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“Hi,” I said shyly as they came into the room and ducked my head down.
“She’s not Amanda,” Adam noted immediately.
“No, she’s not. Well spotted,” Michael replied with a glare. Adam shrugged his shoulders and went to a fridge hidden in the wall as a cabinet. “Do you want anything to drink? I’m having orange juice.”
“Yes, please, whatever you have.” I was glued to my chair as he walked over and handed me a small plastic bottle of orange juice. He didn’t have a shirt on, just a pair of jeans that did little to hide his physique. Or the bulge between his legs. Oh my.
I felt myself blush as I looked away and caught Daniel’s eyes. His gray eyes were soft and gentle where Michael’s were hard and unyielding. “Hi.”
I smiled at the simple greeting and relaxed a little. That was until Michael cleared his throat. The brothers went to each side of him and leaned up against the counter.
“Now, I think it’s time you explain yourself, Miss Howell,” he said with a growl of irritation in his voice. The others tensed at his tone and their stares changed. They came to match Michael’s, even if Daniel’s was tinged with a need to be gentle.
“Right. I’m not Amanda, obviously,” I started after a sip of orange juice. “She dropped her phone in the library where I worked one night. Yes, I should have given it back, and no I shouldn’t have contacted you guys or told you that her number changed, but you haven’t been stalked by her for the last four years.”
“But you obviously have,” Michael pronounced, not even questioning my claim about Amanda. “She’s spent the last few years trying to ruin your life and now you have the chance to ruin hers. That’s it, right?”
“Well, maybe not ruin her life, but definitely fuck it up for a day or two. Until she moves onto her next victim.”
“Indeed. And once you started this little,” he paused and stared up at the ceiling until he found the right word, “game, you couldn’t stop.”
“No, you guys were so… fascinating.” I fumbled for the right word this time. “I didn’t know people could talk like that to each other. That texting could be so, ahem, arousing.”
“And you wanted a chance to taste what we’d promised, am I right?” His piercing gray eyes pinned me to my chair, dared me to deny his words.
“Yes, you are. But I also wanted the chance to ruin Amanda’s plan. I wanted her to feel, for once, what it’s like to be me. To have your life turned upside down and your dreams snatched away. Even if they are kind of lame dreams.” I fiddled with the bottle as I spoke, kept my eyes focused on it, and then looked up. I saw a man in black jeans and a black shirt, one in a pair of blue jeans with no shirt, another in a pair of dark green pajama pants with a white t-shirt, and the other in silky gray shorts and a black tank top.
They were all focused on me, waiting for me to go on, but I didn’t know what else to say.
Daniel spoke up, “So, it’s been you we’ve been chatting with for a while now. Since you told us her phone had been stolen?”
“Yes. I was only messing around, to begin with, trying to figure out what I could use that phone for, but it dawned on me there wasn’t a lot. Until I saw the full text of your chat. I knew how much she wanted to meet up with you guys, and I thought if I snatched that away from her, then I could have some kind of revenge.”
“You guys know that blog of Amanda’s? The one about the girl that has a hard time finding a guy?” Michael paused until the three brothers nodded their heads in agreement. “Well, this beautiful specimen is the one that Amanda’s been torturing over the last few years.”
A collection of understanding noises filled the air. I watched them, my heart racing in my chest again as it dawned on me where I was. Who I was with. What I wanted from them.
Their eyes came right back to me and I shifted in the seat. The heat in their eyes made my skin prickle suddenly and a smile twitched at my lips.
“I see.” He stroked his chin again and looked at his brothers in turn. “I think it’s time we tell her a few truths, too, don’t you, fellas?”
“I think so,” Tristan, Daniel, and Adam all agreed. Tristan caught my eye with a wink, and I stared at him, surprised.
Why did he wink? Was this going to turn out right after all? I turned back to Michael. “What truths?”
“Well, we started this whole bet thing with Amanda way back when we all started school, obviously. We didn’t know what she would do, how mean she’d get. You see, um…” Michael scratched at the back of his head and looked over at his brothers.
