Chapter 17
Axel
It’s been two weeks since we gave Addison her company back.
She’s running Archer Media remotely from our offices most days. Heads over there for meetings sometimes, but mostly she’s here. At Palmer Capital. Where I can see her.
Thank fuck.
Then she picks one of us at the end of the day. Goes home with whoever’s turn it is.
Last night was my turn.
Woke up at 2 a.m. with her sprawled across my chest, drooling on my shoulder. Hair everywhere, one leg hooked over mine. Still smelled like sex and sweat from what I’d done to her hours earlier.
It was perfect.
Two nights before that, it was Liam’s turn. He left the office at seven. Leaving his work unfinished. Never thought I’d see the day.
She’s good for him. Getting Mr. Control to actually relax.
Night before that, Nolan got her. They talked till sunrise about art and her shitty childhood. The kind of deep conversation that makes my skin itch, but listening to him describe it made me jealous anyway.
It’s stupid to be jealous of something I can’t even do. I’m not that guy. Never gonna be the one having philosophical discussions about the meaning of life and feelings until dawn. But she needs that from someone.
Glad it’s him.
We’re rotating. Taking turns. Making it work.
Except it’s not working.
Nights she’s not with me, I’m left lying awake wondering if she’s thinking about me or if Liam’s making her laugh or if Nolan’s getting her to open up in ways I never will. Wondering if she’s comparing us, deciding who fits better.
Second place.
Always gonna be second place.
The fear’s there even when she’s in my bed telling me I’m what she craves right now.
Right now’s not forever.
She left an hour ago for breakfast at Archer Media. Kissed me, said she’d see me later.
Later. Not tonight.
Tonight’s Liam’s turn. Or maybe Nolan’s turn. It’s hard to keep track.
My phone buzzes.
Liam: Meet me in the conference room. One hour.
That doesn’t give me much time. I shower and pull on jeans and a T-shirt. Fuck the suit.
Nolan is already in the conference room when I walk in. Coffee in hand, shadows under his eyes.
“Rough night?” I ask.
“Couldn’t sleep.”
“Thinking about her?”
He won’t answer, but he doesn’t have to.
Liam walks in right on time and closes the door.
“We need to talk.”
I take a seat to his left. “About?”
“This arrangement. The rotating schedule.”
Nolan sets down his coffee. “What about it?”
“It’s not working.” Liam’s fingers tap once against the table. “Not long-term.”
“You wanna change the rotation?”
“End it.” His stare cuts through me. “She should be with all of us. Not bouncing between apartments. Not scheduling who gets which night.”
My pulse kicks up.
“You mean move in together?” Nolan’s voice is careful.
“Yes. All four of us. One place.” Liam looks calm, but there’s that edge in his voice. The one that means he’s already made up his mind, and he’s just waiting for us to catch up. “She’s already here constantly. Working from our space. Sleeping in our beds. We’re living together in pieces.”
Thought I’d have to convince them. That I’d have to fight for this.
“I agree.” The words come fast. “I hate the rotation. Hate lying awake knowing she’s with one of you, and I’m wondering if I’m just the chaos she tolerates between you two.”
Nolan exhales. “You think you’re chaos?”
“Compared to you? Yeah. You’re stable. Thoughtful. Liam’s disciplined.” My fingers drum the armrest. “I fuck her in supply closets and like pushing her boundaries.”
“She hasn’t walked away,” Liam points out.
“Not yet.”
“Axel.” Nolan shifts forward. “She chose all three of us. That includes you. Because of who you are, not despite it.”
It should help. But it doesn’t.
“What if living together full-time means she realizes you two are easier? Less exhausting?”
Liam’s mouth thins. “Then we deal with it. But avoiding this because you’re scared is bullshit.”
“I’m not—”
“You are.” Nolan cuts me off. “Terrified she’ll pick us over you. But pushing her away now guarantees that outcome.”
He’s right.
I hate that he’s right.
“Fine. Where?”
“I’ve been looking at properties,” Liam says. Of course he has. “There is a penthouse three blocks from here. Nine bedrooms, twelve bathrooms. Enough space so that we’re not on top of each other.”
“It’s enough space, so we can each have a bedroom and an office. And guest rooms,” Nolan responds, letting us know he wants this, too.
Liam’s already pulling up photos, and then he hands me his phone. Nolan looks over my shoulder.
The space is massive. Floor-to-ceiling windows, a modern kitchen, and a space you can actually live in. Looks move-in ready. We could be in there by next week.
“When can we see it?” Nolan asks.
“Three o’clock,” Liam responds. “Already scheduled.”
Of course.
“We need to talk to her first,” I say. “Before we go looking at places. Make sure she actually wants this.”
“Agreed.” Liam pockets his phone. “We tell her today.”
“And if she says no?”
Nolan meets my stare. “Then we respect that. But I think she’ll say yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s spending every night in one of our beds instead of her apartment. Working from our offices instead of Archer Media.” He pauses. “When she talks about the future, she says ‘we’ instead of ‘I.’”
Something sharp twists in my chest.
“She stays with each of us separately,” I point out. “This is all four of us in one place. That’s different. That’s permanent.”
“That’s the point,” Liam says.
“But what about the fallout?” Nolan sets down his coffee. “When people find out—and they will—what happens to Palmer Capital? To her credibility?”
“We’ve been discreet so far,” Liam says. “That continues. We work with Addison and prepare a statement. We get ahead of the story and control it before someone else does.”
“And what’s the story?” I push. “Triplet billionaires share a woman? That’s gonna sound great for our investors.”
“It’s none of their business,” Liam snaps.
“Except it is when they’re trusting us with their money and we’re all over the tabloids.”
Nolan’s quiet for a moment. “It will likely affect Addison more than us. Her reputation is built on being the moral authority. The journalist who exposed corruption. If people think she’s compromised—”
“She’s not compromised,” Liam cuts in.
“I know that. You know that. But will the public?” Nolan’s voice stays even. “Will her sources trust her? Will other journalists take her seriously?”
Nobody speaks.
“So what, we don’t do this?” I finally ask. “We keep rotating forever because we’re scared of bad press?”
“No.” Liam’s jaw sets. “We prepare. Have a strategy ready for when it comes out. But we don’t let fear stop us from building something real.”
“And what about us?” I gesture between the three of us. “Living together is different than taking turns. What happens when Liam gets controlling? When I piss everyone off? When we fight over her?”
“We won’t fight over her,” Nolan says.
“You sure about that?” I challenge. “Because I’m already jealous as hell, and we’re not even living together yet.”
Nolan meets my stare. “We’re not competing for her. We never have been.”
“Feels like it sometimes.”
“That’s your trauma talking, not reality.” His voice softens. “Think about what we each give her. What she needs from each of us.”
I wait.
“Liam gives her stability. Structure. Someone who matches her ambition and understands the challenges that come with success. You give her freedom. Permission to lose control and know someone will catch her. I give her space to be vulnerable. To process things without judgment.” He pauses.
“She needs all of that. From all of us.”
“And she gives us all something we need, too,” Liam adds.
Nolan considers this. “She makes you leave the office before midnight. Makes Axel feel chosen instead of tolerated. Makes me believe my needs matter.” He looks between us. “She completes us.”
“Don’t get sappy on me,” I mutter.
“I’m not being sappy. I’m being honest.” Nolan’s expression stays serious. “It’s always been us. The three of us against everything. The triplet thing. But something was missing, and we didn’t know what until she walked in.”
“You really believe that?” I ask.
“Yeah. I do.” He holds my gaze. “Don’t you?”
I think about her laugh. The way she fights me, just to see if I’ll fight back. How she makes me feel like I’m not just too much for people to handle.
“Yeah,” I admit. “I do.”
Liam’s quiet for a long moment. “Then we make this work. Whatever it takes.”
“Even if it tanks our reputation?” I ask.
“Even then.” His voice is firm. “She’s worth more than our reputations.”
Coming from Liam, that means something.
“We’ll need rules,” Nolan says. “Boundaries. Ways to handle conflict without destroying what we’re building.”
“Rules about what?” I ask.
“Time. Space. How we communicate when there’s tension.” Nolan sets his coffee down carefully. “We can’t let jealousy or competition poison this.”
“I can handle my jealousy,” I say.
“Can you?” Liam raises an eyebrow. “Because two minutes ago you were worried about fighting over her.”
“That’s different,” I respond.
“How?” he asks.
I don’t have a good answer for that.
“We talk,” Nolan says. “When something bothers us, we talk about it. Before it festers.”
“Great. Group therapy sessions,” I mutter.
“Better than passive-aggressive bullshit destroying everything,” Liam says.
He’s not wrong.
“Fine,” I agree. “We talk. We figure it out. But we do this.”
Liam nods. “We do this.”
“Okay.” My voice comes out rough. “We ask her. Today.”
Just after lunch, Addison shows up with files from Archer Media.
I intercept her outside Liam’s office.
“Hey.” I catch her wrist. “Got a minute?”
She glances at the files. “I have a call in twenty minutes.”
“This won’t take long. We need to talk to you about something.”
She frowns. “About what?”
Fuck. She’s worried. Didn’t mean to do that. She will be happy in a few minutes, though. At least, I hope she’ll be.
“Come on.” I thread my fingers through hers. “Liam’s office.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“It’s not.”
But the tension in her hand says she doesn’t believe me.
Liam and Nolan are waiting. I close the door.
She sets down her files. “What’s going on?”
“Sit,” Liam says.
“I’ll stand.”
He doesn’t push. “We’ve been talking. About this arrangement.”
Her shoulders go rigid. “And?”
“We want to make a change,” Nolan adds.
Arms cross. “What kind of change?”
I move closer. I need to see her face when we say this.
“We want you to move in with us. All four of us. One place.”
She blinks. “Move in together?”
“Yes.” Liam’s voice never wavers. “The rotation isn’t working. And you’re already with one of us most nights. We want to make it official.”
“Official how?”
“We found a penthouse,” Nolan explains. “It’s big enough for all of us to have our own space. We’re going to look at it this afternoon.”
Her brows furrow, and she worries her lower lip. Her mind is already working through logistics, consequences, and ways this could blow up. “That’s a big step.”
“Yeah.” I catch her hand again. “But we’re ready if you are.”
“What about work? The media? Investors?” Her voice sharpens. “We’ve been keeping this quiet. Moving in together makes that impossible.”
Liam shifts forward. “We’ll be discreet. Private address. Limit who knows.”
“You’re oversimplifying.” She pulls free from holding my hand and starts pacing. “You make it sound simple, but eventually someone will notice. A reporter. An investor. Someone always notices.”
“We will need to have a statement ready,” I say.
“No.” She stops, meets my stare. “If we’re really doing this, we can’t hope for the best. We need to plan for the worst. We will choose when to make it public, and how our relationship is portrayed to the outside world.”
Liam nods. “Agreed. But I still think we need to keep our relationship quiet for the time being.”
Addison nods.
My brothers and I look at each other.
Nolan hesitates before asking. “You’re saying yes?”
She looks between us. “I love the idea. But only if we’re smart about it. Only if we have a plan for the media attention that we are definitely going to attract.”
Liam’s mouth curves. “We will work on a communications strategy, for when this goes public. But for now, we keep things quiet. No public appearances together. No social media.”
Nolan joins us. “In the meantime, we work on building a future.”
A knowing smile spreads across her lips.
I grab her, pull her against me, kiss her hard enough that she gasps.
When I break away, she’s breathless.
“You sure?”
Her fingers curl into my shirt. “No. But I’m doing it anyway.”
She checks her watch. “That call is in five minutes.”
“Cancel it,” I say.
“Axel—”
“Cancel it.” I cup her face. “We just made a huge decision. You really wanna spend the next hour on the phone when we could be celebrating?”
Understanding crosses her face. “Celebrating how?”
I look at Liam. Then Nolan. They’re both watching her with the same hunger crawling through me.
“All four of us,” I say. “Right now.”
Her breath catches. “Here? In the office?”
“Lock the door,” Liam says. His voice has gone low, rough.
Nolan moves to the door. Locks it. The click echoes through the room.
“No buts,” I tell her. “You’re ours. We’re yours.”
Her pulse jumps beneath my fingers where I’m still touching her throat.
“What about work? Someone could—”
“Nobody’s interrupting,” Liam says. He’s already loosening his tie. “Not today.”
She looks between us. Three men watching her with hungry intent written all over us.
“I will reschedule that call,” she tells us.
She sends a quick text, then sets down her phone.
“You’re all insane.” She kisses me harder. “And I’m apparently into it.”