Epilogue #3
When Jesse slumped over her, holding himself up on shaking arms, she reached up to curl a hand around his neck. “I’d hug you,” she murmured to him, the words slurred with pleasure and exhaustion, “but I think we’d crush Knox.”
“No crushing,” Knox croaked beneath her.
“Roll,” Jesse wheezed. “To the right.”
“My right or yours?” Knox wanted to know. Since they’d be doing the rolling, Chloe just concentrated on breathing.
“Yours,” Jesse said. “On the count of three.”
They counted it out, then rolled, somewhat ungainly, Jesse’s softening dick slipping out of her on the way.
“Oops,” he said and flopped to the mattress. “I’ll get that in a minute.”
She waved a hand, then let it fall to the bed and just lay there, dripping sweat, dripping lube. Dripping come. “Whatever.”
“I have to deal with the condom,” Knox said.
“Right.” She wasn’t so fond of this part, when the heat of lust had cooled and things felt way less sexy, but like the prep, it was part of the price of doing business. “I’m ready.”
He eased out of her, using voice and hands to soothe, and rolled off the bed. “I’ll bring back a washcloth.”
“Bring two,” Jesse mumbled, his eyes already closed.
“Don’t fall asleep,” she warned him. “It’s your turn to change the sheets.”
He yawned. “You’re not even sleeping over tonight, so what do you care?”
“I’m going to take a nap, and I don’t want to sleep in the wet spot.”
“I’m taking a nap too, and I don’t mind the wet spot.”
“You’re weird,” she decided.
“He is,” Knox agreed, the mattress giving when he settled back in behind her. He passed a cloth over her to Jesse, then warned, “It’s going to be cool.”
She hummed with pleasure as he cleaned her up. “Feels great.”
“Why aren’t you sleeping over tonight again?” Knox wanted to know.
She rolled over onto her back to smile at him. “Because it’s Bailey’s birthday tomorrow.”
“Oh, right.” Amused, he turned the cloth over and swiped it down her chest, between her breasts. “The birthday wish tradition.”
“Hey, don’t knock it.” Swiping the damp cloth over his groin, Jesse flashed them a grin. “It got us here, didn’t it?”
“I guess it did, though I think we’d have ended up here anyway.” Knox set the cloth aside, then lay down beside Chloe.
“Do you believe that?” she asked him.
He smiled. “Absolutely. Jesse?”
“What?”
“Do you think we’d have gotten here without Chloe’s birthday wish?”
“Sure.” Jesse set his cloth aside and flopped down. “Might not have been as fun, though.”
“It has been fun,” Chloe agreed, then winced. “Well, most of it.”
“Your mom’s come a long way,” Knox said soothingly.
Chloe rolled her eyes. “If you consider not calling you ‘those two gigolos’ at Memorial Day the way she did at Easter a long way, then I guess she has.”
“At this rate, she might actually call us by name at Thanksgiving,” Jesse mused.
“Your dad likes us,” Knox offered.
Chloe snorted. “You gave him a thirty percent discount on redoing the back deck.”
“Whatever works,” Jesse said cheerfully. “So, do you want to move in?”
Chloe started. “What?”
“Jesse,” Knox groaned, dropping a hand over his eyes. “We were going to wait for the right time, remember?”
“Hey, we all just came, and the post-coital glow is excellent,” Jesse argued. “What time could be better?”
“Jesus Christ,” Knox muttered.
“Hang on a minute.” Struggling to a sitting position, Chloe scooted back against the headboard so she could look at both of them. “Are you asking me to move in with you?”
Jesse rolled onto his belly and propped his chin on his hands. “Yeah. What do you think?”
She stared at him, then at Knox, whose hand still covered his eyes. “I think…it’s soon.”
“A little, yeah,” Jesse acknowledged. “But we love you, and you love us, so what’s the point in waiting?”
Knox sighed so loud she thought the fan had kicked into high gear, then dropped his hand. “I’m sorry about him. He has no impulse control.”
“It’s part of my charm,” Jesse said defensively.
Knox just glowered at him. “Right. Charm.”
“It is part of your charm,” Chloe said, lips twitching when Jesse sent Knox a smug look. “But…it’s really soon, Jesse. We’ve only been seeing each other for six months. And there’s a lot we haven’t talked about.”
“Like what?”
“Like…” She floundered in the face of his wide-eyed earnestness, and in desperation looked at Knox.
Reading her perfectly, he jumped into the breach. “Like kids.”
“Okay, let’s talk about kids,” Jesse said equably. “Do you want ’em?”
Chloe tossed up her hands. “I don’t know. I always thought I did, so maybe. But I also really like where I am now, without them, so maybe not.”
“Jesse, it’s not a one-time, yes or no talk,” Knox said gently. “Things like kids, the future…these are long term conversations. Remember we had these before we got married?”
“Oh, yeah.” Jesse scratched the side of his nose. “I didn’t love those.”
Knox was amused. “I remember.”
“Plus, you guys are married,” Chloe said, jumping back in. “How I fit into that, long term? That’s complicated.”
Jesse sighed. “So what you’re saying is it’s too soon.”
“Yeah.” His sad puppy dog expression had her reaching out to cup his face in her hands. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry enough that you’ll change the sheets?” he asked hopefully.
She raised an eyebrow. “What happened to ‘I don’t mind the wet spot’?”
He grimaced. “I lied. Wet spots are gross.”
Knox barked out a laugh, and she grinned. “No, I’m not changing the sheets.”
“Fine,” he muttered and heaved himself off the bed, tugging at the top sheet. “Get up.”
“Jeez.” Chloe scooted off the bed, grimacing when a trickle of something—spunk or lube—oozed down her leg. “Be right back.”
“Get the pillowcases, too,” Knox instructed Jesse as she duck-walked to the bathroom.
“Why? Nobody jizzed on the pillows,” Jesse replied.
Laughing, listening to them bicker, she finished cleaning up. She gave serious thought to a quick spin in the shower, then rejected it. She’d get one after her nap, before she joined Gwen and Bailey at the hotel suite for Bailey’s birthday celebration.
Wondering what Bailey would choose as her thirtieth birthday wish, she walked back into the bedroom.
Jesse was fluffing the duvet, Knox stuffing the last of the pillows into a case. “Perfect timing,” she sighed and slid between cool sheets. “Hey, guys?”
Jesse flopped down beside her. “Uh-huh?”
“When you ask again? You know, when the time is right?”
Her eyes were already starting to droop, but she saw Jesse’s brown eyes, so warm, so rich, meet hers. “What about it?”
“I’m going to say yes.”
His dimple flashed, joy dancing in his eyes. “Yeah?”
She nodded and let her eyes slide all the way closed. “Yeah.”
Behind her, Knox brushed a kiss across her bare shoulder. “Go to sleep, Chloe. We’ll be here when you wake up.”
“’Kay. Love you,” she said and yawned, her ears popping and blocking out anything they might have said in return. But Jesse’s hand groped for hers under the sheet and Knox kissed her shoulder again before curling around her, and she knew they loved her, too.
And with some luck and hard work and remembering what mattered, they just might live happily ever after.