“Is this Amy?”
“Yes?”
“I don’t know if you know who I am, but my name’s Ted Collins. I was working with your friend, Essie, on her mom’s house.”
Now her tone sounded even more guarded. “What do you want?”
“My brothers and I want a chance to talk to Essie, face-to-face. We suspect there was a horrible misunderstanding and now she thinks something about us because she only caught the tail end of a conversation that made us look like assholes instead of the guys who love her with all our hearts.”
There was a moment of silence he wasn’t sure was her contemplating his words or that she’d hung up on him.
“What do you want from me?” Amy finally asked.
“Is she home?”
“No.”
His heart sank.
“Do you believe she had me pick her up early this morning at the airport, and now she’s already back at work?” Amy asked, her voice full of disbelief.
Relief filled him. Essie was retreating to her comfort zone and trying to deal with this as best she could. He could deal with that.
Would deal with it. He had the audio file on his phone, ready to play as soon as he could get Essie to stand still and listen to it.
“What time will she be back?”
“Usually by six, unless they have an emergency. Call me on this number when you get here and I’ll buzz you up.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much, you have no idea how grateful we are.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not leaving while you’re here. And my boyfriend’s a firefighter with a lot of friends and is stationed at a firehouse only three blocks away. I can have some of Spokane’s other finest here in less than two minutes and ready to kick some serious ass.”
He could already tell he liked her. She was protective of Essie.
“I swear, we just want a chance to talk to her. We won’t even come inside the door if you don’t want us to.”
“Okay. Let me see what I can get out of her in the way of intel. Be here by six and wait. I’ll text you when she gets here and buzz you up when it’s safe to come upstairs.”
He thanked her before ending the call. Then he closed his eyes and laid his head back against the seat.
“Well?” they asked.
He told them. “She made it perfectly clear we’ll get our asses beat by a bunch of firefighters if we make any trouble.”
“I don’t want trouble,” Mark said, his tone a mirror of what Ted felt in his heart. “I just want a chance to make things right with her.”
“Hey, you’re preaching to the choir,” Ted told him.
“So what do we do until six thirty?” Josh asked.
Ted opened his eyes and sat up. “First, we find a damn restaurant and eat something before we all keel over from hunger.”
“Then we need to find a jewelry store,” Mark said.
His brothers looked at him.
“Hey, I’m not showing up there empty-handed,” he told them. “I’m going to propose to her for us.”
“She can’t marry all of us, dumbass,” Josh said.
“No, but she can marry one of us and we can figure out the rest.”
“Why you?” Ted asked.
“Because I wanted her first.” He smiled. “I’ll be her vanilla beard. In private, she’ll be all ours.”
Ted smiled. “That’s the best idea I’ve heard out of your mouth in years.”
They turned to Josh. “I’m fine with it,” he said. “As long as she comes back to Florida with us. That’s all I care about.”
* * * *
Essie never thought she’d ever feel grateful for an insane day at work. By the time she walked out the door a little after six o’clock Friday evening, she was more than ready for the evening Amy had promised her earlier.
It’s good to be home.
She’d keep saying it until she felt it, believed it. She already missed her mom.
She wouldn’t stoop to admitting she missed the men.
Fuck them.
Actually, that was the problem, that she had let them fuck her. That, and other things she never thought she had a snowball’s chance of ever checking off her sexual bucket list.
Amy was lounging on the couch with her Kindle when Essie got home shortly after six thirty. She hugged her friend. “Thanks again for this morning. Sorry I got you up early.”
“Hey, it’s what friends do.”
Essie headed for the bedroom. “I’ll get my shower and then we can go.”
“Okay.”
She’d just emerged from her room a couple of minutes later when their doorbell rang.
“Who the hell is that?” Essie asked. Pete had his own key. He always let himself in.
“I’m getting ready,” Amy called from behind her closed door.
Essie dumped her stuff in the bathroom and went to answer the door. She was shocked to see Mark, Josh, and Ted standing in front of her door when she looked through the peephole.
Anger mixed with longing as she threw the door open.
Before she could order them gone, the men pressed in through the door. Ted held up his phone. “Just listen before you say anything. Purson pulled up your mic feed so we figured out what happened. You only heard the last half of our conversation. This is from the mic Purson was wearing.” He had an app opened and hit a button.
She froze as she heard the men’s and Purson’s voices on the recording.
She was well aware of all three men staring at her while she listened.
A combination of relief and shame filled her as she realized exactly what had happened.
They hadn’t betrayed her.
But she had acted like an utter dumbass.
I don’t deserve them. I’m obviously not mature enough to handle this kind of relationship.
Essie was aware of Amy walking into the living room. “Want to give me the 411, girlfriend?”
Essie didn’t even know where to start.
“We love her,” Mark said, filling the silence. “All three of us. And there was a big misunderstanding. She thought she heard something when she only caught the tail end of a conversation and totally out of context.”
“You love me?” she whispered.
They nodded. “We do,” Josh said.
“With all our hearts,” Ted added.
“You’re Mark, Josh, and Ted?” Amy asked.
The men nodded.
“I can’t do this,” Essie said. “I’m sorry you flew all the way out here, but I can’t do this. Please, just go.”
The men stared at her, the sad looks on their faces nearly breaking her heart, but she knew this was for the best. She was far too broken for them.
They needed—deserved—someone better than her.
Finally, Ted slowly nodded. “Is that what you really want, sweetheart?”
The endearment almost shattered her reserve. She nodded, stepping back and turning away from them. “Please. Just go.”
* * * *
They silently filed out of the apartment as Amy mouthed, “Wait downstairs,” at them before closing the door.
Josh had felt certain that once they played the audio for Essie that she would understand, they would kiss and make up, and she’d be ready to return to Florida with them.
He never imagined…this.
At the elevator bank he stopped. “We can’t be seriously just going to leave, are we?”
Ted punched the button, his face an expressionless mask. “Let’s see what Amy meant. She told us to wait downstairs. That’s what we’ll do. If she or Essie don’t come down after a while, I’ll call Amy back.”
They rode downstairs in silence. In the lobby, they waited near the front entrance for what felt like the longest minutes of Josh’s life.
Chapter Twenty-One
Essie sank to the couch as Amy closed the door and turned to her, confusion on her face.
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear what happened,” Amy finally
started. “So let me get this straight. All three of those guys are into you? And you’re into them? Like, what, out of one of those kinky books we read?”
Essie nodded, her face heating.
“They’re the guys who are helping your mom save her house, right? From the TV show?”
Essie nodded again, unable to meet her friend’s heavy gaze.
“And they explained whatever it was that made you leave Florida so suddenly?”
Another nod.
“And it turns out they’re innocent, that you went off half-cocked and were wrong about what you thought you heard?”
She nodded and closed her eyes to blink back the tears wanting to fall.
Amy’s no-nonsense nurse tone bit into Essie’s soul. “Okay, so tell me if I’m wrong. Three hot hunks, who are gainfully employed, and who I’m assuming aren’t homicidal maniacs, probably want you to move back to Florida, where they want to spend the rest of their lives with you?”
Essie nodded, finally opening her eyes again to look at her friend.
Amy stood there with her hands planted on her hips. “What the fuck’s wrong with you, girl?”
“I know, I can’t—”
“Why did you throw them out?”
Essie’s mouth snapped closed. “What?” she eventually managed to whisper.
“I asked what the fuck’s wrong with you!” She crossed the living room until she stood in front of Essie. “They’re gorgeous! They’re apparently self-sufficient in terms of income, and they’ve already proven they’re good guys.”
She stared at Amy. “What?”
Amy rolled her eyes. “Do not start with me.” She pointed at the door. “They flew across the damn country. For you. You!” She jabbed her finger at Essie. “Not for my ass, not for your mother. For you. That means something in my book.”
“But…all three of them?”
“Oh. My. God. Do you have any idea how many women secretly wish they could find three hot brothers who only have eyes for them?”
“But…I just…The apartment,” she lamely finished.
“So? Pete and I have been talking about moving in together anyway. This makes it that much simpler. He can take over your part of the bills. I’ve been putting off talking to you about it, and then when your dad died, Pete and I agreed to wait until you were back and you had your feet under you again to bring it up.”
“My job.”
Amy frowned. “Seriously? They have vet clinics in Florida, do they not?”
She stood in front of Essie and grabbed her hands. “I love you like a sister, I really do. But while you were gone, any time you talked to me on the phone about those guys, it’s like a light started shining inside you, a light I’ve never seen you have before. I could hear it in your voice and see it when we FaceTimed. Ever. About any guy you ever dated. Not that you do much of that to start with.”
She squeezed Essie’s hands. “You’re young. I want you to be happy. They have these things called airplanes that can magically move someone from one end of the freaking country to the other in a few hours. And we can FaceTime and Skype.” She shrugged. “And who’s to say Pete and I won’t be coming to visit you a lot in the winters to get in some beach time?”
Essie’s mind still swam, even as Amy pulled her to her feet and led her to the front door, which she opened. “Go after them. Hopefully you can catch up with them.”
Then Amy gave her a good hard shove out the door, closing it and locking it behind her.
“I don’t have my keys!” Essie yelled through the door.
“I’m not letting you back in unless they’re with you anyway!” Amy yelled back. “So move your ass before they leave.”
Dammit!
She stared down the hallway at the elevator.
Empty.
Finally, she forced her feet forward, at a full run when she hit the door and punched the button. It felt like forever for it to make it back up, but then she was in it and heading down to the lobby.
The men were still standing there in the lobby, talking near the door, when she stepped out of the elevator.
She couldn’t see them very clearly, though, because tears blurred her vision. And then they were all heading toward her, their arms outstretched. Essie sobbed as she let them engulf her, holding her, kissing her.
“Please don’t leave,” she finally managed.
Mark smiled down at her as he cradled her face in his hands. “Does this mean you’ll at least listen to us?”
“We love you,” Ted said. “We mean it.”
“Yeah,” Josh said. “Look, if you want us to give up the BDSM—”
“No,” she said. “I don’t want that.”
The men stared at her, waiting for her to speak again. She sniffled back more tears and finally forced the words out of her mouth. “I’m sorry. I was scared, and then what I thought I heard, I panicked. I love you guys, too.”
“Please come back with us,” Mark softly begged. “It’s pitiful to see three grown Doms cry, but we swear we will if you don’t.”
That managed to draw a smile from her.
We can rent a truck and move your stuff for you,” Ted said.
“Please?” Josh added. “I’m great at groveling. I don’t mind being the first to do it. I’m not too proud to grovel if it means you’ll come back with us. I’ll drop to my knees and do it right here in the middle of this lobby.”
Ted and Mark nodded their agreement with their brother’s statement.
“I don’t know if I’ll make a good slave or whatever,” she said, glad they were alone in the lobby. “I’m too used to being in control.”
“Then you can be whatever it is you want to be for us,” Mark said. “We’re not asking you to give over every part of yourself to us. Just your heart and your love and your trust. That’s enough for us. Anything else is a blessing.”
“You’d be okay with me just doing it for fun? I thought you guys wanted someone to be like that full time.”
“We love you,” Ted said. “That comes first. What’s more important to us is that you know who we are, and can you accept us the way we are?”
“We’re not going to boss you around all the time,” Josh said. “Not unless you want us to. But you’ve seen the dark side of us already. It’s who we are, it’s part of us. We’re not looking for a doormat. We want you to be who you are, and yet still love us and want to be with us and want to submit to us. That’s the most important thing.”
“We’ll never be able to just be vanilla,” Mark said. “But you’ve seen us in full-on Dom mode. It’s like anything else in life, the average is somewhere in the middle between our public personas at work and what you see in a dungeon. Can you accept that?”
She stared at all three of them. She’d spent almost half of her life standing on her own, not leaning on anyone else for support.
Not having anyone else for support, other than Amy, and that was only as a friend.
Isn’t it time I think about what I really want for a change?
“What will people say?” she softly asked.
Really? You’re going to go there?
She couldn’t help it. Giving in was something totally alien to her.
Mark smiled and dropped to one knee in front of her, something in his hand. She realized it was a jewelry box. “The three of us already talked,” he said. “Will you please marry me? Our kinky friends won’t care that we’re poly. And it’s not like we’ll be doing any of that in front of your mom. So we all live together? Big deal. We’re brothers. The only people who will know more than that won’t give a damn.”
“You barely know me,” she whispered, the yes she wanted to scream locked in her throat.
“And you barely know us,” Mark said. “But we know we love you. Come back to Florida with us. We don’t have to get married tomorrow. Move in with us. If…” It sounded like he choked up a little. “If you decide it’s not working, we promise, we’ll move you wherever you want to move and make su
re you’re on your feet. Please?”
Ted, who had her right hand, laced his fingers through hers. “We’ll put it in writing if you want.”
Josh held her left and also laced fingers with her. “Anything you want.”
Her brain raced. “How can you be so sure?” she whispered.
Mark still knelt in front of her. “Because we already know what didn’t work. We went through the bad end of things. All three of us agree there’s no way in hell we won’t do whatever we have to do to get another chance with you. Because we also agree nothing has ever felt as right as being with you. Instead of trying to figure out why this won’t work, how about letting us show you that it can and will?”
She felt herself nodding, tears welling in her eyes again. Ted squeezed her right hand while Josh maneuvered her left so that Mark could slip the ring on her finger.
“Essline Barrone, will you please marry me? Us?” Mark asked again.
It felt like someone else speaking. “Yes.”
A beaming smile broke across Mark’s face, the same one she found herself helpless against in the dungeon or in bed or in the kitchen or any-damn-where. He stood and kissed her.
Behind her, she heard the elevator open. Then Amy’s voice called out. “Please tell me you guys got through to her?”
They all turned. Amy wore a smile and carried her purse and an overnight bag as she walked across the lobby toward them.
“I hope so,” Ted said. “Otherwise, the building manager might call the cops on us for camping out here.”
Amy stopped in front of her. “Well?”
Essie smiled, nodding and holding up her left hand to show her.
Amy caught her hand. “Oooh, nice!” She grinned. “I called Pete and told him I’m spending the night at his place. So it’s all yours.” She held up Essie’s key ring by the apartment door key. “Which of you guys wants it?”
Josh grabbed it. “Thanks, Amy.”
“Wait, how did you know her name?” Essie asked.
“Well, for starters, you told us about her,” Mark said.
“And secondly,” Amy said, “they called me earlier and asked if you were there and I told them I’d text them when you got home.”