by Sam Crescent
She watched the dancers do a routine and clapped her hands when they were done. This was the first summer picnic fair that she’d been on since her mother’s cancer. She settled back into her chair and enjoyed the show.
“We’re going to go and say hi to the guys. They’re ribbing our asses because you’ve got both of us grounded.” Noah wrapped his arm around her neck. He stole a kiss, and then Drew did the same.
“As long as you know who owns your ass,” she said, teasingly.
“We know who we belong to, baby. We’ll be back before you know it.” Drew punched Noah in the arm, and she watched them move towards the other bad boys.
Chuckling, she watched the children running around causing chaos for their mothers.
“It’s so nice to see you again, Cheryl.”
She turned to the sound of her name.
“Andy, hi.” Andy, short for Andrea, was surrounded by three young children. Andy had been a friend in school. When Cheryl’s mother had been diagnosed with cancer she had held all of her friends back. She hadn’t wanted anyone to know what was going on at home. Andy had been one of the friends who’d fought to stay and help. In the end, Cheryl pushed her away. The other woman looked tired. Her neck was covered in hickeys, but her old school friend looked happy.
“I’ve been worried about you,” Andy said, sitting down in the vacant seat by her.
“Why?”
“You went from being a good friend to pushing me away. I know you had it rough, but that’s no excuse.”
Cheryl blushed from the reprimand she heard in her voice.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry. You come round for dinner sometime and offer to babysit, and we’ll call it even.”
Cheryl smiled and turned to look at Noah and Drew. They were drinking beer and laughing with their friends.
“How have you been?” she asked, intrigued to find out more about her friend.
“I married Ashley and Matt when I was eighteen. I had this little guy a year later, and I’ve been popping them out ever since.”
She sat and listened as her friend talked about her life. All the time she kept stealing glances at her own two men. They were so different, and yet she liked them equally.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?”
“What?” she asked, coming to, thinking she’d missed some of the conversation.
“Love. It’s amazing. I can see Drew and Noah love you. You look like a love-struck fool, too. They’ve got you good.”
The sucker punch to her solar plexus wouldn’t have been as surprising as the reality check she’d just gained.
Love. L.O.V.E.
She was totally, one hundred percent in love with two men. It was not the quick one night stand kind of love, but the all-consuming verging on obsession kind of love.
Cheryl stared across the picnic to where Noah and Drew stood. People passed giving her warm welcomes and smiles. Nodding her head and smiling so much her face hurt, she couldn’t keep her gaze away from the two men.
Is that the way they felt about her? Did she make them feel sick to their stomach wondering if she felt the same way about them?
“I’m so sorry, Andy. I’ve got to go and be alone.” She stood up and walked away from the picnic going towards the parking lot. Her body felt incredibly tight as the awakening of what she’d kept buried came to the surface. She’d always felt something for them, but she never expected anything like what she was feeling. At the end of the parking lot she saw Noah’s truck. She’d seen him store the keys under the visor. Opening the door, she climbed into the driver’s side, put the keys in the ignition and started up the truck. The sound of the engine purring to life was a comfort to her.
Without caring where she was going, she put the truck into gear and pressed on the gas.
Everybody she’d ever loved so completely had left her. Her dad had gone, and her mother had been taken away with her illness. What would she do if Noah and Drew left or were taken from her? Even though she loved them with her whole heart, she couldn’t deal with the pain that hit her square in the chest at the thought of losing them. When she got back, she’d be able to say the right words to her two men. Speaking to them at the moment didn’t feel right to her.
****
Noah chuckled and glanced over to find Andy walking towards their group. She’d married two good guys and looked damn good for it, too. He saw she looked worried. Ashley and Matt were talking with the rest of the bad boy crew, even though they’d never made it as members.
“Andy, when are you going to leave these two boys and find a man good enough for you?” Stefan, one of the newer members, said.
“When I see a decent enough man to replace them?” All the men snorted and burst out laughing. “Hi, Noah,” she said.
“How are you doing, Andy?” Noah knew when they were younger she had had a crush on him. He recalled letting her down gently and steering her towards Matt and Ashley.
“I’m good. I don’t mean to upset you, but Cheryl ran out of here pretty quickly.”
“What? Why?” He searched the spot where he left her and saw her cardigan draped over the chair.
“We were talking, and I mentioned love or something, and she just scampered out of here.”
“Thanks for telling me,” he said. Noah grabbed Drew and they walked to the edge of the parking lot to see their truck gone.
“What’s going on?” Drew asked.
“Something with Cheryl. Come on. We’ve got to find her,” Noah went into the direction of the high road.
“If she’s got our truck don’t you think it’s pointless? How do we know where she went?” Drew kept asking questions. Noah went with his gut when thinking about Cheryl. He knew she would need time and would probably be parked along the road somewhere.
“She doesn’t like cars. We’ll find her.” They followed along the path. She wasn’t in sight, and Noah glanced down at his watch to see they had been looking for the past thirty minutes. An hour later when they were both ready to call it a day, they found their truck parked at an odd angle. Cheryl was marching up and down kicking the dry soil.
When they got closer, they dodged the stones she was throwing their way. None of them were high enough to do any damage.
“I fucking hate you. There, I swore, Drew, what are you going to do about it?” She cursed.
“Wait and see, and I’ll show you when we get home.”
She snorted. “I’m not going home with you.”
“Yes, you are.”
Noah got to the truck and leaned up the front. She stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at the pair of them. “What’s the matter, baby? I didn’t figure you for a quitter.”
Her blush stained her cheeks. She remained silent. Noah stared at her and knew he would need to make the first move.
“I love you, Cheryl.”
She hit him on the chest. He knew she was fighting it and let her. Staying still, he let her hit him over and over again, her tears pouring down her face, dripping onto her dress. Noah knew this was more than their feelings for her. There was pain inside her that had nothing to do with them.
“I love you, and I swear I will never hurt you or leave you.”
“Me neither.” Drew folded his arms and stood by Noah’s side.
“What are you trying to say?” she asked, rubbing the tears from her eyes.
“That we love you and have loved you since the first moment you stumbled into our shop and asked if we could fix your mother’s car,” Noah said.
“What if you leave me?” she asked. His heart broke for her. She looked so vulnerable at that moment.
“Never going to happen, baby. You’ve got us for the rest of your life. Trust in us.”
He’d known for a while his obsession with Cheryl had begun the moment she asked them for help. At first he thought it was attraction. When he watched her sleep, wrapped in his or Drew’s arms, he’d known how he felt.
She made him feel like the best man in the world.
No other woman had let him feel so happy and secure in a relationship. Cheryl was fire and ice and all the round things in between. She cared, loved, and gave all of herself without expecting anything in return. Noah knew he would love her for the rest of his life. She had given him her virginity and her love. In return he wanted to love, care for, and cherish her. He wanted her to be his wife and the mother of his children.
“I love you, too,” she said after several minutes passed. “I love you. I love you. I love you.” She chanted the words for them to hear. They held her when she flung herself into their waiting arms.
****
Drew held her, thankful that Noah had forced him to let her in. Glancing at his friend he saw the tears spilling down his cheeks, and he felt the same way. Cheryl was going over his knee when they got home for swearing.
He couldn’t believe she was going to be their woman.
“Did you break the truck?” Drew asked.
“No. I just couldn’t stand to drive anymore. I was hoping you would come and find me. I wanted you to.” She stood back, staring at them.
Taking her hand in his, Noah did the same. All three of them were together, and that was all that mattered.
He wondered if every man went through this turmoil with a woman. Cheryl held a lot of fiery spirit, and she refused to give herself lightly. They would spend the rest of their life on their toes from the red-headed spirit inside her. They were going to spend an interesting life together.
Epilogue
One year later
“Where is that woman? She’s going over my knee this time, Drew. I don’t give a fuck what her excuses are,” Noah said.
Cheryl heard him slam the front door and snuggled deeper into the warmth of the sofa. She knew he would never hurt her, and his punishment ended the moment he got her naked. Unlike Drew, Noah never saw out his punishments.
“She’s in here,” Drew called.
Traitor.
Both men moved ‘round the sofa to stand in front of her. “Why did you do it, Cheryl?” he asked.
“What have I done?” she asked, all innocent.
“You know what you’ve done. You’ve dyed my best white shirt. I was going to wear it tonight.” He held up the shirt in question, which was a lovely pale pink colour. Suppressing her urge to laugh, she stared at him while folding her arms.
“It’s a lovely colour, and it will bring out your eyes more.”
“This isn’t funny, Cheryl. The guys are going to bloody laugh at me.”
“Well, if you had let me go to The Dugout none of this would have happened,” she said. Earlier in the week when she said she was going to accompany them for their pool night which they’d started doing, both Noah and Drew had told her she was to stay home.
Noah softened first, placing his shirt on the sofa and pulling her into his arms. His warmth and heat surrounded her. Her hormones were all over the place lately. She kept crying for no reason.
He placed his palm on her extended belly. “We want you to go with us, baby. You know what the doctor said. Rest and relaxation. Why do you think we go to The Dugout?”
She was three months pregnant and already looked like a baby elephant. The doctor had informed her when she was expecting twins, she would need to rest. That’s right, not one but two babies inside her.
After her emotional breakdown outside of Law Castle, Noah and Drew had organised a wedding and married her a few weeks later. She’d married Noah in front of the church. In a private ceremony at Patrick, Larry, and Gloria’s, with only a few of their friends present, she’d given herself to both men.
“I don’t like the thought of all those skinny women coming onto you. Can’t you stay with me? I’m getting bored being by myself.” She hated begging them for attention, but she was so tired and lonely.
“Cheryl,” Drew said.
“If you don’t, I’m taking the truck and driving to Gloria. She said she’d put up with me for a couple of weeks.”
Her men didn’t like leaving her alone. Staring at each other, they sat down on the sofa with her. Noah laid her head across her lap while Drew held her feet.
****
Drew stared at her feet and tried not to think how they would look wrapped around his waist as he plunged inside her. The doctor telling them to ease off sexual relations was having him at breaking point. The only reason they had started going out was because they couldn’t trust themselves with her.
She was expecting their twins, her body getting fuller every day. He glanced over her body. Her waist was thicker, her tits heavier, and she had a glowing energy about her. Rubbing his hands down his jeans, he tried to get his mind off fucking his wife. She was tempting him constantly, her ass brushing against him when they passed. He didn’t want to risk seeing her naked, as otherwise he thought he’d pass out from the lust.
He rubbed her thigh, feeling the weight of her calf in his hand. Her skin was soft, and without thinking, he ran his hand up the inside of her leg. She wasn’t wearing any panties. Cheryl moaned and opened her legs.
“Stop doing that,” Noah said.
“Why? I want you both. Have you found another woman? Are you done with me?” Cheryl asked.
“No,” Drew and Noah yelled in unison.
“Then what is it?”
“The doctor said we couldn’t touch you,” Noah said.
“No. She said you couldn’t be too rough with me. You can make love to me, but you both have to be gentle. Personally, I think it sucks. I need you both. Please, please, please, don’t say no.”
Drew stared at Noah, who gazed down at Cheryl. She held a beautiful little pout.
They carried her upstairs to their bedroom, showing her how good it could be taking their time and loving every inch, including all the extra inches, of her body. Cheryl had proved once again to be a temptation they couldn’t refuse. Their virgin temptress had tamed two bad boys. Drew fell asleep wondering who would capture the next Law Castle bad boy.
The End
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