“In a way.”
“In a way?” they both echoed like some jackasses.
“She wouldn’t let me, and…I don’t blame her.” I had no idea why I was coming to her defense like she could hear me and would forgive me on the spot. If only. “Look, there’s no rush,” I lied as I put my feet up on the table. “The tour doesn’t end for another nine months. One way or another, she’s all ours whether she wants to be or not.”
“Do me a favor and don’t say that to her,” Rich advised.
I waved him off. “I’m done listening to you. All you’ve done is dig us into deeper shit.”
“He’s also the only one of us who’s ever gotten a woman to marry him,” Houston pointed out.
Barking a bitter laugh, I leaned my head back against the sectional and closed my eyes. “He was the only one dumb enough to ask.”I knew the three of them were waiting for some kind of sign or answer from me. My heart knew what it wanted, but my head still wouldn’t agree. I knew the only solution to my dilemma was to sit them all down at once. I just didn’t know what I’d say or what I’d do once I did.
Would I say yes and take a chance, or would I turn them away out of pride? I wasn’t all that convinced they’d suffered enough.
I certainly had.
Sighing, I finished pulling my wet hair up. I didn’t realize until I looked in the mirror that I was still wearing Loren’s medallion. I wasn’t sure if he meant for me to keep it, but I liked wearing something that belonged to him, even if it was temporary.
Smiling, I left the bathroom only to find the bedroom occupied. The room seemed ten times smaller with three rock gods invading it.
Houston sat at the edge closest to me, Loren at the foot of the bed, and Jericho taking up the opposite edge. I stupidly thought I had until morning before I was forced to face them again. I could see the restraint dwindling in their eyes and knew my time was up.
“Come sit down,” Houston told me.
I garnered by his tone that it wasn’t up for debate. “What are you guys doing in here?”
“Waiting for you, obviously,” Loren answered. The glare he bestowed on me was full of accusations.
“Sit down, Braxton,” Houston ordered once again.
Huffing, I stormed over to the bed. I felt their eyes on me as I climbed the mattress, braced my back against the headboard, and held my legs up to my chest with my arms wrapped around them. It was all the distance I could put between them and me. All the protection I could hope for.
Jericho chuckled as he read my mind, and a teasing light entered his eyes. “That won’t help you, baby.”
My lips parted slightly as I felt my legs tremble. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know how to fight these feelings they evoked. They obviously knew how to wield them against me.
“Now that we’ve had your undivided attention,” Loren stated, “you have ours.”
“Tell us what you’re thinking.” The request had come from Houston.
“I don’t know. I’m not done yet,” I snapped.
“Maybe that’s the problem,” Loren said to his friends instead of me. They were talking around me again. “She’s overthinking.”
“It must be all the space we’ve been giving her.”
Jericho.
I never thought he’d be the one to betray me.
All at once, they closed in around me. The room began to smell like I was on a boat in the middle of the ocean, and there was no one else around. Only the four of us.
We were lost and drifting, resigned to our fate with only each other, and the last of our hope left to sustain us.
Houston reached me first, and I was plucked from the bed and set in his lap once he took the spot he’d forced me to vacate. Loren lay on his stomach now between Houston’s legs and propped his chin in his hand while Jericho lounged on his side, using his arm to keep him up.
“That’s better,” Loren said before kissing my naked thigh. All I’d managed to put on were panties and a muscle tank that stopped just below my belly button.
“You’re not playing fair,” I accused no one in particular. They were all at the top of my shit list.
“Fair doesn’t get us what we want,” Houston lashed harshly in my ear. I could feel the scrape of his teeth against my neck as his lips moved. “So no. We won’t be playing fair. It’s going to get real dirty from here on fucking out.”
I gulped. “You think that will make me say yes?”
“Oh, I know it will.” I knew he was looking at Loren now because that onyx gaze shifted over my shoulder to Houston. “Her panties. Remove them.”