With trembling hands, I pulled on a T-shirt and shorts, my heart overflowing.
Until I thought about Ian. Our encounter last night. Something had changed between us, something I’d always thought was there. For whatever reason, he’d been holding back from me. I’d given it considerable thought lately. Tossed around the notion that Heaven had been the cause, the distraction. But nothing had ever arisen from their time together. So not Heaven.
It wasn’t Dante because Ian had established a relationship with him from the beginning and they had something … special. Between only them. The same as Isaac did with Dante.
Which left me with only one though. Whatever was holding Ian back pertained to Isaac. The question was, was it between the two of them, some issue they needed to address? Or did Ian think I only wanted Isaac on those terms? We hadn’t discussed it. In fact, no one had ever given me the opportunity to tell them what I wanted. Hence the reason I was now taking every opportunity to show Ian, hoping against hope that they would figure it out.
I remembered the look in Ian’s eyes last night when he’d fucked me in the living room. Truth was, the more time I spent with him, the more I realized how deep I was in all this.
I loved him.
Not puppy love, either. Not some crush that would dissipate over time. This was a passionate burn, an ache in my chest that would cause both pleasure and pain over time, but ultimately, it would endure. I could feel it. I just knew.
It was the exact same love I felt for Isaac. For Dante.
Yes. That was the only explanation I had. I was in love with three men. Three very different men and I loved them all equally.
A knock sounded on the door, jerking me out of my wayward thoughts. I looked over, swiped the tear on my cheek as Isaac stepped into the room.
“What’s wrong?”
I smiled, knowing better than to tell him nothing. It would earn me punishment. Since I was already owed some from yesterday, tacking more on didn’t seem to be a wise choice.
Isaac came to stand in front of me, staring down, his glittering green eyes intense.
I stared up at him, and before I could stop the words, they came tumbling out of my mouth. “I love you.”
His expression didn’t change, eyes still fierce, affection in every line around his eyes. “I know.”
I made a sound, part laugh, part sob.
Isaac chuckled, urging me back on the bed as he crawled over me. His mouth feathered kisses over my lips.
“I love you, too.” He shifted from English to Irish, the words flowing right over my head. “With all my heart,” he whispered, clearing things up for me with the translation.
I threw my arms around his neck, buried my face there, and sobbed, the emotional release ripping through me. My heart felt too big for my chest, an ache growing there. The feeling wasn’t painful. No, that wasn’t the right way to describe it.
I wanted to tell Ian the same thing, but I wasn’t sure I could. Not when Isaac looked at me the way he did. It was as though I was betraying him somehow, though we’d all gone into this with our eyes wide open. Or I thought we had, anyway.
It was in that moment I knew something would have to give.
I just needed time to figure out what.
ISAAC
By noon, we had a Dumpster being delivered and the guest room stripped down to the studs.
By three, a contractor was scheduled for later in the week, a designer already tasked with decorating the space with Dante in mind.
And by five, Everly was putting the final touches on dinner. Everyone seemed to be on edge, and I couldn’t say I blamed them. We’d spent the entire day focusing on the destruction that bastard had wreaked, dealing with the havoc his threats had induced.
I wasn’t willing to allow that evil to settle into the house any more than it already had, so I decided to take the reins.
When Dante appeared in the kitchen, I addressed both of our submissives.
“Tonight, you’ll be eating dinner naked,” I said in passing.
“If that pleases you, my Liege,” Everly said sweetly, not blinking an eye.
“It’ll please me very much,” I told her.
“Of course, Master,” Dante said, his shoulders still holding too much tension.
I joined Ian in the dining room, wanting to see his expression when the naked submissives arrived.
I wasn’t disappointed, his eyes darkening with approval as they came in, set the plated food on the table before taking their seats.
“Well, this is a nice surprise,” Ian noted, his eyes raking over Everly when I pulled her into my lap rather than letting her sit in a chair.
“Good to see you didn’t redden his ass too much,” Ian noted, a glint of humor in his eyes as he glanced over at Dante.
