Kurt still got called “Doc” since he was, legally, now a full MD. Tango had gone to being called Bill, or Dr. Black, depending on who was addressing him at the time, since he’d completed his medical degree as well.
“Well, if you all would schedule your pregnancies a little better,” Paul teased, “it would mean we didn’t have such a rush all at the same time every twelve months or so. Hell, there are ten of you and twelve months in the year.”
Infertility apparently wasn’t a problem for any of the twenty men or ten women. Every triad had at least one baby. And once Celia, who’d just had a positive pregnancy test last week, delivered that baby, they’d be in the lead with four.
Although it was too soon to tell, there was a possibility Leta was actually carrying triplets this time around. Twins, for sure, but at the ultrasound three days earlier, they hadn’t been able to get a clear enough view to tell if there was a third or not, although they thought there was. If she was, that would tie her, Mickey, and Paul with Celia, Doc, and Bill at four.
Celia had already said she was done after this one, which hadn’t been expected because she’d been planning on getting a five-year put in once their last daughter, child three, had been weaned.
Apparently Mother Nature had other plans.
“Okay, give me one last push and we can say hello to your little girl.”
The men helped Noel sit up and she did, screaming until, finally, they heard the baby’s cries and Noel slumped back onto the bed with relief.
Ten minutes later, the new parents were all focused on their daughter as the others stepped back to give them a moment.
Grandpa was out in the waiting room with their two sons. Not that they hadn’t wanted the boys in the delivery room when the baby was born, but Noel hadn’t wanted them learning that kind of language, and being scared by the threats of death and dismemberment she knew she’d be hurling at their fathers in the process.
The men exchanged a glance. Sam held up four fingers from his uncrushed hand. “One more after this, and you either get a five-year, or we get snipped. Take your pick.”
She laughed. “We’ll see.”
“That was an order, sugar,” Ken said.
She stuck her tongue out at him. “I still outrank you, captain.”
He held up his sore hand. “You didn’t warn us a house full of babies would mean losing use of one of my hands for several weeks after. You know, Celia lets them use epidurals on her.”
“I can take it.”
“I don’t think we can,” Sam joked. “Cut us some slack. You’re gonna kill us.”
She grinned. “Can’t keep up with me?”
He kissed her. “Try and stop us.”
“One more,” Ken said. “Doesn’t matter if it’s a boy or girl. We don’t have to repopulate the world on our own.”
By best rough estimates, over two-thirds—and possibly even as much as three-quarters—of the earth’s population had died due to Kite or Kite-related issues. It’d been over two years since the last reported case, and over ninety-nine percent of the remaining population of the world had been inoculated against it. Fortunately, the last reported case of it had also been a non-lethal strain.
The little clinic in Colima was now a real hospital. A small one, but fully equipped, with eight doctors and ten nurses on the payroll, among other technicians and staff.
Including Max Copper and Ivan Ivlonsky, Peter McInnis, and Julie and Rajesh Patel.
Who had just welcomed their second child into the world, another sister for Liang.
Once India completed her medical degree, she’d move from the title of nurse practitioner to MD.
After the triad introduced their sons, friends, and family to their new daughter, everyone left them alone for a little while to get some rest.
Until Sam’s sat-phone rang.
He frowned when he looked at the screen and exchanged a glance with Ken that Noel thought was odd.
“Hello?…Oh, hold on.” He put it on speaker mode. “There, now they can both hear.”
A man’s familiar voice spoke up. “Congratulations,” he said. “I hear there’s a new monkey in the world.”
Noel laughed. “Joe, do you have spies everywhere?”
“No, Mike sent me a text. I just wanted to wish you guys well.”
“Glad it’s not a business call,” Ken joked.
“Nope. Didn’t you hear? I’m retired now. Officially.”
“No way,” Sam said. “I don’t buy that.”
“Yep. Well, retired from the military. I’m going to be appointed to the Cabinet after Zach wins re-election.”
Considering the 75-25 split in the polls, no one doubted the popular President would easily skate into the White House for a second full term during next month’s elections.
“How’s Kali?” Sam asked.
“Hi, everyone,” a woman said. “Right here. Congratulations.”
“Oh, India unwrapped your early Christmas gift to us yesterday,” Ken said. “I thought she was going to wet herself with happiness, and not because she’s pregnant.”
Mrs. General Joseph Arliss happily laughed. “I was hoping she’d like that new MRI machine. I was told that was the best one out there.”
“We videotaped her expression when she pulled the paper and bow off it after they opened the truck up. Seriously, thank you.”
“Not a problem. Glad to help.”
“How’s Ax doing?”
“He’s out on a date with a girl I’m sure I’m going to have to get used to liking. She’s very nice and Joe already thoroughly investigated her.”
Joe laughed. “I think he found a keeper this time.”
“You still coming down for New Year’s?” Noel asked. The couple had built a modest home there in Colima and managed to make it down a couple of times a year for vacations and to visit everyone.
Every one of them had made her and Joe their first child’s godparents, and all the kids saw the couple as adopted grandparents.
And the couple always sent gifts for Christmas and on the children’s birthdays as well.
It was no coincidence that the Church of the Rising Sunset had decided to build a state-of-the-art secular school in Colima, free for any children in the area to attend.
“We’re planning on it,” Joe said. “I’m almost out of tequila.”
* * * *
Of course Joe was getting updates. Hell, Kali kept a special pink calendar book that she updated constantly with everyone’s due dates, the babies’ birthdates, everything.
She was loving being a grandmother.
He couldn’t wait until their three sons got cracking on that and started giving them some, too.
“Well, I won’t keep you three. I’m sure you need your rest and the boys need ice for their hands. Congratulations.”
“Congratulations,” Kali added. “We’ll talk to you soon.”
“Thanks!” the triad said before Joe ended the call.
He smiled at her as he pulled her into his lap.
“You’re not really retired from the military, are you?” she asked, grinning.
“Well, technically. Officially.”
She arched an eyebrow at him.
He sighed, kissing her. “You’re spooky sometimes.”
“In the good ways?”
“Damn right.”
They were on the sofa in his office at their home in Washington. On the wall was their dartboard, which they used nearly daily.
On it, a picture of Hannibal Silo. This one was due for replacement. It’d been up for three days and was nearly unrecognizable. They printed them up as they needed them.
He grabbed her hand and placed it over his bulge in his pants. They’d been like a couple of newlyweds, even now.
Who needed Viagra when he had a gorgeous bride with a delicious evil streak in her?
He’d wondered at first if the horrors she’d been through with Hannibal Silo would express themselves after a while.
Apparently not.
She’d channeled her anger, used it, hardened herself over the years.
And she was eager to make up for lost time, to make new memories, better memories, with him.
He wouldn’t deny there were times he would happily lie there and eat her out and every time he made her come he’d think, “Fuck you, Hannibal Silo. Hope you can hear her from Hell.” He also wouldn’t deny that her admission to him early on that he was twice the man of Hannibal Silo boosted his own ego.
He always made sure to take care of her, though. Never forced her, never pushed her.
Not that he had to. Hell, there were plenty of nights she’d ridden him to exhaustion in the good ways.
And he always took time to cuddle with her, hold her hand, drape an arm around her shoulders or waist when they were out and about.
Always touching her.
Rarely spending a night apart from her unless it couldn’t be helped. And even then, he would spend hours talking with her on the phone.
Telling her he loved her.
And dammit, he did love her, something he wasn’t sure he’d ever feel again in his life after being widowed once.
Maybe this was perfect, two wounded people finding happiness together.
Making up for what life had thrown at them.
A second chance.
“Special request tonight, love?” he asked. “Or you want to throw for it?”
This was a fun game between them that they both loved.
It didn’t hurt that she’d become an expert darts player.
She grinned. “Throw for it.” She jumped up and ran over to the dartboard, getting three for her and three for him. She didn’t move like a woman nearly sixty-five. Everyone thought she was much younger, if they didn’t know her true age. And he’d lost weight and gotten in the best shape he’d been in for over twenty years with her by his side.
He felt like a younger man.
He didn’t even bother trying anymore with this game, knowing the fun of it for her was just in the playing of it. Her first dart hit Hannibal right in the groin and Joe immediately knew what she wanted.
He threw, landing one where the man’s left eyeball would have been had it not been poked out two days earlier.
She threw a second one, which also hit Hannibal square in the scrotum.
His second he aimed for a little bit of unperforated section in Hannibal’s chest.
Her third was, again, ball shot.
He didn’t even try, throwing it and landing the dart in the white area on the left side of the picture before he turned and pulled her into his arms. “Is someone trying to hint they want a good fucking?”
She draped her arms around him, smiling up at him. “Maaaaybe.”
He scooped her up into his arms and headed for the bedroom with her. “Maybe I wanted to eat a little pussy tonight.”
“Who says you can’t do both?”
“Very true. Well, let’s go monkey around, my love. We’re supposed to have dinner with the Supreme Court Justices at eight. Don’t want to be late, but I can’t have my sweetie feeling all hot and horny while we’re there.”
“Oh, no,” she said, still giggling. “We wouldn’t want that.”
He kicked the bedroom door shut behind them.
* * * *
Mike Carter set his phone aside as Isabella walked into the living room. He’d been stretched out on the couch, watching TV, when he’d received word of Noel, Sam, and Kenner becoming parents for the third time.
From the look on his wife’s face, he knew she was in a playful mood.
Who said life didn’t sometimes give you second chances?
He crooked a finger at her, coaxing her in for a kiss.
In Spanish, he said, “Help me up. I see an angel in need of her halo getting tarnished.”
She blushed but giggled the adorable little laugh he loved hearing. No, they weren’t crazy kids, but they had fun. Leaving his wheelchair in the living room, as she helped him head to the bedroom, she asked, “Is Noel all right?”
“Healthy little girl. We’ll go see them tomorrow.” He switched to English, which he was slowly teaching her. She’d retired from the clinic but she loved babysitting for everyone and wanted to learn how to speak English. “Tonight you are all mine, and I want to monkey around.”
She made the adorably confused face he recognized when she was hung up on an idiom. He grinned and pulled her close, grinding his hips into hers. “That.”
She grinned. “Si.”
Laughing, with her arm around his waist and his around her shoulders, he slowly made it into their bedroom. “Si, indeed, missus. Si, indeed.”
THE END
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tymber Dalton lives in the Tampa Bay region of Florida with her husband (aka “The World’s Best Husband™”) and too many pets. Active in the BDSM lifestyle, the two-time EPIC winner is also the bestselling author of over ninety books, including The Reluctant Dom, The Denim Dom, Cardinal’s Rule, the Suncoast Society series, the Love Slave for Two series, the Triple Trouble series, the Coffeeshop Coven series, the Good Will Ghost Hunting series, the Drunk Monkeys series, and many more.
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Tymber Dalton, Monkeying Around
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