Epilogue
Six months later…
Eden
T omorrow marks a new beginning of sorts.
If I’d been asked after meeting her if I thought I’d ever work for Dr. Almari or see her as a mentor in the future, I would’ve been stunned speechless. It started with a heartfelt apology on her part and a degree of understanding on mine. Once she’d met the whole family, told me about her traumatic experience of losing her longtime partner, and I saw how much she was helping Zin, I couldn’t resist warming to her. Taking her job offer scared and excited me. The opportunity to change lives on a greater scale. But here I am, the night before I get in front of an audience as a speaker on trauma and embark on a new career path. The Horizon Wellness Center is now closed; there was no moving on without Greg.
“The kids are settled in with their cousins. I’m not sure my sister thought this sleepover through,” Matt says in passing.
Even so, I’m thankful to have all my husbands home…alone. That hasn’t happened for so long.
Hutton has stopped traveling, preferring to do his work from home. He is no longer doing any work for government agencies. Instead, he builds programs designed to keep children safe on the internet. To honor Greg, he also manages a global whistleblower network to report crimes against humanity. He’s still anonymously hacking bank accounts and leaving money behind.
Matt retired from his position with the FBI once he ensured that Halcyon was exposed and eradicated, starting a private security company for high-profile clients. He picks and chooses whom he works with, not wanting to get involved in scandals or with dangerous people.
Keir took a promotion in the FBI, and now he’s the head of a task force looking for missing children. He is sometimes gone a few days at a time, but his main office is close by. Since taking the position, he’s wrapped up a cold case from twenty-three years ago, finding answers for the family, and his team found a kidnapped three-year-old from Connecticut.
Blaine is working on his sobriety daily. His relapse scared him more than we could’ve. He goes to meetings three times a week. He’s still a guidance counselor at the alternative learning center, and he’s been voted “most loved” by the senior class, which is a stroke to his ego he didn’t need.
Then there’s my Caleb. We have work to do, but he finally told me his feelings about being neglected by me. We’re intentional now in our routines: a walk in the morning and winddown time at the end of the day watching a podcast he enjoys. His “glue” keeps all of us and the kids running smoothly. He’s given up the Church of the Good News, realizing he felt further from God while attending instead of closer. Now, he says he gets answers from Him while tending to the animals.
The Abbott children are officially Bradford children now. The adoption was finalized two months ago. Zach is getting more talkative. He loves going along with Wes’s play suggestions, but is expressing more interests of his own, like baseball. Zinnea didn’t set the Realists’ house on fire, which I was worried about, but the house fire caused her to fixate on burning. Well, we continue to work on it…
Waverly dances, draws, and tries desperately to get Zinnea out of the house to do things with the animals or other kids. Zin, however, prefers adults and reading.
Weston is in his police officer, specifically SWAT team, phase. When he isn’t in karate or taking care of his animals, he fights crime in a pair of cowboy boots with a ninja sword on his belt next to his plastic gun.
Our youngest two, Warner and Zeb, are growing up happy, healthy, and loved dearly. May they never have memories of anything else.
In so many ways, we’re blessed. I remind myself of this when the dark thoughts press from the back of my mind. Images of Greg’s body, Harrison’s bloody chest, the man Zinnea set on fire in the woods…
The person I was had to be reinvented to keep myself from going mad.
“Hey, earth to Eden,” Matt whispers seductively. He sets his toothbrush back in the sanitizer before kissing my neck. “What are your plans tonight?”
I cock a smile at him. “You have to ask?”
Dinner was a mood all its own. Yes, the food was delectable, but it was the teasing that got me hot.
The exchanged looks, the innuendo, all of us in one room. There’s powerful chemistry then, there's explosive heat.
My light laugh trails behind me as I leave the bathroom for the main bedroom where we’re all staying tonight. Even if nothing sexual comes of it, I wanted to keep them all close. Despite not expecting anything, I dressed for the occasion. Under my robe is a matching set of lacy red underwear and bra, though I normally sleep naked or in one of my husbands’ T-shirts. Lingerie isn’t needed to entice any of them, but I thought switching things up might be fun.
Keir and Blaine are getting ready to lie down when Keir says he gets to sleep next to me. Blaine informs him he’s too late, since earlier they’d claimed positions; Hutton on one side and him on the other.
“Womp, womp,” Blaine jokes, balling his fists to wipe his eyes mockingly.
Caleb looks over from the high-back chair he’s sitting in, removing his socks. “And so it starts.”
Strains of music come through a speaker placed on the dresser, and Blaine sways to the music. The sexy rolling of his hips makes me feel needier, and I’m salivating watching him move. That man can dance. Keir whistles at him laughing as he walks past to the bathroom in nothing but his boxer briefs.
I keep my robe on, joining Blaine in a dance. Letting the music flow over me, I rest my head back against him, my ass grazing his hard cock inside those black boxer briefs.
Hutton uses his foot to push the door open, carrying an ice bucket with champagne and non-alcoholic sparkly in one arm and glasses by the stem in the other. “A toast? To your first, of many I’m sure, speaking engagements.”
As a flushed Matt comes back from the bathroom, I can guess just how heated things were getting between him and Keir. I wink at him. “Getting ready, eh?”
“Hard to resist.” He winks back.
Once we’re all in the room with champagne flutes in our hands, Hutton offers words of encouragement and support for tomorrow. “To our wife, the most incredible woman I know.”
Blaine raises his glass filled with the sparkling cider, high. “She’s beauty, she’s grace, she’s got that glorious face…fuck, you’re so fucking hot, Ed.”
“To our wife, worthy of all praise possible,” Keir joins in.
Matt wraps an arm around my waist. “To the strongest woman I’ve ever met.”
There’s a chorus of playful “Hear! Hear!” before Blaine can’t help himself. “Mmmm. Just what exackatackaly are you up to with this robe? That’s coming off…” He tugs the belt to open it. Sucking in a breath, he says, “Fucking let’s go.”
He’s never worried about exposing himself in any way. With that body, he should show it off. Confidently flinging his now-removed underwear toward the hamper in the corner, his dick springs up in appreciation.
Caleb sets his drained glass of champagne down to refill it. “Here we go.”
The robe gets pulled off by Hutton, who kisses my neck. Breathing into my ear, he says, “You look like a goddess, but I don’t want you covered up.”
Within panting breaths, I order them to all strip, not that they need much encouragement. Keir gives Matt a hungry look to, his hand running over his erection.
Moving me around to face him, Hutton towers over me. I run my hands down his abs to where his impressive cock is sandwiched between us, pressing against him.
“You’re starting with the velvet hammer?” Blaine cracks. He never fails to mention Hutton’s size, which is monumental.
Breaking our kiss, Hutton responds, “Once. Just once I’d like you to refrain from lusting after my dick.”
“Dude, I don’t feel like being torn apart. I’m just giving credit where it’s due…Super dick, Dicktator, Cockonator…”
I pull Caleb toward me, finding his lips while Hutton’s hands caress my breasts. Caleb moves behind me, to slip his hand into my lacy underwear, and Hutton seeks my lips again.
Blaine drops onto the bed, his hand stroking his dick as he watches us. From the corner of the room where Keir had been opening the second bottle of champagne, I hear a deep moan. I have to pull back and look.
Matt has their dicks held together with one hand, giving them both a hand job, while they tongue-fuck. Deep, passionate groaning ratchets up my neediness.
“Mmm…” I look up at Hutton. “I need y-”
I’m cut off when his mouth seals back over mine. He tears the lacy G-string off; Caleb moves away to allow him to lift me, his length rubbing me just right as I position around him tightly.
I feel Caleb at my back, pressing soft kisses across my shoulder blades and spurring me on with sweet encouragement, “That feel good? That’s right, honey, nice and slow. Ease it in, how’s that…”
Blaine calls Caleb’s name to get his attention as he throws the tube of lubricant he grabbed from the bedside table, along with foil packets of condoms, at him.
I deliriously ride Hutton’s cock while Caleb works my asshole with lube. His fingers are not enough, though. I want to feel full…so fucking full…
My vantage point allows me to see the moment Matt and Keir come. Their heaving, chiseled chests, the post-coital tenderness…it’s spinning the coil of ache tighter. All of them…I want them all touching me. Arching back, my mouth drops open. “Ohhhh, yes, yeeesss.” Caleb, sheathed in a condom and lubed up, works himself into my ass.
Blaine makes a choked noise. “Fuck…that’s …oh my god, that finger suck at the end was intense.” He’s going back and forth between watching Matt with Keir and us.
I moan, “All…all of you…please, please…”
We move to the bed, where Hutton carefully lies back with me still on him, and Caleb re-enters me. Blaine watches on his side, still trying to crack jokes. “I’m still so impressed with the structural integrity of this bed.”
“Hey, B, your mouth has more important things to do than talk right now,” Keir teases, lying on the other side of us. Matt watches, standing at the end of the bed and taking a drink of his champagne. His dick is hard as a rock again…a recovery time like no other.
A rumbling roar escapes Hutton as he comes hard inside me. I’m sent right over the edge after him, spasming around him. Caleb takes the rhythm over as Blaine massages his hand over one of my ass cheeks and Keir lightly bites my outer thigh.
When Matt joins in, I lose it completely. He crawls past Blaine to kneel facing me, moving in to kiss me. His tongue tangles with mine, giving little sucks on my lower lip before diving back in. Every one of them is propelling me to an earth-shattering release.
Caleb undoes my bra, his hands moving around me to play with my nipples. Hutton still sits deep inside me. “Fuck, Big Gulp, that’s one helluva sight,” Blaine says to Caleb as I arch back, further pushing my breasts out. Luxuriating in their touches, their love…
We’re all regrouping, having another glass of champagne or cider, when I look at Keir’s glistening hard cock as he’s reclined back against the pillow, only inches from my mouth where I’m lying. Blaine says in a loud whisper to me, “Yeah, go get that dick.”
Keir runs a hand through my hair, resting it on the back of my head. I take him in my hand, running my tongue underneath his veiny cock and giving a light caress of his balls. He’s hard as a rock, leaking pre-cum I lap up. His moans make me want his release. Blaine has moved in closer, the lube in his hand as he lathers it on himself before pulling my ass closer. His wet fingers run through the lips of my pussy, then back up to my clit as he pinches it between his thumb and finger.
My breathing hitches as he slams inside me. “Jesus Christ Almighty…you feel like fucking heaven…” He presses a hand onto my back as he gets his tempo right.
Matt, Caleb, and Hutton watch, eyes filled with a yearning, a desire, we’re all feeling. The pleasure of our bodies…that euphoric release.
My orgasm makes me choke on Keir’s cock as I press too far forward, and he pulls me off him. Lying in front of me, he swallows my moans as Blaine wrings the climax from me. His body strokes me long after he’s unloaded. I feel his sweat on my back, and a satisfied smile takes hold.
I reach my hand out to Matt, who has moved to the side of bed where Keir is lying, to help me up. Caleb throws a washcloth to Blaine. Hutton has opened another bottle and is now digging in the unlocked drawer of toys Blaine adds to occasionally.
Matt pulls me into his arms. “Do you know how well-fucked you look? The flush of your skin,” he nuzzles into my neck, his cologne making me drag a deep breath in, “that moan…dammit, it does shit to me.”
His mouth finds one of my nipples, his hands taking my waist and seating me on the side of bed as he kneels.
I hear Keir ask Blaine behind me, “What else do those fingers do?”
And we’re all hands-on deck again.
As Matt gives my breasts his mouth and hands, Hutton nudges him as a signal to move aside, wanting to eat me out. Matt, taking the not-so-subtle hint, climbs onto the bed to lie next to me as Hutton’s mouth on my pussy causes me to lie back on the bed, writhing. I see Blaine and Keir rolling around beside us on the bed. A nip of a bite from Keir, and Blaine sucks at his neck as their limbs occasionally brush their erections. But they’re more focused on marking each other. The tease… the buildup…
I want that…that’s what I need. I reach out to grab Blaine’s arm as Caleb presses in from the other side of me, his hand running up my torso as he plants a light kiss to the side of my breast.
“Mark me,” I groan out.
The atmosphere becomes more charged as Keir pushes Blaine off to get to me. His mouth is on my earlobe as he says thickly, “Anything you want.”
Blaine slaps Keir’s thigh. “Done, huh?”
It’s been growing…the tension about their relationship and tonight might tip the scales and finally force them to work it out.
Matt normally isn’t one to leave love bites or hickeys, but he takes my order seriously, sucking my nipple harder and causing a zing of pain. “Unnhh..” My chest juts up.
“Shit, are you okay?” he pulls away to ask, his lips swollen from kissing.
Blaine shakes the partially empty bottle of fizzy cider, his thumb covering the opening, then sprays it over us. Putting the bottle back on the dresser, he moves to lick it off me, giving little sucks and bites along the way.
Caleb makes my heart pound with a slow kiss while Hutton uses his fingers and tongue to make me scream out in release. I feel boneless as I grab a pillow to support my head, repositioning to see my hotter-than-hell husbands around me. It has to be a crime somewhere to have this much sexy attention to yourself.
With a languid stretch, I lie back against the pillows, a satisfied sigh escaping, before I crawl over Hutton’s legs to the edge of the bed, saying, “Be right back.” Peering back over my shoulder to see their eyes on me is another reminder of how damn lucky I am.
I come back into the room from cleaning up and checking out my wild hair and well-marked chest in the mirror to all of them splayed out on the bed with room for me in the middle. The music has been turned down. “You’re all tapping out for the night?”
By the looks I’m getting, that’s not the case.
I want to address something before snuggling into bed between Hutton and Blaine. Caleb gives Hutton ample room on his other side, choosing to lie close to the edge, and Matt and Keir settle on the other side of Blaine. Naked, my entire body feels strung tight…wanting each of them again. I crawl into bed, shoving the sheet back. The only person redressed in their underwear is Caleb.
“Blaine…baby, love, lover,” I say, getting close. “I think Keir needs a blowjob from you.” He was hinting earlier he wanted Blaine’s mouth, but either Blaine ignored him or was denying him.
“Subtle,” Hutton says, kissing my shoulder.
Yeah? Even so, it works. He only needed the slightest nudge to turn to Keir. An eyebrow is raised, as if in challenge, before Blaine’s hands caress their way to Keir’s erection. He spits in his palm before going back gliding his hand over the head. “Does Keir deserve a blowjob from me is the question.”
Matt grabs the condoms and lube that were haphazardly tossed to the floor. He doesn’t say anything, just rolls a condom on his thickening cock while watching Blaine taunt Keir. The lube is then passed to Blaine.
Keir’s breathing is getting labored watching them. Hell, so is mine.
Sliding between Keir’s legs, Blaine bites his lip. “How badly do you want my mouth, Keir?”
His voice ragged, Keir says, “Why don’t you find out?”
I’m getting so horny again I squeeze my legs together with a squeal.
Blaine leaves a tiny bite mark on the inside of his thigh before his tongue runs toward Keir’s balls. Sucking one into his mouth, he lightly rolls it on his tongue before popping back off it, then presses his hands down on Keir’s chest. Matt’s spread lube on his condomed dick, and he moves behind Blaine, running his cock over Blaine’s asshole. For a moment, Blaine rears up and turns to place a fierce kiss on Matt’s lips.
The whole world slows as I watch Blaine feeding Keir’s dick into his mouth, then Matt entering Blaine from behind. I can’t sit still. I lean over, kissing Keir as his groans fan a flame inside me.
I feel Hutton’s length twitching against my leg. I pull him inside me with a hand between my legs, bucking back into him. My hand goes over Hutton’s head to Caleb, who reaches around Hutton to massage my breast. All connected…
Keir is right on the edge with Blaine sucking on him, but Matt pulls out before he comes which makes Blaine stop. Matt tosses the condom, putting lube in his hand as he bends forward on the bed to work his fingers over his ass crack. “Fuck me,” he says, looking at Keir.
Holy shit. That was hot.
Space is made on the bed as I move back against Hutton, our climaxes soaking us both. Matt lies next to me, giving me a kiss that makes my insides feel shaky.
Keir strokes his cock a few times, getting in position to enter Matt as he moves his ball sack back then strokes himself lazily. Blaine bites Keir’s shoulder as he gets out of the way, but Keir looks back at him, grabbing his arm. “Stay.”
Everyone stops.
Keir has never allowed anyone to touch his ass or his asshole, always a top because of his abuse. It’s a sensitive topic no one breaches. Is he…
But no. He’s wanting to keep Blaine in the mix.
He moves so Blaine can ride Matt’s cock while Keir follows Matt’s order to fuck him. For a few stunned seconds Blaine seems confused Keir is including him. It’s not the first time there has been intimacy between the three, but it’s never been like this. It’s always been more aggressive, bordering on rough, between Keir and Blaine.
I don’t move myself off Hutton’s beautiful cock, sating my craving to have him rooted deep inside me as I watch them…it’s passionate, it’s love making. Keir kisses Blaine’s shoulder gently after coming, leaning his head on him while regaining control of his breathing. They ease apart as Caleb hands over a couple washcloths. Blaine decides instead to wipe his cum across Keir’s chest, pressing him to the bed for Matt to lick it off.
They turn to me. “I bet you’re ready to cum again, sweetheart,” Matt says, kissing my hand.
Maybe we’ll set a record tonight.
My heart is in my throat as I take the podium in front of a ballroom full of medical professionals. I feel like a fraud. Why would they listen to me? Then, I remember what Dr. Wallen said. “ What’s an expert, Eden? The title is subjective…People will listen when someone has something to say. When they’ve experienced and learned something valuable.”
I take a deep breath, then begin. “The primary reason people are stuck in trauma cycles is not because they can’t heal from it. We are all born with an innate capacity to triumph over the hardships we endure. The issue is not the capacity, but that the body is not in a condition to heal itself because you’re either at war with the biologically correct symptoms for the state you’re in, or you’re talking about past childhood trauma, which will do nothing but make you feel worse. The trauma is not a past event, it’s your brain perceiving a threat in the here and now and your body preparing to address that threat. We should be working on conveying safety to your nervous system in real time, repeatedly.”
They listen as I talk for almost an hour. With each word my chest opens wider, my breathing slows, my eyes adjust to the lights shining on me, and the words feel like I’m setting myself free.
Leaving the stage to enthusiastic applause, I think of Greg’s last words to me. I think about them daily. “Time always knows when to show up and who to bring, because everything happens for a reason.”
*Is it ever really the end? *