I’m laughing so hard my stomach hurts.
Noel stalks toward the kitchen, muttering about the doggie door his grandfather installed years ago that Corn Dog keeps breaking through, and I hear him securing it properly.
I find my panties tangled in the blanket and pull them on quickly, then my leggings, while Kane watches with obvious disappointment.
“This doesn’t end here,” Kane says, his voice still rough with arousal. “We’re taking this upstairs to finish properly.”
But that’s when the front door opens with a blast of cold air and Chris’s voice carries through.
“What the hell now?” Kane moans.
“Fuck, you guys will not believe what I just discovered about Scot,” Chris calls out.
I’m scrambling now, dragging on my tank top and oversized shirt, trying to look like I wasn’t just being pleasured with candy canes thirty seconds ago.
Chris’s eyes immediately widen at the scene before him.
Noel returns from securing the kitchen door, wearing absolutely nothing except a white tube sock over his very obvious erection. Kane is in the same state.
Chris scents the air deeply, his nostrils flaring, and I watch his pupils dilate. “You couldn’t wait for me before starting?”
“We were warming her up for you,” Kane says with zero shame, that cocky grin firmly in place.
“So, what did you find out about Scot?” I ask quickly, trying to redirect before Chris decides to join whatever this situation is.
He toes off his boots by the door and drops his keys in the ceramic bowl on the entry table. Then his gaze lands on the fireplace. “Why is Corn Dog in the house?”
“He was cold,” I say defensively, pulling the blanket tighter around myself even though I’m fully dressed now. “And he’s currently sleeping peacefully.”
The other two guys shrug at Chris with matching expressions ofWe tried. “We didn’t want to say no to her,” Noel explains.
“Clearly,” Chris mutters, but there’s amusement dancing in his moss-green eyes despite his words.
Chris crosses to me and takes my hand, bringing it to his lips and kissing my knuckles with such unexpected gentleness that my heart does this complicated flutter thing in my chest. The gesture is so tender, so different from the rough passion of moments ago, that I’m momentarily speechless.
“Well, I found some very interesting information about Scot tonight,” Chris explains, his expression shifting to somethingmore serious as he releases my hand. “Not sure what to make of it yet, but something’s definitely wrong there.”
“What is it?” I ask, sitting up straighter.
Noel and Kane have pulled their pants back on, though they’re still shirtless, and they’re moving closer, curiosity written across their faces.
“When I was driving those dancing criminals to the station, they were whispering in the back seat,” Chris explains, running a hand through his hair. “I couldn’t make out most of it over the engine and the radio, but I swear I heard them mention the name Scot multiple times.”
“Oh?” I say slowly, my mind already trying to make connections. “I mean, there are probably other Scots in town besides the one I know.”
“Right, that’s what I thought initially,” Chris agrees out loud. “But we always keep the back of our transport vehicle bugged with a microphone. We’ve caught a lot of valuable intel that way when criminals think they’re having private conversations back there.”
“I listened to the full recording after I finished processing them downtown,” Chris continues. “And they were definitely talking about someone named Scot who hired them and promised to pay them extremely well. They were debating back and forth about whether this Scot would still honor the payment considering they got arrested for their outstanding warrants and didn’t actually finish performing the strip show.”
My stomach drops.
“It gets weirder,” Chris continues. “One of them mentioned something about Scot wanting to make sure the event didn’t go too well, but not so badly that it would be obvious it was sabotaged.”
I’m on my feet now, the blanket falling away. “That has to be my Scot. That asshole. And I don’t get the payment thing, asI paid them already in advance for tonight. Why would Scot be paying them too?”
“Where did you even find their contact information?” Noel asks.
I press my lips together, thinking back. “It was over a month ago when I was first booking everything for this event. But now that I’m thinking about it, the contact came directly from Scot. He recommended them specifically, said they were the best in the area.”
