Their Virgin Neighbor (11 page)

Was this right?

Was she acting out of
character?

Was this about more than just her
desires?

Was the grief making her act
out?

The questions had filled her one after
the other, and she had needed some time to not only process them
all, but to find some answers. She’d headed back to the cottage
even though both Jack and Lee had asked her to stay.

“
I need some me time,”
she’d told them.

What had actually happened wasn’t so
much a thinking session, but was more about Anna firing up her
laptop and typing the words ‘ménage relationship’ into Google. The
results she’d gotten back had been interesting to say the
least.

Anna had never really considered all
of the different relationship models out in the world. Her
upbringing had been conservative enough for her to think marriage
was the norm, but feminist enough for her to be aware that
male-male and female-female relationships were equally as
legitimate. Grand, however, had never mentioned a ménage
relationship, and though Anna had always been aware that some
people enjoyed them, until Google brought back its search results,
she hadn’t realized just how widespread they were. Anna, it seemed,
was not the only woman being pleasured by two men…

She’d returned to the farmhouse a few
days later, and though the questions she’d had around her own
motivations, the grief, the feeling of being wrapped in this bubble
of feelings, hadn’t been answered, any questions Anna might have
had about the moral aspects of her relationship with Lee and Jack
had.

They were three consenting
adults.

They were all healthy.

They were honest with one
another.

They weren’t hurting
anyone.

This was their choice.

Anna smiled slightly as she picked up
the brown wool with her left hand and the green wool with her
right. It wasn’t possible to pick just one. Both men awakened a
need inside of her, and both quenched it just as easily. She had no
choice but to combine the two. Carefully, Anna began to unwind both
balls. She then took the end of each and began to twist the two
strands of wool into one…

“
New project?”

“
Jack!”

Anna turned at the exact same moment
that Jack bent down to drop a kiss on her head. It landed on her
lips instead and she inhaled sharply. He smelled of grease and
sweat. The scents combined and made her stomach clench. Jack always
smelled a certain way and Anna loved it. Already her nipples were
beginning to harden…

“
Time to go, Annie,” he
said.

“
Go?” she asked. “Where
are we going?”

He ran a hand down her arm, his
fingers brushing the curve of her breast. Anna couldn’t help the
little mew that fell from her lips. Jack grinned. “Not upstairs if
that’s what you’re thinking. Geez, woman, you’re
insatiable.”

“
I wasn’t thinking
that!”

His grin widened. “Uh huh.”

“
So where are we going?”
she asked.

“
It’s a surprise,” he
said. “Come on.”

Anna placed the wool back on the table
and let Jack take her hand. He pulled her up in one quick move so
that she was pushed against the length of him. Anna didn’t even
think, it was so natural to her now, before tilting her head for
Jack’s kiss. When his lips brushed hers she sighed. When his tongue
traced the tip of hers she tightened her grip on his shoulders. The
feelings his kiss evoked were both physical and
emotional.

Tingles.

Shivers.

Excitement.

Anticipation.

Anna held on and simply let them wash
over her. By the time they pulled apart she was panting. Jack was
too. His eyes were narrowed, his erection pressing against her
belly. “I want you,” he whispered.

“
I know.”

A sigh and then, “But I can’t have
you.”

“
You can’t?”

“
No,” he said, and the
regret in his tone made her shiver. “We have plans. Come
on.”

It was cold outside. The sort of cold
that was both crisp and clear. Luckily, Anna was already wearing a
thick jumper so it didn’t hit her straight away. But it would. The
cold at this point in the year was all consuming. It was then that
she spotted Lee. He was stood next to Jack’s truck, and in his arms
he held her coat.

“
Here, beautiful,” he
said.

Jack let go of her hand and Anna made
her way over to Lee. He pulled her into his arms and wrapped the
coat around her. “You’ll nose will turn pink soon,” he
said.

“
It always
does.”

He smiled and pulled the truck door
open. “I’ll kiss it warm again. Hop in.”

Anna did, scooting across the seat to
make room for Lee. Jack would be driving, she knew that by now.
Unless Lee was on his bike he preferred to be a
passenger.

Soon enough she had a man on either
side of her. The heating was going at full blast, and the coat was
no longer necessary. Anna looked around them as they drove, trying
to work out exactly where they were going. They passed her cottage
and picked up the dirt road. From her previous excursions to the
general store or the gas station Anna knew the road carried on for
quite some time before finding any asphalt. She waited, excited to
see what was coming.

“
Turn off’s
here.”

Lee pointed to the left and Jack
nodded. There was a gap in the trees there. Anna craned her neck to
get a good look. “Are we—”

Jack turned into the gap, it was only
just big enough to take the truck, but the ground was smooth enough
that they were able to maneuver through.

“
We need to widen this
path come summer,” Lee said. “Damn thing grows over too
quickly.”

Anna smiled and squeezed his hand. “It
is so pretty.”

“
Which is why you spend so
much time in here,” Jack said.

He was referring to her daily walk.
Anna had kept it up even though she was no longer living full time
in the cottage. Generally, one of the men liked to come with her.
More often than not Anna resisted. She needed some time by herself.
Time to think. Time to just be. Being surrounded by Jack and Lee
pleased her, but part of her knew that she couldn’t let it be all
about them. She would have to pick her own life up at some point
and keeping her walks apart from them almost seemed like a link to
that. It was not something she had consciously decided. It just
happened and part of her understood why.

“
It suits you,” Lee
said.

“
The forest?”

He nodded as Jack slowed the truck.
“Definitely.”

“
As the months go by it’s
like I forget what the city is like,” Anna said slowly. “It seems
like another world entirely sometimes.”

“
Being out here can do
that to you,” Lee said. “You get so lost in everything, the space,
the weather, even the quiet.”

“
I think…” Anna paused,
because the words on the tip of her tongue were more telling than
she wanted them to be.

“
What?” Jack
asked.

“
It doesn’t
matter.”

“
Annie,” he sighed. “Don’t
do that. You know that’s not how we work.”

She nodded slowly, the
truth of those words hitting hard. Fact was, this crazy
relationship of theirs only worked so well because they were all
completely honest with one another. In the very early days when
they’d slept together for the first time that honesty had been a
key factor. Jack and Lee had always been clear that they wanted
her, and were willing to share her if that was what
she
wanted. And then
too, as they’d settled into some sort of routine, the honesty had
been a continuing part of it. If Anna was feeling tired. If she was
sore from their lovemaking. If she wanted cuddles from Jack. Or
kisses from Lee. So long as they were honest with one another
everything worked. No one got jealous. No one felt pushed out.
Their relationship
worked
.

“
I think,” she said
slowly, “that it would be different if not for you
guys.”

Lee squeezed her hand. “How do you
mean?”

“
I wanted the space, the
time out here by myself,” Anna said. “I ached for it. But it was
different then.
I
was different then. Now?” She shrugged. “I think maybe I
would have gotten lonely by now. It wouldn’t have been enough to
pull me back to the city, but it would have weighed on me a little,
hindered rather than helped the process.”

“
You’re not on your own,”
Jack said. “You’re not going to be.”

He brought the truck to a stop. They
were in a clearing now with enough room to not only get out of the
truck, but to turn it round when the time came to leave. Jack
placed a finger under her chin, turning her head until she caught
his gaze. Those eyes…they were almost the exact color of her wool.
And he, Jack, was like one of the threads in her life now. Anna had
no idea how it had happened, or even what it meant, she knew only
that he was becoming increasingly important to her.

He leaned in and kissed her lightly on
the lips. Almost as if he was punctuating his point. When he pulled
back Anna ran a finger along his jaw line, the stubble underneath
it rough against her pad.

A moment later and she felt Lee’s hand
running through her hair. He liked to do that. To tangle his
fingers in it and rub her head. She turned automatically and kissed
him just as she had kissed Jack. The feelings that kiss brought to
life were exactly the same with Lee as they were with
Jack.

His lips moved across hers. She wanted
him.

His tongue caressed her tip. She cared
about him.

His teeth tugged on her lower lip. She
had no idea what any of it meant.

“
We’re running out of
light.”

His whispered words against her mouth
were enough for Anna to pull back. Jack ruffled her hair. “We’ll be
quick. Come on.”

Lips still tingling she waited until
Lee left the truck then followed him out. Once they were outside
she zipped up her coat, looked around, and tried to work out what
was going on.

“
Did you bring me here to
save me the walk?” she asked.

Lee shook his head. “No. We’ve given
up trying to stop you jaunting off for all hours of the
day.”

“
It’s a couple of hours at
most.”

“
In the freezing cold.
Mostly without your cell because you forgot to charge
it.”

Anna pulled a face. “We don’t even get
a signal out here.”

“
Maybe if we did you’d
know why we’re out here,” Jack said, taking her left hand. Lee took
the right.

She shrugged. “I’m lost.”

“
Annie,” Jack said softly.
“What’s the date?”

“
Erm…December the
something.”

He sighed. “December the
twentieth.”

“
Already?”

“
Yeah.”

A pause and then Lee spoke. “It’s
nearly Christmas.”

Christmas…
Anna shook her head because she had not even
realized! It was this place. It was them. Lee had been right. It
was just too easily to get lost in it all. “I’d forgotten,” she
whispered.

“
We didn’t,” Jack said.
“And we know this one is going to be hard for you. Our was, the
first one home, I mean. The holidays are always difficult after a
loss.”

“
Jack—”

“
It’s fine,” he added. “We
don’t expect anything of you. I’m going to rustle up some sort of
Christmas dinner. I already picked up what we need from the
store.”

“
And I’ve been working on
the decorations. We don’t usually bother. More often than not we
end up going to our folks. But this year.” Lee paused. “This year
is different. We’ll spend it together. The three of us.”

The three of
us…

Anna’s heart clenched and
in that moment she found herself wondering how on earth she had
gotten so lucky. She’d come here to heal. Thinking that the space,
and the distance from home, would be enough to do that. But now,
all these weeks later, she realized the truth. It was Lee and it
was Jack.
They
were healing her. Healing her with their attention and their
affection. Healing her enough that she had begun to remember Grand
with an ache more than a crushing pain. Part of her had even
imagined Grand looking down on them, a wry smile on her lips, a
disapproving word or two coming out of her mouth, but beneath that
a twinkle.

Because her granddaughter…the girl
she’d raised as her own…was happy.

That moment, that realization, was one
that Anna would look back on years from now and see it for exactly
what it was.

A fork in her life.

A point where everything became
clear.