Theirs to Keep

It was one of those days that really dragged its ass. The kind of day you just want to be over already, but every time you look at the clock it seems earlier than the time before.

Karissa.

We’d fucked up. Big time, for sure. Maybe we’d even fucked the whole thing up totally beyond repair, although I was still holding out hope for a miracle.

“We need to talk, the three of us.”

Roderick’s words were more of an order than a request. He muttered them immediately after leaving Karissa’s room last night, but as with all things Roderick, he followed them up with something even more infuriating.

“We’ll do it tomorrow. After work.”

Camden and I were fully prepared to have our discussion right then and there. I wanted it over with. Done with. Fixed. Hell, I was ready to sneak back into her room last night! That’s how much I hated leaving things the way we had.

This probably isn’t as bad as you think.

It was the only ray of hope in an unfortunate situation. We’d put our gorgeous employee in a bad place. We’d just about forced her to choose… only she’d been smart enough not to make a decision at all.

And we’d broken our vow.

We’d hired her together, on sheer gut instinct. No experience. No history. No background to speak of. Still, the impression she’d left had been one of being smart, sharp and capable. And almost immediately she was proving us right.

Karissa quickly became one of the most kickass foremen and general managers we’d ever hired. A month into the job she had everything at the manor working like a well-oiled machine. She’d fired the slackers and hired eager, capable new crews. She’d cut through miles of bullshit red tape with various building inspectors, and whipped most of the other contractors in line.

As a boss she was strong, unyielding, bitingly sarcastic. But she was also complementary of good work, and rewarded those who put in the extra effort. She was the best of both worlds really — a rare find when it came to a supervisor. Best of all she had a finely-tuned bullshit meter. One that was so impressive, it had our heads spinning with wonder as to where she originally came from.

The ‘bet’ started as a joke turned suddenly serious. Karissa was overly protective of her past. One of the conditions of hiring her was that we didn’t ask questions. Still, it had been her own idea to give us each a weekly guess. The reward — as gut-churning as it was — had been her idea, too.

“Nobody touches her.”

Roderick again, warning us about two months into hiring her. As much as we hated the rule, we couldn’t argue with him either. Our new star employee was right up our alley in every way. She was tall, blonde, and breathtakingly beautiful. More importantly, her multifaceted personality exhibited all the same traits the three of us loved and wanted in a woman.

It also didn’t hurt that she reminded us of Maddy.

That had a bittersweet realization, and one we all had to admit to. Karissa practically was Maddy physically, mentally, even emotionally too. So much so, that to point out their similarities became almost sacrilegious.

We tried to ignore it. Tried to ignore her. But in the weeks and months that followed, our attraction only grew. What was the old saying? You always want the things you can’t have? Well that was Karissa in a nutshell. She was our employee, her persona hit a little

too close to home, and she was strictly off-limits according to our own gentleman’s agreement.

Three strikes, we’re out.

The only thing left had been our little guessing game, which I knew Camden and I looked very forward to each week. Roderick too, although he’d never admit it. He still made guesses though. He still tried.

And now… this.

I’d been weak, sure, but hadn’t we all? As Karissa said, the pressure had been too much. The added sexual tension of actually living with this beautiful creature had pushed us all over the edge, whether we wanted to take responsibility for it or not.

Still, breaking our agreement had been so fucking worth it.

I replayed our first encounter in my mind again, as I already had a dozen times before. She was amazing, inside and out. Socially flexible and emotionally open. Physically flawless. A total sexual goddess.

Just like…

I couldn’t say it. Couldn’t even think it.

As always, I had to push it away.

I ended up jumping into my truck and quitting our new job site an hour and a half early. It’s not like I was getting much done anyway. All I could think about was getting home and straightening things out. Meeting the others and going over our options, even if it meant fighting Roderick’s inevitable plea that we stop what we’d been doing and go back to the way things were.