Christmas with my Three Best Friends (Lucky Lady Reverse Harems)

Chapter 4

4

Marius

W hen Shay first walked through the door of my previous gym, I was surprised by her determination. Unlike most of my clients, she knew what she wanted. She’d already done most of the work with therapy and with herself—the relationship with her inner child, the childhood traumas, the issues with food. Chaos begets chaos, she said, so when she started putting order back into her life and implemented new habits in lieu of the old ones, everything else just fell into place.

If I’m honest, I liked her plenty since day one. I liked her full curves and the confidence with which she carried herself. But when she started telling me about her journey, I was hooked. I was stunned and thrilled because I knew she would be a pleasure to work with.

Things got in the way. Life, work. Vincent. When that fucker came along, everything stopped. For the longest time, I felt like I was on the outside looking in, watching her fall in love with a man who did not have honorable intentions. I tried to warn her, but I couldn’t get through—how could I? We were just friends and later business partners. That man had her attention and her affection, while I watched the trainwreck slowly unravel.

By the time he ghosted her, I knew she would need every ounce of support so she wouldn’t fall back into her old habits. I was already catching feelings for Shay, though I kept telling myself she had no reason to like me back, to want me the way I wanted her. What could I offer her? Vincent had poetry and plenty of talk in him. He seemed smarter, savvier. Better dressed. Charming. I was and still am what most people would consider the jock archetype. All I know is sports. Movement. Fitness. The body and the mind in perfect sync. And Shay is such a sharp girl, wicked smart and insanely ambitious. I used to feel small beside her. Not anymore.

Not since that email. It’s been a pleasure coaching her. I love watching her blossom and become an even better version of herself. But I want the very core of this woman more than anything. I want a future with her. And after what happened the other night… damn, I want to have her, all of her, until my very last breath. Hell, I’m so into her I’m even willing to share her with Jax and Richard. Our friendship is tight and strong enough to work through it.

“We’re crazy, aren’t we?” Jax asks.

We’ve been lounging about at Mabel’s for the past twenty minutes, a favorite coffee shop of ours that’s close to West Key. Richard called us, but he has yet to tell us what it’s about though we’re both pretty sure it’s about the email.

“What with, specifically?” Richard replies, slightly amused. “We’ve done plenty of questionable things in this life, already.”

“Us and Shay,” Jax says, leaning back into his plush armchair. “I mean, I like her. I knew you two were into her, as well. But none of us thought to make a single move until that naughty list popped up. And now, look at us.

“It doesn’t make us any crazier than Shay herself is for having such a fantasy,” Richard says. “It’s not something I’d thought about until I got the email, to be fair. But here we are. Here I am. Willing. You’re not?”

“Oh, absolutely. How about you, Marius?”

I nod slowly. “I’ll have her however she wants to have us,” I tell them. “I don’t even care, as long as I’m with her. As long as she’s safer with us than with that Vincent prick.”

Jax frowns, his eyebrows drawing deep shadows over his otherwise sunny blue eyes. “He hasn’t been around, has he?”

“One of the receptionists mentioned a Vincent at one point. We were discussing potential new clients,” I reply.

Richard dismisses the idea entirely. “That loser should know better than to come around West Key. He’s met us. Surely, he wouldn’t be an idiot on top of everything else.”

“He doesn’t matter, anyway,” I say, shaking my head. “My point stands. I’m down with making her naughty list come true, one item at a time.”

Richard smiles broadly, sympathy and affection glimmering in his eyes as he looks at me. “You’ve been head over heels for her for a quite a while, huh?”

“There’s plenty to be head over heels with,” I reply.

Jax chuckles and adds a smidge of sugar to his black coffee. “She’s been through so much. We need to be careful with how we approach Shay. She’s pretty embarrassed about the naughty list.”

“We’ve seen her through the worst and the best of times,” I say to Jax. “She knows she can trust us, and I intend to keep her trust going forward. This may be a messed up world, and ours may be a… let’s call it a complex friendship currently evolving into something unorthodox, but Shay needs to feel safe and loved with us. If we can’t provide for her in that sense, we might as well just pretend the naughty list never happened.”

Richard nods in agreement. “We either do this right, or we don’t do it at all.”

“How did she seem when you dropped her off at her place the other night?” Jax asks me.

Almost instantly, a grin slits across my face. A sense of pride swells within me, and my pants feel tighter as I remember the sound of her voice when she came, when I ate her out and made her quiver until she could barely stand. The mere look on my face is a clear enough answer and prompts Richard to laugh lightly.

“Pleased,” I manage, then clear my throat and try to stay in the present. I’ve been wandering back to that moment at the bottom of the staircase, I’ve been reliving it, over and over. She’s dangerously addictive, and I could easily overdose on this woman without a single shred of remorse. “We’ll have to ease her into it.”

“I’m still shocked Vincent didn’t get the first time with her,” Richard says, scratching his rust-colored beard. “There must’ve been a glaring red flag on top of the ones we saw, big enough to scream ‘Don’t do it’ in the back of Shay’s head. I know they almost did a couple of times.”

“She stopped it twice,” Jax remembers. “She said it didn’t feel like the right moment. Like she wasn’t really into it.”

“Shay also said Vincent was rushing her,” I say. “So that’s one thing we need to be careful with. We have to let her come to us. To voice her desire and give her full consent.”

Richard takes a long sip of his latte and whips out his phone, going over the list again. “Alright, let’s see what we’ve got here. We don’t have to start with the very first item, do we? You know, since you said we should ease her in.”

“Christmas is just around the corner,” I reply. “We could get Santa to drop some presents early. Shay made an impressive list there…”

I’m constantly turned on these days. It’s hard to even focus. I was already nuts about her but getting a glimpse into her deepest and raunchiest desires… now I can’t stop thinking about her, about being with her. About taking it all the way, night after night and day after day.

It’s a dangerous mindset for me to be living in. I’ve gotten my heart broken before. Roxanne left deep wounds that I’m still healing from. And having her as a client at the gym hasn’t helped, either. I’ve found comfort in Shay’s presence when Roxanne hovers in my vicinity. At least I passed my ex onto another coach since I didn’t want us to stay friends like she had originally suggested. I couldn’t be friends with a woman whose toxic jealousy damn near broke me. In stark contrast, Shay’s self-confidence is remarkably seductive on its own. I can’t help but feel drawn to her. Maybe there’s hope for me still. Maybe it’s Shay.

“Look at this,” Richard says, showing us the list on his phone screen. “Item number three…”

“Oh, I recognize that,” Jax says, the corner of his mouth twitching.

We all recognize it. It’s a wearable vibrator with a Bluetooth remote control. The woman inserts it, stimulating her in more than one way, while the man plays with the remote.

“We could start there,” I reply, my gaze wandering around.

“I’ll order it tonight,” Richard says. “Next-day delivery is an option.”

“Have it gift-wrapped. She deserves a proper present,” Jax smiles. I’m aware he’s had a soft spot for eons, too. Not that I can blame him. Or Richard. If anything, I think our affection for Shay has only served to bring us closer together as friends and partners. “We’re meeting with her on Friday, right?”

“Yeah, evening, after practice,” I tell him. “What time do you wrap up?”

“Nine. Got my eight o’clock group,” Jax says.

“That’s fine. If I remember correctly, Shay will be putting together price offers around that time for yours and Lyle’s fitness and weight training combo plans,” Richard says.

I notice my cup is empty. I could order another one, but I’d rather get two to go and take Shay a latte, instead.

“Alright, then, Rick, you place the order, and we’ll meet up on Friday night. The four of us,” I say, pulling myself out of a startlingly comfortable armchair. “I need to get a couple of coffees and head back to the gym.”

If Shay wants us to take her every which way, we’ll do it. If she wants to be claimed and shared, we’ll claim and share her. If she wants her brains fucked out of her head, she’ll get that, too. Body and soul alike, we’ll take her and make her into our woman.

I have no idea how it will work out in the long-term, but I do know I’m willing to try whatever I can to make it happen.