Lila's Loves

by Laylah Roberts

  “Lila, stand on the opposite side of the room,” Trace ordered. “We’re coming in.”

  Lila suddenly realized that their patience had come to an end.

  “Wait, I’m opening it. I’m opening it.” She wrenched open the door to find Trace and Colin standing shoulder to shoulder in the hallway.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” she asked in a frantic whisper. “You’ll wake my neighbors.”

  “If they haven’t come running by now, shorty, then they ain’t coming. Now, be a good girl and invite us in,” Trace told her. A slight frown wrinkled his forehead, but his eyes were filled with concern. She’d always felt at ease with Trace. There was something soothing about him.

  “What do you want? Why are you here?” She attempted to sound uninviting, even as she watched them hungrily. God, she loved all of them more than life itself.

  More than she should. She didn’t love them like a sister should. She was in love with them. They didn’t love her back. They were kind to her, tolerated her for Clay’s sake, but they didn’t love her. Staying would have brought her more heartbreak than she could have managed.

  Instead she’d moved to Phoenix and lived in misery apart from them. Some choice.

  Colin ran his gaze over her, his eyes eating her up. At twenty-nine, he was two years younger than Trace and a few inches taller. Colin’s deeply tanned skin went perfectly with his sun-kissed hair and deep brown eyes. Right now the heat in those eyes sent a shiver down her spine. Her clit tingled as she tried to hide her reaction. She was obviously imagining things. No way would Colin ever be interested in her.

  Trace’s bright green eyes watched her carefully, but with no less heat than his brother. They were looking at her like they wanted to eat her alive. Her insides clenched at the thought of both of them touching her, tasting her. Flushes of heat assailed her, weakening her knees. If she just reached out she’d be touching them. Just one small touch…

  No! She had to stop this. It was why she left the ranch. Because of her attraction to them, to all of them, would never be reciprocated. Oh, they were nice to her and everything, she even figured that they cared about her, but they certainly didn’t feel anything more towards her than brotherly affection.

  If they had given her any indication that they wanted her, then she wouldn’t be here now. She would never have left. But when she’d told them she was moving away, they helped her pack. If that wasn’t an indication they didn’t feel more anything towards her then she didn’t know what was.

  She cleared her throat. “What are you guys doing here?”

  “Clay’s in the hospital,” Colin told her. “We’ve come to bring you home.”

  Colin watched as Lila’s face grew pale. He reached out for her, worried she was going to faint dead away.

  “Easy, baby,” he murmured, picking her up and stepping inside the small apartment. She was so tiny, like a china doll. He barely felt her weight as he held her against his chest. God, had she been this tiny when she’d left?

  “Is he okay? What happened?” she finally asked, her gaze full of fear. My God, she was even more gorgeous than he remembered. He knew she didn’t realize how beautiful she was, with her mass of dark brown curls and those amazing hazel-colored eyes. Her plump, pink lips captured his attention and it took every ounce of control not to lean down and kiss her.

  “It’s not good, Lila,” he told her. “The doctors don’t think he’s going to last much longer.”

  “W-what?” she gasped. He set her down on the mattress and sat, facing her. Taking hold of her wrist, he took her pulse. It was too fast.

  Shit. Way to break it to her easy, jerk.

  Trace glared at him. Yeah, he should have let Trace tell her like they’d agreed. Trace was way more tactful than he was. Colin tended to talk first think later. He took a deep breath. He had to calm down and focus on Lila.

  “Okay, honey, I want you to take a couple of deep breaths and try to calm down. Can you get her a glass of water?” he asked Trace who was watching on in concern.

  “Calm down? How can I calm down when Clay is…?” She swallowed heavily, her face turning gray. Scooping her up, he ran for the bathroom and held her over the toilet as she heaved.

  Colin held her up as Trace crouched on the other side and held back her hair. Sobs wracked her tiny body as he supported her and his heart wrenched. They’d had over a week to get used to the idea of Clay dying and he still spent most nights fighting back tears. Clay was his father, his friend, his mentor. And he knew Gavin and Trace felt as devastated as he did.

  But for Lila this was a complete shock. She’d always been such a tough little thing that he’d half-expected her to shut down her emotions in front of them. He could only remember her crying a few times. Once, when her dog, Dastardly, died. The other, when she fell out of the large oak tree by the house and broke her collarbone. God, they’d been terrified when Gavin found her lying on the ground, not moving.

  As her heaving finished, Colin pulled her back and sat on the floor, holding her on his lap. Trace handed him a glass of water. Colin held it to her lips, ignoring her attempts to take it from him as he gave her a few sips.

  Lila made another attempt to grab it. But he handed it back to Trace.

  “Hey, I was still drinking that,” she protested hoarsely.

  “I want to make sure you can keep down those few sips first,” Colin explained, resting the back of his hand on her forehead. “You feel a bit warm. Do you have a thermometer?”

  She shook her head.

  “Are you sick?” Trace asked her, crouching down to hand her a toothbrush with some toothpaste squirted on it.

  Lila sighed. “Just a stomach virus or something, but I’m over it now.” She looked over her shoulder at Colin. “Are you going to let go of me so I can brush my teeth?”

  He raised an eyebrow at her tone, which was damn well surly for her. Still, he supposed he’d be feeling pretty grouchy if he’d been woken in the middle of the night, told his foster dad was dying, then puked his guts out. He nodded at Trace who reached down and picked her up, holding her on his hip like a child.

  “I can stand on my own,” she said dryly.

  Trace sent her a quick smile, but didn’t answer. He set her down gently. She swayed slightly as she stood and Trace quickly grabbed her around the waist, supporting her as she brushed her teeth.

  “I’ll be waiting in the other room,” Colin said. There was barely enough room in the bathroom for one person, let alone two over-sized men and one tiny female. He wandered out into the other room which obviously served as a bedroom, living room and kitchen.

  He didn’t like what he saw, not at all. And if any of them had known that Lila was living in these conditions, they’d have been here a long time ago, either to move her back home where she belonged or at least to a better apartment in a safer area of the city.

  He’d have come for her sooner, but they’d all promised Clay they would give her some space and time to be by herself, to grow up and experience life.

  When they’d parked outside he noticed that most of the streetlights were out; the streets were dirty with graffiti and garbage. Hopefully his truck still had its tires by the time they left. He moved to the small kitchen area and looked in her cupboards, trying to find something to help settle her stomach.

  Goddammit, they were practically empty. Just a couple of potatoes and some rice. Just how little money did she have? He knew Clay had often tried to give her money, but she’d always refused, saying she was doing fine.

  Well, she was going to pay for that little lie. But not right now. She was in shock and there was no way he wanted to scare her off before they got her home.

  “Trace, really, I can walk,” she complained as Trace carried her back into the main room and placed her on the mattress. She immediately tried to stand, but Trace held her down, wagging his finger at her.

  “Stay.”

  Colin’s lips twitched as he opened the fridge. God, she did

n’t even have any milk. As a child, Lila had always gotten tummy aches and they’d discovered that warm milk helped settle her. It was obvious she hadn’t been taking care of herself.

  Well, no more. It was time for her to come home and let them look after her.

  “Stay? Trace I am not Snippet,” she said, referring to Trace’s dog, a part-collie, part-lab mix.

  A sad look flashed over Trace’s face, almost too quickly to be seen. But Lila must have noticed because she stiffened.

  “What happened? What’s wrong?” she asked

  “Snippet died a few months ago, baby,” Trace said gently as Colin moved towards them.

  Tears rolled down her cheeks as she stared at them from large, grief-stricken blue eyes. Not really grief over Snippet, Colin knew, although she had loved Trace’s dog. Sobs racked her body as both men kneeled beside her, sandwiching her between them.

  “What’s wrong with him?” she cried. Colin frowned, hadn’t Trace just told her that Snippet had died?

  “Pancreatic cancer, baby. They caught it too late,” Trace told her.

  Ahh, she’d been asking about Clay. Sadness filled him.

  “Why didn’t he tell me?” she wailed, shaking hard. They held her tight, supporting her.

  “He didn’t tell any of us until things got really bad about a week ago,” Trace replied.

  She swiped at her eyes with the back of her hands, a childish movement that almost made him smile.

  “Why didn’t you guys tell me?” she sniffled.

  “Gavin tried calling you,” Colin said. “You never answered your phone or called us back.”

  She seemed to cry harder with those words. Colin rose and grabbed another glass of water as well as some toilet paper. He then wiped her face and held the toilet paper up to her nose.

  “Blow,” he demanded.

  She gaped at him, unable to reach for the toilet paper herself because Trace held onto her tightly, keeping her arms trapped against her body.

  “Lila,” Colin warned.

  Blushing, she blew her nose and Colin wiped her up, helping her take a drink of water. When she was finished, she slumped against Trace, obviously exhausted.

  “How much longer does he have?” she asked in a raspy voice.

  Colin brushed her hair off her face. She’d let it grow longer so it almost reached her shoulders now. “They can’t tell us for sure, but not long.”

  “I need to see him.”

  “We know, Lila,” Colin said, kissing her forehead, breathing in her clean, pure scent. “We’ll get you there. Just lie here and let us do the work.”

  Lila slumped back on the mattress when he let her go, her eyes closing, her small body curling in on itself, as though cold. He glanced down at her too-pale face. She sported large, dark bruises under her eyes, as though she hadn’t been sleeping.

  When Clay had first brought her home, Colin had thought him crazy. Not that Colin had wanted to leave her there, but he hadn’t expected Clay to adopt her either. None of them had any experience with children, and suddenly, their all-male household had been invaded by a tiny seven-year-old with huge eyes that seemed to see way too much.

  At thirteen he’d been a bit selfish and hadn’t wanted to share Clay with anyone but his brothers. He’d liked life the way it was in their testosterone-filled house and he’d figured a kid would just annoy him and get in his way. Plus there was the fact that she was a girl and he couldn’t even teach her cool stuff like how to hunt and fish.

  Boy, had he been wrong. Lila had always tried to mimic them, wanting to do exactly what they did. They’d often found themselves having to hold her back. She hadn’t been a typical kid. She’d been way more mature and well-behaved than any seven-year-old should be.

  “Jesus, this is where she’s been living?” Trace muttered to Colin, running his hand over his shaven head. They worked together, packing up her stuff. “I thought the neighborhood was bad enough, but this apartment is the pits.”

  “It’s all I could afford,” she defended, opening her eyes tiredly. She coughed.

  “So we can see. No wonder you’ve been sick. Sleeping on a mattress on the floor in a damp apartment isn’t healthy. You’re lighter than a cloud and twice as pale,” Colin said with a glare.

  “Jeez, you guys are all compliments,” she told them.

  Colin held back his grin, not wanting to encourage her sarcastic tone. By now, he and Trace had packed most of her stuff.

  “Lila, we need to talk to you about something before we go back to Haven.” Colin crouched down in front of her, raising her face up so she was looking at him. He needed to make sure she fully understood what he was about to tell her.

  “You understand that if you come back to Haven with us and you neglect to tell us that you need us or you place yourself in harm’s way, then we will discipline you. You grew up in Haven, you know how this works. If you disobey us, lie to us, fail to call us when you need us then you will face the consequences.”

  “You-you’d spank me?” she asked in such a soft, tremulous voice that he felt his heart melting. But he couldn’t back away, it was too important. At the core of their community was the belief that their women were to be cherished and protected at all costs.

  There were a number of ménage relationships in Haven, so Gavin, Trace and Colin knew that their interest in Lila wouldn’t be seen as unusual. Their greatest resistance would likely come from Lila herself. But that was something to worry about later. First, they had to get her home.

  “Yes, baby, we wouldn’t hesitate to spank your butt if you put yourself in harm’s way or risked your health.”

  She blushed, her fingers playing with the bed covers. “But I’m a grown woman,” she protested weakly.

  Trace crouched down and cupped her cheeks between his palms. “You’ll be safe; you’ll be cared for and protected. Trust us to take care of you. This isn’t about who is stronger or older, or some ego trip. We care about you and you know we would never harm you. But if you put yourself at risk, then we won’t hesitate in making sure you think twice before doing anything like that again. Understand?”

  Lila stared at Trace, and Colin could see the shock on her face. Didn’t she know how much she meant to them? Maybe not, and it wasn’t as though they’d ever told her. But that would soon change.

  She looked at them both for a long moment before nodding. “Okay, I understand.”

  A surge of relief ran through Colin, and, leaving Trace to grab the bags, he lifted her up into his arms.

  “Let me down, Colin!” she demanded, wriggling.

  “No,” he told her. “If I let you down you might disappear on me.” She only came home twice in the last year and before that she was in college. He needed her close, to reassure himself that she was really in his arms.

  She was theirs. Whether she knew it or not.

  “Stop wriggling,” he ordered firmly. “I’m not letting you go.” Not ever.

  Leaning down, he kissed her on the forehead as Trace prowled around the small, run-down apartment, looking for anything they’d missed. This place wasn’t fit for their dogs, let alone the woman who would be their wife.

  Surprisingly, it was also kind of messy. Lila had always been a bit of a neat-freak, but there were clothes scattered around the place, a dirty coffee cup on the bench, and some papers thrown on the small bench she obviously used as a table, most of them overdue bills. He looked at Trace, then nodded his head at them. Trace gathered them up. They’d take care of them later.

  “These walls are damp,” Trace stated, pulling his hand off the wall.

  Colin scowled. No wonder she was sick. “How long you had this infection, Lila?” he asked.

  She shrugged, her eyes closed as she rested against his chest. “A few weeks.”

  Hmm, that seemed a long time to be sick with a simple virus.

  “I’m fine now.”

  “Yeah you look real fine,” Colin answered her. “Let’s hurry, so we can get you home where we can take proper care of you.”

  Trace looked down at the small woman nearly asleep in Colin’s arms. She might be twenty-three, but she was so tiny and vulnerable-looking that she could have passed for younger. God, he loved her. He’d loved her for a long time, his feelings towards her not the least bit brotherly. He’d felt guilty about that for a long time, until he’d realized that Gavin and Colin felt the same.

  The three of them had decided long ago that they wanted to share the same woman. Not conventional, but then they’d never been overly concerned with what others thought. And it wasn’t like they would be the only ménage relationship in Haven. The three of them had built a strong brotherhood when they’d banded together in the foster home and none of them could really stand the idea of living apart.

  Trace and Colin’s father had been Clay’s best friend. When their parents died in a terrible car accident they were sent to a foster home. Clay had been overseas at the time. It was in the foster home where Trace and Colin met Gavin. By the time Clay found them, the three of them were fast friends.

  So he arranged to take them all home.

  Discovering that Colin and Gavin felt the same way he did about Lila, had both surprised and relieved Trace. At that time she’d been in college and far too young to cope with what they wanted, but they’d spent many nights talking, dreaming, scheming. Whenever she’d come home for the holidays they’d done their best to avoid her, not wanting to risk temptation.

  They pushed her away, which he now knew had been the wrong thing to do. They had hurt her when that was the last thing any of them wanted. Clay had realized what was going on and gave them a lecture. Their foster dad had been furious and worried. He’d made the three of them swear not to touch her until she’d had some time to live a bit. He’d also made them promise to stop acting like assholes when she was around.

  She was older now, though, and they didn’t intend to hold back any longer.

  Here to bring you home.

  The words echoed around Lila’s brain. They were taking her home.

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