MenageaDare

by Frances Stockton

  “Let’s hope that it’s nothing serious,” Avery said.

  “Where’s Hazard?” Remington asked.

  “He’s hanging out at Cassie Maddox’s diner with Phalen, my brother and Ethan’s wife, Morgan,” she answered.

  “Would it be best if Taylor and I vacate the waiting room?” Gabriel questioned. “My rental car is in the parking lot. I’m sure I can find my way to the diner and we can wait there.”

  “It was nice of you to get Evelyn here as soon as possible,” Jax answered. “But maybe it’d be best if we didn’t take over the doc’s space.”

  Fortunately, there weren’t any patients waiting to be seen by Dr. Martin. There was a tech, a nurse and a receptionist on staff, but that was about it. The office itself was one of many in a facility that had everything from a pharmacy to radiology and laboratory.

  Avery quickly gave Gabriel an address for the diner and he plugged it into his phone. Taylor stood up, looking as if she wanted to stay but made a hasty exit when a gray-haired gentleman came into the room.

  Based on the worried expression on his face and the fact that he and Evelyn shared the same eye and hair color, Jax was certain the man was Bartholomew Stratham. Remington went over immediately, extending his hand.

  “Mr. Stratham, it’s good of you to come,” Remington said.

  Evelyn’s father hesitated to reply, his anger palpable. Jax found himself on his feet, ready to defend his man if it came to it. In the end, Bartholomew mumbled his thank you for Remy’s call but stepped back, refusing to accept Remy’s handshake.

  Jax stayed where he was, waiting for some sort of recognition. It came as a slight nod in his direction. Thinking it was best to give Evelyn’s father some space, he hoped to prove he was worthy of Bartholomew Stratham’s daughter.

  At last, a woman wearing mint-green scrubs and a lab coat came out to the waiting room, glancing around at all the visitors.

  “Remington Sinclair and Jaxon Wynter,” she said, her gaze falling on them as they stepped forward. “I’m Dr. Martin and I’ve heard so much about the two of you from my patient. Could you follow me, per her wishes?”

  “Can her father come too?” Jax asked.

  Dr. Martin glanced over at Bartholomew Stratham, who no longer looked angry, only concerned about his daughter.

  “I’m not sure Evelyn knew you were here, Mr. Stratham. Let me go speak with her first,” Dr. Martin said, heading back through the doors. A couple minutes later, she returned. “Evelyn’s requested to see all three of you.”

  “Thank you,” Bartholomew replied, relief in his expression.

  Jax and Remy gave way to Evelyn’s father, the three of them following the doctor. Dr. Martin stopped at exam room four, opened the door and ushered them inside.

  Evelyn sat on an exam table, dressed in the skirt and blouse she’d been wearing when she left Carson City. She had a smile on her face, the shadow of fear that’d been in her eyes all day replaced by relief until she saw her father.

  “Daddy, I’m so glad to see you,” she said, a little squeaky and teary.

  “Remington called. I wouldn’t be anywhere else, sweetheart. You could have told me about this yesterday.”

  “It kind of took me by surprise. I’m sorry we argued so much yesterday, but Jaxon and Remy are important to me and…”

  “We’ll worry about that later,” Bartholomew interrupted, turning to face Dr. Martin. “Is my daughter going to be all right?”

  “Evelyn do you want me to tell them or would you prefer to do it yourself?” Dr. Martin inquired.

  “You may, Dr. Martin, thank you.”

  “Upon examination and use of a portable ultrasound, I am fairly confident that Evelyn has a small hematoma.”

  “A hematoma, how is that caused?” Remy asked, going over to Eve and taking her hand.

  “Some sort of minor trauma,” Dr. Martin said. “Treatment is anti-inflammatories and ice packs on the area whenever she’s resting. I’m prescribing a course of antibiotics as a precaution against it becoming abscessed and have arranged for her to follow up with radiology tomorrow morning for a mammogram.”

  Jax swallowed hard, fighting the urge to ask if his or Remington’s roughness with her in bed had caused the problem. He would when they were alone, but he didn’t want to upset her father any further.

  Pointing to himself, he whispered an apology. Evelyn winked back, looking happy and confident again.

  “There is one other thing Evelyn’s decided to do,” Dr. Martin explained.

  “What did you decide, love?” Jax asked, walking up to her and taking her other hand. Even though he could feel Bartholomew’s glare on him, he would not let Evelyn go another day without knowing for certain he loved her.

  “Even though the news today is good,” Eve began. “I’ve decided to have BRCA screening done to see if I’m at risk of getting cancer. It’s expensive and nothing is foolproof, but I feel strongly about it.”

  “It doesn’t matter the cost. If it’s something you wish to have done, it’ll be done,” Bartholomew stated. “Is the testing dangerous or anything, Dr. Martin?”

  “No,” Dr. Martin answered. “The only drawback is that it can take several weeks for the results, so patience is required.”

  “Evelyn, are you sure you want to do this?” Jaxon asked her. “Before you answer, know this—I love you, Remy loves you. No matter your choice, we stand with you.”

  “What Jaxon said goes with me too,” Remy stated firmly.

  “Yes, I do, and I appreciate the support,” she said to him and Remy. “I want to be sure I’m healthy for years to come, especially for the two of you.”

  “Hold right there,” Bartholomew Stratham declared sharply. “I can’t bear to hear you talk that way, sweetheart. Please understand my concerns.”

  “If you’ll excuse me, this is where I will leave you all to talk privately.” Dr. Martin retreated to the door.

  “Thank you, Dr. Martin,” Evelyn said. “I am so grateful for your help.”

  Dr. Martin smiled at her patient. “You’re very welcome. Don’t hesitate to call me should you need anything. Don’t forget to pick up your prescription at the pharmacy and stop at the nurse’s desk for a printout of home care instructions and time to be at radiology in the morning.”

  “I’ll be sure to,” Eve replied.

  “Time for you to come home where you belong, Evelyn,” Bartholomew declared as soon as the doctor left. “I’ll have Betty fix up your old room.”

  “Nonsense, I’m going to my apartment with Jax and Remy. Now that I’m confident that I’ll be okay, I want to proceed with my doctorate. While I was in Dare, I became interested in several colleges in the area. It’s entirely possible that I’ll move there.”

  “You can’t,” her father argued. “You’ve a job here. You can’t abandon that.”

  “I’ll give them notice.”

  “You can’t abandon me,” Bartholomew stated, showing his real fear.

  Evelyn looked him in the eye. “I will never abandon you, Dad. I love you. It’s my hope that you will come to accept Remy and Jaxon. They are my now, my future, don’t you see? Someday we may be a family.”

  “We already are, Eve,” Remy interjected.

  “That’s right,” Jax added. “We love her, Mr. Stratham.”

  “Then do the right thing and walk away now. She’s all I have left.”

  “You can have two sons and possibly grandchildren in the future if you give Jaxon and Remy a chance,” Eve told him. “No matter what, please don’t let Remy’s show suffer because of this. Ghost hunting is important to him, therefore to me.”

  “And to me,” Jax chimed in, glancing over her head at Remy who caught his eye and nodded.

  “It’s too late. I cut ties with his program already. It’ll be up to his remaining producers to keep it going.”

  Eve’s smile turned into a frown. Jax’s heart broke. Letting her hand go so he could wrap his arm around her, he offered his complete su
pport.

  “Don’t frown, love, there’s a way to help Remy. We talked about it yesterday.”

  “Okay,” she said, relaxing. “Jax, Remy, if you don’t mind, I’d like to talk to my dad alone for a few minutes.”

  “We’ll wait for you, take your time, Eve,” Remy answered, bending down to kiss the top of her head. Jax did the same before they left Eve and her father alone.

  Back in the waiting room, Jax watched Avery set aside a People magazine and stand up. “Is Eve okay?” she asked.

  “We’ll let Evelyn explain everything, but, yes, it sounds as if she’ll be fine.” Saying those words almost made Jax collapse with relief. He hadn’t wanted to admit he was scared for Evelyn and promised himself to make sure she never again doubted his feelings for her.

  “Amen,” Avery issued. Jax couldn’t agree more.

  Ten minutes went by before Evelyn and her father appeared from the back. She stopped at the front desk to speak with the receptionist, who handed her some paperwork. The nurse came out, explained how to use the prescription Dr. Martin had written and confirmed the radiology appointment for first thing in the morning.

  It’d been a long day, a long flight, but in had been worth it. The news was good and Jax was already looking forward to being alone with Evelyn and Remington so they could talk privately.

  Of course, as soon as Eve saw Avery, they two women shared a tight hug. They spoke quietly then Eve strode forward. She walked with confidence, the tension that’d plagued her during the day completely gone.

  “Avery told me that we’ve all been invited to Cassie’s diner,” Evelyn said. “If anyone else is as hungry as I am, I’d love to see everyone.”

  “Everyone?” Jax questioned.

  “Cassie and Phalen, Morgan and Ethan, Alex and Ryan,” she explained.

  “I got a text from Sam just before you all came out,” Avery commented. “She and Taran are on their way from Boston, including her mom, who’s visiting for the week. Apparently, Gabriel’s been entertaining the crowd with simple magic tricks and Taylor has taken a liking to the used bookstore.”

  “I don’t know about you, Jax, but I’m hungry,” Remington said.

  “I’m in,” Jax assured, crossing the waiting room to take Evelyn’s hand. “I’m looking forward to meeting your friends.”

  “Good but from here on out, I hope you’ll consider them your friends too. Daddy, would you come?”

  “Yes, I’d enjoy it,” Bartholomew agreed. “I should warn you, Jaxon, I’ve talked to Phalen Maddox about having you investigated. If he turns up anything, anything that might hurt my daughter, I will end you.”

  “We may have gotten off on the wrong foot, sir,” Jax said. “But I aim to prove myself worthy of Evelyn and Remington.”

  “We’ll have to see,” Bartholomew replied as he inclined his head and turned his attention back to Evelyn. Rightly so, his primary concern was for his daughter and Jax had to be patient.

  Eve said thank you to the receptionist and they all left the office, walking single-file down the hallway. Once outside, she asked her father take her to a pharmacy to have her prescription filled, as the one in the healthcare facility was closed for the evening.

  Jax would’ve objected if it hadn’t been for Remington stepping in and assuring him that it was Evelyn’s choice and they needed to let her spend time with her dad. Avery didn’t mind. She pointed to her car and they followed her to it.

  * * * * *

  Later that night in Eve’s quaint one-bedroom Victorian-era apartment, Jax and Remy made certain she took her antibiotic and prescription-strength Motrin, got her an ice pack and took her to bed while Taylor and Gabriel argued in the family room about who slept where.

  Gabriel was insisting they pull out the sofa bed because it was queen-sized. Remy was pretty sure Taylor was going to choose the twin-sized air mattress Eve had dug out of a closet along with two sets of sheets and blankets.

  Listening to the couple argue, Remy smiled as he rested beside Eve, his arm around her middle. Jax had rested his head on her shoulder, his blond and black-streaked hair spilling over her bare breasts.

  “I’m sorry if we hurt you, baby girl,” Jax whispered. “It wasn’t intentional.”

  “Dr. Martin said there’s no way to know what caused the hematoma. The morning I rushed out of the bathroom to see you and Remy together, I’d crashed into the doorjamb, front first. It hurt! She did recommend that we be a little more careful in the future.”

  “We’ll treat you with all due respect and care from now on,” Jax promised.

  “Respect will be appreciated, truly, but I need Remy to be my boss and you to be my Master Jax.”

  “I’ll always be your Master Jax, Evelyn. I love you. I’m sorry for not convincing you of that and I’ll make it up to you for the next forty or fifty years.”

  “Planning for the three of us to be together that long, are you?” she asked.

  “He’d better or I’ll have to wrestle him into a pretzel and let you fuck him with a dildo. Or better yet, the strap-on we bought for you,” Remy stated. “We’ll double team his tight, round ass.”

  Remy went hard in an instant. Thinking about his lovers, knowing they were safe and sound, made him the happiest man on earth. But because the doctor wanted Eve to rest, sex wasn’t on the night’s agenda.

  At the diner, he and Jax talked privately. Though they had introduced Eve to the very basics of BDSM, partially because she was new to it but primarily because they were still getting used to their threesome, they believed it was time to bring her fully into the lifestyle, if she was willing.

  “There’s something I’d like to talk to you two about,” Jax said, pushing up off the queen-sized bed.

  “What’s going on, Jax?” Remy asked.

  “Tell us,” Evelyn coaxed.

  “First, know that I love you two,” Jax answered nervously.

  “As I love you and Eve,” Remy assured.

  “As I love you both,” Eve said softly. Sitting up, she wrapped her arms around Jax, who didn’t seem as confident as usual.

  “I’m glad. I’m still sorry that I gave you any reason to doubt how I feel, Evelyn. You’re incredibly important to me, to us. As I told Remy yesterday, without you, I’m not whole. We are not whole.”

  “I believe you, Jaxon. You and Remy are my heart and soul.”

  “In that case, I’ve a confession,” he said. “I’ve told you both about Gemma and Niko. What I’ve never admitted to until recently was letting my pride ruin my relationship with them when they told me they wanted to have a baby.”

  “If this is difficult for you to talk about, you don’t need to,” Remy assured.

  “No, I need to do this.”

  “Do you not want children, Jaxon?” Eve asked.

  “I do, Evelyn, very much. At the time, I was more into being Ransom Hunter than Jaxon Wynter. On Dare Mountain, I told Remington that I’d made peace with them, that I was letting them go in order to be with the two of you.”

  “He did,” Remy confirmed.

  “I guess what I’m asking is for patience if my pride gets in the way again,” Jax admitted. “I want to commit myself to the two of you, to prove my love daily. When the time’s right, I hope we’ll share vows and become a family.”

  “Yes, I want that too,” Remy answered without qualm, moving up close behind Jax’s back.

  “Me too,” Eve said wistfully. “I’d love nothing more than to walk down the stairs to the great room in a pretty dress and bare feet.”

  “You can have anything you want, love. My house will be yours and Remington’s from now on. It’ll take some doing and some traveling, but we’ll have to figure out a schedule so you two can spend time here with your friends and family too.”

  “I’d like that,” Eve agreed. “I can’t leave my father completely. He’s hardheaded but he loves me and is simply concerned that I’m getting in over my head. I think in time the three of us can show him that we’re meant to
be together.”

  Remy sat up, taking Eve’s face in his hands. “Are you really going to put in notice at Salem Community College, Eve?”

  “I’m sending notice tomorrow. I’m set to apply for my PhD and I’d like to concentrate on genealogy. I had so much fun completing Jaxon’s family tree and it’s what tipped the scales to that direction for me, though I’ll always love history too.”

  “You found my birth father, didn’t you?” Jax said.

  “Yes, but I’m sorry to tell you he passed away when you were a teenager. His obituary referred to him as Father Johannes Thorolf, a Lutheran priest. There were no details on whether he’d been married. You also have an aunt, who is still alive and three cousins.”

  “That’s all I ever needed to know. I still have Mama and Gerald. They’ll be happy to know I’m in love again.”

  “Did she understand about Gemma and Niko?” Eve asked softly.

  “She did. Her memory has faded some but she knew the two of you last night.”

  “I should’ve asked. Do you need Gabriel to take you home when he and Taylor go back?”

  “I’m staying with you and Remy until you can come back to Dare. If an emergency arises, I’ll fly back on a commercial airline.”

  “Jaxon, do you mind if I ask you something?” Eve requested.

  “You can ask anything, love.”

  “You’re a Dom. Are you going to stop training submissives now that we’re together?”

  “To tell you the truth, I haven’t trained anyone for months. It would be an honor to train you, if you’re still willing, but you’d be the last. We have plenty of room in my house to explore and play, simply know that I’ll never treat you as a slave.”

  “And Remy, how do you feel about it?” she asked.

  “Being a switch who enjoys topping women and bottoming for men, I think I’m exactly where I should be for a while, hopefully a lifetime.”

  “Love comes in when we least expect it,” Jax said. “Certainly happened that way with you and Remington, don’t you think?”

  “I do. Wow that sounded like a vow, guess I’m already practicing,” Eve said, giggling.