by Kallysten
Brett wasn’t surprised about Virginia and Anando. He’d seen this coming when Anando had acted so possessively. But Lisa vaunting the attraction of monogamy?
“When we first moved in together,” he said, a little choked up, “you made it clear you wouldn’t stop hunting.”
She became very still, one hand on each of their thighs. “And I still won’t stop now,” she said. “But I can feed from someone without either of us getting off. What I meant…” She took Leo to witness. “You know what I mean. You still drink from humans, but when was the last time you slept with one of them?”
“Excluding Virginia?” Leo whispered. “A year. Something like that.”
Brett’s gaze turned to him, his confusion overpowering his desire.
“A year?” Brett blurted out. “But you’ve asked… You left the club with…”
Once again, Brett lost his train of thought before he finished voicing it. He remembered Leo asking his permission to accompany a girl home… When had it been? Two, three months earlier maybe? Come to think of it, that was a long time ago. And when had been the time before that?
“I asked, yes,” Leo said. “Because I like to hear you say yes. Or no. I like how hot you look when that power burns in your eyes.” He covered Brett’s hand on his cock then, and Brett turned his hand over so that they were palm to palm. “But I haven’t done more than bite a human in a long time,” Leo continued before glancing back at Lisa. “How about you?” he asked her. “How long?”
“I don’t know,” she said with a small shrug. “I wasn’t… I didn’t plan this. It just sort of happened.”
She seemed almost sheepish now. The expression would have been odd combined with her sexy attire, but on Lisa it was startling.
“Wait.” Brett shifted sideways until he was facing both of them. “You mean both of you stopped sleeping with other people, and neither of you ever thought to mention it?”
He believed them. He trusted that neither of them would lie to him, not about anything, and especially on a topic as important as this one. Besides, their arrangement had lasted for years without trouble. Brett had never been upset when they took lovers.
But why change the status quo now? Why let months pass without telling him that things were different? Neither of them answered his question, but in truth, they didn’t need to. Warmth suffused Brett, flowing through him with desire and love.
He’d never asked for this. He’d never even allowed himself to want it. He had managed to convince himself that asking them to commit would only cause him to lose them. But now that they had each taken that step on their own, he couldn’t deny how happy it made him.
His hands were shaking when he curled one at the back of Leo’s neck and the other at the nape of Lisa’s head. He pulled both of them close.
“I love you,” he murmured. “God, I love you both so much.”
“Love you too,” Leo said, and maybe because he had spoken first, Brett offered him a kiss. Sweet and gentle, it was in many ways like a first kiss, like they’d never touched before, like this was a beginning. How many first times had they shared over the years? How many times had they reinvented their relationship? Would this time be the last?
“Typical,” Lisa said in a rough voice just a breath away. “I get all dressed up, and you two start without me.”
They focused on her together, moved on her in the same breath. She hadn’t said the L word, but she didn’t need to. She had given them better than that.
Leo took her mouth, and this kiss had no gentleness to it, no sweetness. Instead it was pure heat, and even from inches away, Brett thought he might get burned. He wanted to get burned.
The sides of her thong snapped with little effort under Leo’s fingers. It had endured longer than Brett had expected, after all, but not by much. Brett slid a hand to where she was so wet for them, so needy. She bucked against the heel of his hand, moaning into Leo’s mouth.
“Get on him,” Brett whispered. The words rolled out like gravel down a river bed. “Show me how that pretty lace moves when you dance on top of him.”
She was grinning when she pulled her mouth away from Leo’s and gave a wicked look to Brett.
“So you do like it.”
Laughing, Leo grabbed her hips and pulled her up into his lap. “Did you hear him? He loves it.”
From this angle, Brett couldn’t see Leo’s cock slip inside her, but he could see both of their expressions, and the second when the first touch of hard on wet turned into the familiar pleasure of being joined as one again.
He’d meant to watch them for a moment, but Lisa tilted her face toward him as she raised herself to her knees and lowered herself again. The invitation inscribed in the curve of her lips was as clear as if she had voiced it.
Need surged through him and to the tip of his aching dick. Brett leaned forward, pressing a kiss across her lips and a second one to Leo’s shoulder where Lisa’s fingers were curled.
Brett rose to his knees, almost stumbling as he moved behind Lisa. He fisted his cock, spreading the precome that soaked the tip down along the shaft. Lisa was still moving on top of Leo’s dick, dancing as Brett had asked her to.
The ruffles of the baby doll fluttered against her ass with each small movement, the fabric pulled tight at her waist as Leo clutched her, his hands supporting and amplifying her bucks and slides.
“Slow down,” Brett croaked. “Let me…”
When he brushed his hand along her spine, where sheer fabric didn’t quite hide the delicate curve of her back, Lisa leaned down until her body was flush against Leo’s.
The sounds of kissing and quiet, muffled moans urged Brett onward. Still leading his cock with one hand, he pushed the baby doll upward with the other, exposing the lovely fullness of Lisa’s ass.
Like this, he could just see the root of Leo’s cock inside her pussy, and the tiny, almost imperceptible back and forth as he rocked inside her. Brett let out an appreciative hum and rubbed two fingers against her wetness before pressing up alongside Leo’s cock.
Both of them groaned, in appreciation or maybe encouragement. Either way, Brett couldn’t bear to wait any longer, couldn’t stand to be so close to them and yet separate. Swiping his wet fingers against the tip of his cock, he shuffled forward until he was as close as he could be and pressed in, pushing his cock tight along Leo’s.
Lisa threw her head back, crying out Brett’s name. He slid an arm around her, cradling her left breast in his palm and drawing her up against him. As her body shifted back, Brett’s dick pushed deeper inside her, and for a few seconds, an entire eternity, the three of them were frozen in time, united as one.
When they started moving, it was also as one, and they easily fell back into the ebb and flow that had grown so familiar across the years. Lisa moved between Leo and Brett, up and down their joined lengths, and each in turn pushed forward and drew back to nudge the others a little further along the path to pleasure.
Even through the fabric of the bra, Brett could feel how tight Lisa’s hardened nipple had grown under his touch. He tugged at the satin to bare her, pinched the nipple between two fingers, and Lisa moaned. She moaned louder still when Leo flicked his tongue between Brett’s fingers and teased her a little more.
Brett caressed Leo’s cheek before cupping the back of his head to draw him tighter against Lisa without ever missing a beat. When she thrust herself a little faster between them, her walls pulsing with her rising pleasure, Brett knew Leo must be sucking on her breast. He could picture it in his mind for having witnessed it dozens of times: Leo’s mouth pressed against her milky flesh, his cheeks hollowed as he sucked hard, the look of ecstasy on his features…
With a grunt, Bret jerked inside Lisa, his body acting of its own accord. The next second, Lisa drew in a sharp breath and stilled. Brett knew what had happened: Leo had bitten her, and in a second—
She let out a long sigh, almost a moan, and her body shook and trembled in pleasure.
—Le
o started to pull on her blood and soared with her. Brett tumbled after them, and behind his tightly closed eyes, he could imagine his own fangs in her neck and her blood on his tongue once he was one of them.
* * * *
Lisa, Leo, and Brett came over with two bottles of wine. Anando put the wine away for another night and served them juice and blood instead. They chatted for a while, sitting around the fireplace, but soon it was time to get to work.
“As long as we’re all clear on the fact that I’ve never done this before and can’t be held liable for the results,” Leo said, observing the brush Anando had placed in his hand like he had never seen any such thing before.
“You’re how old,” Virginia snickered, “and you’ve never painted a room?”
“I’m old enough to know my limits,” he said. “Now, building stuff, that’s different.”
He was eyeing the pieces of the crib, waiting to be put together in the hallway.
“Paint first,” Anando said, pushing both Leo and Brett into the room. “Furniture comes later.”
He’d already covered the floor with drop cloths that afternoon and laid painter’s tape around the windows, doors, and closet. In truth, he could have finished the job himself. Unlike Leo, he had painted a few rooms before, including this one a few years earlier. The cream walls were on their way out, however, and instead…
“Green?” Brett said with a frankly skeptical expression, as he peered into the can of paint Anando had popped open.
Anando didn’t reply, grinning instead as he glanced back at Virginia. She’d stepped out of the room with Lisa—while the paint was supposed to be odorless and chemical-free, they weren’t taking any chances—but she turned back and huffed.
“It’s not green. It’s called ‘sprouting wheat.’ It’s a very calm and soothing color.”
Both Leo and Brett gave her blank looks. Anando, on the other hand, was very careful not to let his amusement show. He’d learned the hard way not to question Virginia’s design choices where the nursery was concerned.
“Does either of you want to do the ceiling?” he asked before they could say something that would start a fire.
Brett volunteered. Virginia retreated from the room with another huff, taking Lisa along with her.
“Sprouting wheat?” Leo whispered when the women’s voices had faded onto the patio.
Anando chuckled. “Don’t ask. You don’t want to know how much time she spent staring at paint chips.”
He showed Leo how to use the roller. Brett was already starting on the ceiling, cutting in the edges with a brush from his perch on the ladder. Lisa’s and Virginia’s laughs drifted in from outside through the open window.
“So, if it took that long to choose a paint color,” Brett said after a while, “how long is it going to take you guys to pick a name?”
If there had been the slightest hint in Brett’s tone or expression that he wanted some input on the topic, Anando would have bristled. He could hear none of that, however, only teasing.
“Well, that didn’t take very long,” Anando said in a casual voice. “Hey, careful with the drips!”
He stepped closer to Leo to spread out the long trails of paint Leo was leaving behind. Anando was aware that both men were looking at him, waiting for him to tell them the name. He kept his grin in check and continued to work as though he hadn’t said anything special.
Walking over to the window, Leo leaned against the sill and called out, “Virginia! Anando is being a tease! You don’t mind if I turn him green, do you?”
Laughter resounded more loudly. Seconds later, both women appeared at the window.
“What, you’re not finished yet?” Lisa said, her eyes darting around the room to check their progress.
Leo waved his paint roller in her direction. “It’s easy to criticize from the outside.” Without missing a beat, he asked, “Did Virginia tell you what name they picked?”
Lisa turned an outraged look to Virginia. “You picked a name and didn’t say so?”
Virginia laughed. “You didn’t ask!”
“Well, I’m asking now. Spill.”
Anando’s gaze met Virginia’s across the room. They’d decided to wait until the baby came to share her name, but he could tell Virginia was dying to tell them, and he wouldn’t have mentioned anything himself if he had minded. He nodded, and she beamed.
“We’re calling her Emma,” she said, and while most of her body was hidden, he suspected at least one of her hands rested on her belly.
“We haven’t decided on a middle name yet,” Anando said. “We were thinking, if you guys want to choose it…”
Lisa, Brett, and Leo looked back and forth at each other.
“We’ll get back at you on that,” Leo said with a muffled laugh.
“I see a lot of bargaining in our future,” Brett added before he went back to painting.
With three of them hard at work—well, two; Leo was more of a hindrance than help—they had the room painted in a little over half an hour. Leo and Brett were already discussing names when they came out. Or rather, they were discussing how not to let Lisa pick a name and trick them both into agreeing to it. Bargaining, Brett had said, but maybe scheming would have been a better word.
The women walked into the nursery right after the three of them had left, no doubt to inspect the paint job more closely. Virginia’s phone rang. Because he was close to it, Anando picked it up from the breakfast bar and glanced at the display. When he saw ‘Mom & Dad,’ his first instinct was to disconnect the call. He picked it up instead, and heading toward the open French windows, he stepped outside.
“Do you have any idea how upset she was after your visit?” he asked without so much as a greeting. His good mood from the past hour was gone and forgotten. “What do you want? To make things worse?”
The line was silent for a few seconds before Virginia’s father said, “No, I do not want to upset my daughter. I want to apologize to her. Can you please put her on the line?”
Anando snorted. “Apologize? It’s been three weeks. You’re a bit slow on the uptake, aren’t you?”
“Anando?” Virginia said behind him.
He turned to her, lowering the phone from his ear. He hated to see her smile fade.
“Who is it?” she asked, her gaze darting down to the phone.
“Your father. He says he wants to apologize. But you don’t have to talk to him if you don’t want to.”
It didn’t surprise Anando that she did. She came to him, and he handed her the phone, sliding an arm around her to keep her close.
Her voice trembled a little when she said “Hello?”
Being so near, Anando had no trouble hearing Tom’s words.
“Hello, Virginia. How are you?”
She rested her cheek against Anando’s shoulder as she replied in a neutral tone, “Fine. We were preparing the nursery. How are you and Mom?”
“Fine, fine. Listen, I… I’m sorry. Things shouldn’t have happened the way they did.”
When Virginia said nothing, he continued, more hesitant now. “Your mother was upset, and you know I’m never good when she’s upset.”
“There was no reason for either of you to be upset.”
“Maybe. But surprised, yes. We never expected…” He let out a loud sigh. “And with you being pregnant… You do understand why we felt protective, don’t you?”
“Dad, feeling protective would have meant trying to get me away from Anando. Not storming out and refusing to answer my phone calls.”
Tom was silent for such a long time that Anando wondered if the call had been disconnected. He held Virginia a little closer still.
“I’m sorry,” Tom said again. “I’m not proud of the way I reacted. I know you wouldn’t put yourself or your baby in danger.”
“And Mom?”
Another deep sigh. “I’m working on your mother. I hope by the time the baby arrives, she’ll be ready to accept your choices. I’d like to come visit, th
en. If that’s all right.”
“It would be,” Virginia said. “But only if there is no mention of Anando’s fangs.”
Her father’s next words were so quiet that, as close as Anando was to Virginia, he barely heard them. His tone was very different from the gruff way he had talked when he had visited.
“We just want you to be safe, honey. That’s all we ever cared about.”
Virginia lifted her head from Anando’s shoulder and looked straight at him as she replied.
“I am safe, Dad. I’ve never been safer in my life than I am at this very moment.”
She was smiling when she finished. Anando pressed the smallest of kisses to her lips before drawing her close again. He peered inside the house, where he could see the others.
What would her parents say if they knew that there wasn’t only one vampire with her at that moment, but three? Would they understand that these three vampires would protect her from anything, the same way the one human amongst them would?
Anando had lived for a long time. He’d seen a lot of families, some ‘traditional,’ some ‘extended.’ He’d seen people that were related by birth but couldn’t in any way call themselves family. He’d seen people so dissimilar they might as well have come from different planets, and yet they were family to one another.
When all was said and done, this family wasn’t the strangest one he’d ever encountered. But, other than his birth one, it was the only family where he’d ever felt he belonged, entirely and with no reserve.
CHAPTER 21
As was true of so many holidays, Brett wasn’t fond of the New Year’s celebrations. He did enjoy the feeling of infinite possibilities that always seemed to emerge when the calendars were being set back to day one, but New Year’s Eve was always one of the club’s busiest nights, and the amount of work that went into getting everything ready seemed to increase with each passing year—or maybe he was getting too old for all this. Lisa had once again suggested that he hire an assistant, and he was beginning to think she might have a point—not that he was ready to admit it yet.