Winning Her Racy Heart [Racy Nights 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (16 page)

But now, as she took her seat between them and was immediately subjected to stares and whispers from several people, she wondered if she hadn’t been right to worry about whether she and her shop would be welcomed. She fidgeted with her coat and scarf, and finally Noah took her hand and held it firmly, down by her side so it wouldn’t be so noticeable. “Relax,” he whispered into her ear. “You look perfect.”

Kari wanted to kiss him, right then and there, but they’d all agreed not to flaunt their unique relationship in front of the entire town just yet. They were still trying to navigate the muddy waters themselves.

She wanted to be anywhere but in this crowded stadium with most of their entire graduating class, several teachers she remembered, and countless others who obviously remembered her as well, judging by the pointing and staring.

How did she expect to build a business here? She didn’t know anyone anymore. She’d left town for fifteen years, and hadn’t bothered to keep up with anyone’s lives. She’d hardly kept up with her own siblings. She needed to make a more concerted effort to get to know the people in this town again, or she might as well go back to New York. She’d be broke, and so would Alexa.

Why had she let Noah and Adison talk her into this? Even having Alexa, Luke, and Chase behind her wasn’t helping. She felt naked and exposed.

Alexa had finally told her last night that although she was dating both Chase and Luke, she hadn’t yet had sex with either man. That was totally understandable, given Alexa’s background not only with Brad the Hosebag, but also her trauma as a teen.

But what would happen if Alexa was able to get past all that and ended up in a ménage relationship with Chase and Luke? What would the people of Racy say then about Kari, Alexa, and their shop?

She’d returned to Maddox’s house two nights ago with Noah and Adison, stayed on the main floor that time, and still didn’t feel as vulnerable as she did right now.

Granted, they’d kept their sexual contact to a bare minimum as agreed beforehand, even though Maddox had no rules on that. But Kari hadn’t been quite ready to completely lose her inhibitions in front of neighbors and friends. They’d stayed about an hour and then had gone back to Adison’s condo—which was closer to Maddox’s house than Noah’s—to continue their playtime in private.

It had been six days since her first night with both men, and they still continued to treat her with respect. They also continued to find exciting ways to pleasure her in the bedroom. It was perfect. But Kari couldn’t help feeling that something was lurking beneath the surface, ready to strike them down.

In addition to wondering why Noah and Adison were suddenly getting along so well, she still wasn’t sure where she fit in all this. Was she a sub to them both, or were they content to merely play once in a while and have sex? Where was this going?

Kari tried to mentally shake away her concerns. Surely she was just tired today. Nothing here could hurt them. It was only a football game, after all.

She glanced sideways first at Adison, then Noah. She still wondered what they had agreed to between them. They didn’t argue or fight when they were with her, and they acted like perfect gentlemen when the three were in public. It was almost too good to be true.

The crowd cheered as the band left the field, turning her attention back to the game. From the opposing stands, the cheers were loud as the announcer began to introduce the opposing team. The Panthers had won so many state championships that most people in Racy had lost count. It was a long shot for the Leopards to win today, but Kari could feel the excitement of the crowd around her as their team was finally introduced.

As the game progressed, it became apparent that the Panthers were clearly the better team, but soon she was caught up in the cheering emotion of the crowd.

At halftime, the Leopards were down by over thirty points, and Alexa and the guys agreed to leave the game. None of them wanted to watch the Leopards lose, and certainly not by that many points. The six stopped in at Nan’s Place. Kari hadn’t been there since the night she’d first made love to Noah, two weeks earlier.

Adison put an arm around her as they stepped inside and leaned close. “Lots of memories here, eh?”

She smiled at him. “Yes, there certainly are.”

Noah gave them a searching look but didn’t say anything. She made a mental note to explain later to Noah how often she and Adison had frequented this place while they were dating. She didn’t want either man wondering about something like that.

“There’s nothing in here I can eat.” Alexa plopped down the menu.

“They have side salads.” Kari pointed toward them. “Maybe they’d make you a large one?”

“Think they’d leave off the cheese?”

“I’m sure they would,” said Chase. He glanced around then motioned over a woman whom Kari recognized as Emma Falcon, the original Nan’s granddaughter. She thought her mother might have mentioned that Nan passed away several years ago, and Emma now owned the restaurant, but she wasn’t sure.

“Kari Tye.” Emma shook her hand warmly as if they’d been best friends all their lives. “Karon told me you were back.” Karon was Kari’s eldest sister. Kari didn’t even realize she and Emma knew each other, and then it struck her that they’d graduated the same year. “How are you?”

“I’m fine, Emma. How are you?”

She glanced around. “Oh, can’t complain, you know. Business is good.”

“I’m so sorry to hear about your grandmother.”

“Oh, thank you. She lived a good, long life.”

Kari pointed toward Alexa, the only person at the table she was sure Emma didn’t know. “This is my friend and business partner, Alexa Monahan.”

Emma shook her hand. “A pleasure. What can I do for you folks today?”

After Alexa explained what she wanted on a salad, Emma said she’d make her a special one, as large as she wanted. “Kari, when you gonna open your shop?”

“We’re shooting for Valentine’s Day.”

“Oh, perfect. Well, if you need help spreading the word, just let me know.”

“Thanks, Emma.”

“She’s nice,” said Alexa, “I like her.” Alexa gave Kari a knowing look. “See? I told you people would be flocking in before it’s even open.”

“Guess they’re not all as prudish as they pretend to be.”

“That’s the second person who’s offered to help you advertise,” said Noah. “Time for you to get those cards and flyers printed.”

“Well, if you two would let me get out of bed, maybe I could.” Kari hadn’t meant to speak quite so loudly. Everyone at the table laughed, but when the man sitting at the booth next to them glanced around with a surprised look on his face, Kari wanted to crawl under the table and die.

“Mr. Houston, how are you?” John Houston was the minister at the Racy Church of Christ, where Kari’s parents had first met in Sunday school when they were seven years old.

“Fine, Kari. Just fine.”

Angela, his wife, smiled warmly at her. “Hi there, Kari. Haven’t seen you at services since you moved back home.”

“No, ma’am.”

“Well, it would be nice if we did. Bring your friends along.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

John and Angela were already finished with their meal, and in less than ten minutes they left the restaurant, but to Kari it felt more like ten hours. John and Angela Houston had been frequent dinner guests in their home while Kari had been growing up, and she knew that although they certainly wouldn’t ask the members of their congregation to support Kari’s shop, neither would they condemn her. They weren’t like that.

She glanced at Alexa and smiled. It was going to be all right. Racy would embrace them, and business would be good. With Maddox behind them, how could it not be? Even Emma Falcon had offered to help them spread the word. This was going to work.

Kari and Alexa worked every day the week before Thanksgiving getting the shop ready. Each day, her dad stopped by with several friends who were more than happy to lend a hand. In one week, they’d made so much progress that Barry Clyde, Buddy’s best friend since grade school and a retired schoolteacher, asked Kari why she wasn’t planning on opening for Christmas.

“I would if I thought all my stock would be here, but some of it is backordered until January.”

“So, open with what you have.”

Kari glanced around the shop. The shelves were up, the walls were plastered and painted, the mice had been caught two days earlier, and the entire house had been exterminated for free—courtesy of Adison’s friend Tom Bergstrom who owned a local extermination company. Thanks in large part to her dad, they’d made more progress in three weeks than she and Alexa had been able accomplish in three months.

“I have just over half the merchandise than what I’d hoped to have when I opened.”

“Kari, my wife has been bugging the heck out of me about when this shop is gonna open. I swear she’d walk in here right now and buy one of everything.”

Kari laughed as she imagined Dot Clyde bent over a punishment bench, her ass in the air, and Barry flogging her.

“You laugh, but it’s true.”

“Okay, Barry. I’ll talk to Alexa about it.”

“Please do.”

Each evening, Noah and Adison would stop over and insist Kari walk through the streets of town with them, even if all they did was window shop and say hello to everyone. She was getting used to being seen in town with both men, and found she liked it a lot.

Several days after the football game, they took her to Cathie Snyder’s shop, where Kari designed business cards and flyers. Cathie promised to have them ready right after Thanksgiving.

“We do all the advertising for Notus, you know.” Cathie gave Noah a searching look.

“Is that so?” asked Kari.

“Oh, yes.” Cathie leaned close to Noah. “Didn’t I see you at Maddox’s house?”

“You saw all three of us.”

Her eyes opened wide. “Oh…okay. I take my contacts out when I go there. Jeez, I’m blind as a bat without them, but they get too dry if I leave them in. Kari, I’m putting a rush on these, hon. When everyone at his club finds out about your shop, you’ll have plenty of business. Hey, do you plan on selling outfits? You know…like club wear?”

“I do, but I’m still waiting for most of them to ship.”

“Okay. Just let me know. It would be nice to have someplace local to buy that sort of thing. To be able to try them on first, you know.”

They stopped at Luke’s Bar after visiting the shops, and Noah and Adison reintroduced her to others who frequented Maddox’s house. Kari was genuinely surprised by how many of Racy’s residents were into the lifestyle. In a town of about ten thousand, she had expected maybe ten to twenty people would be. From what she’d seen this week, it was closer to fifty or sixty. What else were the residents of Racy hiding behind their trim homes and manicured lawns?

Saturday afternoon, Adison and Noah brought over pizza. Alexa was out with Luke and Chase, and the two asked Kari if she wanted to go to Maddox’s club that night. “Not tonight. Tonight I want to talk to you. To both of you.”

“Uh-oh,” said Noah, stuffing a piece of pizza into his mouth. “This sounds serious.”

“It is.”

Both men stopped chewing and stared at her as if she’d just told them she was leaving the planet on the next rocket ship out.

“What do you want to talk about?” asked Adison.

“About us. About this…this thing we’re doing. You two are too well behaved. Where are we going with this? What happened to make you two stop giving each other dirty looks and marking your territory? What’s my role here? What are we doing?”

Noah held up a hand, his characteristic grin in place. “Whoa, slow down, Kari. Are you unhappy with the arrangement?”

“Unhappy? No. I’m thrilled to bits. It’s perfect. It’s erotic. But it’s
too
neat and trim. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

“What if it doesn’t?” asked Adison in a quiet voice. “What if this really is the way it stays? What if I told you Noah and I have talked, and we both decided we’d rather share you than lose you?”

Kari stared at him as his words sunk in. It never occurred to her that they’d be able to come to an agreement without shouting matches or fistfights. The Adison and Noah she’d known in high school would have torn each other’s heads off before they’d agree to something like this. But they weren’t in high school any longer. And neither was she. It was time to remember that, and start thinking like a grown-up. These men put her to shame.

“Kari, say something.” Noah was watching her carefully, as if he was afraid she was about to bolt out the front door.

“I’m in awe.” It was the truth. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Say you’re happy. That’s what we both want for you.”

“I am happy, Noah. I just…I suppose I guessed it would never be this easy.”

“It’s not easy.” He cut his gaze to Adison. “Every day I wish I had you to myself. I won’t lie about that. But when I watch you come, or I see that sparkle in your eye when some woman in town looks at you hanging on our arms, and she has envy dripping out of every pore, and you see her doing it, I realize that I’d rather have it this way than not have you at all.”

Kari put down her pizza and stared at Noah, afraid to believe what he said was true, but desperately wanting it to be.

“I realize that not one sub I’ve ever had, or woman I’ve ever dated, came close to bringing me the happiness that you give to me every single day. And I’m hooked on the sex. It’s fucking amazing.”

“Yeah, that,” said Adison. “Kari, you’re perfect. I was an ass to let you get away. I’m not going to do anything to lose you again. If things stay this way between the three of us until we’re old and gray, I won’t mind. As long as I can hear you laugh and listen to you whisper my name when I’m inside you.”

So many emotions rushed to the surface that Kari couldn’t process them. “I don’t know what to say. I’m overwhelmed.”

“It’s okay.” Noah smiled at her. “So are we. We’re both still working on this, too, you know. But what we have is good. It’s special. Let’s just take it one day at a time, and see where it leads us, okay?”

“Okay. I can do that. I can do that because I can’t imagine my life right now without you two. You both make me so happy, and you’re so much fun and easy to be with. All I want to do is please you—both of you.”