Lucas scratched his blond head with both hands in frustration.
"I don't get how we're going to do that. How in the world are we each going to make—make love to Candace."
Jared glared at him. "What don't you get?"
Lucas squeezed the space between his eyes.
"What I mean is—do we all just pile on the bed with her at the same time and try to, you know…"
"No!" Leonardo groaned as the other men laughed.
"Aside from the fact that I don't think Candace can handle all of us at once, no offense, but I'm not really wanting to see all you hairy guys unclothed at the same time." Slate chuckled.
"I agree with that." Byron shook his head. "I'm not into seeing all my brothers taking a turn with my wife in front of my face."
"So how do we do this so that we are all—you know, in full understanding of what's going on?" Lucas asked.
Jason rubbed his chin. "We could just take turns on different days so we don't, like, accidentally walk in on someone being with Candace."
"But she's technically only married to three of us." Byron pointed out.
"That doesn't mean anything when we all have an Avgo shard within us." Jared reminded him.
"That's true. Avgo chose all of us to be her husband. We need to respect that. And besides, I don't want to be without her." Leonardo responded as the others nodded.
The thought of sharing a single wife was so strange to all of them that they sat there, around the C shaped sofa and drank their cocktails in silence for a few minutes trying to absorb what it would mean to each of them.
The biggest worry on each man's mind was not whether he would feel strange taking turns being with her. Their biggest fear at this moment was that she would reject them all.
"What about tonight?" Byron asked.
"She's not feeling well tonight," Leonardo sighed. "Anything we do needs to be talked over with her anyway. If she says 'no', it's a complete nonstarter."
He stared at his martini and poked at the olive with his straw.
"Still, we do need to start thinking of how to go about this in the least disruptive way, if only for her health benefits. First things first."
He stood up and turned to all the brothers.
"Delivering the Avgo shard is the number one priority. She is obviously not feeling well with only the one shard inside of her." He turned to look at Dante.
"Even if you don't want her as your wife any more Dante, you must deliver the Avgo into her body before you release your claim on her. It's the only way she will be able to recover from whatever this malaise is."
"Who said I didn't want her as my wife any more?" Dante scowled.
"You did!" They all came back at him.
"Well I lied, okay." Dante said with a scowl. "I'm not a one-time Avgo delivery service."
The brothers looked at each other with barely concealed mirth. The Dante whose word never wavered had wavered so much because of Candace, it was unreal.
"Regardless of what happens, after the Avgo has been delivered to her, it would be up to her who she wants to be with." Slate spoke up. "We have to respect her decision."
The men nodded. Although they all loved her, none of them wanted to force themselves on her. It would be her choice completely.
Having said that, they each wanted to be a real husband to her, which meant they were going to have to figure out a schedule which would fit in with everyone's lifestyle.
"Let's just clear all this up between ourselves before we approach her with it so we don't confuse her or make things even more unsettling for her," Slate continued.
"I do think it's a good idea to separate out the days so that we can each approach her on our day and offer ourselves to her. If she wants us on that day, she can have us."
"And if she doesn't want us?" Jason wanted to know.
"Then we leave her to herself and we don't bother her. We cannot force ourselves on her if she doesn't want us."
The men all sank back into their own thoughts. They had no idea how something like this could have happened to them.
The idea of sharing a wife with their brothers would have been something each of them would have never agreed to in any sane world. And yet, here they were, thinking of the least disruptive way that they could be with their wife.
Leonardo narrowed his eyes.
"Let's pull lots and get a number assigned to each of us."
Dante grimaced and threw up into the air, seven small white data chips. It looked as if he had come prepared for this eventuality.
"Wow. You came prepared!" Jared laughed.
Dante sniffed. "I had this pre-made because I knew we were going to go down this road."
"They're numbered?"
Dante nodded.
He drained his rocks glass and threw the chips into it. Then he set it down on the low table in front of the sofa.
"Youngest goes first." Dante indicated at Slate.
He had resigned himself to whatever fate allowed him to have and was going to let fate gift him whatever it wanted because it seemed that everything he tried to do always seemed to backfire on him.
Slate sighed and reached out for his chip. Every time something major happened, they always sent him in to take care of it first.
He didn't blame them, of course. Not only was he the youngest, he was also the strongest and most physically capable of doing the manual work.
There were huge pay-offs sometimes, like when he had to transport the Earth Avgo Female. He'd been the first to be intimate with her. That, Slate knew without a shadow of doubt.
Jared's turn was next, and then Jason, who was older by mere minutes.
Then it was Leonardo, and then Lucas. They hefted the chip in their hand, hoping against hope it would be a good number, whatever the good number turned out to be.
Byron looked at the two remaining chips and heaved a sigh. He reached out for the one to the right, which left a single data chip in the rocks glass.
Dante did not reach for it. That little last baby was his, no matter who got what.
He waved a hand and the corresponding number glowed on the surface of each disc.
Byron got the number 1 chip, which meant Monday was his. Leonardo got number 2 Tuesday, and Jared got number 3 Wednesday.
Number 4 Thursday went to Lucas, and number 5 Friday went to Jason. Slate got number 6 Saturday, which meant Dante got the last unclaimed one, number 7 Sunday.
Seven Princes for seven days of the week.
That was the agreed-upon plan…except for one big huge hole.
Candace had yet to be told of their plans.
"We need to talk to her." Byron sighed
"It's going to have to wait until tomorrow morning, when she awakens." Jared responded.
"I agree. She's sleeping right now." Jason said.
"Hi guys! What's up?"
Candace walked breezily in, completely unaware of what had just occurred within the all-male, testosterone-filled, chip-drawing fest.
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