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  “It’s just that now I feel like I really have a great life, everything I wanted. I’ve got the guys, a business that’s doing well, and I’m worried adding one more complication to that will throw things off-kilter. Life won’t be the same.”

  “Kind of the point.”

  “I’m afraid to rock the boat. I’m not even sure if I’d be a good parent.”

  “Go babysit for Clarisse with her two kids,” Essie said. “Or better yet, wait until she pops the girls out. Think about those odds, four against three. They’re outnumbered. At least we’ve got the odds in our favor.” She smiled. “Four against one. I think we’ll be okay.”

  “Don’t be so sure about that.”

  “In our line of work, it’s a little different. You know, you could always hire someone to take over the manufacturing part. And work on the website while the mini-you is asleep.”

  “Yes, because that works sooo well for people. I’ve heard the stories. Not exactly how it happens. You can take your baby to work. Well, at least to the office.”

  Essie and her men ran a commercial cleaning and disaster recovery business, in addition to doing hoarder clean-up jobs. Some of which were filmed as episodes for a show on the gO! Network.

  “Why is this something that’s weighing on you right now? Why the sudden urgency to decide one way or the other?”

  “I don’t know. Just seeing Sean swinging from the bondage frame this morning, covered in paper-mache, drove home the fact that we don’t have a child-friendly home, much less a childproof one.”

  “And again I counter with, why decide right now? If you’re happy with the way things are, why change them?”

  “Because the last time I didn’t do some forward thinking and advanced planning, I ended up kicked out of my house while my boyfriend ran off with someone he met on FetLife.”

  “Aaannd?”

  “And what?”

  “And then you eventually ended up with the two hunks you have now. Had Shane not been a dick, you wouldn’t be with your guys.”

  “Yeah, but I would have preferred a more direct path to happiness, bypassing the bullshit. Why does it feel like everyone else has their lives figured out far better than I do?”

  “Think of it as giving you a better appreciation for the riches you now have. And what do you want me to bring to the party tonight?”

  “Just yourself. And your guys.”

  “Want me over there early to help out?”

  “No, I think we have it covered. As long as I can get the Bobbsey twins to focus. Sometimes they’re like a couple of ADHD squirrels.”

  “They wouldn’t be as much fun as they are if they weren’t.”

  “I think you derive entirely too much pleasure from my misfortunes.”

  Essie laughed. “What else is a bestie for, bestie?”

  * * * *

  By the time Cali returned home, Sean was de-piñata-ed and grabbing a warm shower.

  “Tilly called,” Max said. “They’re going to get here around five with the loaner furniture.”

  “Okay. Thanks.”

  He put out a hand, stopping her before she could walk past him to the office. “Are you okay, sweetie?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  “Then why do I get the impression you’re not?”

  “I’m just tired, and it’s going to be a long night with everyone here. And then…that this morning.”

  “You’re not mad, are you?”

  “No, I’m not mad.” Why, exactly, was she stressing over this stuff again?

  Because I’m an idiot who doesn’t know how to relax and just let life happen, that’s why.

  “Oookaay.”

  “Seriously, I’m not mad.”

  “For someone who isn’t mad, you sure have a mad face on.”

  “I’m not mad. You constantly asking me if I’m mad when I’m not, however, is starting to aggravate me.”

  Sean walked in, towel-drying his wet hair. “She mad?”

  Cali let out a scream of frustration and went to go lock herself in the office for a little while.

  Chapter Three

  Mark made it home first. Essie was in the shower when he stuck his head in through the shower curtain.

  “Room for company?”

  “Always.”

  He quickly stripped and joined her. “Ted and Josh will be along soon.”

  “So, how bad is the place?” She hadn’t been out to see the site, her men handling it. Since she got pregnant, they’d limited her visits to clean-up sites out of concerns for her health and that of the baby. Some hoarding sites were downright toxic in terms of biological hazards, depending on the situation. She’d been relegated to office work and logistical organization, or kept outside supervising work crews.

  “I’ve seen worse. Mostly a paper hoarder. Magazines, newspapers, junk mail fliers, books. Neatly stacked in every freaking free space imaginable. Rabbit trails all over the place. His son told him if he didn’t clean it out, he’d report him to the county and they’d condemn his house, which of course they would have.”

  “Yikes.”

  “Well, he’s eighty-two. It’s not healthy.”

  “Is he fighting it?”

  “Tooth and nail. Every time he tries to pull something out of the toss pile, Ted makes him go through the mental checklist of how long has he had it, is he really going to read it, all of that. At least with the junk mail, with the coupons and ads being expired, he finally quit fighting us on that one. But I suspect once the clean-out is finished, he’ll be right back to hoarding again and his son will have to be over there a couple of times a week cleaning stuff out.”

  “Wow. That’s not a recipe for success.”

  “It’s not, but his son told him he’d go to court and ask a judge to give him a power of attorney over him if he didn’t agree to this and then sell his house and make him live in an ALF. So it’s going to be an uneasy, ongoing battle for the rest of this man’s life with his son.”

  “I hate it when that happens. It’s so sad.”

  “So do I, but there’s only so much we can do. His son wants his father to remain as independent as possible. I can’t fault him for that. The man’s wife’s death five years ago triggered this. Apparently she was the breakwater, the one throwing stuff out and holding his hoarding tendencies at bay. ”

  Essie knew that all too well. That had been her mom’s role, until her father’s hoarding overwhelmed her, too. It was only his death that allowed her mother freedom, from the hoard and from the stress of trying to hold it back.

  He slipped his arms around her from behind, his hands resting on her baby bump. “How’s our little monster doing today?”

  She smiled. “We’re still not calling him Bubba. I don’t care what you, Josh, Ted, or your dad says. I’m pulling wife rank.”

  Her father-in-law, once he found out he was getting a grandson for his first grandchild, had already started buying everything he could get his hands on that was boy-related and bringing it to them. There wasn’t a sport the child wouldn’t be equipped to play by the time he was born.

  And he’d nicknamed her bump “Bubba.”

  “Aw. No Bubba Collins, huh?”

  “No. There aren’t enough spankings or canings in the world to make me do it, either.”

  * * * *

  By the time Mark and Essie finished their shower, Josh and Ted had returned. She pulled on an oversized T-shirt and nothing else, not wanting to get dressed for the party yet when they still had a couple of hours before they had to be down the street at their friends’ house.

  Ted looked like he was in anything but a kinky party mood.

  “What’s wrong?” Essie asked.

  “Just…very disheartened.” He sat on the end of the bed. “I know this isn’t going to end well. Once we get that house cleaned out, he’s going to start trying to fill it up again. His son filed a change of address with the post office so they hopefully won’t be delivering him any mail. That’s
only a stop-gap measure for a minor part of the larger problem.”

  “What about medication?”

  “I’ve referred him to a psychiatrist who will do a full evaluation with the notes I’ve sent him. The man’s son is going to take him, so we know, at least, that he’ll go. Whether or not the man will even take any meds prescribed for him is a different matter entirely. He also still has his driver’s license and car, so he can go rounding stuff up to bring home.”

  Ted pulled her close, lifting her T-shirt and pressing his face against her belly. “How’s Bubba doing in there today?” he asked.

  “Oooh,” Mark said with a wince. “Don’t go there, bro.”

  “Like I told Mark earlier,” she said, tapping Ted on the head, “I am pulling rank. He is not going to be a Bubba. I don’t care what the rest of you say.”

  “Good luck convincing Dad of that,” Ted mumbled against her belly.

  “Exactly. Which is why you three are going to back me up and not call him Bubba. Before he’s born or after he’s born, period.”

  They hadn’t decided on a name yet. She had briefly thought about giving him “Edgar” as his middle name, in honor of her father, but the more she thought about that, the less she was inclined to do it. She’d loved her father, and with time and distance it was getting easier to let go of the anger she still harbored at him for his actions over the years, and her grief over his death without a chance to reconcile with him, but she wanted their son to have a fresh start in life.

  Not be saddled with a reminder of a painful time.

  She’d also nixed their—hopefully teasing—ideas of “Tarshua” and “Jarked,” blends of all three brothers’ first names.

  Ted looked up at her. The brothers all resembled each other. Ted, the oldest, had brown hair and gorgeous blue eyes. “If we name him William we can call him Dub, short for W.”

  “No.”

  Josh laughed. “You’re just dying to get on her bad side for when she’s in the delivery room, aren’t you?”

  “Not trying to,” Ted said, playfully smiling up at her. “I’m no masochist.” He hooked an arm around her, spinning her and pulling her down onto the bed on her back.

  Before she could resist, he’d dropped to his knees on the floor and had his face pressed between her legs, his tongue zeroing in on her clit.

  That was all she wrote. With her hormones a crazy mix, if one of them even looked at her sexily, it made her hotter than fuck, and the men loved it. She hadn’t reached the “big and cranky” phase yet, as Laura and Clarisse had both warned her about.

  She spread her legs wide, her feet resting on the bed, her hands fisted in Ted’s hair as he speared her pussy with his tongue.

  “Aaand, there she goes,” Josh joked, quickly stripping and joining her on the bed. He knelt over her head, his growing cock dangling over her mouth. She opened wide, moaning at the taste of him and the wonderful things Ted was doing to her clit and pussy.

  Mark got naked again and climbed onto the bed on the other side, grabbing Essie’s free hand and putting it on his inflating cock. She slowly stroked his shaft as she licked and sucked Josh’s cock. Her mind spun off into a delightful haze that wasn’t quite subspace, but almost.

  Close enough.

  Mark and Josh played with her breasts, lightly pinching her nipples while Ted drove her toward her first orgasm.

  “That’s it,” Josh gasped as she moaned around his cock. “Just like that, baby.” He plunged his other hand into her hair, fisting it as he rocked his hips, fucking her mouth now, taking over while Ted had her riding the coaster with her climaxes.

  Mark put his other hand over hers on his cock, gently squeezing as he, too, took over. “Now you’re in trouble, baby,” he teased. “We’ve got you right where we want you.”

  Where they wanted her was exactly where she wanted to be, too. She knew there wouldn’t be many days like this once their little bundle was born, so she wanted to take advantage of every sexy chance she could. Ted flicked and sucked on her clit, making her moan again around Josh’s hard cock, making him moan in response.

  “Dammit, I love that so much. Prepare for lots of blow jobs and time spent with Señor Hitachi when you get too big to be comfortable with us fucking you. I could sit here all day with my cock in your mouth.”

  “Well don’t take all day,” Mark said. “I want my load going down her throat, not all over the bed.”

  Ted hooked his arms around her thighs, his tongue and mouth taking her up that mountain again. Once the men got her going, they could usually keep her there for a while, especially if they were using the vibrator on her at the same time. Today, she knew, it wouldn’t be a marathon.

  If she was a lucky girl, she might get more action later, at the party.

  Josh’s tangy pre-cum turned into a flood as he let out a groan and buried his cock deep in her mouth, making her race to swallow it all, every drop he pumped down her throat. She was in the middle of her own orgasm when he pulled out and Mark swapped with him, sliding his cock between her lips with a satisfied grunt.

  “Oh, yeah. Muuuch better,” he said as he started fucking her mouth.

  Ted was on a roll, now with two fingers buried inside her pussy, finger-fucking her with them as he worked her clit with his mouth. Her moans around Mark’s cock finally finished him off as he pumped his load of cum down her throat.

  “Move,” Ted ordered, grabbing her by the hips and yanking her down to the end of the bed. He shoved his jeans and briefs off and immediately filled her with his cock. With her legs wrapped around him, he fucked her, hard, fast, shaking the whole bed until he exploded, his cock buried deep inside her as he fell still.

  She smiled up at her men, who were now all staring down at her with satisfied smiles. “Great. Now I need another shower before we head over for the party.”

  Chapter Four

  Tilly glanced at her phone. It was four thirty, and Landry had Cris bent over the spanking bench in their personal playroom, working a large butt plug into his ass.

  “Can’t you do this at their house?” she called down to him. “We told them we’d be there around five, and we’re going to be late.”

  “Patience, love,” Landry called back. “Almost finished. Won’t be but a moment.”

  “Why do you guys have to wait until the last damn minute to start this kind of shit? You’re really starting to piss me off.”

  “Don’t blame Cris, love. I’m the sadist, you know.”

  She leaned against the kitchen counter. Normally, she’d enjoy helping participate in whatever kinky diversions Landry had up his sleeve for the evening.

  But they were going.

  To.

  Be.

  Late.

  And she hated that.

  Haaated it.

  With a fervent passion.

  If they told someone they’d be somewhere at a certain time, that was the time she liked to arrive. And while, yes, she could explain to these particular friends exactly what caused the hold-up and they wouldn’t even bat an eye over it, it wasn’t exactly the kind of excuse she wanted to issue, either.

  Finally, five minutes later, the men emerged from the playroom. After a quick stop by the hall bathroom to wash up, they joined her in the foyer. The loaner play equipment they were bringing was already stowed in her SUV, put there earlier before the men had grabbed their showers.

  Cris didn’t even look the worse for wear. “Why did you wait until the last minute?” she asked Landry.

  “I simply forgot to do it after our showers, love.” He pulled her in for a long, sweet, sexy kiss that almost—almost—made her forget why she was irritated at him.

  Almost.

  But not quite.

  “Let’s go,” she said, yanking the door open. “I should have just left you guys behind ten minutes ago and made you drive separately.”

  “Heh,” Cris joked. “She said behind.”

  She wheeled around. “Seriously?”

  Cri
s grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and kissed her, bending her back, making her forget why she’d been aggravated at Cris in the first place.

  Mostly.

  When he let her loose, she wobbled a little on her feet. Now that she’d finally felt more comfortable submitting to Cris again, not quite back to their former Master and slave dynamic, but close to it, he sometimes took advantage to smooth things over with their fiery, switchy lady.

  Landry smirked, amused by the exchange. “Ready, love?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Then shall we go?”

  She turned and headed for the SUV. “Damn sadists,” she muttered under her breath.

  * * * *

  Landry made a point of pointing out to Tilly that, despite being five minutes late, they were still the first guests to arrive.

  “Even Essie and her men aren’t here yet,” Landry said. “And they live just down the block.”

  She stuck her tongue out at him.

  “Watch out, or that tongue might end up somewhere.”

  She crinkled her nose at him. “I thought Cris was your whipping boy for tonight.” Said whipping boy was unloading the SUV and helping Max and Sean get the play furniture set up.

  “Perhaps he is, and perhaps he isn’t the only one.”

  She looked up at him. “I’m not in a get-beat mood tonight, buddy. Sorry.”

  He cocked his head, studying her. “Are you all right, love?”

  “Fine. Peachy.”

  There went the arched eyebrow. He laced his fingers through hers and led her out onto the lanai, where they would be able to talk alone.

  “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

  “Just the baby explosion again,” she muttered. “I’ll get over it like I did that day with Loren. I just…it still gets to me.”

  He pulled her in close. “Still struggling with that decision?”

  She let herself relax in his embrace. Yes, Landry was a helluva sadist.

  He was also a helluva husband.

  “I know I should just get it done and get it over with,” she whispered against his chest, “but it feels like I’m giving up and giving in if I do.”