10 | Damage Control
Damage control was now my top priority.
I paced in front of my bed, trying to psych myself up to walk downstairs and face a kitchen full of men I had demolished every professional boundary for.
My dad would be so pissed.
Although, some of the blame belonged to him. What had he expected when he assigned me to manage three extremely hot men, sent us to an isolated snow lodge, and trapped us together for six weeks?
Surely the label had other options. An ugly band. A retirement-age jazz trio. Three men who wore socks with sandals and called women females.
Instead, I had gotten Midnight Theory.
One of them had kissed me against a wall. Another had gotten me off while the third watched through a glass door.
And now I had to go downstairs and explain why none of that could happen again.
The kitchen ruined my preparation immediately.
Wesley stood at the stove in gray sweatpants and no shirt, attempting to flip something in a skillet while music played quietly from his phone.
Kadir leaned against the open patio door with coffee in one hand, allowing freezing air into the house while he finished a cigarette.
Leo sat on the counter beside him, eating strawberries directly from the container and criticizing Wesley’s technique without offering to help.
They looked relaxed.
I had spent the morning pacing like I was about to announce a federal investigation. The men involved in the scandal were arguing over whether pancakes required butter.
Wesley noticed me first.
His smile carried enough private satisfaction to bring back the previous night in one immediate, physical rush. His hands on my shoulders. His mouth against mine. Kadir beyond the glass, watching while smoke curled near his face.
I looked away before my body could provide a more detailed recap.
“Morning,” Wesley said, way too innocently.
Leo followed my attention from Wesley to Kadir and then back to me. His expression sharpened with interest. It only took a few seconds for him to understand that something had changed.
That was another irritating quality he possessed. Leo could ignore every instruction placed directly in front of him, but when the subject involved sex or emotional manipulation, he became observant enough to work for intelligence services.
Kadir closed the patio door and looked at me over the edge of his cup. Something in his face suggested he had been expecting this.
I walked to the island and placed both hands on the counter.
“We need to talk.”
Wesley lowered the heat beneath the skillet. Kadir moved farther into the kitchen. Leo continued eating strawberries.
No one looked alarmed.
I had expected at least a brief silence. Possibly regret. Some indication that they recognized we had created a professional crisis.
Instead, Wesley nudged a stool out for me with his foot.
Leo looked toward him. “She’s doing the manager voice.”
“Should we be scared?”
Kadir pulled out a chair and sat without answering, which made Wesley laugh.
Their complete lack of concern made my speech feel increasingly theatrical. I had rehearsed language about boundaries and professional judgment. Now I was delivering it to three men who looked as though they expected me to assign household chores.
“What happened over the last two nights can’t become a problem,” I said. “It was a mistake. And we can’t let it happen again.”
Leo bit into another strawberry.
Wesley turned away from the stove long enough to look at me properly. “Which part?”
He knew exactly which part.
Leo glanced between us. His mouth dropped open. “Oh.”
The single syllable carried far too much enjoyment.
I fixed my attention on Wesley. His expression remained sweet, but he made no attempt to rescue me from the implication. He had thanked me, massaged me, kissed me, and then touched me until I forgot nearly every professional concern I had ever possessed.
Now he stood shirtless in the kitchen looking pleased with both himself and the memory.
Leo pointed the half-eaten strawberry toward Kadir. “Did you know?”
Kadir took another drink of coffee.
Wesley returned to the skillet before the pancakes burned. “He provided technical support.”
Kadir gave him a flat look. “You needed it.”
Wesley laughed and flipped the pancake. It folded in half.
Leo looked delighted. “Apparently you did.”
I stared at all three of them.
This was not how the conversation had gone in my head.
In my version, I established boundaries while they listened with the appropriate seriousness. No one discussed technical support. No one looked proud. No one turned my loss of judgment into a shared joke before I reached the first rule.
“You’re all taking this very casually.”
Leo lifted one shoulder. “You kissed me.”
“Yeah, I’m aware.”
“Unless something insane happened in Wesley’s room…I don’t see what the big deal is.”
Kadir’s gaze settled on me.
I remembered how often I had looked through the glass. I knew he was there. I had wanted him to remain there. When Wesley’s hand moved higher, the sight of Kadir calmly watching had made everything feel more intense.
The fact that none of us intended to pretend otherwise left me exposed in a way I hadn’t prepared for.
“You kept looking at me,” Kadir said.
Leo’s eyebrows rose as he turned toward me. Wesley looked over his shoulder with the easy smile of someone whose account had just been independently verified.
I wanted to object. But unfortunately, Kadir was right.
“I was checking whether you were still there.”
“You knew I was.”
Kadir returned his attention to his coffee as if he hadn’t just dismantled the remains of my authority.
Leo leaned back on his hands, visibly entertained. “I missed a very interesting night.”
“You had your turn,” Wesley said.
The comment came lightly, but it confirmed what I had already suspected.
He had known about Leo before he called me into his room. Maybe not every detail, but enough to recognize why I was tense in the hallway. He had chosen to touch me anyway.
Leo didn’t react with jealousy. He looked mildly offended by the phrasing.
“She stopped me.”
Wesley placed the ruined pancake on a plate. “Sounds like a personal issue.”
Kadir laughed near the rim of his cup.
The three of them had the chemistry of men who had spent years trapped together in buses, hotel rooms, studios, and airports. They could turn anything into material. No weakness remained private for long, especially when it entertained the other two.
Apparently, that now included my sex life.
The woman my father knew would have been more disturbed.
But somehow, their ease removed some of the pressure I had carried downstairs. Leo wasn’t angry that Wesley had touched me. Wesley wasn’t worried that I had kissed Leo first. Kadir didn’t appear excluded despite remaining on the other side of the glass.
They had already adjusted to the overlap.
I was the only person attempting to divide the events into separate mistakes.
“Why doesn’t this bother any of you?” I asked. “You fight over things all the time. Now you don’t care?”
Leo looked genuinely confused by the question. Wesley turned off the burner and leaned against the stove. Kadir watched me in the same calm way he had from the balcony.
The answer emerged less through explanation than through the way the three men looked at one another.
They had shared stages, rooms, attention, and probably women during years of touring. Their lives did not contain the same neat boundaries mine did. They knew when one of them wanted someone. They also knew desire didn’t become ownership simply because it had been acted on first.
Leo seemed more bothered by my surprise than by anything Wesley had done.
“You thought I’d be mad?” he asked.
“I didn’t know what you’d be.”
“I kissed you. I didn’t file a claim.”
Wesley laughed. Kadir looked down at his coffee, though I saw the brief movement at the corner of his mouth.
Their amusement pulled at me despite my determination to remain stern.
This was manageable.
That thought arrived with suspicious ease.
The situation was unconventional…but it didn’t have to be destructive. We were isolated in a lodge for several weeks. Attraction had already become impossible to ignore. Pretending otherwise would require more energy than setting limits around it.
A temporary arrangement might actually reduce distraction.
That sounded convincing enough that I decided not to examine it closely.
“I have two rules.”
Leo reached for another strawberry. Wesley resumed attempting breakfast. Kadir gave me his full attention.
“As soon as we leave this lodge, we go back to our normal lives.” I kept my voice even. “Whatever happens here stays here.”
Six weeks had a clear ending. That was useful. I could enjoy them without needing to understand what any of it meant beyond the snow lodge. Temporary attraction didn’t require emotional consequences. It required discretion and a reliable departure date.
Leo nodded immediately. “Sure.”
Wesley agreed a second later, though his attention stayed on me longer than the answer required.
Kadir gave a quiet acknowledgment.
“The second rule is more important. Nobody mentions any of this to the label. Not even as a joke. This would hurt me more than you guys if the label ever found out.”
Leo tilted his head. “You mean if your dad found out?”
I glared at him.
Wesley laughed first, loud and immediate. Kadir lowered his cup, no longer hiding the fact that he was amused. Leo looked satisfied with himself, which made me want to remain angry on principle.
I lasted three seconds.
Then I laughed with them.
The release of tension surprised me. I had come downstairs prepared to defend my career, my judgment, and possibly my remaining dignity. Instead, I stood in a warm kitchen while three ridiculous men laughed around me and Wesley burned another pancake.
For the first time since arriving at the lodge, I didn’t feel like the label’s representative standing outside their existing bond.
When the laughter faded, Leo looked at me over the strawberry container.
“So those are the only rules?”
“Yeah.”
“For now?” Wesley asked.
I hesitated.
Kadir’s eyes stayed on me.
“For the lodge,” I clarified.
Leo nodded slowly, as though I had confirmed something he already understood.
I had meant to contain the situation.
Judging by the expressions around the kitchen, the men believed I had just given it permission.