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“You’re ours now.”
29
“What are your plans for Thanksgiving?” Devan asked, pulling me into his lap and pressing a kiss to my cheek.
It had been two weeks since the night he and Micah had laid me out on Micah’s bed and blown both my mind and my preconceived notions about how relationships could work, and I was still coming to terms with how easily they showed me affection in front of each other.
Neither of the other two men even batted an eye when Devan wrapped his arms around my waist and pressed another kiss to the side of my neck. I squirmed slightly in his lap, resisting the urge to glance around and make sure no one else was watching, even though I knew it was only the four of us in the private library study room.
We were ostensibly there to finalize the details for our English lit project, which would culminate the next day in a group discussion we would lead for the class, but we hadn’t actually opened our books since we’d arrived. Micah was the only one of us working, sketching in the final details on an art assignment I’d already finished. At Devan’s question he put down his pencils and glanced up at me.
Garrett was looking my way as well, and I cleared my throat. I knew the holiday was coming up, but I hadn’t actually given it any thought. “Oh, um. Am I supposed to have plans?” I didn’t mention the family I didn’t have to return to, but the omission must have been clear anyway.
Micah winced and Devan rubbed an apologetic hand on my back. “Sorry, Millie, I wasn’t thinking. It’s only that they close campus, and no one can stay.”
I twisted in his lap to look at him, ignoring the nickname that seemed to have stuck and also—I had to admit—was growing on me.
“Seriously? I didn’t know that.” I mulled it over, which took about two seconds, because it’s not like I actually had options. “I guess I’ll go back to Chicago then. My aunt doesn’t exactly seem like the holiday sort, but I doubt I’ll be feeling all that festive anyway.”
I wasn’t actually sure if my words were true. I barely knew my aunt at all. She didn’t seem like the type to go all out cooking an elaborate meal for just the two of us, but for all I knew she had plans to cater an enormous party or something. Or maybe she was traveling and wouldn’t be there in the first place. I had no idea. I supposed I should probably call her and let her know I was coming, one way or another.
“What are you guys going to do over the holiday?” I asked, not because I thought they’d answer me, but because sometimes it was fun to watch them try to evade my questions.
Garrett shrugged. “Dunno yet. We might stay here.”
“I thought you just said students couldn’t—”
“Not here at the school,” he clarified. “Just here in town somewhere.”
I looked at him with narrowed eyes, my mind overflowing with questions. Were they planning to stay because they had no home to return to? Or were their families busy? Or was it simply a choice they’d made? Or was it a lie and they were actually going somewhere, and he just didn’t want to tell me? Where were they even from? And why wouldn’t they answer my damn questions in the first place?
Garrett was watching me like he was waiting for my rising tide of questions to overflow and spill everywhere, even though I knew he had no intention of giving me more information than he already had. I bit the questions back though, refusing to give him the satisfaction, and stuck my tongue out at him instead.
Micah snorted and the edge of Garrett’s mouth threatened to turn up in a smile.
Of the three of them, he was still the biggest enigma. While I hadn’t received so much as a kiss from him, and he’d never suggested the relationship I was developing with Micah and Devan should expand to include him as well, there was still something there between us. Besides, I could still hear his words in my head if I closed my eyes.
You’re ours now.
Ours, he’d said, and the implication was clear.
He was the leader of this band of—whatever the hell they were. If I belonged to one, I belonged to all three. And while I certainly didn’t consider myself the kind of woman who would ever belong to a man, I couldn’t deny there was something deliciously and primally appealing in the idea of being theirs.
And even more appealing—that meant they were mine.
Devan wrapped his arms around my waist as if he could hear my thoughts and pulled me against his chest, where I snuggled in deeper.
“I suppose that’s true of winter break too, then?” I asked. “No one can stay on campus?”
“Yeah, spring break next year, too,” Micah confirmed. “They don’t like students staying on campus when security isn’t here. But you’ll be safe in Chicago.”
“Safe?” I looked at him strangely. “Why wouldn’t I be safe?”
“I just meant it’ll be better than staying here with no security,” he said with a shrug that was almost convincing. “They used to let students stay, but they got into a lot of trouble, so that’s why everything closes down now.”
I sighed. Thanksgiving break was only three days and a weekend, but winter break lasted for weeks. That was certainly more time than I’d ever planned on spending with my aunt. Though to be honest, I hadn’t actually planned on returning to Chicago ever. I’d intended to be back in California before these three had turned my life upside-down.
It was still my plan for after graduation, but I started to wonder…
