My jaw drops as I stare at his heated expression. “You don’t really mean that,” I whisper, silently begging him to tell me that he’s not that serious about me.
Cruz pulls against my waist and draws me back into him until my face is curled into his chest and his chin is gently resting over my head. “I’m sorry, Winter, but yeah, I fucking mean every word.”
“I’m not going to let you give up your seat like that.”
“Tough shit, babe. Because I’m not going to let you walk away from me. I want you any way I can get you, even if that means sharing you with every single one of my friends.”
I try to wriggle away to meet his eyes, but he just holds me tighter, keeping me locked in the safety of his arms. “But—”
“No,” he tells me. “I’m sorry, I know you weren’t ready to hear that, but I also don’t want you worrying about the bullshit my father hit you with. It doesn’t matter to me—not anymore. I know what I want. Besides, something tells me you’re not about to go and agree to any marriage proposals, so what does it matter? No one here is getting married and changing names, so no one is losing their seats.”
“But isn’t the whole baby thing sort of … I don’t know, encouraged?”
“It is,” he tells me. “But encouraged is very different from forced. No one is going to tell you that you have to pop out a kid unless that’s what you want for yourself. Besides, having a child out of wedlock is extremely frowned upon, so if you never tie the knot …”
A smile pulls at my lips and he finally lets me pull back to look up at him. “… then nothing has to change.”
“Exactly,” he tells me. “And I don’t know about you, but this little thing we’ve got going on is far too interesting to stop now.”
“Are you sure?” I ask. “I don’t want you coming at me in a year or two and demanding that I wear your ring on my finger, especially if King is still down with sharing.”
“Trust me, babe,” he says, a wicked grin stretching across his face and sending a thrill shooting through me. “You have nothing to worry about, not that I wouldn’t love being hitched to a fucking bomb ass chick like you, but the more I adjust to sharing you, the more I like it.”
“You know what I like?” I ask as my hand slides down between us. My eyes grow hooded and I watch the way his roll with pleasure as a low growl rumbles through his chest. I think he knows exactly what I like.
Cruz’s fingers tighten on my waist and before I get a chance to say another word, his lips are pressing down on mine as my hand curls around his hard cock.
“Okay,” I say, dropping down on my parents’ large couch between King and Cruz as I watch Grayson awkwardly pace in front of the magnificent fireplace. “Someone start talking and tell me how the hell I got out of that cell.”
The three guys glance around at each other, either trying to work out who’s going to be the one to talk or figuring out how they’re going to twist the story to make them all sound like the hero. Though, if twisting the story was what they wanted to do, they could have done that before showing up to walk me home.
Grayson lets out a sigh and stops pacing before turning to face me, his eyes boring into mine and silently telling me to prepare myself. “Carver called for a private meeting with the heads of Dynasty to discuss your … situation, and at the end, called for another vote.”
“Okay,” I say as he pauses and presses his lips into a tight line, making my patience wear thin. “And?”
King turns to face me, and I catch his eyes, only to see confusion and pity. “None of the other seven families changed their mind, so Carver had no choice but to stand against his family to get you out of there.”
“No,” I say, shaking my head, my brows drawn in confusion. “That doesn’t make sense. He wouldn’t do that. Carver was so sure that I was lying. He came and told me himself. We fought and I kicked him out of my cell.”
“Out of your cell?” Grayson confirms.
I nod. “Yeah, he had a key and welcomed himself in. I thought he was coming to finish what he started. It turns out that he just wanted to yell at me some more and prove that after everything we’ve been through this past month, he couldn’t trust me. I kicked him out and locked my ass back in there.”
Grayson takes a step toward me, only stopping because of the coffee table between us. “He had a key?” he asks, getting hung up on the least important part of what I just said.