Chapter 19
KADENCE
Midnight rolled around, and Annika did her count before pulling her jacket on and saying goodbye to security. Big Mike pulled her car around the front for her, keeping the driver’s door open before opening the passenger side door for me.
“You ladies be safe now.”
“Bye, Mike,” Annika cooed before pulling off. “Okay, so I’m gonna warn you since you didn’t mention anything earlier about texting for the spare room.”
“Your boyfriend?”
She nodded. “I don’t have one boyfriend. I have three.”
I nodded before what she said was processed in my brain. “Wait. Three?”
She laughed. “Yeah. We're in a poly relationship, all of us. Andrew—he likes being called Drew, though—Noah and Theo.”
“Three?”
“Yeah. We met in high school. I didn’t understand it at first. I never knew someone could fall in love with multiple people at once, but it happened.”
I blinked. “I…How’s the sex?”
She bit her lip. “Fucking amazing. We are all bisexual, so seeing my men fuck each other before devouring me is…God. We can go for hours. What about you?”
I sighed. “I’m getting over something bad.
Still processing the trauma from a toxic relationship, but I’m also bisexual—I think.
I mean I slept with a lot of people just to piss off my dad, but my most recent relationship, I enjoyed being with the girls he’d watch me fuck more than being with him, so I don’t know what my sexuality is now.
But I know I don’t see myself with a guy for a while, if ever again. ”
“I’m sorry for whatever you had to endure.
My guys are very respectful of boundaries, so you won’t have to worry about them trying anything unless you consent.
That’s something else we like—we also share.
We haven’t added anyone else to our relationship yet.
And sometimes only two of us, sometimes all of us. ”
“Oh wow…Uhm, I don’t know. I don’t trust myself right now, and I don’t trust men, especially. Right now, we can all be best buddies.”
For the rest of the drive home, Annika told me more about how the four of them got together.
She was the quiet girl who kept to herself in the library, her father’s strict rules about grades and college keeping her isolated.
The boys were popular jocks with different niches in sports.
Noah was already her friend since they were neighbors, but neither one of them acknowledged their existence at school.
They met Drew later when he transferred in their senior year and dominated the football team.
High school was when her exhibitionist streak started. She kept her curtains open when she changed or got out of the shower because she knew Noah would be watching. One night, she moved her bed so he could see her fuck herself.
“My dad…” she paused, but I could hear the shakiness in her voice, “my dad was abusive. He hit me a lot when he was drunk or when I got bad grades once my mom died. He was drowning her memory in alcohol, and I look a lot like my mom.” She stopped, biting her lip as her fingers curled around the steering wheel tighter.
I knew what she was trying to push back. “Hey, you don’t have to tell me.”
She smiled, wiping the stray tear that rolls down her cheek.
“It’s okay. I’ve been happy so I haven't thought about him. He didn’t get the chance to hurt me.
He came into my room when I was sleeping, calling me Miranda and pulling back the covers.
I screamed, thinking he’d realize I wasn’t my mom, but it didn’t work.
He ripped my nightgown. I screamed for help, but didn’t think anyone would hear me. ”
“Drew, Noah, and Theo all came to my rescue before he could hurt me. The cops arrested him, and Noah’s parents let me stay with them. That’s when we started getting closer to each other.”
“I’m sorry about what happened, but you got three amazing men who love you in the end.”
“Oh yeah. I couldn’t live this life without them in it.”
Annika pulled into the parking lot of her apartment complex, and a muscular man with shaggy, black hair and light brown skin was waiting for her.
She ran out of the car, jumping into his arms and slamming her lips against his.
He was hot even in the pink robe and bunny slippers he was wearing.
His tattoos were peeking through the fuzzy fabric, covering him from head to toe—at least I think they were from the exposed flesh I could see.
He spun her around as Annika held his face, drowning in a deep kiss.
Awkwardly, I trifled with my nails, waiting for them to finish their moment.
Annika jumped from his arms, wobbling on her feet as he steadied her. She grabbed his hand with a smile and pulled him to the car door. Annika giggled as the man made a show of opening my car door with a bow and extending his hand. I arched my brow, looking at Annika.
“I won’t bite, unless you ask.” I took his hand and slipped out of the seat. “Theo Sandoval. Nice to meet you, Kadence.”
A name to put to the face. “Hi.”
“Drew cooked shrimp alfredo. He was ecstatic to cook for someone else besides us.”
“Drew is a chef. Anything to show off his talent in the kitchen. Come on.” Annika pulled me upstairs while Theo followed behind us.
Once inside, I let out a deep breath I didn’t know I was holding when I was met by a six-foot tank of a man with medium-brown skin and tattoos down the front of his torso and neck.
He was double the size of Theo with a strong jawline and deep, mocha-brown eyes.
He screamed fuck around and find out. His gray sweatpants hung low, showing off his abs and his pronounced V-line.
Annika was puny compared to him. I stared up at him, dumbfounded, praying he didn't think I was being rude.
“Jesus Christ, you're big,” I quipped, looking between him and Theo.
Annika grabbed him, her arms not wrapping around him fully. “Oh yeah, he is.”
“Please, don’t pull out your penis.”
“Noah Jr. only comes out when he is asked nicely.” He winked, grabbing Annika and kissing her temple. “Nice to meet you,” he said to me.
“Please stop calling your dick that or I won’t fuck you for a week.”
Noah led us upstairs and opened the door to their apartment.
It was a cozy little place with a boho vibe to it.
There was a sage-green sectional couch with a variety of neutral colored pillows and throw blankets.
The walls had various shelves with books and plants hanging with accents of brown and more sage to match the couch.
There were also fairy lights hanging from the glass balcony window.
I looked at the pictures on the wall and smiled at the ones of them when they were younger and their lives were just starting. They were adorable.
I went to take off my jacket, and instantly froze when I looked down at my body. My cheeks burned as I pulled the jacket back up, realizing I didn’t have any clothes. Annika grabbed my hand and pulled me to her bedroom, going to the wide dresser in the corner.
She handed me a long, dark-blue t-shirt. “It’s like a dress on me. So it should be the same for you. Get dressed. Pee. Do whatever, and then you can come and join us in the kitchen.”
I nodded as she walked out of the room. I sat on the edge of her massive California king bed.
What had I gotten myself into with this town?
Already it was nothing like back home, but this was going to be my future, so I might as well make the best of it and not make any enemies.
I didn’t need some other traumatizing event happening to me right now.
I stripped out of the lingerie set, bunching it up before pulling the comfy, faded dark tee over my body.
It was a little snug on my chest, but it fit everywhere else, stopping at my upper thigh.
As I walked back into the living room, I pulled my hair up into a messy bun.
I’d worry about taking my makeup off later.
Right now, the aroma that filled the air smelled amazing, and my belly grumbled in agreement.
I paused, my mouth agape as I watched Annika straddle Theo’s lap with Noah behind her, cupping her ass and kissing her neck.
Her having three men was not what piqued my curiosity, but how the hell she fucked them.
The question was burning the tip of my tongue, but I could save that question for another day.
Watching people have sex wasn’t something I shied away from, so I’d like to be a fly on the wall when it came to the foursome they had.
I cocked my head to the side, picturing Annika bent in odd positions before snapping out of my mind.
A noise in the kitchen drew me to the savory aroma, the scent hitting my nose and making my stomach growl.
It had been entirely too long since I'd had a home cooked meal.
There was another muscular man with his blond hair pulled into a man bun and tattoos that tangled up his body to his jawline.
How the hell were all three of these men insanely hot and huge?
Annika found men straight out of a GQ magazine.
“Drew?”
He looked at me with a bright smile, and I saw the scar across his right eye. Recognition fluttered through my mind, but I couldn't place his face.
“Hey, Kadence, right?” I nodded. “Welcome to our humble abode. Lemme guess, make out session on the couch?”
“Yeah, I didn’t want to intrude.”
“Sit, and I’ll bring you a plate.” I thanked him, sitting in the corner chair.
I pulled out my phone. It wasn’t my iPhone that I adored, but it was enough to keep memories of my brother and text if I made friends.
My fingers hovered over the keypad as my father’s number repeated in my head.
I didn’t know why there was a part of me that wanted to call him and tell him I was safe.
Years of neglect made me hate him, but why was he the one person I wanted?
Locking my phone, I tossed it to the side, dragging my fingers through my blue hair. One day, I’d call him and talk, but I needed things to settle before I did. For now, my main focus was processing what happened and moving on.