Page 49 of Vegas Daddies (Forbidden Fantasies #17)

ALLIE

I t was entirely too depressing to be at home in my little apartment when Daphne wasn’t home. I should relish the opportunity for alone time, for me time, but I was getting pretty tired of spending time with me after a few days of Cade-imposed “space.”

I’d taken a rare sick day from the diner, and there was no Gavin, Cade, or Luca here to fill the empty hours either.

The morning sickness, intense and miserable, hit after I’d taken Daphne to daycare, but before my shift started.

Though when I was pregnant with Daphne I remembered feeling sick for most of the day, this nausea had passed shortly after I’d made the phone call to work, promising to pick up some extra hours later in the week.

I knew it was a blessing to feel physically fine, but I could’ve used a distraction from all of the emotions I didn’t want to feel.

There was something majorly wrong with me if I’d rather be puking than sad.

Music should’ve been my distraction. Especially with the big chance from Delia Nance lurking at the back of my mind, the approaching meeting getting closer on my calendar.

I should turn to the thing that I never had time for when Daphne was around, the thing that kept me going before that little girl had taken up the mantle herself.

But after I had done the dishes and the laundry, after I’d tuned my guitar in preparation for a therapeutic jam session, all of my energy had promptly drained away, replaced by a nagging emptiness.

I missed them. I missed them so bad it hurt. But I was trying to relearn how to live without them. It felt safer to return to normal—just me, my daughter, and no pesky men. Loneliness was safer than being in love.

Then why did a sudden knock at my apartment door make my heart leap with hope, and joy, and something that almost felt like safety?

I knew before I opened it. I just knew that I’d find my three men, the three gorgeous guys who had turned my life upside down five years ago and then come back to turn it inside out this time, standing outside of the door. And that was exactly what I found.

I struggled to catch my breath for a long second, and the guys apparently were waiting for me to speak first. After a silence, our words crashed together, four voices trying to speak at once.

“Sorry,” Luca said. “You…you should talk first.”

“But we’re literally here to apologize,” Gavin rebutted.

“To grovel,” Cade corrected, and it was definitely the hormones, but I could feel myself starting to well up even as I laughed at their silliness.

“I was just going to say that I missed you guys,” I told them. “That…I don’t want space. I just want you.”

Their smiles were enormous. Kids in candy stores had nothing on my guys. I was laughing through my tears as they scooped me up into their arms, a group hug that warmed me to my bones. But soon they broke away, and Cade’s blue eyes found mine, a serious air falling over his face.

“I’m glad you want us. We want you too. But we kind of had a gesture planned.”

“A gesture?” I asked, and Luca nodded.

“A, um, grand gesture,” he explained, and my grin couldn’t be contained.

“Okay,” I said. I stepped back, urging the guys further into my apartment.

I sat on the couch—the very one where Luca and I had first made love, which he seemed to notice at the same time as I did, if his blush was any indication.

The guys stood before me, and it was then that I noticed Cade was wearing a backpack.

I raised an eyebrow at him, and he took it off his shoulder, unzipping the pocket to take out something small.

“I…before you told me about Daphne,” he started to explain, and I watched his face instead of looking at the unknown object.

He was beautiful, and the soft openness in his face only amplified it.

“I started making something. I didn’t know she was my kid, but I knew she was yours.

And now…I don’t know, Allie. She feels like all of ours, somehow.

So I wanted to show you this, and get you to give it to Daphne.

You’re still her mom, and you’re always going to be number one in her life, but I’m hoping I can…

carve out a space for myself beside you. ”

“Corny,” Gavin quipped, which made me laugh, even as my tears picked up with Cade’s lovely words. Cade didn’t acknowledge his friend’s teasing, just handed me the little wooden object, pressing it into my palm.

The little hand-carved giraffes were so precious, so delicate, that it was hard to believe Cade’s big, capable hands had made them. But I could feel him in every curve of the wood, and even if I wasn’t pregnant, I would have been crying now. I looked up into Cade’s eyes.

“Daphne is gonna love this,” I tried not to blubber. “But you have to give it to her yourself.”

He looked quietly elated when he nodded, coming to sit beside me so he could snuggle me against his side, that strong arm wrapping around my shoulders where it belonged.

“We’re not as artistic, and we’re not…well, neither of us is Daphne’s real dad. But we wanted to get something for you too,” Luca stepped up next, pulling a small box from his pocket. Not ring-shaped, thank God, but small enough that I suspected jewelry anyway. “This is…um, for you.”

“From both of us,” Gavin clarified. “All three, really.”

“You guys didn’t have to get me anything,” I said through a watery smile.

“We know,” Gavin said. He shrugged. “But we’re all new to the romantic gesture thing, so we thought this was a good first step.”

Luca passed me the box, and I opened it to find a delicate gold chain, three little stars hanging from it.

“This is gorgeous.”

“It’s…kind of a joke,” Luca said, which confused me for a second. “A pun! We, um, said we’d give you space.”

“Hence the stars,” Gavin finished, scrubbing the back of his head with his hand, clearly nervous.

I couldn’t resist now. I leapt from the sofa and threw my arms around Luca and Gavin’s necks, pulling them into my embrace.

Cade stood up to join too. Another complete group hug, and this time, I was almost lightheaded with love for these three guys.

Suddenly, I had no other choice but to tell them how I felt.

No matter how scary it was to say the words.

“I love you,” I gasped out, pressing my face to Gavin’s chest. All three of them stilled, then pulled back, their eyes locking onto my face.

“What did you say?” Luca nearly whispered.

“I love you,” I said again, looking into his eyes, holding his gaze as the words sank in.

Then, I turned to Gavin. “I love you.” Dark eyes that flashed, the hint of that dangerous smirk.

I loved him. And then I was back on Cade’s blue eyes, the blue that mixed perfectly with mine and helped create Daphne’s.

“I love you. All three of you. I want to do this, and screw whatever I’ve told myself in the past, and screw what the world might think.

I’m yours, and you’re mine, if you want to be. ”

And then I was being kissed hard and long and full of fervor.

Gavin first, who pulled back with a half-growled “I love you,” and then by Luca, who said “I love you” before he put his lips to mine.

I was nearly dizzy from it when it was Cade’s turn, and then I was kissing him, my hand coming up to feel his beard, and he pulled back long enough to say “I love you too.”

It felt like a beginning, something entirely new, when we made our way to my bedroom.

I assured my guys that I wanted them, needed to feel each of them inside me, that I was feeling fine.

Better than fine, really. Three sets of hands peeled my clothes off of my body, leaving me breathless and naked and spread out like a feast across my own bed, looking up at three men who loved me.

“I love you,” I told them all again, and Gavin swooped in to kiss me again, only this time he went for the lips between my legs.

The second his tongue met my pussy, I sighed, throwing my head back against the pillows.

These three men had my heart, but it was still miraculous how well they had my body too.

I was already wet, only getting wetter as Gavin licked through every crevice of my sex in slow, deliberate motions.

He was so controlled, just like always, but there was a layer of generosity to it, like he was putting in all this effort to give me the most pleasure possible.

Not because he wanted the control, but because he knew he had it, and he wanted to do right by me.

By the time his tongue was circling my clit, avoiding touching it directly and making me gasp out needy pleas as he held my hips down to keep them from grinding, guiding him where I needed him, my other two guys had joined us, one on either side of me.

Luca kissed me hard on the lips as his hand cupped my right breast with reverence akin to worship.

And Cade’s beard, so deliciously rough against my oversensitive flesh, lightly scraped my left breast as he moved in to suck the stiff peak into his mouth.

All the while, his big hand was caressing my belly, as if he could thank me retroactively for giving him the child he now knew was his.

“I love you,” I sobbed against Luca’s mouth when Cade’s teeth lightly bit down at my sensitive nipple.

At the same time, Gavin’s wicked tongue finally struck gold, flicking against my clit in exactly the way I needed.

He growled, burying his face further into me, letting me know how delicious he found my pussy. How much he loved it. Loved me.

When I came apart, I cried out, and the guys all praised me. Told me I was beautiful, that I was perfect, that they loved me.