Page 12 of Theirs

“Just friends?” I ask, staring at Ben, trying to figure out exactly what we’re doing.

Ben sits up in his chair, and pulls me over to sit in his lap. He brushes some of my hair out of my face, and smiles at me. I try to look at my lap, feeling weird being this close to Ben when Colin is watching.

“It’s not going to be weird, I promise,” he says, kissing the tip of my nose. “And I might just think of you as more than a friend.”

My heart is racing, and my eyes dart to the door, worried about someone coming outside and seeing us.

“Have you been with anyone else since our date?” I ask him, threading my hands through his sandy hair.

“How would I have been with another woman, when you were on my mind so much, Lavender?” he asks, and then leans in to whisper in my ear. “I feel like I can still taste you on my tongue.”

My throat goes dry as Ben pulls back to look into my eyes. The backdoor swings open and I bolt from his lap like a teenager getting caught making out with her boyfriend by her father.

“Let’s go,” MacKenna says, with Alexander right behind him. Alexander, for once, doesn’t have his phone out. He’s actually looking at the three of us curiously. “I’m sure we all have busy days at the office tomorrow, well, maybe not Colin.”

“Oh, bite me, Mac,” Colin teases. “You’re just mad that one of your previous clients came to me.”

My brother and Kristen come out the back to say goodbye to the guys, and then I notice Kristen give me a wicked grin. I wonder if she was watching us from the kitchen window. It gives the perfect view of the pool, hopefully it was too dark for her to see us in the lounge chairs.

“Hey, Shane,” Kristen says, using her sweet wifey voice. “Would you mind driving Teagan home? Kane’s had a couple, he was supposed to drive her but...”

“I can just sleep here,” I say, still standing in my bikini. Benjamin hands me my dress to slip over my head.

Kristen shakes her head. “No, you can go home. I’m going to have hot married sex with your brother.”

I stick my fingers in my ears and close my eyes. “Lalalalala, not listening. Shut your mouth.”

I remove my fingers just in time to hear Shane grumble. “Sure, let’s go.”

Shane drives a pristine Porsche SUV, I bet he runs it through the carwash every day to make sure it’s never dirty, or he has a butler that details it weekly. I sit in the back seat between Colin and Benjamin. It’s completely quiet in the car, other than the soft classical music Shane has playing. I’m tempted to reach to the front of the car and mess with his radio to get a rise out of him.

We enter the neighborhood where I live, and I notice Shane tense. When he plugged my address into his GPS, he asked me twice if I was sure if that’s the correct address.

“My apartment’s right up here on the left,” I say. Ben rubs soft circles on my thighs. I’m tempted to invite him to sleep over tonight, but I’m not sure how the other men would feel about that since I still owe all of them a date. God, I just want to get these dates over with so I can explore this thing with Ben.

“You should consider moving out of this neighborhood,” Shane says through gritted teeth, putting his turn signal on. “It’s going downhill quickly. Very dangerous.”

I chuckle. “Yeah, I’ll get right on that with all the money I have.”

“How’d you get to your brother’s tonight?” Shane asks as we wait for the light to change.

“Bus,” I state simply. “Well, three buses actually.”

Alexander turns in his seat, staring at me like I’m insane.

I watch as Shane grips the steering wheel. “You’ve got a death wish then? Single female, bad side of town, zero security at her apartment...”

The light changes, and Shane turns into the parking lot. I point him to a spot to let me out and gather my bag from the floor.

“Welcome to how the other people live, boys,” I say as we pull to a stop. “Watch out, don’t linger too long or someone will come out and take the rims right off your car.”

Colin opens his door, and I slide out behind him, and hear the driver’s door open and slam shut.

Shane MacKenna comes over and stands in front of me, staring daggers.

“What are you doing?” I ask, putting my tote on my shoulder.

“Walking you to your apartment,” he says through clenched teeth. “Your brother would kill me if something happened to you on my watch.”

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