Willow parked and turned the engine off, the weight of the list in her bag pulling at her. The front door swung open before she’d even hit the first step, Kenny with a full-on warm smile that hit low in her belly, loosening the knot she’d been carrying all day.
This was a negotiation, not a fight. These men cared for her, and she cared for them. It was about finding balance — a way to make sure everyone’s needs, including hers, were seen to.
“Did you have a nice day?” he asked.
“I did, and the drive was gorgeous. We’re past peak color, but it’s still breathtaking around the river.”
They fell into an easy rhythm walking together, and when they reached the downstairs office, a drink was waiting for her when she sat at the conference table. A sip confirmed sweet peach tea.
Boone and Silas were already seated, but Boone stood to give her a quick kiss. Silas eyed her appraisingly, off to her right.
She figured he was trying to get on top of the negotiations. No doubt, he had some doozies he’d want her to agree to.
She set her bag down, unzipped the front pocket, and pulled out her notebook.
“I’d like to start,” she said, meeting each of their eyes in turn. “I care about all of you. I’d like to extend this… I think we’ve passed beyond calling it an experiment, but whatever it is, there’ll need to be some changes before we can keep going.”
“Agreed,” Kenny said. “Let’s hear yours first, and then we can get to ours.”
Right.Theirs. What were they going to want? She couldn’t think about that yet. One thing at a time.
“First,” she began, “I’d like a night off in the rotation. So, foursome night, then one night with each of you, then a night off, except for whoever sleeps with me, then back through the three of you, and then the foursome again.” She took a breath. “And there doesn’t need to be more than one ormaybetwo super-intense scenes per week, especially if ya’ll aren’t going to let mechange, but even if you do, two a week is probably the max.”
They exchanged a glance she couldn’t quite read, and Kenny said. “I think we can coordinate so most weeks only have two scenes that go above and beyond a baseline, but Boone’s fisting is going to be considered below it, and every scene with Silas is going to be intense, so his baseline is higher.”
“And there will be no guarantees,” Silas said. “We’ll consider how well you’re holding up most weeks and, as Kenny said, coordinate between us, but some weeks we may give you three in a row just make the point that we own you and we can hurt you more than you think you can take day after day, if we choose.”
She blew out a breath. “Yeah. Okay. This is a balance of making sure I don’t get burned out while not taking away yourauthority and ownership. I’m not entirely happy with that, but it’s probably the best way to handle it.”
She put a check mark beside her first entry, read through the second, and looked across the table to Kenny. “I hate the egg and plug. The random vibrations, keeping me on edge all day.” She sighed. “But I realize I’ll break something in how the week went if I demand they go away, so I’d like them turned off during my personal time.”
Her cheeks went hot, not from embarrassment, but from the sudden rush of images — the plug coming on while she vacuumed and her having to stop, the egg and plug both engaging while she’d been bent over, cleaning a tub.
Again, the room was silent a good thirty seconds before he said, “Agreed, but only on the days you’re allowed personal time, of course. If you lose it, the devices stay active.”
She checked that one off her list, scanned the next, and looked back up. “The morning routine — servicing all three of you sexually plus fixing two breakfasts is a lot. It feels like, for this one, I should tell you it’s too much, day in and day out, and then let ya’ll figure out a change I can agree to.”
When they were quiet again, she asked, “Are ya’ll telepathing?”
Kenny met her gaze. “We are.”
She nodded. That explained a lot.
It also put her at a disadvantage in the negotiations, but she figured since that’s how they managed her the rest of the time, it didn’t make sense for her to insist all communications happened out loud.
Another minute, and Silas said, “None of us wants to forego draining our balls into you every motherfucking morning.”
Kenny chuckled. “Not the way I’d have worded it, but that’s the gist of it. However, if you can go down and get the bacon started, Boone and I can come down and help with the rest, soit’s the three of us cooking together. You’ll still be responsible for seeing to our drinks, but the rest of breakfast will be a joint effort.”
“As you saw this week,” Silas said, “I only want breakfast at home about half the time. I sample the goods that cooked overnight when I’m pulling things out of the smoker, so depending on what I’ll be doing when I get to the restaurant…” He shrugged. “I can cook my own breakfast on the mornings I want it, though it’ll be nice to have some company.”
She smiled. “Yeah, I can sit with you, even be your gofer and prep-cook a little, here and there.”
Feeling better about how things were going, she crossed that one off, glanced at the next, and looked back up. “Who did everyone’s laundry before? Because it needs to go back to that. I can do my own laundry, but doing everyone’s, plus all the sheets and towels, is too much for the time I have to do housework. I have to deal with it on my personal time, and two days last week, stuff had to sit in the dryer until the next morning because ya’ll came home and I didn’t want to interrupt our time together because I had to go hang clothes.”
No time for telepathy this time, Kenny spoke immediately. “I only paused the laundry service, didn’t cancel it. I can start it back up.” He looked at Silas, then Boone. “Ya’ll can chip in on whatever the extra cost is to add two more people, or you can do your own laundry.”
“We’ll figure it out,” Silas said.
