Page 58 of Room Twenty-Three: Tangled & Teased

Atty and Beau have watched her from a distance. Unable to stay away regardless of the time we promised each other we would. I haven’t seen my friends so desperate and so sure about a woman.

But now I agree she is the one. I’m just as obsessed with her now as they are.

“Do you want us, Erin? Or was New Orleans a holiday fling?”

She spins to me, and I’m waiting for her stinging words.

“What if I say I’m over you all?”

“I won’t believe you,” I reply. “And we will stalk you, hunt you, find you, and not stop until we make you ours.”

She rears her head back and laughs. “Oh. Right! Now you want me.”

“I always wanted you. Have you not realized that yet? I tried to push you away because we aren’t good for you. But you insisted on making us yours. I feared going into Club Sin with you because I knew, regardless of what I told you, that there would be no going back.”

“You told me it was for one-night...”

“I wanted to believe it. But the night you came into room twenty-three, you signed your fate.”

“Fate?”

“Yes fate. But your safety still had to come first.” I stride toward her. The rise of her chest quickens, and she tries to calm her breathing by rubbing her hands down the sides of her thighs. “I missed you.”

I know I’m the one who needs to make things better with Erin. I know she doesn’t blame Atty or Beau.

“Oh,” she whimpers. I smile as I hold her cheeks in my hands and press a ghost of a kiss to her lips.

“And I’m sorry for lots of things. For not letting you know about Marco, but it was your information about the men there on the night Lydia was killed that led to us knowing he was involved.”

“Really?”

I nod. “You’ve got an excellent memory. You recall the right details. That’s why I doubted nothing you told us at Club Sin. If you didn’t want to be a dance teacher, you could be a wonderful asset on our team.”

She laughs. Then stops and looks around the small cottage we are renovating for her new business. “This is for me? Have you been speaking to my parents?”

I nod. “We didn’t think you would appreciate us telling them that three men were in love with their daughter...”

“In love with me?”

“Yes, Erin. We’re in love with you.”

Tears coat her eyes as she bites the inside of her cheek to stop them from falling. “What did you tell my father?”

“We tossed a coin and Beau won. Your father wanted to know why you’ve been so down since you got back, and we told him because you were in love with Beau, but it couldn’t go any further because of his age.”

“And my father said what, exactly?”

“He wants you to be happy. He told us you were considering moving back to Australia. Realizing you were running away from your broken heart. He’d prefer you to be in a relationship with an older man and be happy than living on the other side of the world.”

“My father set this up?”

“He wants you to follow your heart.”

“We want you Erin,” Atty says, taking a stride forward, but the three of us are still waiting for her to make a move.

“What do you want?” Beau asks.

“I want you all to hold me,” she whimpers.

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