Chapter 37 Zoe
ZOE
The next morning, we all woke up tangled together in bed. I was warm and comfortable with hands lazily touching me—someone stroking my hair, another tracing circles on my bare stomach, fingers trailing up and down my arm. It was perfect and peaceful, and I never wanted to leave this bed.
But then Landon decided to be the voice of reason. “This is our last full day together, so we have to make plans.”
Asher groaned from beside me. “Do we have to get out of bed?”
“No.”
“Okay, let’s make plans,” Asher said agreeably. His sleepy morning self was a lot different from the dirty-talking man who’d ordered me around last night.
Landon shoved his twin to make sure he was awake. “Ash and Zoe will drive back to school. Kai and I will fly back to Colorado, ask for some more time off, then fly to Haverford.”
The fact that I’d see them soon, that I wouldn’t have to wait months, still seemed too good to be true. Then again, so had last night.
Kai was face down on the bed on my other side, and despite Landon’s efforts, I felt sure he was asleep. But he raised his hand with his head still buried in the pillow and said, “Don’t forget that we have to buy some skimpy lingerie and sex toys before we fly back.” I gasped at that.
“To shock the security agents at the airport?” Asher asked with a low laugh.
Kai lifted his head and grinned at me. “To shock our girl and take her to new heights—or depths—of depravity.”
Heat rushed through me at his words and the promise in his eyes. Somehow “our girl” thrilled me more than anything else they’d called me, naughty or nice.
Landon continued as if his brother hadn’t just derailed the conversation. “We’ll spend a week visiting you two. Ash has told us a lot about that fancy school of yours. Might as well see it.”
A week. That was more than I’d dreamed of.
Except… a week. At the beginning of the busiest semester of my entire college career.
And it would be even busier than they knew, because I hadn’t yet told them what I’d decided to do.
“I’d love that,” I began, and then hesitated.
I wished so badly I could skip classes and do unspeakably naughty things with them for a week, but that wasn’t how reality worked.
“But?” Asher prompted.
“But you know how this semester is going to be. I’ll be in classes and working at the coffee shop, and it’ll be even busier now, with the extra coursework.”
Asher propped his head up on his hand, watching me with a sharp gaze.
I sighed. Though I trusted them, I still felt bad about how this internship had turned out. “I, um, I still need to complete an internship in order to graduate. Successfully complete it, I mean.”
“You were successful,” Landon said firmly.
“Tell that to Mrs. Greer,” I muttered. “And my department.”
Kai smirked. “We don’t have to.”
What? That made no sense, and I couldn’t understand why Asher hit him in the back of the head.
“What were you saying, Zoe?” Landon asked.
“I’m going to try to find a resort I can work at for a week or ten days in late January or February.”
“You can’t take that much time off your last semester,” Asher said. He, of all people, knew how busy senior year was. But it didn’t matter. This was what I had to do.
“I’ll talk to my professors and see if they can give me the assignments early, so that I can do them before I take the time off. I already emailed my advisor about it.” Then I looked over at Landon. “My real, far less handsome advisor.”
“There’s no way you can keep up with double coursework.” Asher looked genuinely concerned, which wasn’t something I was used to seeing from him.
“I can,” I said simply. Because I had to. But it meant even less time with all three of them, and the twins would only be there for a week.
“I think he means you shouldn’t have to,” Landon said. His eyes were troubled, too. But then he switched the subject. “How are you feeling today? After everything last night, I mean.”
“Good,” I said, stretching experimentally. “And sore.”
“That’s how you’ll remember that we were inside you,” Kai said.
“Trust me, there’s no chance of me forgetting.” My forehead wrinkled as a new fear hit. “Do you think it’ll be weird now? Now that we’ve done all those things and—”
“It’s not weird,” Asher said.
“It was fucking amazing,” Kai added.
“I just… I don’t want it to be weird. The things we did… the things that were said…”
“If you mean you feel self-conscious now, don’t, sweetheart,” Landon said. “Nothing’s changed in terms of how we feel about each other. But if you’re uncomfortable, we should talk about it.”
“It’s different for guys,” Asher said. “I said all those fucked up things to you last night, and I’m not embarrassed—so you shouldn’t be for liking them.”
“But we understand if you feel a little awkward,” Kai said. “That’s why I’m not looking you in the eye, in case it feels too intense.”
This time, Landon was the one who smacked him. “You’re not looking her in the eye because you can’t stop staring at her breasts.”
“That still counts,” Kai said, and I giggled.
“We’re good if you are,” Asher said.
After a moment, I nodded. “I think maybe I am.”
But Kai apparently felt the need to go into instructor mode. “The only thing guys think about the next morning is how soon we can get you naked and under us again.”
My thighs clenched at his words—and at the way he was indeed staring at my chest. Which was fair enough… I couldn’t get enough of looking at their pecs and abs, too. “I’m naked now,” I pointed out, arousal returning.
“You look sexy as fuck with that bedhead,” Asher said.
Automatically, my fingers flew to my head, smoothing out my hair. “Maybe after I brush it, you could mess it up again?”
“With pleasure,” Kai said, but then Landon sat up straight, looking at his phone.
“Shit! We only have half an hour.”
Alarm shot through me. “You’re leaving already?”
“No, not yet.” He was already scrambling out of bed. “You need to get showered and changed.”
“What? Why?” Hadn’t then just said they liked me looking like this?
“Trust us,” Asher said. “Take a shower and get dressed as quickly as you can. One of your straight skirt, silk blouse combos.”
What the hell? They wanted me to put clothes on? Usually, it was the opposite.
Landon’s voice was serious as he held out a hand to pull me up. “Zoe, I can’t stress this enough, but as much as I like how you look right now, you need to make sure that half an hour from now, you don’t look freshly fucked. That part is very important.”
Asher smirked. “I give you permission to wear your hair up in that tight bun that must cut off the circulation in your head.”
“Get ready and meet us in the lobby in half an hour,” Landon said. Then I couldn’t help but watch his muscled ass as he trotted out of the room.
But his sudden change in tone had broken me out of my morning-after haze, and I got clean and dressed as quickly as I could.
Only Asher was waiting when I left my room. He’d cleaned up well, and was wearing dark slacks, black boots, and a rust-red sweater.
“You look good,” he said, his eyes appreciating the view. “All strict and severe and professional and shit.” He took my hand as I neared. “It makes me want to mess up your hair and makeup in all kinds of perverse ways. But I’ll be good.”
“You? Good?”
He slapped my ass and then we hurried down the passageway. It wasn’t until we were ascending the stairs to the main lobby that I realized we were holding hands. It felt just as comfortable as it had with Landon.
At the top of the stairs, Asher paused and then checked the time on his phone. “Let’s wait over here.”
“Wait for what?” I asked, but I followed him over to the huge fireplace on the far side of the room.
My pulse sped up as we waited for whatever it was. He was acting like a spy or something, and I was dying to know what was going on.
Then I heard deep, masculine laughter. The twins were walking slowly across the lobby with the owner of The Fraser, Edward Pierce, between them.
The little old man looked pleased to be hanging out with them.
His expression reminded me of a schoolboy who’d been invited to eat lunch with the cool kids.
“Come on,” Asher hissed. He grasped my arm tightly and steered us forward, so that we almost bumped into them.
“Good morning,” Landon said to us politely—as if he hadn’t been lying naked in bed with us thirty minutes ago.
Kai turned to Edward. “Do you remember Zoe?”
“Of course,” he said in my direction, though most of his attention was still on the ski instructor. “Hello again, dear.”
“Good morning, sir.”
He nodded, but he wasn’t really listening to me.
As usual, he was paying attention to the twins, who, to my astonishment, were currently reminding him about the systems I’d set up, and the ideas I’d suggested during the internship.
They refrained from mentioning that most of those ideas had been shot down by my ill-tempered manager.
Edward smiled at me. “These two young men here can’t say enough good things about you. What a remarkable young woman you are. I’m sure Mrs. Greer is going to hate to see you leave.” Somehow, I managed to keep a straight face when he said that.
The older man started rattling off names of resorts, including some of the best in the business. And then he said something astonishing. “I told the owners about you. Told them you’d be sending your resume right away, and if they had any brains, they’d fly you out for an interview.”
What?
I stood there, frozen and stunned, until Asher elbowed me into speech. “Thank you, Mr. Pierce. That’s… thank you so much.”
He was about to continue on when Landon reminded him, “Oh, Edward, don’t forget…”
“Oh yes.” The old man reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope.
“I believe your school needs a report about your internship? This young man helped me write it, because I’m not so good with computers.
” He indicated Landon with a smile. “He also had me write a letter of recommendation, but he said he’d send it to you over the email.
That’s what all the young’uns use these days. ”
I stared at the white envelope in Edward’s hand. Was it actually an internship report? One that I could turn into my school? From the way the twins were grinning at me, I knew that it was.
Asher had to nudge me again until I finally managed to reach out with trembling hands and take the report. I managed to say thank you again, but I was too astonished to speak properly. In fact, I probably would’ve slumped to the floor in shock if Asher hadn’t been there.
Edward turned his attention on the chef. “Excellent work as always. I hope you’ll be here next year. I hope you all will.”
Once Edward left, it started to sink in.
I had a positive internship report—which meant I wouldn’t have to frantically search for another internship mid-semester.
I never would’ve even dreamed of asking the owner for one, but the twins evidently had.
It was too much to take in, but I couldn’t contain the happiness bubbling up inside of me anymore.
“You can speak now, Zoe,” Asher said. “Or at least take a breath.”
His words made me realize I’d barely moved a muscle, including the ones used for breathing, since Edward left.
I let out a loud, shaky breath. Then happiness bubbled up inside me, and I ran my fingers through my hair, dislodging the severe bun.
Then I took two steps forward and jumped into Kai’s arms. He caught me easily, spinning me around before setting me down.
“Thank you,” I whispered. Then I hugged Landon, too.
Tears threatened to fall, but I blinked them back.
There was one more person to thank. Asher looked surprised when I hugged him, too.
“All I did was get you here on time,” he muttered.
But there was happiness in his eyes, and I wasn’t sure I believed him.
Of the three of them, he was the one who best understood what this internship meant to me, my education, and my future.
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he’d encouraged the twins to charm.
Well, actually, three weeks ago I would’ve been completely surprised, but not now.
And he was also smart enough to know that Edward’s weak spot was Kai.
He was the one the resort owner seemed to hero-worship.
That thought had me hugging him again, clinging to his broad neck. “Thank you,” I whispered.
“You’re welcome, baby girl.” His voice was warm and happy for me. “We know how hard you’ve worked here—and now other people will, too.”
“We’re very proud of you,” Landon said, and I leaned over to hug him tightly, too.
“Don’t I get a second hug?” Asher complained after Landon let me go.
Kai grinned. “Don’t complain too much. After tonight, you’ll be the only one in the same town with her. I’d say that might get you a very special reward if you play your cards right.”
Asher looked at me with desire in his eyes. “Good thing I’m excellent at cards.”