A breeze picked up, and suddenly I wanted my castle. I wasn’t even sure whose turn it was to stay over. Not that it mattered, of course. I loved having all three of them just the same.
There’s that word again…
“C’mon then,” I said, getting all excited all over. I sat up. “It’s a little late for dinner, but I can always nuke a frozen pizza.”
We scrambled for our clothes, stuffed our empties back in the cooler, and folded our picnic blanket. Between the four of us we were packed up and leaving in under two minutes.
“We should do this every week,” declared Noah.
“We should do this multiple times a week,” Chase countered.
I smiled and focused on the pleasant buzz I had going. It paired perfectly with the feeling of satiation and fullness I already felt, in the warmth and heat below my navel.
It wasn’t quite yet dark by the time we approached the castle, but it was close. The looming curtain wall — and the shadows of the keep beyond — lent the landscape an eerie, almost haunted look.
But it was also romantic. Especially with the guys at my side.
You live in a castle, Madison. A fucking castle.
The thought usually hit me once or twice a month. It was always at random, and it always astounded me.
And now you have three hot boyfriends.
That part twisted a secret little knot, deep in my stomach. Did I really have boyfriends? Or were these men nothing more than my employees, holding up their end of our arrangement… while I upheld mine?
No. It’s more than that and you know it.
I did know it. Our rel
ationship went far beyond the work they were doing for me, at least as far as I was concerned. The real question was, did they know it?
Maybe… maybe not.
On some levels, I knew our agreement was twisted and wrong. Well, maybe not wrong. What did Julian call it? Unconventional?
It could easily be that I was misreading them. That they were still here for the reason most guys would be. Then again, all three of them had agreed to help finish the renovations on their own. They’d done it freely, without expecting anything in return.
In that respect, our unorthodox little arrangement had come afterwards.
I decided I was reading too much into things. Rather than worry about the origins of how this all started — or speculating over how it might end — I should probably be enjoying it while it lasts.
The guys sure are.
I smiled inwardly and squeezed two hands. Chase was on my left, Noah on my right. Julian was just ahead of us, leading the way through the gate and across the dimly-lit courtyard.
We reached the keep, still talking, still laughing. But my laughter died as I saw something tacked to my front door.
“What is it?”
Julian pulled it down. He read it quickly, scowled, then dropped his arms at his sides.
Oh no.
A sense of dread and hopelessness crept over me. I took the sheet in two trembling hands, as Chase and Noah looked on.
It was a checklist, from the inspector. The same itemized list we’d been working on for the last two years… plus an additional four renovations that had never been mentioned before. All of them marked as ‘Required For Historical Status.’
“Well fuck me sideways,” I groaned, dropping the paper to the ground.