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She opened her door, shuffled out of the backseat, turned to face their home, and stopped still. She stared at the house like they’d brought her to prison.
“This is where you live?” Her round-eyed surprised expression managed to charm him, like everything else about her.
“Yes. Is there a problem?”
Her arms rose. She gestured to the front of the three-story log-and-stone lodge-styled home he and Zane had built several years ago. “This is not a house. A place half the size would still be considered a mansion.”
Cooper shrugged. “It’s just our home.”
She turned to the both of them and asked, “Who are the two of you anyway?”
* * * *
Abby stared at the gorgeous home and wondered what she’d signed on for. She was like a princess in a fractured fairy tale of woe. Her name was forged on a fraudulent loan and she might very well end up in prison cell.
Her landlord had kicked her out of her home because he was a prick and he could. But in the meantime, her two knights in shining armor had swept her away to their “home,” which turned out not to be a mere simple house, but instead a beautiful stone-and-log castle nestled in a cozy stand of woods on a seemingly large property. She turned and looked in both directions along the road and didn’t see another home nearby. It was dark, but there was not a single other structure in sight.
Her arms crossed. She was suddenly aware of the night coming on very fast. She was weary, there was no getting around that, but she also had a few shreds of pride and dignity left. She didn’t want to live in paradise with two men she was falling for if she was ever going to have to leave.
Why did they want her? What could she possibly give them in return? Beyond her body and the sex she’d already enjoyed, Abby had a tremendous moment of doubt regarding her level of worthiness.
“You’ve paid my bail. You’ve packed up my tiny little apartment to bring me to Shangri-La, and I guess at this point I want to know what you expect in return.”
“Nothing,” Cooper said.
“Sex,” Zane said at the exact same time. “I’m kidding,” he added when she gave him a horrified look.
“But…there isn’t enough sex in a lifetime to be worthy of all this.” Her hands went up gesturing at the house, the stunning place she longed to enter and truly belong inside of. But her past reared up to smack her with reality.
She didn’t belong here. She never would. She’d never measure up. She couldn’t take the chance with the only thing she had left to offer, her heart.
“Please take me to a motel.”
“No.” Zane stepped forward. His expression was serious. “It was a joke, Abigail. I was only kidding. You’re staying here with us.”
“But I don’t belong here.”
“Why not?”
She glanced from his sincere expression to their house. “I grew up in a shitty little house on public assistance from the time I was born and until I graduated from high school. The one saving grace I had for not continuing in the same lifestyle as my mother had was that I earned a scholarship based on my grades. And I worked like a slave to graduate with honors.
“But I foolishly chose banking and finance as a major because I was good at it and I loved it, not realizing that those people with excessive amounts of money to burn don’t trust people like me with their funds.
“I’ve fought and clawed my way up the ladder in a job where no one liked me, no one trusted me, no one allowed me to ever be accepted as a peer or to truly belong unless they were forced to. And finally yesterday they knocked me down, but did I fall? No. I didn’t. Instead, I drove two hours to accuse someone of something horrible without proof. That’s how desperate I was to put things right. But it was a mistake. I shouldn’t have done it.
“And now you want me to move into this fortress of delight and you don’t want anything in return? Nothing? Well, I don’t believe it. This isn’t right. It’s another mistake. And I should never have come here.” She fell to her knees, angry with herself for breaking down like a crazy person and revealing far more than she ever intended to.
Abby wanted to feel worthy. She’d wanted to someday earn a place like this for herself. But having it handed over bristled at her last nerve. And eventually she’d have to leave. She wouldn’t be allowed to remain in paradise forever.
