The Arrangement

But I couldn’t remember ever having this much fun.

“So… Where’s my kiss?”

Nathan was smirking back at me from his end of the kitchen. He was leaning back on his long arms, which were wonderfully packed with strong, lean muscle.

“Don’t worry,” I teased. “We’ll get around to it.”

I’d never felt this alive. This powerful and in control. And yet it was like I’d become another person — maybe the exact person they sought in their ad. It was almost like I was playing a part, fulfilling a role.

Only somewhere, in the back of my mind, I also knew that I wasn’t. That as much as I was playing them, and teasing them, I was also being dead serious.

Secretly, I knew that I wanted this.

That can’t be right.

Was it? I mean, what exactly did I have right now?

You can’t possibly want to do this, can you?

I had no boyfriend, no lover, no real sex life beyond my little drawer of toys. I had a floundering business, zero in the way of savings, and a shitty little apartment that I couldn’t even afford.

On the flip side of the coin were these three beautiful guys, each one of them hotter than the last. All of them willing to move me into this gorgeous villa, to take me on — and apparently spoil me — as their community girlfriend. To share me between them, in every possible way.

To fuck you.

Yes, that too. That part was a bit overwhelming of course, but no less gut-churningly awesome.

For some strange reason, I could see myself here. I could imagine myself in this house, keeping it. Loving it. Walking the painted tile floors in my bare feet. Cooking in this breathtaking kitchen — not just as a hired chef, but as a woman. A lover. A girlfriend…

“So when do I move in?” asked a voice, that I could barely believe was my own.

The guys were looking me over some more, between shooting each other a bunch of sideways glances. A whole host of information passed between them without anyone saying a word.

“Two stipulations,” said Chase.

Here we go.

“First, we don’t want you to feel obligated. Grab your stuff, stay for a week, consider it a trial run. If it works… it works. But if it doesn’t?” He pointed back at me. “You’re still our chef. You stay on with us no matter what. We’re not losing you, Kayleen. As a friend or a cook. Got it?”

“Agreed,” I said.

“Second,” he went on, “we want you to be comfortable. Therefore we move at your speed. We’re three guys, and you’re one girl. The last thing we want is for you to feel overwhelmed.”

Overwhelmed…

The word sounded both fun and exciting at the same time.

“Is that it?”

The guys all looked at each other and nodded. “Yeah.”

“Good, now I have a couple of stipulations of my own.”

I folded my arms across my chest, staring back at each of them in turn. Chase, with his chiseled jaw and high, model’s cheekbones. Nathan, with his tall, swimmer’s body and thick, surf-blond mane. They were both absolutely gorgeous. I wanted them… oh God how I wanted them.

And there was Burke, the wild card. The bearded, broad-chested enigma. He was just as handsome — maybe even more so in a brooding, bad-boy sort of way. And the way he’d kissed me just now…

You kissed him, remember?