“Anything hurting?” Jace asked.
She shook her head. Not hurting. Aching? Yes. But that had nothing to do with pain.
Jace switched off the vibration, giving her a second to catch her breath, and tapped her ankle again. In automatic mode now, she lifted each foot and he tugged on another pair of panties—a thong with a tighter fit that pressed snugly against the vibrator. The pressure made her even more aware of the toy.
Jace smoothed her skirt back down. That’s when she realized they weren’t staying here at all. There’d be no need for any extra layers.
She wet her lips. “Can I ask where we’re going?”
“You can, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to answer you,” Jace said.
“Smartass.”
He laughed. “Our captive isn’t very polite.”
“That’s okay,” Andre said, close enough for his breath to tickle her cheek. “I don’t mind her putting up a fight. We both know who’s going to win.”
She shivered at the threat. Because she knew exactly who always won when she let go of her reservations and put her trust in these two. She did.
Didn’t make it easier to let go of her natural need for control, though. “Two days, guys, seriously. I love you and I’m usually game for anything, but two days is all I can afford to take off. I have—”
A hand pressed over her lips again. “Enough,
bella
. You’re ours. Neither of us is asking permission to be penciled in on your schedule. You’re coming with us for as long as we require.”
Part of her still wanted to protest more about this not being a good time, that she had things to do, that maybe she wasn’t in the right headspace for this anyway. But the other part of her trusted that they had her best interests in mind. They were probably taking her for a night or two at The Ranch. Work could wait for a couple of days. And this would be way more fun.
Because another highly effective way to chase away melancholy feelings was a whole different kind of To-Do list—one where she only had to follow instructions, one where she surrendered it all, where everything else fell away and she could settle into the sweet refuge of submission to these men.
There the worries couldn’t touch her.
At least for a little while.
She lowered her head. “When do we leave?”
“Now. Wyatt said the jet would be ready to go by noon.”
Her head snapped up.
“Jet?”
Jace stepped around her and kissed her nose. “Welcome to your kidnapping, love. Hope you enjoy the flight.”
Jace sat back in his seat and got ready to press the button to call the flight attendant and ask for lunch to be served. This was definitely the way to travel. When his father had stepped down from the CEO position of the family’s financial company and sold the business, his brother¸ Wyatt, had taken over the company’s private jet since he and his wife, Kelsey, liked to travel on a whim. And he’d told Jace he could use it whenever he wanted.
Jace hadn’t been all that interested since the high-roller stuff really wasn’t his thing. He’d left that wealthy world when his dad had disowned him, and he hadn’t looked back. But even he had to admit this was a pretty sweet ride—especially when it meant he didn’t have to hide what was going on from anyone. Wyatt had assured him the flight crew was very discreet and wouldn’t appear unless called. They were used to Wyatt and Kelsey’s kinky ways.
So, Jace was fully enjoying the sight of Evan sitting across from him, blindfolded and pink-cheeked from the orgasm he’d just given her via the remote-controlled vibrator. Andre sat next to her, unlocking her cuffs as she came down from her high, his erection outlined against his jeans and his jaw tight. It was taking a lot of restraint for Andre not to pounce on Evan. Hell, it was taking every ounce of Jace’s self-control not to do the same. But they’d promised to feed her before they touched her again.
“I may not survive this trip if we keep going at this rate,” Evan said on a panted breath. She tilted her head back against the seat and it pushed her breasts against her thin blouse, her nipples prominent against the silk. Jace wanted to bite right through the material and suck her until she went over again.
“You can take your blindfold off now,” Jace said. “I’m going to call for lunch.”
He knew that even if Evan was sitting in that seat bare-ass naked, the flight attendant wouldn’t bat an eyelash when she served their food, but he wanted to give Evan a breather. They’d thrown a lot at her today. She’d earned some downtime.
He pressed the call button and requested their lunch.
Evan tugged the blindfold off and blinked a few times, letting her eyes adjust, then her blue-eyed gaze found Jace’s and she smiled. “So the plan is to make me come until I’m so exhausted, I don’t have the energy to grill y’all with questions.”
Jace smirked. “Not necessarily. But that’s not a terrible plan.”
She shifted in her seat, and he caught the sexy scent of her arousal in the air. God, he could imagine how wet she must be under that skirt, the smooth latex of the toy covered with her juices, sliding in and over her flushed, swollen flesh . . .
Fuck
. He adjusted the front of his pants, and Andre chuckled.
“What?” Jace snapped.
Andre nodded toward Jace’s obviously aroused state. “Nothing, I just feel your pain.”
Evan’s lips curled upward. “Now who are the masochists?”
“Watch it,
bella
,” Andre said. “Or we’ll forget that we promised you food first.”
She laughed, and warmth bled through Jace at the welcome sound. This is exactly why he’d wanted this trip, to get them away from it all, to hear her laugh come so easily.
“I’m not all that hungry. We could delay lunch and I could help you two out with your . . . unfortunate situation.”
“No way,” Jace said, even though the offer was more than tempting. “You haven’t eaten all day. I don’t want you passing out the minute we get there.”
“And where is there?”
He cocked an eyebrow at her and she made a frustrated noise.
The curtain at the front of the plane slid open and Alice, the flight attendant, strode into the cabin with stacked silver trays of food. The smell of steak and garlic drifted down the aisle and Jace’s stomach growled.
But as soon as he glanced at Evan to ask her if she wanted wine with her lunch, he saw the smile fade from her face and her skin went pale. “God, what is that
smell
?”
“Garlic, it’s— Baby, are you okay?” he asked and Andre turned his attention to Evan as well.
Alice stepped closer and lifted the lid off the top dish. “Medium well steak with baked sweet potato and . . .”
Evan clapped her hand over her mouth and grabbed for her seatbelt. “Excuse me.”
“Ev—” Jace reached for her, but she was already on her feet and rushing toward the back.
Jace unhooked his seatbelt in a flash and jumped to his feet to follow her. He accidentally bumped Alice on the way, but he’d apologize later. When he reached the plane’s restroom, he found the door open and Evan on her knees, retching. Nothing was coming up, but she clung to toilet as she dry heaved.
He wrapped his hand around her hair to hold it out of the way and got to his knees next to her. Then, he put his other hand on her back and rubbed until the violent heaving calmed. She folded her arms on the edge of the toilet and put her forehead on them, her back rising and falling with exhausted, gulping breaths. Sweat glistened on her neck.
“God, sweetheart, is there something I can get you?”
She made a miserable sound. “Just get that smell out of here. Something must be wrong with the meat—it was so . . .
ugh
. God, you couldn’t smell that?”
“I didn’t, but I’ll have them get rid of it.” He got to his feet and found a paper cup to fill with water. “Here, drink this and I’ll be right back. I’ll tell them to throw it out and see if they have any air freshener to fix the smell. You okay on your own for a minute?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” She took the cup but didn’t lift her head. “Thank you.”
He stared at her for a long moment, not wanting to leave her, but knowing there wasn’t much else he could do right this second. He stepped back into the main part of the plane and found Andre standing there, his brow creased with worry. “Is she all right?”
“She’s dry heaving, said the steak smelled bad and it set her off.”
Andre’s forehead wrinkled.
Alice, who was a few steps behind, moved closer. “Sir, I’m so sorry Ms. Kennedy’s not feeling well. But I assure you the meat is top quality. We got it from a local supplier this morning, fresh. The pilots ate the same thing before we took off.”
Jace rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, it smelled fine to me. I’m not sure what happened. But would you mind spraying some air freshener to get rid of the food smells? Something about it turned her stomach.”
“Absolutely, sir.” Alice’s lips pinched together for a moment. “Ms. Kennedy wouldn’t happen to be—” she started, but then caught herself. “Never mind. That’s none of my business. I’ll freshen up the cabin. Is there anything else I can get her? Sprite, crackers?”
Jace frowned. “No, what were you going to ask before you stopped yourself, Alice?”
The older woman seemed to debate for a moment more. “I don’t want to overstep.”
“You’re not,” Andre said, turning around to face her, too. “Go ahead.”
“Well, I was just going to say that the smell of meat can sometimes get to women . . . you know, when they’re pregnant.”
Jace stilled, the words not quite registering, then his stomach fell right into his toes. Andre went ramrod straight in front of him.
“I mean, it’s probably not that,” Alice said, shifting her gaze away. “But I just remember when I was pregnant with my daughter, I couldn’t even go into restaurants that first trimester because my sense of smell was so strong. But it’s probably just a stomach bug or something.”
Jace had trouble finding his voice. He cleared his throat. “Thank you, Alice. Why don’t you see if you can find those crackers, and we’ll go check on Evan?”
“Of course, sir.”
Alice hurried off, and Andre turned around, the stunned look on his face probably a mirror of Jace’s. “Jesus, do you think—”
“She’s on the pill.”
Andre glanced toward the curtain leading to the back of the plane, keeping his voice low. “But she’s been so tired lately. And that night of the wedding, she thought she had food poisoning but then was fine the next day. No method is one-hundred percent. What if . . .”
Jace ran his hands through his hair, the possibility rocking him to the core. He didn’t know how to process that information. Evan
pregnant
? A
baby
?
“We can’t jump to any conclusions yet,” Andre cautioned, though his voice sounded shaky. “We don’t want to freak her out or anything. But we need to ask her if it’s a possibility.”
“Right.” Jace nodded, dazed. “We’ll do that. But let’s make sure she’s okay first.”
Jace turned to go to Evan, but Andre grabbed his arm. “Hey.”
He glanced back.
“You okay? You can’t go in there looking panicked.”
“I’m fine,” he said, shrugging out of Andre’s hold. “I’m not panicked.”
He was fucking terrified.
They found Evan in the back, lying on one of the long couches, a wet towel on her forehead. Jace kneeled down next to her and Andre sat on the couch by her feet.
“You okay,
bella
?” Andre asked, rubbing her calf.
Evan pulled the towel from her face and opened her eyes. Her pallor was still a shade of green but her eyes looked clear. “I can still smell that God-awful meat.”
“They’re working on it, baby.” Jace pushed her damp bangs away from her face. “And Alice is getting you some crackers to settle your stomach.”
“I don’t think I want to eat anything ever again.”
Jace couldn’t help himself from letting his gaze travel down to her flat belly. What if it were true? What if she was only a few months away from being round with their child? His heart picked up speed and he swallowed hard. “I’m thinking that’s not going to be a very effective plan.”
She closed her eyes again and Jace took that opportunity to peer over at Andre. Those liquid brown eyes met Jace’s and he gave a
let’s do this
nod.
Jace took a deep breath and grabbed Evan’s hand. “Baby, we need to ask you something.”
Her eyes opened again, curious, and she glanced between the two of them. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Andre assured her. “We were just talking with Alice and she brought up something that might explain why you’ve been feeling so bad lately.”
“What? Is there a stomach flu going around or something?” she asked.
“No,” Jace said, trying to find the right words to ask the question but not freak her out completely even though he was kind of freaking out completely. Evan had had an unexpected pregnancy before, and he knew that time had been the worst of her life. She’d always given him the impression that she might never want to go down that path again. They’d never explicitly talked about the role of kids in their future for that reason. But this wasn’t something they could ignore. “Alice said that sometimes the smell of meat gets to women . . . when they’re pregnant.”
Evan’s blue eyes went big.
“And we know you’re on the pill,” Andre added. “But there’s always a possibility, and you’ve been so tired lately, and now you’re getting nausea and—”
“I’m not pregnant,” she said flatly.
Jace let out a breath, but for some reason, it didn’t feel like one of relief. “Are you sure?”
She pushed herself into a sitting position, her expression wary. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
“But how can you be with those pills you take, if you don’t get a period every month?” Andre asked.
She sighed and rubbed her hands over her face. “I’m sure because I took a pregnancy test the other day.”
“What?”
Jace sat back on his heels. “Without telling us?”
“Bella,”
Andre said, hurt in his voice.
She winced. “There are problems with my pill. I heard a news story. There’s a recall on them because some packs had all sugar pills. So I panicked and bought a test. But it was negative, so I didn’t think it was worth bringing up.”
“But you put yourself through all that worry without us? We could’ve been there for you,” Jace said, frowning. He could only imagine how anxiety-provoking all that had been for her.
“Are you sure the test was accurate?” Andre asked. “Are they one-hundred percent?”
She shrugged. “Nothing is a hundred percent accurate, but I think it’s like ninety-seven percent. I have another test in my purse. I figured I’d take it in a few days just in case to make sure.”
“And I’m guessing you weren’t going to tell us about that one either?” Jace gave her a pointed look.
She rubbed her lips together and met his eyes. “I’m sorry. I just—we haven’t had this conversation and I didn’t want to cause a big thing if it turned out to be nothing.”
He laced his fingers with hers. “Baby, when are you going to get it through your head that we’re all in this together? We want to be part of those big things—even if they’re scary.”
“Especially if they’re scary,” Andre said. “It’s not like we’re going to run screaming. Whatever it is, we’ll stand with you and help figure it out.”
She closed her eyes and took a shaky breath, as if maybe that fear had truly been there. That worried Jace more than anything else. If Evan still thought they were going to pick up and leave one day, they definitely hadn’t done their job making her feel secure.
“I’m sorry,” she said again, and this time when she opened her eyes, they were shiny. “I just don’t know how to do this sometimes. I’m used to handling stuff on my own. Brave face. Bootstraps. All that shit. And what we have is so great. I didn’t want to drop a bomb in the middle of it—especially if it was a false alarm.”
Jace got up then and indicated that she should scoot and let him onto the couch with her. He sat and pulled her into his lap. She came willingly, curling into his hold, and he put a finger to her chin, making her look up at him. “You need to hear this, Evangeline Kennedy. What we have
is
great. And the reason why it’s so great is that we’re all in love and committed to each other for the long haul. You are stuck with us. Whatever curve balls get thrown our way. Do you really think either of us would bail on you because of a baby?”
She looked down, tears slipping down this time. “I know y’all wouldn’t leave me in a lurch or anything. But it’d be so complicated and everything would change and I don’t even know how we’d—”
“Shh,” Andre said, sliding next to them and reaching out for her hand. “What we’d do is figure it out. Yes, things would change—just like things change for any relationship when a child comes along. But why do you think those would be bad changes?
Bella
, do you realize how much love our baby would have? Most kids are lucky to get the unconditional love of one parent, but this one would have three.”