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Fuck this guy. I know Rachelle is worried about taking it at the same time every day. I also know the men in her life wouldn’t be above fucking with her birth control, particularly Theo.

Hell, in another year or so, Ignacio wouldn’t be above it either. His breeding kink is fierce, and his dick down game is incredible. I’m tempted to switch to the shot for that alone.

“I’ll take it,” Rachelle sighs. “Maybe it’ll help with my periods.”

Ugh. Mine don’t. They still turn me into a pouting, sad girl that needs cuddles and naps.

The doctor writes out a script while I continue to glare at him, disgusted with the state of our health care system. Did he decide to be a dick because she’s here with me?

I take the script from him once he’s done and rise with Rachelle beside me.

“Thanks,” I say, heading for the door.

“You’re lucky I gave you anything,” the doctor calls after me. “In my eyes, birth control is to control the ability to get pregnant. Two women can’t do that.”

“Ignore him,” Rachelle says, yanking the door open, head held high. “We got what we needed. We’re done here.”

The visit is free at least, but I’m still fucking pissed as we walk out.

“I may not be able to get you pregnant, but the four men who would kiss your feet if you asked them to would in a nanosecond,” I say, making sure she gets inside the vehicle before getting in myself.

“Lili, the last thing I need to be is pregnant,” she says, rolling her eyes as she pulls on her seatbelt.

For one second, I allow myself to see her with a big belly and breasts full of milk. Fuck, now I’m thinking about it too. Blinking, I shrug at her as I start the car.

“Playing devil's advocate, I think you’d be gorgeous pregnant,” I say carefully as I begin driving to the pharmacy. “You’d also have more than enough hands to help. However, we have time before that happens. I also would get off my birth control so we can be pregnant together. May as well, right?”

Her eyes get shiny as she blinks away the tears threatening to fall. “It’s just, we haven’t talked about it. You’d really want to be pregnant with me?”

“How else will we talk each other down when we want to kill the fathers-to-be?” I tease her.

“It’s you and me forever, baby. I want to do everything with you.

However, I also need you to be able to chase after our kids outside, enjoy the sun on your face, and all of the other things in life.

Your fears are valid because your experiences created them.

It’s up to the fuckers who did that to show you the world isn’t what your mind tells you it is. ”

Brushing away a tear, she nods as she sighs. We’ve already come a long way, but I know we have more to go.

Three Weeks Later

JARED

“It’s gorgeous out and we have a long weekend coming up,” I say, leaning forward on my forearms as Rachelle and Liliana eat breakfast together. Lili works out with us and refuses to eat until Rachelle is up. It’s really sweet. “What do we think about a vacation?”

Spring break starts this weekend, it would be nice to do something where I can get away from distractions and hang out with her.

“We live in Santa Barbara,” Rachelle reminds me, smirking. “This is where people go to vacation.”

“This is true,” I admit. “What about an unplugged weekend then? The staff and managers can run the club, and there will be no school shit. You’re already a week ahead at least.”

“Two, actually,” Rachelle says. “My professors said I can finish the semester early. They don’t care since everything is online, including exams.”

“Damn girl,” I say in awe. “You’ve always run circles around us.”

“It’s mostly because I have nothing else to do,” she laughs. “It’s easy to get things done when you don’t have a life.”

“Between school, working at the shop, and hanging out with us, I think that you have a full day,” Lili says shrewdly. “If you’re feeling unfulfilled in some way, that’s different.”

“Sometimes, I feel lazy,” she says. “I was so busy in high school. I used to be able to do so much more. There were football games to go to, club meetings… I don’t know how to describe it.”

“There’s too many open hours in the day,” Theo says. “I feel frustrated if I’m not busy. It’s this itchy feeling under my skin that tells me I should be doing something.”

“Yes!” Rachelle says, blowing out a breath. “At first, it was fine because I was exhausted all of the time, but now with eating better and exercising, I have all this energy that I don’t know what to do with.”

Leaving the house has become easier for her over the last few weeks. We’ve been going on dates together or separately, and enjoying time with her. It’s not perfect by a long shot, but she no longer curls up inside of herself when we talk. The longer we’re around her, the easier it is to talk.

Even Elijah is able to curl up with her and talk about music and books she enjoys. He’s sleeping better, his dreams no longer haunted. Liliana and Ignacio agreed to order a bigger bed for the largest bedroom to sleep in.

It’s like a big puppy pile of bodies, and even I rest better.

“Well, wife, what would you like to do?” I ask her.

“That’s the million dollar question, isn't it?” she asks with a self deprecating laugh. “A part of me wants to try a dance class. It’ll keep me from having to be in the water every morning if I’m getting my exercise somewhere else. You kick my ass, Theo.”

“It’s an ass I typically want to bite when I see it in your sexy bathing suit, Kitten,” Theo purrs. My cock twitches at his words. I have yet to do more than kiss Rachelle since the time I licked cum off her body in the woods. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. “I think dance classes would be fun.”

“I’ll go with you,” Liliana says, shrugging. “What kind of dancing?”

“Maybe Latin dancing?” Rachelle suggests. “I’ve always wanted to be able to learn. It’s that or pole.”

We all make a face at that because I personally don’t want anyone else to see her in hooker heels and her underwear.

“Latin dancing sounds really good. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you dance,” I croak, swallowing to help my voice. “Sign me up, wife.”

“You?” Nacio asks, smirking.

“We all took ballroom classes in school,” I remind him. “I can handle this.”

“Count me in too,” Nacio says.

Elijah and Theo hide their smiles, recognizing this for the dick measuring contest that it is. If I’m serious about wanting to connect with my wife, then this is the best way to do that.

I’m not going to back down from this.

“Okay,” Rachelle says with a nod. “I’ll find out who’s offering them and make sure they work around the club’s hours and work.”

She seems happy and light as she finishes her breakfast and goes upstairs.

“Did you both put your dicks away yet?” Liliana asks, frowning.

Properly abashed, I nod as Nacio does.

“Good. Now what the fuck was that?” she asks.

“I want to do something with her that she enjoys,” I explain. “If this is the first thing she’s shown interest in, I want in.”

“All of a sudden, now is when you decide to be noble,” Ignacio grumbles. “Let me know when you decide to go back to being an asshole.”

Standing, he leaves, his face thunderous and angry.

“The fuck?” I breathe, confused. My gaze swings back to Liliana, hoping that she’ll help me speak Ignacio.

I used to be able to tell what he was thinking without any hesitation. A brow raise, a goddamned wrinkle on his fucking forehead, and I knew what was up. Now, he’s almost a stranger.

“You two, go away,” Liliana barks, pointing at Theo and Elijah. “I need to talk to my girlfriend’s husband.”

Smirking, they stand. “Good luck, man,” Elijah mutters as they walk away.

A tongue lashing from Liliana should be fun.

“Ignacio doesn’t trust your motivation, Jared,” she says. “I see the way you look at her. I know you’re trying, but was it really easier to push her into the mud than to tell her how you feel?”

“Yes,” I mutter. “It was easier to chase her through the streets, smoke her out of her damn apartment, because I forgot that I was attached to her. I’m inexplicably pulled to her smile, her laugh, the way that her eyes light up.

Yet, I can’t figure out how to have more than a surface conversation with her.

I can show her what she means to me, why can’t I talk to her?

It’s ridiculous, I just had a conversation about this with Elijah, and now he’s fine. ”

“Fucking Rachelle senseless helped,” Liliana says wryly. “Somehow, it broke the ice between them. He can chat her ear off, and I think it’s adorable. You fucked a different girl all through high school, Jared. Now you’re choosing to keep your dick in your pants?”

“It wasn’t that bad,” I grumble. “Is it so awful that I want to do this differently?”

“Yes,” Liliana decides. “It’s too much pressure. She’ll be able to feel it as an empath, and when it finally happens, it could backfire, Jared. There’s things that trigger her during sex.”

“Like what?” I ask. “If you want me to up my game, I need to know what they are.”

“She has to be able to see your face when you’re giving oral,” she says.

“Rachelle needs eye contact during sex unless she’s having a really good time.

Toys are encouraged, and she enjoys hints of pain.

It keeps her focus on you. That all keeps her from drifting and imagining someone else in your place. ”

My eyes unfocus I remember the night she ran from us when I was fucking a girl.

Was her name Marsha, Marissa? It doesn’t fucking matter.

She was someone I wanted to use to hurt Rachelle.

“The night Ignacio was behind her when he was touching her, she didn’t see him anymore when she started to fight him. ”

I say it matter of factly, because it makes so much sense. She was so freaked out, when before that she had been seconds from coming for him. The change happened in a blink of an eye.

“Yes, that’s exactly what happened,” she says. “Elijah made her give him a safe word just in case, which currently makes him my favorite out of you all. We have a long weekend as you said. Take her out for a romantic night. You’ve only been out with her for group dates.”

“I’m really afraid of fucking this up,” I confess.

“Good. It means you have something to lose,” she says mercilessly.

“Get your head in the game. You’re a competitive fucker.

Act like it. Only instead of competing against someone, it’s for them.

No one knows what Rachelle wants to major in for school.

Find out, talk to her about that. While she loves acts of service, she also wants personal time with them. ”

“Okay,” I say before tapping on the table. “I think I need to take a trip to see the Council soon, Lili.”

“What? Why?” she asks, shocked. “They can’t know she’s alive.”

“No, but we’ve been gathering favors, finding shit on each one of them. I only need to find blackmail on one more of the members. I think I’m going to need Theo’s help, though,” I explain.

“When the fuck have you been doing this?” she asks.

“The members of my club are powerful, and are chatty during sex,” I explain.

“Some of the people who work for me are sex workers. They’ll punish very powerful men in the private rooms, pull information from them when they’re in subspace, and make them forget they said anything. It’s not ethical, but it’s necessary.”

“What’s keeping your staff from saying anything?” Lili asks.

“Loyalty,” I grunt. “There’s also an iron clad non-disclosure agreement that would keep them from working anywhere other than as a hooker on the street.

These women are better than that and they know it.

I may have also mentioned that these men are taking advantage of teens who don’t have the sense God gave them. That’s a very loose quote, of course.”

“Huh. Well, look at you,” she mutters.

“I may be scared shitless of fucking things up, but I’m not inept,” I remind her, standing.

“Good to know,” she says as I walk away.

She doesn’t have to know that my hands are shaking or that I’m sweating. Liliana Cruz will fuck me up if I mess up, and with good reason. Rachelle is worth showing up and continuing to fight for.

She doesn’t have to know what I’m working on behind the scenes until I’m absolutely certain that I can pull it off. I refuse to disappoint her in any way. She’s lost two years of her life. While I can’t get those back, I can help her take back her identity.

I refuse to give up my status as her husband, though. Fuck them all.