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We found a spot near Duke and Liam. By the state of their plates, they were already finished eating. Liam leaned over to whisper in my ear. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” His French accent was thick with innuendo.
I chuckled and looked over to see Caleb and Andrew glaring at Liam’s retreating back. Time to reign in these wild dogs. “So, how was your day today? Anything interesting happen?”
Caleb winked. “I had the most amazing morning. This fucking gorgeous woman kissed the daylights out of me.”
I rolled my eyes.
His eyes softened as he took my hand in his. “No, seriously. I like you Tori, and I’m excited to explore the way I felt when we kissed if you are.”
Inside, I melted. He was so sweet. I missed how it felt to have a crush on a guy, and by the way my body reacted any time they were near, I was very interested in the two of them. A twinge of guilt sliced through my mind. I hated that whatever this was had an expiration date, but I couldn’t tell them. I didn’t want to ruin what was just starting.
“I like you too.” I hesitated. “I just don’t know what I’m ready for.” It was a partial truth, but I really didn’t want to put the brakes on how we were all feeling.
He kissed my cheek. “We can figure it out together.”
I nodded, already feeling better. “Tell me about your day. I’m curious about what you do.”It was important to show interest in what the men do when you are not with them.One of the lessons from relationship school rang through in my head. Funny how I hadn’t thought about those lessons until now.
“It wasn’t really that exciting.” Andrew shrugged. “We’re settling in. It was mostly meetings and working on plans for the new construction of our office.”
Caleb gave me a shy smile. “Declan was willing to use the layout I drew for the office, and we were able to get the estimate started.”
“That’s really cool they’re letting you do this.” I imagined how fulfilling it would be to work in a place, knowing you had created it.
“It’s nothing, really. I like to be organized and to see the most efficient way for things. So, when I was searching to find the best place for our office, I decided to try to use what space we had and just expand.” A blush crept across his cheeks, and he focused on his plate. He shoveled another spoonful in his mouth.
“Well, I think it’s pretty awesome.” After he swallowed, I leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek. “So, when will you work with the animals?”
“Nothing immediate needs our attention. Plus, we have Alex on as primary until we’re up and running. It’s better for us to defer to her until we see the systems in place. We don’t want to change anything right away.”
Caleb brushed it off like having his dream job was no big deal, when in my mind I would have been excited about every little thing. Finally being able to dive into the career you had just worked your tail off in college for would be the most exhilarating possibility in my eyes. I’d be over the moon if I had that chance.
“Tell us a little about yourself. What brings you to King’s Ranch?” Andrew asked, biting off a piece of bread.
“Honestly, I’m here to kind of hide for a while.” I drew in a deep breath. It was easy to talk to Caleb and Andrew. “My family has these expectations for me since I finished school. They expect me to come home and take on the roles that are to be bestowed upon me.” I hadn’t admitted that to myself until now. I was hiding, and I didn’t want to go home. There wasn’t a single part of me that wanted to return home to my arranged husbands or to manage my family’s business.
“What type of expectations do they have of you?” Andrew tilted his head to the side.
“Being a Lady has certain responsibilities,” I said.
“I don’t understand how being a woman has anything to do with it. Is it different in your country?” Andrew’s forehead creased.
“No, aLady.” I laughed. “As in the title.”
Caleb’s eyebrows nearly disappeared under the lock of brown hair hanging across his forehead.
“Should we be acting a certain way around you? Bow or something?” Andrew asked with a twinkle of mischief in his eyes.
“Please don’t. How you’ve been is perfect. My title is lower than Thomas and Declan’s, so you can just forget I have one. It doesn’t mean anything. My parents might think otherwise, but it’s really no big deal. I’ve enjoyed being treated as a normal person here.”
Caleb rubbed my arm. “Normal, we can do normal.”
Thank goodness. I didn’t think I could handle them treating me differently than they were. I didn’t want them to hold back just because I had a title. I’d had enough of that while growing up. Too many men thought they had to treat me with kid gloves. I didn’t want Caleb or Andrew to show any restraint around me. I wanted them to show me what it would be like to be shared by them. In every way. Even if I could only enjoy it for a little while.
ANDREW
Normal didn’t even come close.Weweren’t normal. The way we thought and lived wasn’t normal. At least to the outside world. We refused to be separated.
We shared everything. We had decided early on we never wanted to go our separate ways. And we would never let a woman come between us. Recently, we worried we wouldn’t find the right woman for us. But now that we’d met Tori, I knew our search had ended.
