One For All: A Reverse Harem Box Set

by Mia Moon

  It wouldn’t budge.

  Dammit. Was I going to have to walk down the 136 stairs to the ground floor, where the super lived? Ever since I’d returned from Montana, the lock had been giving me trouble. As if it was the universe’s way of telling me that I was no longer wanted in the city. I missed the Montana air, the sky, the mountains.

  The open space and the quiet.

  I’d just hauled my butt up four flights of stairs after a long workday and a packed subway ride that smelled musty.

  Swearing, I tried the lock again. My sneakers were wet because it was raining outside and my feet squished uncomfortably as I stood in my hallway. One of my neighbors was frying onions for the third time this week, and the smell made me supremely annoyed. I hoped the scent hadn’t seeped into my place, but it probably had.

  Come on, I pleaded with the lock and key. It turned smoothly this time, and I heaved a sigh of relief as I walked into my studio. Outside, a car horn blared. It had been going off since I emerged from the corner subway station a block away.

  It had been a long, shitty day. First, I’d turned in my Montana article, and while my editor liked it, she wanted me to cut the story by five hundred words.

  “But it’s only a two-thousand word article to begin with,” I’d argued.

  Finally, she’d relented and agreed to put the entire article online, but the shorter version would run in the print magazine.

  Then there was the freelance photographer. I’d hired the guy to get some generic shots of Montana, but he wasn’t returning my e-mails.

  And he wasn’t the only one.

  After two solid weeks of texts, video chats, emails and phone calls, Jax, Cass and Hank had gone silent. I hadn’t heard from any of them since last night.

  My calls went straight to voicemail. Texts went unanswered. My inbox was desolate. At first I was worried. What if something had happened?

  I stripped off my shoes and socks, and all my clothes. I needed a hot shower, bad. New York in early May was supposed to be sunny and bursting with springtime, but today was raw and grey. Like my mood.

  Blasting the shower to the hottest I could handle, I stood underneath and started to cry.

  I’d had such an amazing time in Montana, especially those final days. The flight cancellation was like a gift, and I’d spent every minute with the guys, doing chores around the ranch, cooking and horseback riding. Making sure Hope was on the mend.

  Making love every chance I got, with every combination of Jax, Cass and Hank possible. By the end of my trip, I felt safe and natural, like I belonged there. Now, two weeks, later, my body no longer ached from all the sex.

  My heart ached with emptiness, which was a thousand times worse.

  “We want to see you again real soon,” Cass had said softly, on my last night, kissing my lips tenderly.

  Hank rose from the bed and mumbled something about checking his email.

  “He’s upset that you’re leaving, but can’t vocalize it,” Jax said, after Hank had left the room.

  “What should we do?” I was in between both of them, and we were naked and intertwined. “I don’t want to leave, but my life is in the city. My job’s there.”

  “See how you feel once you get back to New York. We’ll take it from there.” Cass kissed my nose. “We’re yours, if you want us.”

  Of course I wanted them. But how would we make it work?

  Something about Hank’s abrupt departure had bothered me. I put on one of the guys’ T-shirts and crept downstairs, only to find him sitting on the sofa, alone.

  I climbed into his lap and held him. We didn’t talk. We didn’t need to. I suspected he was thinking the same thing: how could we live together, as a family of four.

  And now? Now I was standing in a shower the size of a washing machine in my Brooklyn apartment, sobbing.

  They’d ghosted me. Just like my last boyfriend. They’d decided that a long-distance relationship with me was too much to deal with. Too similar to their last girlfriend.

  The thing was, I was prepared to tell them that I’d looked at my budget and figured I could freelance from Montana. It wasn’t that far from an airport, and I could drive to other parts of the west. The cost of living there was so much lower than the city, and I could swing a move there—if that’s what they wanted. If need be, I had enough saved up to rent a small apartment in town, if they didn’t want all of us to live together.

  But now that they weren’t returning my calls, I’d never get the chance to tell them anything.

  I cried while washing away the remnants of my makeup and while turning off the shower. I felt a little better when I wrapped the towel around me and padded over to my bed, realizing that my life was my own, and that I could leave the city and live in a rural place out west, if that’s what I wanted. I didn’t need one cowboy, much less three.

  It was only a few steps to my bed, that’s how small my place was. Overhead, I heard my upstairs neighbor. Doing what, I wasn’t sure. He was either herding elephants or dragging a body across the floor.

  God, I was beginning to despise this city.

  I flopped on the bed and checked my phone. Nothing. I swallowed back more tears. Closing my eyes, I thought about how Cass had driven my little rental car to the airport, while Hank, Jax and I followed in Hank’s truck. They’d pointed out all the mountains and lakes nearby, all the things I hadn’t yet seen.

  I couldn’t forget the wounded look in their eyes as I said goodbye at the airport.

  Figuring I should get dressed and at least call for food delivery, I sat up and contemplated whether to just get a bottle of wine delivered instead. The car alarm outside had finally stopped and a noise near my front door caught my attention.

  Then, a knock.

  Crap! “Hang on,” I hollered. It was probably the super. Or maybe that neighbor across the hall who often asked me if I want to smoke weed with him. My answer was always no. I didn’t know why he kept asking.

  Scowling, I approached the door. If it was the stoned neighbor, I wouldn’t even open it. I stood on my tiptoes and looked through the peephole.

  Three muscular men in cowboy hats, jeans and jackets were just inches away.

  I screamed and flung open the door.

  “Baby girl, do you always open the door in a towel?” Hank asked in his sexy drawl. The towel came loose as I reached for him, and he picked me up and carried me inside. Jax and Cass followed, shutting the door.

  “We missed you too much,” Cass said. “We thought we’d be here earlier, but our plane was delayed. And the taxi took a long time from LaGuardia. We came to tell you—”

  I was naked and breathless. I hadn’t been able to get ahold of them because they’d been traveling to see me. “Tell me what?”

  “That we love you. That we can’t live without you.” Hank’s voice cracked, and Cass and Jax nodded.

  I swear, my entire body broke out in goosebumps. “Oh, God, I love you. All of you. I’ve missed you so much.”

  I stood trembling, naked before my cowboys. My nipples hardened as they looked at me. One by one, they removed their hats and set them on my small kitchen table. Then they surrounded me. With smiles and love.

  They were so big that they looked like giants in a dollhouse, standing near my futon sofa-bed.

  “Well this is the kind of hello we’d hoped for,” Jax said, eyeing my body and pulling me in for a kiss before murmuring against my mouth. “I love you, city girl.”

  Keeping one arm around Jax, I turned to Cass and kissed him full on the mouth, then shifted to Hank. Something in the way he looked at me, filled with emotion, made me begin to cry. I pressed my forehead to his chest.

  “We’re here, Lauren, and we love you,” Cass said. He and Jax rubbed my bare back. “And we’re not going to let you go this time.”

  Epilogue

  TWO AND A HALF YEARS LATER

  “I think Hank’s going to have to put the angel on the tree. But where is that angel? Did we miss some boxes i
n the attic?”

  I opened a fifth box of ornaments, then set it aside and looked up. It was almost time to make the announcement.

  Hank, Cassidy and Jax were sprawled on the long, leather console sofa, watching me. I was parked on the floor, surrounded by boxes of ornaments and miles of garland. They’d declared themselves done with decorating the tree after they’d spent a couple of hours on the lights, trying to figure out which strand worked and which bulbs had shorted out.

  This was our third Christmas together, and only I knew that it would be the most special one yet. I was practically bursting with excitement. The soft snowfall outside, the crackling fire and the hot cocoa in my mug set the stage for what I was about to tell my men.

  “Ah, there’s what I was looking for! Allison made sure I got these before she went on her trip.” I opened a special box she’d hand-carved for me.

  “Why didn’t she and her new beau come over tonight?” Jax said.

  I raised an eyebrow. “They went to that resort in the Caribbean.”

  Hank grinned. “The swinger’s resort?”

  I giggled. Alison—my vegetarian, feminist, artsy best friend who was originally from Queens—had fallen in love with a roughly handsome, retired bullrider. Who happened to share her love of polyamory.

  “She said that it wasn’t exactly a swinger’s resort, but yeah. That one. Apparently her boyfriend’s thinking about opening a similar kind of resort ranch here and they wanted to scope it out. And maybe have a little fun, too.”

  “What was the name of the place again?”

  “Club Desire,” I said, opening the large box Allison had given me to store the ornaments.

  My guys grinned at me from the sofa.

  “Did you all want to take a vacation there? We can indulge our fantasies.”

  “Don’t we do that almost every night of the week,” Jax quipped, and the other guys guffawed.

  It was true. We’d renovated the lodge so I had my own room, and the guys all had theirs. Still, on most nights we all slept in the enormous bed in Hank’s room.

  Hank shrugged. “Guess it would be nice to live openly, all together, for a while.” The other guys nodded. We’d had to keep things quiet in our small Montana town, and as far as any outsiders were concerned, I was Hank’s wife. But really, we weren’t legally married, and I was committed to all three men. And they were committed to me.

  “Yeah, but I wouldn’t want to get into a situation where someone would want to share Lauren.” Cass took a sip of his beer.

  “Hell no,” said Hank, and Jax muttered something in agreement.

  “And I’m never sharing you three. But maybe we could arrange help for the ranch one week and find somewhere warm and secluded for a quick getaway.”

  Maybe for a babymoon, I almost added. Grinning, I extracted the first glass ornament from the box.

  Cass came and sat next to me, taking an ornament out of its secure nest in the box. “These are the ones you made that first trip here.”

  I nodded and stood up to hang the deep blue swirl bulb on a branch. Cass handed me the lighter blue one, then the gold one. I only realized later that they were the colors of the guys’ eyes.

  He handed me a deep violet one. “Four ornaments for all four of us,” he said, a twinge of pride in his voice. Of all the guys, he was the most sensitive, while Jax was the most practical and Hank was pure, alpha edge.

  They were all mine, and each day, I was shocked at how my love for them kept growing and growing.

  “Wait, what are these?” Cassidy moved aside some tissue paper. “Little ornaments. When did you do those?”

  He handed me both of the handblown ornaments—I’d gotten pretty good at glassblowing since moving to Montana a couple of months after that first visit—and I held them up to the light cast by the fire.

  The guys all blinked.

  “So, we have ornaments for Jax, Cass, Hank and me,” I said softly, affixing them to branches. “We have two new ones to put on the tree this year because in about seven-and-a-half months, we’ll have two new people in the house. Little people.”

  I watched as the awareness of my words spread from guy to guy, first Cass, then Jax, then Hank. My pulse raced. I hadn't been this nervous since leaving New York that last time with all my worldly possessions in the back of Hank's truck.

  “Do you mean—”

  “Wait. Are you trying to tell us something?”

  “Are you, are we—”

  “They’re the ornaments for our babies. Our twins. The doctor told me today.”

  All three men stared, wide-eyed, and I wasn’t sure if they fully grasped what I was saying. We’d been trying to get pregnant for a few months now, and I was beginning to worry that at thirty-two, I would need fertility assistance.

  “I’m pregnant. Twins.” I grinned and ran a hand through Cass’s golden hair. We’d never know whose babies they were, which was okay with all of us. This part we’d discussed months ago.

  Within a millisecond, the guys enveloped me in a giant hug, kissing me and stroking my hair.

  “We’re going to have to be gentle with her,” Hank said, his voice cracking. “We can’t be rough with her at all.”

  “No more horseback riding,” Jax said, kissing the side of my head.

  “And I’ll take over feeding the animals,” Cass added. “Maybe you should sit while I finish the tree.”

  “This is my Christmas gift to the family,” I whispered, putting my arms around Hank and Cass, and leaning in to kiss Jax first. “I love you all.”

  They pulled me down on the rug, next to the fire and near the Christmas tree, and all very gently proved how much they loved me with their kisses, their touch, and their words.

  THE END

  Thank you for reading my sweet-hot stories!

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  SAVED BY THE SEALS

  “Hey, you’re perfectly safe with us.” Mark said. “But if it makes you feel, you know, safer – you can always pick just one of us.” His lopsided smile would have been cocky if it hadn’t been so earnest.

  “Oh, how could I ever pick?” I made an exaggeration of my indecision, leaning against a barstool and bracing the edge of the seat with my hands. It was only partially me being dramatic. If it came down to it, I didn’t know how I was expected to choose. I mean, they were all so good-looking. And I was just one person.

  Or were they just looking for a fifth drinking buddy for the night? Eh, who knew. This was, admittedly, better than staying home.

  “I don’t know,” Jamie nodded empathetically, as if he wouldn’t be able to pick either, if he was me. “We’re all pretty good choices. And if you ask me, I – hey!” He brought his fist down on the counter, a gesture which earned us a very annoyed look from the bartender. “I’ve got it. Come here, come here all of you – lean in closer.”

  He waved his hands to bring everyone in. One by one his friends followed suit, leaning heads and shoulders into a huddle until they formed a semi-circle around their corner of the bar. I was smack in the middle of it too, just an arm’s length away from getting a handful of abs. I was more than okay with that, honestly.

  “What is it?” Alex asked, still gripping a cheap beer in his fist. He took long swig from the bottle and then set it down on the counter, the condensation leaving a white ring behind on the wood.

  “I’ve got a proposal,” Jamie said, “because let’s be real, there isn’t a single one of us who would turn down a date with this girl. I mean, look at her! She’s gorgeous, right? We all have eyes. We can see that. So here is what I’m thinking. We’re all going overseas for a long time – so we really ought to do our best with what we have while we are here. Suppose every single one of us takes her out for a date. At the en
d of the week she picks a winner.”

  “What does the winner get?” Alex bounced his ginger eyebrows.

  “This is all contingent upon her actually agreeing,” Mark added. I wasn’t sure how I felt about being talked about so openly while not actually being addressed, but I was going along with it. I didn’t actually mind as much as I would have otherwise. The guys…they all had a special sort of charm about them.

  And, anyway, they were probably joking. This was all in good fun. It certainly was fun for me, looking at each one.

  “I’ll agree to it,” I said, drawing all eyes on me at once. The sudden attention brought a flush to my cheeks; I could feel it creeping up my neck. I smiled in an attempt to mask some of my more obvious nerves.

  “She’s game!” Alex declared. “I’m game too.”

  “We don’t even know what’s at stake…” Mark started in again.

  Jamie held up his hands for silence. He didn’t get it, but he continued anyway. “Winner gets her picture to take with them,” he said, and then paused to consider more. “Winner also gets a second date.” He glanced at me to see if I approved, and I gave him my best smile and a nod.

  Why not? It wasn’t like I had a particularly full social calendar. Or a social calendar.

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  Where to Find Mia

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