Free Three Men and a Woman: Evangeline (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) by Rachel Billings Page A

just as she was taking the stairs to an upper level.
    “Evangeline. Evvie.”
    She paused with one hand on the rail, one foot just touching down on that first step. She was still for a moment before she turned.
    God, it was good to see her, the way it felt sometimes when he dropped his battered body into his hot tub after a rough shift. Only, for the soul, the heart, instead of the body.
    But maybe she didn’t feel the same way. Her expression, when she faced him, was a little wild. Maybe she was remembering the last time he was with her, the night of Shep’s funeral.
    Not his finest hour.
    She turned slowly, her fingers touched to her mouth. She didn’t move any more than that, so he walked to her. “Evvie.”
    Finally she dropped her hand and smiled, more composed than he’d thought. “Hello, Chase.”
    It felt good just to be with her. He’d forgotten that about her. He didn’t even feel tired anymore, just—happy.
    He took her hand. “What are you doing here?” She looked good— very good—but most people didn’t come to the hospital for happy reasons.
    Except for up on the third floor, where there were midwives and brand new babies.
    “I have a friend in hospice.”
    In a totally Evvie-like way she read his concern. “An old friend who’s lived a good, long life. She’s okay.”
    He nodded, glad to hear it wasn’t tragedy that brought her.
    “I’ve lost track, Ev. Do you live in Rochester?”
    She shook her head. “No. I’m local, though. I have a place down by Keuka.”
    “Come have breakfast with me.” The request—well, it was kind of a request—was an impulse, but the moment he uttered it, he really, really wanted it.
    In fact, he was getting a little offended that she hesitated so long. He squeezed her fingers to draw her attention back to him from wherever it had gone.
    She focused then, seeming to really look at him for the first time. “Are you just coming off a shift?”
    He nodded. “Yeah.”
    With a deep breath, she went on. “Shall we just go to your place? I’ll make you breakfast, and then you can sleep.”
    Yes. That was exactly what he wanted. Her in his house. Food. And a bed. Exactly.
    He walked her to her car and told her to wait until he drove his own around. Then she could follow him home.
    Exactly .
     
    * * * *
     
    Evangeline was going to end up in his bed with him. She knew it, and she knew he hoped it.
    It was inevitable, inescapable, like destiny, and she accepted it from the moment he said her name.
    Apparently, this was her fate. She loved her boys, her three men, but she lived without them. In compensation, every few years she got to have sex with all three of them. Urgent, needy sex, three times in a matter of a few hours. Or over the course of three days, wild monkey sex, hot and stirring and satiating, incredibly seductive.
    Of course, that last remained to be seen in Chase’s case. But she figured he was game. And likely had the skills.
    She couldn’t fight it, wouldn’t. If this was what she was given, well, she would take it.
    Somehow, it made having spent the night with Giovanni seem better. She wasn’t being slutty. She was just living out her fate.
    So when Chase stopped and blinked the lights of his little red sports car, she pulled in behind him. He led her to East Avenue, to a long drive between homes that could be reasonably termed estates, to a house settled on a smaller property.
    It wasn’t, like, a cottage. Not the small guesthouse to a separate mansion. It was of an impressive but not overwhelming size, a sweet Queen Anne with a hexagonal, tower-covered extension at one corner of the large front porch, slate roof, and fish scale shingle siding. It was painted in varying shades and tones of sea green. He drove around back where there was, presumably, a garage. She stopped and parked in the little paved area at the side.
    She got out and enjoyed the architecture and craftsmanship of the house, waiting for him to join her. He walked slowly,