Ajaih
The whisper of the ocean’s waves gently stirred the gauzy curtains in Caleb and Yanna’s beachfront room.
The sun hadn’t fully risen yet, but tow-colored light painted the walls in quiet brushstrokes.
I was wrapped in silk sheets and sandwiched between the two people who loved me beyond sex and intimacy; they loved me to comfort.
Caleb and Yanna made it easy for me to just be, with no pretenses, no expectations; they loved me as I was, and for that, I’d forever love them in return.
Caleb’s large hand rested lazily on my thigh, his fingers brushing my skin in slow, absentminded patterns. Yanna was on my other side, her leg thrown across my waist, her lips occasionally grazing my shoulder as she shifted in and out of sleep.
I hadn’t moved in a while, not because I was tired, but because I was content, floating, and maybe a little scared.
Last night I wore red leather and confidence like armor. I’d never felt more powerful, more sensual, more me. I had Maverick squirming and Knox spellbound, and the way the room responded to my dominance lit a fire in me that I didn’t know existed.
But now, in the soft morning hush, it wasn’t power or heat dancing through my veins.
It was love.
I blinked up at the ceiling and whispered into the quiet, “I think I’m in love with them.”
Caleb’s voice was thick with sleep, but knowing, “Just think, huh?”
I turned to look at him, and he gave me that lazy smirk that could melt steel. “Sweetheart, you don’t sneak into your favorite couple’s bed in the middle of the night and fall asleep smiling unless you’re past the ‘thinking’ phase.”
Yanna giggled, nuzzling into my neck, “You’re in deep, huh?”
“I am,” I said, voice barely above a whisper, “So deep it terrifies me. I’ve never loved like this. It’s not chaotic or conditional or rooted in trauma. It’s just… safe, but adventurous. Expansive but sacred.”
I paused, breathing them in. “I want to introduce them to my parents. To Dro, Michelle, my siblings, but their father is a pastor, so I don’t know how that’ll go.
Let them meet the people who make it easy for me to just be me, but I’m scared.
What if they can’t accept it? What if it taints what I have with Mav and Knox? ”
Caleb sat up slightly, propped on one elbow, his toned chest catching the slant of early sun.
“You ever notice how standing in your truth feels heavy at first? Like you’re holding it up for judgment before anyone else can?
But once you own it, really claim it, it stops being heavy and starts being armor. ”
I looked over at him, blinking away the sting in my eyes.
“This love, your love, your joy isn’t something to be ashamed of. Knox and Mav don’t hide you. Don’t do that to yourself. Don’t rob yourself of the full experience because of someone else’s fear or discomfort.”
Yanna slid her hand over my heart, resting it there gently. “We can tell them together. When we get back, let’s make it a date. Our truth, all laid out on the table with wine and possibly some backup bodyguards, depending on how it goes.”
Caleb grinned, “Nobody can beat my ass about it, so I’m already ready.”
I burst into laughter, the kind that bubbles from your chest and shakes your ribs, “You are so damn annoying.”
“And sexy,” he added with a wink.
“Also true,” Yanna murmured, licking her lips.
I leaned back, smiling as our laughter faded into a sweet stillness.
“You really think I should do it?” I asked them both, “Tell them I’m polyamorous? That I’m in a throuple? That I’m in love with two men who happen to be in love with each other and me?”
“Do you think you deserve to live your truth out loud?” Yanna asked, her gaze suddenly serious, “Because that’s all that matters.”
I nodded slowly, then with more conviction.
“Yeah. I do.”
“Then that’s your answer,” Caleb said.
We lay there, tangled up in each other, the promise of bacon and mimosas somewhere in the future.
For now, I closed my eyes again and let myself dream, not of the fear or the what-ifs, but of my men. Their smiles, their laughter, their skin against mine, and how they always made me feel like the most powerful woman in any room.
Because I was, and it was in this moment that I realized I am exactly who I think I am, BIG Ja, never the little one.
I must’ve dozed off after our heart-to-heart. Caleb’s warmth behind me and Yanna’s calming scent made sleep come easily. The ocean breeze swirled into the open villa, tickling my skin as I lay cocooned in that safe, sacred space.
When a knock on the door stirred me from my slumber.
The door creaked open before anyone even moved.
“It’s open!” Caleb called out.
Maverick’s deep voice filled the room like a heartbeat, “I just came to get my woman.”
Next thing I know, I’m being scooped up, bridal style, by 6'3 of smooth-skinned, gold-grilled, hoodie-wearing sensual chaos.
“Maverick!” I squealed, gripping his shoulders, laughing.
“Good morning to you too, baby,” he grinned, kissing my cheek. “You thought you could sneak off and lay up in someone else’s bed like you ain’t got two fine-ass men missing you?”
“Oop,” Yanna snickered as Caleb pulled her into his arms.
“You sound hella possessive for a man who just let me top him in a sex dungeon last night,” I teased.
He smirked, “And I’d let you do it again, but this morning, I want my woman back in our bed.”
It was Caleb’s turn to chuckle from the sheets, “Don’t act like you ain’t been texting her since you woke up.”
“Shut up, Black,” Mav tossed back, laughing with a grin a mile wide on his face.
Yanna leaned over and kissed my lips, slow and sensual, like a whispered promise, “Go on, they need their Queen.”
I melted a little, but Maverick didn’t wait; he turned and carried me out the door like a prize he’d just won at the fair.
When we got back to our suite, Knox was standing on the balcony, shirtless, sipping espresso and looking like a GQ cover shoot. He turned and smiled when he saw me.
“You get lost?” he asked with a knowing smirk.
“Rescued,” Maverick answered, laying me down onto our bed like a ceremony.
Knox set his cup down and came to sit beside me, brushing a strand of hair from my face. “You good?”
I hesitated, feeling my throat tighten again, that old anxiety creeping up like it wanted to rob me of this moment too.
“I’m in love with you both, madly, confidently, completely, utterly, in love,” I whispered, “And I want to introduce you to my family, Dro, Michelle, Lena, and DJ. I want them to see what my joy looks like, but I’m scared.”
There. I said it.
Knox reached for my hand while Maverick cradled my face in his palm.
“You don’t have to do anything until you’re ready,” Knox said gently.
“And if you never want to tell them, you won’t hear a single complaint from me,” Maverick added, “This love doesn’t need validation from anybody but the three of us.”
I nodded, my chest tight and heart racing, eyes clouded with tears.
“But that’s just it, I am ready. I don’t want to live like this, one foot out in the open, one foot in the closet.
I want my people to see this beautiful, messy, wild, perfect love and know that it’s mine, that I chose it, that I choose you both, and see that I’m thriving in ways that I never have. ”
Silence filled the room as they let my words fully sink in.
“Well damn,” Knox whispered, grinning, “Now I gotta step my game up at brunch, huh?”
Maverick raised an eyebrow. “Baby, we got you out here confessing your love like a poet with a mic, and I didn’t even brush my teeth yet.”
I laughed, a full belly laugh this time, tears finally giving way to lightness.
“We’re proud of you,” Knox said, kissing my forehead, “And we’ll be right beside you every step, every decision.”
“No matter what,” Maverick added.
I reached for both their hands, holding tight.
“You know, I could’ve stayed with Caleb and Yanna,” I said with a mischievous grin.
“You could have,” Maverick smirked, “But then I’d have to go start a whole war in Bora Bora.”
Knox leaned in, brushing his lips across my jaw, “Let’s just say we’re real glad you chose home.”
And in that bed, with both of them wrapped around me, the sunshine pouring through the windows and the sounds of the ocean waves swaying just beyond the walls, I realized something undeniable and straightforward: I wasn’t scared anymore, I was free.