Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Elle
They mentioned dinner, but the carriage keeps going past any restaurants, and onto the main road out of town. I wonder how a horse-drawn carriage is allowed on a main highway, but decide Blue River tends to buck the rules. Or maybe they got a one-time concession. It wouldn’t surprise me. They made me feel like a princess, and they could charm the skin off a snake. They’d certainly charmed the pants off me, and I'm about to let them again.
The carriage turns off the main road, and I realize we’re going to their house. Curious. They’d said a date and no sex. I’d assumed we’d be in public.
We don’t make it to their house though. The carriage carries us past the barns, down to the river, right up to a scene that is straight out of a fairy tale. Or at least a romance book. Near the river, under a pair of magnificent oak trees adorned with hundreds of twinkle lights, is a small bistro-style table, with a pretty red tablecloth. It’s set with fancy china and there are three chairs pulled up beside it.
My mouth drops open at the stunningly thoughtful scene as Bo leans behind him, and extracts a huge picnic basket.
“What in the….” I gasp. “What did you guys do?”
“We tried.” Bo says with a grin. “Hold please.” He jumps down and runs toward the table, plucking something from the center. A vase with roses. I bite back a smile.
He runs it down the river a ways, and sets it down beneath a tree, before running back.
He goes to the opposite side of the carriage and helps Nate down, then they both come around and help me down, holding my hands as we walk to the table. They pull out my chair for me, and then sit beside me. Bo pulls out three glasses and a bottle of wine, and I notice it's the same one Sadie used to get me to talk.
Nate pours us each a glass then wraps an arm around my shoulders. “So… first question: what flowers are you not allergic to?”
Bo
We’re making small talk, or more accurately, playing twenty questions, gathering the details we might need to woo her and hopefully without almost hospitalizing her this time, but what I really want to know is what happened last time and how not to make it happen again. I’m trying to figure out how to ask, when Elle takes a bite of fruit salad, leans back in her chair and looks up at the sky, then out and around at the river, trees and mountains in the distance.
“You guys are ridiculous, you know that?” She shakes her head and lets out a little laugh. “I can’t believe you showed up at my work in a horse-drawn carriage.” She pauses and frowns. “How did you even know I was working at the paper?”
“It’s a small town,” Nate explains. “Nothing stays secret for long.”
“I’d say I’m gonna kill Sadie, but how can I? That was the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.”
“It wasn’t Sadie,” I’m quick to assure her.
She raises her eyebrows, then looks pensive. “I saw your ad. I thought you’d moved on.”
The ad. The one we placed only a few days after the date. She was already ignoring us by then, but that couldn’t have helped.
I swallow. Nate frowns. We share a look. This feels like a pivotal moment in the conversation and neither of us wants to mess it up. I’m the first one to speak.
“Quite the opposite, actually. We realized we made a mistake by pushing too much on you too soon, and thought if we went ahead and hired a nanny for Amelia, it would give us the time we needed to slow down and give you the attention you deserve. Show you that you meant more to us than just a potential wife and mother.”
“Oh.” Elle’s mouth drops open. “Well, you know what they say about making assumptions, I guess. I really flubbed up that one.”
“But is that why you left?” Nate asks. “Did we scare you off with too much too soon?”
Elle furrows her brow, cocks her head and frowns. Sha appears to be considering, then sighs. “Honestly… no. That wasn’t the problem. I may not know a darn thing about housekeeping, cooking and mothering, but well, I’ve been learning. Trying to improve myself. I’ve been reading books and taking some online cooking classes.”
“What?” I breathe, touched that she would do that. “That’s amazing.”
“I needed to find a version of myself I liked. I’m getting there. But, like I said, my experience or lack thereof wasn’t the problem.”
I don’t understand. I’ve been so sure we scared her off somehow. “Then what is the problem? What did we do wrong? Do we have any chance of making it better?” I grab her hand, stroking the soft skin with the pad of my thumb as I speak.
She reaches and lays her hand on my cheek. I choke up. I know this woman is for us. How do I make her see that?
“You didn’t do anything wrong. You guys handed me everything I wanted on a silver platter. Everything I didn’t know I wanted even. You opened my eyes to the possibility of a life I’d ever imagined. But my father…” She shrugs her shoulders. “It can’t work, no matter how badly I want it to.”
Another rejection. This one feels more final. I feel like I’ve been punched in the gut. If it has nothing to do with us, we can’t fix it. All hope is lost.
I’m still processing when Nate speaks. “What about your father? Can you explain?”
Her eyes well with tears, and she pulls her hand away to wipe at them. “I’m working through some things. But…” She sighs. “You two are amazing, and you deserve better than someone like me.”
Nate shakes his head and grabs her hand. “We want you. And what do you mean? You’re wonderful.”
She smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes and she’s crying for real now. She doesn’t explain, but instead leans forward to kiss first Nate and then me. She hiccups. “You’re wonderful. And this is amazing. Seriously, thank you for this. You’ve made me feel so special, and I really needed that. Could we just enjoy it, and not talk?” She smiles ruefully. “Is sex really off the table? Because that would be a damn shame.”
She’s talking about goodbye sex. I can see it in her eyes and my gut twists. My chest aches. I can’t deny her, but I can’t cheapen what I believe we could have either.
Nate’s the one who speaks. “Babygirl, you’re killing us here.”
“I’m sorry,” Elle whispers. “Maybe I should just go.”
My heart won’t handle her running off again, but my body can’t handle not making her mine one more time. Against all my judgement, I squeeze her hand, and bring my other hand up to caress her cheek. “Don’t go.”
Sex won’t solve a single one of our problems, but I don’t care. My mouth closes over hers, and I can taste the heartbreak in her kiss.
It makes me more desperate. I deepen the kiss, pushing my tongue inside her mouth, claiming her. It’s as if I think this one moment can change what seems to be a foregone conclusion.
Nate stands and out of the corner of my eye I see him walk over and dismiss the carriage driver, then reach into the carriage and bring out a soft blanket that he carries to a flat grassy spot beside the river beneath the oak trees. I didn't even know we had a blanket, but Nate’s like a boy scout. Always prepared. The carriage driver climbs down from his spot and starts to hike up to the house where his car is. I feel bad for the man, but I’ll make it up to him with a generous bonus.
Nate comes back, and breaks our kiss by taking both our hands. “Hey,” he teases, "what about me? Don’t I get some of that?”
Elle kisses him while I nibble on his neck. His hands wrap around us, one hand on her ass, one hand on mine. When the kiss breaks, he leads us over to the blanket. He’s doing everything I should be doing, taking charge, putting himself in a role that is not his because he knows I can’t. I’ll have to reward him. Later. When we’re alone. After.
I can’t think about that so I push the thoughts out of my head and pull Elle’s sweater over her head. She shivers. There’s a slight breeze making it chilly, but we’ll keep her warm.
Her hands find the buttons on my shirt and make quick work of undoing them and pulling it off me. I do Nate’s. Pants are next. They all come off, and soon it’s just the three of us in our skivvies, our bodies pressed together in the cool afternoon air, seeking each other’s heat.
We all pull back for a moment, our gazes glassy and lust-filled, silently checking in with each other. Elle presses a hand to each of our chests then pants, “Touch me… Daddies.”
As if the words unlock something deep within me, all my reservations float away on the wind. I grab her hand and pull her to the blanket, kneeling in front of her, both of us on her knees. Nate takes his spot behind her. He kisses her neck while I slip off her bra and lavish attention on her breasts. I suck a nipple into my mouth, laving it with my tongue, until it beads and Elle moans from pleasure. I move to the other breast and repeat the process.
“Such a good girl for your Daddies,” I whisper thickly around her nipple, still in my mouth.
Pulling back, I meet Nate’s gaze over the top of her head. He nods at me. I slip my hand down to her mound, and push away the triangle slip of silk covering her pussy, sliding a finger between her soft folds. Nate does the same, coming in from behind her.
Her body undulates to meet our touch. “Please,” she whispers. “Please, I want you so much.”
“We want you too, babygirl.” So much, and for far more than just sex, far longer than just today. But I don’t say that and push my boxers down, sliding the fabric to my knees. Elle wraps her hand around my cock, stroking it.
Her touch feels like coming home and I know I’ll never crave another woman’s touch as long as I live. My finger slips inside her tight channel, and her walls tighten around it, responsive to my touch. Nate’s hand covers mine as he reaches around to tease her clit.
“Oh!” She moans when he finds it. Her back arches, straining her body between ours. “Oh... please. Yes.”
I fuck her with my finger, and she gives me a hand job at the same time. I reach for Nate’s other hand with my free one, and we hold tight, connecting ourselves while devoted to showering our girl with pleasure.
“Stop!” she cries out as I come far too close to bringing her to completion with just my finger. “No. No, I’m not ready for it to be over.”
Neither am I. I can’t slow down though, can’t stop, can’t do anything but savor every second and try to prolong what I fear is inevitable.
But I pull my hand away, wrap my hand around hers on my cock, and push closer, teasing my cockhead against her slick entrance, then look over her shoulders at Nate, who’s still teasing her clit. “Did you happen to bring any lube?” I already know the answer is no.
He shakes his head, pulling his hand away. She whimpers at the loss of us, we’re only concerned about all our pleasure. If this is the last time, we have to make the most of it, make sure it’s good for everybody, even though I’m still in denial.
“Come on baby, let’s lay you down.” I help her unfold her legs from underneath her and gently lower her onto the blanket. I straddle her hips while Nate positions himself near her head, his cock dangling in her face.
She giggles, but I see the tears in her eyes. “Come on Daddies,” she whispers. “Use me up.”
A phrase that usually turns me on, threatens to deflate me. I lean down to kiss her gain, and teasingly lick the tip of Nate’s cockhead as I pull away. “Mmmm.” I lick my lips. “Yummy. Both of you.”
“Daddy,” she whines. “I need you. I need your cock inside me. Please.”
“Well how can I deny a request like that?” The corners of my mouth turn up, and I line my cock up with her entrance, pushing the head between her soft pussy lips. She smiles, and gives a soft shudder, then tilts her head to smile up at Nate. “And I need you in my mouth, Daddy.”
We lock eyes again, in a silent count, and we both get to three, we thrust, filling her in unison. Her eyes go wide, but she smiles around Nate’s cock, then pushes her mouth around it, stroking him with her lips while I fill her pussy.
She fits me perfect, like she was made for me, like her pussy met its soulmate in my cock. I push back the hopeless thoughts of tomorrow and press on to the moment. I need to savor it, to imprint it on my brain. I’m ruined for any other women. She can’t possibly know what she does to me.
Her soft curls fan across the blanket, framing her face. She looks impossibly adorable and innocent, even with Nate’s cock stuffed between her lips.
I slowly undulate my hips, rocking them as I ride her, thrusting in and out, back and forth, pushing against her walls that clamp around my length. I run my fingertips across her shoulders, down her collarbone. I let them dance across her full breasts. The sensations tickle, and she giggles and wiggles. She’s precious. Perfect. Ours. I know it deep in the depths of my soul. Can I prove it to her?
Sex doesn’t solve everything, I know that. But right now, it’s all I’ve got. I cup her breasts and rub her nipples between my fingers, rolling the soft pink peaks until they pebble into hard nubs. Her hands come up and around, her fingers dig into the flesh of my ass cheeks as she squeezes. It’s hard, the tips digging into my skin, in a way that feels like they’ll be imprinted there forever. I hope it leaves marks.
I thrust harder, faster, filling her, letting my grief propel me forward as if the harder I fuck her I can push it from my brain somehow. Nate is doing the same thing to her mouth, and I wonder if his thoughts are the same as mine. Elle doesn’t seem to mind, She’s smiling, licking, sucking, her fingers digging. She’s all in.
I want to prolong the moment forever, but it’s too late for that. Desire courses through my veins, hot like lava. I recognize the signs. My balls draw up, tightening as my releases rushes. “Fuck,” I mumble. “Babygirl. I’m gonna come.”
Nate glances up, his gaze meeting mine. “I’m there too.”
Elle smiles but it's tinged with sadness as she admits, “Me too, Daddies. I want to come so bad.”
I lace the fingers of my right hand with hers, my left hand with Nate’s, adding another physical connection between the three of us.
“Come,” I command as my cock swells inside her, as my balls draw up, my body tenses. I shudder inside her, filling her with my cum. Then and only then do I realize we didn’t use protection this time. I’m too gone to care. She joins me in release, her body shuddering around my cock, her eyes glazed, her breath coming in pants around Nate’s cock. He’s coming too, I can see it in the dilation of his pupils, the way his back has gone rigid, the pull of his mouth, the way his hand squeezes mine. His body shudders and I see Elle’s throat working as she swallows down his cum.
Incredible. I love these two. I’ve never loved anyone more. The magic we make together, the connection, the lack of jealousy between the three of us when we come together, is everything. Everything.
My cock softens, falling from the home between her legs, and the finality of it snaps me back to the present. My chest heaves. My gaze sharpens on the woman beneath me, on my lover’s cock falling from her mouth.
“This can’t be goodbye.” I say the only thought in my brain, leaving them both gawking at me. Their stares feel oppressive. I push to my feet and begin to dress. Their eyes narrow. Nate stands, and comes up beside me, grabbing my hand, pulling me to him. He kisses my lips, pulls back and searches my gaze. Then he looks at Elle.
“Bo’s right,” he tells her. “Whatever it is, we can figure it out. Together.”
She shakes her head, but I’m not ready to take no for an answer. Not until I know the whole reason. Maybe not even then.
Pulling on my shirt to ward off the chill now that arousal isn’t heating my body, I plop down on the blanket. Elle sits up, her eyes worried, her mouth drooping. Tears flowing down her face. She should not look like this after sex. Why is the lovemaking between us so magical and the after so heartbreaking?
“Please tell me,” I whisper, reaching over to wipe her tears. “Please.”
Nate, still in only his boxers, though he’s pulled them up, grabs his dress shirt from the ground and pulls it on, but doesn’t button it. He hands Elle her sweater and jeans.
She pulls them on, opens her mouth, and starts to cry. We both stay silent, waiting for her to speak.