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“I would like that. I think that’s important if the three of us want to build something together. Is that the ultimate goal here?” she asked. “Are the two of you looking for a relationship with me or am I just a third in all of this?”
Ethan looked between her and Linc and he could see the resolve in his guy’s eyes. He wanted her for the long haul, just like Ethan did. “We’re looking for a relationship,” Linc said. “At least, I am.”
“I am too,” Ethan quickly added. He wanted to add that he was feeling ready to settle down, but he didn’t want to scare Ella off. Sure, she was asking for answers, but he worried that he might not be giving the correct ones. His reprieve came in the form of their waiter delivering their food to the table and he was happy about it. Laying down the law and coming up with rules had him doing more soul searching than he might have been ready for.
“This looks wonderful,” Ella said. “Can we finish the rules talk later?” she asked.
“Works for me,” Linc agreed. Ethan would be good to not have to talk about rules for the rest of the night, but he was sure that Ella would want more answers now that they had opened up that can of worms.
* * *
The restof the dinner went well. They talked about their lives, work, and even what they wanted for their futures, and Ethan had to admit that it felt like any other normal date. The only difference was that he knew that they would both be going home with him for the night, and he wasn’t going to have to come up with some witty line to get them to agree to come back to his place. They had agreed to give him many nights after this one, and that had him feeling more relaxed on their date than he usually felt by this point of the evening.
“Are you both still good with stopping by my place so that I can grab a few things?”
“Sure,” Ethan agreed. “We’ll stop by Linc’s place too.”
“That’s silly,” she said. “Linc’s place is on the way to mine. Just have your driver drop you two off at Linc’s place and then he can run me back to my place and we’ll swing back to Linc’s to pick you both up. It will save time and get us back to Ethan’s place faster.”
“You sound like you’re in a hurry to get back to my place, honey,” he teased.
“Well, maybe I am,” she admitted. “It’s been a long day and I’d like to go to bed before midnight tonight. You both kept me up most of last night and well, you did wake me up to meet you at your office at three in the morning. I think we could all use a good night’s sleep tonight.”
“How about if Ethan goes to your place with you?” Linc asked. “That way he can give you a hand.”
“No,” she said. “Your place still isn’t secure, and I’d feel better if you two stuck together. My place has some pretty tight security and I’m sure that your driver will be happy to hang out with me, just in case.”
Ethan knew that she was right, he just hated that they were all going to split up, even if it was only for a short time. “Fine,” he agreed. “We won’t be long.”
“I won’t be either,” she assured.
They pulled into the private parking lot at Linc’s penthouse and Ethan reluctantly followed his guy out of the SUV, taking one last look back at Ella. He hated that they were sending her out on her own, but she was right—her place was secured and Linc’s wasn’t yet.
“See you both soon,” she promised. “Be careful and don’t disturb anything that my crews have been working on today,” she ordered.
“Bossy,” Linc said, smiling back over his shoulder at her.
“Be careful, honey,” Ethan insisted.
“Will do.” She pulled the back door shut and the SUV took off out of the parking garage.
“Why do you look worried?” Linc asked.
“Not sure, really,” Ethan said. “I guess I’m worried that she’ll still change her mind about coming back to my place with us.”
“You heard what she said—if she agrees to do something, she does it. Give her the benefit of the doubt, man, and stop overthinking this whole thing. You need to learn to let loose and enjoy life sometimes,” Linc said.
“Jesus,” Ethan grumbled. “What the hell happened to you? I think that we switched rolls, man. You were the constant worrier out of the two of us. How in the hell did we switch personalities?”
Linc chuckled and stepped from his private elevator into the foyer of his penthouse. Ethan didn’t miss the way that he hesitated before walking all the way into his home. He had to still be upset about what happened at his place the night before.
Ethan wrapped his arms around Linc from the side. “You good, babe?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Linc breathed. “The last time I was here, I was surrounded by police officers and security. But before that, it was just him and me.” Ethan wasn’t sure if pushing Linc to talk about all of this was a good idea or not, but his guy seemed to need to get it out of his system.
“You mean, you and the burglar?” Ethan asked Linc. He nodded and pulled free from Ethan’s arms, looking around his family room as if for any signs of the break-in.
“He wasn’t really a burglar, right? I mean, if Ella is correct, he was just the gunman while a second guy was supposed to be the one robbing me. But nothing’s missing,” he said, looking back at Ethan. “I mean, look at this place—everything is still here.”
