Page 23 of Strip for Me

“You couldn’t be more wrong, Ellie,” Todd says and kisses my forehead.

“Ew, can you stop kissing Ellie, so you can do my pancakes?” Daisy asks, making us both laugh.

Todd gets back to the pancakes, while Daisy and Harry show me where the TV is and how to put the movie on.

It’s a fun day, and yet Todd’s last words to me flitter around my mind all day.

Nineteen

TODD

“Night, El,”I mutter to her as she smiles at me and walks up the stairs. Fucking hell, I nearly kissed the woman my friend has gotten pregnant. How fucked up is that? I can’t even ignore how she’s making me feel for her.

I don’t feel anything for women, never have before. And yet, this kind, pretty woman walks into my life, and I can’t stop fucking thinking about her. I have no idea why I thought it would be a good idea to introduce her to my sister. Let alone my niece and nephew, who would never forgive me if I pissed her off and never brought back their ‘favourite’ Ellie to see them. Today was a bad idea from the off-start, but the minute I saw her tucked up on the sofa, licking a spoon like it was made of gold, I lost my mind.

“Fuck,” I draw out the word as I finally get the balls to go and talk to Andre. I find him in the conservatory, lifting weights and nod at him.

“We need to talk, and you’re going to punch me,” I tell him, and he puts the weights down as he sits up.

“Why would I punch you?” Andre asks as he wipes the sweat off of himself with a towel.

“I almost kissed Ellie today, and fuck, I can’t pretend I don’t like her,” I say, and Andre’s eyes narrow as he drops the towel. I know he didn’t expect me to say that, fucking hell, I didn’t expect that to happen.

“Hey, man, I can’t work Friday, can you swap?” Kaiden says as he comes into the room.

“Yeah,” I say keeping eye contact with Andre as he comes over to stand right in front of me.

“What the fuck?” Kaiden says.

“You can’t fucking like her, find another woman,” Andre spits out, and I shake my head.

“Try telling my head that,” I say, and his eyes narrow a second before he grabs my shirt, and I let him throw me into the wall. Kaiden moves in front of me, what the hell is he doing?

“Don’t be an idiot by fighting, and if this is about Ellie, we all need to talk,” Dom says coming into the room and putting a hand on Andre’s shoulder.

“I kissed her, and she kissed me back,” Kaiden says, shocking us all into silence, all of us other than Dominic, who nods.

“What the fuck?” Andre says, shaking off Dominic’s hand and walking away from us all.

“Why don’t we all date her?” Kaiden says, and I look at him in visible shock.

“Look, we’ve all shared women before, and it’s never been an issue. I’m not saying this should be forever, but if we make an agreement to just see who she chooses? It’s not up to us,” Kaiden says, and I catch Andre’s eyes. He’s thinking about it. Could it work?

It’s better to let her choose.

“I don’t think Ellie will agree to this,” I finally say, and I know I’m going to do everything I can to make her choose me.

“I’ll ask her tomorrow, we have the baby scan,” Andre says, basically agreeing to this plan.

“I want a picture,” I say, choosing not to explain why.

“I’ll get a load of them and anyone that wants one, can have one,” Andre says rubbing the back of his neck.

“If she doesn’t choose me, I’ll still have to see her every day because of our baby. Has no one thought about this?” Andre says.

“A bridge we can cross, eventually. At the end of the day, we don’t know her well, and she doesn’t know us that well. Let’s just get to know Ellie first before going any further with this,” Kaiden says, and I really think he has no plan of making her choose. I don’t know how to cope with the jealously that’s going to appear when I see Ellie with any of them.

“What do you think, Dom?” I ask him as he is silent.

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