Chapter Fifteen
Myles
If they thought they could live their lives without her from the instant they saw her in the cabin, dressed like a siren, waiting for some turdball to come and take her virginity, they’d been fucking kidding themselves. And they knew it. They knew it the minute they saw her there.
It was a wonder they behaved civilly enough, and took an eight-hour nap instead, because if they gave into their beasts, they would have had her on her back in a flat second, prepared to keep her locked inside that cabin with them forever if that was what it would take to keep her.
Then she turned everything around on them, which was just like their Miss Hades.
Sending her away with Willard, a man they trusted with their lives, had been the easiest thing to do because they needed time to get themselves in order.
They wanted Mercedes. They wanted to marry her. They knew they were going to resign from the agency. Being away from her for one second was agony enough.
They’d waited for Holden to make that decision and he made it in an instant. Mercedes was theirs.
They’d pulled some strings, gotten themselves suits, and each of them was carrying a velvet box in their pockets.
Then they’d talked to Jeff. They’d been honest with him. All he said about it was that it was fucking time. Mercedes had been in love with them for years already, it was plainly written on her face.
Jeff would never know what that kind of admission did for them. They’d already thought about contingency plans if she said no. Well, it had only been one plan, buy an island, keep her on it, make her fall in love with them.
But then Jeff had told them the man to ask her hand in marriage was their grandfather, Waldo Samson, a British war veteran. They’d always respected the man and he them.
But fuck, walking into the Samsons grand hall decorated for Christmas, all they saw was her. Mercedes in a white dress and only they knew what was underneath. How she felt, the sounds she made, how her beautiful body could stretch to take all three of them inside her.
Myles shook his head to clear his thoughts. He wasn’t going to ask for her hand with a hard-on.
“Sir, we would like to make an honest woman of your granddaughter,” Holden said.
“What? We? All three of you besmirched her reputation?” Waldo asked loud enough so everyone could hear, but there was a grin on his face. Mercedes turned bright red. Fuck, she was adorable, their little Miss Hades.
“That’s right. We all three did,” Myles agreed. Mercedes’ mother, Joy came closer to her and slipped an arm through hers.
“Did you know about this,” she asked quietly, but her face split into a huge smile. Mercedes shook her head and bit her lip.
“Oh, sweet darling,” Joy said, kissing her cheek.
Myles also caught sight of her step-sister, Annique, with an envious glare on her face. There was no mistaking that they’d taken Mercedes’ virginity. She belonged to them.
“Well now. Jeff, good lad, would you like to challenge these men to a duel for tainting your sister’s reputation thereby ruining her chances of making an honorable marriage?” Waldo said, his English accent still strong after all the years in America.
“No, sir. These men are Navy SEALs, sir. Any one of them would blow my balls off and make me eat them before I could draw my gun.”
“Capital,” Mercedes’ grandfather laughed raucously. “Go on and make an honest woman of the gal. She’s more than a handful, just like her grandmother. Wished I’d have the fortitude to find myself two good friends to lighten my load.”
“Right,” Joy said, “Everybody out. Let’s give them a moment.”
Within minutes the hall was cleared of all the guests and then it was only the four of them.
“I don’t understand. You call me Miss Hades, you think I’m a pest and a—”
She didn’t get further than that before they grabbed her and took turns to kiss her silly.
“We love you,” Waylan said when they released her. “We always loved you. But, we fell in love with you after seeing you in a restaurant two years ago in New York. You were reading Jane Eyre—” Waylan said.
“You were there? I knew it, I felt your…” She looked down.
“Say it, Mercedes,” Holden demanded.
“I felt your presence. I thought I was imagining it. I loved you all my life but I knew it was futile. I begged you to come back to me and you didn’t.”
“Staying away from you was the most miserable fucking crap we ever went through. No more.”
They dropped to their knees.
“This is never going to happen again, so say yes, Mercedes. Say yes to us and be our Christmas menace for the rest of our lives.”
“Yes. Yes. Yes,” she cried as they slipped their rings onto her finger.