Page 78 of Eternally Devoted

I follow him in the house and use my foot to kick the door closed. Juniper’s house phone rings, but we ignore it. She always does, too. Dropping our boxes onto the counter, I startunloading supplies. “I do. Because I know that’s what she’ll want.”

“And it’s got more bedrooms,” Dash adds, setting a ten-pound bag of sugar on the counter.

I cock a brow playfully. “Need your own bedroom?”

He analyzes a jar of vanilla extract before setting it down next on the counter. He always makes sure the wholesalers don’t give Juniper a damaged item and charge her full price. He’s caught a few bad items in the past. “No, but the kids will.”

I freeze, a tray of empty canning jars in my hands slides to the counter with a thud. Luckily nothing breaks. Dash eyes me suspiciously as he continues unloading. “Weird hearing it?” he asks. It’s wild how well the three of us know one another.

Nodding, I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding. “Yeah.” I chew the inside of my cheek a little, watching him pull out strawberry baskets from the second box. “Also just wrapping my mind around us. One day we’re all bowling and the next, we’re potentially having and raising kids together.” I shrug. “It’s just crazy, that’s all.”

Dash grins, and my pulse leaps, my cock stiffening. “We put a finger in a Ziploc bag so… I guess crazy is our thing.”

Juniper pads down the hall, her blonde hair in her signature sexy style—a crown braid and long, loose waves. Her feet are bare and her white dress swishes around her ankles as she skips toward us, wrapping her arms around our necks, pressing a kiss to each of our cheeks.

“Ahh, the smell of my house,” she beams, beelining for her fridge after our hug. Yanking open the door, she wrinkles her nose. “I need groceries.”

“Juniper,” I start, watching her survey items while blindly plucking a strawberry from the counter, taking it down in one bite, dropping the stem on the counter.

“Hmm?” She pulls out an old Tupperware, tipping it into the trash. Suddenly she slams the door closed and faces us with sadness rimming her eyes. “I was gonna say, I should make orange chicken tonight, since we haven’t had that in a while. But then I realized… I’ll be here. Without you guys.”

“Juni, sweetheart, that’s what we wanted to talk to you about,” I say, taking her by the hand, leading her to the couch where Dash and I take seats around her. She bounces her knee, eyes welling as she looks between us.

“You changed your minds,” she breathes. “The murder stuff, right?”

Dash laughs and I cup her face with my hand, smoothing my thumb across her lips in an attempt to calm and soothe her. “No, honey, that’s not it. We didn’t change our minds about you. But we did change them about livingwithoutyou. Even just temporarily.”

Reaching out, Dash garners her attention with a palm to her knee, smoothing up and down her thigh. “We want to live here, in your house, with you.”

She blinks, then erupts in a laugh-sigh hybrid. “I wanted to ask but I thought since my place is so much older…” she says, swiping the tears that no longer mean harm. “Are you guys serious?”

I nod. “Dash, tell her what you told me. You know, about why this house is better for the three of us.”

Dash’s lips curl into the most handsome smile, and the way his fingers curl into Juniper’s knee with love and possession has my cock hardening. “This is your home. The place you make your jam. The place you grew up and raised your sisters. So it should be the place our kids grow up, where we raise our family.”

“Whenever that happens,” I add, wanting her to know there’s no stress or timeline. I may be the oldest, but I’m patient. I havethem and I never thought I would—everything else now is just a goddamn bonus.

She smiles, but I know Juniper Sky like the back of my hand. That glint in her eye isn’t just happiness. “Let’s celebrate this decision before I get to making jam.”

Dash’s proverbial tail wags and my cock presses into my fly painfully. “How so, sweetheart?”

Slowly, she reaches out, slipping her palm over the hard ridge of my erection, over my denim. “Let’s try something we haven’t before, yeah?”

Instinctively I clench my ass.

We’ve done a lot of things in the last few weeks. But Dash and I have not had sex. Not together, not without Juniper between us. I’ve not been inside him; he’s not been inside me. We’ve tasted and touched, explored in other erotic, wild ways. But we’ve never actually, directly had sex.

I haven’t gone down on him, either.

I’m ready for both. Or at least, I know I’m ready to begin exploring both, I just don’t know how to start. Making love to Juniper with Dash is a crazy hot experience, but one I’m well-versed in. Pleasing a man? I don’t know if I can.

I don’t want to be bad at it.

“Yeah?” I ask, my voice thinning as my nerves intensify.

“Notthatyet,” she says, reading my expression. “You two decide when you’re ready forthat.”

My eyes drift to Dash, but there’s no discomfort between us. He smiles at me, and my chest aches at how easy it is when you’re with the right people. “What did you have in store?” I ask.

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