CHAPTER 6

LAUREN took longer than usual in the bathroom as she prepared for bed. The last several days had been full of activity with the arrival of Caleb James Colter, named for two of his great-grandfathers. The Colters and the Wilders had descended on the younger Colters’ home, providing food, childcare, and whatever else was needed to ensure Lily rested and was stress free.

Lauren had delighted in these days. They’d given her a preview of her own future. Her children. Surrounded by family. People who loved her. But mostly of how it would be when she gave Liam and Noah their own child.

They’d been enraptured by Caleb. The entire family was. As if sensing how fragile his mother was, Caleb was the perfect baby. So quiet and sweet. Not fussy at all. He’d been a dream to breast-feed, something that had worn Lily down with her first child. But then true to their word, Lily hadn’t lifted so much as a finger.

Holly Colter had gone through like a drill sergeant making a list of duties that covered every need. All Lily had to do was rest and feed the baby.

Lauren let out a happy sigh. She wanted Holly there when she had her own child. She missed her own mother dreadfully. Wished she’d lived to see both Max and Lauren happy and settled. Looking to the arrival of their own children. Holly was that mother figure to her now. And well, the dads were her fathers too. She was one of them. A Colter. Not by name, but in all the ways that mattered.

“Are you okay in there, honey?” Noah called.

She smiled and then slid her hands down the silky lingerie she’d chosen for this occasion. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and walked out to face the two men who waited for her.

They were sprawled on the bed where she’d told them to wait. As their gazes lifted, sultry heat entered their eyes. They went smoky with desire.

“Where in the hell did you get that?” Liam breathed out. “I definitely would have remembered that.”

She grinned and glanced at Noah, whose mouth was open.

But she also saw hope in their eyes. Not that they’d ever push her. They wouldn’t even hint or suggest. They simply waited for her to make the first move. And she loved them so dearly for that.

“I want to start practicing for those babies,” she said as she crawled onto the end of the bed. “I don’t want to use condoms anymore. The timing’s not right for me to get pregnant tonight, and well, if it happened, it happens. I’m not going to lose any sleep over it when it’s something I want so badly. But I don’t want to use anything anymore. If we aren’t ready to take the plunge quite yet, then I’ll go on birth control. But I want there to be nothing between us. Not anymore.”

Liam expelled his breath in a long exhale. “Oh God, baby. We want that too. But are you sure? I mean tonight? We don’t mind waiting. We want this to be perfect for you. I’d die before hurting or frightening you.”

She ran her hand up his leg to his knee and squeezed. “It will be perfect. It couldn’t be anything else with you.”

Noah leaned up, curled a hand around her nape and brought his mouth to hers. Hungry. He was so hungry. He swallowed up her breaths, his tongue delving deep as though he’d waited years for this moment. And the last six weeks had seemed like years. For her and no doubt for them as they waited so patiently for her to take the next step.

She sighed into his mouth and then sighed again when Liam pushed in on her side, his arm curving around her body. She was right where she belonged. Between the two men she loved and who loved her with everything they had. She didn’t doubt that love. Not for a minute. They’d spent every moment of the last six weeks proving to her without words what she meant to them.

“I love you,” she whispered. “I love you both so much.”

“I love you too, baby,” Liam said into her ear.

Noah hauled her forward, falling to his back with her sprawled over him. His eyes glittered over her face, warming her as though it were a tangible touch.

“I love you, honey. Never want you to doubt that for a second. We’re going to be together a damn long time. Every day, you’ll wake up and Liam and I will be here. Every night when we go to bed, we’ll be the last thing you see. And when you wake up, the first thing you see. Us. Our love.”

“You’re going to make me cry,” she said accusingly.

“Don’t want you crying,” Liam growled. “Screaming our names, yes. Crying, no.”

“I like the way you think,” she murmured.

“Not that I don’t love that lingerie, but think we can dispense with it so we see you naked?” Noah asked, a wicked gleam in his eyes.

“I’m yours to command.”

Before she’d even finished, Liam was tugging at her top, sliding it over her head before tossing it aside. Noah pulled at her lacy panties, Liam taking over when he’d worked them over her buttocks.

“Now you,” she said, moving off Noah long enough for the two men to take off their underwear.

“Don’t have to talk me into it,” Liam muttered. “I damn near ripped my underwear the minute you walked out of the bathroom.”

She grinned and then swallowed when both men stood by the bed, their erections turgid and straining upward. Liam wrapped his fingers around his length and stroked up and down, coaxing it to further rigidity.

She licked her lips and both men groaned.

“Hell, honey,” Noah rasped out. “Don’t do that. Not when we want to make this perfect and make love to you like nobody’s ever made love to you before. You make me think of nothing but having those sweet lips wrapped around my dick, and that’s not what I want to happen tonight.”

“Then what do you want to happen?” she asked huskily.

“Tonight is all about you,” Liam murmured. “Us loving you. Showing you our love.”