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“Black. Why?” Dante asks, his tone hesitant.
“If I’m right, this might just fix everything.”
“Right about what?” they ask in unison.
“Let me find out if I’m right first. If I am, I’ll call you. Okay?”
They eye me for a moment, not sure what to make of my cryptic explanations. Thankfully for us all, they don’t fight me on this anymore, but instead, agree.
“Great,” I say. “Now get out and go help her. I have work to do and revenge to plot.”
Devin
“I really can’t thank you guys enough for helping me. And these shelves … they’re incredible. Thank you so much.” I stand admiring the rustic industrial bookshelves the guys threw together for me out of old piping and boards.
“Otis, can you help me arrange my books on them?” I ask, watching him try to discreetly skim the books inside my boxes.
“I’d love to,” he says, his face lighting up in excitement.
“We’ll start gathering measurements for the second bedroom loft. Cole’s brother works in construction, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind helping with renovations.”
At the sound of Cole’s name tumbling from Lucian’s lips, a pang of anger and longing shoots through me. When will this feeling that he’s mine go away? He made it very clear that he wants nothing to do with me, so why can’t I convince my heart to let him go? “That’s great,” I say, trying for jovial, but I know it falls flat. I’ve always been a terrible liar.
None of the guys say anything, letting me keep my secret, no matter how obvious it is to everyone around me.
“That really is great. Maybe if he’s available this weekend, he can swing by and go over the design plans with Nyx. Also—and I completely understand if you say no, I don’t want you to feel like I’m taking advantage of you—I was wondering if you guys would be available this weekend to help me move her in?”
Dante laughs, Lucian grins, and Otis throws an arm around my shoulders with a chuckle.
“Princess, we want you to take advantage of us. In every way you desire. As for moving help, of course we’ll help you and Nyx. She’s important to you, and we can’t wait to meet her,” Otis says, tugging me close and placing a tender kiss to the top of my head.
A warmth blooms in the center of my chest, beating back the icy cold of loss I felt earlier. These guys, they’re everything I never thought to hope for, and everything I could ever need. They’re warm and kind, sexy and delicious. They understand and accept every part of me. So, why can’t I be content with only them?
“Thank you,” I murmur, wrapping my arms around Otis’ waist and letting his heat drive the remaining fragments of pain away. Bodies crowd around me, circling me until not an inch of me is visible outside the confines of their fortress. Soothing caresses start at my head and slowly move their way down my body.
A haze creeps in around the edges of my mind, and a nagging little voice in the back of my mind screams that this isn’t the time. I push myself back from Otis and out of the circle of warmth.
“Woah there, fellas.” I hold up both hands and take two steps back, out of arm’s reach. If one of them tries to touch me, my libido just might explode. “Hit the long pause button. First, we have work to do. Second, I think we need to have a long conversation about whatever it is that’s going on between us.”
“Okay, let’s get done what needs to get done, and we’ll talk over dinner,” Dante suggests, and we all agree.
I take Dante and Lucian to the living room and show them where to move things to make space for Nyx’s office for meeting with clients. I explain it will need to be enclosed, and they make a recommendation for putting the office under her loft to fully enclose the space.
“That all sounds great. I’ll leave this project in your hands,” I tell them and walk over to where Otis has started putting my books on the shelves according to how they were separated in the boxes. My heart melts that he understands my need to categorize my books.
Looking back at Dante and Lucian, they have their heads bent together as Dante points at something, and Lucian nods along. The whole feeling of working together and camaraderie is almost domestic in a way and fills me with hope for the future.
You can have this, Devy. All you have to do is accept what they offered a year ago. An experience of a lifetime.
The muscles in my cheeks twitch, and my mouth ticks up in the corners. I close my eyes and imagine what my future will look like with the three of them.
“What are you thinking about that has you beaming so brightly?” Otis asks, and I open my eyes to an answering smile on his face.
“The future. For the first time ever, I have real hope for my future. It doesn’t feel so lonely anymore.”
Otis puts down the stack of books he’s holding, the smile splitting his face growing. He stalks forward until there’s only a hair’s breadth of space between us. He traces his fingertips across my forehead and down the sides of my face to cup my cheeks. “You are fucking incredible. You know this about yourself, right?”
His lips press to each corner of my mouth, left then right, before moving gently over my lips. It’s slow and soft, nothing like the other night when he walked me home from the grocery store. His tongue licks along the seam of my lips, beckoning me to open for him. I slide my hands up his arms and grip his shoulders, pulling him closer. He drops his hands to my waist. I wrap my hands around the nape of his neck, sinking my fingers into the mess of hair there.
