Quarantales: The Complete Contemporary Romance Box Set, page 39
I just wish they were here year round. Then they could get some chickens. And maybe some goats for milk. Supposedly they’re better than cows when it comes to family farms. And ooh, wouldn’t it be nice to plant some winter wheat in the fall, and maybe a few fruit trees?
Stop it, Gina, I chide myself. You’re leaving tomorrow. And you’re never going to see this place again.
Ignoring the ache in my chest, I grab Mitch’s laptop and spend the rest of the day typing suggestions about what to harvest when. I even offer to go over it with Nico and Mitch after dinner.
But Mitch just says, “C’mon. Let’s go to bed.”
Often our sex is fast and urgent. We’ve known from the start that there was a timeclock on out arrangement. But that night, Mitch says, “Let’s see if we can keep from coming until he gets here.”
Mitch settles me against his chest while Nico slowly laps at my pussy. But just as I’m on the verge of coming, Nico stops to ask, “Now, what were you trying to tell us about the summer harvest?”
I have to fumble around my dazed thoughts to come up with an answer. But as soon as I mention the eggplants, he grins and brings my hand to his monster cock. All thoughts of seasonal fruits and vegetables fall from my head as he strokes my hand up and down his shaft. We go on that way until Nico’s head falls back, and I can feel his cock pulsing underneath our hands.
“He’s getting too close, Goldie. Back off, baby,” Mitch says. His tone is light and joking as he turns me around to face him.
He kisses me slow and deep while Nico plays with the puckered hole between my cheeks. It‘s stimulating for sure, but not so much that I can reach a climax. When Nico’s calmed down again, he leaves to wash his hands. Meanwhile, Mitch hooks my legs over his shoulders and lazily laps at me.
I thought I had calmed down too, but my body has become so sensitized I can feel an orgasm rising within minutes. But then Nico comes back and takes me from Mitch.
“Here, take me in your mouth while you get your head right,” he instructs.
I do as he says. Remembering Jeb’s advice, I skip the overstimulating tongue swirl and go straight to sucking him down as far as I can. I also remember to look up at him as I do.
I find him staring down at me, his eyes filled with tender affection. He strokes my braids back as opposed to grabbing hold of them like Jeb does. And he holds my gaze as I bob my head up and down.
“Do you know how beautiful you look when you do this for me?” he asks, his voice sober and quiet.
No, I don’t know. But the way he’s looking at me makes me believe it was true. He enjoys my attention, but eventually, his breath hitches, and he says, “Too close!”
It’s Mitch’s turn again. He pulls me back to his chest, but this time, he sits me up in his lap and pushes in from underneath. And to my great sorrow, he doesn’t rub my clit like he usually does in this position. So again, tons of stimulation without any actual coming.
And when I try to reach down to rub at my own pussy, he says, “Un-uh-unh. You know the rules, baby. Don’t think you can get away with that shit just because Jeb isn’t here.”
I whine and mewl. But they refuse to let me come.
And I find out that night that there are several ways to torture a woman’s clit. You can completely ignore it while your tongue laps everything else.
You can slap it. But only once. Just enough to leave a beautiful sting.
You can blow cool air on it until it was visibly quivering for more.
By the time Jeb gets home, I am out of my mind. No hello. I just beg for permission to come as soon as I see him standing at the bed’s edge.
He chuckles evil and low at the sight of me.
“Wait for Daddy to take a shower,” he tells me before disappearing into the bathroom.
I’m so aroused, Mitch and Nico have to hold on to my hands to keep me from touching myself until he gets back.
“Five minutes. Quickest shower ever,” Nico says with a laugh.
Five minutes? It feels like it’s been five hours. I nearly sob when Jeb grabs me by the hips and yanks me into a now very familiar position. Ass up, right in front of him.
“What did they do to you, Goldie?” he croons. “You’re dripping wet.”
I’m past whining at this point. I just beg, “Please… please, Daddy.”
He leans over my back. His skin, still cold and wet from the shower, makes me shiver as he whispers in my ear. “You serious? You just want to come? You don’t want me to tease you even a little bit?”
“Please…please…no more teasing!” I beg pitifully. I’m so frustrated, there are tears in my eyes.
“Okay, guess you can come,” he says, with a sound between a low laugh and a sigh.
That’s all the warning I get before he pinches my engorged clit between his fingers and slams into me from behind.
The orgasm blasts through me, and I lose sense of time and space. Mitch takes me either hours or minutes after Jeb is finished. Somewhere inside my daze, I notice that his strokes are harder than usual. And right before he spills inside me, I think I hear him say, “You’re ours.”
But why would he say that?
I’m too dazed from the second orgasm to ask.
For some reason, Nico doesn’t take me that night. But he’s there when I wake up.
“Good morning, mija,” he says when I turn over inside his arms. A huge smile splits across his face.
That’s one of the things I’ll miss the most. Nico is the only guy I’ve ever slept with who breaks into a smile every morning. Just because I’m awake.
He kisses my lips and fingers the now hair-covered triangle between my legs while telling me how much he enjoyed last night. How beautiful I am. How much he admires me. And suddenly… “You’re all wet again.”
Grinning, he pulls one thigh over his waist and slips inside of me. This sex isn’t urgent and fast either. We moved together in an easy rhythm until we both come with a moaning sigh.
Then the sadness hits. I’m leaving today. Saying goodbye to the heaven they’ve created for me in Wisconsin.
Back in Nico’s room, I find the dress and hoodie I washed the first day before hiding them under the bed.
Putting on the wired bra, underwear, and clingy dress feels like stepping into a freezing cold shower. And technically, it’s too warm for my hoodie. But I slip it on anyway, shivering with real world cold.
However, I get an unexpected reprieve from saying goodbye when I come out to the kitchen. Nobody’s there.
I find a note written on the smart fridge’s door. “Almost done with the upstairs. We’ll see you at lunch to do the money exchange.”
Good, so they have the money, and they’ll give it to me at lunchtime.
The thought of leaving behind the safe haven we’ve built here twists my heart. But the thought of Tommy finding me and hurting them is even more terrifying than that. Also, I always knew this would be temporary. The guys will be returning to practice soon, which means traveling back down to their house in Muskego.
The popping of our fantasy bubble was inevitable. I might as well leave before they return to their real lives. It will be better that way. Hurt less.
I spend the rest of the morning, thinning back the garden I’ll be leaving behind. But a weird inner sensation brings my head up after a couple of hours of cutting out the weak plants, so that the strong, healthy ones can thrive.
My gaze finds the decrepit barn on the other side of the lake. Mitch told me no one lives there the other day, but a bad feeling comes over me. Maybe I’ve seen too many horror stories. Something about the old, rotted structure is giving me the creeps.
“You okay there, Goldie?”
I turn around to see Mitch and Nico, standing at the back door of the house.
Is it lunchtime already?
“We finished the upstairs and wanted to show it to you before lunch,” Nico says when I reach the back door.
Happiness for them replaces my sense of foreboding about the barn. “You did? That’s so great!”
“Yeah, actually we put a few pieces of furniture up there already. And we just wanted to see if you like them. You know, vet it for our future wife.”
“Oh.” Something inside of me fizzles a little. I’ve always wanted to be an interior designer. But the truth is, designing the cabin was a new kind of challenge. When I was done, I hadn’t felt delighted for my client like I usually did when I was done with a project. I just felt upset because the woman who would be enjoying this cabin wouldn’t be me.
But I have no right to feel jealous. No right at all. So I tamp down my feelings like a big girl and wallpaper on a smile. “Of course. Is Jeb still upstairs?”
As if in answer to my question, a horn beeps behind us.
I turn to see Jeb drive up in a red Ford Expedition. It’s sparkling clean, unlike the mud-covered F-150 they usually drive. And it has dealer tags on it.
What the…
“Sorry I’m late,” Jeb apologizes with a grouchy lock. “The dealership took forever. You’d think it would have gone faster.”
“Why?” Mitch asks. “Because you’re such a huge football star?”
“No, asshole, because I was paying cash,” Jeb answers, glaring at Mitch. “You know I don’t give a shit about that.”
Mitch makes a great show of sucking on his teeth. “I know you say you don’t…”
I cut off their squabble to ask, “Did you decide to trade in the truck?”
They both look down at me then back at the truck, but it’s Nico who says, “No, Goldie, that’s your car.”
“What?” I shake my head, not understanding.
“Remember we talked about this,” Mitch says. As if buying me a car had been a full discussion, not a possibility they’d floated months ago to extend my contract by a week.
Also, “I thought you were talking about a compact car like the Chevy Nova or something. This is too nice, and it’s huge!”
Nico just takes my hand and leads me toward the large SUV. “This car’s got good safety ratings. Plus, it’s great for driving in the snow.”
Jeb runs a little in front of us. “Also, I pre-installed the seat for you.”
He opens the back door to reveal a rear-facing baby seat, just like he promised. There’s a diaper bag sitting inside of it.
“Open it,” Nico says, letting my hand go with a squeeze.
“Open the diaper bag?” I repeat, not understanding.
But then suddenly, I do.
When I unzip the bag, I find several KN95 masks packages….and stacks upon stacks of bills.
I freeze.
Contrary to how rusty I felt when we first began this arrangement, I discover that I still have at least one talent leftover from my Magic Peaches girl skillset. I instantly recognize that this is way, way more than the agreed upon fifty thousand dollars.
“How much is in here?” I demand.
“Five hundred thousand,” Mitch answers. “And if you ever need more, all you gotta do is ask. We’ll send it to you wherever you are.”
“But if I were you, I’d get that money into a bank account as soon as possible,” Jeb says. “That’s a lotta cash to be carrying around in a diaper bag.”
I fully agree with the practical suggestion, but my mind is reeling. “A car and half a million dollars in cash? Why would you do this?”
Nico enfolds me under his arm and kisses the top of my head. “We just want you to be provided for, no matter what.”
“We also wanted to make sure you understood you have choices before we show you upstairs,” Mitch adds, his usually cynical expression just as gentle as Nico’s now. “No more transactional relationships. This money and car are yours without conditions.”
Without conditions. My heart nearly gives out at their kindness. I can’t believe they’re sending me away with such extravagant gifts.
But then it occurs to me to ask, “What does showing me upstairs have to do with any of this?”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Upstairs, Mitch shows me all the rooms they made from scratch. They’ve added three more bedrooms and three more bathrooms. Two of the bathrooms are ensuite.
My heart cracks a little when they let me know that the largest master will go to their future wife.
“So that she can have some damn privacy when she needs it,” Jeb explains.
Then he shocks the hell out me when he announces the other master will go to him.
“You’re giving up the storage space?” I ask him.
His cheeks brighten to red. “How would it look to my future kids to have a dad who’s too scared to sleep in a real bedroom? Also, we’ll probably be needing that storage space eventually. From what I understand, kids rack up a lot of shit.”
Before I can say anything else, Nico starts tugging me out of the room. “The last room is the one we’ve already painted and put a few pieces of furniture into. C’mon…”
A nursery.
Jeb, Mitch, and Nico show me into a nursery. There’s a crib already assembled, yellow walls, and a deep orange gliding recliner that looks perfect and cozy. Sunset orange…my favorite color.
This is when it gets hard. The half million…it’s unbelievably generous. I’ll be able to move to Canada and establish myself there without worry.
Yet the unwarranted jealousy remains. With a house like this, they’ll snag a wonderful woman. Someone clean, who isn’t already pregnant. They’ll give her this perfect cabin and this perfect life. They’ve got everything planned out. All they need is my approval.
I swallow the hard lump in my throat. But I don’t dare to turn around. No matter how well I modulate my voice, there’s no way I’ll be able to fake a smile as I say, “This is…this is great. Perfect. Your future wife is very lucky.”
“We were hoping you’d say that.”
So that sounded reasonable and not jealous to them. Good…it doesn’t matter that it feels like there’s a pool of acid where my heart used to be. As long as I’ve made them happy, it doesn’t matter. That’s all I want. For them to be happy with someone way better than me.
They’ve treated me so nice. Look at everything they’ve done for me…and to prepare for their future wife. They deserve nothing less than happily ever after.
“Turn around, Goldie.”
I can’t. They’ll see how upset I am if I do.
But then Mitch says, “That’s an order, not a request.”
I clamp my lips and use every ounce of resolve I have to “fix my face,” as they’d say back in Georgia. Then I turn around.
Only to gasp and slap both hands over my mouth.
All three men are down on one knee. And they’re each holding out a delicate rose gold band.
“Our future wife…we want her to be you,” Nico informs me, his voice gentle and somber.
“We know it’s only been a couple of months,” Mitch adds. “And that might feel like it’s too soon. But not for us.”
“We don’t give a fuck how little time we’ve known you. We love you,” Jeb says, his deep voice raw and direct. “We love you so damn much.”
I stare at them in disbelief.
I dissolve into tears.
Then I run.
I run, and I run, and I don’t stop. Not until I’m back in my garden farm.
Jeb finds me I don’t know how long after that, hunkered down and crying in the dirt between my newly sown sweet corn and the transplanted eggplants.
“I’m s-s-sorry,” I say when I see him headed toward me. I’m barely able to talk through my tears.
“I had a feeling this thing would go sideways when you didn’t seem to realize the future wife we were talking about was you.” He lets out a heavy sigh, then plops down beside me. “I should’ve told them it was too much.”
“No, it was perfect.” The need to reassure him dries up some of my tears. “It’s not you. It’s me. I love you guys, too, but I don’t deserve this. I don’t deserve any of this.”
“Why not?” Jeb asks. And bless him, his tone is equal parts baffled and curious.
But… “Isn’t it obvious? I’m weak and stupid and pregnant with another man’s child. How could you want me to be your wife?”
Jeb shrugs. “We’re all other men’s children, and Coach Granger took us all in. What kind of hypocrites would we be if we didn’t love your child like we would our own? We want to be good fathers. To this kid and any other ones you want to gift to us. And as for you feeling like you don’t deserve this, like you’re weak and stupid…”
Jeb shakes his head, and his voice turns vicious. “That’s him talking to you again. An asshole who would dare to lay hands on a woman as beautiful and good as you. But I’m here to tell you in person, you deserve us. You deserve everything we got to give, Goldie.”
To think I didn’t like him at first because I thought he was so mean. His kindness crumples me again, and I cry into my hands.
“I get it,” he says as I cry. “My mom’s voice stayed in my head for a long time after Coach Granger took me in. I couldn’t believe I deserved a father like him or brothers like Mitch and Nico. Not after what I did. Actually, I knew I didn’t deserve them. But then Coach Granger died, and I had to go into a boy’s home for a while. That would have been the perfect opportunity for Mitch and Nico to let me go. Busy as they were with college and football, nobody would have blamed them. Not even me. But they drove up from college to visit me once a week. They even busted me out for my birthday. Took me to one of their games then out to Taco Bell after—that used to be my favorite place to eat back in high school. And I thought just like you. That I didn’t deserve them. My mom was still in my head, telling me I ruined everything.”
I’ve stopped crying now, and I’m fully immersed in his story. Nico and Mitch warned me a few times that Jeb never talks about his past or his feelings. But here he is again, sharing the most painful parts of himself with me.
“Then, I joined the army instead of going to college like they wanted me to. I was sure that would be the end of us. But they kept in touch. Wrote me emails, FaceTimed…they were waiting at the airport after every leave. And Mitch was the one who got me the walk-on tryout for the Wisconsin Bears. They never acted like I ruined everything. In fact, according to them, our family didn’t work without me. I agreed to this wife business, but I was sure it wouldn’t end up with us living out here all happy, like Mitch and Nico imagined. I knew…knew for sure I didn’t deserve them. And I thought the break up with Charlotte proved me right.”
