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“What is the deal with your obsession on what I eat?” A pregnant pause falls over the table, each of them frozen, not answering my question.
“We know that you have lost weight. You try to hide it by wearing yoga pants all the time. Your shirts, however, hang off your body. You are small to start with, and we haven’t seen you eat. All you drink is coffee. So, if we need to force-feed you, we will.”
Ashton’s terse statement catches me off guard. There are so many things wrong with what he just said, but I don’t have the mental capacity to analyze it right now. My questions come out of order, trying to make sense of all this. Trying to sort through them, I sip my water and take a bite of my sandwich. The sandwich tastes like nothing, and I force myself to choke it down.
“How do you know I have lost weight?”
The guys share a look, seeming as if they are trying to figure out who is going to answer me. Gareth clears his throat, but Callum is the one who answers.
“We, ah, well…we saw you.”
My brows draw down in confusion. “What do you mean that you saw me? When?”
My eyes roam from face to face to face, none of them making eye contact with me, only with each other. Finally, Rodney speaks up, shocking me in place.
“At the trial, in Franklin.”
Rodney stands and stomps away from the table, leaving all of us shocked. Putting my head in my hands, ashamed of my own behavior, completely forgetting about the preliminary trial.
“Don’t worry about it, Duchess,” a soft voice comes from one of them.
Unable to find the words to convey to them all. I sit and stare down at the food in front of me, with no appetite at all.
“What else do you want to know, Duchess? We know you have questions; throw it at us.”
Not sure who said that, but it wasn’t Gareth. Other than it coming from too far away, Gareth’s deep baritone is one I have become all too familiar with.
“Why do you care?” As soon as the words leave my lips, my eyes bounce from face to face, watching their expressions.
Gareth responds this time. “As I told you in the library, you are ours now.”
Tossing my hands up in frustration, my voice is louder than intended. “I don’t even know what that means. Why me?” Gareth ignores my question, changing the subject back to food.
“Just eat your lunch.”
Nothing else is said as the three of them grab food off the tray and start eating. When I don’t start eating, Gareth raises an eyebrow at me; it’s a challenge. Not wanting to cause another scene, I eat some more of my sandwich, still not tasting it.
Taking the opportunity to observe them, hopefully getting a better feel for their dynamic. Ashton, like the other three, is tall, somewhere between Gareth and Callum. He wears his chocolate brown hair longer on top but swept back and kept in place with some product. His light green eyes are constantly in motion. Also, like the others, Ashton works out, but he isn’t bulky. His style of dress is also casual, jeans and T-shirts. My cheeks heat when he catches me looking at him.
“See something you like, Kennedy?”
Dropping my gaze and focusing on my food, I ignore his statement and also tune out the conversation they are having. However, the whine coming from behind us grabs all of our attention.
“Gaaarrrreeeetttthhhh! What is she doing here?” Danica draws his name out into multiple syllables.
“If you are referring to Kennedy, I believe this has previously been covered in the library last week.” Gareth seems bored with repeating himself, but Danica doesn’t pick up on it.
“Gareth, baby, you belong to me. All four of you belong to us, not this skank.”
I stiffen at Danica’s words; if she only knew, if any of them only knew. Other than what Gareth, Callum, and Ashton have done, the most I have ever done with a guy is kiss. It was a chaste kiss at that. The guys stand up from the table, towering over the girls, because, of course, Danica isn’t alone. Gareth finally speaks, his patience clearly at an end.
“Ladies, and I use that term loosely, Kennedy is off limits. We don’t belong to you. We never have, and we never will. You sleep with anyone that you think can give you something. Your cunts are probably so stretched out I would need to strap a two-by-four to my ass to keep from falling in. Not to mention whatever venereal diseases you all might have. We won’t warn you again. Stay away from us and away from Kennedy.”
Gareth and the guys sit back down and go back to eating their lunches like the past several minutes never happened. Eventually, everyone else goes back to their food as well, now that the matinee show is over. Danica and her girls finally walk away as I start gathering up what is left of my sandwich, throwing it in the garbage.
“What do you think you are doing?”
Answering Callum’s question with the least amount of emotion possible, “I am done eating, returning to my dorm room, and working on some assignments before tonight.”
