Author's Notes:
Welcome back readers! Thank you for coming back for more, especially after a prolonged gap between chapters.
By way of apology, I can only offer that I write when I have the time and energy, and both have been lacking of late. I really wanted to put the finishing touches to "Change," but that's not coming together so well. So, I'm taking a step away to work on Carson's story.
I wanted to offer a special thanks to a couple of readers who have offered some very good criticism, particularly in the last chapter, WretchedMonkey and Ilfen. As they noted, the pacing has been a little fast so far. I think that's due to my original plan of having 8 sections to the series. The response has been so good, and the story has gotten complex enough, I think that may change. I don't know if I'm capable to reaching Telfer-like numbers (how many chapters is 3 Square Meals up to now? 116? 117?), but there may be more to this than I anticipated. In any event, I think I'll do my best to keep timeline skipping between chapters instead of mid-chapter. It's important to me that the story cover some realistic time, though, because there are a lot of events that simply take time to happen, like pregnancy.
This is the sixth installment of the story. If you haven't read the previous chapters, I recommend that you do so before continuing. Little effort is made to explain references to earlier events and characters (of which, there are a lot).
Standard disclaimer: Please, if you like the story, or if you don't like the story, take a moment to comment. If you want to insult me because you don't like a topic, go ahead and file that in your own trash can; mine's full. But if you have something constructive to add, please do. It helps me quite a bit to see the story through others' eyes.
Finally, as always, all sexual activity takes place between adults.
-MB
*****
Carson was lost in quiet contemplation as he stared out the window of his office in the project towers. He'd finally figured out that he was somewhere around the 45
th
floor. It made the near-instantaneous travel from the ground floor all the more impressive, given that he experienced only the very
slightest
of sensations of movement, no matter how closely he paid attention to detecting it each time he entered the lift.
Despite being nowhere near the top floor of the iconic tower, the view from Carson's office window was unobstructed by any nearby buildings. Through clever design and engineering, each floor of the tower was akin to circular leaves sprouting from a central stem. With the outer walls of each office constructed of floor-to-ceiling glass, anywhere roughly 25
th
floor and up was high enough to see the distant horizon above adjacent buildings. A single wall split the circular "leaf" on each floor into two broad hemispheres. His office complex further divided his half of the floor into two broad arcs. The central administrative area where Carson had first met Sam was the innermost, while his private office and suite occupied the outer.
In a concession to Tilda after the second attempt on his life, Carson had begun conducting most of his legal business from his office in the tower. Security was much, much tighter at this facility, and the truth of the matter was that he didn't really need to be at his firm all that often anyway. He could just as easily conduct business with clients here as anywhere else, and with the appropriate network security controls in place, he had access to any of the firm's files on demand. Nowadays, he visited the firm's offices mostly for meetings of the board or partners, but was largely disconnected from his colleagues.
From his vantage point, the lights of the wharf, with its surrounding markets and restaurants, twinkled in the early evening light. In the clear night sky, the moon hung seemingly close enough to touch, its light reflected in a million sparkles caused by the gentle undulations of the waves in the bay.
Carson loved this view, and he'd spent an increasing amount of time staring out this window over the past year. So much had changed in his life, both for the good and otherwise, that he had begun to feel his control over his life slipping. The forces at work pushed and pulled him in many directions, seemingly without ceasing. Sipping his bourbon old-fashioned, he thought back maybe three or four months, when he'd first begun to notice his lack of control in his own life.
Mara had delivered his first child, a daughter they named Amelia, on a night not so different than tonight. Seemingly before he'd taken a deep breath after her arrival, her half-brothers, Marcus and Mason arrived by way of Mila. Carson remembered thinking at the time that when he'd thought his life complicated by three wives and assorted live-in lovers, he'd been a fool. The truth of that thought quickly became apparent as he attempted to assist with nighttime feedings, diaper changes, and other new-father tasks while continuing his career as a lawyer. He tried to keep up with the physical needs of the remaining expectant mothers as well, driving himself harder and harder. By the time that Connor, his son with Sam, arrived about a month later, he was wearing pretty thin.
Eventually, the members of his Pride called a meeting to lay down some ground rules.
"Carson," began Helena, "You can't keep this up. It's not healthy." Other heads nodded in agreement.
Guiltily, Carson was forced to agree. Still, he protested, "This is why I was so skeptical of getting involved in the project in the first place. I'm letting all of you down. You all trusted me and I'm blowing it."
Elsa, a beautiful woman who'd blossomed further in pregnancy, had moved as quickly as an 8-months' pregnant woman could to sit on his lap. Taking his face in her hands, she said, "Big Daddy, you're not letting any of us down. At least, not in the way you think."
"What do you mean?" he asked, suspiciously.
"I mean, even after all these months, you still don't understand us. We love you and all the things you do to and for us. But what you've been doing isn't your role in this house. It's amazing, don't get me wrong, but you are our
Lion
." She looked around at the other women, seeing some nods and knowing smiles.
Quinn knelt at his feet. "Look around you, Carson. You have chosen beautiful, smart, strong, resourceful women to be your Lionesses. We chose
you
to be our provider and our protector;
that's
your role. We love that you want to be involved, but we can handle the feeding and the diaper-changing. We can even occasionally scratch each other's itches, if needed," she finished with a sly grin.
Her words brought about on a fresh wave of guilt that showed on his face. Seeing it, she patted him on the thigh and asked, "Did you
really
