Chapter 14
Friday evening, Willow left her apartment wearing jeans and a T-shirt. The experiment had been from six Thursday to six the following Thursday, and she’d opted to go to her apartment the night before when the time was up.
The men were interested in continuing, and she’d needed to consider what she wanted to agree to.
The night alone, when she was used to sleeping with two men, left her feeling off.
The bed had felt too big, too cold. No steady heat at her back, no warm thigh over hers to keep her pinned in place.
She’d curled around a pillow, but it didn’t smell like any of them, and the quiet was too loud without their breathing.
She’d enjoyed her alone time in the cabin. Hadn’t missed James even a tiny bit.
But she’d missed all three men while she was away from them.
Breakfast had been lonely. And sure, she’d spent three hours masturbating today — she’d chased herself over the edge again and again, fingers working fast, toys humming, but it was hollow without the weight of a man’s body keeping her down, without the sharp edge of being told she couldn’t come.
Relief without permission didn’t scratch the itch they’d conditioned into her in less than a fucking week.
And this week had given her what she wanted in a way she hadn’t understood when only two or three days into it. Monday morning, she’d awakened at the proper time, so she had fifteen minutes to use the toilet, brush her teeth and hair, and wash her face.
She’d stood outside Kenny’s room until his alarm had gone off. Entered as instructed. Started his shower. It was only the second time, but already, it was routine. Ritual.
And then Silas, who’d given her three strikes with a cruel loopy Johnny before fucking her ass and then giving a casual, “Dismissed” on his way to the shower.
The welts had stung all through breakfast, each shift in her chair sending a reminder up her spine — pain wrapped in routine, the kind that left her wet even while she winced.
Once she’d known where to find things in the kitchen, cooking for them was no longer stressful. Making sure their drinks didn’t go empty was habit. Taking care of them felt good. Right.
After the first two days, she’d thought the morning ritual too much, but by the end, all the sex parts were fine.
Better than fine. The ritual of her days was soothing, anchoring her into her submission, into belonging.
But that damned egg and plug in her every day while they were at work needed to go, and yet, if she gave herself to them, could she make that demand?
Maybe she could at least ask for them to be turned off during her personal time? They never came on when she was driving, so they were clearly programmable.
And then there was Boone’s damned fist. Fuck.
She’d worried he’d stretch her beyond her ability to bounce back, but Kenny had bought this damned pussy exerciser she had to do for ten minutes every other fucking day, to be built up to every day.
And he could sign into the Perifit app to see her progress. Damn.
Which meant she didn’t have a reason to deny the fisting.
It was Boone’s big kink — refusing it would’ve been like James refusing to so much as give her an OTK spanking.
Which he had. Denial of your biggest desires sucked, and she couldn’t do that to Boone even if the memory of his knuckles haunted her even while driving, her thighs clenching at way they’d relentlessly forced her open without mercy.
Kenny had told her the three of them would very much be interested in continuing this.
That if they do, Silas and Boone would move in, and that would involve some construction.
Her room and the playroom would see some changes.
Their bedrooms. Probably a few rooms added downstairs — a weight room for Boone, the kitchen changed a little for Silas’s preferences.
Which put the ball in her court, but she wasn’t sure how much she could or should negotiate. If she demanded too much, it might spoil what the men had started.
And yet, a few things would have to change. They’d been great for a week, but not indefinitely.
Willow parked and turned the engine off, the weight of the list in her bag pulling at her. The front door swung open before she’d even hit the first step, Kenny with a full-on warm smile that hit low in her belly, loosening the knot she’d been carrying all day.
This was a negotiation, not a fight. These men cared for her, and she cared for them. It was about finding balance — a way to make sure everyone’s needs, including hers, were seen to.
“Did you have a nice day?” he asked.
“I did, and the drive was gorgeous. We’re past peak color, but it’s still breathtaking around the river.”
They fell into an easy rhythm walking together, and when they reached the downstairs office, a drink was waiting for her when she sat at the conference table. A sip confirmed sweet peach tea.
Boone and Silas were already seated, but Boone stood to give her a quick kiss. Silas eyed her appraisingly, off to her right.
She figured he was trying to get on top of the negotiations. No doubt, he had some doozies he’d want her to agree to.
She set her bag down, unzipped the front pocket, and pulled out her notebook.
“I’d like to start,” she said, meeting each of their eyes in turn. “I care about all of you. I’d like to extend this… I think we’ve passed beyond calling it an experiment, but whatever it is, there’ll need to be some changes before we can keep going.”
“Agreed,” Kenny said. “Let’s hear yours first, and then we can get to ours.”
Right. Theirs. What were they going to want? She couldn’t think about that yet. One thing at a time.
“First,” she began, “I’d like a night off in the rotation.
So, foursome night, then one night with each of you, then a night off, except for whoever sleeps with me, then back through the three of you, and then the foursome again.
” She took a breath. “And there doesn’t need to be more than one or maybe two super-intense scenes per week, especially if ya’ll aren’t going to let me change, but even if you do, two a week is probably the max. ”
They exchanged a glance she couldn’t quite read, and Kenny said. “I think we can coordinate so most weeks only have two scenes that go above and beyond a baseline, but Boone’s fisting is going to be considered below it, and every scene with Silas is going to be intense, so his baseline is higher.”
“And there will be no guarantees,” Silas said.
“We’ll consider how well you’re holding up most weeks and, as Kenny said, coordinate between us, but some weeks we may give you three in a row just make the point that we own you and we can hurt you more than you think you can take day after day, if we choose. ”
She blew out a breath. “Yeah. Okay. This is a balance of making sure I don’t get burned out while not taking away your authority and ownership. I’m not entirely happy with that, but it’s probably the best way to handle it.”
She put a check mark beside her first entry, read through the second, and looked across the table to Kenny.
“I hate the egg and plug. The random vibrations, keeping me on edge all day.” She sighed.
“But I realize I’ll break something in how the week went if I demand they go away, so I’d like them turned off during my personal time. ”
Her cheeks went hot, not from embarrassment, but from the sudden rush of images — the plug coming on while she vacuumed and her having to stop, the egg and plug both engaging while she’d been bent over, cleaning a tub.
Again, the room was silent a good thirty seconds before he said, “Agreed, but only on the days you’re allowed personal time, of course. If you lose it, the devices stay active.”
She checked that one off her list, scanned the next, and looked back up.
“The morning routine — servicing all three of you sexually plus fixing two breakfasts is a lot. It feels like, for this one, I should tell you it’s too much, day in and day out, and then let ya’ll figure out a change I can agree to. ”
When they were quiet again, she asked, “Are ya’ll telepathing?”
Kenny met her gaze. “We are.”
She nodded. That explained a lot.
It also put her at a disadvantage in the negotiations, but she figured since that’s how they managed her the rest of the time, it didn’t make sense for her to insist all communications happened out loud.
Another minute, and Silas said, “None of us wants to forego draining our balls into you every motherfucking morning.”
Kenny chuckled. “Not the way I’d have worded it, but that’s the gist of it.
However, if you can go down and get the bacon started, Boone and I can come down and help with the rest, so it’s the three of us cooking together.
You’ll still be responsible for seeing to our drinks, but the rest of breakfast will be a joint effort. ”
“As you saw this week,” Silas said, “I only want breakfast at home about half the time. I sample the goods that cooked overnight when I’m pulling things out of the smoker, so depending on what I’ll be doing when I get to the restaurant…
” He shrugged. “I can cook my own breakfast on the mornings I want it, though it’ll be nice to have some company. ”
She smiled. “Yeah, I can sit with you, even be your gofer and prep-cook a little, here and there.”
Feeling better about how things were going, she crossed that one off, glanced at the next, and looked back up.
“Who did everyone’s laundry before? Because it needs to go back to that.
I can do my own laundry, but doing everyone’s, plus all the sheets and towels, is too much for the time I have to do housework.
I have to deal with it on my personal time, and two days last week, stuff had to sit in the dryer until the next morning because ya’ll came home and I didn’t want to interrupt our time together because I had to go hang clothes. ”