STRIPTEASED (Roommate Reverse Harem Romance)

Over the years, I’d come to like Austin well enough. It would’ve been hard not to. He was lively and funny. But I’m not sure I ever truly respected him. Now that he was doing this for his brother, I did.

Even though it hurt Emma.

“You know that you two are going to be a novelty act, right?” Tonio asked.

What?

Austin nodded. “Look at the hot twins. Watch them dance. But hey, it’s not like we haven’t been fetishized before.”

“Does Denver know that?”

“No. And no one had better tell him,” Austin said fiercely. Then he sighed. “But who knows, maybe they would’ve hired him anyway. He’s talented enough, and he’ll be good at designing the choreography.”

No one spoke for a few minutes, and I could hear the game again, but it didn’t interest me at all.

Then I looked over at Austin. “You should have told us about the tour before the five of us spent half the night in your room.”

“Would that have stopped you from joining in?” Austin was calmer than he had been before.

“No, but it might have saved Emma some heartache.”

Tonio responded instead of Austin. “Whatever feelings she has for us were already there. The other night just sort of… sealed the deal.”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or scowl. All I knew was that normally, I’d want to beat the crap out of someone who upset Emma—like that asshole at the club on Friday evening—but this time I didn’t.

Austin sighed again. “I didn’t mean to upset her. Hell, that’s the last thing I’d ever want to do. But Denver’s family.”

“I kind of thought we were becoming a family,” I said.

Tonio looked over at me and nodded.

“Me too,” Austin said.

Fifteen minutes later, I was tired of pretending to watch TV while trying not to think about the twins leaving. I decided to focus on something that always made me happy—Emma. “Do you think we should throw Emma a party or something?”

“Her birthday’s in March,” Tonio said.

I tried not to feel annoyed that he knew when her birthday was, yet it had taken him and the twins a couple of years to figure out when mine was. But things were different now. I knew they wouldn’t forget in the future. “No, I mean to celebrate her book coming out.”

Austin mulled it over. “She liked the champagne and chocolate thing we did for her before.”

“I was thinking bigger than that. Like what you guys did for my birthday.”

“Like a surprise party?” Austin asked, but I shook my head.

“How about a book signing?” Tonio suggested. Austin and I looked at him in surprise. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot today. I spoke with my sister yesterday, and I told her about what happened on Friday night.”

Austin and I stared at him, and he rolled his eyes. “Not what happened downstairs, idiots.”

“About the creep at the club?” Austin asked.

“No. Jesus, a lot of things happened on Friday,” Tonio said. “I told her about those two women from the gym bringing in the books for me to sign. We could buy a bunch of Emma’s paperbacks and sell them to people at the party. Then Emma could sit at a table and sign them.”

“I bet she’d like that,” Austin said.

I could just picture Emma wearing a pretty dress, her cheeks pink with pleasure every time someone presented a book for her to sign. “Where would we hold it?”

“I’ve got some ideas about that,” Tonio said. “I really think this could work. It would give Emma a chance to sell some books, and maybe it could also be a party for all of us. It might be our last chance to get together for a while.”

“There’s still Thanksgiving,” I reminded him.

“Well… about that…” Austin trailed off.

“Shit. I thought you guys weren’t reporting for rehearsals until the beginning of December,” Tonio said.

“They want Denver to get there early, and we’re kind of a package deal.”

That killed the idea of eating Thanksgiving dinner together. Even if Austin wasn’t going early with Denver, there was no way Emma would want a celebration where all of us were present except Denver. The idea didn’t sit well with me, either. “I guess that means we need to put this together in the next week or so.”

“Guess it does,” Tonio said.

“I’ll fill in Denver when he gets back from the university,” Austin said.

Then we all went back to watching a game no one cared about.

A few days later, I tiptoed into my room and set down my camera equipment, trying not to wake Emma. I liked the days when she joined me for early morning trips to the woods, but it was also nice to get back and find her fast asleep in my bed.

I studied her as she slept. She was on her side, facing the spot I’d abandoned a couple of hours ago. Her hand was in front of her, almost touching my pillow. As if even in sleep, she was reaching for me.