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In a conundrum…
“Jan…I think you may be right.”
“Twice in one night,” her friend mused. “The sky must be falling.”
They snickered together. “If I really am falling for these guys, I’m in trouble.” Sabrina was thinking out loud, but she needed her friend to help her sort out her feelings and make sense of them.
“Yes, you are. One man is trouble enough to deal with. Three? Well, that’s triple the problems. If you gettogethertogether, you’ll have to watch three men for tramps circling around your property like vultures, and you’ll have three times the headaches when it comes to dealing with finances and all of life’s intricacies. But, and this is a big but, you’ll also have three times the fantastic, kinky sex.” If they were standing in front of each other, Sabrina knew Janet would be winking and grinning like a loon. “Well, while it lasts. Before they get bored and lazy. Probably fat too.”
“I can’t decide if you’re the best or worst friend a girl could have,” Sabrina lamented. Janet had a knack for building her up and tearing her down at the same time. But she knew if push came to shove, she was the best friend a person could ask for.
“So…I just wanted to say, I’m excited for you,” Janet said, her mood shifting to supportive. “I can’t imagine juggling that handful, or having the guts to, and I won’t lie when I say I’m nervous about how it will turn out for you, but I’m hoping great. You deserve to be happy.”
Sabrina cringed and scrubbed a hand over her forehead. “Even if it’s with three men?”
“One man, two men, three men, four…What’s the difference? If they make you happy, that’s all that matters.”
“So you don’t think it’s crazy that I’m with three men?” Because that was a big concern of hers. Sabrina had heard of polyamorous relationships, of course, but they were always cast in such a bad light. Look at the sister wives type shows, for example. People watched like they were zoo animals, but they condemned them for living any way other than the one society deemed “normal.” Hell, even Sabrina felt that way. But being in that position now, even though it felt completely different from her side of things, she could now understand that to take that stance would make her a hypocrite. After all, love was love, right? As long as they weren’t hurting anyone, why did anyone care?
“I didn’t say it wasn’t crazy. Being in a relationship with more than one person at a time presents a host of problems that I can only begin to imagine. I mean, there’s the whole date night stuff, and how the family will react when they find out—because they will. And don’t even get me started on who gets what side of the bed. That’s the kind of argument that ends relationships.”
Sabrina laughed. That’s why Janet was so good for her. She gave her just the right balance of serious and humor to keep her on her toes and never get bogged down by the hard stuff.
“So what do you think I should do?”
“Do you, boo boo. I guarantee there are going to be some haters, but if you’re happy, then don’t worry about it. Lean on your guys. If they feel like you do, they’ll take up for ya.”
So, long story short, Sabrina should just keep moving forward, and if she ran into any problems, she should seek the brothers for help. “Got it. Thanks for the advice.”
“You’re welcome. Now…let’s discuss that bed situation.”
Chapter Seventeen
The work week dragged on slower than a snail’s pace, but Sabrina had been on a roll. Ever since going home and getting the rest the Hargreaves suggested, she’d been working smoothly and efficiently. It’d only taken her an hour to finish her work Tuesday that had taken her an entire day Monday to make a minor dent in. Ever since, she’d been knocking out one project after another, hitting all of her meetings with lethal efficiency, and earning the appreciative and much impressed nods from her guys. Hell, even she was proud of herself for how well she’d been doing.
This was the Sabrina she’d worked to become her whole life, the one she brought into every business transaction, the one that turned heads and helped make a name for herself apart from her father. It was this side of her that put her on the map and made hers a household name alongside her father’s.
So why was he calling her on a Friday afternoon acting like she’d made a grievous error?
“Daddy, I don’t understand. Would you just slow it down and backtrack a bit? Who told you that?”
From the instant she’d picked up the phone, he’d been off on a tangent. All she’d gathered was that someone had said something about the Hargreaves, was concerned about the business arrangement that’d been made, and for some reason, he was so angry that he’d felt the need to come out of his vacation long enough to rip her a new one.
“What are you four up to there? I send you in to make a deal of a lifetime, and this is how I’m repaid?”
She was confused. “Daddy, I really don’t know what you’re talking about. We made the deal. It’s been great. The Hargreaves are working diligently and have been nothing but an asset.”Where was the problem?
“I’m only going to ask this once, and you’d better give it to me straight.” There was a long pause, and then he said, “Tell me you’re not sleeping with them.”
Sabrina’s eyes widened and she collapsed back into her office chair, the air expelling from her lungs in one giant whoosh.
How did he know? Who would have told him? Who even knew, outside of her, Conner, Oliver, and William?
The Hargreaves. She glared at the closed door to her office, imagining them somewhere on the other side. Of course. It was obvious. It’d all been a setup designed for her failure.
All week, they’d been attentive, but not too much. Since Monday’s confrontation and show of concern, they’d been aloof, tending to business and family things that dominated the majority of their time. Not once had they asked to come by her apartment or take her out to dinner or anything even remotely expected of a budding relationship.
A show. Yes, that’s all it was, wasn’t it? She’d been lied to and manipulated, hadn’t she? Why? That was the million-dollar question. Was it for money or power? Likely, both.
