Page 13 of Room One Hundred and Eighteen

I can still see the curl to her Dad’s lips. The way he stared at us like we were gum under his shoe. Like we were something disgusting, needing scraped off and thrown away.

That’s how he always felt about us when we first met Courtney. If we could have burst into flame from the anger in his eyes, I think we’d have been dead and buried.

Especially Reid. He knew who we were. Knew our history and the history of our Dad’s and their company. It was obvious he had some insane notion that we were trying to take over his company which was ridiculous. The only thing we ever wanted was Court.

That thought didn’t help the way he felt at all. In no uncertain terms, he made it clear to us that he didn’t think we were good enough for his baby girl and the thought of our unique relationship had him livid.

That’s probably not strange with most men. Any Dad worth his salt would want his daughter to be happy. But most of them would not consider three men sharing her to be even remotely cool. And her father was a man who appreciated the finer things in life and having everything kind of handed to him.

We’ve worked our asses off our whole lives. I mean, we didn’t take our lives or our company for granted so there’s no way in hell we’d ever take Court for granted.

But even love wouldn’t budge her father and he forced the issue when our company was fledgeling and still vulnerable. And he threatened to take it away from our fathers.

So we backed off and left our little woman vulnerable to the machinations of her parents although we watched over her from a distance.

Which is how we knew immediately what had happened to her parents and that we finally had our shot. If only it hadn’t come at such a price but none of us were good enough men to walk away and let her heal.

We wanted to take care of her and give her anything and everything she needed. Especially our love and support and the capacity to kill anyone….and I mean anyone that hurts her.

And right now I think Cash is about seconds from thrashing the guy that left the room, his judgmental gaze locked on us. But there wasn’t any confusion in his gaze. He knew who we were.

And that’s interesting as hell. Because that man that followed her home works here. This guy who seems to know who and what we are works here.

And that makes me think he was the man last night. Judging by his age, I’m guessing he’s a friend of her parents.

Also interesting. They didn’t like us. How was this guy related to our girl and what did he think he was doing following her? Did he want to get in the way of her love life like her father?

“Hello, princess,” I grin at her and she rolls her eyes.

“Don’t try and win me over with that fucking smirk of yours, Max. You guys took advantage of my distraction and the way I felt last night.”

Cash grunts and her devastating gaze turns towards him. “We gave you what you needed. We just didn’t tell you who we were.”

She snorts. “You don’t think that was something important to mention?”

I glare at Cash when he smirks, knowing he’s deliberately baiting her. Our girl has a temper.

“There was a reason that we couldn’t stay in this town, your Dad being a big portion of that mistake.”

Her arms cross and her peridot eyes go cold. “I don’t want to talk about anything from the past, Max.”

“Too bad, princess. We finally got our chance last night and it was good. You remember how good, don’t you, baby girl.”

Reid doesn’t say it like a question. It’s a statement of fact. We took her hard and helped her forget. We took all the stress she was dealing with onto our shoulders and just let her be. Let her feel the pleasure and pain that we can give her, always want to give her.

“You belong to us, princess. You’ve always belonged to us and with us.”

She whips around and nails Reid with a furious glare but there’s real pain in her soft gaze. “Then why did you leave? You left me alone and just disappeared. It wasn’t until years later that I found out you guys were back in town and working for your Dad’s company. And yet you still didn’t come find me! Why?” There’s a wail of remembered pain that makes me pull her into my arms even as she fights me, her fists raining down on me, but barely touching me, never hurting me. It’s just like the brush of an angel’s wings.

I kiss her forehead as she curls into me, her fingers clenched on my suit jacket. She bursts into sobs that shake her whole body and my heart breaks in my chest, ripping in two at her pain.

“Sweetheart, don’t cry. I swear we always intended to come back for you but we had to go to school and be ready to take over the company. Especially after your Dad threatened a hostile takeover if we didn’t disappear.”

“Dude!” Cash exclaims loudly, his voice like ice.

“She had to know sooner or later.”

“Maybe at least a week after her parents died,” Reid sighs and then his hands cover her back and she shivers in my arms.

---