She eyed us all, squinting through the thick glasses she never wore in public and donned at night only. “Okay. I’ll be back though.”
Nadir locked the door behind her, then they moved in on me.
“We need to talk,” Suraj said, making me feel like a mouse beneath a tiger’s paws with the way he loomed into my personal space. I breathed in the sweet vanilla bourbon and spice scent of his beard oil and sighed, mesmerized in seconds.
“Okay. Agreed. I just don’t know where to begin,” I said, fascinated by my nails. “I wasn’t… So maybe I’ve thought about things happening that way before, but I wasn’t expecting it.”
Amusement raised the corner of Nadir’s mouth. “You’ve thought about fucking us before?”
“No! Well, yes? Yes, and no. I’d have to be blind or stupid to look at either of you and not have a little fantasy, okay, but…” I really needed a new manicure. I studied the chipped polish until Nadir took my hands in his, distracting me from my distraction. I gazed into eyes the rich hue of brandy, the intensity in his earnest gaze rocking me to the soul. My breath locked in my chest.
“We care about you. Waiting for the chance to speak about the other night has been unbearable, Penny. It is with complete honesty when I tell you that sleeping with you during the tour was not our intentions.”
“Yeah, well, it wasn’t mine either. You both are so hot, and so sweet and wonderful and…” I sighed, reduced to feeling like a high school girl with her first crush as senseless babble parted my lips. “You’re amazing men. When I walked in on you, I thought, ‘oh, so this is why they’re single. They’re gay.’ But then this happened.”
Strong arms wrapped around me from behind and pulled me against the other man’s chest. “For many years, I believed women weren’t for me. I did not think it fair to take a bride, that I should marry a woman but never feel attraction.” His gentle sigh stirred a few wisps of my hair. “It never occurred to that I may be bisexual.”
“What happens now? Your job…does this mean I have to fire you?”
“Ian knows.”
I froze in Suraj’s embrace and jerked my hands from Nadir. “You told your boss you both DP’ed me?”
“No!” This time he laughed, a good and hearty kind of laugh that would have warmed me to the core if I weren’t mortified. “I told him no such thing. I told him you wandered in on us in bed. We were worried you may have…”
“Fired you. You were afraid I’d called your boss and ratted you out.”
Nadir nodded. “We were. It was not a very peaceful morning. Then Ian told me the damnedest thing; that he knew all along we were attracted to each other. Practically gave us his blessing.”
My eyes widened as I tried to imagine Mr. MacArthur and Nadir having this chummy chat. “I really don’t have to fire you then?”
“Not unless you want to.”
The snug arms around my body tightened. I leaned into Suraj and soaked in that warmth, the sweetness of his skin and masculinity wrapping me in pure comfort. I could have fallen asleep right then. Then one of his palms smoothed upward and scooped against my left breast, teasing through my thin nightshirt until the nipple tensed.
“I don’t want to.”
Nadir touched my chin and tilted my face up to his again. Soft lips claimed mine, gentle at first then demanding. “Then we will remain your team as long as you will be ours.”
Harper knocked on the door. “Hey! Are you guys done yet?”
Another kiss from Nadir liquefied me. I may have slid down to the floor if Suraj hadn’t held me upright. “Not now, but when we are alone at your home, there is something we must show you. Something you deserve to know. But for now, this is good enough.”
My two men left through the adjoining door, leaving me to suffer with my arousal while they probably blew each other for bedtime.
Chapter Eighteen
Suraj
Houston had never looked so good, but after weeks spent on a bus traveling through the frozen north, the vibrant green of Texas in springtime was a welcome sight. The busses let us off in a secured lot at the airport, where a line of vehicles waited to drive home anyone who hadn’t left their car there. Penny hugged her bandmates and promised they’d get together soon for lunch before joining Nadir and I at our SUV. She passed out asleep before we even left through the gates and didn’t wake until Nadir pulled up in front of our building.
“Home at last. I want to take the longest bath ever, order in, and sleep for a week,” Penny said, arms stretched over her head.
“You just slept,” I teased as I took her luggage from the trunk.
“That was a catnap. I mean a good, long sleep in my own bed with pillows tucked all around and room to stretch out.”
“All good plans.”
The doorman greeted us all and welcomed us inside the building. The place still didn’t feel like home, but I felt like that would change now, mirroring the blooming relationship between the three of us.
“What do you plan on doing?” she asked slyly.
“The same as you. Hot soak, lots of food, a soft bed, and hopefully some good company.”
“Pretty sure I can make all of that happen at my place, if you two—”
“Excuse me, sir, call for you,” the concierge called over before we reached the elevator.
“For me? Who is it?”
“MacArthur Security.”
Odd that they wouldn’t call me directly. A quick check of my phone indicated no missed calls.
“Should I tell them you’ll call back?”
“No, give me a moment.” Nadir still hadn’t come in, but Brick was on the lower penthouse level already, having done a sweep of the building before our arrival. My gaze swept across the empty lobby before settling on Penny. “Head on up. Nadir and I will be right behind you.”
“I can hold the door.”
Since I couldn’t kiss her, I settled for giving her hand a light squeeze. “Go on, this should only take a minute.”
We split up, a few strides taking me to the front desk where the concierge handed me the phone.
“This is Suraj.”
“You can’t protect her, you know. Only I can.”
Every sense went on alert. Spinning around brought the closing doors of the elevator into my view, Penny’s smiling face lost from view.
“Who is this?” Training told me to keep the guy on the line. Whoever he or she was, they were using some sort of vocal modulation. At the same time, I tapped out a quick message in a group chat informing them of the immediate situation. The elevator continued to climb, passing floor six.
“Her biggest fan. The only one who truly understands her. You’ll see. And so will she.”
The lobby lost power, and the line went dead.
Penny
Anxiety and I were old friends. It started years ago when the elevator in my mother’s law office broke down and I was stuck alone inside of it for hours until rescue crews got me out. Ever since, I’ve hated stepping inside one, but that fear was nothing compared to the dread that washed over me when the elevator shuddered and went dark. Emergency lights flickered on, but for a few terrifying seconds my world had been black.
“It’s all good, Penny. Just a glitch. They’ll get you moving in no time.” My self-pep-talk did little to ease the churning sensation in my stomach. The red emergency lighting didn’t help either, lending the small space a sinister air.
A light blinked on the panel, drawing my attention to the help button. Lurching across the car, I pressed down on it with my thumb.
“Hello? Can anyone hear me?”
Silence was my only reply. A quick check on my phone revealed the usual absence of bars.
“Hello? Please, someone answer me.”
Were the walls pressing in? Was that shudder a prelude to the elevator falling?
A small laugh bubbled up at the ridiculous thought. Plummeting to my death in an elevator only ever happened in the movies. This was nothing more than a
power outage, not a natural disaster affecting the structural integrity of the building.
Logic didn’t help. Each breath sounded absurdly loud without the hum of music or air to dull them. Minutes that felt like an eternity ticked by.
“Breathe. Close your eyes and focus only on your breathing.”
I didn’t recognize the voice coming from the speakers, but the advice was sound. Still, even good advice was hard to follow when in full-blown-panic-mode.
“I can’t. I—I need Suraj and Nadir. Please get them.”
“They aren’t here.” There was an odd edge to the man’s voice, or maybe it was just the crackle of the speaker. “I’m here for you. Breathe, Penny.”
How did he—? Of course, he’d know my name. The concierge probably told him, or my two guards. It was probably someone from the fire department trying to keep me calm while they fixed everything.
“Is Nadir there?”
“Don’t you worry. I’m going to get the power back on for you. You’ll be out of there in no time.”
“Okay. But please, can you get Nadir or Suraj? I need…I need to have one of them talk me through this.”
“You don’t need them. I’m here.”
His insistence made me cold and a leaden weight dropped into my stomach, resulting in a nauseating lurch.
“Who is this? Who are you?” I demanded.
“I’m the only one who can help you right now, don’t you see that?”
My fear reached new heights, sending my pulse into overdrive. “Did you do this?”
“I’m the one getting you out.”
“Who is this?” I asked again. “Tell me your name.”
“You know me Penny, and soon, you’ll never forget me.”
Nadir
The moment the power cut off, a sense of danger crept up my spine. There was no reason for a power loss, and I knew the building had backups. I’d been two steps away from the car when the lights went out. A lesser man might have panicked and stumbled in the dark. I didn’t need much light to see—a perk of my shifter side—and hurried for the stairs to the lobby.
Suraj had already joined Reginald, the building’s maintenance supervisor, in the utilities room by the time I reached him. Losing power was bad enough, but Penny was alone. I couldn’t even blame Suraj for it.
I went straight for the panel where the elevator communications blinked red and white. “Penny, can you hear me?”
“Tried that already,” Suraj called. He held a Maglite for Reginald at the breaker panel.
“Why isn’t this working?”
“I don’t know. It should be. Everything is showing green and we just tested it last week. The entire grid is off.” The old man patted his perspiring brow with a plaid handkerchief. “All my time here, I’ve never seen anything like this happen before.”
“Keep working. You got anything for me, Juni?”
Fortune placed Juni at headquarters when we called to report the situation. With access to the building’s security feeds granted to our technicians, she worked her computer magic and forced her way into the full system.
“Hey, guys. I’m looking at some unusual activity here. This isn’t a coincidence or a tech failure,” she reported. “Someone hacked their way into the system, and they’re ahead of me at every step, controlling the elevator functions.”
“Then we go into the shaft and get her out. Keep at it, Juni. We need control back.”
“I’m on it. Whoever it is, they’re in the building. I’ll try to narrow it down to the source.”
We left the flashlight with Reginald and hurried through the building to the lobby. Amanda waited at the front desk with Randy, each of them fielding phone calls on their cellphones. The moment she spotted us, she told her caller she had to go, then hurried over on her noisy heels.
“Is it true Penny is in the elevator?”
“Please, we don’t have time for questions,” Suraj said, fending her off while I worked on prying the doors open. “Tell everyone who calls down to remain in their homes.”
“Fuck, no ladder.” I smacked my hand against the wall. “I’m heading upstairs, I’ll rappel down from there.”
“Safety regulations don’t permit—”
“Take your safety regulations and shove them,” I snapped. The blonde blinked and scrambled a few steps back.
Maybe I’d apologize later, but right now we didn’t have time to worry about rules and her hurt feelings. Suraj was at my side as we made the climb in the dark. Brick had the door open for us at the top.
“What have we got, man?”
“I got the doors open, but she’s a good ten floors down and the shaft is pitch dark. I tossed a couple glow sticks down, whatever good that’ll do you.”
We all leaned into the elevator shaft to have a look, and my nose wrinkled at the waft of stale air. Without a ladder or a harness, I’d have to slide down the cabling. Nothing I hadn’t done before. I’ve done worse without equipment.
“Look, man, she’s safe in there. Waiting for the fire department won’t cause any harm,” Brick said in a low voice.
“Doesn’t matter if it’s safe or not. Our…client is down there.”
Client. Desired mate. Future mother of the gang of children I wanted to father with her alongside Suraj. The title didn’t matter when Penny was trapped and terrified.
A glance at Suraj verified we only had one option. One of us needed to be down there with her and should have been from the beginning. We may not have been able to rescue her and carry her to safety, but I damned well wouldn’t leave her alone with her terror.
Penny
The waiting was the worst part. Whoever my tormentor was, they didn’t seem keen on talking much. That was fine. But knowing that this wasn’t an accident only kept my mind spinning.
Why? What was the point of all this? How did trapping me endear anyone to me?
A sudden thud above me caught me off guard. I screamed, my active imagination conjuring up the worst images from every horror movie I’d ever watched.
“Penny! Penny can you hear me?”
“Nadir?” I nearly collapsed in a sobbing heap right then and there.
“Hold on, sweetheart. I’m going to get you out of there.”
A loud bang made the ceiling panels shudder. It sounded like he was trying to pummel his way inside.
“Be careful,” I cried. “Hearing you is enough. Just don’t leave me.”
“I’m not leaving. I’m—shit!”
The elevator dropped.
It wasn’t like the movies. There was no gravity-defying plummet, but the lurch and sudden stop knocked me off my feet.
“Nadir!”
My heart raced, the sound of my pulse a thundering echo in my ears. A knot tightened in my throat.
Then the hatch groaned open and Nadir lowered himself through. I hurled myself into his arms and buried my face against his throat. His embrace anchored me, and I stopped caring about the mysterious voice over the elevator speaker. It didn’t matter.
“You came for me.”
“Couldn’t let you stick this out alone. Help is on the way.”
When the fire department arrived, Nadir still had his arms around me. The security he provided was all that kept the panic attack at bay.
Chapter Nineteen
Penny
Lounging on the balcony with a good book and a margarita should have helped to ease my tension, but the longest two days of my life had followed the incident on the elevator. Someone spilled it to the news, which meant my social media inboxes and emails were spammed to death by people asking how I felt and if I was okay. I took time to answer those whether they were legitimate or not.
In addition, my stalker was a little too sloppy. Mr. MacArthur’s tech gal was a computer genius who earned her pay. She got into the security systems, did some weird backdoor tracing, and found the employee login behind the cyber-attack.
It was our concierge. All this time, I never suspected my stalker
was a face I saw every day.
Hannibal Lecter said it best, however: we covet what we see every day.
It hurt knowing the guy I’d smiled at in passing and even gave free concert tickets for his sister had also invaded my privacy. Randy had been chatting with me and talking to me since the day I moved into the building. I’d almost invited him into my home. God, every time I thought about it, I had a full body shake.
“Hey.” Nadir stepped onto the balcony and shut the sliding door behind him, all six feet of hottie dressed to impress in loafers and a fine suit. He wore a pair of five-hundred-dollar shades that gave him the intimidating secret agent look, but he took those off and slid the arm into the collar of his shirt. “You doing okay out here?”
“Fine.” I sipped from my margarita to wash the taste of the lie from my mouth.
Nadir eased into the adjacent lounge chair. “You don’t seem fine. Who frowns like that when they’re drinking a margarita and jamming to Beyoncé?”
“I do, because it’s gross and gray and dreary out. I wanted some sun.”
I could tell he wasn’t buying it.
“Fine, fine. Was just…lost in my own head and thinking about the other day, I guess. Tried to unwind, but I can’t. I keep reading the same page over and over. I just can’t believe Randy was my stalker. All this time. He seemed so…” I struggled for words to describe the friendly man who always greeted me at the concierge desk. He’d been five and a half feet of nonthreatening, glasses-wearing geek, but friendly nonetheless. Every time I thought about him digging around in my inbox and reading my personal e-mails I wanted to throw up.
Nadir’s expression softened. He was so tender for a big, retired Marine. “Yeah, that’s the thing about stalkers and unstable people sometimes, Penny. They don’t always wear a badge on their chest or carry a bunch of red flags as a warning sign.”
“I’m so glad I let you do my computer upgrades instead.” I shook my head.
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