little bird.”

  Sliding down the bed behind me, Fischer repositioned himself. I couldn’t see what he was doing, but there was no question about what was going on in the next moment.

  His mouth found my clit and his tongue danced over it. I yelped, then bit my lip to stop from crying out again. He dipped a finger inside me, slowly moving in and out with no other purpose than to tease me.

  My hand curled around Lincoln’s shoulder, my nails leaving crescent marks where they dug into his shoulders. They hadn’t come at me like this at all in the past week and I’d been waiting.

  But I was not ready for their assault on my senses. It was overwhelming to feel their lips and hands all over me at the same time. And not just randomly, but with clear and determined purpose—to take me to the edge and not let me go over. Not until they were ready.

  “Would you like to taste her, Lincoln?” Fischer’s words tickled me as he pulled back just enough to ask.

  “Yes,” he answered and slid down the bed.

  “Jesus,” I whispered.

  Fischer was back up behind me, and had a hand wrapped around my breast a moment later. His lips were all over my neck, sucking and licking. Lincoln busied himself down on my wide open pussy and I was just frozen from all the sensation running through me.

  “Shit, shit,” I gasped.

  My nipples were pearled, and almost painful against Fischer’s fingers. There were going to be marks on my body—in both visible and hidden places. I wanted them.

  Lincoln’s finger curled inside me, finding the tender spot there and making me buck hard.

  “I want to come, please let me come…” I was barely able to gasp the words. My whole body was tense and I could feel myself shaking.

  “Not yet,” Lincoln said, withdrawing his fingers from me. “Not yet.”

  He was at my lips again, and his fingers were on my other breast. I thrust my hips forward, trying to grind against his hard cock.

  Instead, Fischer pressed his into the cleft of my ass, slicked with lube—where the hell had that come from?—and slid himself through the heated flesh.

  “You’re killing me, both of you…”

  “What a marvelous way to die,” Lincoln whispered.

  Fischer moved again, pulling his wonderful dick away from me, and I whimpered. But I didn’t have a chance to complain because Lincoln’s mouth was on mine again, kissing me senseless, dragging his lips across mine, licking his way down my jaw, to my neck, to the sweet spot just under my ear.

  “Ready?” Fischer whispered.

  “Oh yeah,” Lincoln answered.

  “What…”

  “If you don’t like this, baby, you let us know. We’ll stop right away,” Lincoln said.

  “But I think you’re going to enjoy it,” Fischer answered.

  I felt the head of a shaft at my entrance and it pushed in slowly, then pulled all the way out. It slipped back inside—but I realized that it wasn’t the same one. After gliding all the way in and sliding back out, the other pushed in again.

  Holy shit.

  They were fucking me in tandem.

  I gave over to the sensation of their two cocks moving in and out of me in opposite time. It was mind blowing how they timed it perfectly that I was only left empty for moments as they switched.

  And then, it got even more intense.

  Lincoln’s finger found my clit about the same time I felt the pad of Fischer’s thumb circling my ass. I thought I had been senseless before, but that was nothing compared to this.

  They dusted over and circled and pressed while still managing to slide in and out of me in perfect rhythm.

  “Fuck! Fuck!” I ground the words out, only just barely remembering the other children in the house. “Holy shit, fuck!”

  Every nerve was lit to glowing and if my leg hadn’t been tied up, I would have been thrashing from pleasure-pain they sent ripping through me.

  “Make me come…” I gasped. “Make me…”

  I couldn’t handle it. Every part of me was tense, coiled, ready to burst. They had come up with something I never would have thought of, and never would have thought of as possible or pleasurable.

  But their cocks moved together, and their fingers danced on me. The orgasm built
at the base of my spine, and ripped straight through me, shredding my sanity, breaking me, blinding me, and freezing every muscle in my body as it took possession of me.

  “Shit! Lincoln! Fischer!”

  My fingers curled painfully, stiff, and as I crashed over the edge of pleasure, I floated between the two of them. Ecstasy was all I could feel.

  As I started to come back down, Lincoln was driving his cock into me, and Fischer’s drove between the globes of my ass. Quickly, I reached back and pressed him against me hard.

  “Oh, come! Please!” I cried.

  It seemed all they needed was my permission. Their hands gripped my hips and rode me hard for just a few second until I felt the heat of Fischer’s cum on my thighs, and the burn of Lincoln’s deep inside me.

  A few pumps of their erections, and the rhythm started to fall apart, calming from frantic to pleasured relief and release.

  I was boneless. In every sense of the phrase.

  “Jesus Christ,” I whispered.

  Fischer chuckled. “I think she liked it.”

  Lincoln snorted. “I think I liked it.”

  I managed to roll to my back a bit and glanced at them. “I think you’re both perverts and we’re going to be washing a lot of sheets.”

  Fischer kissed me. “You’re absolutely right.”

  Lincoln nipped at my ear. “You love it.”

  I smiled. “Goddamn straight I do. Let’s shower.”

  The doorbell rang only seconds after Fischer unbuckled me. We all exchanged looks, and climbed out of bed. “Who the hell…” I mumbled.

  Fischer had his pants on in a moment. “I’ll go. At least wash off before you come down.”

  Lincoln and I made quick work of cleaning up, throwing on our pajamas and heading out the door and down the stairs.

  To his great satisfaction, Lincoln had to offer to help me to stand because my legs were jelly after the shocking orgasm of just minutes before. I honestly shouldn’t have even been trying to walk at that point.

  Fischer was holding the door open for Lily.

  Fischer

  I had seen her standing on the porch when I pulled the curtain back. I had the feeling this was the news we we’d been waiting for.