Taking What's Theirs (Siren Publishing LoveEdge)

by Kalissa Alexander

  Abby tried to gather her thoughts. They were looking for her and now they knew she was here in Jacksonville.

  “You’re not mad at me, are you?” Jessica sounded worried.

  “No. I’m not mad. Just surprised, that’s all. When did you speak with him?”

  “Last night. He actually came to my house.”

  “Chances are he’s flying into Orlando or someplace south. I doubt very much he’s going to travel to Jacksonville just to see me. But I’ll let you know if I see him.”

  “You better. I’d love to know what he has to say. Who would have thought after all this time, he’d show up?”

  They talked for a few more minutes before Jessica said she had to go. Abby went back to the kitchen and made a beeline for the refrigerator where she found an opened bottle of white wine. She poured herself a glass. It was a little early, but what the hell. They knew where she was. Would they come? And if they did, what would she do?

  Jacksonville was only a two-hour flight from Philadelphia. They could already be here. She wanted to see them, but that wouldn’t be wise. Nothing had changed. The only plausible reason they would want to see her in person was to say good bye properly. They were, after all, dominant men and the way she had controlled the end of their relationship probably hadn’t sat well with them.

  Abby was so wrapped up in her thoughts she didn’t realize that someone was knocking on the front door. She wasn’t expecting anyone. She barely knew the neighbors. That only left the option she had feared.

  She sat perfectly still, her whole body paralyzed with what she knew was her desire to see them one more time and the fear of having them reject her in person.

  Her fear won out as she waited for the knocking to finally stop. She felt tears trickle down her cheeks. She didn’t even know if it was really them, but regardless, her heart was breaking all over again. She couldn’t stop the sobs that racked her body.

  She felt their eyes before she saw them. Lifting her head, she caught her breath as she looked out toward the pool. They were staring at her from the other side of the sliding glass door. Her jaw dropped. Seth pushed open the door that she had forgotten to lock. The three men she had thought she would never see again walked into her aunt’s kitchen. Words failed her as she stared at them.

  It was Jamie that reached her first. He hauled her up from the chair and into his arms. She let her head rest against his chest, too shocked to even try and fight the feeling of being in his arms again. He held her tightly.

  “Why, Abigail? Why?”

  The anguish in his voice was tearing her insides apart. When she could raise her head, Rod and Seth were on either side of her. They both looked as stricken as Jamie, but Seth’s stance was more controlled and there was a glint of anger in his eyes. She knew that look.

  Rod handed her a tissue. She took it and dabbed at her eyes.

  “I must look a mess,” she choked out. She hadn’t seen them in weeks and all she could come up with was that?

  “You look beautiful to me,” Rod said softly, his eyes looking into hers with what appeared to be sadness and confusion. “Why did you leave without a word? We thought you wanted to be with us.”

  “You were just gone,” Seth barked, taking her chin in his hand as Jamie backed away from her, giving his brother room. She couldn’t avoid his eyes that regarded her coolly. “Do you hate us so much you couldn’t even leave us a message?”

  “Hate you?” She backed up. “I don’t hate you. I had to get away,” she said just above a whisper. “You shouldn’t have come looking for me.”

  “If you don’t hate us, then what? I thought you at least thought enough of us to not run away. What happened to trust?” The sadness and hurt in Seth’s voice was tearing at her heart.

  “I do trust you.”

  “So much so that you wouldn’t or couldn’t talk to us?” Seth asked, his hand going from her chin to cup her face. “What are you afraid of, Abigail?”

  “You don’t understand,” she cried out, tearing herself from his hold.

  “You’re right. I don’t understand.”

  “All you wanted was a submissive.”

  Seth regarded her coolly. “I thought that was what you wanted. What you needed.”

  She moved back against the table away from them, but Seth closed the distance between them quickly. His hands gripped her shoulders and held them firmly.

  “Are you saying you don’t want to be a submissive? Was I too hard on you? Are you afraid of me, Abigail?”

  “It’s not you that I’m afraid of,” she cried. “I’m afraid of myself, of what I want and that you…” She faltered. “You should have left me alone.”

  She tried to walk away, but Seth’s hold on her kept her in place. Rod and Jamie stood close by but said nothing. Seth was the interrogator and he wanted answers. Was it simply his dominant nature that made him want to humble her like this or his anger that she had dared to defy him?

  “Please just go or are you getting off seeing me like this?” she asked bitterly.

  “Do you really think we came here because we wanted to hurt you? Do you think so little of us?” Jamie finally spoke, his eyes still mirroring his hurt and confusion.

  Did they really need to hear her say she loved them so they could admit that it had all been a mistake and then reject her? She would have never thought they could be this cruel.

  “If I’m the one you ran away from…” Seth’s voice cracked. “My brothers want you back and if it’s me you can’t bear to be with, I need to know so I can make it right.”

  Suddenly the anger was gone and all that was left in his eyes was pain and a vulnerability she had never seen before. Did he really think that he was the reason she had left them? He was the strong one and yet he seemed to be crumbling before her eyes. She had never thought he would blame himself or that her leaving would humble him like this. She could feel his pain and she wanted to make it go away, even if it meant opening herself to their pity and rejection.

  “I thought all you wanted to do was fuck me and enjoy my body’s response to the way you and your brothers brought me to submission. Not that I didn’t want that too, but, then I realized I wanted something you didn’t and I thought I was doing us all a favor by leaving before you had to end it because I knew I wouldn’t be able to hide the fact that…” She took a breath. She had to tell them. It was the only way they would walk away and Seth would know he wasn’t the reason. “I had fallen in love with you…with all three of you.”

  There, she had said it. She looked down, not wanting them to see the depth of her despair.

  The silence was deafening. She wanted to die or at least find a place to hide and lick her wounds. This was worse than she could have ever imagined.

  Finally Rod’s voice broke the silence, his voice tight and full of emotion. “Just tell her. Tell her the truth about why we came here.”

  “She needs to hear this from you, Seth,” Jamie said, his voice strained.

  “Tell me what?” She lifted her eyes to Seth’s.

  “I…we want more than your submission. Maybe we always have, but we’re complex men and there are things about me you don’t know. Things that kept me from allowing myself to acknowledge what I knew to be true. Please,” he said, the anguish in his voice breaking her heart.

  As much as his words brought her happiness, she knew they weren’t enough. Was she strong enough not to go back no matter how much she wanted to?

  “Seth,” Rod said, taking a step closer. “You said you came to a realization. The same one that Jamie and I came to. Don’t let the past keep you from the future we all want.”

  Seth’s face projected his internal struggle with the past and whatever demons he was fighting. She wanted to tell him that it was all right, that she was his was no matter what, but that wouldn’t have solved anything. She waited. Her body was taut with the knowledge that this was the moment that would set the direction of their future together or put an end to it once and for all.


  Seth took a step back from her and leaned against the kitchen counter. He looked out the sliding glass doors toward the pool. When he turned back to her, he smiled sadly. “I was in love once with the wrong person and it ended very badly for all of us.” He glanced at his brothers. “I promised myself I would never let love in my heart again and yet…I have and this time I know what love really is.”

  He walked to where she was standing mesmerized by his eyes that were no longer hiding what he was finally ready for her to see. Her heart began to beat faster as she waited for the words she had never thought to hear.

  “We love you,” Seth said, just above a whisper. “I love you.”

  She felt her hopelessness and despair lift as she absorbed what he had finally told her into her tortured heart.

  They loved her and she had run away from them because she had been so sure they would reject her love. She may have changed her appearance but she had never been able to change how she felt about herself. Her scars ran deep. It was obvious that Seth had scars, too. Someday he would share all the details of his pain with her and she would make sure he never felt it again.

  She was totally in love with the three men who continued to stare at her as if she might disappear if they touched her. The love in their eyes that she could finally see and believe made her want to throw herself into their arms. However, first, she had something she needed to say.

  “I am submissive, I know that. Pleasing you gives me pleasure. I can’t be anything else, at least not when it comes to being loved by each of you. But I do have a mind of my own, and it’s important to me that I remain true to myself. I have only now come to understand who I really am and I want to embrace that woman. So maybe I’m not exactly what you want, but I love you and I hope that will be enough for you.”

  “We want you exactly the way you are. Don’t ever change,” Seth said softly.

  Rod smiled. “You please us and loving you is all we will ever want. We want you to be happy.”

  “Pleasing you is my happiness,” she cried as tears flowed freely down her cheeks.

  “If you really want to please us, then marry me,” Jamie said.

  “What?”

  “Marry me legally. But in reality, you’ll be a wife to all three of us. It makes sense. It will give you the security you will need. Everything else will be given by the three of us.”

  “My parents,” she thought out loud. “They’ll never understand.”

  “They will in time,” Seth said. “This would be a lot for anyone to digest who isn’t in the lifestyle…especially when it concerns their daughter. We’ll help them to understand, but we’ll take it slow. All they have to know initially is that you’re marrying Jamie.”

  “I thought you were ashamed of me,” she admitted. “When you said your mother was visiting and you didn’t want me around, I was sure you could never feel the way I did about you.”

  Rod smiled. “Our mother and sister already know about our lifestyle. They will be happy for us and embrace you with open arms.”

  “I’m sorry,” Seth said, “that I made you feel that way. I had this crazy idea we needed space and that it would do you good not seeing us for a few weeks. I was wrong.”

  “So,” Jamie said, looking suddenly unsure of himself, “will you marry us?”

  “Yes, I’ll marry all three of you. I don’t need a piece of paper, but if it makes you feel better, then yes, yes, and yes.

  “It’s what we want,” Rod said happily. “We’re never going to let you leave us again.”

  Seth, Jamie and Rod finally grabbed her and wrapped her in their arms, holding her securely between them. Her heart was bursting.

  “You’ll never have to worry about that,” she said softly.

  “There’s something else,” Seth said with a smile curving his beautiful lips. We’ve talked about what would happen if you came back to us. We want you to go back to school. Maybe NYU if that’s what you want.”

  “That’s incredible. But school. That’s expensive.”

  “We’ll make sure we get our pound of flesh.” Seth laughed.

  It sounded so good to hear him laugh. She looked up at him as his lips descended with a kiss that made her toes tingle. When Rod’s lips found hers, his kiss was tender and so loving she wanted to cry. However, when it was Jamie’s turn, she melted into him. She had fallen in love with him four years ago and she knew now she would be able to love him forever.

  “Are you expecting anyone home in the next hour?” Seth asked.

  “No. In fact, I’m here by myself for the whole weekend.” She couldn’t help but laugh at the look on all their faces.

  “Strip for us, Abigail, and let us show you how much we love you,” Seth ordered, his eyes glittering with promise.

  “Whatever you wish, Sir,” she purred, her heart singing. “I’m yours. I’ve always been yours.”

  THE END

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Kalissa Alexander loves to write stories about love. She is a woman of diversified interests, from singing karaoke, to knitting, to creating her own crafts at the holidays. However, nothing brings her more pleasure than to write about desirable, loving women that regardless of life’s obstacles always find true love with the men that can make their dreams come true.She believes that happy endings are what women not only want but need to believe in. On any given day or into the night, she can be found bringing her characters to life with an anxious smile as she finds the words to express their feelings in a story that makes them perfect for each other in an imperfect world. Life is full of possibilities; she enjoys bringing all of them to her readers.

  For all titles by Kalissa Alexander, please visit

  www.bookstrand.com/kalissa-alexander

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com