“This…is nice.” It wasn’t a building, though. With hurricane season coming up, all it’d take would be one ill-placed downburst wind to take it and her out. “Real nice.”
That thought made him sick to his stomach. Here he thought they’d keep her safe by getting her off the bike, just to realize she wasn’t even living in a real house.
“Right?” She smiled, looking pleased.
“What time do we need to leave here in the morning to get you to class?”
“Seven. I wish you hadn’t done this. I feel badly I’m putting you out.”
He turned to her and invoked Dom-tone again. “Stop apologizing. You mean more to us than a couple of hours of our time, Denny. You’re part of our team, but even more than that…” He stumbled over what he wanted to say. “You’re our friend. More than just a friend to us, like family. Let us do this for you. Not like it’s a burden.”
She hugged him, and he had to force himself not to hold her longer than she wanted to be held. “Thank you.”
“I don’t know which one of us it’ll be, but one of us will be here no later than seven to pick you up.” He smiled. “I have a feeling there will be a fight to see who gets the honor, and it’ll fall to the last man standing.”
When he arrived home, he yelled as he slammed the front door. “House meeting. Now!”
He waited for everyone in the war room. Ken had already been working there at his desk. Hal hurried in, a towel draped around his waist, and Steve finally joined them.
“What’s going on?” Hal asked.
Trace told them about Arden’s living situation.
Ken leaned back in his chair, hands laced behind his head as he stared at the ceiling for a moment. “We ask her to move in.”
“That’s what I want to do,” Trace said. “Hal?”
“Uh, can we go get her and her shit now?”
“No, we need to talk to her tomorrow. Steve?”
“Dude, let’s think this through. I can’t believe I have to be the voice of reason this time instead of Ken.”
“What’s there to think through?” Trace asked. “We all lo—like her.”
Steve scowled. “What were you about to say?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t you bullshit me. That wasn’t a nothing. Yeah, she makes me hot, okay? Not gonna lie. But do we really want to do this? How are we going to know she doesn’t feel compelled to agree if anything does develop? I don’t want her coming back a year from now saying she felt pressured and like she couldn’t say no.”
“Not saying we have to sleep with her or even play with her,” Trace countered. “In fact, we tone it way back.”
“How we do that with Howling Hal over there?” Steve jerked a thumb his way.
“Ball gag?” Ken suggested.
“That’s not funny,” Steve said.
“Actually, kinda is,” Hal said. His smile faded. “By the way, I’m picking her up after school tomorrow. I don’t care who goes and gets her and takes her there.”
“Why you?” Trace asked.
“Because, oh, FYI, I’m taking the business checkbook and going car shopping in the morning. Technically it’ll be the company car, but it’ll be hers to use. I’m done screwing around with this.”
Hal looked more serious than Trace ever remembered seeing him. “I damn near had a fucking heart attack this morning over the news. I was almost in tears thinking maybe she was gone.” He looked to each of them in turn. “Don’t you assholes lie to me and tell me you weren’t thinking the same fucking thing, because I saw your faces.”
“Fine,” Ken said. “Do it.”
Trace nodded. “Yeah, go ahead.”
“Okay, now with that non sequitur handled,” Steve snarked, “can we get back to this discussion?”
“I’m putting it out there to her tomorrow when she gets here,” Trace said. “She either says yes or no. I won’t pressure her about it. But I’m putting the offer on the table so she knows she has a place to go. If she says no, maybe she’ll keep it in mind and eventually turn it into a yes.”
Ken finally nodded. “A’ight. Do it.”
Hal firmly nodded. “Yep.”
“Steve?”
Trace watched his friend, and he knew reluctance when he saw it. “I don’t want to bork what we have with her,” Steve said. “I still say this is a mistake, but I won’t be the odd man out.”
“All right. Settled. Hal’s getting her a car, and I’ll ask her about moving in.”
* * * *
Despite having ridden Hal to exhaustion the night before, Steve made sure he was up way earlier than he needed to be to get out of the house to get Arden. Steve wanted to sound her out on the ride to school to see if he needed to change his vote from yes to no on asking her to move in.
As Trace had instructed, he pulled into the gravel driveway and around the back of the house. Yes, the RV was nice, but it wasn’t a house.
Their house.
She emerged with her stuff in her hands, locked the door, and quickly slid into the passenger seat. “Hey! You drew the short straw, huh?”
“Nah, I volunteered. Hal’s going to pick you up after class. Ken will get to hog you in New York.”
“That really sucks about his family.”
“Yeah, but we’ve helped him out for years. He’s family to us. Kind of what we do.”
“So, can I ask you something?”
He felt like he’d lost control of the conversation, but went with it. “Of course you can.”
“Are we okay?”
“What?”
“I mean, I know you and Ken are…really close. I don’t want to upset you or make you jealous or anything that he’s taking me to New York with him.”
Maybe it was just because it was so early, but what she was saying took a moment to smack him between the eyes. “Are you asking me if I’m jealous of you for him taking you to New York with him?”
“Yeah. Kinda.”
He didn’t have to force the laugh. He reached over to pat her thigh, realized what he’d done, and jerked his hand back. “Sorry. No, I’m not jealous, Denny-girl. Don’t mean that in a bitchy way, either. We all…” He wanted a work-appropriate way to phrase it.
“I’m not going to scream sexual harassment,” she assured him. “Y’all saw me naked and getting spanked.”
Another laugh. “Fine. As friend to friend?”
“Absolutely.”
They’d hit a red light. He looked at her. “Friend to friend, I love you. I love having you around. As an employee, you’re amazing and all your ideas yesterday were just more items on a rapidly growing list of why I’m damn glad we met you. I’m actually relieved Ken has someone we both care a great deal about, who cares about Ken almost as much as me and the guys do, who he can trust to take with him. That’s the long answer. The short answer is no, I’m not jealous.”
She smiled and pulled his hand back onto her thigh, patting it. “I promise it’s okay. We’re friends.”
“Good. Because it’s getting harder for all of us to draw a line between you working for us and us being your friends, and none of us want to lose you as a friend.”
* * * *
One of the things she’d learned about Steve was that he wasn’t a bullshitter. Maybe that’s why she had such a hard time focusing on her classes. Hal had texted her earlier to text him when she was on her way outside after class so he knew to look for her, and she did.
She found him standing next to what looked like a new car, a little Mini Cooper. “What’s this?”
He tossed the keys to her with a playful smile. “Your new ride. Get in.” He headed to the passenger side.
“Wait, what?”
“Did you not hear me?” He stood by the open passenger door. “It’s the company car, don’t worry. One of your employee benefits that we added this morning was we provide you with transportation. In. Now.” He climbed in.
Stunned, she walked around to the driver’s door and open
ed it. “You can’t just buy me a car!”
He leaned over to look her in the eyes. “I didn’t buy you a car. I bought our company a car, and we’re assigning it to you for your full-time use, for work and personal use. Our AA is no use to us dead under a damn SUV because the idiot didn’t see her on her bike. In. Let’s go. I’m hungry.”
Dom-tone.
She put her stuff in the backseat and Hal seemed to take enormous pleasure in how long it took her to adjust the seat and mirrors. “How am I supposed to get the bike home?” she asked.
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll help you with that.” But somehow, it didn’t sound like he meant it.
When they reached the house, the other three men all walked out, Ken letting out a low whistle. “Damn, Hal. I know you’ve always wanted a Cooper. That was tricky.”
“Right? Good thing she’s shorter than me. I feel like a damn sardine inside it.”
“Do you like it?” Trace asked.
“I-I love it, but it’s too much!”
“Nah,” Ken said. “It’s just a start. Let’s get inside and eat.”
She was left to follow while trying to decipher his comment. Inside, they’d laid out a great lunchmeat spread for sandwiches. The men had discovered the joys of the Publix deli section, and they loved trying different things. No pre-wrapped imitation cheese food slices for them, no. They bought the prime cheeses and meats, custom-sliced, and fresh bakery rolls to put them on.
“Something else we need to discuss, Denny,” Trace said. “We want you to move in.”
“Wait, what?”
“Hear us out,” he said. “What are you paying in rent now?”
This was happening too fast. “Two hundred a month.”
“Okay. Same, then. Two hundred a month, you’ll have the biggest bedroom in the house with your own built-in bathroom, no more daily commute, you have a pool and hot tub at your use, and we’ll even let you watch us have sex, if you want.” He grinned.
“Dammit!” Steve smacked his shoulder. “What are you saying? I thought Hal was our idiot?”
“What?”
“Sex?”
“I was kidding!” Trace dropped her a sexy wink. “Sort of.” His smile faded. “Unless that would bother you.”
She shook her head. “No, that wouldn’t bother me.” Actually, it’d be like several of her favorite Kindle books coming to hot and sexy life.
Trace turned to Steve. “Ha! See?”
Ken had remained unusually quiet. “It does make sense, Denny-girl,” he said. “I’d feel a lot better knowing you’re not on the road on that bike. Well, the car. Although I have no illusions that you’d keep trying to ride that bike despite what we tell you.”
“Me, too,” Hal said. “I want to add, with the hope that it won’t creep you out, that I like having you around. There would not be any expectation of you having sex with us, or playing with us, or anything like that. You ever wanted to approach us, we’re all ears. We start getting out of line, or we do anything that makes you even slightly uncomfortable? You tell us that, call us out on it, and we’ll back off. But hopefully you’ve spent enough time with us to know that we aren’t creepers.”
“And we’ll write up a lease,” Ken said. “To protect you.”
She was trying to think of a reason this was a bad idea despite her fear trying to talk her into saying no. “What about the table?”
“What about it?” Ken asked.
“Where’s it going to go?”
Ken laughed. “You’re seriously worried about the table?”
“It’s sort of our conference room.”
“We’ll move it to the garage and put a window-shaker out there to cool the place so we can use that. That’s an easy fix. We were going to eventually put AC out there anyway when we start using it as a server room. We prefer our sandboxes to be on-site and closed off, in the beginning.”
With all four of them looking so hopeful and expectant, she realized she didn’t have the heart to say no.
“Okay,” she said.
“Yes!” Trace said. “Group hug!”
She laughed as they surrounded her in a hug, and for the first time, she truly felt…loved. Maybe not romantic love, but perhaps even better, they had brought her into their family.
That’s what this felt like—a family.
I hope you wouldn’t be disappointed in me, Granny.
Chapter Fifteen
The men “ordered” her to tell Allie they’d be moving her ASAP. Before Arden could even process what was going on, Ken and Trace had moved the table and some stray boxes and other things out of the bedroom that was now hers, while Hal and Steve headed out to get a rental truck and boxes for her, not that she’d need a lot of those.
By the end of the evening, they hadn’t done any work, but Arden was now completely moved into the fifth bedroom. Trace and Ken had gone through the RV, top to bottom, helping pack her things and clean it out so it looked almost showroom new when Arden returned the keys to Allie.
Bonus, what little furniture she couldn’t store in the men’s garage actually fit in the house. That meant she was saving more money by not having to pay for a storage unit. Her tiny table, now tucked into a corner of the war room, made a perfect makeshift conference table, and her sofa fit into the den as extra seating for whoever wasn’t gaming, meaning no more sitting on the floor.
It felt…surreal.
Arden suspected it was no accident that when the men hurriedly rearranged the garage, they completely blocked her motorcycle in, parking it by the front wall so it’d be damn near impossible for her to get it out by herself.
Trace looked downright smug when she asked him about it. “Not like you need it right now, do you? Not when you’ve got the car.” His smile faded, replaced by that panty-melting arched eyebrow. “Safeword, and we move it for you right now. Go ahead.”
She swallowed, unable to say it.
When he knew she knew that he knew she couldn’t safeword for it, a triumphant smile filled his face. “That’s our good girl,” he whispered before turning and heading inside.
Daaaaaaang!
Now her clit was throbbing.
She just hoped they wouldn’t be able to hear the sound of her vibrator with her bedroom door closed and the music on.
* * * *
Not only did the men attend her graduation, they took copious pictures and video and then took her out to dinner after. They also insisted on hanging her diploma on the wall by her desk, and wouldn’t take no for an answer.
She’d quickly come to see that living with the men wasn’t a bad thing. If anything, she got more done now than ever before while working fewer hours. It wasn’t unusual for her to get an idea and go out to the war room to work on it, and within an hour all four men were there with her, bouncing ideas off each other.
Arden also formed closer individual relationships with all the men, now able to spend more time with them outside of “working.” They’d also started taking her out individually. Not really romantic outings, but to dinner, or a movie, or a concert.
Hal was joking and funny, and his off-the-wall comments frequently hid the fact that he was super-smart. Ken was as intense with his fun as he was at work, and she discovered he had a soft spot for animals when he bought them a family membership to Mote Marine and they took frequent trips there to see the marine life. Steve enjoyed the outdoors more than the other three, and they took hikes or rented kayaks, or other outdoorsy kinds of activities. Trace could be self-conscious when outside of work, but as intense as he was in the war room, he was equally gentle and kind outside it.
She hadn’t returned to Venture on her own, although she knew the men had gone at least twice without her. Neither time to play, just to attend rope classes.
While the men hadn’t imposed any restrictions on her like that, now knowing what she did about them, she personally felt…uncomfortable asking someone else to Top her when she literally had four willing Tops at her disposal. She w
ouldn’t want the men to think she didn’t trust them, when she did.
The men hadn’t pressed her about it, either. Observing the men together during their downtime, whether it was tender snuggling on the sofa watching TV, or her “accidentally” spying on them having an intimate moment in the pool or hot tub, kept her mind and heart churning.
Finally, one Friday night, after they’d called it quits for their work week and were chilling out after dinner, she managed to speak up about it.
“Can I talk to you guys about something?”
Like a group of meerkats, all four men immediately perked up.
“You can talk to us about anything,” Trace said.
She really wanted to play, craved to get a good ass-beating. “I know we haven’t talked about that night at Venture since then.” She took a deep breath and forced herself to say it. “Are you guys still interested in talking about playing with me for a scene?”
“Yes,” they all said in unison before glancing at each other and chuckling.
Trace took over. “Absolutely,” he said. “You set all the limits. We’ll even play with you at the club and not here, if you want. It’s up to you. Whatever you feel comfortable doing.”
Four pairs of eager—dare she say hungry?—eyes focused solely on her.
It was enough to almost make her ask if she could get drunk and beg them to fuck her…
Except she wasn’t sure if that would bork their delicately balanced dynamic or not.
“Well, you guys saw what kind of play I like. Heavy. Marks. I don’t mind playing naked. Neither Abbey nor Landry played sexually with me, though. Could we do that? This first time, just…play?”
“Absolutely,” Trace said, the other three nodding. “Between the legs and breasts off-limits.”
A wistful pang twisted through her, and she fought the urge to put orgasm play on the table.
Not this time.
“I have a stipulation,” Steve said, prompting the other three men to look at him questioningly. “We take two cars,” he said. “One of us drives Denny over in her car. But just in case she doesn’t want to ride home with us, she can drive herself home.”
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