Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 75656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Buck slides in beneath me, flexible for a man his size, and sucks on my nipples as I suck on Weston, and Calder fills my pussy. I’m connected to all of them, physically now as well as emotionally, and the way it feels so right, when it’s always seemed so complicated, is a revelation.
We come together over and over, in ways I’ll never get over. I find myself gripping hands that aren’t the same pair as someone braces me against their chest, and someone else’s voice whispers roughly in my ear when I start to shake.
Buck stops managing, Calder no longer holds himself apart, and Weston loses every bit of control. So do I.
“That’s it, sweetheart,” Weston says, as I ride Buck’s cock and stroke Calder’s in my hand.
“Look at you.” Buck’s voice is raw, reverent, and wrecked.
I look down at where my body is spread open, taking him inside me in long, deep strokes, then I look around at the three of them, all hard muscle, heat, and devotion.
“All of you,” I say, like a promise and a prayer.
Buck closes his eyes briefly, like the words hit him deep. Weston kisses me, and Calder presses his forehead to mine.
Somewhere deep in the middle of the night, when I run out of energy, we rest, even though the men seem like they could keep going until morning. I’m half draped over Buck’s broad chest, with one of Weston’s arms flung across my waist. Calder’s stretched along my back, keeping me warm better than any blanket.
The room smells like men and sex, and the silence glows now, all the earlier sparks burned down to something deeper.
“That felt official.” Buck’s voice is low in the dim room, and I laugh, though I’m surprised my body has the energy to produce the sound.
Weston’s fingers trace lazy circles against my side. “Official,” he agrees.
Calder makes a sleepy sound that might be a laugh, too. “Pretty sure there are easier ways to define a relationship.”
“I liked this way,” I murmur, making all three of them chuckle.
Buck strokes my back in an uncharacteristically lazy way. “So did I.”
I lift my head enough to look at each of them, one by one. “I meant what I said,” I tell them.
Buck’s hand stills. “So did we.”
“You didn’t actually say anything, though,” I tease. “I’m an educator. Use your words.”
Calder laughs more fully as Buck lifts his head and tips my chin so I’m looking directly at him.
“I love you,” he says. There’s no hesitation and no qualifier. I already knew it in my heart, but hearing the words makes emotion swell so hard my chest suddenly aches.
Weston leans in and presses a kiss to my shoulder. “I love you, too.”
“I’m in this,” Calder says in a rough voice. “For real. For however long we get. I love you.”
My eyes sting, and I don’t try to hide it.
Buck brushes his thumb under my eyes to catch the tears. “No crying after sex.”
“That’s not a real rule.” I’m smiling through the tears.
“It is now,” Calder says.
Weston kisses my cheek, then the corner of my mouth. “You’re outnumbered.”
I tuck myself further into the warm center of them and let out a long breath. “Just the way I want it.”
For the first time since Tyler died, I feel like I’m inside my life again, fully alive. I feel rooted and chosen.
We all chose each other, and we’ll face whatever is waiting out in the darkness in a way we couldn’t before tonight.
Together. As a family.
CHAPTER 40
BUCK
Somewhere along the way, my office at the station turned into a command post, with topographic maps covering the walls and desk, and hand-drawn layouts of the school, street grids, and access roads spread through the middle of it.
I’ve noted distances, ridge lines, tree cover, and sightlines. I’ve marked all the places a shooter could disappear if he knew what he was doing.
Now, I stand in the middle of it and make myself review the whole thing again.
The firehouse sits on slightly higher ground at the center of town, with open approaches on two sides and enough equipment inside to hold if we have to. With its thick concrete walls, limited entrances, trauma bags, and tools, this place could be a fortress, depending on how ugly things get.
The school is harder. It has too many doors and too much glass. There are too many places to hide and too many small bodies to move quickly.
The gym, where the science fair will be held, is the worst part of it. One big room, filled with tables and projects, families packed shoulder to shoulder, and enough noise to cover an approach. It would be the perfect target for a man who wanted to make a spectacle of his violence.
I circle the gym in red and step back.
“If you keep frowning like that, those maps are going to surrender.” Elena’s voice comes from the doorway, soft, like a comforting hand between my shoulder blades.