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Ella
Ella felt as though the hours passing felt more like days, waiting for the guys to finish up their meetings. She got a tour of the facility from their current head of security, Travis, and she had to admit that she liked the guy. By the end of the day, she asked him to stay on as head of security under her company and he had agreed. She was looking to hire more employees, and why not use someone who already had extensive knowledge of the company’s security measures and possible needs?
By the time she sat down to start looking at the actual security system the guys had in place, she realized that it was almost dinner time. They would be down to find her soon and she still hadn’t decided what to do about Ethan’s offer. Could she become their full-time employee? Would she even want that? Ella had spent years building her business after buying her business partner, James, out. She was damn proud of what she had been able to accomplish and now, she was thinking about changing her whole company profile.
What she really would like was the best of both worlds. She didn’t want to get her hopes up that the guys would be fine with her running her company, hiring some more help and even a few managers to lighten her daily workload, and also be their full-time security liaison. When she was first starting in the security business, she would have given just about anything to land a contract like the one Ethan was offering her. They were two of the most powerful businessmen in the area and they were offering her full reign of their security needs. She just had to convince Ethan that she didn’t need to be exclusive to them to handle their business and private living security detail.
“Hey,” Ethan called from the doorway. “You about ready to go to dinner or do you need a few minutes?” She was more than ready to head out to dinner. Ella was exhausted from staying up half the night with the guys last night and she was also starving.
“I’m ready,” she agreed.
“Linc is waiting out in the car for us. He had it brought around. We thought that we’d take one car and that way, we can all just head back into work tomorrow together,” Ethan said. Ella could pick up on what he wasn’t saying. They wanted to make sure that she didn’t change her mind about staying with them at Ethan’s place and taking her own car back to her place. What they didn’t know about her yet was that if she made them a promise, she planned on keeping it.
“All right, but for the record, I’m all in,” she said. “I told you that I’d stay with you both, to see where this goes, and I meant what I said.”
“Good to know,” Ethan said. “Ready?” he asked, offering her his arm. She took it, grabbed her bag, and followed him out of the office. She wasn’t sure if she was ready for anything that they had planned for her, but she was sure that she was about to find out.
Ethan ushered her out through their private entrance, to the parking garage that he and Linc shared. She loved that they had a private way in and out of their building. It would make her job so much easier that way. Still, just from her quick analysis of their current security measures, she could tell that she’d have her work cut out for herself.
She looked into the front of the SUV to find that Linc wasn’t in the driver’s seat. “You have a driver for the night?” she asked.
“Yeah, that way we can spend some extra time with you,” Ethan whispered. She could hear the promise of what he and Linc wanted to do with her in the back of the SUV and she had to admit, she was looking forward to it.
He opened the back door for her, and she peeked in to find Linc smiling back at her. She couldn’t help her giggle. They looked like two little boys who were about to get what they wanted from Santa on Christmas. “Hi,” she breathed, sliding into Linc’s side. He immediately wrapped an arm around her and tugged her close for a quick kiss. She loved the way both guys seemed to want to touch and kiss her, no matter who else might be watching. Ethan slid into the back of the SUV next to her and leaned over her to kiss Linc and God, that was so fucking hot. Ella wasn’t sure that she’d ever get used to watching the two of them together. She had to admit, she never thought about being with two men at once, but there was something about the dynamic of the three of them together that just seemed to click. It felt right to be with them both and that wasn’t something she should even be considering after only being together with them for just one night. It wasn’t like they were making her any promises or even calling what they were doing a relationship, but she found herself hoping for something of the sort, and she was sure that wouldn’t end well for her.
“I hope you like Italian food,” Linc said, breaking their kiss.
“Love it,” Ella said. “I guess there’s a lot of likes and dislikes that we don’t know about each other.”
“We’ll get to all of that soon enough,” Ethan said. “For tonight, let’s just relax and get to know each other a bit. Then, we can go over a few ground rules and talk about the possibility of getting you to come to work for us full time,” he said.
“Wow,” she breathed. “You’ve planned a busy night. Have you left any room for fun, or is that not an option for tonight?”
“Oh, there will be plenty of time for fun,” Linc assured. “Ethan’s more of a get down to business kind of guy first. He likes to get all of the boring business junk out of the way first, then, he’s all about the fun.”
“How long have you two known each other?” Ella asked.
“Since college,” Ethan said. “We were in a lot of the same classes, having the same major, and well, we just hit it off,” he admitted.
“And you two were never together—like you are now?” she asked. She felt as though she was prying asking such personal questions, but according to the guys, that was what tonight was for.
“No,” Linc said. “For me, I was too afraid of screwing up our business relationship, and then, losing my best friend wasn’t something that I wanted to deal with either. So, I suppressed my feelings for Ethan. Well, until last night.”
“Yeah, it was the same for me too, really,” Ethan agreed. “I didn’t want to fuck up our dynamic that we already have going. I decided that I was done wanting Linc and not taking what we both needed from each other. I knew that if I could get you one board, Ella, we might have a fighting chance. Being bisexual is like walking a tightrope. Sure, we could choose to be with either a man or a woman, but a part of us would always be missing, you know?” he asked.
“I guess I just never really thought about any of that before. I mean, I’m straight, so I never had to consider how being bisexual might feel, until now.” She could see where they would be torn about who to be with. She’d probably feel that a piece of her was missing too if she was in their shoes.
“Finding a woman to put between us was a long shot, man,” Linc said to Ethan. “But I’m glad that you finally took the chance that I was too chicken to take. Otherwise, we would have been stuck still, with no way out of our shitty situation.”
“I knew that I was taking a chance, but I just couldn’t deny how I felt about you anymore,” Ethan said. Ella again felt as though she was intruding on a personal conversation that she had no right to be a part of.
“I feel like I’m intruding,” she admitted.
“Not at all,” Ethan said. “You’re a part of this too now, Ella. You and I have known each other for a while now. I’ve wanted to ask you out since you installed my security system at my penthouse, but I needed to be smart about it. I realized that I was having feelings for Linc at about that time, and I didn’t want to jump into something with you if I was going to start something with him. The break-in at his place just gave me the perfect opportunity to have you both mesh together, in a very good way.”
“Gee,” Linc drawled, “I’m so glad that I could help you out.”
“I didn’t mean it that way,” Ethan said. “I’m not happy that your place got broken into, but I am happy that you got to meet Ella and that we all hit it off the way that we have. I won’t lie—I’ve had this little fantasy about the three of us playing in my head for some time now. I’m just glad that it seems to have worked out the way that I imagined it.”
“I’m not mad about the way things have turned out either,” Ella breathed. “I was hoping that you’d ask me out, Ethan. Being with the two of you isn’t something that I’d ever imagine to be a possibility, but I wouldn’t change any of it. I like you both,” she admitted.
“That’s at least a start,” Linc said. “I like you too, Ella.” He linked their fingers together and Ethan pulled her other hand into his lap and did the same. She wasn’t sure what they’d have to navigate, the three of them, but she was sure that she wanted to find out. It had been a damn long time since she had met one man that she liked enough to spend the night with, let alone two. There was no way that she would let go of either of them without finding out what they had planned first.
