Page 43 of The Devil's Daughter

Elle

“It just bogglesmy mind how we didn’t figure this out sooner,” Ben says when he catches his breath. I scoot close and rest my head on his shoulder, lethargic from all the exertion and orgasms. Reaching across Ben’s chest, I grab for Drake’s hand where he’s leaning on one elbow on Ben’s other side. He takes my hand and brings it to his lips. Baz slips close at my back, kissing me on the shoulder.

“You were being nice guys. Gentlemen,” I say. “Besides, I didn’t know what I wanted until a few days ago.”

“We weren’t gentlemen, Elle. We just had no game. Trust me, I beat it to your selfies on the regular, and so did Baz.”

“Dude.” Baz’s indignant interjection makes his brother smirk.

“It’s true. No more secrets, right?” He turns to Drake. “What about you, boss man? You ever jerk off to pictures of her?”

I perk up, lifting my head to look at Drake. He leans back a little and laughs.

“Ah… no, I can’t say that I did. I’m probably a little broken that way. Fantasizing about you would’ve been as bad as watching you on camera without your knowledge.”

“So whatdoyou masturbate to?” I ask.

Drake blanches like I’ve just trapped him.

“You don’t have to tell us,” Baz says.

“No, we’re sharing, so I’ll tell.” He gives me a direct look. “Honestly, until very recently I hadn’t done it in a while. Once upon a time, I used to watch cam girls, but only the ones I could verify were actually performing for fun and not coerced. I quit for years but a few months ago I was tempted again. She might have looked a little like you, Elle. She’d wear a dressy work-type outfit, and I’d just watch her pretend to work. She’d do this slow striptease like it was getting too hot, unbutton one button every minute or so. I’d get off before I even saw her naked, most of the time. It never lasted long enough for it to sink in that she was a stand-in, but in retrospect, I know that’s what it was. I wanted her to be you.”

“But why?” I ask. “Why me? I mean, I know why you agreed to take me in for my father, but I’m still not sure I understand why you were attracted to me like that.”

He sighs and stands, then pulls down the top of the comforter. “Get cleaned up and let’s get in bed. I’ll see if I can explain it in a way that doesn’t make me sound like a huge, stalker-y pervert.”

“Hey, if the shoe fits,” Ben snarks, earning himself a death glare. “What? I caught you checkingmeout when we met.”

“He doesn’t have a monopoly on stalker behavior,” Baz says. “We kept tabs on you even before we were paid to, Elle. We can tell ourselves it’s because we wanted you to be safe, but the truth is it was always more.”

“That’s actually kind of sweet,” I say. “It’s the kind of thing that’d piss me off if I knew my brothers were doing it, but from you guys, I kind of like it.”

Ben rolls over and crawls under the sheets, and I get up and head to Drake’s bathroom to turn on the shower. I pee first, then do a quick wash and head back into the bedroom, wrapped in a towel.

The three of them are propped up in the bed with Ben in the middle. I know where I should fit—between the twins—but right now I want to feel closer to Drake, to lethimknow I will keep him close despite whatever he tells me. So I climb over him and settle between him and Ben, a low buzz of contentment blanketing the naked awareness of wherever our bodies touch. Drake slips his arm around me and nuzzles the top of my head with a soft, contented hum.

“So… you noticed me from the start? Is that what you’re going to tell me?” I ask, peeking up at him.

He smirks, then indulges me with a nod. “I was just curious, at first. I’d only seen your resume and transcripts when Flores asked me to accept you for the internship. Usually people who look that good on paper have personality flaws of some sort that you don’t see until an interview. You looked too good to be true. I was prepared to learn your records had been doctored somehow and that you weren’t really who you seemed to be. I don’t see many double majors in computer science and finance.

“But you surprised me. From day one, I heard nothing but good things. You were young, pretty, ambitious, and smart, if a little intense and prone to hyperfocus on a task. You asked all the right questions. Every manager whose department you spent time in was impressed, and disappointed when you rotated out. It wasn’t until the day you asked to meet with me and charged in, pissed about a flaw you found in one of the pieces of software we use that Ireallytook notice though.”

I chuckle. “I remember. It was such a stupid little bug. The kind of thing that should’ve been caught.”

“And would’ve cost us millions, if you hadn’t found it. Which is why I wonder why you chose to double-major instead of just focusing entirely on programming.”

“I like both, and when I didn’t find a major that merged them, I decided I’d just make my own. My advisor thought it was crazy, but she helped me anyway.”

“I saw what a pit bull you can be when you latch onto a problem. It surprised me how turned on I was. I wanted to see what your workday looked like so that was when I started observing you. Notyou, but your work.”

I narrow my eyes, “Because it’s only crossing a line if you’re actually watchingmeand not just my work screen? Uh-huh.” I give a dubious nod, and he purses his lips.

“I’d have never known about the cameras if I hadn’t.”

“I probably would have said something if I hadn’t gotten a reaction from you guys right away. Like you said, I’m a pit bull with a problem.”

“I love that about you,” he says, squeezing me a little tighter. “There’s very little I don’t love about you, in fact.”

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