Forever Starts Tonight (11 page)

Andre reached out, his cool fingers sliding between her folds and over her clit. She let out a gasp and gripped the edge of the bench to stay in place. He groaned. “Fuck,
bella
, you’re soaked.”

She tilted her head back, the sensation of his fingers against her so damn welcome. “I’ve been watching two hot guys get dirty with each other in the shower. What the hell else would I be?”

Jace chuckled as he lubed up his own cock, preparing himself, the wet sound obscene in the best way possible. “See. She wants to watch you get fucked, Dre. She’s loves it, and we’ve been denying her this. Tell her you’re sorry.”

Evan opened her eyes just in time to see Jace press the head of his cock against Andre’s tight opening. Andre’s breath caught but he forced his gaze to hers. “I’m so sorry,
bella
.”

“Now shut up and make her feel good while you take my cock like a good little sub,” Jace said.

***

Andre knew he wouldn’t be able to do anything besides obey at this point. He didn’t
want
to do anything besides obey. But despite his switch status, it took a lot for him to bottom. He’d never been one to submit easily. The fight was part of the appeal for him. And Jace knew just how far to push him to get him out of his head.

Finding out Evan had been there the whole time was a shock. He’d never set a hard limit with Jace, but it’d been an unwritten line that they only did the rougher stuff when they were one-on-one. Andre hadn’t wanted to alter Evan’s image of him. Jace knew him too well, though. When Andre was stressed, he liked his edges pushed hard. Maybe Jace had sensed that with all the changes happening around them, Andre could use this kind of release. He’d thought Jace had been giving him that relief this morning by making him play the resistant bottom. But it looked like the edge Jace had wanted to push was one much further out. When Andre had first opened his eyes, he’d almost safed out. Until Evan had offered to leave and the thought had gutted him. No way was he going to let her feel like she was some intruder because of his own hang-ups.

Plus, Andre could now see and
feel
that Evan was anything but disgusted. She was turned on and had gazed over at him like he was the hottest damn thing to ever live. The knowledge moved through him like a drug and allowed him to let his guard fall away so he could drown in the experience of it all. His body was on fire and alive from that bitch of a flogging, Jace’s cock was stretching his opening in a sweet burn as it sought entrance, and Evan was creamy and perfect beneath his fingers.

He lifted his gaze to Evan’s again. Her blue eyes had gone hooded as he tucked his fingers inside her and stroked, letting his thumb play over her clit. And her focus slid back and forth between his face and what Jace was doing to him. She was losing herself to the moment, too. His beautiful, sexy girl. They really could be anything they wanted to be with each other. There was no need for walls when someone wholly accepted you. And if he’d had any doubts before, he didn’t now. He’d been stupid to be worried about what Evan would think. The three of them were each other’s safe place. Three strange, quirky people who somehow found a relationship that fit just right.

This was good.
They
were good.

He let any lingering worries fall away completely.

“I told you
no
,” Andre said through gritted teeth, the part he was playing in this tableau coming back easily.

“You did. But that’s not the magic word.” Jace rocked forward, his cock sinking deep and his fingers digging into Andre’s hips with bruising force. Andre’s stomach dipped with lost breath.
Goddamn
. There was nothing that plummeted him into that submissive headspace like being penetrated. And Jace knew it.

A moan escaped.

“Ah, fuck, yeah,” Jace said, his own pleasure leaking into his tone. “Feel good, big man? Like knowing you can’t get away? That I’m just going to use this tight ass to get off?”

Andre could only grunt his response because Jace’s words were doing it for him on so many levels. Jace knew how to push these particular buttons—the humiliating ones. Andre had grown up where this act had been considered the highest of insults—getting fucked, taking it in the ass, being someone’s bitch. It had been a fate to avoid at all costs. And though he knew now there was nothing wrong with it, the lingering layer of humiliation and degradation was still there at some level where history and upbringing never quite left you. That only added to the intensity. In these moments, Andre liked that flavor of kink. Yes, please. Make him feel used. Make him feel less than.

“Holy shit,” Evan murmured, her body moving along his fingers and using him just like Jace, like he was a device there for her pleasure. “You two look . . . I can’t even.”

Man was she hot and wet against his touch. When Jace plunged to the hilt, Evan clenched around Andre’s fingers. He wished he could fill her with more than that. His cock was rock hard and aching, but he wouldn’t be allowed. He was not the dominant right now. He was there for their pleasure.

“You want to fuck her?” Jace asked, breathless as he increased the pace and force of his thrusts.

“You said I could have her if I let you fuck me,” Andre said, his body shaking a bit when Jace angled to rub over the spot that made his whole body want to explode.

“Last for me and I might let you,” Jace said.

Evan made a desperate noise at that and Andre smiled. His
bella
wanted more than his hand, too. No way would he disappoint her. Jace could try whatever he wanted, but Andre wasn’t going to come before he got a chance to sink into his woman.

Lucky for him, Jace was in a generous mood because he started going hard and fast. Andre’s body clenched, his dick begging for relief. But despite the pleasure, he held on. He won. Jace’s hips were soon flush against his, and Jace let go with a low, grinding moan, pumping everything he had to give into Andre.

Jace swore his way through his release, and after a few more panted breaths, he pulled out of Andre and begin to unlatch him from the rest of the restraints. After he was done, Jace turned a showerhead their way, hitting them with glorious warm water. Andre moved his hand away from Evan and sat back on his calves to let the water cascade over him. “Come here,
bella
.”

Evan went to her knees in front of him on the mat, the water streaming along her curves—cheeks flushed and eyes bright—and his chest squeezed with this potent, overwhelming love for her. He took her face between his hands. “I couldn’t dream up a more perfect woman than you.”

She smiled. “You don’t have to flatter me. I’m a sure thing.”

“Doesn’t mean I’ll stop telling you.” He bent his head and kissed her slow, the water moving over their lips and the scent of the shower gel filling his nose. She had to be as desperate as he was for release, but she went liquid in his hold, letting him stroke his tongue over hers and take his time.

When he pulled back, he got to his feet to rinse off, then Jace shut off the water and laid a thick, white towel over the bench. Andre lifted Evan onto it and lay her down, then brushed his thumb over her lips. “So we haven’t scared you off yet?”

She dragged him down to her, eyes resolute. “Either of you hide anything from me again, and next time I’ll be the one with the rubber whip.”

He laughed. “Deal.”

And he meant it. He thought they’d had it all figured out when they’d told each other I love you. That everything would naturally fall into place. But there was so much more to happily-ever-after than declaring commitment to each other. That was only the beginning. Evan feeling like she had to hide her possible pregnancy and him feeling like he needed to shield her from this side of himself proved that. They were still peeling back layers of each other, laying down bricks of trust, and learning how to show rather than say what love really meant for them.

But he was done holding back. He loved this woman. He loved Jace. And for maybe the first time in his life, he felt completely and totally accepted. He was not the third. He was not the friend. He was theirs.

So when he draped himself over Evan and eased his body into hers, he had no reservations about what he and Jace had discussed would come next.

This morning’s interlude wouldn’t be Evan’s only surprise today.

Evan’s thigh muscles burned and her body was protesting the uphill climb, but she was determined not to head back down to the cabin yet. The boys had told her skiing lessons were out, but they’d taken her to lunch in the nearby ski village and then out snowshoeing. She’d never worn snowshoes before so the trek was awkward and slow, but she couldn’t get enough of the scenery. Everything was frosted and sparkling with the snow from last night, and the area they’d taken her to was so secluded that the only noise was their feet crunching over the snow and the creak of the trees when the wind blew.

Growing up she’d always seen snow as this magical thing, pristine white flakes falling over houses of happy television families and clinging to the hair of movie couples as they kissed. The one Christmas it had snowed in Dallas, she’d been six and her mother had taken her outside to build a snowman with what they could scrape off the driveway. The snowman had been lopsided and tiny but she could remember how excited they both were, the light in her mom’s eyes when they found the perfect sticks for arms. She’d told her mother she never wanted Christmas to end. Her mom had smiled and said maybe God had sent the snow to freeze time for a while so they could enjoy it a little longer.

Her mom had probably said it because the unexpected snow had cancelled her shift that night and they’d been able to spend the whole evening at home. But Evan had never been able to let go of that image of snow freezing perfect moments. Because that
had
been a perfect moment. The last one for a long time. Her mother had been killed by a drunk driver a few months later, eventually leading to Evan’s placement in foster care, so that moment in the snow had crystallized into some mythical moment in Evan’s mind. The memory she’d clung to the hardest while growing up. Because no matter what had happened to her after that, the night in the snow reminded her that once upon a time, she’d been loved for real.

Jace grabbed her gloved hand and gave it a squeeze. “Want to take a break, Ev? I know it’s steep.”

She peered over at him. He looked ridiculously adorable with his knit cap pulled over his messy blond hair and his cheeks pink. She could almost see the teenage boy she’d met all those years ago when she’d stayed with his family. He’d been all mischief and sex appeal back then, too. But now there was so much more there—this solid, pure-hearted man who had a depth to him that no one would suspect upon meeting the sarcastic, laid-back side he showed to the world. This man felt things down to the marrow. And he loved just as hard.

“I thought you said there was a good view near the top,” she said.

“There is. But we can rest if you need it. Andre brought thermoses of hot chocolate.”

Andre patted his backpack. “Yep. The Mexican kind you like.”

“Well, that is tempting. Nothing like a hot Mexican.”

Andre grinned. “You know it,
bella
. But right now I’m a freezing Mexican. So I vote we stop and drink.”

“Fine,” she said. “But let’s not pretend this is for my behalf. You’re the ones fading on me.”

“Duly noted.” Jace tugged her to a small outcropping of rocks and brushed the snow off of a flat one. “Sit down and rest anyway. We’ll drink some hot chocolate to warm up, then I promise we’ll see what’s at the top.”

Andre set his stuff down and handed them each a thermos. Evan hadn’t felt the cold seep into her bones, but on the first sip of the steaming cocoa, the smell of cinnamon filled her nose and the heavenly heat moved through her, making her all too aware of how chilled she’d actually gotten. She let out a satisfied groan. “Oh my God, that’s the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had.”

Jace chuckled. “That’s because this is probably the coldest you’ve ever been. I never expected you to be such a snow bunny. You’re not hiding some Canadian bloodline or something, huh?”

She smiled over her thermos before taking another sip. “Not that I know of. I just like being out here. It’s beautiful. Everything seems so untouched and private, you know? Like it’s all for us.” She shrugged. “Maybe I read the Narnia books too many times as a kid. It’s like our own magical kingdom.”

Jace took a gulp from his thermos, the steam drifting over his face. “You do remember that snowy Narnia was the bad version, right? That White Witch chick had made it perpetual winter.”

She lifted a brow. “
You
read the Narnia books?”

“Hey,” he said, his expression mildly offended, “I like to read.”

“I know you do, but it’s hard to picture you getting into anything so fantastical.” Besides the erotic books he read to see what to stock in his store, she’d only seen him with thrillers and biographies.

“Wyatt got obsessed with fantasy books for a while when we were kids and wouldn’t shut up about those, so I read them to figure out what he was talking about. We ended up cutting a hole in the back of one of the guest room closets when I was eight because we thought we could escape into some universe where my parents weren’t such pains in the ass.”

Andre laughed and stepped up next to Jace. “No way that was Wyatt’s idea.”

Jace’s smile turned wry. “Yeah, okay, I did it and blamed Wyatt. But that’s kind of like a ‘we’ thing.”

Evan shook her head. “First, I think it’s kind of adorable you tried to find Narnia. Second, I think we’ve established that I don’t gravitate toward the normal things. I liked the winter version.”

Amusement flickered over Jace’s expression. “Yeah, I guess we should be happy normal doesn’t do it for you. We’d be screwed.”

“You got that right,” Andre said, tightening the top on his thermos. “Normal is boring anyway. Who needs that?”

She looked down, the words giving her pause and a pang going through her. “Right.”

“Hey,” Jace said, stepping closer. “What’s wrong?”

She rubbed her lips together, trying to work through the surge of anxiety the words had caused. God, lately any little thing could swing her emotions from one end to the other in no time flat. “Nothing. I’m fine.”

“Bella?”
Andre asked, concern in his voice now. “Did I say something wrong?”

She waved him off. “No, it’s fine. I just—I know what we have isn’t the norm by any sense of the word. We like it that way. But it makes me wonder what would happen if there really is a baby. Whether we like it or not, a child will force us to create some normal. We won’t be able to sweep away to some ski resort for a kinky weekend or grab each other in the kitchen whenever we want. Our life will become a lot less open and spontaneous.”

Jace sat next to her on the rock and put his arm around her. “You don’t think we realize that?”

She frowned and looked over at him. “But that’s not what y’all signed up for. Ours is not a white-picket-fence-and-PTA-meeting kind of world. You both ran screaming from that kind of life. Andre, I know that Martine woman wanted that kind of thing with you. And Jace, you tried the married, suburban life and hated it.”

“No, I hated my cheating ex-wife,” Jace corrected. “There’s a difference.”

She blew out a breath. “I guess I’m just scared that you’ll end up resenting having that decision forced on you. We were supposed to be those quirky, to-hell-with-society’s-rules kind of people.”

Jace huffed a quiet laugh. “Mourning your life on the fringe already?”

She shoved his thigh but smiled nonetheless. “Shut up.”

He turned toward her on the rock, and Andre stepped up next to him. “Baby, there’s nothing wrong with being a little of both. The three of us are never going to fit into a traditional mold, that’s true. And yes, our life is pretty free right now. But if you think I’m scared of the traditional stuff, you’re wrong. If someone had asked me a year ago if I wanted a wife and kids in the ’burbs, I would’ve balked. None of that sounded right for me. I’m sure Andre would’ve said the same. But that’s because it wouldn’t have been with you two.”

Her gaze flicked up to his.

“Now I can’t imagine wanting anything else in this world. I get to spend my life with two amazing, kinky people who totally get me
and
get to be so shit-faced in love that I want to raise a family with them? That I can’t sleep at night because I’m thinking about how incredible that could be? I mean, fuck, who gets that lucky?”

She blinked, the sincerity in his voice hitting her right in the sternum. “You can’t sleep?”

“Baby, you could be carrying our child. How the hell am I supposed to sleep?”

Andre smiled from behind him. “He was up all night researching. He probably has names picked out, the top schools on standby, and a list of safe BDSM practices for pregnant women already.”

Tears pricked her eyes. “Jace.”

He pressed his gloved fingers to her lips, his smile going soft. “No, don’t say anything yet. I want you to see the view at the top first.”

She nodded and Andre took the thermoses and tucked them back in his bag. Then they each linked a hand with hers and led her up the slope without saying a word. Emotions rioted in her. She had so much she wanted to say. The thought of Jace sitting up all night doing research had her wanting to cry. But when they finally crested the top of the hill and the guys let go of her hands, all of her thoughts disappeared in the frosty mist.

The snowy peaks of the mountains provided a breathtaking backdrop. One of the prettiest she’d ever seen. But that’s not what her eyes were drawn to. No. Because what was in front of her was far more awe-inspiring. Both men had stepped in front of her and gone down on one knee. Her breath halted in her lungs.

“Evangeline Kennedy,” Jace started. “We know that the three of us are already bound in a way most people wouldn’t understand. We don’t need marriage to put some stamp of approval on it for the sake of others.”

“But there’s something to be said for standing in front of all your friends and family and declaring that love and commitment for the world to see,” Andre added. “We love you more than we could ever put into words,
bella
. You’re our submissive, our lover, and our best friend.”

“But we also want you to be our wife. We want you to be ours forever.” Jace pulled something out of his pocket. A little velvet box. And though Evan had claimed she never needed or craved this, some part of her cracked open inside. That part of her that believed in fairy tales and watched movies with people kissing in the snowfall. That part of her bloomed.

Jace opened the box, revealing a ring with an antique band that swirled around three perfect diamonds. “We love you. We love our life together. And whenever it’s time, whether that be now or down the road, we will love our children with all that we have. Marry us, Ev?”

Evan’s gloved hand had pressed over her mouth somewhere along the way and she wasn’t sure she could form words. Tears streaked hot down her cold face. But after a few long seconds, she managed to nod and get her voice working again. “Of course I will.”

Both of them climbed to their feet and wrapped their arms around her before she could take another breath. She was lifted into the air, and they kissed anything they could reach—cheeks, eyes, mouth. All of the cold of the day disappeared in the midst of their embrace, as if nothing could break through their bubble of warmth and happiness.

She lost it again looking at them, both men as teary eyed as she was—her tough doms turning into big ol’ softies when it came down to it. She kissed each one of them long and hard until they were all wet-faced and she was a sniffly-nosed mess.

She laughed and swiped at her nose. “Sorry. Ugly cry.”

“Never ugly,
bella
,” Andre assured her and wiped her tears away with his scarf.

“Let’s make this official.” Jace tugged her glove off and slid the beautiful ring onto her hand.

She held out her hand and wiggled her fingers, the diamonds catching the winter sunlight. She’d never been a jewelry person, but even she could appreciate how gorgeous the ring was. “I love it so much. It’s perfect.”

“Good,” Jace said. “Because I’ve grown rather attached to the idea of seeing it on you.”

She looked up at that. “Really? But I thought you were so against marriage. If this is because maybe there’s a baby—”

He reached out and tugged a lock of her hair. “Baby, if you think this proposal has anything to do with a pregnancy scare, you’ve underestimated us. Andre’s wanted to walk you down the aisle from the get-go. He’s a traditional fucker at heart, though he’d never admit it. And I always wanted the world to know you’re ours. Sure, at one point in my life, I never thought I’d want to get married again. But calling you my girlfriend has never felt quite right. And once I started thinking about it, I couldn’t let go of the idea. But I don’t want to rush you or push something on you that you don’t want.”

She banded her arms around his waist and pressed her head to his chest. “Of course I want it. I want everything with you two. But how can we even do this?”

Andre hugged her from behind. “Jace has some things figured out—legal stuff. But we can get into that later. Right now, I just want to get you back down to the cabin and celebrate.”

“But we’re just beginning to enjoy all this snow,” she said innocently. “I’ve never made out in the snow. Think how sexy that could be, rolling around in it.”

Jace looked like he was trying not to laugh, and Andre groaned behind her. “
Bella
, if you want me to provide any children in the future, I need to get into the warmth. My man parts are dying.”

She turned around in Andre’s arms and kissed his jaw. “Well, I’m quite fond of those man parts, so I guess we can go. Maybe we can try out the hot tub.”

Jace put his hands on her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. “Not so fast. I read last night that hot tubs can be dangerous for pregnant women.”

She let her head drop down against the curve of Andre’s neck with a dramatic sigh. “Is he going to be like this the whole time?”

Andre gave her a squeeze. “Count on it. We both are.”

She couldn’t even muster up a groan because the idea wrapped around her like warm cashmere. Her last pregnancy had been filled with so much fear and despair, so much grief. She could remember sitting alone in a motel room, hands to her belly, and apologizing to her unborn child that she didn’t have the right food to feed her or a nicer place to stay. She’d never felt more alone in the world.