Quaranteam
Chapter 22
In the morning when he awoke, Andy had expected that the girls would’ve scattered some around the bed, but instead, found all of them had moved in much closer instead. Sarah’s face was against one side of his neck and Emily’s face was against the other. One of his hands was folded into Niko’s and the other was folded into Aisling’s. Amusingly enough, Lauren and Taylor had actually slept toe-to-head with him, and were hugging his legs and each other.
The biggest problem was that he desperately needed to take a piss.
He started by drawing his legs in, gingerly slipping them out between Lauren and Taylor’s arms without waking either of them. Two down, four to go.
Andy slowly drew his hand out from Niko’s, skating his arm slowly back towards him, working to roll the two women back, which he found he was able to do without too much trouble. He was about to do the same to Emily and Aisling, but saw that Aisling was awake and gave him a little wink, letting go of his hand and pulling Emily back and away from him enough for him to slip out, standing up, placing his foot on the headboard, using it as a sort of precipice, stepping up just long enough to pivot out and reach the edge of the bed, hopping out of it quietly.
Aisling moved to lay Emily against Sarah, then moved to follow him into the bathroom, where he was already sitting on the toilet. They’d long ago gotten comfortable enough to talk to one another while they peed, although she still closed the door behind her, mostly to keep their conversation from waking the others.
“Feeling any better?” she asked him.
“Still mostly in shock,” he sighed. “I mean, it’s not just my brother. Basically any of my guy friends from high school or college is likely dead. That’s a hell of a thing to lay on a person, and not be able to tell anyone.”
“Sure, but that’s too big a thing to think about, so your brain’s focusing on Matty, love,” Ash said to him. “And that’s okay. He sounded like a great guy, even if you two weren’t that close.”
“He was. I was really looking forward to introducing everyone to him. I don’t really have much family left at this point, other than this one, I guess. At least my friend Xander is staying safe back in Cleveland.”
“You talked to him Monday on FaceTime, remember?” Ash reminded him. “He was giving you shit about watching ‘The Ipcress File’ again.”
“God, I have to call him and tell him about all of that mess out there,” Andy laughed, standing up, flushing the toilet. “He’s probably going to fall down laughing.”
Aisling grabbed the back of his neck, forcing him to bend down enough for her to kiss him. “Good. Mourn your big brother, but don’t lose sight of the good things in your life either. Everyone’s taken the day off work today, so everyone will be around if you want to talk or fuck or cuddle or whatever. You should do some of all of that.”
“You want to hop in the shower with me? There’s something else I wanted to talk about with you.”
“Awright, love,” she said, reaching in to turn on the warm water. “What’s on your mind?”
Andy stepped in and did a little adjustment to the water temperature, turning it down just a little bit. For some reason, most of the girls loved it searing hot, while Andy didn’t want it quite so scalding. “So, there are more changes coming with the announcements next week that I don’t know if Phil told you about.”
Ash stepped in to let her fiery mane pass under the water, getting it good and soaked. “Just about the mass US casualties and that your brother was one of them. I immediately called home to make sure all me family was fine, but all my kin’s staying boarded up, so they’re safe.”
He moved to wrap his arms around her, holding her in a firm hug. “They’re going to change some of the fundamental laws here in the states, and encourage things that would’ve been heresy just a few months ago. And Phil was encouraging me to think about the future, about what life’s going to look like going forward.”
Ash looked over freckled her shoulder at him with a wry smile. “Sounds like some heavy shit.”
Andy laughed a little. “I suppose so. The whole polyamory thing is going to be codified in laws, so pods will be actual families and such. Anyway, uh, well... damn, you know I never thought I’d be doing this in my life, but Aisling Blake, will you marry me?”
She immediately spun around in his arms and kissed him harder than she ever had before, her body pressing against his like she was afraid if she let go of him, all of this would disappear in a dream. That kiss lasted for a long moment before she finally pulled back, smiling up at him.
“So, is that a maybe or...?”
She reached around and swatted him on his ass. “Of course I’ll marry you, you utter git!” she giggled. “But I do have two conditions that are completely non-negotiable.”
Andy smirked, tilting his head a little. “If one of them involves you getting to peg me with a strap on, this marriage is over before it’s even started.”
“No, you big dummy!” she said through laughter and tears. “One is that you have to ask both Lauren and Niko today, like today today. If we’re going to be an actual family, it’s not right that I get to be your wife alone.”
“Of course,” Andy said. “I was going to talk to them over the next few days, but I can make it today. What’s the other?”
“You have to promise me you won’t feel bad if Lauren says no.”
Andy arched an eyebrow. “You think she’ll say no if I ask her to marry me?”
Aisling sighed a little. “I think you need to talk to her first. I think she wants to marry Taylor. She loves you, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a different level of love than what she feels for Taylor. If you bring it up to her, I think she’s just going to want to remain your concubine or fuck buddy or whatever, and then her and Taylor get married. But when it comes to soul-to-soul connection, I think she feels a little guilty that she’s not as close to you as Niko and I are, and that’s not her fault, not your fault, not anybody’s fault. I don’t want you to guilt her into this next level.”
He nodded. “It’s okay, there have been signs of that over the last few days. I know she said that she’s moving her and Taylor into another bedroom since she gets up so early, but I also feel like it’s to give them a bit of space on their own. I’m not mad. I’m genuinely not. I get that. And I suspected that something like this might happen when I saw how angry Lauren got at Taylor’s arrival. You have to really care about someone for them to get that far under your skin.”
Ash squeezed him a little more. “On the plus side, Niko’s totally going to say yes. She said she’s been suspecting that men were going to have multiple wives sometime soon, so as soon as she finds out that it’s happening, she’ll fall over herself to accept.”
He leaned down and kissed her again. “We’ll wait for the ceremony until we’re on the other side of all of this, but we may want to do all the legal stuff as soon as we’re able to.”
“Mmm,” she said. “And then wait for all of us to have one giant ceremony, you and your multitude of wives.”
“Two’s not that many.”
Aisling giggled again, rolling her eyes. “You’re an idiot, you know that, right, love?”
“What do you mean?”
“Sarah and Emily are absolutely going to demand to marry you as well, and that’s just for starters. Who knows how Piper, Asha, Hannah and whoever’s next is going to feel?”
Andy shook his head. “You’re awfully confident that Sarah and Emily will want to marry me.”
“Of course I am, you daft git,” Ash smirked. “I saw how Sarah looked at you yesterday, and, shit, we all heard Emily say as much last night. So you’ve got at least four wives already in the wings. And I’m never going to say this again, but I’ll always know I’m the first,” she giggled, kissing him once more.
Fifteen minutes later, they were getting out of the shower, and Andy peeked his head back into the bedroom, seeing nobody else had woken up yet, so he quietly grabbed some boxers, some jeans and a t-shirt, got dressed, and slipped out into the house. Behind him, he could hear the sound of the hair dryer turning on, even though the bathroom door, and he suspected the other girls would slowly be getting up.
The first thing Andy did was walk down the hall and peek his head into Piper’s room. She was awake and dressed, having clearly slept for a long time, dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, reading the letter he’d left in her room.
“I didn’t want you just to awaken in a strange home without some idea of what was going on,” Andy said, leaning against the doorframe. “You were so out of it that—”
She rushed him suddenly, clutching at him in a firm hug. She was crying a little, but the way she was holding onto him said they weren’t tears of sadness. “Thank you for rescuing me from that bastard,” she whispered. “I woke up a couple of hours ago and have mostly just been reading and rereading this letter you left me.”
In the letter he’d left in her room, Andy had explained who he was, and how she’d come to be in his home. He’d detailed her experiences with Covington, in case she couldn’t remember them, and how he would’ve like to just taken her away from him and gotten her to choose a man of her liking, but that she had been in such a lust rage that he hadn’t had that option. He’d also explained how his arrangement with the staff of the house worked, and that if she simply wanted to have that distant level of engagement with him, he would completely understand.
“I’m sorry we had to meet this way, but here we are,” Andy said.
She turned his head and kissed him, soft, tender, vulnerable, but for a long moment before pulling back. “It’s... it’s all a lot to take in,” she mumbled. “I don’t have to make a decision now, do I?”
Andy smiled warmly at her and shook her head. “You’ve got plenty of time to figure out what you want to do here, and how you want to engage with me and the rest of the household. How are you feeling? People aren’t supposed to wait that long to get imprinted, so we were a little worried there might be unforeseen complications.”
“Not that I noticed?” Piper said, still mostly whispering. “Although there’s one thing...”
“If there’s a problem, definitely let me know and I can call my friend at the base. We can have some of the doctors check you out.”
“It’s not a problem so much as just a weird thing...” she said. “I could... I could smell you? Coming down the hall? Like, I knew it was you, because the smell made me feel warm and tingly inside. Like, a little buzzed, in a good way. But it kinda makes it hard to think clearly? Maybe it’ll pass. But I feel a definite connection to you, like I’m safe around you? I don’t even know you, but I feel safe. How weird is that?”
Andy shrugged a bit. “It might just be some part of the imprinting process that’s functioning on a deeper level because of what you went through. I don’t know. One of the doctors who’s responsible for developing the process is now the partner of a friend of mine, so we’ll have her check you out.”
“Is it okay if we wait a few days before we fuck again?” she asked. “I know I have to do it regularly, but I want a few days to clear my head, if that’s cool.”
Andy pulled back and kissed her forehead. “You have at least a week before you’ll feel any real need for my cum, and if you’re still not ready by then, you can just blow me, or have one of the girls jerk me off into your mouth. Whatever’s easiest for you.”
“Oh, I’m ready to fuck you right now,” she laughed. “Maybe it’s just the process, but I was ready to fuck you the second I smelled you walking down the hallway, but I want a few more days so I’m not in so much of a daze the first time we fuck. Well, the first time that we fuck that I remember.” She had an easy grace about her, a sort of stoic confidence that he had to admit he found attractive. “Your letter makes me sound like I was quite a handful the night you rescued me.”
“Yeah, you can ask Niko about it, but you basically just pinned me down, climbed on top of me and rode me like I was an oversized sex toy.”
She giggled fiercely at that, blushing a dark red. “Well, I’m sorry about that, I guess, but, not gonna lie, it also sounds fucking hot. I’ll talk to Niko about it.” She looked at the room then looked back at him. “So is this my room for good then?”
“If you want it to be, or you can move into the master bedroom as well, if you want. And you don’t have to do just one or the other. You can have this as your personal room, but sleep in the main bedroom any time you want.”
She nodded. “Okay, I’ll sleep here for the next few days while I’m sorting my head out. I need to call my friends and family and explain what’s happened and where I’m at. Is that okay?”
Andy gave her another short hug then pulled back. “Absolutely. Do whatever you need to. The letter included a list of everyone who’s in the house right now and a short description of them. If you need help finding something, feel free to ask Nicolette. If you’re hungry, just tell Jenny what you want and she’ll whip something up for you.”
“Thank you again, Andy. I have a feeling I’m going to be saying that a lot in my life moving forward.”
“Call your family. We can talk more later.”
Andy headed out of the room and stepped back into the hallway, heading downstairs, where he found Lauren having a breakfast omlette that Jenny had put together for her. Over the next few minutes, while Jenny made him a breakfast burrito, Andy talked to Lauren about her and Taylor. Andy mentioned that he had asked Aisling to marry him. Lauren agreed that she wanted to marry Taylor eventually, but was glad that Andy had asked her nonetheless, and reiterated that while she still loved him, she wasn’t in love with him the way she was with Taylor, and she appreciated his being understanding about that.
After that, Andy went to go write for a while It helped clear his head, and his two cats seemed to have made his office their regular sleeping spot. Whenever he was there, they moved to sleep closer to him, by his feet, on his legs or nestled into the excess room between him and his chair.
A couple of hours later, he saved the file and got up, heading towards the kitchen to get lunch when he ran into Niko, who pulled him aside, saying she wanted to check up on him. They headed into one of the lounges and as soon as they were in the lounge, Niko dropped down to one knee.
“Andy Rook, will you marry me?” she said, holding up a small ring box. Inside the box was a simple titanium band with a folded cabling pattern on it.
Andy’s jaw was on the floor, then he started laughing. “Of course I’ll marry you, Niko, as long as you’re okay sharing me with Ash, and maybe more.” He hadn’t even thought to get rings for Ash and Niko, but it was definitely a thing he needed to do soon.
“Oh, sharing you’s not a problem,” she said, kissing him as she slipped the ring onto his finger. “I know Emily and Sarah are definitely going to insist on it. I thought I’d just ask you quick and take the pressure off. I take it Lauren’s hitching up with Taylor instead?”
“Yeah, I think we all saw that one coming. It’s fine.”
“Is it fine or is it fine?” she asked him.
“It’s completely fine,” Andy laughed. “Genuinely. To be honest, it means one less anniversary present I have to worry about.”
“I’m torn between wanting my own wedding day and wanting to share it with all the other girls,” she teased.
“Oh please, god, let me just have one giant ceremony, so that I only have one anniversary to remember,” he pleaded, which made her laugh.
“Alright, but only because it means I get to watch all of your two starlet fuckpets’ friends look on in jealousy when we’re all marrying you.”
“Wow, are you optimistic,” he muttered. “I haven’t asked either of them yet, so there’s no guarantee—”
“Andy. ANDY. They’re both gonna say yes. Shit, Sarah migh cum just from you asking her, based on how she’s been any time I’ve talked to her about you. I had to avoid telling her I was involved with you, but she was rereading a copy of ‘The Trouble With Were-Bears’ when she arrived at the base.”
“Why is it the crappiest book in the series sold the most fucking copies?” Andy groaned. “But let me tell you, Emily is one clever lady.”
Over the next few minutes, Andy explained to her what Emily had done, how she had manipulated all sorts of people to ensure that Sarah would be paired up with Andy in the end, and how she was incredibly thankful to be with her as well.
“See?” Niko said. “Emily even said you should marry her, so she’s going to definitely say yes. So that’s two more. A five person wedding sounds wild, but a lot of fun. You given any thought about talking it over with Piper or Asha?”
Andy shook his head. “Piper’s awake but I don’t want to overwhelm her, so we’ll let her get comfortable with the house in her own time, and Asha’s too young to be ready to make that kind of decision.”
Niko tsked him. “You’re gonna have to get over that, Andy. She’s part of your family now, so the only question becomes how and at what level.”
“Fine, I won’t rule it out, but we’re certainly not bringing it up to her for at least a few weeks until after she’s settled. I’ll talk to Em and Sarah about it over the next few days, since they’ve both made it extremely clear how they’re feeling about it.”
“And don’t forget, you’ve got Hannah showing up tomorrow.”
“And we’ll see whatever other surprise Watkins has planned with her arrival.”
The rest of the day was quiet. It had begun raining around lunchtime, and the rain kept falling into the evening, when Andy finally held a group dinner, the entire family having a big meal, using the largest ballroom they had, the banquet dinner table having enough seats for sixteen. With the three on staff, they were at twelve already, so Andy made the decision in his head not to grow the family by more than three more, one of which was already reserved for Hannah.
At dinner, Andy told the gathering that he’d proposed to Ash and Niko, which Niko corrected saying that she had done the asking. Regardless of who asked who, Andy told them, the three of them were going to get married eventually, at which point Emily and Sarah had chimed in, asking Andy to marry them as well, to which he immediately agreed. Lauren also told the gathering that she and Taylor had agreed to marry each other, but that didn’t mean they were leaving the family. Neither Piper or Asha chimed in, both looking content to wait and see how things moved forward before jumping in feet first.
The dinner turned into a sort of get-to-know-each-other party, and the girls intermingled a bunch, talking to one another, trying to spend time with everyone, although all of them made a point to come back and check on Andy regularly.
He felt weird, being at the center of a party exclusively populated by beautiful women he’d all fooled around with, and they were all getting along. He even saw Niko lean in and kiss Emily, both of them smiling and blushing afterwards.
They all talked shit with one another well into the evening and eventually when Andy decided it was time to head up to bed, the girls were still talking and said they would be up to join him in bed eventually. Andy must’ve looked a little sad at that, because as he turned to head upstairs, Niko and Ash both darted over to walk up with him, and the three climbed into bed and fell asleep together.