Chapter Nineteen
Ben
Pancakes. There was no better way to start the day than pancakes. Or so I rationalized when Tobias woke up and put the kibosh to my initial plans to have Cory writhing in pleasure until none of us had the energy to continue.
The night before—there were no words to describe the night before. Not in its totality, anyway. Sleeping wrapped up in each other’s arms, each other’s scents after a day of stress and anxiety for us all, even if Levi’s took a much different form. It was healing and loving and exactly what we all needed.
Then there was the morning. The glorious, sexy, downright kinky morning. Sure, Levi and I had taken a third to our bed before, but those times were nothing compared to what we experienced with Cory. It was sweet and then hot—so damn hot knowing that he trusted us so completely that he hadn’t questioned whether we were being safe or showed an ounce of trepidation when spanking was mentioned or when Levi fisted him. And the way he showed his pleasure so unabashedly still had me sporting a mini as I clunked around in the kitchen to make us all breakfast.
“I can help with that.” Levi came up behind me, lying his face off. He could help with pancakes not at all. There was something about them that made them a challenge even Levi couldn’t surmount, and that was saying a lot considering he could take a picture at the home show and then recreate the random project from that picture alone.
“No. You really can’t. But you can set up the table.” I cracked an egg, adding it to the bowl of what would become my pancake batter.
“Done.”
“Need any help?” Cory came in carrying little Tobias who was already dressed for the day in his favorite truck shirt or duck as he so cutely called it. I knew the last thing I should do was encourage it when he flubbed words like that, but it was so darn adorable, I ended up recording them on my phone instead.
“Just whipping up some pancakes.” I shrugged off. Pancakes were the one thing I liked to make. My grandfather had always made them when I was little, and he let me hold the spoon once I was old enough to stir the bowl and leave some of it not on the counter. They always reminded me of love and family.
“I can get Tobias settled with some puffs and put some bacon in the oven.” He singsonged as he buckled Tobias into his highchair grabbing the awful snacks Tobias had yet to discover were awful and giving him a sippy of milk which he instantly attacked.
I was curious as to what Cory was going to do. I usually made the few pieces of bacon I needed on the stove, but he clearly said in the oven, and knowing he came from a large family I figured it was a trick to facilitate mass bacon cooking and sure enough, he managed to put an entire package on a cooling rack in a lasagna pan in the oven. I only hoped it tasted like real bacon when it came out and not that precooked garbage.
“I didn’t know you could do that.” Levi wrapped his arms around Cory, very much distracting me from my batter. Cory looked to Tobias and then to me and then back to Tobias. “Silly Omega,” Levi told him. “You’re ours. We aren’t going to hide that from him any more than Ben and I hide our relationship. Hugging is perfectly acceptable for babies.”
“Umm, okay.”
“Not okay.” I put the batter bowl down, brushed my hands off, and stood in front of Cory, wrapping my arms around him the reverse direction that Ben had his. “We want you to be comfortable with us, knowing we are your alphas and not feeling the need ever to hide it.”
“I want that,” he confessed, and I felt instant relief. “I want all of it.”
“As do we.” Ben kissed his neck as the electric griddle blinked, indicating it was at temperature.
“I’m making these. You two go sit down. Your scents are distracting me from important work,” I teased and shooed them all away. “The percolator should be done soon so you can get your caffeine going. I have a feeling nap time is going to be a little busy.” I grabbed the butter from the fridge and put a pat on the griddle, pushing it around with my spatula to coat the pan.
Tobias started calling out, “Duck duck,” and we all just stared at him as he pointed to the bouncer in the next room, the one shaped like a truck.
“Don’t you want breakfast first? Doggie pancakes.” Because, yeah, I made the pancakes for T-man into animals because what fun is a round breakfast.
“Duck, duck,” he insisted.
“Okay, little man, but we are eating.” Levi helped him into his bouncer. He was still in sight but not so close he could hear our words, which was probably good because some things needed to be said. He settled in quickly and went to town beeping his horn and giggling over and over again.
I had a bunch of pancakes made by the time the timer went off on the bacon, which it turned out was remarkably awesome, and we settled into breakfast as Tobias continued his game of honk and giggle.
“So, there is probably something we should mention so it doesn’t end up hurting your feelings,” I began. It was an awkward thing to bring up, but after this morning, I knew I had to. Levi and I had long surpassed the time of condoms in our relationship, having only bought the ones we used last night after Cory agreed to be more than our nanny. I forgot how uncomfortable they made Levi afterward until I saw him squirming as he slid on his boxer briefs.
“Oh,” was all Cory said. I was so doing this entire thing wrong.
“Not oh.” Levi wrapped his arm around our omega. “Not oh, at all. It’s just what Ben is trying so piss poorly to say is that I have a sensitivity to latex, and the non-latex ones were out of stock so I probably won’t be ummm—shall we say going in again until the new ones arrive.”
“What he said.” I pointed to Levi, glad he was the one to say it because after I had inadvertently freaked out Cory, or at least I think that was what had happened, I had gotten myself flustered and wasn’t sure I’d have been able to express it clearly the first time, and a sore dick isn’t something you want to keep talking about.
“Wait, Levi did something with me that he knew would have a harmful effect on his bits? Why would he do that?”
“I’m right here, guys,” Levi muttered.
Sometimes our big, strong firefighter needed help talking about the difficult things—and his allergy really bugged him. Hopefully, he wasn’t too sore after one use.
“Have you seen you, Cory?” I fluffed it off as a joke, but it was only half a joke. The truth was we both needed him then, needed to claim him, feel he was ours, and if that meant a little irritation for a day, that was fine. “And it’s not like it’s going to fall off, it will just be a little irritated for a day or two and not really badly unless he does it again.”
“You should’ve told me.” He bit his lip, and I could see him wanting to say more.
“But?”
“No buts, just why are we using them? Not being fresh. Is it you want to go slowly or worry about safety or something else?” Cory went back to chewing on his lip, the one I wanted to be biting.
“Because, omega ours, we hadn’t discussed not using them.” Once we got off the ticklish, or itchy issue and onto a more general dialogue, Levi was so much better at this than I was. “But if you would like to discuss not using them now, I think it is as good a time as ever. The time not to discuss it is when we are all naked.”
“I trust you.” Cory’s sincerity made my heart beat a little faster. “I’ve never not used a condom, but I trust we are more, not just a fling or a dating situation so if I had a child with you, then that wouldn’t be a bad thing in my book, and feel free to tell me to shut up now.” He was babbling. It was adorable.
“It wouldn’t be a bad thing. Shit, that sounds like the best thing ever, since we are putting all our cards on the table.” Levi kissed the top of his head.
“Agreed.” I placed my foot on his shin, wishing we were all sitting television-set style on one side of the table.
“When I said not bad, I meant I thought about it even before you even hinted you wanted me.” His face held a perfect blush. Oh, he was going to be so much fun in the bedroom.
“So, condoms are passé?” I asked making sure we were all on the same page because Levi was right—it was not something to be discussed once clothes were already hitting the floor. Erections had a way of stealing brain power and fostering bad decision-making skills.
“I would like that.” Cory bit his lip again. I swore he was trying to kill us.
“Agreed.” Levi’s smile mirrored mine.
Cory was our omega, and he wanted that to be true in all ways. He had thought about wanting our baby not just because the sex was good, which was the understatement of the year, but because he wanted us—to make a family with us.
Levi had been the only person I ever not condomed with, and sharing that with Cory felt huge in the best possibly of ways. It meant more than he trusted us, and more than he was willing to risk pregnancy with us. It meant he wanted to be everything with us, letting nothing come between us, not even that little plastic or latex barrier.
“This is the best breakfast ever.” Cory picked up a strip of bacon.
“Says the man who has yet to take a bite.” Levi pointed to his plate, which looked as full as ours both did.
“My assessment stands.”
“Nom nom nom,” Tobias squeaked from the truck bouncer.
“Looks like little man has decided to eat after all.” I winked as I got up to get T-man.
As I settled him back in, the enormity of the moment hit me. This was our first official meal as a family. What could be better than that?
“So, after breakfast, I say we head to the city and find ourselves a California king.” Levi shoveled a fork of what were now cold pancakes into his mouth.
“I could think of no better a plan,” I agreed. “And we should see if we can find another dresser to match our set.” My instincts had me needing to show him he was part of us and not just an addition to our bed, and for some reason a stupid dresser seemed to fill that need in me.
“And a desk.” Looked like Levi had the same instincts running through him.
We both tried not to bring school up too much, not after the infamous letter had come. Cory wanted space where it came to that, and we tried to allow it even if it ate at us, but offering the desk was Levi’s sort-of-kind-of subtle way of saying we supported him fully in school—in all things.
“I would like that.” Cory spoke with a demure smile.
I was such a lucky, lucky man. Levi and I both were.