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Thirty-Six
DAKOTA
The house wasn’t just big it was totally enormous! And it wasn’t just beautiful either, it was outright fucking breathtaking.
“When thehelldid you start all this?”
I stood with my hands on my hips, staring up at the vaulted, two-story monstrosity the guys were still in the process of finishing. A mortared stone base gave way to a sprawling, log cabin-style home, with at least three or four chimneys and big glass windows that would provide the most incredible views of the sprawling fields and distant, surrounding mountains.
“We’re probably going on two years now,” said Jace, his voice filled with pride. “Of course, there were delays last year. Material shortages. Work stoppages…”
“Forget all that,” Aurelius grinned, pulling me close. “We’re in the home stretch and that’s all that matters.”
After kissing me everywhere he could reach — and some places he couldn’t — the handsome SEAL had slid one arm around my waist and refused to let go. He’d been glued to my side for the past ten minutes.
Not that I minded, of course.
“It looks like you stole Kevin Costner’s house right out of the showYellowstone,” I chuckled.
“So?”
“Not saying it’s abadthing,” I relented, adding a chuckle. “I’m just saying.”
The inside was every bit as impressive as the rest, even though nothing was painted and only half the rooms were even done. The guys were living with a makeshift kitchen, and in bedrooms that were sparsely furnished. There was enough of their own style to see what was coming, though. And everything that was coming was cool as hell.
Toward the end of the upstairs hallway, Jace pushed a pair of doors open. The two rooms on the other side were mirrors of each other, and totally empty.
“That’ll be our office,” he said, pointing left. “And that one…”
“Baby nursery?” I chuckled.
I thought the guys would laugh with me. Instead they all stared back at me, their expressions deadly serious.
“Someday, sure,” said Merrick. As he folded his big forearms over each other, the muscles flexed. “We built this place with a big family in mind.”
“We were going to use both rooms as offices,” Aurelius explained. “But with the commercial space we’re about to rent in downtown Denver, we really don’t need it.”
I nodded, peeking into the room. I still didn’t understand.
“Which is why,” Jace said carefully, “we figuredyoumight want it. Not so much as an office, but maybe as a recording studio.”
I blinked a few times, then pushed my way inside. The space was perfect, actually. There was enough square footage to set up an acoustically-sealed room and still have plenty of space for editing and retouching equipment. Right now I was outsourcing a lot of the post-production, and it was expensive. But if I had everything I needed, right there at my finger tips…
“The walls are still open,” Merrick offered. “We could egg-crate the insides for sound-absorption, then do double-drywall for—”
“You know you guys totally fucking rock, right?” I said, whirling on them.
Jace and Merrick looked at each other. Aurelius laughed. “Well yeah, obviously.”
“No, I’m serious. This would literally be the sweetest thing anyone’s ever done for me.Ever.”
“Well we really haven’t done anything,” Merrick pointed out. “Yet, anyway.”
“No, not yet,” I agreed. “But this shows how much the three of you are thinking of me. You’re going out of your way to—”
“You’re a lot of things, Dakota,” Jace cut me off. He stood in front of me now, his physical presence causing my body to react in all the right ways. “But the one thing you’llneverbe is out of our way.”
I hugged him tightly, as the others closed in from behind. It felt so good being between them again. The feelings of safety and security came back instantly, along with the warm contentment that everything was right in my world again.
Beyond the window, a trio of ravens circled lazily in the mid-morning sky. They hovered over a field containing three separate trails, and a distant fence.
“Howbigis this place?” I asked, pressed snugly against Jace’s chest.
“Tomorrow we’ll take you out in the side-by-sides,” said Aurelius. “Show you the extent of the property itself.”
“Why not today?”
“Because today,” Jace smiled, glancing down at me. “We’ve got bigger plans.”
