Secret Daddies (Reverse Harem Daddies)

25. Maya

25

MAYA

I took a deep breath as I stood there, staring at my reflection in the bathroom mirror. I had no idea how this was going to go, but I knew I had to try. And this, tonight, was my last chance to make that happen.

Outside, I could hear the chatter of the cast and crew as they popped bottles and clinked glasses to celebrate wrapping up on our final day of shooting. There was still plenty in the way of postproduction to take care of before the movie would be ready for release, of course, but it still felt like a victory—all this hard work, all these early mornings and late nights, and now they had the raw materials of the biggest blockbuster of the decade.

But all that paled in comparison to what I was trying to do tonight. I had to find a way to convince the three stars of the show to take a break from the cast party, and come back to my place, so I could tell them exactly what they needed to hear—and come clean about everything I felt for the three of them.

I had everything organized to make sure I wouldn’t be disturbed. Lana was taking care of Matty, and I had a nice dinner planned that was waiting for us back at my apartment. I knew there was no way we could have these conversations surrounded by the people who had been working with us all this time, not without them instantly making the jump to the front pages of the gossip blogs.

And if they said no…if they decided they didn’t want to give me the time, then I had to accept that. Devon had made it clear he wanted to be part of my life, but Taylor seemed less sure, even though I had tried to prove myself to him by helping out with his daughter. Lee, for his part, didn’t even know I was pregnant, and I didn’t have a clue how he was going to take the news. After today, there was no telling when all four of us would be in the same place at the same time, and I wasn’t going to miss the chance to tell them what was going on in my head.

At last, gathering myself, I pushed open the door and stepped outside. Across the set, everyone was hanging out, the booze already flowing, the food being shared from the taco truck that had been parked up outside to cater. I almost wished I could have something to drink myself, just to take the edge off the nerves that were coursing through me right now, but that wasn’t an option.

Glancing around, I tried to spot them—and it didn’t take long, since Devon was already making his way toward me. He was grinning, and he pulled me into a hug when he got close enough.

“Congratulations,” he murmured into my ear, and I knew he was talking about more than just the shoot being wrapped up.

“Thanks,” I replied, gently extricating myself from his arms—it wasn’t unusual for everyone to get a little touchy-feely on the last day of shooting, but I didn’t want to attract any more attention to myself than I already had. “Do you know where Taylor and Lee are?”

“Right here,” Lee cut in, approaching from the other side, Taylor next to him. Taylor greeted me with a slight nod, and Lee flashed me a smile. “Why? You want all three of us?”

“Something like that,” I replied, my stomach twisting into knots inside of me. “I was…I was hoping you guys would come back to my place, actually.”

Lee’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh, yeah?” he remarked, leaning in, that cocky smile spreading over his face. “For what, exactly?”

“To talk,” I replied, though I could feel a fluttering in my chest at his sudden closeness.

“To talk,” he repeated after me, eyebrow cocked. “Just to talk?”

“Lee, keep it in your pants,” Taylor replied calmly. “I can’t speak for these guys, but I’ll go, Maya.”

“Me too,” Devon cut in.

“And if you think I’m missing out, you’re crazy,” Lee replied. “Come on. Let’s get out of here. I don’t want to get stuck in a conversation with the producers, anyway…”

And just like that, we were heading back to my place—Taylor driving, Devon in the front, and Lee beside me, his arm draped over the back of the seat and fingers trailing against the side of my neck. Even now, his touch was electric, sending a fire through me I could barely contain.

But this wasn’t about our physical relationship. At least, not tonight. No, this was about finally figuring out what we meant to each other, before the movie was done for good and we went our separate ways.

Back at my apartment, Devon glanced around at once.

“Is Matty here?”

“He’s with one of my friends,” I replied. “I—I wanted tonight to be just the four of us. We have a lot to talk about.”

“Yeah, we do,” Taylor replied. I couldn’t get a read on his tone, exactly. I knew he still had every right to be pissed with me after I’d hidden the pregnancy from him, but I hoped he would be willing to at least entertain the idea of talking this out now he was here.

“Like what?” Lee asked, frowning, clearly confused. Neither of the others had spoken to him about the pregnancy, which was something of a relief. I wanted to be the one to tell him about it, and I didn’t want him to have to find out the news via some secondhand source.

“Let me make us some dinner,” I replied. “And we can chat about it over that, huh?”

“I’ll handle it,” Taylor replied. “Sit, Maya. You need your rest…”

“Why, what are you planning to do to her later?” Lee teased, and that heat bubbled within me again. No, this wasn’t about that, not tonight—no matter how tempted I might be.

“Lee,” Taylor warned him, and Lee chuckled.

“Hey, just saying what we’re all thinking. But I guess I can make it through dinner before we start with any of that…”

We all helped serve up dinner. It was a tight fit, the four of us in the kitchen, but it felt right at the same time—Lee pouring the wine, Taylor over the stove, Devon getting the plates out of the cupboard. Both Devon and Taylor seemed intent on making sure I didn’t do anything more than I absolutely had to, and I wasn’t going to complain. It had been a long time since I’d been fussed over like this, and I had to admit, there was something to be said for it.

By the time we were all sitting around the table, my nerves had almost gotten the better of me again. I didn’t know where to start, what to say, but I knew I had to get to it. I might only have this evening to come clean, and I didn’t want to screw up my chances by holding back.

“I’m so glad you’re all here tonight,” I began, as I wrapped my hand around the glass of water I had poured for myself. I couldn’t help but notice my fingers trembling as I glanced between all three of them—three movie stars, sitting at my dining table, like it was the most natural thing in the world. All of them willing to give me a chance to explain myself, even when I wasn’t sure I deserved it. Even with all the mistakes I’d made, everything that I had screwed up, all the decisions that I wished I could go back in time and change.

Whether or not I had earned this chance, I knew I had to take it. Finally, I forced myself to speak.

“I know that everything I’ve shared with the three of you hasn’t exactly been…conventional,” I began. I had been practicing this in my head all day, going through exactly what I was going to say when the time came, but even now, the words tumbled out in a panicked rush. “Devon, we were together so many years ago, and we had a son you didn’t even know about. Lee, I thought you were just some player trying to find another woman to entertain yourself with. And Taylor, I didn’t even know you were a dad, let alone to such a sweet little girl. And…”

I looked between them again.

“And sharing this time with you has made for some of the best months in my entire life,” I confessed. “I didn’t expect to fall for all of you the way I have, but I…I can’t deny it anymore. I don’t want to. Especially not…not with the pregnancy.”

Lee’s jaw dropped.

“You’re pregnant?” he exclaimed. But, far from the horror I had expected to hear in his voice, he actually sounded…excited. Like this was exactly what he had been waiting for. I nodded.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” I replied, looking up at him. “You deserved to know before this, but I didn’t know how to tell you.”

“Did you guys know?” Lee demanded, glancing around at Taylor and Devon. They both nodded, wordless. I guessed they didn’t have an explanation either for why they had kept this from him the way they had.

“Holy shit,” Lee muttered. “I had no idea. But who’s—who’s the father?”

That cast another silence around the table. I bit my lip.

“Truth is, I don’t know who the father is,” I confessed. “But I don’t…I don’t think I care who the father is, either. I want all of you to be a part of this baby’s life. To be a part of my life, and Matty’s life. I know it’s a lot to ask, but I want…I want all of you. All three of you.”

There it was. The words I had been terrified to say out loud for so long. Now that I’d come out with them, they seemed a little less cataclysmic than I had imagined, but still—could I really be that selfish? Could I really…could I really expect them to choose me, choose my family, over everything else they had going for them?

“What does that mean?” Taylor asked quietly. He was the oldest of the guys, the most traditional. I expected him to have the biggest issue with it, and I wasn’t going to just ask him to put aside all the doubts that might plague him about how all of this was going to unfold.

I took a deep breath. “I’m going to be honest,” I confessed. “I don’t know. I don’t know what it means, I don’t know what it looks like for us to be together, for me—for me to be with all three of you. But I know that I’m not willing to lose any of you, not if I can help it, not when you all fulfill me the way you do. That night we spent together, I haven’t been able to get it out of my head—and it wasn’t just one or even two of you that made it so perfect. It was all of you. And I want that, over and over again. Physically, emotionally, all of it. Whatever that looks like.”

A silence hung over the table. Lee was the first one to speak. He reached across and took my hand, giving it a tight squeeze.

“Look, I don’t know if I’m exactly what you’d call a family man,” he told me, a slight grin curling up his lips. “But nothing in my life has been conventional so far. So it only makes sense that when I had a family of my own, it would be totally out of the norm, right?”

“So…so you want this?” I asked softly, almost as though speaking too loudly might shatter the spell and bring him to his senses. He lifted my hand to his lips and pressed them against my fingers, closing his eyes for a moment.

“Yeah,” he replied. “Yeah, I want this.”

I flicked my gaze to Devon. He had told me he wanted to be here for Matty and me, but I wasn’t sure that extended to something quite as unconventional as this. To my relief, he nodded too.

“I want it too,” he murmured. “I’ve got a whole lot of catching up on lost time to do. And whatever way I can do that, I want to. I want to do it with you, with Matty, with the baby…”

He glanced around the table.

“And with these two assholes here.”

Taylor let out a chuckle. I turned to him last. If anyone was going to turn this down, it would be him. I had seen how much it hurt him when he found out that I had kept the pregnancy from him. It was a big question, asking him to put that aside and accept this strange relationship structure in return, but before he could stop himself, he grinned.

“I want as much love in my daughter’s life as she can get,” he replied. “I always wanted a big family. And you, Matty, the baby…that sounds pretty much perfect to me.”

“Oh my God,” I gasped, as the flood of shock hit me. Wait, they were actually agreeing to this! I could hardly believe it. I knew it had been the longest of long shots, but I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I hadn’t come out and asked them. And yet, here they were, reacting as though it was the most natural thing in the world.

“You guys really mean it?” I asked, my breath hitching in the back of my throat as I looked around the table.

“I sure do,” Devon replied. “You can’t trust anything that comes out of Lee’s mouth, though.”

“Hey, watch it,” Lee laughed. But there was no tension between them, no jealousy, even as Lee held on to my hand.

“Looks like we all want this,” Taylor added, his hand resting on my leg under the table. And the pressure of his fingers against my thigh sent a shiver of desire through my system. Or maybe that was just how I was always going to feel, with the three of them around. The way they looked at me, the way they made me feel, utterly pampered and adored, even when I wasn’t sure I deserved it…

Tonight, I wanted to make something of that feeling. I wanted to confirm my love for all of them. And I wanted to make the very most of this empty apartment, because I got the feeling that keeping my voice down wasn’t going to be an option.

“Will you guys come with me?” I asked as I rose to my feet. “There’s…there’s something I’d like to show you in the bedroom.”

As they all gazed back at me, knowing grins on their faces, I knew that tonight was going to be all kinds of exciting. In ways I was sure I couldn’t even imagine yet.