by Anya Nowlan
“Will Lily even be assigned to the team anymore? There are too many loose threads here to get ahead of ourselves.”
“I guess you’re right,” Crash admitted, even though he didn’t want to.
He wasn’t one to wait around and see how things turned out, but what option did he have right now? They couldn’t ever properly discuss it with Lily, with the team around all the time and her anxious about anyone finding out about the three of them.
But it will work out somehow. It has to. She’s ours now.
Twenty-Five
Lily
Lily was surprised to see Wyatt up and about when she went to meet Ben downstairs. The assistant coach’s eyes were a little more red than usual, and he looked a bit pale, but other than that, she wouldn’t have even guessed he had been pass-out drunk last night.
“Hey, Lily,” he said, sitting down at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee in his hand. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you, actually. I’m sorry about last night. You shouldn’t have had to cut your evening short because of me. Ben told me you and the Rawlins boys brought me home.”
Wyatt looked slightly embarrassed, and sounded pretty tired, so Lily rushed to reassure him. She wouldn’t have minded helping him out anyway, and add to that the fact that his less than sober state had given her the opportunity for some alone time with Connor and Crash…
Well, let’s just say all is forgiven in my book.
“Don’t even worry about it,” she smiled, turning around when she heard someone approach from the living room.
“You ready to go?” Ben asked her, leaning on the doorframe. “And are you ready to lead practice?” he added, nodding towards Wyatt.
“I’m good,” Wyatt replied, staring into his mug instead of looking at Ben.
“And I’m set to go,” Lily added, tugging at her white button-up.
It was time to be Lily Douglas again, and the role was beginning to feel somewhat restricting. She hadn’t had trouble with such things before, but for some reason being around Connor and Crash made her want to be more herself. Playing the part of the coach’s assistant suddenly felt like more of a lie than it had before.
Not like I can do anything about it, she shrugged internally, but the feeling of discomfort remained.
There was a black SUV waiting for them out front when they got outside to drive them to the meeting. Somehow, the Predators’ management team had talked the council of the next town over into borrowing a space for them to have their sit-down.
It didn’t surprise her, really. With someone like Fiona in charge, nothing was impossible. She herself was the perfect example, not wanting to take this job in the first place. Yet here she was, ready to look like she knew what the hell these people flying in to Shifter Grove were saying when they started talking shop about hockey.
At least I’ll be well-prepared if the topic of Mighty Ducks comes up. I used to love that movie as a kid.
“Who exactly is going to be there?” Lily asked, as the driver pulled off and headed towards town.
“Mason, the PR guy. And his assistant, probably. Then there’s Kelly, the manager. Fiona has sent her own representative, a Miss Suthers. Top Performance, the company that represents the Shovelers, has sent someone on behalf of their team. That’s all I know.”
Lily committed the names to memory and nodded. At least the meeting might serve to distract her from what happened last night.
Now that’s a hard thing to not think about.
Crash and Connor had rocked her world, as cheesy as that sounded. She thought she’d had a good time with men before, but this had been something else. It went beyond having two people touch and tease her at the same time. There was something special between the three of them, as difficult as that was to admit.
She didn’t like how much she had come to care for them in such a short while. In her experience, anything that starts with such fire can only end in flames. Relationships like that had been her bread and butter when she first started out as a young investigator.
People got swept up in intense emotions, eloped to Vegas or did something equally stupid, and then ended up at her office, crying about how their significant other ran off with a cocktail waitress and couldn’t be found.
Okay, this isn’t quite that level of drama, but threesomes are already out of character for me. And I’m not objective enough to know if I’ve gone insane or not.
Ben was blissfully ignorant to her inner turmoil, flipping through papers the Shovelers’ management had faxed over. At least it didn’t seem like he had any idea what went on between the twins and her, or maybe he was just a better actor than she’d thought.
One thing was for sure, if he did suspect something and if he voiced those suspicions to Fiona, this job would be over for Lily. There’s being impartial, there’s being somewhat subjective, and then there’s banging the suspects.
She might be sure that her relationship with the brothers wasn’t affecting her ability to do her job, but she would have a tough time convincing anyone else of that.
She had to put her worries aside when they pulled up to the town hall and the driver rushed out to open the door for her.
Here we go, she thought, taking a deep breath of fresh, mountain air.
The meeting had flown by without any major disagreements. Both the Predators’ and the Shovelers’ representatives agreed having a friendly match between the teams would be a good idea and great publicity. They were still unsure of the date the game should take place, but everything else got settled pretty easily.
Mason, a tall, dark-skinned man in his early forties was shaking hands with Ben, and Miss Suthers was chatting away with the woman from the Shovelers’ side, when Mason’s assistant approached her.
“Lily Douglas, right?” he asked, flashing her a pleasant smile. “We didn’t get a chance to talk before the meeting started. I’m Miles Quentin.”
“Nice to meet you,” she replied, shaking his hand.
Miles looked more like a hockey player himself, rather than a public relations manager. Tall and broad, with biceps that strained against the button-up he was wearing, he was definitely an impressive-looking man. His face was thin, with a heavy brow and a wide smile, his hair slicked back and dark brown.
“Thought we assistants should stick together,” he said.
“Well, then it’s too bad Wyatt couldn’t be here. We could have started a club.”
“Someone needs to make sure the boys are ready to face the Shovelers,” Miles replied good-naturedly.
“Do you know Wyatt, yourself?” Lily asked.
“I’ve only met him in passing, but I’ve heard only good things,” Miles said, something about his persistent smile making Lily somewhat uneasy.
“Will you be flying right back?” she continued her interrogation, trying to make her voice sound light.
Glancing over at Mason, Miles shook his head.
“Not yet. Mason wants to get us much press out of this event as possible. And since you have more than enough space at the house, we already have a place to stay.”
Great. Two more sets of prying eyes to look out for, Lily thought, conjuring up a smile.
Twenty-Six
Connor
Sitting on the couch next to his brother, Connor was keeping his attention on Ben, standing in the middle of the room. The whole team was doing the same, along with the two newcomers, Mason and his assistant Miles from the PR division. He had met them before, at some function or charity event or another, but didn’t really know the men that well.
Other times, he might have welcomed the chance to get to know the people helping to launch their team forward, but at the moment, a large chunk of his focus and mental energy was being spent on not staring at Lily.
Suffice it to say, making friends wasn’t high on his to-do list right now.
“So it’s actually happening?” Graham asked as soon as Ben had stopped talking. “We’re going to be playing a game with the Shifter Grove Sho
velers?”
“Were you even listening?” Ben sighed, throwing the man a pointed look. “Yes, it’s happening, we just don’t know when yet.”
“Some of the Shovelers are out of town right now, so we’ll have to work around their schedule,” Mason chimed in, the light reflecting off his thickly rimmed glasses. “But yes, you’re going to be playing against them.”
The man looked confident and put together in a nice suit, his smile exposing a row of pearly white teeth. But beneath the shiny and polished look was a definite scent of something more wild. Taking a deeper breath, it was instantly clear to Connor that both he and Miles were tiger shifters.
Guess it takes a shifter to know a shifter audience, he thought to himself.
Shifters usually preferred more blue-collar, hands-on work, but that wasn’t a sacred rule or anything. They occupied all sorts of positions now, having been out of the closet, so to speak, for a good while.
A predator could find a way to flourish in any walk of life. The row of new shifter billionaires had certainly shown that.
“Mason and Miles will be staying with us in case any problems pop up, to make sure this match happens the way it’s supposed to,” Ben added, nodding at Mason.
“You guys play pool?” Eddie immediately asked, eyeing Miles and Mason.
“Here we go,” Aiden groaned.
“Let the men settle in before you try and take all their money,” Sal laughed.
“I don’t think he’ll be taking my money,” Mason said, grinning.
“Now that’s a challenge if I ever heard one,” Graham interjected in a sing-song voice.
The room quickly cleared out after that, with Lily quickly excusing herself and heading upstairs. The way she avoided even looking at either him or Crash made it clear she didn’t want to be followed. And with so many people roaming around the house, he wouldn’t have considered it anyway.
No, that was a lie. He had considered it, many times all throughout the team meeting. But luckily, reason won over his urge to relive last night and then some. Crash sighed at his side, kicking his feet up on the coffee table in front of them.
Wyatt and Ben were discussing something in the kitchen. Practice had gone well today, with Wyatt taking over seamlessly despite the hangover he must have had. Connor couldn’t hear what Ben was saying to him, but by the smile on Wyatt’s face, it had to be something good.
“Do you think we have a shot at beating the Shovelers?” Crash asked, but he sounded half-hearted at best.
“Is that the question you really wanted to ask me?” Connor retorted.
“No. But I’m trying to think of something other than how I want to go up to Lily’s room right now,” his brother said in hushed tones.
“I’m not doing any better than you are,” Connor replied, squeezing the pillow at his side out of pure frustration. “But we have to be patient.”
Patience had never been their strong suit, so they were both winging trying to keep themselves in check.
“I know,” Crash grumbled, not sounding particularly comforted by his words.
Truth was, Connor didn’t know what to say to his brother. Lily was pretty much perfect, and he wanted to spend time with her, but there was something nagging at the back of his brain. He couldn’t help but wonder if he should jump into something so quickly after being betrayed by Alison.
Claiming Lily as their mate was a big deal. It wasn’t a decision to be made after you were still under the influence of an endorphin high after a night full of amazing sex. There was still a lot about Lily they didn’t know and if the whole thing with Alison had taught him anything, it was that it paid to take things slow sometimes.
All he had to do was ignore how his every instinct seemed to push him towards Lily. That should be totally doable, right?
With his feelings for her so strong already, he didn’t want to be disappointed or ruin things by rushing too much. If he were being brutally honest with himself, he was still carrying the hurt of being treated so despicably by a woman he’d shared a bed with, that it made him hesitant to start something new.
“Come on, let’s go raid the cabinets. Some peanut butter always makes you feel better,” he said to Crash, patting his brother on the back.
It wasn’t a great solution by any means, but it was what had always worked when they were kids. With how complicated things were getting, a little reminder of simpler times couldn’t hurt.
“I don’t think sugar can solve this particular problem,” Crash replied, rolling his eyes.
“You say that now, but you forget. I know you better than you know yourself, brother,” Connor replied.
“Don’t tell me you’re starting to buy into that ‘twin telepathy’ thing Graham is always yammering about.”
“Spirits, no,” Connor scoffed. “But I’ve had the misfortune of being forced together with you since birth, and I know how you think. Besides, your sweet tooth is legendary. Now get your ass up.”
Crash did his best to glower at him, but he could see the way the corners of his mouth were tugging upward. Getting up from the couch, they passed Ben on their way to the kitchen, busy scrolling through something on his phone.
Leaning on one of the counters, Crash watched on as Connor moved around the kitchen, opening up cabinets. He stopped in his tracks though, when the phone he had forgotten was even in his pocket buzzed against his thigh.
“You must have stumbled upon that spot with reception,” Crash remarked, stepping to his side.
Connor froze when he got out his phone and read the e-mail that popped up on the screen. It seemed impossible, but from the long, ranting message Alison had sent him, he gathered she had already blown through the money they had sent her and was after more.
He cringed as he read the last words. Love, Alison.
“Is she fucking serious?” Crash asked, reading over his shoulder.
How are we supposed to start a new relationship when this is still hanging over our heads? was all that Connor could think, ice settling into the pit of his stomach.
Twenty-Seven
Lily
Lounging around in the living room while the team had dinner, Lily was stuck in her head. Days kept whizzing by here in Shifter Grove, and she still wasn’t getting anywhere with her investigation. It felt like she had some bits and pieces, but not enough to put the puzzle together.
I can’t wait around for the guilty party to come and confess.
She had to take a more hands-on approach.
One option was to fake some tempting information and leave it lying around to see who took the bait. But with so many people milling about the house, she had to come up with a way she could be sure of who saw the information, and when, to nail the leak.
That would be complicated and time-consuming, but she didn’t have a better plan, so she would have to figure out a way to make it work. The fact that she kept getting sidetracked by her memories of her night with the twins wasn’t much help in that department.
On their end, Crash and Connor had been doing a good job of acting casual around her. But every time they even glanced her way, she kept getting reminded by Crash’s words, of how he said he’d be thinking of her naked every time he looked at her. That was enough to get her heart racing each time she caught his eye.
She wasn’t usually this flustered at male attention, but it was painfully clear by now that whatever this thing between her and the twins was, it sure as hell wasn’t usual. If anything, it was the oddest, most brain-meltingly intense experience she had ever had, and she secretly loved every moment of it.
Sneaking around with them was more thrilling than any undercover mission and her body had never felt more alive. It responded to every look, every chance touch, with her nipples hardening even when the twins just passed her closely by. Yet instead of finding that entirely ridiculous and over the top, she reveled in it.
Even now, she felt that side of her stir as she secretly watched the brothers finish their meal, joki
ng around with Sal and Graham in the process. So when they all got up from the table and came over to watch a movie in the living room, she got up without even thinking about it, an entirely too dangerous idea taking over her brain.
“I think I’m going to turn in early today. You guys have fun,” she said.
“Tonight’s Bond night. You ladies love that British accent, right?” Graham said, trying to cajole her into staying.
“As tempting as that is, I’d probably just fall asleep halfway through,” she laughed.
“Alright, your loss,” Graham shrugged.
“Good night, don’t stay up too late,” she said, looking at Crash and Connor when she said it, and trying to convey that she wanted them to join her with only a look.
It must have worked, because their eyes lit up the moment they connected with hers. She only hoped they would be discreet about it and wait before coming after her as she turned to leave.
Hesitating for a moment, she stopped climbing the steps at the second floor and headed for the bedroom she knew was Crash’s. She pushed the door open but didn’t turn on the lights, sitting down on the bed in the dark. The moonlight illuminated the room as she thought about how insane she was for doing this, but unable to talk herself out of it.
Like Connor said, once you get a taste for it…
She had no idea how much time passed as she sat there, staring out the window and alternating between thinking about Connor and Crash and her plan to take down the traitor. It had to be more than an hour though. She could faintly hear the TV still playing downstairs, so movie night wasn’t over.
Tensing up when she heard footsteps approaching, she listened closely to every sound. Her heart started pounding the second the door opened and Connor and Crash stepped inside. They smiled when they saw her on the bed, exchanging a knowing look between them.