Three Swedish Mountain Men

by Lily Gold

“I can walk myself,” I mutter. “Did you learn recently? You’re not good at it.”

I yawn, stretching, and let my hair fall in a curtain over my face as I curl up on the sofa. “Aww,” Eli says, his voice soft in my ear. “Our baby’s getting tired.” He tugs me into the crook of his neck, and I breathe in the scent of him. Our baby. What a weird thing to call me. It makes my insides quiver.

“It’s been a while since we did this,” Eli says by my ear. “Did what?” I whisper. Eli’s teeth graze my earlobe, and I shudder. “Oh…” I can’t stop the moan falling out of my mouth. Both men take identical deep breaths. Riven’s fingers tighten on my hand. “You’re right,” he tells Eli. “I have bloody missed this.” The redhead grins.

Riven sits back and picks up his drink again, like nothing just happened. “We always used to share women,” he says casually, taking a sip.

“All three of us. Cole, too.” Eli kisses my bare shoulder. “Not just sex.”

“It just sort of happened, the first time around. And it felt so good that we kept doing it.” “And… it gets you off?” His green eyes darken. “God, yeah.”

“There’s nothing hotter than watching a girl getting more and more turned on. And when you’re seeing her with someone else.” He blows a hot breath over my ear, making me shiver. “You get to really enjoy the show.”

Riven nods at Eli. “Kiss him,” he orders.

Even though I keep buying more bookshelves, I can never keep up with my book-buying habit. It’s probably a diagnosable addiction at this point.

Before he leaves, he picks up his pillow and whacks it down onto Eli’s face. Eli springs up, shouting a stream of swear words. “Shut up,” Riven orders. “I’ve got to take a call. Keep Daisy company.”

“When I’m done with this, if you give me your clothes, I’ll get the stains out.” “How do you know how to get blood out of clothes?” “I do this really odd thing, where I bleed out of my vagina for a week every month? I don’t know why, it’s weird. Now sit.”

“I’m not… good with people,” he starts. I relent a bit. “Oh, I don’t know. I think you’re better than you give yourself credit for. You have your charming moments.” He raises an eyebrow. “Really?” “No. They shouldn’t let you out in public.”

I’ll say it now; I have a massive crush on the girl. I don’t know what I’m going to do without her.

I kiss her, long and deep. She makes a soft sound, dragging her hands down from my shoulders to my biceps. I make sure to flex, so she gets the full experience of feeling me up, and she hums appreciatively.

I kiss her ear. She’s wearing tiny, sparkly little earrings shaped like stars. Maybe I should buy her some earrings, too. I wonder if I could get away without her noticing.

“That was our ex. Johanna.” “Oh.” I mull that over in my head. “Our ex? As in, all three of you?” “Yep.” I suddenly feel a stab of jealousy towards the woman. She got all three of them. Cole wanted her as well. “Did you love her?”

Johanna and Cole worked out an arrangement where Cole looked after him on weekends. He was so excited; he renovated a room in his flat into a nursery, bought all this baby shit.

Holy shit, the guy is jacked. His abs are like a pile of bricks stacked on top of each other, and his arms are roped with muscle. I glance up to his shoulder, and see Riv’s taken his stitches out; the bite is already fading to a reddish scar. It fits right in—he’s got scars all over him, some new, some old. He looks like a warrior.

“Then take this off.” I tug at the strap of her little nightdress. She sits up and slips out of it, and I settle back into position behind her head, unzipping my jeans. I’m already painfully hard. “You, too,” she says. “What?” She scowls. “What, you think you’re just going to unzip your jeans and screw me with half your clothes on? If I’m naked, everyone is.”

“Will your ego explode the cabin to bits if I comment on how big it is?” I grunt. “You’ll manage. Open up.” She tilts her head. “When was the last time you had sex?” “A while ago.” “It shows, smooth talker. You sound like a goddamn dentis—” She suddenly yelps as Eli, who has been quietly dying, half-buried inside her, apparently decides he can’t take it anymore. He grips her hips, thrusting into her. “Can you two flirt while I fuck you?” he mutters through gritted teeth. “I’m losing the will to live.”

“You know”—I curl my fingers under her jaw—“I think I like you better when you can’t talk.” She pulls back and says something that sounds an awful lot like do you want me to bite you? But I can’t really pay attention, because the vibrations running down my dick pretty much zap my brain dead.

Sometimes Cole joins in, sometimes he doesn’t. There’s a sizzling tension between him and Daisy that seems to get stronger every day. He’s still refusing to kiss her, and only ever sleeps with her when Eli or I are also there. I was worried it would piss her off, but I think Daisy sees his aloofness as a challenge; she’s been trying harder and harder to pin him down and get him alone. He’s resisting, but it’s only a matter of time before he breaks down. Any idiot can see he’s dying to touch her.

Cole is harder to read, but he’s more relaxed now than I’ve seen him in years. He’s been spending a lot of time in the barn, building more canvases for her. He’s currently working on a new set of drawers for her to store all of her paints.

Cole stops pacing abruptly by the window, staring out at the snow, and growls something. “Use human words, Nalle,” Eli mumbles. “We’ve been over this. We don’t speak bear.”

drop into a chair and watch, my heart racing. I have no idea what’s going on, but the one thing I do know, is that I trust Daisy.

“Dude. I don’t think she knew that she was being filmed.” Cole stands up, scraping out his chair. “Screw this. I’m going to find her. Turn that shit off.” Riven frowns. “Wait—” “No,” Cole snaps, leaving the room. “Off.”

“She said she had an ex manipulate her to stay with him,” I remember. “Do you think he—” The colour drops out of Riven’s face. He stands, but before he can go find her, Cole reappears in the doorway. “You idiot,” he snarls. “You. Fucking. Idiot.” “Where is she?” Riven asks quietly.

my survival packs?” I don’t say anything. I keep staring out of the window. I feel like my insides have been frozen. She’s dead. She’s dead, and I’m pretty sure I’m in love with her.

“I’M NOT LOSING BOTH OF YOU!” Cole roars, getting right in his face. “YOU’VE ALREADY TAKEN HER AWAY FROM ME, YOU’RE NOT FUCKING DYING AS WELL!”

It’s crazy how three kisses can feel so different. Eli’s kiss lit me up inside, filled me up with energy and happiness until I felt giddy and bubbly. Riven’s kiss had made the rest of the world go quiet, warming me up like a fire. Cole’s kiss makes me feel like a lightning rod in the middle of a thunderstorm. I moan into his mouth as our lips clash together. Every nerve in my body feels like it’s on fire.

His hands pause. “What the hell am I doing?” he mutters. I peep open my eyes. “Feeling me up,” I remind him. “Next, why don’t you try touching my boobs? They’ve had great reviews.”

“Shut up.” His fingers dig into my hips. His words have a warning edge. As if I should be scared of him. Scared, of this man who just risked his life to save me. I wouldn’t be scared of Cole if he came into my bedroom with a chainsaw. He’d probably just be building me a bedside cabinet, or something.

Sleeping with her was stupid. But if I’m honest, my biggest mistake was kissing her. One kiss. That’s all it took for her to unravel me completely.

“Daisy!” I turn just in time to get barrelled into by a giant, naked mountain man. Cole grabs my waist. “Are you okay?” he asks, frantic. “Look! It stopped snowing!” His eyes don’t leave my face. “Are you okay?” he repeats, his voice rasping with panic. His hands smooth up and down my body, like he’s looking for injury. “I woke up, and you were just gone. I thought you’d left again.” “I’m sorry, I was just—” “For God’s sake,” he growls, pulling me into a bear hug that lifts me right off my feet. “The last time you disappeared, you almost died. Would it kill you to stay in my line of vision?”

Cole fusses over me like a mother hen, making sure I have enough layers, that my coat is zipped properly, that my scarf is tucked tightly around my neck. Eventually, I stop protesting and just let him have at it. I scared him. If this is what he needs to feel calm, I should let him.

Well. My hips. It’s only up to Cole’s thighs. He sees me struggling, and his mouth quirks. “Why are you so small?” “I shrank in the wash.” “Come on.” He makes to pick me up, and I stumble back. “No! Your shoulder!” “It’s fine. I don’t want you getting too cold.” “I can make it,” I insist. He reaches for me again, and I glare at him. “Pick me up, and I’ll kick you in the dick so hard your balls fall out of your mouth.”

“You look like a birdhouse,” I tell Eli. He shuts his mouth, standing suddenly, and crosses the room in a couple of long strides. I yelp as he grabs me around the waist, pulling me off the ground and into his arms. “Don’t do that,” he orders, burrowing his face into my hair. “Don’t ever do that again.”

I shove his chest. “I can walk.” “Well done.” “Put me down.” He gives me a little shake. “I thought you were dead, woman. I need to fuckin’ hold you.”

“You always do the thing that keeps you safe,” he says gruffly. “Always. No exceptions. We will deal with the consequences after. You never jeopardise your safety just to make someone else happy.”

There’s a few beats of silence. “I know you’re a bit of a caveman, Nalle,” Eli says, “but that has to be the weirdest one-word sentence you’ve ever come out with.”

Let people love who they want, it shouldn’t be this hard. “All three of them?” Mum asks hoarsely, looking between us. “H-how is that possible?” I shrug. “They each get two days a week with me, and they all share me on a Sunday.”

“You hurt her,” Cole insists. “You hurt her when you didn’t believe her. The way you treated your own child is disgusting. She was a victim of a sex crime, and when she told you, you blamed her.” He shakes his head. “And now, you think you can judge her for the relationships that she actually chooses? You think your opinion matters to her? To any of us? You don’t deserve to be a member of her family. You don’t deserve to be related to her. She’s a better person than you’ll ever be.”

The flight is delayed, and while I sit in the terminal waiting area, Cole spends the connection time grumbling and pacing up and down between the brightly lit shops and cafes. Every so often, he goes into a shop, buys something, then brings it back and dumps it onto the little plastic table next to me. So far, I’ve gotten two romance paperbacks, a cup of coffee, a salad, a cinnamon bun, and a pack of sweets. Apparently, trying to keep me happy is the only thing that’s keeping him sane right now.

Some people turn and stare, but I don’t care. I don’t care about other people judging me, anymore. It doesn’t matter what other people think of me.