The smell of bacon roused Chase from a deep sleep. He didn’t have a clue what time it was, but whenever it was, it was too damn early.
The trio had been up most of the night, dozing between sex romps, finally sleeping as the sun was coming up.
He hadn’t cracked his eyes open yet, but he knew it was Jax playing chef for the day because Emma was snuggled up to him, using his chest as her pillow. That suited him just fine, in spite of the fact that it was hot as hell in the bedroom.
His quiet morning exploded when Emma shot upright, crawling over his body, kneeing his family jewels as she rushed out of bed and towards the bathroom.
She’d tried to close the door, but in her rush, it was left ajar. It wasn’t until he heard her puking that he rushed into motion behind her. He found her kneeling in front of the toilet, bent over as she tried to keep her hair out of the line of fire.
Chase hurried over to her, taking over hair holding duty as his other hand rubbed her back lightly, trying to comfort her. “Poor baby. I can’t believe you’ve been dealing with all of this on your own. I should have been here holding your hair every fucking day.”
When it seemed that she was feeling better, Chase stood to wet a cloth with warm water, bringing it back to wipe her face.
“You still look a bit green around the gills, baby.”
“Yeah, well, I feel a bit green. Certain smells kill me. I’m gonna have to give you guys a list of scents that set me off. Fried or greasy food is at the top of the list.”
“Wait. No bacon?” Chase teased. “That’s not fair. Next thing, you’ll tell us we can’t go to KFC anymore.”
Emma chuckled at his attempt at a joke. “Since we’ve never eaten at a KFC since I’ve known you, I think you’ll survive.”
Chase got serious. “Tell me the truth. How often do you get sick, Em?”
She flushed before letting him help her to her feet. “It depends. Some days I feel fine. Others, every little thing makes me nauseous.”
She made it to the sink and started to brush her teeth as he took a whiz. They were just finishing up when Jaxson called from the bedroom, “Brunch is ready. Come eat.”
“I’m not hungry,” she complained as she wiped her mouth.
“Too bad. I’m sure the baby is.” His pulse went up just thinking about the fact she had a child growing inside her body.
“You do realize the baby is about the size of a lemon right now, right?”
He placed his palm over her soft tummy. “It’s a fucking miracle, isn’t it?”
“Well considering how often we have sex,” Emma grinned, “not really.”
“Alright you two, time to come eat while it’s hot,” Jax called.
Chase turned to see their Dom had joined them. He was relieved to see a hint of a smile on Jaxson’s unshaven face as he looked at Emma. He hadn’t been sure what kind of mood their lover would be in today after his disappearing act the day before.
“Emma’s tummy is especially empty. She just puked,” Chase reported.
“Snitch,” Emma complained under her breath.
Jaxson’s smile was gone. “Wait, you’re sick?” He rushed to where she was brushing her tangled hair into submission.
“Sick, no. Morning sickness, yes. I feel a bit better now that I’ve thrown up.”
Jaxson looked worried. “Let’s get you out to the kitchen and get some food in you. We have a lot to talk about.”
Emma caught Chase’s attention behind Jaxson’s departing back. He prodded her, “What’s wrong?”
She looked pale as she answered. “I’m not sure I’m ready to talk about everything yet.”
He grabbed her hand to pull her along with him. “Everything is gonna be fine,” he said, hoping he sounded more convincing than he felt, for Emma’s sake.
Jax had clearly been up for some time. The island was full of food dishes to choose from. It also looked like he’d gotten every single pot and pan dirty in the process of preparation.
Chase released Emma’s hand to hug Jax from behind. “You’ve been busy.”
“Yeah, well, I couldn’t sleep.”
“Poor baby. I had no problems sleeping as soon as you two sex fiends stopped trying to ravage my body,” Chase teased, reaching to pop a slice of bacon in his mouth.
“Holy shit! It’s after noon already?” Emma asked in disbelief as she caught sight of the time.
Chase wasn’t surprised. Emma had laid some heavy news on the men the day before. The kind of information they needed quality time to work through together.
Jaxson confirmed Chase’s suspicion. “We’re all taking a few days off. We can go anywhere you want, baby.”
“You can’t afford to do that,” Emma protested. “We’re behind on so many things. I don’t want to be the cause of us missing our opening date.”
“Fuck the opening date.”
“But, it will cost us…”
“Emma… let it go. I fucked up putting so many things ahead of us. It hurt you. It hurt us all. I’m not going to do that anymore, which means we’re taking a few days off to get reconnected. Understood?”
Chase loved the soft love in her eyes as their sub answered with a compliant, “Yes, Sir.”
His stomach growled. “Pass the pancakes, Em.”
By the time they finished eating their fill, things felt completely back to normal for Chase. It was as if the emotional rollercoaster of the last few weeks hadn’t even happened. Unfortunately, he knew better. They may have skillfully avoided any hard-hitting topics while they enjoyed their breakfast, but a tense silence hung in the air.
Emma stood, picking up a pile of dirty dishes, ready to take them to the sink, but Jaxson stood and took them out of her hands.
“Oh no you don’t. No working for you. You go lay down and rest, baby.”
“I’m pregnant,” Emma sighed, “not sick. I’m not going to lay around like a lump for the next eight months.”
“Maybe not, but you’ve had a stressful few days. You go lay down on the couch. Let Chase and me do cleanup duties today.”
She finally handed over the dishes, submitting to her Dom’s request. “Yes, Sir. I am kinda tired, but only because you guys kept me up all night. Not because I’m sick.”
Chase had grabbed his own handful of dishes and was working on cleaning up when he tried to shoo Jaxson out too. “You cooked. I’ll clean up. You go rest with Emma and let me get this.”
He was happily surprised when Jaxson didn’t argue with him. His Dom just put the dirty dishes down and grabbed the same hand Chase had held on the way from the bedroom and pulled Emma towards the couch.
It took at least thirty minutes for Chase to get things back in order in the kitchen. Turning the lights off behind him, he headed around the corner to the living room. The lighting was subdued because Jaxson had shut all of the heavy drapes to keep out the California sun. As he got farther into the room, he saw Emma asleep on the couch and Jaxson sitting on an ottoman he’d pulled over. His Dom’s elbows were on his knees, his hands clasped in front of him as he leaned close to their sleeping woman.
Chase’s heart swelled at the sight of the two people he loved most in the world.
Jaxson sensed his arrival. “She’s so beautiful when she sleeps.”
Chase came up behind him to kneel on the ottoman, placing his hands on Jaxson’s shoulders as the two men reverently watched over their shared love.
“We got so lucky finding her,” Chase added. “Do you ever wonder what we’d be doing if we hadn’t been in Nice that morning?”
“Sometimes, but usually when I do I end up wishing I’d beaten those punk kids that were threatening her to a pulp instead of letting them slip away.”
Chase chuckled. “Always our protector.”
He hated the quiet huff of incredulous laughter that followed. “Some fucking protector I am. I almost ruined our family by being a dumbass.”
Squeezing Jaxson’s shoulders as hard as he could to get his attention, Chase argued, “We are not going to do this.”
“Do what?”
“Play the blame game.”
“The hell we’re not.” Jaxson shot to his feet, pulling away from Chase’s comforting touch to pace across the room. “I’m the Dom of our family. You are my responsibility. I failed you both.”
Chase had known this conversation was coming. He said a prayer of thanks Emma would sleep through it. She had enough stress right now.
He crossed the room, stepping close to face his lover and friend. “I love you,” he promised.
“I don’t know why. I can be a real asshole.”
Chase smiled. “Yes, but that’s just one of the things I love about you. You are fierce. Protective. And you’re one of the most fair and honorable men I’ve ever met.”
“A lot of good that did Em.” Jaxson’s voice cracked as he added, “She needed me and I wasn’t there for her.”
A pang of guilt washed over Chase. “Yeah, you can’t take all the blame there. I fucked up right beside you.”
“Bullshit. I’m in charge.”
“Don’t do that.” He didn’t hide his aggravation with the man he loved.
“What?”
“Act like just because Emma and I choose to submit to you in the bedroom, and even in our everyday lives, we aren’t adults. We are grown-ups who choose to submit because it makes us happy, just like being our Dom makes you happy. But that doesn’t mean we check our brains at the door. You’ve lectured it a hundred times. The submissives are truly in control.”
“In a scene, sure. But what we have is so much more than that.”
“Exactly. You just proved my point.”
“You aren’t making sense.”
Chase reached to touch Jaxson, needing their physical connection as he continued. “All I’m trying to say is that I am submissive because you are dominant. I am the ying to your yang. You know I’d played around some before we got together, but I’d never seen myself as a sub. Not really. Not until my insides started melting every time you took charge. You’re the only one who’s ever done that for me. Ever.”
Jaxson looked away, but Chase could tell he still held his Dom’s attention.
“We all make choices, Jax. I chose you. I love you. But I also chose to take our Emma for granted right beside you. I knew she wasn’t happy, just like you. I let our daily routines that keep us so in sync fall to the wayside, right beside you. I let the interior designer and Brandi and even Lola disrespect our girl, right beside you. This is on us, not you.”
“But…”
“Let me finish…” Chase took a deep breath and barged ahead. “And Emma absolutely should have fucking told us about the baby. I’ve never been angry with her before, but she fucked up big as well. She can tell me it was because we were busy, and that may be true, but that’s a bullshit excuse. What if something had gone wrong with her health and we didn’t even know about the pregnancy? She hasn’t been to her doctor in eight weeks. She could be putting our baby at risk by not getting the prenatal care she needs. She should be changing her eating and sleeping, but she didn’t. Hell, knowing that she’s pregnant even changes the construction plans for the club. She should have fucking told us the night of Valentine’s Day after Roulette.”
“What do you mean this changes construction?” Jaxson looked alarmed.
“We can’t very well raise a baby above a sex club. At least in D.C. we have the townhouse. And our apartment above Runway has a private entrance we can lock down. Our planned apartment here is just a hallway away from the grand entrance staircase. I don’t think we’ll want our baby just feet away from guests in our public dance club.”
“Fuck. I hadn’t even got that far yet.”
“Well, unfortunately, that’s not even my biggest worry.”
“Great. What’s your biggest worry?”
“Emma’s father.” The men’s eyes locked. Chase knew Jax understood his concern even before he added, “He’s already put us on notice his baby deserves a ring on her finger.”
“She has better,” Jaxson argued. “She has a collar around her neck.”
“Yeah, well that makes him feel worse, not better,” Chase added.
“Robert knows how much we love his little girl.”
“Yes, but he is also an old-fashioned dad who is worried about his only daughter. Em may be our baby girl, but he isn’t going like this. He’ll lose his shit if she has a baby out of wedlock. He’s pretty much vowed that already.”
Frustration overflowed from Jaxson. “Well he’s gonna need to get over it, since we can’t all three get married legally — and there is no fucking way one of us is marrying her and leaving the other one out.”
The trio had already had this discussion in the past. It wasn’t a new concern for them. The stakes just got a little higher now that there was a baby involved.
“I get it, though. He loves her. He doesn’t want to see her get hurt,” Chase reasoned.
Jaxson ran a hand through his hair nervously as he countered. “He can’t possibly love her more than we do. I’d jump in front of a speeding train for her and I know you would too.”
“Of course, so we’ll just have to convince him we’ll love her and our baby even more.” Joy filled his heart at the thought of holding their child. “I can’t wait to see our little peanut.”
He could see the unusual insecurity in Jaxson’s eyes as he answered. “I pray you’re the biological father.”
“Are you kidding?” Chase was shocked at his Dom’s assertion. “It doesn’t matter at all.”
“Of course it matters. I don’t want to pass on the asshole gene. My grandfather had it. My father has it in spades, and we’ve already established I’m a carrier.” At least a smile played at Jaxson’s lips at his observation.
Chase grinned. “I happen to love your asshole gene since you’re usually using it to protect all the right things.” His grin faded as he turned serious, trying to reassure his best friend. “You’re nothing like your father, Jaxson.”
Jax hesitated, looking a bit lost. “What kind of dad will I be with my father as my role model?”
“The absolute best kind, because you’ve seen firsthand what not to do.”
“What if I fuck up?” Jax had started to fiddle with a stack of paint color chips to avoid looking at Chase.
While Chase hated that his larger than life lover was feeling insecure, he actually treasured these moments when Jaxson peeled back his protective armor and let Chase see the soft side that he let so few people get a glimpse of. “You will fuck up. I will, too. And so will Emma. It’s what parents do. But we’ll figure it out. You know how I know?”
Jax shook his head.
“Because we have more love between us than a dozen normal couples.” He watched Jaxson open his mouth to argue again, so Chase added, “Yes, we got lazy. We got off track. But everything is going to be okay now.”
Jaxson reached out to pull Chase into a tight hug, clinging to him as his voice warbled out a soft, “I don’t deserve you.”
“Oh yes you do.” Chase melted into the loving embrace, reassuring Jaxson. “You deserve the world.”
“You guys are making me cry over here.” Emma’s voice broke the silence.
He heard rustling behind him and welcomed Emma into their embrace when she arrived next to the men. The threesome clung to each other, letting their love shore up the shaky foundation they’d been stumbling on for the last months.
Jaxson finally broke the quiet by asking Emma, “So how many other people have you told?”
Emma pulled back so all three of them could see each other. “No one. I didn’t tell anyone.”
“You mean other than telling Khloe.” Anger furrowed Jaxson’s forehead.
“I didn’t tell her either. She guessed and I’m a terrible liar,” Emma defended herself.
“That’s the truth.” Chase chuckled.
“So how the hell did Helms know to call me?”
“Because Khloe is a terrible liar too, which is sort of ironic considering she makes a living pretending to be people she’s not. And I’m sure it helps that Ryder is a freaking interrogation specialist.”
“Fair enough,” Jaxson agreed. “So, you haven’t even told Sam?”
Emma shook her head before adding, “I knew she’d tell Jonah, then he’d call you guys.”
“So, you were determined to hide the truth from us, the fathers of your baby?” Jaxson chastised.
“I said I was sorry. I really did think I was keeping it a secret for all the right reasons.”
“Your judgment was wrong.” Jaxson squeezed Emma tighter before he launched into a lecture she deserved.
“Never again, do you hear me? I accept Chase and I made plenty of mistakes too and for that, I’m sorry, but you need to put yourself and the baby first. No more secrets, no matter how busy we may seem, got it?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“I want to drag you over my lap and light up that beautiful ass of yours to make sure you really do understand, but I’m not going to do that, at least not until I can talk to your doctor. I’m not gonna do anything that might put you or the baby at risk.”
“You plan on talking to my doctor about spanking me?”
“Damn straight. He’s gonna call the shots on what activities are safe and what needs to wait until after you deliver.”
Emma had just turned an adorable shade of pink at the thought of talking about their D/s relationship with her OBGYN when the sound of the front door opening just far enough to jam against the safety chain broke their intimate conversation.
“Jaxson! You left the chain on. I can’t get in.” Lola’s shrill voice poisoned their private space.
Maybe Jaxson had the right idea about going to hide out at a hotel where no one could find them.
Jax caught Chase’s eye. “Take our girl back to the bedroom. I’ll be there in just a few minutes. None of us got much sleep last night. I think today is the perfect day to lie in bed and snuggle. I’ll bring some drinks when I come.”
His best friend may insist he had the asshole gene, but Chase knew the truth. Jaxson Davidson was a romantic, at least where his lovers were concerned. He couldn’t resist leaning in to steal a kiss from Jaxson’s sexy as hell lips before he reached for Emma’s hand.
He called back over his shoulder, teasing, “Don’t be too long. I’d hate for you to miss any fun.”
He was just about to close the bedroom door when he heard Lola’s voice in the living room, bossy as ever. He smiled, knowing she was about to be taken down a few notches.
