I dropped my head to his chest, exhausted and sated like never before.
28
Peter
Funny, how the vague smile of hers was happier than any I’d seen on her before. It was subtle, faint, and yet, unmistakable. Blair was completely at ease there, with me. Just us. And yet, as the thought of my brothers flickered in my head, it didn’t dull my happiness. All I knew was, I wanted to be the one who kept the smile on Blair’s face for as long as humanly possible. I wanted her to be this happy as much as possible. And if that meant her being with my brothers too, then so be it. I thought about it and who else did I want to tell about how great this date went, but them?
First, though, I wanted to savor this moment for what it was.
“You okay?”
Blair’s smile lit up even more as she nodded. “I still don’t get what the occasion for all this was,” she admitted.
“I guess I just wanted to see,” I said.
“See what?” she asked, eyeing me curiously. “See what this really has all been to me, what I really feel for you,” I said.
“And?” she asked.
Suddenly, the walls of the Porsche, and all their elegant reflective splendor, were stifling. Even Blair’s presence, as welcoming and beautiful as her bare skin was under my fingertips, was unnerving. And yet, I knew that to make the excuse already curdling in my throat, to get the hell out of here like I wanted to, would be a grave mistake.
So, I was freaked out about this thing with Blair. Didn’t mean I had to run away from it. I hadn’t become a cop so that I could be a coward when it came to the important things.
“And it’s better than I even expected.” My voice came out faltering and yet, I continued. “Part of me has been wondering if this wasn’t some weird jealousy thing with my brothers, the way we’ve always fought over everything. But….” I moved a piece of hair off her face, my fingertips lingering on her hairline, my gaze on her lips. “It’s obvious to me now why we’ve all fallen for you. And what we can do about it, if you want, that is.”
Just sitting here with her, the situation had presented itself to me as easily as something that had resided there all along. “Why couldn’t we give it a go? All of us, Blair.” If there was anyone I’d ever met who was worth trying out this abnormal arrangement for, it was with Blair.
Although, her expression wasn’t as decided as I would’ve liked.
“What exactly were you thinking that we could do?” she asked carefully.
I chose my words equally carefully. “See where it goes, for now.”
I didn’t want to say much more than that until things progressed a bit more; until I had a talk with Jeremy and Noah. Better to let things progress slowly then rush things and risk scaring her away. As weird as it was for us being with the same girl, I’m sure it was almost even weirder for her, falling for three brothers all at the same time.
As my thoughts hummed away, Blair was the one gazing at me then, her hands running up and down my back.
“I still can’t get over how sweet this all was.” There was a note of admiration in her voice that made my chest swell with pride. “The dinner, the fancy car… And just us now. Here. Together.”
She drummed her fingers thoughtfully, and I did the same. Part of me wanted to tell her how much all of it -- us -- had surprised me. How after that first time meeting her in the bar, the irreverent woman with a big heart had surprised me most of all. But I was afraid that if I started talking, I’d let her know too much. And part of me was still terrified to have my heart ripped out.
So instead, I wrapped my arms around her and we eased back into each other, breathing each other in.
I don’t know how long we stayed like that, our bare bodies pressed up against each other, only that when Blair finally drew away, it still felt way too soon.
“We do have work tomorrow,” she reminded me gently.
“Yep.” I switched to all business mode. “We better get our clothes on.”
So, I went through the quick task of pulling on all my clothes and donning my shoes, only to find Blair, similarly dressed, yet a disappointed expression on her face.
“I didn’t mean to.…” she said.
“Neither did I,” I said, surprised, unsure what we were really talking about.
Our gazes held, daring the other to speak first.
“I had a great time with you.” I took her hand and pressed it to my lips. “Even if you ate more of my meal than me.”
I couldn’t hold back my grin as Blair’s features erupted into righteous indignation. “You offered it to me.”
I couldn’t hold back my mirth any longer. Opening my mouth, the laughter spilled out and I kissed her full on the lips.
On the short drive back to her place, we held hands and just enjoyed one another’s company. Dropping her off at her apartment, I held myself back from inviting myself in. Something told me that if I did that, we wouldn’t be getting much sleep. All of me was hyperalert in her presence, almost agitated. I wanted her again, though I’d been inside her just a short bit ago. But she was right, we had to work the next day and being tired on shift could be a recipe for disaster.
Pulled up in front of her apartment building, somehow, neither Blair nor I could get her out of the car. Finally, I got out and trotted around to her side of the car. I opened the door and held her hand as she climbed out.
“Goodnight beautiful Blair,” I said.
“Goodnight Peter,” she answered.
She leaned in for one last kiss goodbye that vibrated through my whole body. And then she was gone.
I stood on the sidewalk and watched her walk all the way to her door, as I stopped myself from calling her back.
Something about me was uneasy about the dark around the entranceway of her apartment. After a few seconds, I saw why. Blair had slipped into the building when a figure emerged and followed her up the stairs.
29
Blair
I was unlocking my apartment door when two baseball mitts for hands closed around my throat. All I could think to do was to jab out a foot and then a fist. The foot made contact, and a grunt came from the huge from attacking me. But already I was losing breath fast, my vision blurring.
Next thing I knew, the hold was releasing, and the guy was staggering backward. Peter was already readying himself for another hit, his fists raised. The guy charged at him, but I caught him in the side of the rib cage with my own well-placed punch. He staggered to the side but kept on ahead, charging at Peter. He didn’t quite reach him though; Peter dodged out of the way and the guy crashed through my door and into my apartment. The man was a bear, huge and powerful. He reared back, slamming out his arms at both of us as we pounced on him.
I landed on the tips of my toes and sprang back at him.
As the man swung a fist at Peter and then me, we parried his blows, delivering our own.
It was slow, methodical. The pair of us fighting against this beast of a man, who seemed to grow more violent and wild the more the fight turned against him. Until, as his hand dove into his pocket, I slashed out my fists, making contact just in time to have his knife stab into the wood floor of my kitchen.
A pause, and then Peter and I came at him with everything we had. Everything was a mess of punches and kicks and holds. Neither of us stopped until he was lying on the ground in an unconscious heap, his face slumped near where his knife had embedded into the floor.
For one long minute, neither Peter nor I said anything. Then, my whole body buckled, and I found myself in Peter’s arms as he spoke with a tenderness I wouldn’t’ve thought him capable of. “It’s okay. It’s okay now.”
And there was something about the way he said it, that made me believe him.
I was in shock, unsure what to do. All I knew was that I need a cold drink of water. So, after tying the guy up as best we could, Peter went to get me a drink.
“Peter,” I told him, smiling faintly. “I’m okay.”
Peter�
�s whole body, from the way his tense shoulders were still in a rigid upward set, to the way his eyes were still scanning our surroundings, as if the same man who was lying tied up on my floor could spring out of any of the dark corners of my apartment. “You don’t have to say that, you know,” he said.
I let my body set itself down on the couch, saying nothing. Peter didn’t understand. I actually did have to say that. Because if I let the tsunami of sensations crackling in the depths of my consciousness expand, I wasn’t sure what would happen. That guy had just tried to kill me.
Next thing I knew, Peter was sitting beside me, his arm around me, easing a cup of hot chocolate into my hand.
“You’re out of tea,” he explained.
I smiled thinly. That wasn’t the only thing I was out of. Lately, I’ve been so strapped for time with hanging out with the boys and work, that I let my groceries go basically to nothing. By now, I’d lost track of how many of those ready-made barbecue chickens I’d been having.
I took a sip of the hot cocoa, letting its warmth reassure me from the inside out. A glance over found Peter watching me as frantically as if the verdict of how much I enjoyed the cocoa would affect the world.
“Really, I’m okay, and thanks,” I told him.
Although I was still definitely rattled, I didn’t like seeing Peter stressed like that. He was always so in control, so calm. And yet, at the sight of me almost being hurt like that, his composure had crumbled.
“When I saw him with his hands wrapped around your throat,” Peter’s voice cracked. “For second I thought….”
He didn’t finish the sentence. And I didn’t finish it either. In those few seconds, when shock turned into terror, the only thought rattling around my mind had been: He’s going to kill me. I’m going to die now.
I shivered and Peter wrapped his arms around me tighter, his glare concentrated on the man on the floor. “He won’t get away with this. Not him and not that asshole who sent him. I’m going to make him pay. If it’s the last thing I do, I will.”
I smiled a little at that. Peter was the most adept cop I knew, and the most thorough. If he swore to do something, then there was no doubt my mind that it would get done. First things first though, there was a knock on my door.
As I went over to open it, I heard a scrambling noise behind me.
“Are you all right?” Jeremy said as soon as the doorway was even a crack open.
Turning around, I found that my breath had left me. The man who’d attacked me, the one who had been tied up on the floor of my living room was gone.
30
Blair
“What the hell?” Peter was saying.
There was a scraping sound from my bedroom and we ran there to find the man at the open window, bashing my screen, presumably so he could climb out. While he had almost been able to take Peter and I, with all three brothers on him it was only a matter of minutes before he was half-conscious again.
Jeremy had gone into a blind fury punching to the guy to the point that the others had to stop him. Finally calm, he searched my face. “That son of a bitch could have killed you.”
Peter lifted something Noah had handed him. “And he’s going to pay.”
What he had in his hand look like a tape recorder. And what he had in his other was unmistakably a gun.
Peter raised the gun to the guy’s throat and said, “Don’t think that just because we’re cops, that we’re gonna do this by the book. That woman over there happens to be the most important thing in world to us. You just signed your own death warrant motherfucker,” he growled at the guy.
If he really got what Peter was saying, he didn’t give much indication. Peter kept on talking. “I highly doubt anyone is going to miss you, you miserable piece of shit.”
When the man made no attempt at a response, Peter clicked the safety off the gun, pressing the muzzle deep into his throat. “But I’m feeling generous. You talk, you admit who hired you, and we’ll let you get away with jail time and your life.”
The pause was too long, and Jeremy’s fist sliced down certain and unavoidable. Noah grabbed him as the guy’s head slumped down. Another pause and then the guy said, grudgingly, “I’ll talk.”
He admitted that Francis was an old friend who’d paid him to get me back for the loss of his cousin. After that, Jeremy called it in to the station. After the guy was hauled out in cuffs by our fellow officers, we all stood around looking at one another, unsure what to do next.
31
Jeremy
And to think I’d thought I was sure of myself when I was coming here….
Peter’s texts midway through their date about how good a time he’d been having had already set me off; set my mind racing in a few different optimistic directions. By the time he’d texted that she’d been attacked though, everything had concentrated into the single impulse to get there, help them. Noah and I had gotten here as fast as we could, hardly talking, driving and running with a speed that was fanatical.
When I got to the door, still unsure whether she was ok, it had hit me. I wanted to be with Blair, even if it meant sharing her with my brothers. I wanted Blair to be okay. I needed her to be.
And then she’d opened the door and I’d seen her and we’d made Joe talk. And now, there I was. At a loss for words.
Only, I had to force myself to find them.
“Pizza?” I said.
A stunned silence where the others stared at me, probably wondering if I had lost my mind. I wasn’t even sure that I hadn’t. All I knew was that when I was freaked out about anything, food always made it better. And hadn’t Blair mention that her favorite pizza had pineapples on it?
I turned my attention to Blair. “I’m going to order some Domino’s, and make sure it’s got pineapples on it.”
All Blair could do was nod shakily. In a few short hours she’d had her life threatened and then the same man had almost escaped again.
“Luckily we managed to get most of the paperwork out of the way,” Noah said, probably because there wasn’t anything else to say.
Blair only gave another shaky nod and then, weakly said, “Do you guys mind if I just wait in my room for a few minutes, just until the pizza comes?”
“Sure,” I said. “But are you….”
I let my voice trail off. It seemed ridiculous to ask if she was okay. She’d almost been killed, of course she wasn’t okay. But when I strode up to take her in my arms, she felt like a doll with all the stuffing out. So, I let her go. We all did.
Peter, Noah, and I flung ourselves onto her couch to wait for the pizza. Once it got there, she still hadn’t come out. I went to her room, tentatively knocking on the door. “Blair?”
Opening the door, I found that she was all curled up in her bed. She sat up. “Sorry. Guess I lost track of time.”
“It’s fine. Do you want us to get out the pizza or….”
She shook her head. “You know what? We could just have it in here, if that’s cool with you guys.”
As soon as Noah and Peter came into her room too, we quickly realized the problem. “You guys can just sit on my bed,” she offered, seeing as the only other chair was occupied by me.
We gladly complied, all of us sitting at the edge of her bed as we ate our first slice, Blair propped up on pillows as she enjoyed hers. After a few seconds of quiet, downright awkward eating, Blair broke out, “Thank you guys. All of you. I’d probably be dead if it weren’t for you.”
I scooted up next to her and Peter and Noah crowded around us too. As Blair eased her head onto my shoulder, I let my hand stroke her hair, while Peter’s hand threaded through hers.
“I still can’t believe that happened,” she said hollowly.
“I still can’t believe how you kept your head like that,” Noah admitted. “Getting choked like that would make most people panic.”
Blair only nodded. “I’m just glad my instincts kicked in.”
At the mention of instincts, my dick twitched. Truth be
told, if I followed my instincts right now, it would’ve been to pull Blair under the covers and start kissing her. But it felt weird after what just happened. Blair probably just need some comfort food and comforting. Although, sex was the best comfort I knew. Besides, there was what Peter, Noah, and I had discussed as we waited for the pizza. What Peter told us, about how the date had been with Blair, had illuminated things for him.
By the time we were on our third piece of pizza, I was getting restless. Whatever Blair’s verdict to what we were going to suggest was, I couldn’t stand not knowing.
So, instead of waiting for the perfect time to say the perfect thing, I just went for it.
“Blair.” My hand closed around hers. “We have something to run by you right now, if you’re ok.”
Although now may be wasn’t the time to heap another crazy idea onto her already crazy evening, maybe this would be just what she needed.
32
Blair
“What is it?” I said.
Jeremy looked like whatever he had to say was a was both lighting him up and eating him from the inside. His words came out disjointed, funny. He looked awkward, like I’d never seen him before.
“It’s about us. I mean, you, and all of us. You know what I mean. Anyway, thing is, we all like you.”
“A lot,” Noah said quietly.
“So, we want to give this a real try,” Peter said. “More than just exploring, if you’re open to it.”
I looked from one man to the other, taking in their earnest expressions. “What do you mean?” I asked, too mentally exhausted to even hope for what was brimming at the edge of my consciousness.
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