Page 22 of Her Dragons

CHAPTER 8

Jake

The next morning, Alex and I were sucking Lily’s nipples and my hand was ambling down her stomach towards her bush, when she found her voice — which was a bit shaky in the midst of what we were doing to her — and said, “Guys?Guys.There’s something I have to tell you.”

Now when a woman announces there’s something she has to tell you in the middle of foreplay, that is when a guy most takes notice.We lifted our faces from her boobs and my hand halted its journey to her pussy as if someone had slammed on its brakes, and we stared curiously into Lily’s eyes as they darted back and forth between us.

My first reaction was, Oh my God, she’s pregnant.One of us knocked her up.What are we going to do?

But my thoughts scrambled in my head, trying to make sense of the moment.When did she find out she was pregnant?And why wouldn’t she have told us until now?Was she screwing up her courage while the two of us were busy screwing her?

Hesitantly, I asked her, “Lily, what’s wrong?”

She pulled herself up against the pillows and headboard, and we dragged ourselves up on either side of her.I could sense Alex was as anxious as I was.“Did we do something?” Alex asked.“Whatever it is, we’ll fix it; promise.”

“No, no,” said Lily.She touched both our faces tenderly.“Neither of you did anything.Well, no, you’ve both done plenty.”She gave us a reassuring smile.“But you haven’t done anything wrong.As a matter of fact, you’veboth done everything exactly right.You guys have helped me with something.Which is why I was able to decide, and it’s something I have to tell you now.”

On the surface, it didn’t sound like anything we should be worried about, but then I started to think more about it.Alex and I had taken her in, shared this bed and the rest of the apartment with her, given her sex that made the three of us feel as if our brains and muscles were melting — and, we thought, made her happy.She’d said when I was on top of her on the bath mat just last night that we’d made her happy.Was that it?Had we made her so happy that she’d found the strength to get on with her life — to leave us?The thought of Lily leaving us practically made my heart drop into my stomach.Could that be it?

“Okay,” I said, bracing myself for anything.“What is it?”

“I’ve decided,” said Lily, “that I want my life back.The rest of my life, from before I met you — and before I met Mark.When I was with Mark, he took over my life completely, isolated me from my family and my friends.I’ve decided that I want to start taking back my life.”

We greeted this news with a moment of stunned silence.This was not the same kind of bombshell as the possibility of her being pregnant, but the fact of Lily wanting back everything she’d given up to be with Mark was unexpected.And yet, as I thought about it, this made perfect sense.She’d become someone that she wasn’t, living under Mark’s claws.Of course Lily would want to get back to who she really was.It might not be easy, but it was natural — and, I realized, it was necessary.

While Alex just nodded and touched her supportively on her arm, I said, “Right.Yes, right.Sure you want the people you love back.You’ve got to miss them.It’slike the next step in your life.You should want to see them again after that bastard made you cut them off.At the very least you should want them to know you’re away from him and you’re okay.”

Lily grabbed me by one arm.She sounded excited and looked as if the weight of the world was suddenly flying off her shoulders.“Yes.Yes!Oh, I’m so glad you guys understand!”She gazed at Alex, her eyes filled with hope and getting a little wet.“Oh, you do understand, don’t you?”

“If I was you, I’d want the same thing,” Alex said.

“You’ve done so much for me.You’ve been so good to me.I’m glad you get it,” said Lily.

“Sweetheart, you deserve to get your life back,” Alex said.

“Absolutely,” I agreed.Then, thoughtfully, I asked, “Have you tried calling anyone?Or E-mailing or texting?”

“No,” said Lily.“I’ve been scared to use my phone.I’ve been mostly keeping it off because Mark can trace it.”

“Yeah,” I said.“Okay, that’s good.You don’t want him getting a fix on you that way.You don’t want to use that phone any more at all.In fact you should get rid of it.”

“Without my phone,” Lily said, “I’ve still felt cut off, even if I’m not with Mark any more.”

I ruffled my hair with my fingers.“That’s stupid of us.”Then, I quickly added, “It’s not your fault, we just should have thought about that.”

“We’ve had other stuff on our minds,” Alex pointed out, which was obvious enough, considering the three of us were lying naked in bed together and Alex and I were good and stiff down below until she told us what she was thinking.

“All right,” I said, “if you’re going to go through with this — and we don’t want to talk you out of it, because you’ve got a right to get your life back — there are some things we’re goingto have to do for your safety.Guys like Mark, when they dig their claws into something, they don’t like to let go.He could not only be looking for you; he could be watching your friends and your family to see if you try to get in touch with any of them.If you want to see them, that’s fine.But…,” and I hesitated a little bit to mention this, “I don’t want you going anywhere alone.We want to go with you.”I glanced over at Alex to see the same determination in the set of his jaw and the nodding of his head.We both studied Lily for her reaction.

Lily rolled her eyes and bit her lower lip, weighing the idea.“I don’t know, you guys.I don’t know how any of them would react.”She quickly explained, “It’s not as if any of them are prejudiced against Drakes, but it was a Drake who cut them off from me, and now I’m with two of you.I don’t know what they’ll think, what they’ll say.They might think I’m obsessed with Drakes, like I’ve joined a cult or something.They might be as scared and freaked out as they’d be if I were still with Mark.”

“Well, you could explain how it’s been since you met us,” I suggested.

“Mmm, I don’t know how they’d react to that, either.Going from one psycho Drake boyfriend to two Drake guys.”She pulled up her knees and wrapped her arms around them, defensively.“And I mean, it’s not as if this is any kind of conventional relationship.I don’t know how they’ll take the news that I’m being intimate with two of you.To most people, a ‘couple’ is…you know…two people, not three.Even if one person in the couple happens to have two bodies, it’s still two people.You guys are the best, but what we’re doing, it’s not something that most people do.”

“Are your folks really that conservative?” Alex asked.

“It’s not like they’re really all that conservative,” Lily said.“I mean, they’re not racist or homophobic.Andthey’ve never been prejudiced against Drakes, even if they don’t like Mark.It’s understandable that they don’t like Mark.No reasonable person likes a guy like that.They don’t hold it against anyone that they are who they are.But a three-way relationship is just outside of most people’s thinking, you know?My parents could think I’ve gone from something sick and abusive to something just weird.They could be just as worried as if I were still with Mark.”

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