I awoke late into the morning to the scent of freshly brewed coffee, cinnamon, and Noah.
His name had escaped my lips even before he settled us against the headboard, with my sleepy, satiated body settling between his legs and my head thrown back on his shoulder. The sheets were gently pushed down to expose my naked form. Muscled arms encircled and supported me against a solid chest. Strong hands kneaded my breasts. Warm breath feathered along my collarbone. My knees fell open with only one quiet command from him and a press of his palms on the inside of my thighs.
His touches were soft and thorough, unrushed and sensual, working my clit to push my body up and up that peak of pure pleasure. My hips slowly undulated to his fingers, more commands from him urging that I respond to insistent caresses. All answering gasps and cries were muffled into his neck, the ever-building climax within me forcing my back to arch, breasts pressed into his arm that bound me to him.
"I've never seen anything as beautiful as you," Noah whispered. "I'm going to wake you up like this every morning."
"Yes, Noah."
"Come for me, beautiful."
The sounds of my release were captured as he tilted my chin back and covered my mouth with his. Echoing the slow and almost torturous strokes between my legs, his tongue licked at my teeth and my lips, sharing breath with me as I trembled in his embrace until he had wrung the last ripple of climax from me. He broke our kiss and brought his fingers to his lips, licking my taste from them and groaning.
My whimpers and our panting breaths were the only sounds in the room. I curled into him and closed my eyes, simply appreciating how it felt to be held by him like that. Like it was a normal weekend and we decided to be as lazy as possible, staying in bed all day long. Maybe we would watch some bad TV later and laugh together, snacking on junk food in between bouts of our lovemaking.
"I want to stay like this all day," he murmured into my hair, reading my mind.
"Why can't we?"
He shrugged. "Good question."
"I didn't think I'd see you today."
"Jay and I never left last night. We changed our minds."
I gave him a squeeze. "Not that I mind, but why?"
He squeezed back. "We miss you."
I smiled into his chest and felt like I was glowing.
"We're all staying here from now on."
Noah's hazel eyes crinkled in delight as I beamed up at him.
It wasn't until the shower in the adjoining bathroom shut off that I even realized it had been on. Mal stepped from the steamy room, wrapping a towel around his waist and shaking his wet hair, stopping when he saw me naked and wrapped up in Noah.
"I told you to bring her breakfast. Not get in bed with her."
Noah nodded at the tray on the dresser. "Breakfast. And she looked so beautiful laying naked in bed that I couldn't resist."
Mal huffed in agreement, biting off a huge chunk of cinnamon roll and letting his eyes travel over my body. Without telegraphing what he was thinking, he jammed the rest of the roll between his teeth, grabbed my ankles, and yanked me down the bed. I squealed with laughter as he slid an arm beneath my waist and lifted me, carrying me to the dresser and setting me beside the breakfast tray. I clamped my teeth through part of the gooey cinnamon roll still stuck in his mouth and pulled, giggling when some of the melted icing fell onto my breast. Chewing quickly, he ducked his head and licked it from my skin.
His smile when he looked up at me took my breath away.
"Morning, baby."
I was a little dazed. "Good morning."
Sensing what was distracting me, he leaned in and whispered, "You make me happy, Regan. Get used to it."
"Careful of the coffee, big guy. She doesn't need her ass burned."
Noah came over, moved the tray with the coffee carafe a little further from me, and helped himself to some of the offerings. Right as he brought the mug to his lips, I made 'gimme' hands at him. Acting like he was annoyed—but I knew better—he set the mug down, added my required sugar, and handed it over.
Damn, Thad had good coffee. Beth must have made the cinnamon rolls. No one else made them as good as she did, and thinking about her made me want to hurry up and get ready so we could spend some time together. We'd be staying in the same house for some time, and it made me as excited as I used to get when we were kids and got to have a sleepover.
All my guys and my best friend under the same roof.
Did Thad have any idea what kind of trouble he was in with all of us here?
"What are you smiling about?"
"Thad might regret letting us all crash here."
Noah arched an eyebrow at Mal and then jerked his chin at the hole in the ceiling. The chandelier still lay in a crumpled, dusty mess. "Pretty sure he already does."
Mal frowned, kissed my cheek, and stepped away to pick up his discarded clothes from the floor. He shook some of the dust from them, dropped his towel, and stabbed his legs into the pants.
Commando? Yes, please.
I clutched my coffee mug tight.
"He can take all his cameras down if he doesn't like it."
I may have sighed as he pulled his pants up over his spectacular ass.
"Who's going with you?"
Mal tugged his t-shirt on and sat down to put on his boots. "Ben, Raphael, and Warrick. They were on shift last night, and I need to talk to them."
Those were three names I hadn't heard yet. Did he need to talk to them because they were the ones watching us from the woods last night? Thinking about Mal between my legs while I writhed against the glass -
Nope. Can't think about that right now.
Noah was immediately on alert. "Did something happen last night?"
"The three of them watched through the windows as I made Regan come all over my face."
Noah choked on his cinnamon roll, eyes wide as he looked back and forth between Mal and me. I tried to hide my face and the hot blush spreading over my cheeks.
"You allowed them to watch her?" He couldn't believe it. About as much as I couldn't believe Mal was okay with it last night.
Mal shook his head and stood. "Regan allowed it. And I give my girl what she wants."
He ran a hand through his wet hair and bent to kiss me. "Gotta go, baby. I'll be back in a little while."
I was suddenly panicked. "Where are you going?"
"We need supplies. Clothes. I don't know how long we'll be here."
He saw the worry in my expression and cupped my jaw, kissing me again, long and slow. With a caress of his thumb over my bottom lip, he winked and walked away. "Keep everyone in line while I'm gone."
"I love you," I called after him.
He paused and glanced over his shoulder. "Love you, baby."
He didn't bother closing the door when he left. I was still completely naked and sitting on the dresser. If Thad happened to walk down this way and saw me, Noah might very well have an aneurysm.
I hopped down and took Noah's hand. "Keep me company while I shower?"
"Absolutely. Should I go get some of Mal's guys so they can watch?"
He stopped my fist before it connected with his shoulder. "Keep it up, and you won't get to watch either."
Hands raised in surrender, he followed me to the bathroom, swatting at my ass as I skipped merrily away.
"You're in a good mood this morning. Want to tell me about it?"
"Umm... tell you what exactly?"
Acting casually, he leaned on the doorframe and crossed his arms as I searched for a toothbrush and toothpaste. "What you and Mal did last night."
Brushing my teeth gave me a good excuse not to answer him for a few minutes. He kept his eyes on me in the mirror, knowing I was stalling. He couldn't really want me to share the dirty details. It made me think of when we began this whole thing as teenagers. Back then, I'd share everything. I remember Joshua loving to hear the details - now having a much better understanding of why he loved it - and Noah enjoyed it, too. And I had liked telling them about one another.
"Okay." I spit out the toothpaste and swished some water. "Open that drawer."
Not the least bit surprised that I had agreed, Noah opened the drawer to reveal the black silicone ribbed plug I had surprised Mal with last night. After cleaning myself up before bed, I placed it in the drawer, hoping I could use it again or even keep it if Thad allowed. Noah's eyes drifted to my ass, one of his hands brushing over it in appreciation.
"That's bigger than the last one."
I nodded.
"Did Mal fuck you while you had that in?"
Another nod.
He slammed the drawer shut, closing his eyes and adjusting himself in his jeans. "I changed my mind. Don't tell me."
"Oh, okay," I whispered, unable to hide my disappointment. It seemed as though things weren't going to be like they had been before. If he was jealous or upset, this whole arrangement wasn't going to work for long. Maybe it was because he hadn't been there with us. Mal and I deserved that time alone together, and to have Noah ruin it by getting all possessive and jealous - no, that was completely unacceptable.
Just as I turned to put him in his place, he pressed his body into mine, trapping me between him and the counter. With a nudge of his fingers, my chin tilted up so he could look me in the eyes.
"I'm not jealous, Reggie." To make his point, he shifted so his hard cock pushed into my stomach. "I'm not angry. But I'm going to have to wait to hear about this until I can fuck you while you show me exactly what he did to you. And I can't do that right now."
"You - you can't?"
He shook his head and grinned. "No. Because if you had that in you at the same time as his cock, you're probably sore, and I know he fucked you more than once last night. If he had his way, he was probably in you all night long."
Swallowing, I dipped my chin to confirm.
Noah released me and stepped back. "So, yeah, you can tell me later. Get in the shower and I'll be over here thinking about that time Riley kicked me in the balls with his soccer cleats."
I laughed and hopped into the shower, his hand swatting my ass. A cold shower might be a good idea if I ever wanted to leave this bedroom today. I lasted one second before turning the knob for the hot water. Thad had a variety of shower gels, soaps, shampoos, and conditioners to choose from. It made me wonder how often he had people stay over and exactly how many at a time. Sniffing a few, I settled on a matching trio smelling of exotic flowers and fruits. "
"Tell me three more things about you," I called to Noah, who was pacing on the other side of the bathroom.
"I don't think there are three more things that you don't know."
"No other guilty pleasure TV shows?" I laughed when he flipped me off.
"I haven't been to the movies since high school."
That saddened me. A lot. "Then we'll go as soon as we can. We'll sit in the back row, eat greasy popcorn, and make out like teenagers."
"Sounds like the perfect date. Your turn."
What could I share with him? I wanted to keep it light and fun, nothing heavy and definitely not something about my two years with Stephen, or Phillip, or whoever he was. "I want to publish a children's book someday. Most of it is already illustrated. I just need someone to help me with the story."
Noah stopped his pacing. "A children's book?"
"It's really cute if I can say that about my own art. It's about a unicorn duck named Polly Quackers. I swear to God I wasn't on drugs when I drew it. If anything, I figured I could read it to my kids someday."
"How many?"
"Hmm?" My fingers snagged in my hair as I combed the conditioner through, one knot in particular giving me a lot of trouble. Morning after hair was a real thing. Kudos to Mal for fucking me into knots. Smiling and distracted by trying to get it out without ripping the ends of my hair off, I didn't notice that Noah had come to stand right at the opening of the shower. Turning to rinse out the conditioner, I yelped when I saw him.
"How many kids do you want?"
God, he looked so serious all of a sudden. "Oh, um, I don't know. I didn't mean -"
"I'll give you as many as you want."
Well, fuck. I may have just gotten pregnant from that. My uterus certainly perked up.
I shut off the water, stepping past him to grab a few towels. I wrapped one around me and started squeezing water out of my hair with the other. "Someday, not anytime soon, I know I want kids. I haven't thought about how many. Or with whom."
"With us, obviously."
"Us?" I gaped at him. "You mean all three of you want to knock me up and shoot out a bunch of kids?"
I was filled with a sudden terror at the thought—me, perpetually pregnant and stuck at home with a whole brood of crying children while the men were off at work supporting the little wife. Except, I couldn't be married to all three of them. That wasn't legal. Who would I marry? Did any of them want marriage?
Our kids would have three Dads and one Mom. I would be a Mom to all of them, but they'd have different fathers. Unless we were really planning and careful, we'd have to get a paternity test every time I got pregnant to know who the child belonged to.
Jesus Christ.
"Are you going to pass out?" Noah bent to examine my face, pushing my hair out of the way and throwing the forgotten towel to the floor. "Reggie?"
"What are we doing, Noah? How is this going to work—the three of us, with kids? We can't have any kind of real future like this. We're insane. There's no way."
"Okay, hold on, I didn't mean to freak you out. We obviously all have a lot to talk about. We don't need to do it now."
"We should, though. If we're going to stay together, we need to have these talks." I whirled to the door, prepared to leave. "Where's Joshua?"
"Reggie," Noah laughed and pulled me back. "Come here, look at me."
He cupped my face between his hands. "We have our whole lives to figure it out. I got caught up ... thinking of you pregnant with my child. God, Reggie," he scrubbed a hand down his face. "The thought of you like that, fucking hell, of course I want children with you. But not now. There's so much more we need to do before that. We just found our way back to you."
My panic began to subside, but it didn't disappear completely. It wouldn't until I had a chance to talk to Mal and Joshua. We needed to have a discussion soon, not only about kids but also about what each of us envisioned our relationship to be like. I had been distracted with everything else going on to give much thought to our future together after Stephen was gone.
"One day at a time," Noah smiled encouragingly down at me.
I took in a deep breath. "I can do that. We can do that."
"Noah!"
Joshua's frantic shout startled us both and we jumped apart like we had been caught doing something we shouldn't. He ran into the bedroom, looking for us. "Noah!"
"Here," he answered as we emerged from the bathroom.
Joshua's expression when he saw us made me stop in my tracks.
In one hand, he held his cell phone. The other shoved back into his wild hair, tugging hard before falling to his side when his shoulders slumped as he saw me. Tears pooled in his eyes, and he pulled his bottom lip between his teeth, shaking his head, unable to look at me any longer.
"Regan," he whispered.
"Joshua, what's happened?"
He only kept shaking his head and looking at the ground.
"Tell us," Noah ordered. "Jay -"
"The house," he forced out. "Regan, I'm so sorry."
"House? What house?" I surged forward, grabbing his arm and forcing him to look at me. "Who's house?"
The tears falling over his cheeks told me all I needed to know.
"Yours. It's gone, baby girl."
Noah was at my side, his voice low and full of murder when he growled, "What did he do, Jay?"
"He burned it down. There's nothing left."
My howling scream of devastation reverberated around us, and I crumpled to my knees before either of them could catch me.