He leaned forward and kissed her brow, allowing his lips to linger for a moment.
“Come on, love. I’m sure the others are waiting for us.”
CHAPTER 22
It was a little strange to walk into a house she hadn’t been in for a year. A place she had been a regular visitor to before that night.
The large home in the upscale Houston suburb doubled as their offices, although they did maintain a smaller office in downtown Houston. Who was manning it now that they had taken up residence in Cypress, and how could they hope to keep the business thriving living an hour away? How much were they giving up to pursue the arrangement they said they wanted?
It didn’t make a lot of sense to her. She wasn’t even important to her own parents. How could three men feel so deeply for her that they’d risk everything they had worked so hard for?
As she walked into the living room, images from that night a year ago flashed before her, heating her cheeks and her body. A warm flush centered in her abdomen and washed through her veins, bathing her in heady desire.
The four of them on the couch. Then the carpet and finally on the bed in one of the master suites.
The next morning she’d awakened amid a tangle of male bodies, their arms and legs possessively entwined in hers. She’d bolted. Run as fast and as far as she could back home.
She’d ignored their phone calls, and when they finally showed up at her door, she’d used work and anything else she could think of to avoid them.
And then the phone calls stopped. The pleas to talk to them ceased. Silence had stretched between them like a chasm. That was when the true pain had hit her, because that was the moment she’d lost them.
Until a few nights ago, when they’d appeared in her hospital room, determination etched into their features like stone.
All the while she’d thought they’d given up on her they’d been moving quietly in the background. Waiting. For her.
She sat down heavily on the large sectional. Unworthy. She felt completely and utterly unworthy of such love and devotion. It baffled her.
“Reggie, are you okay?” Cam asked.
She looked up to see him standing by the couch, concern in his eyes.
“I’m fine. Just thinking.”
He sat down beside her, their legs nearly touching.
“About that night?”
She nodded.
“I think about it too,” he said. “All the time.”
“We all think about it,” Sawyer said from the doorway.
He started across the room and stopped a few feet away from her. She motioned to the place next to her.
“Sit down. You make me nervous standing over me that way.”
“That’s because he’s a big bastard,” Cam said in an amused voice.
Sawyer cast him a dark scowl but sat next to Reggie. His hand came to rest on the back of her neck as he leaned back. He rubbed over the knotted muscles, and she teetered backward from her perch on the edge of the couch, seeking more of his touch.
“You’re so responsive,” Sawyer murmured. “You were that night too. I touched you, and you came alive in my hands. I was so hungry for you. I’m still hungry, Reggie. There’s never been another woman like you for me.”
She rotated, causing his hand to slide down her back.
“Every time I think I know how I feel or what to say, you manage to say or do something that renders it completely ineffectual,” she said raggedly. “What do I say to something like that? That I’ll never feel worthy of the devotion the three of you have shown? That I look at you, and I remember that night and know that no one will ever mean as much to me as the three of you do?”
Tears clogged her throat, and she swallowed against the heavy knot, determined not to break in front of them. She clenched her teeth and sucked in air through her nose.
