Page 17 of Taken By my Brothers' Best Friends

“I did.”

I mimicked his pose and crossed my arms. “So, you think it’s fine for him to spank me?”

“I heard him give you a warning.” He shrugged. “You don’t seem too upset about it. Matter of fact, you seem relatively calm. Calm enough to join us in the rest of the house, if you want.”

I pushed everything else aside and nodded. “I want.”

“We’re going to have your brothers send your clothes, but until then, we have a few things you can wear.”

I shook my head hard. “No, no. I don’t want them touching my closet. I have…personal things in there. I’ll just make do with what I have.”

“What kind of personal things?”

“Vibrators!” I closed my eyes and swore that if I made it out of their house, they’d have to kill me to get me back. I was out of control and, of course, still talking. “I mean, vibrators. Yep. Vibrators. Why do I keep saying vibrators? I’m sure you heard me the first fifty times. My closet is just full of vibrators and I don’t want anyone seeing them. Vibrators are private, you see. There’s the size, the shape, the color. The motion! Vibrators are all so different. Just the other day, I saw one the size of an arm. Now, that’s not for me, but I’m just saying. I wouldn’t know what to do with—”

“Vera, for the love of god, stop talking.”

I silently screamed inside my head. “Yep. That’s a good idea.”

“I’m going. Feel free to come out and look around.” He left and pulled my door shut in what was almost a slam. Then, he opened it again. “I’ll just leave that open in case you want to come out.”

“Where’s the door to the room where a giant piano falls on my head?” I mumbled the question and jumped when Dean leaned back in and asked me if I’d said something. “Oh, no. Nope. Nothing here. Nothing to hear here. Get it?”

He disappeared again and I slapped my hands over my face. What the hell was wrong with me? I felt like I needed a lobotomy. Or some sort of medicine that made me shut up.

Because I couldn’t stay in the room with all the ways I’d just embarrassed myself, I slowly ventured out of my prison. Their house was massive and so open that I could immediately see Dean in the kitchen and Lennon on the couch in the living room. I heard movement from the second floor and figured that was where Reed was.

Lennon glanced up at me and smirked. “We won’t bite.”

“Wouldn’t stop me if you did.” I straightened my shoulders and reminded myself that I was Vera Hellstone. I wasn’t afraid of anything. “I’m going to look around.”

CHAPTER 15

Vera

If they knew I was going through their things, they didn’t do anything to stop me. I couldn’t imagine letting anyone search my stuff, probably because of what I was hiding. I started on the first floor and found a boring office but not much else. On the second floor, things got more interesting. I found Lennon’s room first. I could tell by the scent of cedar and eucalyptus lingering in the air. I sniffed the shampoo and body wash in his shower and poked around his cabinets, but there wasn’t much to find. I did a little shopping in his closet, picking out a shirt and pair of boxers that I could make work.

I made sure there were no cameras in his bathroom before I locked the door and took a fast shower. When I was clean, I dressed in his clothes and stared at myself in the mirror. I was probably the worst Goldilocks in the world. I wasn’t a blonde, for starters. I wasn’t just invading their beds and eating their soup, though. I was invading everything. Partly because I wanted to know about them without asking and partly because I was hoping they’d get annoyed and kick me out. That still hadn’t happened by the time I finished in Lennon’s room.

Reed’s room was next. His whiskey and cinnamon scent warmed me from the inside out. I followed the smell to his bathroom and went through all of his things, too. There was a towel that was still damp hanging on a hook and a shiver went through me when I brushed my fingers over it. I grabbed a shirt from his closet and then left to invade Dean’s space next.

Leather and vanilla greeted me as I sniffed my way inside. I did the same thing as I had in the first two rooms, except I took two shirts from his closet and a pair of socks because my feet had gotten cold. I sat on the side of his bed to pull the socks on and noticed something sticking out from under his pillow. Feelingextra nosy, I reached under and pulled out the very last thing I ever expected to find.

In a twist that made me feel like my worlds were colliding, I was holding a copy of V.H. Springs’ latest novel. Me. Mine. My words, my sex scenes, my love story, hidden under Dean’s pillow like his own dirty little secret. I wasn’t sure what to do with myself. Goldilocks had slipped into the last bed and found a picture with her face on it. All of a sudden, it was the bears invading her mind and she didn’t like when it happened to her.

“Do you mind?” Dean’s voice made me jump. He took the book from my loose grip and dropped it on his bedside table. “What’s wrong with your face?”

I brought my hands up to my face and patted it, not sure what to expect. My brain was struggling to catch up after finding out that Dean read my book.

“I didn’t mean—,” he paused and sighed. “There’s nothing on your face, Vera. What’s wrong with you?” He picked up my pile of pilfered clothing and gripped my upper arm to pull me up. “You want to go be weird somewhere else?”

I looked back at the book and frowned when he shut his bedroom door. “Do you read a lot of her books?”

Dean scowled at me. “Mind your own business, kid.”

Snapping back to myself, I rolled my eyes. “It didn’t seem like y’all saw me as a kid when Reed was spanking me with a hard-on.”

Without missing a beat, Dean raised his eyebrows. “He spanked youwitha hard-on? Interesting. I can’t picture the logistics of how that would work.”

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