Unexpected Lovers (22 page)

“Not only attracted, Laura. I’m in love with both of them.”

“But, how can you be? How are you going to choose?”

“I’m not.”

“I’m really confused. You’re not what?”

“I’m not going to choose between them, Laura.”

Laura shook her head as confusion zipped across her face.

Whitney exhaled forcefully. “We are a threesome, if you want to call it that. From what I’m told, the correct term is ménage.”

“You can’t be serious? You are going to be in a relationship with both men?”

“Yes,” Whitney murmured, praying her sister would understand.

Laura jumped to her feet and started to pace. “I don’t believe you! That’s disgusting, Whitney, both men touching you at the same time, both men making love to you at the same time.” Her lips curled in revulsion. “You’re no sister of mine if you are going to participate in that kind of relationship.”

“Laura, listen to me. I know you’re upset over Matthew’s death, but this is what I want. I love them.”

“Get out, Whitney. I don’t want you near me. Go back to Mom and Dad’s until you leave,” Laura whispered with a shiver as she rubbed her arms.

“You can’t mean that.”

“Yes, I do. Stay in your ménage, but don’t come near me anymore.”

Tears burned behind her eyelids as she pressed her lips together to keep them from falling. “I’m sorry, Laura. I wish you could understand. I love Brett and Ryan with all of my heart. It’s no different than your love for Matt.”

Laura faced the window and refused to even acknowledge Whitney’s leaving. Whitney moved toward the bedroom she’d been using since she came to Laura’s, but glanced at her sister one last time.

* * * *

“Thanks for setting up for the jet to take me back to Flagstaff, Dad.”

“It’s what dads are for, honey.” After he gave her a quick hug, he said, “I’m sorry about Laura.”

“I hope she comes around. I would hate to lose my sister over this, but I love Brett and Ryan.”

“I know you do, and I’m glad you’ve found happiness, even if it’s in an unconventional relationship. You have to do what’s right for you.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

“I love you, Whitney.”

“I love you, too, Daddy. Hopefully everyone can come up for Christmas.”

“I’d like to, but I’m not sure about your mother and Laura.”

“Well, at least Cindy and Sherry understand.”

“You’d better get going.”

“Yeah. I’ll call you when I get home.”

After quick kisses goodbye, she boarded the plane and within moments she was headed home. The one hour flight seemed to take forever. Anticipation made her jittery.

When they taxied in, she flipped open her phone and dialed first Brett and then Ryan and got no answer.

“Where the hell are they? I told them I’d call,” she grumbled when the plane stopped and the stairs slowly made their descent to the ground. When she stepped off the plane, the sight that met her eyes made tears well up and threaten to fall.

A huge sign saying, “Welcome Home Whitney” graced the top of the hangar and her two men leaned against the side of Brett’s car with their arms crossed over their chest and huge grins on their handsome faces.

With a laugh, she ran towards them and flung herself first into Ryan’s arms, and then into Brett’s. Once she had kissed them both thoroughly, she said, “Let’s go home.”

“After you, princess,” Ryan replied, opening the door.

Silence enveloped the car on the ride back to the house. She wasn’t sure what to say now that they were alone again and it appeared she would be staying, at least for a while. Sure, all three of them had confessed their love for each other, and Brett had mentioned her staying, but did that mean they wanted her there permanently?

Not liking where her thoughts were going, she kept her silence until they reached the house and headed inside.

“All right, Whit. What’s wrong?” Brett asked, trapping her against the granite countertop in the kitchen.

“Nothing. Why?”

“Your silence in the car and the confusion on your face tell me otherwise.”

Dropping her gaze to his chest, she chewed her bottom lip until he stuck two fingers under her chin and forced her to look into his eyes again.

A shrug lifted her shoulders. “I guess I don’t know what to expect from here.”

“I don’t understand.”

Ryan stood next to Brett with a confused look, too.

“I love you, both of you, but I’ve never done this before. I know how a regular relationship is supposed to work, but…”

“You want to know where we go from here,” Ryan said.

“Yeah. I mean, normally if two people confess their love, they move into together, get married, or whatever.”

“I thought we were at the moving in part, sweetheart. Don’t you want to stay with us?” Brett asked.

They aren’t getting this at all.

“Of course I do. I want that more than anything, even if my family doesn’t understand. If I didn’t, I would have stayed in Los Angeles.”

“Then stay,” Ryan replied, moving toward the refrigerator. “How hard is that?”

“Okay. Say I stay. What then? What happens in the future? I obviously can’t marry both of you.”

“Whoa. No one said anything about marriage,” Brett answered, stepping back.

Her heart dropped to her toes.
I hope this wasn’t a huge mistake.

“I mean. Maybe someday, but for now, we just need to leave things the way they are,” Brett added.

Cocking her head to the side, she finally began to understand. “You’ve been burned.”

Brett moved toward the living room and took a seat in one of the leather chairs, not meeting her gaze when she sat across from him.

“Tell me about her, Brett.”

“I don’t want to talk about it, Whit.”

“How can you say you love me if you’re still hurting?”

“I do love you, but what’s in the past is just that, in the past.”

“And I want to avoid the same issues, but I can’t if you don’t tell me what they were.”

He tipped his head back against the chair and sighed. Whitney didn’t think he’d answer until the words spilled from his mouth, making her heart break in two for him.

“She cheated on me, Whitney. I caught her fucking one of my co-workers in the doctors’ lounge at work. I came in for an extra shift she didn’t know I was working. I walked in on them.”

Tears rolled down her cheeks.
No wonder he tried to tempt me into having sex with him while I was still married to Eric. He wanted to test me.
Dropping on her knees at his feet, she laid her cheek against his knee.

“Did you and Ryan ever share her?”

“No.”

“You don’t think of it as cheating to share me with Ryan?”

Fingers slipped through her hair as he let a curl slide between them.

“There’s a difference when I share you with him. We both love you and want you here with us. My relationship with Corrine never met my needs. I see that now. She only wanted the prestige of being married to a doctor, not to be my other half. You are the other half of my heart, or third if that makes sense. But, I’m not sure I could ever marry you. Are you okay with that?”

“If that’s the way it has to be, Brett. As I said before, I can’t marry both of you anyway. If that means we all stay single in the eyes of the law, then so be it. It doesn’t mean I won’t think of you two as my husbands if we get to that.” Lifting her head, she met his intense gaze. “I think we are rushing things right now.”

“I think so, too,” Ryan said, taking her hand and pulling her to her feet. “Enough of this serious stuff. I need to hold you.”

“Are you saying you’ve never been in a serious relationship, Ryan?”

He frowned and pulled her down on the couch with him. “I never said that.”

Damn it! Both of them have been hurt. Am I walking into two broken hearts that may never be able to move on?

“So what’s your story?”

“I was engaged. Sara died in the canyon. She’s the reason I became a rescue paramedic. I felt so useless when I sat there holding her hand as she took her last breath.”

“Shit, Ryan. I’m sorry. No wonder you were so intense when you picked me up.”

“It’s okay. Five years was a long time ago.”

Whitney took his face between her hands and kissed him. Pressing her forehead against his, she looked deep into his hazel eyes, but only saw the love he held for her there. No pain, no regret, just love.

Wiggling around so she could see Brett, she held out her hand, hoping he would accept her offer and join them on the couch. She needed to feel the two men she loved next to her more than anything at that moment.

After a moment’s hesitation, he moved to her side and slid in next to her.

“I want to say something to both of you, and I want you to be quiet until I’m finished, okay?”

They both nodded.

“I love you, both of you, more than anything, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. If that includes marriage, that’s fine. If it doesn’t, that’s okay, too. We’ll take it one day at a time, but I want you both to know that I’m not going anywhere.” She touched Ryan’s face. “I’m not leaving.” Cupping Brett’s cheek, she said, “And I’m not going to cheat on either of you. I would never do that. It’s not in my makeup. My father taught me to value fidelity above all else, and after Eric’s cheating, I couldn’t put anyone through what I went through. I felt like I wasn’t good enough, couldn’t keep him satisfied sexually, if he had to cheat. If, for some reason, either of you get to the point you feel there’s something missing, please tell me. Communication has to be the most important thing in this relationship. If we don’t have that, we don’t have anything.” After a quick brush of her lips against Brett’s lips, then Ryan’s, she sat back and smiled. “I’m really horny, so one of you better make love to me soon.”

With a warm chuckle, Brett swept her up in his arms and headed down the hall toward her room as Ryan followed close behind.

“How about both of us?”

“Mmm…sounds like a plan to me.”

“Shall we flip for who gets the back and who gets the front? Heads I get the front, tails I get back,” Ryan said behind them.

“Incorrigible, both of you,” she whispered, already feeling her pussy clench. The thought of both of them making love to her at the same time made her wet and ready.
I’m such a wanton woman, but God, I love it!

* * * *

Eric watched from behind the curtained window as the three of them moved up the hall.
I bet she’s fucking both of them at the same time. Little bitch! She’d never let me fuck her ass, but she’s letting them.
He moved to the window a little farther up from where he’d been watching and saw the light flick on for a moment. The sight through the gauze curtains on the window pissed him off even more as the light went off again. His dick swelled behind the fly of his pants as he watched the two men peel her shirt off over her head. The one named Ryan stood behind her, kissing her bare shoulder and cupping her breasts in his hands as the one named Brett kissed her from his position in front. Next, her bra disappeared, and Brett took her nipple in his mouth, sucking it until she squirmed. Ryan slipped a hand inside the front of her jeans, sliding his finger between her legs. Eric could hear her whimpers of need from his spot outside and her cries of passion as she called their names.