Carnal House

Push.-John

Ryker is glowing as she leaves the dressing room, I have never had such an intense reaction to a woman in something as simple as a dress. Margot is going to lose her mind when I walk in with Ryker. I had every intention of going stag but marked a plus one just in case.

Every dress looked impeccable on her, but the lace halter dress the just brushed her knees had my mouth watering.

She guarded the dress for Fox like a precious secret, insisting on carrying it to the car herself.

“Where next, darling?” I asked, after hanging the last garment bag on the rod in the back. The sun had already set, and she was looking drained.

“Home?” She asked, as if one of us would say no to her.

“Is that a question?” Connor asked, opening her door.

“I mean if there was something else you guys wanted to do, we can do that.” She said, backpedaling. The glow from the dress shop had faded with the walk to the car.

“If we ask you a question, kitten, we want your response to be a statement, and what you really mean.” Ash said gently from the back seat.

“I want to go home.” She said, with a little annoyance.

“Thoughts on dinner?” Connor asked, the look he gave me in the mirror suggested that he was testing that annoyance, getting to know her was going to take more than conversation, we were going to need to test all her boundaries.

“I really don’t care.” She said with a sigh, looking out the window when I pulled out of the parking lot.

“Kitten.” Ash said gently. She didn’t say anything, just rolled her eyes. “Kitten.” More firmly this time.

“I don’t care, whatever you make or choose is fine, I will eat almost anything.” Hungry and over-stimulated, a hurdle we will have to navigate to help her feel like she can tell us anything, to help her know and voice exactly what she wants.

Group chat

C-Chinese takeout?

F-Hmong is her favorite I will put in an order.

A-Laab for me!

C-House pho for me, fried noodles for John.

F-On it.

The chat flashed across my screen where I had my phone mounted on the dash.

“Do you guys' text each other from the same room or vehicle often or is this just because of me?” She asked the window.

“Our communications with each other are rarely one on one. We function as well as we do because the lines of communication are so open with all of us. We are not excluding you, if that is what you are worried about, but your conversations with us individually are private, if you wish to send a group text that is entirely up to you.” I said, stealing glances her way. She was quiet for a few minutes.

“I’m sorry I got annoyed before. Making decisions around you all is…daunting, I don’t want to choose wrong or cause issues with my choice. It’s why I was so relieved when Ash claimed that first dress, it meant I didn’t have to worry about if you liked it or if it even looked good on me. Was it right for the occasion, or proper at all.” She said quietly.

“If you don’t want to make a decision about something small or want to defer to one of us that is more than fine, kitten, you just have to tell us that is what you want to do.” Ash said, flipping to the next page of the book he had chosen, she glanced back and did a double take.

“Interesting choice, Ash.” She said, stifling a chuckle. “I would have chosen that one for Connor actually. It might change your mind about toys.” She said with a smirk.

Connor asked about the series he chose.

“First book is a little tame, ratchets up by the third though. She has another series as well, but I haven’t read it yet.”

Connor pulls out the two that I picked up. “Oh! I love this series, if her name is on it, I’m buying it, this one is my favorite though.” She said about the first one.

“This one definitely fueled more than one fantasy for me, and he doesn’t even have wings.” She said, based on that alone I would be reading that one first. It wasn’t fantasy like the others, but it sounded good.

She refused to tell us anything else, saying that she didn’t want to ruin any of them for us.

Fox was waiting for us outside when we got back to help haul everything in.

“Dinner is in the kitchen, bug.” He said, draping the garment bag with his name on it over his arm and giving her a nudge towards the kitchen. We all headed upstairs to deposit our spoils into our respective rooms.

“Patrick said he will get a team here and start tomorrow to try and get it done before the furniture is delivered. How did it go today?” He looked at each of us in turn.

“A little tense, she is still worried about causing issues between all of us. Ash had an epiphany and said that it would help to understand her more if we read some of her favorite books.” I said, stopping at my door, Connor ducked into his room quick before coming back out.

“John and I argued in the car. So, I’m in the doghouse. It caused some attitude from her while furniture shopping, particularly where the bed size was concerned.” Connor said. Fox winced before continuing down the hall and up the stairs.

“Dress shopping went well I see.” He commented. Ash handed Fox his phone so he could flip through the pictures he had taken. “Holy fuck.”

We all agreed with him wholeheartedly. It took immense effort not to steal her away into a dressing room, I wanted so badly to peel that first dress off her.

Hands now free of the purchases of the day we all headed downstairs to our girl.