by Terri Lane
After they all climaxed, and they lay panting, intertwined in Rex’s massively oversized bed, Abbie couldn’t help but smile to herself. Not only did she have these two men to play with whenever she wanted, but she also had two amazing friends in these men. They were absolutely amazing, and totally perfect for what she needed.
As Rex twisted her hair around his finger, and Travis drew patterns across her stomach, she couldn’t stop herself from fantasizing about somehow becoming her life forever. Of course, she wasn’t naïve enough to believe that could actually happen, but it was fun to think about all the same…
***
The next few months passed in a blur of hot sex, and adjustment to this strange new situation. It took a while for Rex, Abbie, and Travis to get used to this newfangled relationship which was so different from what they were all so used to, but they got there in the end. Of course, there were some speed bumps along the way – moments of jealousy and insecurity – but all in all it had been more successful than anyone of them had envisioned. They were still having a lot of fun, and enjoying one another’s company, which was all that they needed. As soon as it became a chore or a burden, they knew that they would end things, but for the time being, they were experiencing the time of their lives, and none of them could see that ending.
To the rest of the world, Abbie was in a relationship with Rex. Once his music video had been released they were hot news for a while, and no keeping out of the public eye was going to work, but soon the focus went elsewhere, allowing them to figure things out in their own way. As people started to accept them and move on, they finally felt free to be who they wanted to be.
No one knew the truth – no one except for Lauren. Abbie felt like she had to tell someone that she could trust, just for someone to talk to when times got hard, and luckily Lauren was the perfect confidante. She kept her secret, helped her see things more clearly, and didn’t judge her at all. In fact her friend was proud of her for doing something that so clearly made her happy. Having that acceptance was good for Abbie. She needed someone outside of the three of them to accept them before she could fully give into it herself. Sometimes, when she was alone, all she could imagine was the horrible names she would be called if their story ever got out, so it was good to have someone tell her that it was all okay. She was so glad that she’d moved back to her parents’ house and reconnected with Lauren – she had become one of the best people in her life and she couldn’t be happier to have her back in her life. Especially after all that she had been through.
Her mom was happy for her and Rex – which gave her the perfect cover because she was at his and Travis’s houses so often – but Abbie had no idea how she would feel if she knew the truth. She wasn’t particularly a judgmental woman, but a threesome was not exactly ordinary. It might be too much for her mom to handle.
As she was coming back from another dance job, one for a smaller, more independent music video, her phone lit up and Travis’s name flashed across the screen.
“Hey you,” she purred into the phone, feeling the butterflies that she always got from her boys. “How is work?”
“It’s boring,” he told her in that matter-of-fact tone. “So I need you to wine and dine me tonight.”
Abbie laughed, already excited for the night that lay ahead of them. “Well, I don’t have plans,” she replied – using their code for the fact that she wasn’t seeing Rex. “So I can swing by in an hour or so. I just need some time to get changed.”
“No, don’t. I need you now,” he complained, making her grin all over again. “And don’t give the excuse that you’re sweaty and in your dancing clothes, because you know that’s how I like you best.” The growl in his tone suggested that this was less about food, and much more about her, which got her all fired up all over again.
“Alright, alright,” she conceded. “I’ll make my way over now.”
She turned the wheel of her car towards Travis’s office, consumed by thoughts of what he might do to her body. As she drove, distracted, with a smile on her face and a warm wetness beginning in her core, she didn’t notice that someone was following her…
“Hey!” she cried out in excitement, as she spotted Travis outside his office wearing a business suit. In a suit was how Abbie liked him best, as it highlighted his dominance and strength.
As he turned and grinned, she didn’t think anything of it. She raced to his side with her arms outstretched, and she leapt into his arms before kissing him passionately. She knew that they were supposed to be keeping their relationship a secret, but they’d been so lucky so far.
It was only when the camera started flashing like crazy, almost blinding them, that she realized their luck had just run out.
“Fuck,” she panted, as they watched the journalist run away. “Now what?” Her heart pounded as she realized that her worst nightmare – being discovered in a threesome by the media – was just about to unfold.
Travis was tugging impatiently on the ends of his hair, knowing that they were busted. He already knew that it didn’t matter how much money he threw at this, nothing would keep it a secret. It was too juicy for words. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “Fuck it, let’s go and find Rex. Try and sort this out before it escalates.”
He grabbed hold of her hand and dragged her away from the scene and towards Rex’s home. There was no point in trying to figure this out alone, they were a team now and that was how they needed to make all of their decisions.
Especially this one – this had the potential to be the hardest one of them all.
***
But of course it escalated anyway. It didn’t matter if they were a team or not, there was nothing that anyone could do to slow this story down.
Abbie quickly became the heartless cheat who had broken Rex’s heart – and because it was in the news, people blindly believed it, without even trying to find out the truth. If she thought that her life had been hard before this, she was wrong. This was a million times worse. This was an intrusion like no other, and it felt utterly horrible. She wasn’t strong enough for it, and it almost caused her to break down completely.
They had holed up in Rex’s home, trying to shadow themselves from the media, but it had continued to grow anyway. This time as they were alone, there was no fun, no excitement; only fear of what was going to happen next. It put a strain on the three of them, and Abbie started to fear that this might spell the end of their relationship before any of them were ready for it. This could easily tear them apart, and that was heart breaking.
“It isn’t like that, mom,” Abbie groaned into the phone, trying to explain her behavior all over again. “I didn’t cheat on Rex.”
“I’ve seen the pictures,” her mom replied coldly, believing the newspapers over the words of her own daughter. “I just didn’t think that you would do that after what Greg did to you.”
“Urgh,” she sighed, throwing her head into her hands. “Mom, Rex knows about me and Travis. We’re all together.” She knew that it was crazy, but she felt like her mom knowing the truth was better than her wrongly thinking that she was a cheater. She might not agree with it, or like it in any way, but at least she would get over it eventually and she would know the truth about what was going on. That would mean they wouldn’t need another awkward conversation later on – she figured that she might as well get it all out the way as quickly as possible.
“You’ve said that already,” she shot back rapidly. “But that doesn’t make any sense.”
“It doesn’t have to mom – not to you,” she glanced up and looked at her men, both shooting odd looks of concern at her. “It makes sense to me and that’s all that matters. Now I have to go, I’ve got so much to do.” She couldn’t deal with her mom anymore – she had other things to be worrying about.
“Come home soon,” her mom responded stiffly. “I want to have a proper face-to-face chat with you.”
“Okay mom, bye.”
As soon as she hung up the phone, Rex stood up
defiantly. “Right, that’s it,” he demanded, unable to take this for another second longer. “I need to put an end to this now.”
“What are you going to do?” Abbie gasped in shock, drinking in his very serious expression. Something had shifted within him, which filled her with anxiety.
“I’m going to tell the world the truth.” Her heart fell into her shoes, and from the look on Travis’s face, he felt the same way. “I’m going to call a press conference, and tell the world that we’re all together… clear the air once and for all.”
“But… your mom,” Abbie said. Rex’s mom would hate to hear this news, but if she was honest, that was the least of their problems at the moment.
“I know,” he sighed, accepting her point. “I’ll have to phone her and explain beforehand. I don’t know how she’ll take it, but it’s best that she hears it from me first, rather than anyone else.” For the first time since he’d made his bold statement, he started to look a little anxious. “In fact, I’m going to make some phone calls now, set everything up, then I’ll speak to her.”
“Do you need any help? Do you want us to do anything?” Travis asked in concern, but Rex simply shook his head and raced from the room.
Once they were alone, Travis wrapped his arms around Abbie and comforted her in her terrified hour of need.
“Don’t you have anyone you need to call?” she muffled into his chest. “Anyone that needs to know before this all goes public?”
“No,” he shot back quickly, shaking his head. “My parents live in England, so it’s unlikely that they will hear about this. And to be honest, even if they do it won’t matter. They are open-minded people, they don’t mind what I do.”
“What about… your ex-wife?” Abbie said. She still remembered Travis breaking down at the mere sight of her with the man whom she left him for, who was also his former best friend, and she felt like she needed to address that issue.
“I honestly don’t care what either of them thinks,” he replied stoically. “I don’t care what anyone thinks. I’m happy, you’re happy, Rex is happy… we aren’t hurting anyone. Sure it’s going to unleash a lot of media attention which is going to be tough, but we can weather it – I truly believe we can.”
Abbie nodded firmly at that. If these two men could do it, then so could she. They had a lot more to lose than her anyway, and they would protect her through thick and thin. For a brief second, she imagined Greg’s face when he found out the news, and that made her smile even more. He was such a pathetic man, whereas then men he’d been replaced with were so strong and fearless – her happiness was going to crush him like he crushed her…
“Do you mind him going public about us?” Travis asked, dragging her back from her thoughts.
“No, I don’t think I do,” she replied, actually meaning it. “People are already involved enough and to be honest once they know the truth they might start to lose interest.”
She had no idea how true that statement was, but she had to hope. She had to hold onto something before she lost her mind completely…
***
Abbie stood nervously in the side lines with Travis, while they watched Rex step up to that podium. They had wanted to do it all together, but Rex and his publicist had wanted him to do it alone – after all, he was the one that the public were most interested in, so it made a lot of sense.
They gripped hands, nervous for how this was going to pan out, and watched intently as he started to speak.
“Thank you everyone for coming to hear my side of the story,” Rex said over the microphone in front of him. “I have lots to tell you.”
Abbie’s heart raced and her mouth ran dry with pure terror. This was so scary, the worst thing that she’d ever experienced in her entire life, and she had no idea how she was supposed to react to it. Travis was anxious too, frozen to the spot, but he was much better at disguising that – hiding it from his face – so Abbie couldn’t tell. She wanted to cling to him, hold on to him for dear life, but she couldn’t when there were so many people in the room; people that were undoubtedly going to stare at her as soon as the announcement was made. In fact, that thought was so powerful that she even slipped her hand away from his, not wanting anyone to see them touching. If Travis was upset, he didn’t show it on his face. He remained stoic and serious, focused only on what was happening in front of him.
Abbie had discussed it further with her mom, but she wasn’t sure how much she understood, and Rex had told his own family – to a very mixed reaction – so there was a lot riding on this. If the rest of the world could accept what they meant to one another, then their friends and family would come afterwards… surely?
“I would like to start by saying that I would appreciate it greatly if you would all keep an open mind.” He took a few deep breaths, finally looking nervous. “So you have all heard about my girlfriend – Abbie – and her supposed indiscretion.” The room buzzed for a moment before falling into a hushed silence. “Well she did nothing wrong. She is an amazing woman who I love very much…”
What? Love?
Abbie glanced up at Travis, but he didn’t look shocked at all. Her mind was reeling, but she tried to put that information in a box to deal with later.
“Abbie and I are in a polyamorous relationship with Travis Bunney, the man she was pictured kissing, and we are very happy…”
More was said, but Abbie didn’t get to hear it over the questions yelled from around the room. There was so much noise, but she could pick out a few, instantly overwhelming her.
How does that work?
What do your families think about this?
How will this work in the long term?
All of a sudden she felt dirty. She didn’t like all those people picking through her private life like it was public property, and she started to feel overwhelmed. Travis gripped tightly onto her, holding her upright, but she found herself falling anyway.
“We love you,” Travis whispered to her, pulling her from the room. “We both love you very much, and we can make this work no matter what.”
Love.
That was the only word she needed to get her through anything.
***
It wasn’t easy. In fact, the three of them had to live through nearly a year of intense media interest, abuse and confrontation about their relationship. But somehow, with the help of each other, they made it through and came out of the other end of it stronger than ever. They were well and truly in love, and extremely solid. It seemed like their temporary relationship was becoming something permanent after all, which made Abbie very happy.
After the first few months of exhausting media scrutiny, which they all really hated, another celebrity got caught in a drug-addled orgy, and the attention and focus was taken off of the three of them. The respite allowed Abbie to see just how it was all worth it. Now that people had lost interest, she was able to see the relationship clearly, and she liked it. Their lives were much easier, and they’d finally gotten to a place where they were all really happy.
Even their families were starting to come to terms with them, including Rex’s mom who had decided to believe that true love was more important than anything else. They hadn't met her yet, but they felt like that time was coming and they were all prepared for it. They had already suffered one awkward dinner with Abbie’s family. She did not want a repeat experience.
Abbie lived in Rex’s home, and so did Travis these days – most of the time anyway. He kept his own home for when any of them needed space, which helped them to keep as strong as they were. It allowed them to take time out when needed, giving them the breathing space to grow.
But things were about to change all over again. The boys didn’t know it yet, but Abbie was sitting in the bathroom, waiting for that stick to reveal one line or two. They hadn't exactly planned to bring a baby into their situation, but they hadn't exactly been careful either. Abbie was happy though, she knew that if they were strong enough to go through all that they’d suffered,
then they could do this too.
Of course, they wouldn’t know who the biological father was, but that didn’t matter. They were a solid family unit, and that amount of love would be enough to keep any child safe and happy.
The long three minutes that she spent waiting for the truth to reveal itself, she imagined how their future would look, and it was all really good. They would remain a solid unit, they would raise their child, and they would be happy forever more.
Tick, tick, tick…
Her eyes finally flickered down, watching the test reveal itself, and it was the news that she’d wanted all along. Two blue lines… positive.
They were having a baby!
“Travis!” She called out excitedly. “Rex! Come here, you’ll never guess what!”
She raced from the bathroom, too excited to wait for them to join her. She needed to tell them about their new future, and she needed to do it now.
THE END
= Bonus Book 4 of 20 =
The Heart of a Prince
“Keep it together, Nina,” she whispered under her breath.
The clock against the wall ticked away, echoing in the quiet kitchen as Nina gathered some items to put together a dish. It was one of her favorite parts of catering—she didn’t yet have to deal with people and she could focus on the beautiful task of stirring together delicious ingredients that guests would later enjoy. She spread the paste in the center of the dish, balancing a green leaf on top of the completed pâté.
Nina leaned forward and inhaled deep, her lips slowly curling up into a smile. It was perfect. She sat up and hummed to herself, gathering some crackers to place neatly around the mixture of cooked ground meat. She added a dash of minced garlic and then placed the covering over the food to keep it fresh for the party later in the evening.