Three Men and a Woman: Kai (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Rachel Billings

  Ryan wasn’t all that happy, either. “I don’t get what you’re proposing, though,” he said to Vin. “How does that work, three of us with one woman? What do you see as the end game? I want a family, and I can picture it happening with Kai. She deserves to have that, too, if it’s what she wants. We spend a few months or a couple years indulging ourselves with…with…”

  “The hottest sex we’ve ever had?” Tim offered.

  With a quiet curse, Ryan shoved to his feet and walked to the window.

  “This is the end game,” Vin said quietly to Ryan’s back, trying not to think about how many stories it was down to West 49th. “This is what I want. The three of us and Kai. Not just for a few months, but for good. I’m telling you, Ry, I can see it.”

  Ryan turned around, leaning his shoulders back against the window. Vin swallowed. Ryan might be taunting him—the dude’s shoulders were big and broad, and, certainly, there was some level of pressure at which the window would give out and a guy could just go over—but his eyes were on Vin. He was listening.

  “We can have a family,” Vin said. “She can give us kids. We can live with her—unconventional, yeah, but not unheard of. We can have a partnership that’s equivalent to marriage—like gays did before they got the legal right to it.”

  “And the kids have, what?” Ryan asked. “Three daddies?”

  “Sure, why not? Half of their school friends will likely have two, anyway. Ours will at least have four loving parents. That’s better than most will do.”

  “Shit,” Ryan said. “You’ve gone a little crazy, you know?”

  At Tim’s back, out of Ryan’s line of sight, Kai had come, wrapped in his robe, leaning against the wall just inside the hallway. She’d heard the last bit of the conversation. “Crazy in love,” he said—to her.

  “Tim,” Ryan said. “You think you can talk any sense into him?”

  But Tim had followed Vinnie’s gaze and caught sight of their girl. He put his hand up, and Kai went to him. Sweet as could be, she let Tim pull her into his lap. Vin thought it would have been better for her to go rescue Ryan from sure death at the window. Maybe he ought to remind Tim there was no “I” in team.

  Oblivious, Tim nuzzled Kai’s neck then held her face and kissed her. “You smell good,” he said. “Don’t think you can put me off just by wearing Vin’s robe.”

  Vin had to stifle a sigh, but it was only a small one. If he was going to share his woman, he was going to have to share his woman. He caught Ryan watching—not the little show in the recliner, but himself.

  Ry was a perceptive devil, too. “You don’t like watching that,” he pointed out, entirely unnecessarily.

  This time, Vin let his sigh out. “I don’t not like it,” he said. “Exactly. I admit, it will take a little getting used to. But look—” He waved his hand at the pair in the chair. They were quietly watching the conversation, gently wrapped in each other’s arms. Vin had to put a little effort into looking back at Ryan, what with the way that robe was gaping above Kai’s knees. “The mighty Tim has fallen. And me? I have, in fact, emptied my contact list of every woman except Kai who’s not related to me by blood. You going to be the one to tell Tim he can’t have the woman he wants? You going to tell me?”

  Ryan didn’t answer, and his gaze had gone to the woman.

  Vin stood and shoved his fists into the pockets of his jeans. He spoke when Ryan’s eyes came back to him. “I love you, buddy. Tim, too, though I can’t really explain that.” Ryan smiled a little at the old joke, since they both knew Tim, decent a guy as he was, could be a bit of a pompous ass. Vin gestured with his hand, encompassing the three friends. “I’d never let a woman destroy our friendship. I’d never get in the way of you and the woman you love. Or Tim, either.” He turned to Kai. “I don’t see another solution to the problem. In fact, the more I look, the less I see a problem at all.”

  Kai returned his gaze quietly as Ryan stepped forward.

  “Did you hear his plan, sweetheart?” he asked her. “All of us together, like in a marriage. Like a family. Kids, if you want them. Is that something you can imagine?”

  The three men were silent as Kai looked from one to the other. “I want kids,” she said, giving them the easy part. The pause that followed confirmed that the rest was more difficult. “I’m reminding myself that I’ve always been an advocate for women taking control of their own relationships. That women’s desires and preferences should count more than social constructs and assumptions.” She looked into Tim’s gaze, their faces and eyes close. “I’ve fallen in love with you.”

  Tim nodded and looked back silently. Then she turned her head. “And you, Ryan.” Once more, to look at him. “You, too, Vinnie.” She touched her forehead to Tim’s and then looked around again. Her eyes were on Vin when she spoke. “I know it seems crazy. But the more I look at it, the less I see it as a problem.”

  “’Atta girl,” Vin said.

  Epilogue

  Kai looked up from the screen in front of one of her girls and saw Tim leaning against the frame of the classroom door. Her workshop on resume writing wasn’t quite over, and she realized that he must have finished his interview session early. When she lifted a brow, he shrugged a sexy shoulder.

  “She got the job,” he said in explanation. He was quiet about it, but all of the girls heard anyway. At least, they all had their very interested gazes on him.

  Kai referred to them as her girls and mostly they were that—the majority were under twenty-five, and some were actually teens. Almost without exception, they were single mothers. A few were older, sometimes even grandmothers, though they tended to be quite young grandmothers. Whoever, they were all hers.

  Universally, they were bright women who only needed the smallest helping hand toward a successful future.

  She brought them in—referred by high school counselors or social workers, by community college advisers, or, more and more, by word of mouth—and they became hers. However it needed to happen, she gave them the skills they required to get a decent job in the business world—a job that would support themselves and their children and, very often, extended family members, too.

  Whatever it took—help with writing a resume, keyboarding and computer skills, lessons for speaking in the workplace, personal shopping for appropriate clothing. Exercise and fitness. Healthy meal preparation. Child care. Money management. Interview skills.

  That last one had become very popular. Some of the girls lately were asking for more than one practice interview. Which had to do entirely with the man at the door and his buddy, Vin. Though there was also a waiting list for Ryan’s home maintenance and repair class—Ryan in his blue jeans, T-shirt, and tool belt rivaled Tim and Vinnie in their suits for attention from the girls.

  Two months ago, after Kai, Tim, Ryan, and Vinnie had agreed to try working out a ménage, the three men had accompanied Kai to her Sunday afternoon Tone commitment. She’d realized they’d already figured out what she and her staff did there in the classrooms. They approved, it seemed, and found it humorous that a good part of Randall II’s “payoff” money had gone for this purpose.

  It turned out her guys admired her for it. More, from that very first Sunday, they got on board. Once or twice a week, they each put a couple hours in at the school. Always, their sessions were in high demand.

  Of course, the explanation for that could have lain purely in the pleasure it was to sit across a desk from one of Kai’s handsome men. Absolutely no doubt, that was a factor. But there was something that was very much more important than enjoying a little eye candy.

  The truth was, her guys also had big hearts. Once they sat down with a girl and learned something about her through the interview or class, they got attached. They also had a wide network of connections in the business world—folks who needed administrative help—and they didn’t hesitate to work the hell out of those connections. A lot of girls went from a practice interview to a real one, and a lot of them came back from those employe
d.

  When Tim said his interviewee had gotten the job, it could be literally true.

  Her girls were good, and her guys were good at helping them along.

  In her new Tone location that was now under construction, there was going to be a space for weekly office hours by a nurse-midwife and a pediatric nurse-practitioner to meet the health care needs of her girls and their kids. That had been Vin’s idea and was funded by a small grant from ReBuild.

  How could she not love her guys?

  So she smiled at Tim and didn’t care that half of her students in the workshop had a little crush on him. Why wouldn’t they? The girls could look and crush all they wanted. There was only one woman whose bed he was in every night.

  One very lucky woman.

  Kai finished up the class early by promising a little one-on-one time later in the week with a woman named Joanne. A mother of three teens, recently widowed, she struggled a lot at the keyboard. She had great social and organizational skills, though, and Kai knew Vinnie was looking at her to replace his receptionist who was soon to retire.

  Tim said a polite good-bye to each of the girls as they brushed by him on the way out—mostly, he knew their names and used them. But his eyes were all on Kai as she packed up her laptop. “All set?” he asked when she came to him.

  She didn’t have the chance to answer until his lips lifted from hers after a kiss that was fairly PG-rated—a cluster of girls waiting for the elevator had interested eyes on—but still prolonged.

  Her men were who they were, and that meant they weren’t the sorts to keep their feelings for her a secret. Kai couldn’t argue, not while one of Tone’s tenets called for support of female sexuality in whatever form it took.

  But her unusual relationships generated a ton of interest from the girls, and her guys seemed to take a fair bit of pleasure in finding ways to make her blush.

  “Yes,” she answered when she could. “I just need to get my purse from my office.”

  “After you,” he said.

  They walked together to the stairs, and Tim held the upper and then lower door for her. Opening her office, she was surprised to see Vinnie and Ryan were there, too. And, stuff…

  Flowers—quite a lot of them. A vase of roses on her coffee table—two, or probably, she considered, three dozen in pure, gorgeous red. A mix of early fall blooms in a cut crystal bowl on her high work table. A spectacular, delicate Ikebana arrangement of callas, palms lilies, and long grasses on her desk.

  On the work table, there was a scattering of large photos, documents, and blue prints. Vinnie dropped a photo from his hand when he turned to the door at Kai’s entrance. Ryan was next to him, ass parked on a stool, looking over a blueprint, but his attention moved to the door, as well.

  At the coffee table, where she’d once confronted the three of them, startling Ryan so much he’d dropped his tablet, there sat a bottle of champagne and four long-stemmed glasses. And, a thing that really drew the eye, a Tiffany ring box.

  Tim had dressed in a suit for the interview. He, like the others, understood that they were modeling corporate behavior for the girls, just like Kai did every day. But here, on a Sunday, Ryan and Vin were suited up, too. Individually, each looked spectacular. As a group, obviously making an event out of what was happening, they were stunning.

  With his hand on the small of her back, Tim nudged her a little to get her moving into the room. Her gaze lifted from the box to Vinnie and Ryan as Tim clicked the lock at the door behind her.

  Tim appeared more interested in the items on the work table than on the thing that drew all Kai’s awareness.

  “What do you have there, Vin?” he asked. Like maybe it was only the contents of the work table that came as a surprise to him.

  Vin picked up a photo again. “I’ve been looking at a property in Ditmas Park,” he said.

  “Commercial?” Tim asked.

  Vin shook his head, his eyes on Kai. “Residential.”

  Bypassing the coffee table completely, Tim took her over to the work table. “Yeah?”

  Answering Tim but watching her, Vin offered the photo for a look. “Victorian. Three stories. Lot of bedrooms, some office potential. Fenced yard with gardens. Driveway and garage.”

  “Ditmas Park isn’t a bad commute,” Tim said. “You think it has enough space?”

  Vin shrugged. “New York City space.”

  “It’s not falling down?”

  “Needs work,” Ryan offered. “Good bones, though.”

  Kai had already come to know that good bones meant all to Ryan. In buildings. She’d had to roll her eyes when he’d used the phrase in reference to her.

  “Pretty,” Tim said, looking over the table while he kept a hand on Kai. “Bet it’s all chopped up into little pieces inside.”

  “We can fix that,” Ryan assured.

  “Place like this won’t be on the market long,” Tim said.

  Vin winked at him. “It’s not on the market yet.”

  “Can’t see what’s stopping us then. Can you?” Tim gave her back a squeeze. “Kai?”

  Three pairs of eyes fell expectantly on her.

  She hadn’t looked much at the contents of the work table, since it was what was on the coffee table that still held her notice. She’d gotten a glimpse, though, and knew she was already in love with a big Victorian in Ditmas Park with a yard and gardens. She smiled. And a garage.

  She lifted her left hand and waggled a certain finger. “I don’t know,” she said. “I’m feeling a little…bare.”

  All three men chuckled. “I can fix that,” Ryan said. With his eyes sparkling blue at her, he went and fetched the ring box. When he got back to the group, he handed it to Tim. Kai took that to mean Tim had done the shopping.

  One-handed, Tim flicked it open. “This help you make up your mind?”

  Kai really wasn’t one to get all googly-eyed by a woman’s big rock. But this ring had three big rocks, and that was more than enough to melt her heart.

  The diamonds were brilliant cut, of equal sizes, on a shiny band that was no doubt platinum because…Tim had shopped. “I don’t think any woman could say no to that,” she said.

  “We’re not just putting our ring on your finger,” Vin said. Those brown eyes were as intent as she’d ever seen them. “We’re asking you to marry us.”

  Kai looked back at him. “I don’t need a ring for that.”

  Tim snapped the box shut. Kai laughed, but she also put her hand over it, holding the box and Tim’s hand all at once. Holding like she wasn’t letting go. “That’s mine,” she said, looking at Tim.

  She moved her gaze, taking in all of the three who circled her. “I want the ring. I want the pretty Victorian. I want to fill it with children. I want to marry you, all of you. Because I love you, Vincent Rossi, Ryan Flaherty, and Timothy Randall the Third. I love you now and I believe I always will.”

  The men were all still for a moment, appearing to let that sink in. Appearing satisfied by it.

  Ryan acted first. He leaned in and kissed her. “I love you, Kai Morrison. And I always will.”

  Vin touched her cheek to turn her face to his. “Love you, babe,” he said because, well, he was Vin. “You’re mine and I’m yours. Always.” He kissed her, too.

  Then she looked at Tim as he worked the ring box out from her tight grip. He opened it, took the ring, and tossed the box on the table. With solemn purpose, he slid it onto her finger. “I love you, Kai,” he said. “You’re ours. Now and forever.”

  Vin nodded. “There’s one more thing, though.”

  Yeah, she’d seen that, too. Also on the coffee table. Also attention-grabbing.

  Three Harvard ties.

  * * * *

  Vinnie was a satisfied man. He considered the words just spoken to be an exchange of vows. They could pretty it up with any kind of ceremony Kai or the other guys wanted, but he deemed the deal done.

  They were all in, the three men. Ryan had gotten over that hesitation about sha
ring, having learned, as they all had, that their girl had an abundance of love—in both physical and emotional forms. Enough for all three of them.

  Tim was there, too, even from before the day he and his brother Danny had done a little sleuthing and discovered that their mother, the prim, perfect Margery Randall, had found a way to siphon Kai’s loan payments into her own private account. The brothers had stopped speaking to her for a while after that, until a really decent donation had worn the edge off their anger. They were building another Tone location, this one devoted entirely to Kai’s “girls,” right in the heart of the poorest neighborhoods of the Bronx. The million ought to about cover it.

  As for Vinnie, he hadn’t needed convincing of any sort, not from the first moment he’d conceived the idea of the ménage. He was brilliant, and that was enough said. Once in a while Tim or Ryan looked up from loving their girl and gave him a nod, and that was all the acknowledgment he wanted. He was just that good, and it didn’t need to be said over and over again. Really.

  At the moment, he totally liked the way Kai’s face paled a little when he brought up that one more thing. The way her hand with that pretty ring on it shook a little. And, contrarily, the way her brown eyes heated.

  He ran his gaze slowly down her body and then back up to her eyes. “It’s a thing all three of us have thought about ever since you surprised us that first day in this office.”

  Tim nodded his agreement. “You were up at the window with your back to us. I wanted to bone you before you even turned around.”

  “And when we saw who you were…” Vin didn’t think he’d ever forget that moment. Kai in her hot little business suit, pretending she wasn’t the vixen who’d felled three men, leaving them tied to their beds.

  Kai had maybe noticed the way he was looking at her, and she edged a little closer to Ryan. No surprise she’d consider that one her best bet for safe haven. Little did she know, though.

  The three men had planned this deal together. Tim had found the ring. Vin had hunted up the real estate. The flowers had been Ry’s idea. The flowers…and the ties.