No Place Like Home (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) (2 page)

Cassie washed up, realizing that she had a big dirt smudge on her cheek and her hair looked like she’d stuck her finger in an electric socket. But she cleaned up as best she could and joined the others. And by the time the meal was over, Cassie was in love. Head over heels in love with Annie’s brothers. They were smart and funny and smart. They teased her, much the same as they did Annie, seeing her just like their kid sister. But that was okay with Cassie. Her feelings confused her, and she needed time to sit and think, particularly since she seemed to have them for both the Lansing brothers.

It was the longest week of her life. She’d tried to avoid the boys, but, of course, they had picked the weekend to come home that her parents were out of town and she was staying with Annie and Abigail. She found herself taking special pains with her hair and making sure her clothes were flattering. But they always treated her just like a second kid sister. When meant they pretty much ignored her.

And she tried push Jackson and Markus out of her mind. Of course Miss Abigail kept her up-to-date on their exploits, their successes at school, and their sporting triumphs. She was a proud grandmother and, secretly, Cassie soaked up every word. When no one was looking, she found herself staring at the photos Miss Abigail kept on the wall. And she waited to grow up so they would notice her. And Annie talked about them all the time. She hero-worshipped her big brothers and was always talking about their exploits such as the time they almost got kicked out of school when they
both
got caught naked in the bedroom with the wife of the headmaster at the prep school they’d gone to, or the time they both dated the same girl “at the same time” Annie had shared in a shocked voice, although Cassie wasn’t exactly sure of what she meant by that and didn’t care to ask.

And as she got older, she tried dating. She’d “blossomed” early and always had boys interested in her, but she hadn’t returned their interest. But Joe Stevens seemed nice, and on her sixteenth birthday, they’d gone out. But all he wanted to do was grab her breasts and stick his tongue in her mouth. She quickly put a stop to that. Of course he didn’t like that she’d blackened his eye in the process and had started rumors about her “putting out.”

But after trying dating twice more, with the same result, she decided that it was overrated. And that the crush that she’d had on Jackson and Markus was kid stuff and she was too busy to date. She was going to get a scholarship to university, so she had to buckle down and work her ass off. Mostly, she didn’t miss dating even if she envied Annie’s easy way of handling boys. It seemed like none of them ever tried to manhandle her, and even when she moved from dating one boy to the next, they never had hard feelings and they all stayed friends.

But sometimes, lying in bed at night, she remembered Joe’s mouth on hers and the feeling of his hand on her breast, but in her dreams it was Jackson or Markus. And once, it was both of them. She was some kind of freak, she thought. Until she found “the book,” as she thought of it on one of her bookstore visits. She’d gotten a call from the owner of Barton’s Books. He’d gotten a big load of books in from an estate of an elderly librarian who had apparently been hoarding them for years. Not all of them were in great shape, and there were far too many for his bookshelves. He knew Cassie’s interest in “flower books” as he called them and had boxed up a bunch, some in good condition and some in not so good condition and had offered her the whole box for a huge discount, just to get rid of them.

It was a treasure trove, from a nineteenth-century book on botany to a modern university textbook on landscape architecture. And then down at the bottom of the box she found it. It was called
The Blossoming of Violet
, and the cover art was a big bouquet of violets. But when she flipped through it, it seemed like it might be fiction rather than a botanical book. She tossed it aside and didn’t get back to it for weeks, but one rainy night when she couldn’t sleep, she remembered it and decided to check it out.

Turns out Violet was a young woman. She loved flowers and plants and two men. And the “blossoming” was her love affair with the two men. In parts, shocked and intrigued, she found herself unable to put it down. Of course, she knew about sex, but the notion of sex with two men, of love with two men...Maybe she wasn’t a freak and it was possible for her to love both Jackson and Markus. She’d heard of episodes in the past, such as the headmaster’s wife, of them both being with the same woman, but could they both love her, or would she always be like a little sister to them?

Which led to the most embarrassing incident in her life. She was eighteen and getting ready to go off to college. They were twenty-five and back for a few weeks. They’d finished school and were taking the summer off before heading off to the working world, Jackson as an attorney with a high-powered law firm and Markus as a prosecuting attorney for the DA’s office.

She remembered that day as if it were yesterday. She’d set up a picnic down by the lake and invited them to join her. She might have implied that Annie was coming, too, but it was just her and them. She had everything ready for seduction. A beautiful and private location. Good food and good wine, wine that she’d swiped from her father’s wine cellar that morning. And she’d dressed for seduction, wearing a tight white tank with no bra underneath, and some low-rise cutoff shorts. Her hair was under control and she had, very subtly, applied enough makeup to make her green eyes look enormous and her lips red and inviting.

When they arrived, they were surprised that it was just the three of them, but they stayed and dug into the food and they laughed and talked and had a great time. But no romance. They didn’t even seem to notice the fact that her nipples were hard points and poking through the thin fabric.

And then the sun was going down and she knew that this might be her last chance, so she got up on her knees and leaned into the nearest twin, Jackson, and kissed him full on the lips. Then she turned and kissed Markus. Not giving herself a chance to think, she grabbed Jackson’s right hand and Markus’s left hand and placed them on her breasts. “Make love to me.” It came out as more of a plea than a demand.

It seemed like forever, but was probably only second, no one moved. Then she felt the hands on her breasts tighten, massaging. Jackson leaned in to kiss her while Markus lowered his head and pushed up her top so he could take her nipple into his mouth. She felt herself being pushed backward, Markus pushing Jackson aside to claim her mouth while Jackson moved to her breasts.

And then they stopped, pulling back, leaving her lying there with her breasts exposed. She lay there for a second. She could see from the bulges in their pants that they were aroused, but from their determined expressions, she knew things weren’t going any further. She scooted backward, pulling her top down, feeling her face going as red as her hair.

“Look, little girl,” began Jackson.

“I’m not a little girl.”

“You
are
a girl. Come back when you are a woman. You have no idea what you were starting. Have you ever even been with a man before?” His eyes narrowed. “And don’t lie to us.”

“No, you would be my first. And I know what I want, and I want you both. I have been waiting for you, and now I’m eighteen, and I want to be with you.”

“You know nothing.” Markus looked like he was in pain, but his face was set. “You have no idea what you are asking for.”

“I do. You two share woman. I’ve heard the rumors for years. I want both of you. I love both of you. I know what’s involved. I’m an adult.”

“Run along home now, before I put you over my knee and paddle your ass.” Jackson was trying to sound all dark and intimidating, but Cassie found it sent a shiver of excitement through her. She remembered the Violet book. Violet got spanked by her lovers and enjoyed it. A spark flared in her eye. She could have sworn there was an answering spark in Jackson’s eye.

“Go ahead, spank me. If you are man enough,” she taunted, half turning and presenting her ass to the brothers and wiggling it. “I dare you.” She grabbed Jackson’s hand and placed it on her ass. He pulled his hand away so quickly as if her ass was on fire. “Do it. Spank me.” She turned her head to look at Markus. “You can spank me next.”

The brothers looked at each other. “Come back to us when you are a woman and know the score and not a girl playing games.” And with that, they were gone, and she was alone, and the tears came. She wept for her lost loves and the end of her childhood and her broken heart. She loved them unreservedly, and they had rejected her. As the sun set, her heart and resolve hardened. She would leave Hope and forget about them. She would love and be loved, and they’d come to regret breaking her heart. And she would never let herself be that vulnerable again.

And now it was seven years later, and she was a respected professional landscape architect. Annie got her business degree and then came back to Hope and married her high school sweetheart, Steve, and was now pregnant with baby number three. And she had asked Cassie to come back and help her run the Nursery and expand the business. Annie knew the business side, but she needed Cassie’s expertise. She offered Cassie a partnership. Hope was a growing town, and there were lots of opportunities for a good landscape architect, and Annie wanted to expand their greenhouses, and there were now three branches of Abigail’s flowers in Hope and neighboring towns. It was too much for one person to run, especially when that one person was having the worst morning sickness of her life while coping with a three-year-old and an eighteen-month-old.

She’d hesitated at first, suspecting that the real reason for the partnership offer was that Annie didn’t like her boyfriend and wanted to get Cassie away from him. But he was a good man. He wasn’t very demonstrative, and didn’t seem to like Annie. But he was a doctor, a busy man, and had little time for socializing. Cassie was torn between the challenge Annie presented and her relationship with Craig. He was smart and handsome and a doctor and didn’t seem to mind her limitations in the bedroom. He’d strongly hinted that when he made chief resident he’d be proposing, and Cassie was both thrilled and terrified. She didn’t love him like she loved the Lansing brothers, but maybe that was a good thing. He was a good man. Steady. A bit remote with little interest in sex. He encouraged her in her career, steering her to management in the big horticulture chain she worked for and away from the hands-on “dirty work” she loved, but that’s only because he wanted to see her succeed.

And yet, there was something missing. Craig wasn’t her first lover. She’d forced herself to date in college. She’d had two short relationships and a one-night stand before she met Craig. He was a med student on the fast track. He didn’t have much time to date and was often tired or distracted when they were together, but he assured her he loved her and needed her. And she kept him organized. She organized his calendar and kept his fridge stocked with healthy food and accompanied him to various social events. She learned how to keep her hair under control and how to use makeup and how to dress to minimize her rounded figure and look the way the future wife of a future doctor should look, and it was understood that when he got the chief resident job, they’d get engaged and then married.

And then yesterday had happened. She had to go home unexpectedly to change her clothes after a little potting-soil accident at the warehouse. She was surprised to see Craig’s car in the driveway and even more surprised to see him naked in the bedroom, a woman kneeling at his feet, sucking his cock. She stood there, frozen to the spot for what seemed like an eternity, the two naked people too into what they were doing they didn’t even notice her presence until her cell phone rang.

“Hello.” She was amazed she was able to sound so calm. “Look, Annie, it’s not really a good time right now.”

“I’ll be quick. I need you here. The doctors have put me on bed rest, and there’s no one who can run Abigail’s. Steve and the staff can keep things going for a couple of days, but I really need you, Cassie.”

The words came out, almost of their own volition. “I’ll drive down tomorrow. And I’ll stay as long as you need me. But I’ve got to go now. I’ll call you when I know what time I’m arriving.” She hung up and turned Craig and his lover.

“I’ll be by tomorrow to pick up my things. I’d prefer it if you weren’t here. And you...” She turned to the dark-haired woman who she now recognized as Cindy, one of the nurses Craig worked with. “You get your slutty ass out of my bedroom before I throw you out.”

“But, honey, this doesn’t change anything,” pleaded Craig.

Cassie noted with detachment the red lipstick marks on his rapidly deflating cock.

“I still love you,” he continued. “This is only sex. You know how much you dislike sex. I just needed stress relief.” Cindy looked outraged and then stalked off, clothes in hand.

“Whatever it is, we are over.”

She turned and started out of the bedroom. He grabbed her arm, but she pulled away and pushed him backward. He stumbled and landed hard on the bed. “But we were going to get married. I told Dr. MacGregor. He only promotes married men to chief resident. If you leave me, you’ll cost me the job.”

“Then why don’t you marry nurse slut? ’Cause we are over.”

She continued out of the bedroom and down the stairs. Cindy was dressed now and sitting on the couch crying. “I’m sorry. I know I did wrong, but I love him.”

“Well, you are welcome to him. I’m out of here.”

She didn’t remember the drive to the nearby Holiday Inn. She checked in, called the office, and quit. She had more than two weeks’ vacation banked, anticipating needing the time to plan a wedding and go on a honeymoon. So she used it instead of working out her notice and then cried herself to sleep. The next morning she waited until she knew Craig had to be at the hospital. She went to their house, packed up all of her possessions and put them in the SUV, and now she was back home, on the outskirts of Hope County.