I burned like the center of the sun.
“I did not!” I protested. “It was over the top.”
The smirk broadened. “The hand playing with your tit wasn’t.”
“Oh, my God.” I covered my face with both hands. I wanted the couch to open up so I could sink right into it.
Kodee was looking at me with new interest. “You were touching yourself while you watched us? Why didn’t you let us know you were there?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t want to interrupt. I didn’t know if you were all exclusive to one another, or how this whole thing was set up.”
Kodee looked to the other men. “It’s not exclusive. And nothing is set up. We’re colleagues, that’s all.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “You’re only colleagues?”
“And friends,” Dillon added.
Ryan snorted. “Friends who like to fuck.”
Dillon twisted his lips. “Well, yeah, that as well.”
Kodee lifted a hand as though to tell them to stop, and then turned to face me. “If you’re thinking we’re all into long-term relationships and marriage and babies, you can get that out of your head. We work together, and hang out, and watch each other’s backs.”
“So, you have sex with other people, too?” I knew I was being nosey.
“Dillon would screw anything that walks,” Kodee said, raising his eyebrows at his friend.
Dillon flipped him the bird. “Fuck you. I haven’t hooked up with anyone else for months. And yeah, before you said it, that’s by choice.”
“Nah, you’re losing your edge, man. Must be getting old.”
They were teasing him, and Dillon clambered over me to get to Kodee. He barreled him off the couch, bending him over in a headlock. But Kodee was bigger than Dillon, and he soon threw him off, the two of them mock wrestling like a couple of teenagers.
“Hey, stop it,” I called out, but I was laughing at the same time.
Ryan waded in. “Break it up, you two. Break it up.”
He caught my eye and grinned, and my heart melted. He might have been the hardest of the three to crack, but I felt like we were getting somewhere. It had only been a little over a day, but Ryan was definitely softening. I glanced to Dillon, who was still giving me that smirk, and Kodee, whose twinkle had only brightened after wrestling Dillon. I couldn’t allow myself to get attached to these men, but stupidly, after living with nothing but fear and violence in my life for so long, I realized this silly moment was the happiest I’d been in as long as I could remember.
Kodee gave Dillon one final tap around the back of the head, and Dillon frowned up at him reproachfully.
“Come on, get up,” Kodee said. “We still have work to do.”
“What about that client you met?” Dillon asked him. “How did it go?”
“Good, but they want the goods hand delivered. I’m going to have to leave in a couple of hours and catch a flight.”
Dillon exchanged a glanced with Ryan. “So, you’re leaving us in charge of Rue.”
A frisson of excitement ran through me, and I sucked in a breath, trying not to read too much into his words.
“I’m sure you can handle things while I’m gone, and I’m going to trust you to behave.”
Dillon chuckled. “I’ll try my best.”