Chapter 14 - Orion
Orion
I was three emails deep into damage control with Mitchell—our largest investor—when Ares kicked open my office door hard enough to make it bounce off the wall.
“We need to talk,” he said, voice flat and dangerous.
I looked up from my laptop. “I’m in the middle of—”
“Now.”
Ares didn’t lose his cool. Military training had beaten that out of him years ago. But right now, he looked like he was holding onto control by his fingernails.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Tashi.” He crossed the room in three strides, planting his hands on my desk. “When exactly were you planning to tell me you’ve been fucking her?”
The words hit like a physical blow. “Excuse me?”
“Don’t play dumb. She told me. This morning. After I—” He stopped, jaw clenching. “Apparently I wasn’t the first. Or the second.”
My stomach dropped. “What are you talking about?”
“You and Leo. She’s been with both of you.” His eyes were cold. “So, I’m asking again. When were you planning to mention it?”
Heat flooded my face—half anger, half from my perfidy. Tashi, as an employee, was supposed to be off-limits.
“And what business is it of yours?”
“Mine?” His laugh was sharp. “Because it’s mine, yours, and apparently Leo’s business too.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
Instead of answering, Ares pulled out his phone and called Leo. “Get to Orion’s office. Now.”
“Ares—”
“Five minutes or I’m coming to find you.” He hung up.
We stood there in silence, the air thick with accusation and ugly things I would rather not name. Jealousy. Competition. Betrayal.
We’d never had this situation before. We made it a point not to let women come between us or our business. It was why we had never married. It would complicate our business should a wife want a divorce.
Leo arrived in four minutes, slightly out of breath. “What’s the emergency?”
“Close the door,” Ares said.
Leo’s expression shifted from concerned to wary. He closed the door and leaned against it. “Okay. What’s going on?”
“Tashi,” Ares said. “What’s this I hear that you’ve been with her?”
Leo’s eyes went wide, then narrowed. “And what business is that of yours?”
“Answer the question.”
“I don’t have to—”
“Both of you, stop.” I stood up, needing to move, to think. “Ares seems to believe that all of us are romantically involved with Tashi.”
“Sexually,” said Ares. “Let’s be precise.”
Leo looked between us. “And you’re mad about this because…?”
“Because she didn’t tell us!” Ares’s control finally cracked. “Because we all thought—I thought—”
“That you were the only one,” I finished quietly.
The silence was deafening.
Leo broke it with a long exhale. “Okay. Cards on the table. Yes. I’ve been with Tashi. And before you ask, it was mutual, consensual, and none of your damn business.”
“When?” Ares demanded.
“The night of the rooftop dinner. After she almost left.” Leo’s voice was defensive. “She was packing her bags, and I convinced her to stay. Things escalated.”
“And you.” Ares turned to me. “The Grand Canyon?”
I would rather not answer. But lying would only worsen the situation.
“Yes,” I said. “In the jet. After the tour.”
“Jesus Christ.” Ares scrubbed his face with both hands. “And last night in her suite. I thought—” He stopped. “I thought she was mine.”
“She’s not a possession,” Leo said sharply.
“I know that!” Ares whirled on him. “But she didn’t tell me. She tried, but—”
“She tried to tell me too,” I admitted. The memory of her hesitation, her attempt to confess, hit me like a punch. “I didn’t let her finish.”
“Same,” Leo said quietly. “I thought she was worried about workplace complications. Not this.”
We stood there, three brothers who’d built an empire together, who’d never let a woman come between us, staring at each other across a divide that hadn’t existed yesterday.
“So,” Leo said finally. “What are we going to do about it? Fire her?”
“No!” Ares and I said simultaneously, horrified.
“Absolutely not,” I added. “That would open us up to a sexual harassment lawsuit. She could claim retaliation for ending the relationships. We’d be destroyed.”
“Is that what you’re worried about?” Leo’s voice turned sharp. “Legal liability? Or is it that for the first time in your life, you have actual competition?”
“Now wait a minute—”
“No, he’s right.” Ares crossed his arms. “This isn’t about the hotel. It’s about the fact that we all want her.”
“Want?” I laughed with bitterness. “I think she’s the one, Ares. She’s the one I’ve been waiting for. I can see myself sharing a future with her.”
“Now wait,” Ares said. “She’s mine. I claimed her last night. We have something real.”
Leo laughed, but there was no humor in his voice. “You think you two can compete against me? She opened up to me first. She trusted me when she was ready to run. That means something.”
“Damn straight it does,” Ares said. “It means you were convenient.”
“Fuck you.”
“Enough!” I slammed my hand on the desk hard enough to rattle the pens. “We’re not doing this. We’re not tearing each other apart over a woman.”
“She’s not just a woman,” Leo said quietly. “That’s the problem.”
He was right.
We’d sworn years ago—after our parents died, after we’d built this empire from nothing—that business came first. Family came first. Women were never worth risking what we’d built together.
But Tashi wasn’t a one-night stand. And the thought of losing her—to my brothers or anyone else—made my chest ache in ways I didn’t know how to process.
“We’ve never crossed the streams before,” Leo said. “But it was bound to happen sometime.”
“You can’t have her,” I said, the words coming out more possessive than I intended.
“Neither can you,” Ares shot back.
“Then what?” Leo spread his hands. “We all just what? Walk away?”
The thought of walking away from Tashi felt impossible, like asking me to stop breathing.
“We could ask her to choose,” Ares said slowly.
“And if she chooses one of you?” I countered. “What then? Do I just accept it? Watch her with one of my brothers every day?”
“Do you have a better idea?”
I didn’t. That was the most frustrating part.
“We can argue all night,” Leo said. “But there’s only one person who can answer this question. Only one person whose choice actually matters.”
He was right. Again.
“Let’s go find her,” Ares said.
I looked at my brothers—the men I’d fought beside, built beside, and survived beside for seventeen years. These were the men with whom I had never competed over anything that truly mattered.
Until now.
“Together?” I asked.
“Together,” Ares confirmed. “We present a united front. Let her know what we each want. And then…”
“Then we let her decide,” Leo finished.
It was the only fair option that would prevent us from destroying each other.
But fair didn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt like hell.
“Agreed,” I said.
We entered the elevator, and I pressed the button for the executive housing floor. The doors started to close—
And Tashi stepped in, stopping them with her hand.
She held a piece of paper, her eyes red-rimmed like she’d been crying. When she saw all three of us, she froze. “Oh,” she said. “I was on my way to talk to you.”
“Get in here,” Ares said, his voice less forceful than I expected.
She gulped but stepped inside. The doors closed behind her. “Sure. Anyway, I can understand you’re all upset with me, and, well—” She thrust the paper at me.
I unfolded it, scanned the first line, and felt my eyebrows arch. “Your resignation?”
“Well, it’s obvious I can’t stay.”
Ares reached past me and pulled the elevator key, locking us in place between floors. The sudden stop made Tashi stumble. Leo steadied her with a hand on her elbow.
“Nothing is obvious to us,” Ares said. “So, you need to clear up something.”
“Yes,” Leo added, still holding her arm. “Which one of us do you want?”
Her eyes went wide. “You’re not angry?”
“We’re angry with each other,” I said carefully. “But not you. We’ve never dated the same woman. So rather than beating each other bloody—”
“Which we suspect,” Leo said with a smile, “would bother you greatly.”
“Wouldn’t bother me,” Ares muttered.
I ignored him. “You must make a choice.”
Tashi’s face crumpled. She glanced between us, then down at her hands. “I can’t. How can I? You’re all so wonderful. If I’m forced to choose just one of you, it would break my heart.”
The elevator hummed around us. Tashi stepped forward to position herself between us. She put her hand on Leo’s chest. “How can I not choose a man who brings so much fun to my life?” Then she laid her fingers on Ares’ chest. “Or the man who twists my sheets around me?”
She finally turned to me. “Or the man with so much calm, he makes everything seem all right?”
She met each of our eyes. “Gentlemen, it’s impossible.”
The air in the elevator was thick with a mix of our colognes and sweat from us standing so close together. Tashi’s perfume added a hint of sweetness to the air.
“We’ll see,” I said.
I reached for her chin and pressed my mouth to hers, desire sharp and immediate, driving my actions. My heart thudded in my chest as she responded eagerly, her tongue sweeping my mouth and sliding against my tongue.
Leo and Ares stepped forward so they pressed against her too. Leo’s arm wrapped around her waist from behind, his hand resting possessively on her hip, while Ares’s hand ran up and down her opposite arm. Her breathing was shallow, and I could hear her heart beating rapidly.
“Tell me what you want,” Leo murmured in her ear.
“What do I have to do for you?” Ares asked.
I leaned down until my lips were near her ear. “Tell us who you desire most.”
Her breath hitched. “All of you,” she whispered.
“Are you sure?” Leo asked. Then he nibbled on her neck, and she whimpered.
“When you could have someone who will pound you every way I can?” Ares asked. He tweaked her breast, and she gasped.
“Yes, to all of you,” she said between jagged breaths.
“Now?” I whispered.
“God, yes.”
I stroked her stomach as she leaned into my shoulder. She reached for my belt buckle and yanked it open. The sound of my belt and pants hitting the floor resulted in Ares and Leo doing the same for themselves.
Tashi wrapped her soft hand around my swelling cock, and I groaned. I reached between her legs to find her sopping wet. My hand fingered her clit, and she bucked against my hand, and I was in heaven, reaching higher, focused on what was happening between us.
My fingers swirled around her soft flesh that fluttered beneath my touch. I then slipped inside that incredible softness, pushing deeper. Her breaths staggered until she cried out as her insides contracted against my hand.
I heard a condom wrapper rip, and then another. Ares, behind her, said, “Bend over.”
Incredibly, she did, and Tashi’s face was inches from my throbbing dick. She glanced up and smiled before she licked it in a long slide that almost made me lose control.
I couldn’t see what Ares was up to, but Tashi gasped with her lips on my cock.
“There, sweetheart. I’m opening you up with my fingers. Lean into it, baby. This will feel so good when I get there.”
She whimpered again.
“Does it feel good?” Ares said. “I’m dripping for you. Feel me against your hole. I’m going to take it. Hold on, Tashi,” he grunted.
Yeah, that was Ares, swift and efficient.
Tashi gasped as he entered her, but even I could see he took it slow. She took a deep breath and then let me slip into her throat.
“Oh, fuck,” I said.
“God, you’re so tight, Tashi,” Ares moaned. “Hang on, baby.” He shuddered, and she let me slide deeper in her throat, and damn it, I didn’t know how long I could last. Her mouth was so wet, and her tongue was driving me insane.
Ares stepped away, gasping, and she pulled off of me.
“Leo, I need you now,” Tashi said.
He didn’t waste time either, entering her from behind, and she took me in her mouth once again, but this time she grabbed my balls, squeezing them, and I couldn’t take it anymore.
Ares stepped close once again from the side and reached for her breasts, and she gasped around my cock. Leo, behind her, drove us against the wall, and she shuddered around me. Leo gasped and drove deeper inside her.
I couldn’t imagine her taking my cum while my brother stuffed her from behind.
“Sweetheart,” I said. “I’m ready. Finish me with your hand.”
Tashi pulled away, and I placed her hand on me.
“Wrap your hand around it. That’s it, sweetheart. Just a little more—”
I exploded over her hand, forgetting my surroundings. The only thing I knew was that I was with Tashi, and for the first time since moving to Vegas, I felt at home.