“Hang on,” I said, my eyebrows narrowing. “What do you mean by again?”
All three of the men froze at my statement, looking suddenly a lot less comfortable. Rather than let them off the hook, I crossed my own arms and awaited an answer.
“We’ve… uh…” Bryce stammered. “Maybe we’ve…”
“Done this sort of thing in the past?” I offered.
My breathtaking blond lover swallowed hard, like he was trying to get something down. Camden nodded.
“Thought so.”
“Karissa—”
“It’s okay,” I shrugged. “We all have a past. Whatever you did before me is your business, not mine. I’m a big girl. I’m fine with it.”
“Still, you need to understand how—”
“We can’t want this again,” Roderick declared abruptly. He was inside the room now, standing by the bed. “We can’t need this, not like we did before.”
His statement was strange, the way he worded it. I wanted to ask more, to understand what he meant by it, but I was already too angry.
“And what about what I want?”
I said the words so harshly they all turned in my direction. I was sitting with my back against the headboard, arms folded, mouth tight.
“You guys strut around here taking your pleasures,” I said, “and I’ll admit I’ve taken some too. But to sit and brood and fight amongst yourselves is just plain stupid.”
More silence followed, until it was eventually broken by Roderick.
“Why?”
“Because you act like one or more of you is taking advantage of me or something, and that’s not the case,” I replied. “I guess it’s protective and cute and all that, but no one’s ever stopped to ask me what I want.”
The room went silent again. This time they were staring my way, expecting me to break it.
“And what is it that you want?” Bryce finally asked.
“I’ll tell you once I’ve figured it out.”
Gathering myself together I hopped off the end of the bed. All eyes followed me as I swept past Roderick, reached the door, and held it open as I gestured to the empty hallway.
“You want us to leave?”
No, my body screamed silently. But it was my ego that won out.
“Look,” I told them simply. “Seems to me you guys have some talking to do, amongst yourselves. Once you’re all done working that out, get back to me.”
For five long seconds no one did anything. But then Camden rose, and Bryce followed suit. They picked up their clothes in silence, the party over. One by one, looking somber and forlorn, all three of them filed out the room.
“Cheer up,” I called after them from the doorway. “This probably isn’t as bad as you think.”
Bryce risked a look back, but he couldn’t meet my gaze. It was almost adorable.
“And I’ve got a feeling a lot of this has nothing to do with me.”
Twenty-Four
BRYCE
It was one of those days that really dragged its ass. The kind of day you just want to be over already, but every time you look at the clock it seems earlier than the time before.
Karissa.
We’d fucked up. Big time, for sure. Maybe we’d even fucked the whole thing up totally beyond repair, although I was still holding out hope for a miracle.
“We need to talk, the three of us.”
Roderick’s words were more of an order than a request. He muttered them immediately after leaving Karissa’s room last night, but as with all things Roderick, he followed them up with something even more infuriating.
“We’ll do it tomorrow. After work.”
Camden and I were fully prepared to have our discussion right then and there. I wanted it over with. Done with. Fixed. Hell, I was ready to sneak back into her room last night! That’s how much I hated leaving things the way we had.
This probably isn’t as bad as you think.
It was the only ray of hope in an unfortunate situation. We’d put our gorgeous employee in a bad place. We’d just about forced her to choose… only she’d been smart enough not to make a decision at all.
And we’d broken our vow.
We’d hired her together, on sheer gut instinct. No experience. No history. No background to speak of. Still, the impression she’d left had been one of being smart, sharp and capable. And almost immediately she was proving us right.
Karissa quickly became one of the most kickass foremen and general managers we’d ever hired. A month into the job she had everything at the manor working like a well-oiled machine. She’d fired the slackers and hired eager, capable new crews. She’d cut through miles of bullshit red tape with various building inspectors, and whipped most of the other contractors in line.
As a boss she was strong, unyielding, bitingly sarcastic. But she was also complementary of good work, and rewarded those who put in the extra effort. She was the best of both worlds really — a rare find when it came to a supervisor. Best of all she had a finely-tuned bullshit meter. One that was so impressive, it had our heads spinning with wonder as to where she originally came from.
The ‘bet’ started as a joke turned suddenly serious. Karissa was overly protective of her past. One of the conditions of hiring her was that we didn’t ask questions. Still, it had been her own idea to give us each a weekly guess. The reward — as gut-churning as it was — had been her idea, too.
“Nobody touches her.”
Roderick again, warning us about two months into hiring her. As much as we hated the rule, we couldn’t argue with him either. Our new star employee was right up our alley in every way. She was tall, blonde, and breathtakingly beautiful. More importantly, her multifaceted personality exhibited all the same traits the three of us loved and wanted in a woman.
It also didn’t hurt that she reminded us of Maddy.
That had a bittersweet realization, and one we all had to admit to. Karissa practically was Maddy physically, mentally, even emotionally too. So much so, that to point out their
