“I didn’t mean sex, Cupcake.”
I tilted my head back to look at Andrew. He didn’t mean sex? So, what did they want? More? I shifted. “You’re right. I think I’m a chicken regarding that right now.”
Warren dug his thumb into a sore spot in my arch and met my eyes. “Tell us about these exes.”
I couldn’t help relaxing into Andrew when Warren and Lucas were massaging me into a helpless blob. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on speaking. It wasn’t easy, though, and I ended up just shrugging. “They sucked. End of story.”
Andrew clicked his tongue next to my ear. “Details, Cupcake. Maybe even addresses.”
I smiled. “There’ve only been four. Cody was the first. I lost my virginity to him and he dumped me three days after. That was after we dated for a year and a half. Next was a guy named Sam. We dated for two years. It was two years of him waiting on me to lose an extra few pounds before he would introduce me to his parents. That never happened. After Sam and before Milo,there was a lot of space and then James. James traveled for work and had an entire family in Florida. On our third anniversary, I found a picture of his kids. And then Milo. Two years of never being good enough, never being home enough, never being what he needed. Then I walked in on him with a woman who had to be a size zero. She was perky. That might be the thing I hate most.”
Lucas had stopped rubbing my arm. “Addresses and surnames.”
Andrew growled. “Maybe slight descriptions so we know we’re annihilating the right person.”
Warren never stopped rubbing my feet. He just calmly cleared his throat and looked at both of his brothers. “Murdering assholes isn’t either of your jobs.”
Andrew scoffed. “Our jobs make it an easy option.”
I raised my eyebrows.
Warren just shook his head. “Andrew assumes that because he’s working on having more money than god, he can do mostly whatever he fucking wants. And Lucas there thinks because he’s a badass with tattoos who rides motorcycles, he’s automatically a member of Hell’s Angels.”
Lucas scowled. “I don’t justridemotorcycles.”
“And I’m not working on it. Idohave more money than god. And because of that, so do you.” Shifting me into Lucas’s lap, Andrew strode to the table and grabbed our plates of food. Putting them down on the coffee table, he took mine and then pulled me back into his lap. “Fucking assholes. You’re perfect.”
I giggled as Lucas pouted. “I’m not a doll, Andrew. I can move myself.”
He handed me a piece of chicken and pushed my hand towards my mouth. “You need to eat. You barely touched anything earlier.”
“What is happening?” I looked at Lucas and Warren and met their humor-filled expressions with a confused one of my own.
“You’re experiencing Andrew feeling out of control. Just let him fuss over you. He’ll come back to his normal level of bossy soon.” Lucas shrugged like it was completely normal. “We’ve all changed in our own ways. Andrew became a control freak and Warren got so fucking calm I wonder if he even has a pulse some days.”
Warren nodded to the chicken I was still holding and smiled. “Better eat before Andy pops a vessel.”
I looked up at him and found him frowning at his brothers. I tilted my head back so I could press a kiss to his chin and then took a big bite of my chicken. “See? I’m fine.”
His face loosened and he let out a rough breath before stroking my hair again. “Lucas hasn’t really changed. He’s still a bull in a china shop in life.”
I took another bite and barely finished it before laughing out loud at the look of disdain Lucas was giving his brother. I snuggled tighter into Andrew and sighed happily. “This is nice.”
Warren leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “It’s nice for us, too. Now, about those names and addresses.”
Chapter 14
Being with the guys that night made it easy to separate my guilt and everything else. They were kind and doting and funny. They all stole kisses and held me, but they didn’t push me. Warren even acted like a complete gentleman after walking me to my room later. With a sweet kiss and a promise to see me the next day, he left.
I managed to keep that guilt away because I was able to fall asleep in a cloud of happiness. Just getting to finally confront them about everything in our past made me feel lighter. While I still wasn’t sure whether or not I believed them fully about why they’d been mean to me, I was sure that they weren’t the same people. It was also easy to just be with them. It didn’t feel taboo or freaky. It just felt nice.
I slept so good that night and woke up early, feeling better than I had in forever. It was menu sampling and cake testing day with Macy and the bridesmaids, so I had a full day planned, but I felt carefree. I dressed in a pretty dress that I’d bought on our shopping day and sang while I curled my hair. I was a bird away from being Snow White.
It seemed like I hadn’t even known the weight I was carrying about what the triplets had put me through. Feeling it slip away, though, had been cathartic. And I knew it made me a terrible person that only a little bit of the guilt came back when I sat down next to Macy in the dining room that afternoon, but that was the truth.
She had a dazed, happy look to her, too, and I grinned. It seemed the lingerie hadn’t made it to the wedding night. Looking over at me, she blinked like she hadn’t noticed me sit down, and then laughed. “We’re going back to that shop beforewe leave. They put something in the fabric there that turns Jason into a mad man. We missed the movie last night.”
I laughed. “You look like you’ve been thoroughly pleasured. That’s way better than a movie.”
