Dare to Surrender

by Jeanne St. James

  Without looking at Gryff, she waved a hand over her shoulder at him, dismissing his verbal warning.

  “She doesn’t need to wear anything sexy while she’s in their house.” Trey pinned his glare on Eli. “Don’t get any ideas. And don’t even think about touching her.” His eyes flicked up to Grant behind him. “You, either. Neither of you. She’s off limits.”

  Eli raised his gaze to Gryff who hadn’t moved a muscle since he came into the office. He still leaned back against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. But now he seemed to be amused at Trey’s protective older brother attitude.

  However, Trey might blow a gasket if he found out that he and Grant slept with his sister, so he needed an ally if that ever came to light. More than just Rayne, who he now had no doubt was doing some scheming. But the woman had performed a miracle to get Trey and Gryff together. It almost didn’t happen, but she was one determined woman. And look at them now...

  Okay, maybe not that exact moment, since Trey was a bit butt hurt with Rayne’s mild meddling.

  But Eli had seen it before, it would just take one touch or one whisper from Rayne and Trey would be over it. At least, until the next time.

  Gryff pushed away from the wall and clapped his hands together once. “Okay, so let’s recap. Eli, do what you do best. We’ll leave it in your capable hands. Whatever you need from us, just let us know. T, you’re on the new burner phone and laptop. Rayne, gift cards to clothing retailers who are not Victoria’s Secret. Got me?”

  Rayne smiled, though Gryff was behind her so he couldn’t see her. Which Eli thought might be for the best. “Got you, Boss,” she said finally.

  “Eli will follow me to my office to grab Liv’s cellphone to get rid of it.” Gryff turned his dark eyes to Eli. “What about her logging into the school’s website? Will someone be able to track her IP address?”

  “I don’t know. I’ll work on that.”

  Grant laid a hand on Eli’s shoulder. “You have enough to worry about, big man. I’ll work on that. I’m finishing up a brief, but as soon as I’m done, I’ll do a little research.”

  “Thanks, mon amour.”

  “Okay, I think we have everything covered for now,” Eli said and pushed out of his office chair. Grant’s hand slipping from his shoulder to slide down and settle on his lower back.

  Before everyone could remove themselves from Eli’s office, his cellphone rang. Eli picked it up and said, “It’s Olivia calling from the house number.”

  Everyone froze mid-motion to turn their attention to him.

  He swiped his finger across the screen and put it to his ear. “Olivia.”

  Chapter 10

  Olivia’s words flowed like honey into his ear. “Eli, I called my work to tell them I had a family emergency.”

  “Did you call them from this line?” He had told her if she was going to make any calls, especially to her building’s super or work, then she could only use the land line until another phone was obtained. At least Eli had the house number blocked from any caller ID.

  “Yes, I did what you said... And...”

  “What?” Eli sucked in a breath to brace himself.

  “They said someone had been there looking for me. Not just once. But every day since Peggy’s murder.”

  Fuck. “What did you tell them?”

  “That I had to rush out of state.”

  “Good thinking. To where?”

  “Chicago.”

  He breathed a little easier. “Good.”

  “I told them I had family there.”

  “Whoever’s looking for you might not believe that story,” he warned softly.

  “I said I had a distant relative who was extremely sick.”

  Her story might throw them off the path but not for long.

  “Are you going to lose your job?” Eli asked. Not that he cared. It didn’t pay enough for her to even live decently. They needed to find her something better.

  “I don’t know.” She paused, then said in a shaky whisper, “Eli, I can’t afford to lose my job.”

  “That job wasn’t paying you shit.”

  “But it’s all I have.”

  Eli closed his eyes for a moment at the desperation in her voice. Damn it. His desire to take care of her bubbled to the surface like an erupting volcano. He needed to cool it. She was an independent woman and had been taking care of herself for a long time. She’d balk at someone insisting on doing things for her. They had to do that slowly and with care. Get her used to the idea that she was no longer on her own. That she had people around her now that wanted to help, who wanted to be supportive.

  She didn’t have to struggle anymore. Not if it was up to him.

  He opened his eyes and his gaze landed on her brother who was watching him intently. Stepping in to take care of Olivia might not only alienate her but also Trey. He had to be careful.

  And though Grant’s tune had changed quickly, he still wasn’t sure his husband was on board fully with how he’d like their relationship to develop with Olivia.

  Hell, he wasn’t even sure how he’d like it to go. He had an idea, though. But it was way too early to even consider it. They’d known her for barely three days.

  Three days. Things had moved quickly with Grant when he met him, but not this fast. However, Eli had always been the kind of man who, when he knew what he wanted, went after it.

  He also had a good gut instinct.

  Right now, his gut was screaming that Olivia’s temporary move-in shouldn’t be so temporary.

  “Eli,” Grant murmured.

  Eli realized that he was still on the phone with Olivia and neither were saying a word.

  Fuck.

  “Don’t worry about your job right now. We’ll deal with that later.”

  “But—”

  “We’ll discuss it when we get home.” And even then, he hoped they could put off that discussion for a later date. They needed to deal with other stuff tonight other than her crappy job.

  “What time will you be home?”

  Home. He liked hearing that word come from her lips. “As long as I don’t get tied up, about five. Grant should be home around then, too, if not sooner.”

  “Okay,” she said softly into his ear. “I’ll make sure dinner is ready at six.”

  His chest tightened. “Olivia, you don’t have to do that.”

  “Yes, I do. I need to do something. I need to keep busy. And I’m a good cook, I promise.”

  “As good as Grant?”

  Olivia laughed, and it pulled a smile from Eli. “Yes, just as good. But I’ll let you be the judge of that.”

  “Okay. Keep the doors locked, the curtains closed, and the alarm activated.”

  “I will.”

  “See you later.”

  “Bye, Eli,” she said on a breath.

  His phone went dark. His heart had squeezed at her final words and he had no idea why. Just her saying goodbye to him affected him in a way he couldn’t explain.

  Grant curled his fingers around Eli’s waist and squeezed. It was a good reminder that he still had an office full of people.

  Gryff cleared his throat. “Okay, you all have your assignments. Eli, follow me to my office so I can grab her cellphone and you can dispose of it.”

  Eli gave Gryff a sharp nod. He laid a hand over Grant’s and squeezed back as he turned his head toward the other man. “Je t'aime,” he murmured. Because he did. He loved Grant to the ends of the earth and back.

  “Me, too,” Grant whispered, then broke away, leaving the office.

  “I’ll go with you two,” Trey said to Gryff.

  “No. You need to go get the stuff Eli told you.”

  Trey frowned. Rayne grabbed Trey’s hand and lifted it to her lips to kiss it. “Come on, mon amour, let’s go shopping. Maybe I’ll practice my French on you while we do it.”

  Trey smiled and jerked their clasped hands until she fell against him. She laughed and offered him her mouth. He accepted and dropped a deep, me
ssy kiss on her. Then he tugged her toward the office door, stopping in front of Gryff.

  “Boss man,” Trey said, looking up at Gryff. “Give me some sugar before we go.”

  Gryff rolled his eyes and gave him a fake scowl, but wrapped his large hand around the back of Trey’s head and pulled him close enough to give him a thorough kiss. When he released Trey, he did the same to Rayne.

  Eli watched the three of them interact and swallowed hard. This is what he and Grant could have. But did they need it? Did they need to add a third person into their relationship? It may completely change the dynamics and he didn’t want to mess up a good thing, either. Hell, not a good thing. A great thing.

  He envied what Gryff, Rayne and Trey had with each other. The three were not afraid to show it. They never hid their affection for one another. There had been many a time where one of their office doors was closed and it wasn’t hard to figure out what was going on behind it. In fact, Gryff had installed locks on his and Rayne’s offices shortly after the three of them hooked up. Eli was pretty sure that Trey’s office now had a lock on it, too. While no one else’s in the firm did.

  Very telling.

  Gryff might pretend Trey was a pain in his ass, but he loved the man. That was clear.

  Once again, Eli realized how lucky he and Grant were to work in an environment where their relationship didn’t have to remain a secret, where they weren’t ostracized or judged for their sexual orientation. And even better, Gryff, Rayne and Trey, who were of a like mind, were their friends outside of work, also.

  They even sometimes hung out with Gryff’s brother, Grae, who lived with and loved Paige and Connor. Actually, Grae didn’t live with them. The married couple had moved into Grae’s large house and they’ve been happy together ever since.

  “Coming?” Gryff’s deep voice broke into his thoughts and Eli realized Trey and Rayne had left.

  “Yes.”

  Eli followed his boss through the halls of the large firm back to where the partners’ offices were. He greeted Gryff’s secretary, Dani, as they passed. Once he stepped into the big boss’s office, Gryff shut the door behind him, then moved to the center of the room.

  The man planted his hands on his hips, turned to face Eli directly and growled, “What the fuck is going on?”

  Eli blinked in surprise. “What?”

  “You heard me. What’s Rayne up to? Is there something going on that I should know about, that I need to prepare for? Especially with Trey?”

  “No.”

  “Bullshit,” Gryff barked, staring at the floor shaking his head. Then he lifted it and caught Eli’s gaze. “Liv’s safety and getting her out of this mess is a priority, Eli. Not you adding a third to your bed.”

  “I—”

  Gryff held up a hand, stopping him. “Don’t bullshit me. You’re not the only one around here that’s good at sniffing things out.” He turned on his heel, shrugged off his suit jacket and threw it onto a nearby chair, then grabbed the knot in his tie and tugged it loose. The man then removed his cufflinks, tossed them onto his desk blotter before beginning to roll up his sleeves.

  Jesus, was Gryff getting ready for a throw down?

  “Boss,” Eli murmured.

  “What?” Gryff rolled up his white dress shirt sleeves until Eli could see the tail of his dragon tattoo peeking out near his elbow.

  Eli knew the man had the large inked piece over his shoulders and across his back. Trey had let it slip one day and Eli sometimes got a glance of the tail that came down low on his arm. But he’d never seen the whole thing. He doubted many people had.

  “Are you going to hit me or something?

  Gryff looked at him in surprise. “What? No! For fuck’s sake, Eli, why would I hit you?”

  “For fucking Trey’s sister.”

  Gryff froze, his narrowed eyes pinning Eli in place.

  Oh, shit.

  Oh, fuck.

  Gryff didn’t know. Eli mistakenly thought the man knew and that’s why he was leading the conversation about Olivia in that direction. He thought maybe Olivia had told...

  Fuck! Why the hell would she tell Rayne?

  She wouldn’t. Even if she would, she probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity yet since it only happened last night.

  Eli groaned. He just fucked up big time.

  “I’m sorry?” Gryff growled. “Did you say you fucked Liv?”

  “Gryff,” Eli began.

  “That’s not an answer. But I’ll take that as a yes. Does Grant know?”

  “Uh...”

  Gryff lifted his palms out. “Wait.” He shook his head. “Wait.” He turned and stared out of the long line of windows behind his desk for a moment. Then two. It was hard to miss the muscles in the man’s jaw popping. “What the fuck,” came the soft mutter. Then he turned and pinned his gaze on Eli again. “Was it both of you?”

  “I’ve never cheated on my husband.”

  “So, you didn’t have sex with Liv.” There wasn’t one indication of a question in that sentence.

  “Uh... Shit,” Eli whispered.

  “Fuck!” Gryff shouted to the ceiling. “You both had sex with her!”

  “Gryff,” Eli tried again.

  “No.” He shook his head. “No. Fuck. I’m assuming she was willing. Fuck! Of course, she was. You and Grant wouldn’t force... Oh, fuck me,” he groaned. “We need to keep this quiet. Keep it from Trey. At least for now.” Gryff blew out a loud breath and rubbed his hands over his face. “How did this happen?” came muffled from behind his fingers.

  “She caught us...”

  He dropped his hands and his eyebrows shot up his forehead. “In your bedroom?”

  “No...”

  When his eyebrows dropped low, Gryff appeared more menacing than normal. “Where?”

  Shit. “On the couch.”

  “You have a house guest and you’re fucking on the couch?”

  Eli winced at his shout. And here he was, just thinking about how much he appreciated working for Gryff and this firm and now he was afraid he would lose his job.

  Even worse, maybe Grant would, too.

  Then there would be three unemployed people living in a house that had a monthly mortgage payment that cost more than his first Toyota.

  “We didn’t think that—”

  Gryff raised his hand again. “Stop right there. You didn’t think. Period.”

  “You’re right. We didn’t. No... I didn’t. I’ll take the blame.”

  “Did you pressure her?”

  “What? No! We’d never do that.”

  “You know what surprises me? That Grant was okay with it.”

  Eli kept his mouth shut since he didn’t think Gryff wanted a response.

  “You know, I wondered why you offered to take Liv in so quickly.”

  “That’s not why... I... Fuck!” Eli took a breath and started again, “Gryff, there’s something about her. Something that drew me from the first moment I saw her in the lobby. I’m sorry. I didn’t expect all of this. I know she just came into your lives, back into Trey’s life... Hell, into our life. And it’s sudden. It just... happened.”

  Gryff just stared at him quietly, his face revealing nothing. And the longer he stared, the more Eli gathered his courage to make it clear to Gryff that their intent wasn’t to take advantage of Trey’s sister.

  But he never got a chance because suddenly Gryff jerked forward, making Eli take a quick step back. Though he was an inch taller than Gryff’s six-foot-two, his boss outweighed him by at least twenty pounds and it was all solid muscle. Gryff could thump Eli into the ground if he wanted to. He really hoped his boss didn’t want to. Eli could hold his own, but he was sure Gryff would get the upper hand eventually.

  Luckily, Gryff only headed across the room to move the painting on the wall, revealing his built-in safe. He punched in a code and pressed his thumb to the ID pad and the safe unlocked with a loud click. Within seconds, Gryff had the cellphone in his hand and had the safe locked and
concealed once more. He turned and unexpectedly tossed the phone to Eli, who caught it. But barely.

  “Do what you have to do with that thing. Make sure it’s never found again. Now get out of my office. I need to think about what I just discovered and whether I’m going to tell Rayne or not. Though, she’d probably buy balloons, flowers and streamers.”

  Eli wanted to laugh because he could picture Rayne doing that, but he figured now was not the best time to laugh at his boss’s sarcasm.

  He was just glad to be leaving Gryff’s office in one piece.

  Grant leaned back against the counter and watched Liv move around his kitchen. It was nice to have someone else prepare dinner for once. If dinner was left up to Eli, they ended up with take-out. Which was a nice change but not for every night.

  When he got home, he’d gone upstairs to change into a soft pair of worn jeans and an old T-shirt, then barefooted it back downstairs to watch Liv putt around the kitchen.

  Whatever she was making smelled really good and he hoped it tasted like it smelled. She wore a pair of skin-tight black yoga pants and a loose sexy top that looked like a wide-necked sweatshirt and fell off her left shoulder, proving that she wasn’t wearing a bra. And that wasn’t the only way he could tell. Every time she moved or reached for something, her breasts bobbed under the cotton and her nipples pressed hard through the soft fabric.

  He fought the urge to grab her, push her loose top up and latch his mouth on one of her nipples to suck it hard. But he was afraid if he did, he’d end up bending her over the counter and fucking her from behind.

  The last thing he needed right now was Eli walking in and catching them fucking without him.

  He had no idea how his husband would react, other than be surprised... maybe. It was best that he didn’t find out. No, he needed to wait to touch Liv until Eli was home and could join them.

  Which was only fair because he wasn’t sure how he would feel if the tables were turned and he came home to find Eli and Liv fucking without him.

  Though, the thought of watching Eli fucking Liv made his cock go from being semi-erect to steel hard, pressing uncomfortably against the zipper of his jeans.

  “Liv,” came out of his mouth in a gruff manner before he could stop it.