Nanny for the Army Rangers by Krista Wolf

 

Thirty-Five

 

 

DELILAH

The candles flickered. Like the winds of change had passed through the room.

“You,” I repeated numbly.

“Yes.”

“You want me to date you.”

Liam scratched his chin, flexing one beautiful arm into a perfectly-formed bicep. I had a flash of recollection of me wrapping my hand around that bicep. Beside him, the others nodded.

“And which one of you would I date?” I asked glibly. “And which two of you would be left out in the cold, to hate me for the rest of your lives, while the other—”

“All of us,” Julius interrupted me, his arms still crossed. “You’d date all three of us.”

If my heart was racing before, it was practically hammering out of my chest now. I looked up at them one by one, disbelievingly. But then again, not totally disbelievingly, because somewhere in the twisting pit of my stomach, what they were saying made perfect sense.

“Mind if we cut through the bullshit?” Duncan asked.

I exhaled slowly. “Please do.”

“Good,” he said, looking relieved, “because we’ve been idiots so far. We’ve hidden our feelings. We’ve tried to tiptoe around the elephant in the room, instead of coming clean with you.”

I took another sip from my glass, reflexively. My head was swimming now, but not from the wine.

“You’re amazing,” Liam stepped in. “With the kids, with us, with everything. You’re smart, you’re handy, you’re funny, and you’re beautiful.” He tilted his head and shrugged. “You totally blow our socks off, Delilah. You’re the full package.”

“And on top of all that,” said Julius, “you’re absolutely wicked in bed.”

An inner heat rose inside me. I was suddenly sweating.

“It was crazy for just one of us to sleep with you,” said Liam, “much less all three. Not because it was wrong, but because we were risking a woman our children loved so much! We could’ve easily lost you. We could’ve frightened you away.”

“No,” I breathed. “Never.”

“But temptation was overwhelming,” Liam went on. “We couldn’t help ourselves! There was attraction of course, but also such an emotional closeness and intimacy that it couldn’t be denied. One by one we gave in to our urges. And when we sat down to talk about it, none of us could blame any of the others for what happened.”

I knew what he meant because I’d felt it too: a comfort, a closeness… a feeling of attachment that went well beyond the physical.

And my God, the physical was already so overwhelming to begin with!

“Look at me,” said Duncan, drawing my attention back to him. “I know you’re thinking we can’t possibly want this. That it wouldn’t work. That if we’re jealous right now of you being out with some other guy, we’d be three times as jealous of each other too.”

I wanted to nod, because it was exactly what I was thinking. But he saw it in my eyes already.

“That wouldn’t happen between us, Delilah,” he said. “It couldn’t happen, and that’s because the three of us are brothers. We’ve fought together, lived together, put our very lives in each other’s hands. Even now in the civilian world, we fell into business together. We’re restoring this very place together!”

He threw up one hand, waving it around. Liam took over.

“The point is, we share everything,” he said. “We always have. And now we’re sharing the most incredible thing in the world: fatherhood. Even though it was thrust upon us, it’s been amazing in ways we never could’ve possibly imagined.”

They all nodded. Julius uncrossed his arms.

“And it’s been a thousand times more amazing,” he said solemnly, “since the five of us started sharing it with you.”

The room went abruptly quiet after that, and silence reigned. It was so absolute, so total, I swore I could hear the flickering of the candle flames.

I thought about what they said, what I felt, what I’d been feeling all along. Eventually, I spoke:

“You really want this?” I asked. “All of you?”

They nodded again in unison.

“I mean it,” I reiterated. “Because if we go down this road, it can’t be half-assed. I don’t want to hear how you dipped your feet in the water and found it was too cold for you, and then a few weeks from now—”

“It would never be like that,” Liam promised. “Ever.”

“Because I think I need this as much as you do,” I said truthfully. “Ever since I got here I can’t stop thinking about you! And not just one of you, but all three. All of the time.”

The guys’ eyes lit up. It was cute how quickly they looked hopeful.

“I mean, I just came from a date with a pretty great guy,” I said, “where I couldn’t even enjoy myself. We had dinner, we had drinks. We walked on a beach and shared a first kiss…”

“You kissed him?” growled Duncan.

“Yes,” I said. “And it felt like absolutely nothing. Like kissing the back of my arm.”

I’d been staring forward almost hypnotically into one of the slowly-flickering candles. Now I snapped back to the present, my eyes shifting up to them.

“I want you all,” I said truthfully. “In every way. Is that wrong? Does that make me greedy, because it sure feels like—”

“NO,” Duncan said, so abruptly it startled just about all of us. He smiled sheepishly. “No, it doesn’t.”

“Because I have to tell you,” I said, draining the rest of my glass, “I’m pretty obsessed right now. The way you held me, the way you kissed me. The way you took control of my body, and did things to me no single man ever could…”

I sighed wistfully and held out my empty glass. “Is there any more of this?”

They refilled it quickly, and without a word. The butterflies in my stomach were still there, but they were good butterflies. Like the ones you get on Christmas morning, in anticipation of something fantastic.

Three boyfriends…

I let them hang there for a little while longer, sipping whatever delicious red wine they’d uncorked for me while pretending to make my decision. Only my decision had already been made. It’d been made since the beach earlier tonight, and most likely even before.

Delilah! Really?

I stood up and turned around. Then, reaching beneath my dress, I began slowly rolling my panties down my legs.

“W—What are you doing?” I heard Liam stammer.

“Preparing myself for what’s about to happen.”

Inch by inch I kept going, until they passed my knees and dropped to the floor. It was a simple thing to step out of them, even with my heels on.

“This is what you want, right?” I asked them. “To share me? To have me whenever you want me?”

Stunned silence. Then Duncan’s voice, sounding very low and far away:

“Yes.”

“Well I’ve got needs too,” I said. “Lots of needs. And as long as we’re cutting through the bullshit, you boys should know it’s going to take all three of you to fulfill them.”

I could feel the blood coursing through my veins now, bringing a prickly heat to every part of my body. Especially certain parts.

They were finally moving in my direction when I bent myself over the couch. I reached down, and slowly lifted the hem of my dress. They watched collectively as it crawled higher, sliding upward and over my naked ass.

“I need you to convince me,” I said, swaying it seductively back and forth in front of them. “Show me what it’ll be like to have three boyfriends.”

On a whim I slid my hand down my belly and through my wetness. I was already soaked as I slid my middle finger inside and smiled at them over my shoulder.

“I need you to sell me on it.”