“Not when we’re apologizing for objectifying her.”
I couldn’t help my smile as I pulled out a chair from the desk and sat. “I could stay for a little while longer. It’s not like I was getting anything done, all the way out there in the other room.”
“You haven’t eaten yet, have you?” Chase was abruptly serious.
I shook my head.
Luke raised his hand. “Question. I’ve been wondering this for a while, and I can finally ask—what’s your obsession with feeding Anne?”
Obsession...? I’d never thought about it like that before.
“Did you consider tackling that asshole you fired today, when he came at her verbally?” Chase asked.
Now I knew what they’d been talking about when I wasn’t listening. War stories from the conference room.
Luke looked at me. “I not only considered it, I ran a split-second list of pros and cons, and I’m still tempted to find him and punch him for the way he treated you.”
The protectiveness in his body language and words made me feel gooey inside. “People say things like that to other people all the time.” Shitty, but true.
“But he said it to you.” Luke told me before turning back to Chase. “What does this have to do with food? Did someone beat up Anne’s food once?”
“You okay with me telling this story, Annie?”
Chase’s question triggered a rush from the past when I realized what he was asking. I was touched that he wanted my permission. “Here, yes. Nowhere else.” Everyone who mattered, except for Luke, already know about this part of my life. I didn’t know if I could tell the tale myself.
“Annie’s a fairytale princess, but Grimm got her origin story a little mixed up.”
“I buy it,” Luke said.
I’d never thought about my life that way before. “I’m not.”
“Her mother passed away and left her to be raised by an evil stepfather.” Chase slid into storytelling mode with his typical ease. “Down to the fact that he was the perfect member of the community in public. Everyone loved this dude.”
“Ah.” Luke frowned.
The wounds from my mother’s death were old—I was only nine when it happened—but they still ached like a broken bone on a cold night. The memories of how my stepfather treated me were fresher, because I’d been stuck with him through my teen years. He was the reason I’d spent so much time at Sadie’s.
“Half the time, the asshole didn’t care where she stayed. That’s why Anne’s part of our family,” Chase said. “The rest of the time, he needed proof that he was a loving father. For parties, social events—whatever. So she’d have to go home for a few weeks at a time.”
A shudder raced through me, and I hugged myself. It was harder than I’d expected to dive back into this.
Luke furrowed his brow. “Are you all right?”
“I’ll stop. You don’t need to relive this.” Chase looked concerned too.
“It’s okay. Keep going, or you won’t get to the happy ending.” I had to remember the story had one. It was one of the things that kept me from falling into darkness when I looked back on that part of my life. “I wasn’t abused or anything. Not physically. But there were a lot of nights I went to bed hungry, and to school the same way the next day. I learned to push through it.”
Chase was shaking too, but his looked more like barely controlled anger.
“When Chase realized what was going on, he went out of his way to make sure you ate,” Luke said in understanding. “Hard to compete with that.”
“I thought you both agreed this wasn’t a competition. Besides, I lo... ike you for different reasons.” That was almost bad. I didn’t want to linger in the dark anymore. “Anyway, if Disney ever writes a gamer geek princess, they totally stole the idea from my life story.”
Chase relaxed a little, but he still sat stiffly. “Can you imagine Pixar basing something on our lives?”
“Pretty sure I’ve seen that on Smut Central.” Luke’s cheer sounded forced.
The conversation drifted toward light and playful, but the long week caught up to me earlier than I expected. I stayed awake as long as I could, but the next thing I knew, I was waking up fully clothed and tangled with Chase and Luke.
There was a text message waiting for me, from Sadie. Please talk to me. I’m sorry.
Chase rested his chin on my shoulder. “Don’t be mad at her because of me. She’s your sister.”
Anne’s part of our family, his words from last night rang in my thoughts.
“Go call her,” Luke chimed in. “We’ve got time.”
I didn’t want company for this conversation. Luke and Chase would give me privacy, but I needed a little extra space. I grabbed my key, made sure I was presentable for the public, and headed into the hallway. I walked as I dialed and waited for Sadie to answer.
“I’m sorry,” she said when she picked up. “For diminishing your feelings, for telling you that you were wrong, and for giving you a bad haircut.”
“Way to take the oomf out of any speech I had planned.” Not that I’d had any idea what to say. “And you haven’t cut my hair since eighth grade.”
“It was a really bad haircut. I’m really sorry.”
I stepped into the lobby when the doors slid open. “It hurt. A lot. What you said, not the haircut.” I planned to forgive her, but she wasn’t walking away without me saying my bit. “I’ve always looked up to you. Even now. And to have you dismiss me like that...”
“Why?” Sadie asked. “I’m touched, but I’m a shitty role model.”
“You never hesitate or doubt yourself.”
Sadie laughed dryly. “I doubt myself all the time, and I make my share of mistakes.”
“But it doesn’t stop you from doing. You always act.” I leaned against a nearby pillar, tucked away from view.
“And you’re smart about the decisions you make. You think things through. You weigh the consequences. Don’t be me. I love you for you.”
Same thing I’d told Chase and Luke last night. “It sounds pretty smart when you put it that way.”
“Because I’m brilliant,” Sadie said. “Forgive me, please?”
“I do.”
“Good.” Cheer slipped into her voice. “As soon as you have days off again, movie marathon. Your choice. I’m buying... whatever we need.”
“It’s a date. Talk to you soon.” I felt better as I disconnected. It sucked, not talking to my friends.
My concerns from the flight were back. If this was how badly friendships could deteriorate after one argument with Chase, what would happen if we hooked up again and our relationship went even further south? I couldn’t handle that.
I headed back upstairs, and the guys and I rotated through the shower, getting ready for our days. The one thing I wouldn’t miss about this trip was sharing a bathroom.
My goal for the day was to find out how much additional damage Mike had done. I had a strong suspicion he was behind a few of the delays we had with programming, but if I could prove it, it would also give us a direction to go toward fixing things more quickly
I settled in to work next to Luke, in the conference room. It was bittersweet, swapping conversation and jokes with him like we’d always done, but knowing that more was possible if I was willing to risk it. I didn’t know if I was.
Based on what we found yesterday, I asked Zane to have his team compare all the timestamps from when files were modified from this building, versus when people were in it. He had a list to me by midmorning, and I started working my way through it.
New problem—for every file change on the list, the history that came before it had been deleted. There was no way to roll back or recover anything that was changed.
Fuck. I sank back in my chair, pulling my attention from my screen, and blinked to clear up my dry eyes. When I looked again, Luke was watching me.
“Something wrong?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Enjoying the view. How about
you? You’re stumped on something.”
“Yes.”
He tugged my hand from where it rested near my laptop, and brushed his lips over my fingertips. “Magic kissing mojo?”
I started to laugh, but revelation stopped me short. “God, you’re incredible.”
“I know. What’s up?”
I actually had the answer. “Get me access to the deleted change logs.”
“If I had that power, I’d do it in the heartbeat. But auditors only. You know the rules.”
“Oh.” I slumped again. The rule made sense, specifically in instances like this. If someone could erase things and then erase the proof they’d done it, we’d be fucked.
Except, what good did any of that do, if I couldn’t restore things?
“I can get you screenshots or an export of the logs,” Luke said. “Just not access to the software itself.”
And if there was something to fix, we could go through the right channels to restore it. “I’ll take that. Duh.”
“Sorry. Wasn’t thinking. I was distracted.” Luke winked. “One extract from Internal Audits coming up.”
By early afternoon, I had a list of everything that had been changed—presumably all by Mike, based on a ranting email he’d sent us this morning—down to the single quote. What Mike had done was randomly tweak modules after they passed final QA. Over and over, across different nodes and projects. More than half the time, it was a female developer’s work—a neat feat, considering he only had four working for him.
The cheers from both Team Percival and Gawain, when I told them how much time we’d just saved, probably could have been heard without a conference line.
“You’re brilliant,” Luke told me when we finished the update call.
I flushed under the compliment. “I didn’t do it all myself. Magical kissing mojo, and all that.”
“No, this is all on you. Fantastic job.”
Months’ worth of stress faded away, as I started to work through my own list.
Now, if only my personal life could be as simple as restoring a few corrupted files from the past and overwriting the mistakes that came after.
Except, had hooking up with Luke and Chase been a mistake? Any of it? That little voice said it was, but I didn’t feel like that was the case.
Chapter Twenty-One
That night in the hotel room felt like the when we’d checked in. The way things always had with Chase and Luke, before everything fell apart. Dinner, laughing, and having fun. I didn’t even try to keep track of the tangents, as long as I could follow them and each hop made sense.
“Annie and I are Dance Dance Revolution champions. As in, official,” Chase said.
Luke looked impressed. “DDR? No shit. Like Scott Pilgrim level?”
Chase gave a short barking laugh. “He wishes he was as incredible as us.”
“I had no idea.”
“There are a lot of things you don’t know about me.” I wanted to keep my tone serious and somber, but I was enjoying myself too much. Funny how frequently that was a state of mind for me around these two.
“We all have a lot to learn about each other. But I’m not opposed to stripping away a single layer at a time, until I can see it all.” The way Luke dragged his gaze over me, I felt it in my core.
Chase adjusted himself on the bed. “There’s a lot of innuendo there. Does that mean we’re transitioning from learning about each other to sex?”
“That’s a real weak transition.” Not that I minded. With the hurt gone, my mind was happy to linger on our first night here. The need. The want. I swore my brain was whimpering use me.
Chase shrugged. “It comes with a strong follow-up. That’s got to count for something.”
“Are we keeping count now? Inches? Orgasms?” With each word, Luke ticked off another finger.
“I thought you two weren’t competing.”
“It’s always a competition when it comes to sex,” Chase said.
Luke leaned in closer, mouth inches from mine. “Not if my filthy baby doll doesn’t want it to be.”
The words flipped a switch, and my every nerve ending sparked to life, looking for stimulation.
“Wait. Are you competing with me about who’s right?” Chase asked. If he had any idea what was racing through my head, he was an asshole. A glorious, tempting asshole who was dancing his fingertips down my spine, and talking as if this were the most casual thing in the world.
“You two are ridiculous.” My voice was breathy, giving me away. If the flush to my skin hadn’t done so already.
Chase kissed the shell of my ear. “But we’re well hung.”
“Are we talking length or girth?” Luke asked.
“If you’re going to insist on keeping count, I’m strictly looking at number of orgasms.”
“That sounds like a challenge.” Chase teased up the bottom of my shirt to brush my skin.
Luke hadn’t touched me yet, but the way he watched me... “Where do I submit my application?” he asked. “I like to think I work well within a team environment. As long as I’m in charge.”
“I think the application process should involve a talent show.” I was going to make them work for this at least a little bit.
“Would you like to be restrained or just worshiped?” Luke asked.
Either. Both. And then some. They were making it hard to draw this out. “Without using me as a prop.”
Chase stood and tugged at his zipper.
“Without using anyone’s genitals as a prop.” I added quickly.
Chase pouted. “You’re taking all the hard out of this.”
Luke knelt at my feet and grasped my fingers. “There once was a proper lady. Who moaned when her boss called her baby—”
“Is that a limerick?” I was laughing. “It’s horrible.”
“Thank God you stopped me, because I had no idea how to get from there to you kneeling and begging.”
“You didn’t have a problem with it the other night.” Chase didn’t sound upset. “Are you sure I can’t just show you how talented I am?” He reached for his zipper again.
I shook my head. “That’s not part of the application process.”
“What do you bring to the team, Ms. Fortier?” The way Luke said my name grasped a moan from my chest and tried to extract it.
I painted on my best innocent face. “I’m adorable.”
“You are,” Chase said. “But if we’re taking team applications, everyone has to prove themselves.”
“Let’s be honest, the competition is pretty weak right now.” I had no idea what I’d do that would be better.
Luke pulled me to my feet and set me in the middle of the room, like he had the other night. This time he left my clothes on, at least for now. “All right, DDR champion, you can dance. Show us your moves,” he said.
Yeah, right. “I don’t dance; I follow a series of arrow prompts on the screen.”
“I think he’s onto something.” Chase sat on the edge of the bed, full attention on me. “Dance for us.”
I had no idea what to do, so I swayed my hips and hugged myself in a slow, I hoped hypnotic rhythm. It kept their attention, so I must have been doing something right.
“You call that your Sucker Punch?” Chase asked playfully.
He was referencing the movie, and so was I. “I prefer Baby Doll.”
“Me too. And I like the dance. It’s got potential. I’d like it better if you took your top off.” Luke’s tone implied more command than suggestion.
I stripped my shirt off, never pausing in my dance. The pair of hungry gazes on me was fuel on the fire simmering under my veins.
“Jeans next.”
I spun my back to them as I undid the button and zipper, then shimmied the denim down my legs, my ass straight up in the air. I turned to face them again. No idea how my basic pink bra and blue panties were drawing that kind of attention, but I reveled in it.
“What do you think?” Luke was looking at me, but I was
pretty sure he was talking to Chase.
Chase tilted his head, looking me up and down. “Stunning, but still too many clothes.” He crossed the room, pulled out a chair from the desk, and moved it next to me. “Lose the underwear and take a seat.” His tone was more playful than Luke’s, but no less enticing.
Luke snapped and pointed at the chair. “You heard the man.”
I did and was happy to comply. It was easy to keep up the not-quite-dance while stripping off my bra and panties, but there wasn’t much seductive about sitting.
“Spread your legs. Show us that incredible pussy,” Luke said.
There it was—the tingle of desire. I trailed my fingers up my thighs as I pushed them apart. It felt incredible, to be exposed like this. To be the focus of their desire.
“No.” Luke clipped off the word when I traveled my hands toward my core. “You can touch yourself everywhere that feels good, except there.”
My laugh was strained, but I could tease a little longer. Or was he the one doing the teasing? I skipped over the center of my pulsing need and moved higher, dragging my nails lightly across the back of my neck. Gliding my palms over my breasts. Lingering to squeeze my nipples.
Chase had shed his pants and freed himself, and was stroking while he studied me. He was so hard. So thick. I wanted to taste and feel him.
I slid my hands down my stomach.
“No,” Luke warned, when I drew too close. He’d removed most of his clothes, too, and his erection stood straight up, lonely and tall.
I nodded. “I could help with that.”
“You will, baby doll, but not yet. You’re busy with yourself.”
Which was fun, but my body ached for more. I scratched up the inside of my thighs, then moved back to my breasts, to play harder this time. Rolling my nipples between my fingers until my body was clenching from need, and I couldn’t pinch hard enough.
My chest heaved from holding back. “Please?” Begging worked last time, and I liked the way it tasted. Being vulnerable for them. Letting Luke control how quickly things went.
“Tell me what you want.”
“You. Both of you.” My plea came out breathless.
Luke gripped his shaft and dragged his thumb over the head. “No. But you can make yourself come.”
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