Our driver was unloading the car, and I simply instructed him to put Ell in Scarlet’s room. When she heard these room arrangements, her cute little face scrunched into a frown. I wanted to laugh at such a pathetic sight.
“Arden,” Elliot called my way quietly. “This is such a big house.” She’d already taken the self-guided tour while I was making sure our kitchen was stocked. Daimen had to take an urgent business call. “And Scarlet’s room is so far away—you said there was a room closer to yours. Can I stay there?” We’d set the to-be nursery up as a guest room for the time being. I loved the thought of Ell being closer and no doubt, so would Daimen.
“Never mind, Charles, put Ms. Arnold in the guest suite on our side of the house. I will send Helen in there to unpack.” Helen was one of the maids we used here. She shopped for us and made sure the place was ready for a long stay.
Closing the distance between us, I began, “No problem, hot stuff, give Helen a few minutes to unpack your stuff and hang it up. Make yourself at home.”
“For shit’s sake, I can unpack my own clothes,” she growled.
“Work with me, hot stuff.” I pulled her in for a kiss. “We love caring for you. Please don’t fight this.”
Just then, Daimen walked out of our master with a confused look on his face and pointed at who I assumed was Helen in the suite near ours.
“Elliot wanted to be closer. Helen is in there now, getting her settled.” An exchange of knowing looks told us both not to get ahead of ourselves. “Let me grab some wine, I wanna enjoy the view of the lake from our back porch,” I mentioned, and both took me at my word, following me outside. Daimen took Elliot’s hand in his. My heart lurched because I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Shit, they already were. My mind had gone as far as having us walking down the aisle, and Daimen and I waiting on her hand and foot while she grew our family inside her. Reaching for the chardonnay, I tried to suppress those feelings, telling me we were not there yet. Hell, she was not there yet.
* * *
“I can’t get over this view,” Elliot said, cracking her knuckles. After having lunch with her almost every day and many coffee dates on top of that, she did this when she was nervous. Not saying a word, I took in this quirky character trait of hers and filed it away for later.
“Yeah, it’s one of the reasons we bought the house. At the time, it was all we could afford.” Two million was a drop in the bucket to our self-worth now but not then. I didn’t share this with Elliot, though, and she gave me a wayward glance.
“I’m sure this was not cheap, but it’s hard to even fathom you saying afford. I have a feeling there is nothing on this earth you can’t afford except for a small continent. Well, I don’t know, is Australia for sale?” she teased.
“Our girl is a jokester too, babe.” Daimen started. At first, I feared she’d recoil at us calling her ours, but she only smiled at the statement.
Reaching for Daimen’s hand, happy that his remark was received well, I continued, “As I was saying, when we bought the house, it was smaller. We kept the main part and added our own wing to it. Plus, the pools. We needed those just to show off that we were the best house on the block,” I added with a wink.
“Yeah, why do you have a room basically in your master suite wing?” she asked casually. I searched out Daimen, and he did the same to me as to what our answer should be. It wasn’t something we wanted to scare our girl with, but hell, I wouldn’t lie to her. Sure, I’d told her in the past we’d wanted a family, but now, it was different since we wanted her a part of our life.
Daimen’s eyes met mine, and I nodded his way. He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, and he began, “Well, beautiful. We’d love to spend more time here as construction slows down. We’ll always be needed in the city but would love more time here. For that reason, Arden and I have always wanted a family. And the other rooms are so far away, so we decided we’d have a room close to us for when babies came around.”
Her face completely went ashen, and she stood. “Is that why you want a woman? To pop out babies?”
“No!” Daimen’s voice boomed. I stood, this time, in the hopes to explain better.
“Ell, no, we don’t want you to pop out babies.” I pulled at her hand, “Sit, hot stuff, and let’s see if we can clarify this to you better.” She reluctantly sat. “See, we always wanted a woman to complete us. We waited to start a family—until we found her. Not for her to be our baby machine. Technically, we could get married and adopt. And adoption is still an option for us. But we wanted to wait to experience it with the woman we both loved. Now, how we grow that family is up to the three of us. We can still adopt. We’re just waiting for the last piece of the puzzle, and from there, we’ll make those decisions together.”
Her eyes averted to the floor. After a long couple of minutes, her face met both Daimen’s and mine. “I’m sorry, I got a little carried away there. It’s just that …”
“What, Ell, you don’t want kids?” Daimen asked, and in his tone, I heard a fearfulness accompany his timbre. He’d always wanted a family as a way to redeem what he’d missed in his own childhood.
“No, it’s not that. I want children too. It’s just this doesn’t seem quite real to me. You both are a catch in and of itself. The two of you want me, though I’ve no idea why. And when I thought you’d picked me just to pop out babies, I didn’t react well.”
Before I could close the space to comfort her, Daimen had. “Ell.” He was on his knees. “Beautiful, please.” Her eyes finally looked directly into Daimen’s. “We want you for you. Sure, I want a family. I’d love kids of my own. But right here, I’m telling you we want you solely based on the fact you’re the best thing that’s happened to us.”
Before I knew it, Ell had leaped into Daimen’s lap. His mouth was devouring hers, and as I watched it unfold in front of me, I’d never been happier.
29
Elliot
As I remembered, Arden’s hands were talented but besides causing orgasms that only the demi-god in him could produce, the man was skilled in many other ways. The poached salmon—holy hell—was amazing. I didn’t like anything poached, but as I’d started to realize with Arden Blakely, he was showing me a whole new world. And with his beautiful Italian stallion next to him, this new world was bigger and better.
But I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open. I stood to help them clear the table, but Daimen stopped me. “You okay, beautiful?”
“I’m tired, all of a sudden. Of course, I didn’t sleep well.” Looking at the two culprits in front of me, they both shrugged, acting as if they weren’t single-handedly responsible for my lack of rest.
“Hot stuff, as much as I’d love your company, go lie down for a bit. I have a couple of phone calls I could make, and Daimen is jumping out of his skin to call the office.”
With a head tilt, he agreed with Arden. “What can I say? I’m a type A personality.”
“You don’t say?” I teased. “Add alpha male to it and you’d be spot-on.”
“Oh, honey, she’s got you pegged already,” Arden added when Daimen’s middle finger greeted him with a grin.
“I figured him out within ten seconds of our first meeting,” I teased. When I stood to stretch, my head suddenly ached. As I moved, dizziness assaulted my balance, and I grabbed Arden, the closer of the two near me, for support.
Daimen rushed to me, pulling me to him. “Beautiful, are you okay?” Arden still had ahold of me too. A girl could get used to two strong men holding me like this.
His hands were on my forehead. “Honey, she’s burning up.” My face instantly was hot like the fucking sun was on me.
“Let me call the doctor we use while we are here.”
Oh, this was getting out of hand. These men and the services they could afford at the drop of the hat. Did they have the whole world at their disposal? It was quite ridiculous. “Whoa, there! I’m fine. I just forgot to take my allergy pills today. I get bad sinus infections when I’m ou
tside …” They were not listening to me; Daimen already had his phone plastered to his ear. “Stop it. I’m fine. I just need some water and some sleep.”
“Where’s your medicine?” Daimen asked, his bossy tone taking over—shocker.
“Well, since I was forced to come here without packing for myself”—I smirked, even if I was about to puke—“I don’t have any, but I do have Benadryl in my purse. That should help.”
Grabbing my purse, Daimen said, “Little girl, I tell you what, you have the messiest purse I have ever seen.”
“You’ve had firsthand experience, have you?” I teased him. I loved giving them shit even if I felt like it.
“You must be feeling better to be gettin’ lippy with me,” he quipped back. “Here, I finally found it.” Daimen grabbed my medicine when Arden walked back in with a glass of water. “I will call Helen and get her to stop by the store and get you whatever you need. You have a prescription; we’ll get it filled.”
Freaking balls, these men and their orders. If I wasn’t about to pass out, I’d find it annoying even though it was sexy as sin.
Writing the name of my medicine on a sheet of paper I found at hand’s reach, I started to explain, “Okay, I should feel better by morning, but if not, I’ll go to the doctor, I promise. As soon as that medicine kicks in, I’ll be knocked out.”
Daimen didn’t give me a chance to take a step when his large embrace scooped me up in his arms. “Hey, caveman, I can walk.”
“No, you can’t, and we’re going to stay with you until you fall asleep.”
“You two fucking Neanderthals,” I playfully hollered, albeit their compassion caused my underwear to dampen. My traitorous body was deceiving me again.
“Did she just pay us a compliment?” Daimen teased, still holding me. “You’re sick, and we are going to take care of you,” Daimen said forcefully. “Let’s help get you in pajamas.”
“No need to argue with him, sweetheart. I insist too.”
“No ulterior motive at all?” I scoffed “I’m in yoga pants. I’m fine.”
Daimen pulled a blonde curl from my eyes. “Elliot, get it through your tough skull that we want to pamper you,” Arden insisted. “Don’t get up either, hot stuff, let us do it for you. Okay?”
Both men were plastered on either side of me. They linked their fingers together and began to rub my thighs gently with their other hands. “If it wasn’t for the fact I feel like I could vomit, I would be turned on right now.” My words were slurred, and I closed my eyes. That was it for me, for right then.
30
Daimen
After dinner was cleared, we watched some television. But my thoughts were on Ell. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I jumped up from the couch. “Let’s go check on our girl before we call it a night.” We snuck into her room because we had to make sure this wasn’t a dream. Walking lightly, as to not wake her, I grabbed Arden’s hand to bring him close to me when I whispered, “Oh, she has the cutest little snore. I love it.” I felt her head. “She’s still warm—maybe a low-grade fever.”
“Okay, I could reschedule with Spence,” Arden offered when we snuck out of her room.
“No, I think you should head in for the day because I want some time alone with her to get to know her. If she gets worse, come back tomorrow. Unlike you, I haven’t slept with her.” It was meant as a joke at first, but the sting was delivered anyway. He ignored me, accepting I was still working with this information that Ell was that girl from so long ago.
“Alright, honey, but I want to move her into our room to sleep tonight so we can keep an eye on her.” His protectiveness of Elliot was sensual as sin.
“I was thinking the same thing, babe.”
“So me inside you is not in the cards tonight?” Arden asked.
I winked at him, my cock pushing for an escape at my dirty thoughts. “Fuck no, that’s not what I meant. I’m always into some voyeurism, that’s for sure, you fucking beautiful bastard,” I countered, pulling him as close to me as I could get.
With Arden in my arms, I saw Elliot stir out of the corner of my eye.
“Where am I?” she asked.
“Hey, beautiful, we’re going to take you to bed with us. I promise, nothing will happen.”
“I’m so thirsty.” Arden almost ran to her bathroom to focus on her need. She turned to me when she started, “I’m sorry, Daimen. Maybe I should go back home tomorrow?”
“Let me take care of you. We’ll just hang out.”
“Seriously, let me sleep in my room so you can spend some time together.”
“No.” I would not let her out of my sight now that we were so close.
“Caveman, I’m a grown-ass woman, and I can take care of myself.” Her sass made my growing erection—harder.
“I know, Ell, but we want to shower you with affection,” Arden, my man of reason, countered, returning with her water. “Pointless to argue with him. When he wants something, he goes for it, and it won’t help that I agree with him, hot stuff.”
“You’re bossy, and I don’t do bossy,” she said adamantly, looking at me. She sure as fuck did bossy. She was just that, if not more. I took that opportunity to pick her up, cuddling her in my arms, as I carried her to our bedroom across the hall.
“You’re just as bossy.” Arden laughed, and again, it showed me we were always on the same page. Pulling her up in my arms, I stalked across the room and deposited her in our bed. It took two seconds for us to surround her.
“Are you all going to bed in your jeans?”
“No, we normally sleep naked, but we won’t tonight.” Arden winked.
“You’re both freaking impossible.” Elliot’s words were delivered with a seductive tone while her touch lingered on Arden’s chest.
“Oh, watch out, her harsh words may cut us,” Arden teased Ell for her replacement word for fuck. “No, I would be impossible if we decided to go to bed naked right now. But that’s a hard-line item with me, moving forward.”
“Sleeping naked?” Elliot wondered with a slight giggle.
Arden smiled a large cocky grin. “My day will consist of the fantasies of coming home to you naked in our bed.”
“It’s a desire, not a hard-line issue. Stop scaring our girl.” Daimen laughed at Arden.
“Your girl?” Elliot asked, this time addressing what we’d been calling her.
“If you’ll let us, you’re our future—you complete the two of us.”
I was not expecting her hand on my cheek. “I want to explore this, but I’m not making any promises. I need to see where the three of us can go.”
Sliding my hand up her thigh, I gave it a small squeeze. “Babe, you okay with that?” I called over to Arden, and his smile never faltered. With my hand inching up her thigh, I started, “If I go too far for you, say the word, and I’ll stop.” She agreed with a nod of her head, and I continued until my hand was right below the thin layer of material that only her panties and yoga pants separated from the rest of her body. I rubbed at that spot for a couple of minutes as we all looked on with interest.
Arden asked, “Do you want him to stop or continue?” His hand found her breasts, and he started to massage them, tenderly.
Her breathing was sporadic as she was able to get out, “Con-tin-ue.”
Arden took his hand and worked it down the elastic of her pants and underwear. He found her clit and circled it with his fingers. My cock grew against my jeans as I watched the motion of his hands through her bottoms. He leaned into her. “This is not going any farther tonight. Regardless, I just want you to feel good right now because, well, you deserve it.” Her moans became louder when his movements sped up. Her spasms were all I needed to understand we were marking her with each touch, kiss, exchanged look, and all the other intimate moments we were sharing among the three of us. She cried out both our names, and that exposed that we too had a profound effect on our girl. Arden leaned in to kiss her. “See, you come first,” he simply said.
; “Literally.” It wasn’t meant as a joke, though they both laughed at me. It was true. We’d always known once we found a woman to claim as our own that she’d come first in all we did.
“Holy shit, son of a bitch, and fuck me twice.” Her words now caused me a little chuckle, pulling her tight against me. Though she claimed not to say the F word often, it was sinful to hear those letters form on her lips. Maybe we could get her to say them more.
“We can do that too?” Arden’s response was typical.
She skimmed her fingers over my forearms. The shaking vulnerability poured from her sweet lips as she asked, “But what did you two get out of it?”
This woman worried about us, and her concern for our pleasure didn’t go unnoticed. “You’re too sweet. We don’t need anything. Watching you react to our touch is more than enough.”
“Wow, you both really want me? Me and only me.”
“Hot stuff, get it through your thick skull. We want you, but it’s more than just a desire. It’s a visceral need.”
“Wow, babe, look at you throwing out the big words,” I joked, but he was spot-on.
Arden’s physical term of endearment, the middle finger, greeted me again as it did most days.
Tipping Ell’s face toward him, he continued, “You’re it for us. You’re what we have been looking for. But we’ll talk more this weekend.” He kissed her forehead gently. “My car will be here at six a.m. And you, my sweet girl, need to rest.”
The interactions between these two triggered an instant therapeutic healing of sorts. Gone was the hurt that had encased me for years. Elliot was in the middle of us when she leaned in and kissed us both on the cheeks. The thought of this being my forever helped me fall asleep without a care in the world.
Foundations: The Power of Three Love Series Page 13