“what happened, sarah?” marly asked as sarah sat down heavily on the couch.
“god, this is such a mess,” she groaned. “i did my best, marly. i swear i did.
i was nice and vague, just like we agreed, but i think he guessed. he guessed and now he’s madder than hell that i didn’t just tell him. i knew this was a bad idea.”
she glanced up as heather and marly shared a worried look.
“what?” she asked warily.
“cade isn’t speaking to me, either.” marly was wringing her hands, her blue eyes wide, upset. “he came to bed last night and just gave me this really strange look before he kissed my forehead and rolled over and went to sleep. he didn’t say anything. he always talks to me before we go to sleep.”
“sam was acting strange, too.” heather pushed her fingers through her already rumpled hair. “god, this is such a mess. and it shouldn’t be this damned hard. we shouldn’t have to play games like this, marly.”
“do you have another suggestion?” marly was growing increasingly frustrated now. “dammit, both of you know how we tried to talk to them before.
it didn’t work then. why would it work now?”
they were all silent. sarah frowned as something brock had said the night before continued to haunt her. that the answer to what she wanted was right before her eyes. her heart had slammed in her chest then, and it did again now.
“marly?” she raised her eyes to the other woman. “they’ve stopped.” marly shook her head as she stared at her in confusion. “what?”
sarah frowned as she considered the past nine months. “think about it.
admittedly, we haven’t given any of them much of a chance to try, but they don’t try, either. they’ve stopped.”
heather and marly stilled. “we realize that, sarah.” heather sighed. “but it has to continue this way.”
sarah shook her head demandingly. “no. listen to me. think about it.
it’s completely stopped. no little butt pats. no hot little looks. the whole nine yards. it’s stopped.”
marly and heather both watched her in bemusement. had they somehow gotten what they were fighting for, without fighting for it? had the men not paid any attention to their careful avoidance of being alone with any of them, other than their chosen husbands, out of choice?
marly sat down slowly. “she’s right,” she whispered, looking at heather in surprise. “i know cade. all the avoidance in the world wouldn’t work if he got horny enough to go after it. they’ve stopped on their own.”
they had been so concerned with their subtle maneuvers to be certain there was no opportunity for the three men to catch one of them alone, or to try to seduce them into their erotic, heated play.
they hadn’t realized that the men weren’t trying to do so.
“now what?” heather asked softly. “how can we be certain they won’t want to try to reestablish those relationships later?”
sarah breathed in roughly. “i’m certain, heather. brock is madder than hell right now.” the very thought of that terrified her. “he pointed out to me, rather coolly, that maybe what i wanted was right in front of my eyes and i had refused to see it. i think he’s right. we’ve been so concerned with protecting them, with trying to feel our way through this for the past year, that we haven’t noticed the change in them.” and that broke her heart. “we didn’t see that it wasn’t our machinations, but their decision to stop themselves.”
she watched the other two women pale. “god. we’re in some deep trouble here.” marly swallowed tightly. “a pissed august male is not a good thing.”
heather snorted. “what are they gonna do? divorce us?” she asked them both in irritation. “okay, so we f**ked up. they were a little less clueless than we imagined. but they still haven’t figured out exactly what we want. i say we tell them straight out and see what happens.”
marly and sarah both shot her a look of incredulity.
“get real!” marly snapped. “that might work with sam, and you can go for it if you think it will. but not cade. you forget his sense of responsibility. his determination to keep this family together. this will break his heart if we do it your way, heather. i won’t risk that.”
“it’s not like we want to move to another state, marly,” heather argued.
“for god’s sake, he would be able to see the house outside his bedroom window. dammit, as much as i love you and sarah, and the other brothers, i want my own home. i want my own family, too.”
there was a wealth of pain, of growing despondency, in the other woman’s words. there was the dream they all held. their own homes. their own families. the freedom to bring children into a full, productive family unit rather than the unconventional lifestyle they had lived.
it had been different when they married. new to the sexual excesses the men provided, they had been flying on sensuality and the freedom to give into the more extreme fantasies they all had at one time or another. but now, with marly’s pregnancy and drace’s birth, they had found a core of need inside them that terrified them all.
possessiveness. they wanted their husbands to themselves. they wanted their own homes. their own families.
“so what do we do?” sarah asked them both softly. “we can’t destroy them.
we can’t hurt them for our needs. where does that leave us?”
“damned if i know,” marly finally sighed bleakly. “but we have to do something now. because sure as hell they’re all three onto us, and they won’t wait long before they hit us with it. we have to be prepared.”
damn. sarah had a feeling the next few days were going to be less than pleasant.
* * * * *
“they’re plotting again.” cade looked up from the baby he held securely in his arms to sam as he walked into the nursery. brock was already there. he stood at the window, silent, morose.
he was letting this affect him too deeply. feeling too guilty over something that could be fixed. and cade was certain it could be fixed.
drace cooed in delight as cade continued to rock him, his drowsy blue eyes staring up with an innocence that could only be found in a child’s eyes.
eyes so much like marly’s. drace’s features more like his father’s. it made cade wonder what their daughter would look like. and he was damned determined he wanted one. a fiery little bit of temper and beauty like his marly, driving them all crazy with her less than logical ways. and his marly could definitely be less than logical.