The End

Chapter Ten #2

“Don’t you ‘darlin’’ me Brent Christopher Terrance after you actually asked me that! Have you really changed so darn much?” I pointed my still working finger and held my hurt palm to my chest. “And don’t you come near me unless you like being slapped.”

“Ember, I’m sorry. It was stupid of me to say. I know you wouldn’t do anything like that, but it shocked me that you don’t have them anymore.” He looked so darn muddled it was almost endearing, but I still trembled from agitation. “What happened to them?”

I yanked on my hair. Exhaled. The truth will set you free. “He burned them. All right? He just…burned them.”

“He?” Brent questioned, his face somehow mutating to a calm that nightmares are made of.

I nodded, peering off over his shoulder.

“Daddy burned them after…after…” I cleared my throat, “finding them and watching one.” I shut my eyes and rubbed my face.

I had run from the bastard. He wasn’t going to beat me.

“Now, I’m going to get that dessert, and we’re all going to eat it and enjoy it.

” I glanced at everyone. I’m not sure what they saw.

I don’t think I wanted to know. “You hear me?”

All heads nodded. Good.

***

“What time are you guys going to be back tomorrow?” I asked Zane as we walked down the hallway.

The crew had decided that tomorrow Ally and I wouldn’t attend with them.

They had three members of their staff driving down with their equipment and would arrive sometime during working hours. We would be here to let them in.

Stash stepped up behind me, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist, as he exited the hall bathroom.

Oh, yeah. He was very pretty – lean and muscled, like a swimmer.

He had stated his shower’s water pressure sucked, so he had used the communal bathroom.

He was dang prissy for a hardcore Army guy.

Did they even have showers when they were living in the desert fighting bad guys?

Zane answered informatively, “We’ll be back around four o’clock.

The day will be mostly educating ourselves with Sensations’ facilities and the procedures for their security details at their main hub and ports.

Pretty boring, actually. The next day we’ll get to start meeting the employees at their hub. ” His eyes lit up.

Whoa! Zane’s eyes lighting up was a whole lot scarier than one would think.

“Well, you guys have fun tomorrow,” I remarked with false cheer, wanting to get away from those gleaming black orbs. I fumbled with the handle, opening my bedroom door.

…and stopped.

Blinked.

Huh.

“What the hell?” Zane muttered.

“Well, I never thought I’d see that,” Stash mumbled. “Nor did I ever want to.”

“What’s going on in here?” I asked as serenely as I could.

When there are two men under the covers in your bed, it makes you wonder.

Brent was reading from a paperback and Cole was squinting at his laptop, fingers flying, both sitting up against the headboard, chests bare and blanket covering their lower half.

And both looked good enough to lick like an ice-cream cone.

Brent hooked a thumb at Cole before turning a page, not glancing up. “He wouldn’t leave.”

“No. He wouldn’t leave.” Cole tilted his head at Brent and then brought his head closer to the screen before typing again.

Apparently, I didn’t even warrant a fleeting look. While they lay in my bed.

I rubbed my forehead. “Are you friggin’ kiddin’ me?”

Zane’s gravelly chuckle broke out behind me. For someone not prone to laughter, he was doing it an awful lot. I glanced back, glowering at him. He held his hands up in the air and choked, trying to stop. It wasn’t very effective. Stash had disappeared.

Ally sauntered up in her creamy robe. “Why are we all congregating in the hallway?”

Zane pointed inside my room.

I sighed. Life was never simple.

Ally stared, mouth wide. “Oh. I had no idea.”

“We aren’t gay,” Cole explained evenly, fixing the pillows they had placed between them on top of the covers. “This is Ember’s room.”

Crickets. Chirping.

Ally snorted. Snorted some more. Gurgled. She walked away. Her door closed.

It didn’t help.

We could still hear her hysterical laughter ringing through it.

Stash sprinted down the hallway. We watched him, stunned. What the heck had happened to warrant that panicked look? He hadn’t even appeared this worried when masked men aimed guns at his head. I tensed.

“Did they move?” Stash questioned, almost upon us.

“Nope.” Zane’s shoulders still shook.

“Good,” he huffed, breathless. “Move over, Ember.” He pushed me. What a gentleman.

A blinding flash.

Stash jumped up and down, fists pumping the air, and almost lost his towel. I can’t honestly say I wouldn’t have minded.

Brent and Cole did look up at the flash. Lethal promise lay in them their eyes.

“I fucking got it!” Stash whooped. He held up the screen on his camera for Zane’s inspection. Zane fell back on the wall laughing.

I rolled my eyes, relaxing.

“You’re dead,” Brent stated. “You know that, right?”

“You’ll have to catch me first. And we all know I’m the fastest. Besides, I don’t think you’ll be getting out of that bed to chase me tonight since you’ve been in there with Cole this long.

” He waved. “Night, everyone.” Beaming, he strolled away to his bedroom, happy as a clam.

And I did hear furniture being pushed around after he closed his door.

I had to say it. I had been thinking it for too long. “He’s very strange.”

“You think he’s strange?” Zane asked, eyes wide.

I shrugged. I had already said it once. It hadn’t been nice, so I wasn’t going to say it again.

He laughed even louder and began walking away, too.

“Hey! You can’t just leave me to deal with them alone! It’s two against one!” I huffed. “And they’re both in my darn bed!”

He didn’t even look back, murmuring, “Oh no, red. They’re yours to deal with.” I could hear him howling from inside his room, too. Just friggin’ great.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and turned back to my interlopers.

I sighed and dropped my hand, resting against the door.

Staring. I had no clue what to do with these two pigheaded men.

They were too big to pick up and throw out, and not to mention, I really didn’t think one of them could talk the other into leaving.

Stash had been right on that regard. They were obviously here for the long haul if they had waited in bed with each other for me to get here.

I peered more closely.

What in the world?

Oh. I shook my head in exasperation. They each had new bruises and red splotches staining their bodies. They had already fought it out, it seemed.

Not that I was really complaining about the view.

Brent’s hair was a disheveled mess with blue carpet fibers in it.

I ignored the little bit of blood under one nostril.

His lips were quirked up at one corner from whatever he was reading.

His smooth chest was tan under the red rug burns.

His pecs and arms – were those teeth marks on his shoulder?

- bulged even in their relaxed state. Tummy muscles rippled in a hard frame.

And there was a tiny golden happy trail disappearing beneath the covers.

Cole’s spiky hair was even crazier than normal, giving him a youthful appearance.

His brows pinched together as he read something interesting or troubling on his screen.

He really did have a perfectly straight nose, even if there was a new tiny, purple bruise on his cheek.

He had naturally bronze skin, disregarding his own rug burns.

Biceps similar to Brent’s, but longer and less thick from the extra length and the height he had on him.

Black chest hair covered his finely toned pecs, the hair V’ing down and tapering off where his own hill and valley stomach muscles tensed like he knew I was looking.

The tiny black trail picked up again right below his belly button, disappearing like Brent’s.

Nope, not too bad to look at.

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. That was enough ogling. “What will it take for y’all to leave? I need my beauty sleep.”

“You’re already beautiful,” Brent answered, honesty blatant in his tone, marking his page and finally looking at me. “All you have to do is tell one of us to go.”

“That person will leave then.” Cole’s blue eyes found mine. There was no condemnation in them. Only patience.

“And if I tell you both to leave?”

Cole shook his head at the same time Brent stated, “We’ll each think the other’s sneaking in here in the middle of the night, and we’ll keep coming in to check.”

I glanced at the lock on the door.

“Locks are meaningless to us.” Cole shrugged.

Well, that’s good to know.

“And if I sleep on the couch or in one of your rooms?”

“Same scenario, different location,” Brent told me simply.

“All you have to do is pick,” Cole murmured softly.

I glanced back and forth between them. The one from my past or the one from my present. I really didn’t appreciate being put in this situation. It wasn’t very gentlemanly of them.

I stilled. A thought.

I grinned.

Their expressions turned wary.

I shrugged and turned off the overhead light.

They had turned on the bed side lamps. “I’m not pickin’.

” I closed the door. “Not tonight, anyway. So if you don’t want to sleep in the same bed with each other, get out now.

Otherwise, I’m sleeping right there in the middle and you two can just reap what you sow. ”

I waited and both of their faces scrunched up. Heh! Gotcha.

I started picking up the decorative pillows that were between them while they sat there and stewed.

I was enjoying myself way too much. And, really, how many useless pillows did one bed need for decoration?

Finally, I glanced up, placing the last gold cylinder pillow on the pile at the foot of the bed. They still didn’t look much better-off.

“Well?” I asked, hands on my hips. “Who’s gonna run?”

They glanced at each other.

Brent murmured, eyes unbreakable, “I’m not leaving.”

“Neither am I,” Cole answered right back.

Okay. I didn’t expect that. I scratched my head. Eh. Once one of them felt a hairy leg or a muscular arm, they would be jumping at the bit to go.

I went to the dresser and opened the bottom drawer where extra sleeping pillows were normally stashed. Jackpot. I grabbed one and tossed it between them. Went to the restroom and came back.

They were still glaring at one another. How sweet.

I crawled from the foot of the bed. Hesitated. Ah, heck. Why not? I pecked Brent’s lips with mine first, then turned to Cole and did the same. Their eyes were startled and I held back the chuckle bubbling up from my chest.

I pulled back the covers--they were wearing pajama bottoms—and got in, pulling them back up.

I settled in, lying on my side and fluffing my pillow.

I sighed at the soft mattress under me. They waited a few beats before putting the book and laptop down.

They moved so slowly I thought for sure one of them was going to dash for the door.

But, instead, the lights blinked off and they rustled around getting comfortable.

Brent’s arm immediately snaked around my stomach and when Cole reached for me, he hissed feeling Brent’s arm. Brent chuckled evilly. Oh, boy.

Cole was silent, and then his own arm pushed under my pillow and neck as he turned on his back, bringing my head to his chest. I burrowed into the downy soft hair there and Brent grunted, and then scooted closer and holding me tighter, spooning me from behind.

“Your arm is touching my stomach,” Cole grumbled.

I was trying so hard not to laugh.

“And your damn hand is touching my shoulder,” Brent quipped.

I tried to settle down. I didn’t think it would be too polite to laugh at them.

They didn’t say anything after that, but I did have something I need to ask.

I cleared my throat. “Cole, who’s Miranda to you?”

Brent stayed blessedly silent.

“She’s a family friend. I’ve known her since we were kids.

We went to school together, went to all the same parties and events, and you were correct about her.

Her parents do want her to marry to one of their friends children.

Clearly, I’m the one she’s picked. We’ve been friends, and only friends, for a very long time.

Nothing more. I don’t plan to change that,” he spoke softly and affectionately about her.

“But I’m not going to hurt her. I have to let her down gently.

She’s had a rough life of people ignoring her.

You were also right about her upbringing with her parents and older sister. Her life has been far from ideal.”

I pondered that and his tone.

“You’ll have to excuse me while I do it the New York way for a second,” I said apologetically to Cole, then asked, “Brent, is he tellin’ the truth? Have you ever known him to sleep with her?”

Brent was quiet for a few ticks, and then he sighed. “No. He’s never slept with her that I know of and she’s hit on him every time we’ve come down here for negotiations.”

I felt Cole’s large silent exhale, his chest lowering.

I appreciated Brent’s honesty. I would have believed whatever answer he would have given. He wasn’t a liar. And Cole knew I would have believed Brent.

“Brent, thank you for being honest,” I murmured.

He grunted. He may have been truthful, but he sure didn’t like it.

“And Cole, it’s sounds like you need to give the woman a few more hints that you’re not into the arranged marriage crap,” I grumbled, throwing an arm over his chest and leg over his thigh and squirmed my fanny back against Brent.

Brent gasped. “Hell, darlin’. Don’t do that right now.”

“I’m not even going to ask,” Cole muttered, pausing, and then answering, “I have been trying with her.” He chuckled. “She’s very persistent.”

“Try harder,” I retorted, then yawned great big.

Cole’s free hand glided up and down my arm in unhurried strokes and Brent cupped one of my breasts with the hand that had been snaked around my stomach.

“I can feel what you’re holding,” Cole griped.

“Good,” Brent fired back.

“Good night, gentlemen.” I yawned again and closed my eyes. “And I’m using that term very loosely, mind you.”