: Chapter 13

“I’m sorry I didn’t come home last night.” Jen’s voice is quiet on the phone. Her boss is a tyrant, and she isn’t supposed to make personal calls during work hours. “I really wanted to hear about your date Saturday, but Trey took me to this party, and then after—” She sighs dreamily instead of finishing her sentence.

“Don’t worry. I love sleeping in your bed,” I remind her. “And I watched that movie with that actor you hate.”

She laughs. “I have so much to tell you, Lils. Trey is perfect.”

I roll my eyes. Trey the movie star, who turned out to not be a movie star at all. Apparently he’s a bouncer and he only used the whole movie star bit to get Jen to hook up with him. Lucky for him, my friend isn’t the shallow type and he told her soon enough that she didn’t feel betrayed by his lie. She’s into him, and she’s happy. Hell, I’m seriously considering the Unholy Trinity’s offer, so I don’t think I have the right to judge any woman for her choice of bed partners at this point. “We can catch up tonight. I’ll cook dinner.”

“Perfect.” She gasps. “Shit, I have to go. I have a meeting that started five minutes ago. Talk later, girl.”

“Bye,” I say, but she’s already hung up.

Jen is standing in the hallway when I get home from work, surrounded by bags and suitcases and holding a pillow under her arm. Two guys stand beside her, one of whom I recognize as Trey from the club, and the other wears navy coveralls and looks like he works in maintenance. My mouth goes dry. What the hell happened?

Jen shakes her head, and Trey puts a comforting arm around her shoulder as I jog down the hallway. “Hey, what’s happened? Is everything okay?”

Jen turns to me, her eyes wide. “Roaches, Lil.” She wrinkles her nose.

I peer inside the apartment, and a shudder runs the length of my spine. “In your apartment?”

She shivers and leans against Trey for support. “So this guy says.” She nods at the stranger.

“And you are?”

“Carl.” He points to the name badge sewn into his uniform.

“And you think we have roaches?”

“Yep. Got a complaint from a neighbor. The super let me in so I could take a look around, and this is where the nest is.”

Bile surges up my throat. “Nest?”

Jen places her hand over her mouth. “I know. It’s gross. How will we ever go back in there?”

“Give me a few weeks and it’ll all be cleared. Like they’ve never been here,” Carl says with a smile.

I gape at him. “A few weeks?”

“To make sure they’re all gone. Yeah.” He nods, rubbing his meaty hand through his hair.

“But …” I look between him and the apartment, then down the hallway. “Where are we supposed to go in the meantime?”

Carl shrugs. “You got any friends? Family you can stay with?”

I glance at Jen. She’s my only friend. My only person. She bites her lip and glances at Trey, who now has his arm slung around her neck. “Trey has a sofa.”

“Yeah. You can both stay with me. My place is small, but it’s clean. No roaches,” he adds with a wink. “The sofa’s a two-seater, and the living room is also kind of the kitchen, but I’m sure you can squeeze on. Sometimes my buddy, Razor, crashes on it. He’s like five foot ten, so you should fit. He’ll just sleep on the floor if you’re on the couch.”

I close my eyes and take a moment to think. Just two more paychecks and I might have enough to put down a deposit for my own place. But until then, do I really want to sleep on a tiny sofa in Trey’s apartment, listening to him and Jen bang all the time while a guy called Razor keeps me company?

I look down at my meager belongings which Jen kindly packed up for me. I’m beyond grateful that they’re not sitting in the roach-infested apartment.

She places a hand on my forearm. “I think I got all your essentials, girl.”

I nod. I’ll take her word for it because now that I know what’s beyond that door, I can’t imagine stepping foot inside her apartment ever again. Not that Trey’s sofa sounds all that much more appealing.

“So, my place?” Trey asks.

I fish my phone out of my pocket. Am I really going to do this? Because accepting their offer doesn’t only mean accepting a room, albeit a room in the lap of luxury that’s bigger than Jen’s whole apartment. It means I’m dating them. All three of them. But damn if a thrill of excitement doesn’t shoot through me at the prospect. It’s been two days since they made their indecent proposal, and I’ve thought of little else in that time. I want to be all in, but something has been holding me back. Maybe this is exactly the push I need.

“It’s okay. I think I have somewhere I can crash.”

Jen’s face breaks into a huge smile. “You do? Where?”

“With that guy I told you about.” I give her a look that I hope conveys what I’m thinking—please don’t ask me about all the juicy details right now in front of Trey. And Carl, the roach guy.

“The guy from your date on Saturday?” She reads me so well. “Th—I mean, he said you could stay there?”

My face heats, but I nod.

“Lils … are you sure?”

“Yep. I got it covered. It’s all good.”

“Cool.” Jen beams at me as Trey presses a kiss on her head. I’m pretty sure he’s as relieved as I am that I’m not about to be living in his kitchen/dining/living room with his friend, Razor. “You need a ride?”

I think back to the message Xander sent me earlier today.

Let me know as soon as you’ve made a decision and we’ll send a car.

The decision I was always going to make has now been made for me. “Nope, I’ve got one. Thanks.”

True to his word, Xander sent a car as soon as I messaged him to confirm I was taking them up on their offer. And now I’m in their private elevator once more, my knees trembling and heart racing while sweat trickles down my back. This is not at all how I expected my day to end up. Dating three guys is not what normal women do. Dating three insanely hot billionaires is not even in the same realm as normal. But then, what about my life so far has been?

The doors open and my fingers instinctively tighten around the handles of my bags. This is it, Lily. No going back now. The first face I see is Xander’s. He’s smiling widely, and for some reason I start to laugh. This is insane, right? My gaze doesn’t linger on his face for long because he’s shirtless and wearing a pair of gray sweatpants. And holy mother of all that is sacred, his abs look like they’ve been chiseled by the gods themselves. And that V. My eyes drop lower, to the outline of his incredibly impressive … Holy fucknuggets.

“Let me get those for you.” West says, snapping me out of my daze. Pretty sure I just dropped at least eighty IQ points. His warm fingers brush mine when he takes my bags from me.

“Thanks,” I whisper. Looking into his deep gray eyes, I feel something stir in my core.

“Yeah, let’s get you settled,” Xander adds as he relieves me of my heavy backpack.

“Before we do, I have a confession,” I blurt.

The two men stare at me, frowns on their handsome faces.

“My friend’s apartment, where I’ve been staying, well it has a …” Shuddering, I take a deep breath. “A roach infestation.”

Xander holds my backpack away from his body and scrunches his face.

“Oh, god, you think they’re in there?” My hand flies to my mouth. “The guy said he sprayed our stuff, but—”

West nudges Xander, who winks at me. “Just teasing, shorty. I’m sure you don’t have any hitchhikers in here.” They both start to walk down the hallway in the direction of the guest bedroom.

“Wait. That’s not my confession.” I wring my hands, and they both turn and stare at me again.

“So, what is?” West asks, his deep voice smoother than melted chocolate.

I swallow and take a breath. “That’s why I decided to come here. Because I needed a place to stay.” West and Xander share a look, but they don’t seem mad. “I mean, I hadn’t made a decision about the other thing yet. I was still thinking it over.”

Xander shrugs. “So think it over here.”

As if there’s anything to think about. I was torn before, but it only took one look at Xander’s chest and West’s thick forearms for the decision to be made for me. Not to mention the man mountain that is Zeke, wherever he is. How the hell will I survive them? But if I don’t, what a way to go. “I don’t need to.” I chew on the inside of my cheek. Just say it, Lily. “I want the other thing too. All of it.”

Xander sinks his perfect white teeth into his bottom lip and tilts his head to the ceiling, letting out a loud groan that makes me giggle. West stares at me, his eyes dark and full of longing. His tongue darts out to lick his lips. Oh god, what I wouldn’t give to have that tongue on any part of my body.

“Is that still what you want?” My voice is barely a whisper. “All three of you?” I glance around, hoping to see Zeke, and he obliges me, stepping out of the shadows and approaching us.

“Fuck yes.” West’s voice is a rumbling growl.

“Yeah,” Zeke says quietly.

I have no idea how this is going to work. No idea at all what the hell I’m doing, but something about it feels very right. Xander looks at me too, and the heat from their gazes alone makes me wet and needy. “Hell yeah, shorty.”