Who's Your Daddy? (35 page)

“You…do?”

I nodded. “We had a good long talk the other night, and maybe we should have told you about it before we showed you the rooms. When we said we wanted to be a family together, we meant it. It’s not that we feel obligated to take care of you or anything like that.”

Releasing a sharp breath, she shoved a hand through her long hair. “Look, I had to rely on Paul for every penny, even of my own money. He controlled everything, so I was forced to depend on him. After the divorce, I’ve had no choice but to lean on my sister while I get everything squared away.” She looked at me, the faintest hint of tears glittering in her eyes. “I don’t want to depend on you guys, and…it’s not just that.”

“What is it?”

“I want to be an equal partner in a relationship,” she said softly. “You know how things ended with Paul. I always felt like the add-on in his life rather than his partner.” She shook her head, and her voice cracked as she whispered, “I can’t do that again.”

“And you think we’re asking you to?”

“I’ll always be the one who came in later. The one who lives down the hall.” She swallowed hard, pausing for a moment like she needed to collect herself. “How could I not be the third wheel?”

“You won’t be. You’ve never been a third wheel, even when we all just hung out together.” I smoothed her hair. “And the reason we set aside a separate room for you was so, if you
do
want to stay, you have your own space. We weren’t trying to push you away from us.”

She closed her eyes, and a tear slid over her cheek. She batted it away. “God, these fucking hormones don’t help at all.”

I laughed, and she managed a laugh herself.

“Carmen, babe,” I whispered. “We want you to be a part of what we have.”

She said nothing for a long moment.

I touched her face. “You don’t think this is just because of the baby, do you?”

Carmen winced, then nodded. “It’s not that I think you guys are insincere, but…” She shook her head. “I don’t know. I’m not sure how to articulate it.”

“You think we’ll realize after the baby’s here that we’re better off just being friends with you?”

After a moment, she nodded again. “Basically, yeah.”

I squeezed her hand. “Listen, it wasn’t the baby that made both of us fall for you any more than it was the wine that got us into bed with you.”

“Don.” She eyed me. “It
was
the wine that got us all into bed together.”

“That night, maybe.”

She shook her head. “I’m not following you.”

I took a breath. “Okay, maybe I’m not wording it as well as I should.” I laughed self-consciously. “Isaac is so much better at this kind of thing than I am.” Our eyes met, and her brow was still furrowed with confusion. Clearing my throat, I dropped my gaze to our joined hands. “Wine or not, I think that night was bound to happen eventually. And if you hadn’t gotten pregnant, I think we would have reached this point eventually too.” I made myself look her in the eye again. “I guess what I’m saying is, the wine and the baby aren’t the reason for all of this. They just…accelerated the inevitable.”

Carmen’s lips parted, and her fingers curled in mine, straightened, curled again, like she couldn’t decide between holding tighter or letting go.

“I love you, Carmen,” I whispered, reaching for her face. “So does Isaac. I think we both have for a long, long time, it just wasn’t until we started getting physical with you that we realized it.” My fingertips brushed her cheek, and she closed her eyes as I said, “And the baby’s just like…a bonus.”

“Really?”

I nodded.

She moved closer to me, and when I wrapped my arms around her, she sank against my chest. Closing my eyes, I kissed the top of her head and just held her, letting myself enjoy the relief of having her in my arms again.

“How do we do something like this?” she asked. “Make a three-way relationship work?”

“I think we just need to sit down with Isaac, make sure all three of us are on the same page, and then take everything a day at a time.” I kissed her forehead. “Just like we’ve been doing.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Isaac

The quiet rumble of Donovan’s car pulling into the driveway made my heart pound. He was right on time, coming home from his shift, and just as I expected, the sound of another car approached too. Time to sort this out with Carmen.

I tapped my fingers rapidly on the kitchen island as engines turned off, car doors slammed, and footsteps came up the walk.

Donovan had called me last night and told me about his conversation with Carmen, and I’d been nothing but relieved to know she wasn’t angry with us. I didn’t know why I was so nervous now. Maybe it was the idea of facing her and knowing she knew how I felt. Knowing she felt the same way.

The front door opened. I held my breath, and my heart beat in time with both sets of footsteps coming in from the foyer.

Carmen stepped into the kitchen, and when she smiled, my knees shook.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey.” Her cheeks colored, but her smile only faltered slightly. “Sorry about the other night. I—”

“It’s okay,” I said. “I’m just glad we’re all on the same page now.”

“Almost on the same page,” Donovan said as he came in from the foyer.

“Yeah, almost.” Carmen bit her lip. She looked at me. “I’m assuming Don told you about our conversation.”

I nodded. “Which pretty much leaves us with figuring out how to pull off a three-way relationship.”

“I don’t think it’ll be much different than what we’ve been doing,” Donovan said. “I mean, if we’re all living together, we’ll have to get used to that. Plus when the baby comes, everyone’s going to be exhausted and stressed. But…” He shrugged. “Really, I don’t think it’ll change much of anything between the three of us.”

“He’s right,” I said. “Normally, I’d be hesitant about all of us moving in together this soon, but I think moving would be less stress for you now, Carmen, than when you’re further along.”

“True,” she said. “What about other people, though?”

“What about them?” Donovan asked. “This is between the three of us.” He glanced toward the stairs leading down to the bottom floor. “Well, and Ryan. We’re probably going to have to have a long and very awkward conversation with him. A few of them, actually.”

“Probably,” I said. “And it’s going to be overwhelming for him, just like it has been and will be for us for a while, but he’ll adapt. As long as we’re sensitive to his feelings about it and don’t make him feel left out.”

“Or forced to be a bigger part of it than he’s ready to be,” Donovan said.

“Exactly.”

“What about everyone
else
, though?” Carmen asked. “Like it or not, people are going to have opinions about this.”

“Carmen,” Donovan said softly. “People have opinions about everything. They’re going to judge you whether you’re a single mom, whether you have the two of us, or even if you were happily married and had planned this. Someone’s always going to have something to say.”

“Yeah, but people deal with single moms a smidge better than they deal with polyamory, don’t you think?”

He shrugged. “Maybe so. Which is complete and utter nonsense, if you ask me. Three people in love, raising a baby together, and that’s a bad thing? Whatever.” He gestured dismissively. “But you know what? I’ve been a teenage father, a single father, a gay father, and now a polyamorous and openly bisexual father. I…” He shook his head. “I just can’t bring myself to give a fuck about the minds of people who have nothing better to do than to wag their fingers at me. Or at us.”

“He’s got a point,” I said. “People will say what they will, but we don’t have to associate with those who do. We’ll still be able to function together; we’ll still have each other. We’ll be able to raise this baby just like Don has—with and without me—raised Ryan.”

“We’ll make this work,” Donovan said. “Let people talk, but if they say that shit to our faces, then they’re the ones who get to explain why we should be ashamed of being in love with you.”

I nodded. “Agreed.”

Carmen smiled. “You guys are amazing. Really.”

“I don’t know about that,” Donovan said. “I’d say you must be incredible to make both of us fall for you like this.” It took a second, but I realized there wasn’t a trace of humor in his voice. Nothing to suggest he was joking or exaggerating. He meant every word.

“He’s right,” I said. “I mean, I’ve got my hands full with him, and I couldn’t have kept myself from falling for you if I tried.”

Carmen laughed. Then she wiped her eyes. “God damn it, you guys are going to make me cry.”

“No, that’s the hormones,” Donovan said. “You can’t blame us.”

“Great,” I muttered. “First time in my life I’m trying to navigate a relationship with a woman, and I get to deal with pregnancy hormones.”

Carmen shot me an incredulous look, and I thought for a second she might get pissed, but then she just laughed. “Yeah, I guess you’re kind of getting a raw deal here, aren’t you?”

I chuckled and kissed her gently. “Oh, I think I’ll manage.”

“You know, as long as you have all those crazy hormones,” Donovan said, slipping an arm around her waist, “maybe we should put them to good use?”

“Have I mentioned,” Carmen said, pulling Donovan closer, “that I love the way you think sometimes?”

“Only sometimes?” He cupped her breast through her shirt and teased her nipple until she released a soft whimper. “Seems to me you usually like the way I think.”

“Yeah, but who’s keeping score?” I grabbed Carmen’s hair and pulled her back just before Donovan kissed her, and I claimed her mouth for myself. She moaned into my kiss, squirming between us.

“God, that’s hot,” Donovan growled, and Carmen’s breath caught. Still kissing her, I opened my eyes, and Donovan still teased her nipples through her shirt. Our eyes met, and he grinned.

“You know, a wise man once said,” he said, sliding his other hand over the front of my pants, “that we should really take this upstairs.”

I shivered. To Carmen, I said, “What do you think?”

She said nothing. She turned around, grabbed the front of my shirt and dragged me into another kiss. And backed a step. Then another step. Another, inching us closer to the stairs. Every time we moved, my cock pressed against her, and holy fuck, if she turned me on any more, I was going to turn her around, bend her over and fuck her right against the stairs.

Oh, it was tempting, but the bed meant more room for all three of us to get comfortable and fool around, so I followed them up to the next floor.

After Donovan nudged the door shut, none of us hesitated. The clothes came off, and before Carmen’s bra had even hit the floor, Donovan had her up against the bed. Then he eased her onto her back, and my pulse went haywire when he pushed her knees apart and knelt between her thighs.

I went around to the other side of the bed and joined her, resting on my elbow and leaning in to kiss her. She grabbed the back of my neck and lifted her head off the bed to meet my lips in a hungry, breathless kiss.

Even if my eyes had been open and I’d been watching Donovan, it would have been impossible to tell exactly what he was doing with his lips and tongue, but he obviously did something right. Carmen’s entire body trembled, her fingers digging into the back of my neck as she kissed me in the most desperately horny way.

Then she broke the kiss with a gasp, letting her head fall back onto the bed. Her eyes flew open. Her lips parted.

“Don’t stop,” she whispered. “Oh God, Don, that’s perfect…”

Donovan shivered, but if Carmen’s arched back was any indication, he didn’t stop what he was doing.

I kissed her again, and as we explored each other’s mouths and she moaned against my lips, I cupped her breast. She seized my hand, and panic rushed through me. I thought she’d pull my hand away, but instead, she guided my thumb and forefinger to her nipple. I pinched it hard, just the way I knew she liked it, and she whimpered, her back lifting off the bed. She probably would have cried out had my mouth not been against hers, and she moaned and thrashed and clawed at my skin. Donovan groaned, which only made her fall apart even more.

Finally she broke the kiss, and, gasping for breath, she pushed his head away. As soon as he took his mouth away from her clit, she exhaled hard and collapsed.

But only for a few seconds. Still panting, she said, “Stand up.” She licked her lips. “Both of you.”

Donovan pushed himself to his feet, and I got up too. Before either of us could ask what she had in mind, Carmen dropped to her knees at our feet, and I moaned when she wrapped her fingers around my cock. She went back and forth between us, stroking us each with one hand while her lips teased Donovan, then me, then Donovan again. It was just the right amount of tantalizing and torment: giving me just enough with her lips and tongue to make my eyes well up, then leaving me desperate for more while she paid attention to him. And just about the time I’d caught my breath, her mouth would be on my cock, and I’d fall apart all over again.

Donovan’s lips parted, but he didn’t make a sound, and when his wide eyes met mine, I almost fucking came. He closed his eyes and let his head fall back. One hand gripped her hair. The other rested on my shoulder, probably for balance.