The second biggest news is that I finished a book. *GASP. As difficult as it has been to write lately I am majorly excited about Ultimate Ultimatum. See below to read the blurb and the excerpt. Click the cover to go buy your very own copy.Other than that I don't have much news to report. Those are two pretty large announcements for someone who only updates their newsletter once every few months. So hopefully that will hold you over until I can post baby pictures and write some more books.
Blurb:
Annabelle has been dating Mike, Kyle and Josh at the same time for quite a while. She believes they are all happy with the arrangement until one night they drop an ultimatum on her. They inform her that she will have to pick one of them or they will decide for her. Torn by her love for all of them, she figures that she would rather be alone and heartbroken than to have to choose between them. But when the time comes to share that decision with the men, she finds out they’ve had a different plan in mind the whole time. One that will ultimately satisfy all of them.
Excerpt:
“Annabelle,” Mike’s voice was soft against my ear. “Sweetie, are you all right?”
“No, I’m not all right,” I said as I struggled to get my bearings. The guys had apparently picked me up and set me on the sofa while I was out. Now, they were all sitting on the floor next to me. “What the hell happened?”
“You walked into the room, swooned and fell down,” Kyle laughed. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“I didn’t swoon,” I growled through clenched teeth. “I do not swoon.”
I wasn’t even sure what a swoon was. I had read the term in romance novels, and it certainly didn’t sound like something I would ever do. Women with corsets that were too tight swooned. A woman walking into a room to talk to her boyfriends about the future of their relationship didn’t.
Except as soon as I remembered why we were all here, I felt myself start to sway slightly. Fortunately, the thought of fainting in front of them again was so horrifying that it shook me straight, and I was able to catch my breath before embarrassing myself any further.
“Okay, you fell face first onto the carpet in the most spectacular belly flop I’ve ever seen on dry land. Does that make you feel better?” Josh asked.
“Not really,” I said with a sigh. “Look, I obviously don’t feel good. And as fun as it sounds to sit here and ruin my life tonight, could we maybe reschedule this little anti-love fest for another evening?”
“No,” Mike said shortly. “We’re going to work this out tonight. Look, Annabelle, I’m sorry to put you on the spot like this. But we’ve got a pretty big stake in this too, and I think we’ve waited long enough for your decision. So just tell us, who do you want to be with?”
“Mike!” Josh barked loudly. “Could you be a little more sensitive?”
“I’m just frustrated and scared okay,” Mike said with a sigh. He turned to me and took my hand. “You know that I love you. And I know that you love me. I’m just scared that maybe you don’t love me as much as I thought. So I figure if we do this quick, like a band-aid, we can all start the healing process.”
“Well, let’s see.” I sat up and took my hand from him. “We can’t band aid this situation. I haven’t chosen anyone. I love you all, and the fact that you say you love me and then force me to make a decision like this, well, it makes me ill.”
“What are you saying?” Josh asked. “You don’t want any of us?”
“No.” I felt the tears welling up again. “I want all of you.”
Mike and Josh sighed happily in unison, as if they had been holding their breath and were relieved to finally exhale, and Kyle started laughing. I looked at each of them in turn, confused beyond reason at their reactions. Anger, sadness, anything but the ultimate looks of relief on their faces would have made sense. I got the feeling I’d been the brunt of some horrible joke.
“I told you she’d never pick between us,” Josh said after a minute. He turned to me and smiled. “You really do love all of us, don’t you?”
“Of course, I do!” I hoped the incredulity was apparent in my voice. “I don’t understand why you all look so relieved about this. I have been a wreck for a week knowing I was going to lose you, any of you. And now you all look incredibly pleased with yourselves, and it hardly seems appropriate given the ultimatum you threw at me.”
“Annabelle, don’t be mad.” Mike, at least, had the decency to look at the floor when he said it.
Well, that was promising. I couldn’t recall a single time anyone had said those words to me, and I hadn’t ended up pissed off beyond all reason. They were obviously up to something, but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what that would be. If they’d chosen which of them was allowed to stay with me, I couldn’t imagine the other two looking so happy about it.
I watched them closely as I promised myself that no matter who they’d decided was the ‘winner’ none of them would be with me after this night. They had no right to choose for me, and seeing as I couldn’t have all of them, then I wouldn’t have any of them. I would just shatter my heart into three pieces, let them keep their share and walk away broken.
When I didn’t say anything to him, Mike continued.
“Josh and Kyle and I have been talking quite a bit over the last few months. I called them and asked them to meet me for drinks one night so we could talk about our relationships with you. It’s clear that none of us is willing to lose you, even if it meant sharing you forever. But none of us are happy with the way things are.”
He was talking in circles, and that alone was enough to get the anger stirring in my chest. I am not a patient person under the best of circumstances, and this was about the worst situation I could think of to be shoved into so blindly.
“We all want to spend the rest of our lives with you,” Kyle said. “But that isn’t going to work if we each only see you a couple of days a week. You can’t build a life together if you spend forever in date mode.”
Apparently, my absolute confusion was plain on my face because Josh smiled softly at me and leaned over to kiss my forehead.
“What we are trying to explain is that Mike, Kyle and I want to be with you. All of us, together.”
He said it as if it were as simple to understand as two plus two. But all I could do was stare blankly at him as my mind struggled to catch up to the punch line.
“I don’t understand,” I said finally when no one decided to elaborate. “You just told me last week that I had to choose one of you, that you wouldn’t all date me at the same time anymore.”
“I did say you had to choose,” Mike said. “But that was only to see if you really loved all of us equally. We already knew, but we weren’t sure enough to spring this idea on you right away. We had to know that you had thought about it, really thought about it, before we asked you to move in with us. All of us.”
It was the first time in my life that I’d felt as if someone had turned off all the lights in my brain, and it left me in complete darkness. I finally understood what they wanted, but couldn’t really wrap my head around it.
“All of you?”
“All of us,” Kyle said. “Josh and I will move into Mike’s house with you, and we’ll all be together. Equal partners in one relationship.”
“What about sex?” The words tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them. It was rare that I looked at any of them and didn’t think about tearing their clothes off, but to be offered the chance to be with all of them, at the same time, it was too much to imagine.
Josh laughed and kissed me quick on the lips. “That’s my girl.”
“The sex part is really up to you,” Mike chuckled. “However, you want to handle it is fine with us.”
“Really?” If I hadn’t been a little angry still, I might not have been so crass about the situation. But they had put me through a week of hell only to tell me that they were going to be grown ups and share me in a way that I’d never even thought possible. So I figured a little payback was in order. “What if I want the three of you to fuck while I watch?”
Mike went pale as a sheet, Kyle turned bright red and Josh laughed so hard tears leaked from the corners of his eyes. I said nothing, waiting for it to sink in that I wasn’t completely kidding. When they’d all returned to some semblance of normal Josh cleared his throat and answered my question as best he could.
“We never really discussed that. None of us is naïve enough to think that we can be with you and never end up touching another guy. But I don’t think having sex with each other had ever entered into our minds. I’m sure that’s something we can talk about later if it’s really that important to you, but for now, I think we’d all prefer if we could focus on you.”
“How very diplomatic of you,” I said with a smile. It was a better answer than I’d thought they’d give me. And besides, if I was honest with myself the thought of all three of them focusing on me sounded pretty damn good.
“If it would help to ease your mind, we could practice and see how it goes before you decide if you’ll accept our offer.” Mike said it so calmly and rationally I knew he was serious, and despite all of my anger and confusion about the situation, my panties went damp at the thought of it.
“Can we do that?” It was barely a whisper, but I got an immediate reaction to let me know they’d all heard me.
Josh was closest, and he claimed my lips with his own. My arms instinctively went behind his neck holding him close against me. As his tongue swirled against mine, his hands gripping my hair, a second pair of hands slid up my thighs.
“Get her on the floor,” Kyle growled. And just like that, I was theirs.
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