Chapter Six

By the time she woke, night had fallen and she nearly cried when she spied the clock on the dresser. 6:40! She’d wasted hours of her time with Jared, hours that she’d never get back.

“Jared!”

He jerked upright. “What? What?” Turning on the bedside lamp, he blinked at her. “Jesus, Grace, that’s the second time today you’ve scared the shit out of me. Quit it.”

She launched herself at him again and just about strangled him, whispering, “I love you, I love you, I love you,” into his ear while tears seeped from beneath her closed lids.

“I love you too, baby,” he told her, rubbing her back with gentle hands. “Please tell me what’s wrong.”

Refusing to let go, she choked out, “I just didn’t mean to waste so much of my birthday sleeping.”

“Hey, you needed it.” He drew her arms down and smiled at her. “Besides, the night is young. Santa probably hasn’t even left the North Pole yet.”

“What night? I’m sprouting morning wood over here,” Alec chimed in from behind her.

Grace’s stomach rumbled and both men burst out laughing.

She took the first turn in the shower—so nice to have skin that could withstand two showers in one day!—and then got to work on veggie omelets and toast.

“So…” Jared bit the end off a celery stick and chewed thoughtfully, leaning back against the kitchen cabinet while he watched her cook. His unbuttoned jeans hung low on his hips, and the line of dusky hair trailing into them made it difficult to concentrate on the task at hand.

“A needle pulling thread,” she quipped, flipping off the burner and sliding the last omelet onto a plate. “Let’s eat.”

Alec walked in, wearing nothing but a few stray water droplets. “Looks like I timed that just right.”

Grace looked him up and down, unable to suppress a shiver of arousal. Even flaccid, his penis was exceptional. “Aren’t you a tad underdressed?”

“I can’t believe I’m the only one here who likes to eat naked,” he countered, grabbing her by the hem of Jared’s shirt and dragging it upward.

She slapped at his hands and jumped away, wagging a finger at him. “I need something to eat and I can’t think with your goods on display.”

“And there are a couple of things I want to discuss before we all get naked again,” Jared agreed.

Alec grinned and walked around to the other side of the island to sit down. “That better?”

Grace grinned back. “Yes…and no.”

“Sit. Eat.” Jared pointed to her seat.

“Yes, Sir,” she said meekly. Alec may have hidden his assets, but Jared’s were still trying to peek out, and the coolness of the vinyl barstool against her heated flesh made her gasp.

“Sore?”

She couldn’t meet Jared’s eyes. “Uh, yeah, a little.” If he couldn’t figure it out from her nipples poking against the shirt, she wasn’t going to tell him.

He slid onto the seat beside her without another word and started to eat.

For a few minutes, the scraping of forks against plates was the only sound in the room, and the silence gave Grace another chance to kick herself for sleeping so long. Now she only had four and a half hours left.

She ate faster.

“So Grace, are you ever going to tell us how you found out about all these surprises?” Jared asked.

The fork stopped halfway to her mouth and she gave him a sidelong look. “Fairy godmother,” she finally said before taking a bite.

He wiped his mouth with a paper napkin and turned to face her fully. “Let me rephrase that. How did you find out about your surprises, Princess?”

Grace froze, the omelet half chewed in her mouth, and glanced at Alec. A smug grin spread over his face as he dropped the last of his toast and swiped his napkin over his fingers. Adrenaline surged through her, making her heart race and her breathing erratic.

Swallowing the bite with some effort, she told Jared, “Before we go any farther, there’s something I’d really, really like to know.”

“I’d really, really like to know how you found out about your surprises,” he reproved.

She looked at him with her heart in her eyes. “Please, Jared.”

He frowned as he brushed her hair behind her ear. “Sweetheart, what in the hell is wrong?” Grace shook her head mutely and he sighed. “Okay, what is it you want to know?”

Taking a deep breath, she asked, “What did—I mean, what do you see happening, as far as…” She glanced at Alec. “You know, him? Us?”

“What would you like to see happen?”

Happily ever after, but that’s not on the menu. “I want to hear what your plan is. You obviously have one.”

His eyes narrowed. “Not a plan, exactly. Maybe a…wish.”

“Then what would you wish for?”

“All right then, I wish that you’d marry me and live happily ever after with me, and that you’d be willing to let Alec move in with us and play with us until some other woman gets her claws into him permanently.”

“Something I don’t see that happening, so think long-term,” Alec rumbled from across the table.

“And what about you two? Do you want to…continue the experiment? You seemed into it earlier.”

Jared glanced at Alec and then said, “I guess that depends on you, Grace. We haven’t fooled around in years, but something about being together with you is…”

“Rekindling the flame?”

“No, the flame never wavered,” Alec said decisively, “at least for me, and if either of us enjoyed bottoming, we might be an old married couple by now. But I’d get on my knees right here and suck him off if I thought it wouldn’t wreck your relationship.”

“Way to ease into it, man,” Jared said wryly.

“When had pussyfooting around ever gotten you anywhere?” Alec shot back.

Jared sighed. “Touché.”

Grace, meanwhile, was having trouble catching her breath at the imagery. “You mean I’d get to watch?”

“No closed doors, Princess,” Jared said. “No secrets. If we’re going to try poly, I’d want it to be all the way. You’d be my wife, and my Dominance would take precedence, but you’d belong to both of us and we’d belong to each other. A true poly family.”

“Jared, you love Alec,” she breathed.

He inclined his head. “I love Alec.”

“And I love Jared,” Alec said, “but this goes nowhere unless you’re down for it.”

Would she have been down for this thirty years ago? Probably not. She’d been too immature, and too insecure, and love wasn’t a thing that had happened between her and Alec yet. She had a feeling it wouldn’t have taken too long, if she’d given it a chance—she was half in love with him now.

“I’m down for it,” she said without hesitation. “When do I get to watch?”

Jared snorted out a laugh. “I had no idea you were a closet a voyeur, Princess.”

Grace giggled. Giggled. Sixty years old and she was giggling! Oh, how she wished she had it all to do over again. She’d kiss the English department goodbye and spend the rest of her life writing steamy romances—when she wasn’t busy researching her two gorgeous subjects.

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Now, let’s get down to the sucking off,” she said eagerly.

“There she goes, topping from the bottom already,” Alec declared.

Jared shook his head and sighed. “Be careful, Grace—Alec is bringing a big collection of floggers with him and he knows how to use it.”

She sobered immediately. “Uh…”

“Love me, love my dungeon, Princess,” Alec grinned.

“So, questions answered to your satisfaction, Grace?”

She smiled at Jared with all the love in her heart. “Absolutely.”

“Good.” He leaned over and kissed her lips. “Then I think it’s about time you met Alec’s slapper. You’ve been a very naughty girl.”