My head jerks to follow the voice. “Shane?”
Khalil hastily pulls up the top of my dress before twisting on the couch. He starts to speak but is cut off by the new arrival.
“Becca, what the fuck?”
“Shane?” I repeat. I look back and forth between Khalil and Shane, trying to make sense of the situation. There are two other guys standing behind Shane just inside the entrance to the living room. The two strangers look confused and concerned, while Shane is clearly irate.
“What are you doing, working your way through our crew, one a night?”
I’d already been separating myself from Khalil, but now I stand, hand on hip and shoot daggers at Shane. My dress is still bunched up, but I only swipe at it, not too concerned about it at the moment. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“First me, now Khalil.” Shane turns to the other two men. “Which of you has tomorrow night?”
“Shane, what the hell are you talking about?” Khalil steps in front of me, as if preparing to defend me.
“I was with her last night,” Shane says, gesturing angrily toward me. “Now she’s with you. I guess she’s going to have all of us.”
“First of all, calm down,” Khalil says, taking a step toward Shane.
“So what if I was?” I say, raising my voice. “It’s none of your goddamned business what I do or who I’m with.”
Khalil turns to me, laying a hand on my arm to soothe me.
“You work with him?” I ask, gesturing with my head toward Shane.
“Yeah, all four of us work and live together.” Khalil pivots back toward the other men. “What are you doing here, anyway?”
“The game was canceled,” one of the others, a tall man with dark tousled hair, says. I squint at the man and realize he looks familiar. I saw him at the construction site at Rusty’s.
“So you just barge in?” Khalil says, aiming his accusation at Shane. “Didn’t you see her car outside?”
“Why aren’t you upstairs in your room?” Shane retorts.
While Shane and Khalil argue, the other two men are looking at me. I bend and straighten the hem of my dress before smoothing my hands over my hair. Shane’s comment was rude, but honestly, I wouldn’t mind “working my way through” all of these men. They’re all ridiculously attractive.
But there’s no way I’m going to involve myself with any of them now. “I’m going to leave,” I announce.
“You can’t go,” Shane says coldly.
“The fuck I can’t.” The other two men move out of the way as I push past Shane and into the kitchen in search of my purse.
“No, he’s right. You can’t.” The fourth man, the shortest and possibly most attractive of the four, with his golden bronze skin and thick dark hair, is standing in the doorway. There’s an earnest expression in his dark eyes that helps to calm my anger. “There’s a bad storm,” he explains.
It’s then that I hear the wind. It was windy on the drive here, but now it’s howling and it sounds like things are being blown around outside. Then there’s a loud rumble of thunder.
“There were already trees being blown down,” he says, “and it’s supposed to get even worse.”
I frown and let out a huff of air.
“I’m Devin, by the way,” he says, holding out his hand. “I heard you’re Becca. Where do you live, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“On Four Points Island,” I say, shaking his offered hand briefly, feeling a spark when I touch his warm skin, and instantly scolding myself. I like to keep my life easy and uncomplicated. I don’t need to be lusting after four men who all live together and work together, especially when one of them is hotheaded, possessive Shane. My involvement with all of them needs to end right now, but apparently Mother Nature has it in for me today.
“You won’t be able to get home tonight. It’s too dangerous,” Devin says.
“You must have been going at it pretty hard not to hear the storm,” Shane says with no small amount of bitterness to Khalil, who’s followed me into the kitchen.
There’s a large window on one side of the room and what I see outside backs up what Devin is telling me. Small trees are bending sideways in the wind, branches are blowing in the yard, and, as if it was timed for my benefit, big raindrops start to hit the glass just as I’m looking out.
“Fuck,” I mutter.
“You can stay here tonight,” Khalil says. “It’s no problem.”
“Yeah, it’ll be efficient,” Shane says. “You can sleep with all the guys in one night and get it over with.”
Khalil pushes his chest out and glares at Shane. “Knock it off. Becca didn’t know I work with you. I met her at the bookstore tonight.”
I narrow my eyes at Shane and wait for him to look at me. When he does, he has the decency to look apologetic, though he doesn’t go so far as to actually say he’s sorry. “Okay,” is all he says, his tone softening.