The Virgin Next Door by Stasia Black

Epilogue

MACK

“Is the blindfold really necessary?”Calla asked, tilting her head toward Mack. He was driving and he frowned her way. Liam reached up from the back seat and waved his hand right in front of her face, but she didn’t react. Mack smiled.

“You bet your arse it’s necessary. What’s the point of a grand gesture if it isn’t grand?”

Mack pulled onto the long gravel driveway and Calla grabbed for the door to steady herself when the truck started bouncing up and down.

“Whoa,” she said. “So we’re officially somewhere off the beaten path.”

Mack glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Liam looking smug as fuck. Shit, he’d never hear the end of how this was Liam’s great idea. Rest of his life, the Irish wanker would brag about how he knew just how to make all Calla’s dreams come true.

But then Mack smiled. After all, it was his name going on the paperwork.

Mack slowed the truck down as they came up to the house.

“Wait’s almost over,” Mack said. He parked in front of the house and then Liam got out of the truck and opened Mel’s door for her.

“Can I take the blindfold off now?”

“Not yet,” Liam said.

Mack came around the front of the truck to their side and took Calla’s other hand.

“Now,” he and Liam said together.

Calla reached up and pulled the blindfold off. She blinked a few times in the bright noon sunlight. Then her brow scrunched.

She looked from Liam to Mack. “I don’t understand. Why are we at my family’s old ranch?”

Liam’s grin was so wide it was gonna break his damn face. “Gotta have a place to bring our baby home to, yeah?”

Calla blinked some more. “What do you—”

“We bought the place,” Mack said.

Calla’s mouth dropped open and her eyes went wide. “But how—”

“Turns out there was a reason Mack got a full ride to Harvard. He’s a right smart bastard.”

Calla looked to Mack. He put a hand on the back of his neck. “I just happened to see there was a future in cryptocurrencies. So I made a small investment.”

Calla started smiling but Mack could see she was still confused. Apparently, Liam could see it too.

“Fecking Bitcoin,” Liam said, shaking his head. “Mack bought five-hundred dollars of it in 2011, and now it’s worth fifteen million. Can you fecking believe that?”

“Holy shit,” Calla breathed out. She grabbed Mack’s arm. Her eyes ping-ponged back and forth between them before settling on Mack’s. “Is he serious?”

Mack nodded. He’d worked his ass off at the mechanics shop in town all through high school and had a few grand saved up by the time he went to college… and then prison.

Pres occasionally got a cell phone smuggled in and Mack had used the fifteen minutes of internet Pres granted him to try to do something with the little money he had. Otherwise he knew he’d be fucked when he got out. He’d first heard about cryptocurrencies at Harvard and had read up on it, so that’s where he put five hundred bucks. He’d tried a couple other investments but that was the only one that took off so fucking insanely.

“Can you believe it?” Liam asked. “Now I’m broke but this lanky bastard is our sugar daddy.”

Mack looked at Liam. “Never. Call. Me. That. Again.”

Liam laughed and clapped him on the back. Mack did have to say, though, Liam was taking the whole not-having-a-penny-to-his-name thing surprisingly well. His dad was ‘cutting him off until he came to his senses.’ Liam had responded to that text with a selfie of himself kissing Mack while simultaneously squeezing Calla’s ass. Really, it was quite impressive he’d fit them all in a single camera frame.

“So you bought back my old house?”

“And the ranch,” Liam said. “And an additional five hundred acres on either side of it.”

Calla stumbled a little and Mack grabbed her arm to steady her. “Holy shit,” she whispered again.

“Know you dreamed about setting up a horse training and boarding place, so there’s money in the budget for that.”

Calla just shook her head. “But how? That’s Ned Cunningham’s land and he’d nev—”

Mack felt his blood rise at even hearing the name. “Turns out he’s so ashamed of having a lying, cheating, whore of a daughter, he’s selling out and moving to California.”

“I heard that after the sheriff arrested B— Betty? Bailey? Whatever her name is. Anyway, after she got arrested and everyone learned what she did, some folks who Cunningham was in debt to called in their markers. So he had no choice but to sell.”

“Six months in jail and a four-thousand-dollar fine is a fucking injustice,” Mack muttered. Stunt like that—using a buzzer on a recent broke mustang— Mack’s teeth ground together. The bitch had meant for Calla to get thrown. And plenty of the best horsewomen and men got seriously injured every year. Just last year Mack had seen a guy on a spooked horse get thrown and then dragged a quarter of a mile when his foot got tied up in the stirrup. Even thinking of how easily Calla could have lost the baby made sweat break out on Mack’s forehead.

But apparently, Daddy Cunningham still had enough money for a slick lawyer. He’d gotten his daughter’s charge pled down to assault causing bodily harm.

Then again, Mack himself had finally enjoyed the benefit of a good lawyer for once. Of course it had helped that Liam claimed he’d been the one to shoot Bone. Said the gun was his too.

Mack had never in his life had someone go to the mat like that for him. Seemed like the bastard meant it when he said he loved him. Wonders would never fucking cease.

“I don’t care about Bethany,” Calla waved a hand. “Can we get back to the part where you bought my family’s ranch?” She bounced up and down on her toes, looking around.

A neigh sounded in the distance and Calla froze. Again, her mouth dropped open. “You didn’t,” she whispered.

“We did.” Another grin lit Liam’s face.

Calla took off sprinting around the side of the house toward the barn and horse paddock. Her shrill scream of excitement carried clear across the yard. “Prissy!”

She was over the gate and hugging her horse’s neck by the time Mack and Liam got there. When she looked back at them, tears shone in her eyes. “I can never repay you.”

She ran over, climbed the wooden fence of the paddock, and dragged both Liam and Mack close.

Christ but it was the best feeling in the world. Their two bodies, warm and alive against them. Family. It was Calla who first said it and every day Mack woke up with Calla and Liam in bed beside him, he could still barely believe it.

He ran his hand down her side to her stomach. A month after the Horse Makeover competition and their little one was growing strong.

“No repayment necessary,” Mack said, clearing his throat when the words came out rough. “That’s the point of family, right?”

Calla beamed up at him and she went up on her tiptoes to kiss first him, then Liam.

While she was kissing Liam, Liam gestured behind her back at Mack.

Oh. Right. The other thing.

He dropped on one knee and as soon as Calla broke away from Liam, he did the same.

“What are you—?” If Mack thought Calla’s eyes were wide before, it was nothing to the saucers they became now.

Liam pulled the ring box out of his pocket. “Calla Carter, will you marry us?”

Calla’s hand went to her mouth and more tears glistened in her eyes.

“Mack won the coin toss,” Liam went on, “so it’ll be his name that goes on the official papers, but it’s between all of us.”

Calla just kept standing there, staring down at them.

“Shit,” Mack said, starting to get up. This was too soon. She hadn’t even got used to the—

“Yes!” Calla shouted, dropping down and hugging them both close. “Yes. A million times yes!”

She sounded happy but she was crying. Her back heaved up and down she was crying so hard.

“Darlin,” Mack held her closer, “don’t cry.”

Calla pulled back. “They’re happy tears.”

“How about just the happy, and no tears?” Mack kissed her deep.

She kissed him back and finally her shaking slowed and then stopped. Mack pulled back but only long enough to turn her toward Liam.

Liam put the engagement ring on her finger, then cupped her face and kissed her. It was gentle at first, but it quickly got frantic.

Fuck, it was so hot when they went after each other like that.

“Let’s take this inside,” Mack said, standing up and hauling Calla with him. He smirked at the look of denied lust on Liam’s face.

Mack took Calla’s hand and led her inside. “We haven’t had much time to set up house yet but,” he led her back to the master bedroom that had a single piece of furniture.

The bed.

“We ordered it special,” Liam said, pulling his shirt off over his head and then kissing Calla again. “It’s an ultra king-sized bed.”

“No more having your mattress hogging ass pushing me off in the middle of the night,” Mack said, coming up behind Liam and massaging his shoulders.

Liam shuddered at the touch and Mack’s cock stiffened even more than it already was.

Calla broke off from Liam’s kiss and then moved behind Mack. She tugged at the bottom of his shirt and he paused to pull it off over his head. Then she started massaging him the way he was doing to Liam. Christ he loved having her hands on him.

“Liam and I were talking,” Calla said, her voice husky.

Mack turned his head to look back at her and he raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

Calla bit her lip in a way that had Mack’s cock poking into Liam’s ass. Liam ground back against him.

“What about?”

Liam turned in Mack’s arms and cupped his face like he had Calla’s earlier. He ran his lips back and forth against Mack’s, the stubble on their faces scraping one another. Calla’s arms snaked around his waist and her hand dropped to grip his cock.

“About how we want you to know what it feels like to be the one in the middle,” Calla whispered. “Receiving all the worship.”

Liam jerked Mack toward the bed, pulling him off balance. He stumbled a few steps and Liam took the opportunity to drag him down to the huge bed with him.

Liam landed on top but Mack growled and quickly flipped them so that Liam was underneath. Liam’s breathing went stuttered and Calla joined them on the bed. She’d been wearing a soft little cotton dress but it was a puddle of fabric on the ground. She slid her bra and panties off before crawling toward them in a way that made Mack want to fuck her senseless.

He went to grab her so he could do just that when Liam said, “Turn over and up on your knees.”

Mack shot Liam a look. It was a look that should have communicated—we’ve already settled this. I’m the top. Always.

But Liam just grinned. “We’ll take it easy on you. Promise.” Then he winked at Mack.

Mack was about to put the bastard in his place but Calla put a hand on Mack’s chest. “Please? Do you trust us?”

Mack stared at her face and the want he so clearly saw there. Did he trust them? Well yeah, but—

“Please,” Calla said again.

And shit, how was he supposed to say no when she was flashing those soulful hazel eyes his way. Not to mention she’d grabbed his cock again and he thought he might start begging if he didn’t have a hot, wet hole to stick it in soon.

“So how do you want me?” He directed it at Calla. He didn’t think he could quite handle the smug look that was undoubtedly on Liam’s face.

“On your knees.” Calla’s eyes sparkled with excitement.

Mack’s chest went tight at exposing himself like that. How many nights had Bone shoved him face down into the bunk and then—

Bone can’t hurt you anymore. Or anyone else. This is Calla and Liam. You trust them. You love them.

Mack swallowed hard and forced himself to roll over. He couldn’t help how tense his entire body went, though.

“Shh,” Calla whispered, rubbing a soothing hand down his spine. She must have sensed his tension.

He hated that. He was supposed to be the strong one. He was supposed to—

“Fuck,” he shouted as a mouth closed around his cock. He looked down and there was Liam’s head between his legs, mouth circling his cock. He was on his back, hand at Mack’s shaft, feeding the crown in and out of his lips.

His blue eyes sought Mack out. They were wide. Unsure. Looked like he wasn’t the only one who felt vulnerable in this position.

For some reason that made Mack relax. This was Liam and this was Calla.

He even managed to stay mostly still when he felt a probing finger at his anus.

But that was because he was paralyzed.

This is my ass, baby boy. No one will ever fuck it as good as I do. I fucking own you. Stop that goddamned whimpering. You want to walk tomorrow? Because I’ll—

“Mackenzie?” Calla’s voice broke Mack out of the memory that was so fucking vivid, for a second, he’d been back there. Under Bone’s stinking body.

“Honey,” she asked, “are you okay? Because I can st—”

“Keep going,” Mack said through gritted teeth. He refused to let Bone have any more of his life than he’d already stolen. Not that it was that simple. How many times had he told himself not to give that fucker another thought?

He’d hoped the nightmares would end now that Bone was locked up again—and dickless. Mack had the satisfaction of learning that the surgeons hadn’t been able to do anything but sew together the little bit of flesh that was left after Mack shot the damn thing to smithereens. Bone was left like a sexless Ken doll, pissing out of a permanently inserted catheter. Nurses were surprisingly chatty when it came to a serial rapist who’d murdered two EMTs in cold blood.

Even knowing all that, Mack had still woken up a couple times in the dead of night, the old nightmares riding him.

Unlike in the past, though, Liam and Calla’s warm bodies tucked against his had soothed him enough to be able to go back to sleep more quickly than he used to. So maybe he’d never be cured in a single stroke. But he’d be damned sure to do everything he could to take back what that monster had stolen.

One of Calla’s fingers pushed against his asshole. He sucked in a breath. Her finger was slick. She must have lubed it. Christ, how long had she and Liam been planning this?

“Shh,” Calla whispered again. “That’s right. Let me in. Let us love you.”

Liam licked around his crown and then sucked him in again.

“Jesus Christ,” he moaned, his head falling down against his forearms. Calla took the opportunity to slip her finger inside. First one, and then another.

Initially Mack squeezed his eyes shut—but it was too easy to imagine Bone was the one behind him. So he opened his eyes and looked down his chest to where Liam was enthusiastically slurping at his cock.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. Having both of them work on him at the same time. That was so fucking h—

“Oh,” he grunted, his whole body jerking as Calla’s fingers zeroed in on that spot.

Liam let go of Mack’s cock long enough to say, “Gently. Make sure to go gently.”

But Mack shook his head as he gave into the sensation. “No. Harder. Jesus. Fuck. Harder.”

It was so good. Fuck. It was indescribable. To have something that had been only associated with horror, now to be so fucking good…

His cock hit the back of Liam’s throat but Liam didn’t pull off him. No, he swallowed him even more. He was clearly unused to the sensation. Calla was usually the one sucking him off. Liam hadn’t had much practice. But what he didn’t have in technique he made up for in eagerness. His long tongue never stopped moving.

It was fucking sensational. And with Calla’s fingers working their goddamned magic. Within minutes Mack was grabbing the sheets and roaring as he had one of the hardest, most intense orgasms of his entire life.

He slid to the side and collapsed, feeling like Liam had just sucked the life out of him. Both Liam and Calla were smiling—Liam with a satisfied grin and Calla with that gentle tilt to her lips.

Goddammit but he loved them. The feeling almost tore his fucking heart apart it was so piercing.

“Make love to her,” he said, barely getting the words out he was so out of breath.

Liam crawled up the bed and Calla joined him. She crawled over Mack, kissing him long and lazily.

He closed his eyes and sank into the sensation. The solid bump of her stomach pressed into him. Their child. Growing inside her. It was so fucking insane.

He couldn’t believe he was here. Wanted. Loved.

Calla let out a sudden breathy little gasp and Mack lifted his heavy eyes to look over her shoulder. Liam’s face was a mask of concentration.

Damn, he was taking her ass.

Mack felt his cock stir back to life. Holy shit. The orgasm he had, he thought he’d be satisfied for a whole week. A goddamned month.

But with Calla’s body jerking over his as Liam took her ass, his cock got stiffer and stiffer.

He pulled Calla’s head down for a deep kiss even as he reached to line up his cock at her entrance. Jesus she was wet. So wet and wanting. Always wanting.

As Mack slid home inside her, feeling Liam’s cock through the thin wall of her body, he thought: fuck. This is it. This is perfection.

He’d spent so much of his life filled with hate. Waging his one-man war against evil. Willing to die for it.

Only to discover that there was also a certain kind of beautiful in the world so precious that once you found it, there was nothing to do except live for it. Breathe for it. Give every last ounce of your being for it.

It was a lesson he was learning late.

But one he’d happily spend the rest of his life perfecting.

* * *

Want to read an EXCLUSIVE, FREE bonus story set in the Stud Ranch world?

Reece is all heart. He’s not the kind of man to stand back and do nothing when he sees someone in trouble…

Click to grab MEET REECE now so you don’t miss out!

* * *

Hungry for more dark romance by Stasia Black?

Keep reading for a sneak peek of Reece…