Page 31 of Holly

Hell, if I met her day one and she was into dudes I may still be riding the somewhat sane train rather than the one to crazy town I was currently a first-class passenger on.

"But if I do something, I need to man up. And...I did something." She looked at me and gulped. "And take the consequences...the same if I was."

"You need me to talk to someone for you?" I did not like this line of discussion.

She smiled, then she got really sad eyes as she looked up at me and said, "I...last night...with Holly."

I took the next bite of cake and let that settle in my brain for a change. "I'll be back."

"Storm." She stayed because I put my hand up to indicate she should.

With the eyes of every house bunny in the vicinity and on weekend duty upon me, I walked through the open space in the great room and down the hall to Winston's room. He was already in the office. Before I could say anything, he offered me the documents and said, "Problem solved. Take a seat. There has been a turn in events."

"Holly and Autumn?" I asked. He went wide-eyed and then shook his head. "What?"

"She told you, right? Autumn? She thinks she’s taking something from you." He rolled a shoulder.

"She is," I reminded him. "So are you."

"So are you." He pointed at me, and my eyes went wide. "You locked my ass into this when I was about to have someone, something else real in my life. I... knew her from high school, man. Not even. I knew of her. Saw her in the halls. Sure, I had a crush, but damn."

"You kissed her." I put the empty dessert container on his desk.

He nodded, rolled a shoulder, and smiled as he said, "Okay. That was a real dick move. To both of you, but I didn't think I would get another chance. Not really."

"So last night, how did that go from you and her and our bucket list for the year to her and Autumn?" I watched that little shit light up with a smile so big I wanted to stab him with the fork. He knew it, too, because he pulled the dessert container away from me. "Smart. Explain."

"Autumn is my best friend. You know she is not into men. She's lonely, she's sweet. She would be a good ally because if you saw the way Holly was looking at Harpy with her three kings at the end of the table, plus a kid. And neither of us are as into this as we would have been if it was organic and not life and death. The sex is a bonus, not a fucking reason to shift my whole year, and it did. This little hiccup between the two of you that I landed in and pulled Autumn into, has changed my whole plan for this year. Now, I have Holly. I've been with six women my whole life and all of them this year. I had the world opening up to me and snap. That door is now closed. You just wanted one someone. I don't believe in that love bullshit." He was lying which is why this was such an important speech to him. "At the end of this year, I'm cutting it loose and getting back to my life. My plan. But we need help and that is where Autumn comes in. She's got dude brain but is still into chick shit. I don't want to do all that. Do you? Holly is fragile as fuck, man. I can't wear gloves every time I'm around her."

"Speaking of gloves there Casanova—"

"Covered it in Diva house. Come on, man. I'm not an idiot." Then he looked at me and I winced. "You think she made him cover? I mean we all had to be tested and what not, but..."

"Fuck. Fine. I...didn't exactly plan for that." I closed my eyes, opened them. I had not covered it with Essie. "Okay. You're right. I loved the idea of Holly. I, obviously, don't know her. And now that we're in this...yeah, I plan to enjoy it while it lasts, but cut it and Crossbow loose at the end of the year. I'll transfer again. I was not suicidal at my other college. Depressed, sometimes. Ready to drive my car off a cliff? Nope. That was a new thought for me." And because I needed to admit it but also needed to know the next answer I asked, "Why did you stop me?"

He rolled a shoulder and said, "Family. Harpy is...young, but she is the only woman who cares for me like...a mom would."

"Does that make Ripley your daddy?" I thought I had problems in the bedroom kink department.

"Fuck you!" He laughed. "No. Do not ever say that again. No. Those guys...no. Make no mistake about it, Storm. This house particularly is hers. These brothers are her soldiers. Why do you think we have the best? It's her house. This is her home. We are her boys. She just came in and took care of us. Very differently than she took care of them, I might add."

I laughed at that. "Yeah. She sure knows how to play all the angles."

He shrugged and said, "Well, that's fairly far down on the list and I have no real desire to pull my tiny dick out in front of you."

I roared with laughter. "Fuck you, Teach. You think that's a gift? She's not the only girl afraid of me or my dick. It's all good in theory, but in practice, it means getting fucked with it and if they struggle to get their mouth around it, they aren't as eager to let me do anything else, so you roll high on your six over there. I'm...sitting on two."

We were in this now. No point hiding anything from him. He seemed a bit bolstered by that, and I reminded him, "But she's one of them, so...she can handle it."

"Right." He puffed out a breath. "Okay, so. Autumn stays."

"Did you ask Autumn?" I considered the fact that I had one woman trapped already. Didn't need to tie another one down if she didn't want to be here.

"This morning. She's in. She likes her, wants to get to know her. She's good with it." He then smiled and said, "Holly told her that she couldn't fuck us."

I snickered. "That so?"

"It's a long weekend." He thought about that, nodded, and then said something as though it was a suggestion. "And it was something to watch, man."

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