The More the Merrier

by K. B. Ladnier

Luckily, I only had to run the length of the cabin before I was furiously pounding on their door.

  It swung open to reveal a guy I hadn’t met yet in nothing more than some black silky, pajama pants and a Santa hat that had jet black curls peeking out from beneath it. His skin was dark and rich, making me think he might be Spanish or Italian. As he leaned in close to me, his lips set in an interested smirk; I couldn’t take my eyes off his lean, ripped physique.

  I almost imagined him in one of those foreign soap operas, telling the woman that he was banging her sister in a sinful accent that would make any girls panties melt right off them.

  I inwardly yelled at myself to stop focusing on his deliciously toned abs and seriously stunning eyes, then pushed my way passed him into the room without giving him a chance to say anything.

  I was expecting these guys to just be chilling on the couch and drinking beers as they listened to their ridiculous rap music. Instead, I found something a little more intriguing and a little hard to believe.

  Dancing. And not just any kind of dancing, but sexy dancing.

  The guy, Tobi, that I had met and one of his other friends, were doing some kind of strip dance using chairs from the dining room. It was becoming so hard to remember why I’d just stormed over here, while I watched them move their hips over a chair as if their bodies were just meant to move like that. It was probably one of the sexiest things I’d ever walked in on in my entire life.

  I lowered my hood from my head and my head tilted to the side in interest. I was completely caught in a daze at these beautiful bastards rolling and grinding their bodies, making me wish for the first time in my life that I was a damn chair. They seemed to have no clue I was even standing there, at least, until the one that answered the door walked over and shut off the music.

  “We’ve got company, guys,” he said with an amused tone and a smile lighting his face.

  No accent. Damn!

  Tobi and the other guy stopped dancing and turned in my direction.

  Do not look at their sexy, sweaty bodies! Do not look at their sexy, sweaty bodies!

  “Oh, hey. It was Lowen, right? What’s up?” Tobi asked me.

  I cleared my throat, thinking about what I was here for. But, I was completely distracted by his broad chest and washboard abs that were covered in dark hair. The smattering of dark hair was enough that I wanted to rub my hands over it, feel the roughness beneath my palms.

  Why was I here? Think, think, think ...Oh, yeah!

  I put on my best mad face, although I was sure I wasn’t successful considering my earlier train of thought. “Your music is so fucking loud, I can’t even hear myself think. I pounded on the wall and yelled, but yet again, your music is too fucking loud. Can you keep it down in here?” High five, Lowen! You actually sounded like you were still mad.

  Mr. Soap Opera came up behind me and his hand swept my hair from one shoulder to the other, then whispered in my ear, “I like girls with a little bite in them. Lowen’s your name?”

  I was a bit disappointed there was no Latin accent there, but I felt goosebumps raise along my neck where his breath fanned over it nonetheless. Warmth spread between my thighs.

  Shit! It’d been way too long since I’d had sex, and these guys were sex personified.

  “Uh ... yes?” That sounded more like a question than an answer. You so just lost your high five, Lowen.

  “Leave her alone, Jasper,” Tobi said to him as he grabbed a towel and walked over to me, wiping the sweat from his face. Mr. Soap Opera - or Jasper as Tobi called him - moved out from behind me and leaned against the doorway.

  It was insane how fluidly Jasper moved. I wouldn’t even call it moving, but more like prowling. He was graceful, but had this sexy sway to his steps. Add in the sand colored stare of his lust filled eyes, and I swore I was being stalked by a large cat of some sort.

  “Sorry about that,” Tobi added to me, taking my attention away from Jasper. “We’re practicing for something and the loud music helps us keep the mood going.”

  It almost made me mad that he was being so nice about it and actually sounded sincere. It wasn’t fair when men that looked that good could make you just forget your woes and turn you into a puddle. I had to stand my ground, though.

  “Look. I don’t care if you have to practice for whatever the hell it is you’re practicing for; wear some damn head phones or something. The walls are paper thin and you’re ruining my buzz with your shitty music.”

  “Well, damn. She has a mouth on her, doesn’t she?” The third guy said to Tobi.

  As if it wasn’t enough that Tobi and Jasper had to be sexy as sin, this guy was just as much on their level. He had blonde hair that was short on the sides and longer on top and his skin had a warm, glowing tan like he’d never spent a day out of the sun in his entire life. In essence, he was undeniably lickable. I wasn’t sure that lickable was even a word, but fuck the dictionary. I was making it a word for now on.

  “Learned all the best words from my dad. Now, seriously, will you just keep the music down?” I asked, losing a little of the steam in my voice as his bright blue eyes perused the length of me. I think all the steam was being detoured to other parts of my body. It was such a traitor.

  “Why you rushing off? You can hang out with us. Maybe join us?” Jasper asked, coming in close again.

  I unconsciously threw a hand out and laid it against his chest, keep him from coming closer. “You stay right where you are, Rico Suave. I am going to go back to my side of the cabin and finish getting wasted while watching a reindeer learn how to fucking fly. You three go back to whatever you were doing. Just keep your shit down and we’ll all be cool.”

  Jasper looked down at my hand still on his chest with a smug smile. I snatched my hand away and glared at him. I shouldn’t blame him for what my hand did, but it was my only logical choice.

  “Sorry. I promise we’ll try to keep it low key the rest of the night,” the third guy responded. “I’m Ezra, by the way, and I swear I’m not nearly as rowdy as these two. I’ll keep them in line for you.” He finished that with a blinding smile and a wink.

  How come when I winked, I looked like I had a twitch? Yet another thing that just wasn’t fucking fair.

  It took all my concentration not to focus on his body now. It was coated in sweat that dripped down his washboard abs. I tried looking at his face instead, but even that was hard to keep from staring at with awe. He had that classically handsome look going for him. I could clearly picture him with his blonde hair combed to the side, his lean body dressed in one of those penguin suits, and him ballroom dancing the night away.

  While Tobi and Jasper radiated manliness to the full extent, Ezra’s looks laid on the line of manly and beautiful. I was pretty sure he was prettier than me and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. If ‘golden boy’ had a picture under its definition, you’d see his face there.

  I raised a brow at him, doubting very much that he was as sweet as his voice and looks made him out to be. “Yeah. You do that,” I replied blandly to cover up how he and the others affected me, before turning to leave. I added over my shoulder a quick, “Goodnight.”

  “Night.” Tobi and Ezra replied as I opened the door.

  “See ya, Lowen!” I heard Jasper shout just as I closed it.

  I quickly shuffled back to my side of the cabin and practically leapt into the room to get out of the cold. With how hot I was getting just standing in that room with them, the cold felt a bit more searing than it had when I walked out earlier.

  I leaned against my door and replayed the images of all their gloriously half-naked bodies in my mind. How on earth was I going to get through this holiday with those three living next door to me? I was caught between wanting to screw each of their brains out and wanting to punch them in the faces for being so damn loud.

  Though, for the sight I just got, I’d maybe give them the benefit of the doubt for now. It seemed only fair.

  I didn’t have any issues with mus
ic the rest of the night and when I woke up the next day, I couldn’t even hear them. It wasn’t until later that night that I did finally hear noise, letting me know they’d been gone all day.

  I wondered the rest of the night exactly what it was they’d been practicing for the night before. The most likely explanation for it was stripper, but somehow, I didn’t see that as a job of theirs, considering they worked construction and renovation. Then again, they were probably only strippers for a side job.

  Two days after meeting them, I decided to get some breakfast at the local diner. It would probably be my last chance before the heavy snow started falling, and I’d have to wait for the plows to come through to clear the roads. Since I’d be out in town already, I figured I’d go ahead and pick up any essential food and drink items that I’d want for Christmas before the stores sold out.

  I jumped in the shower and started up the water, loving the heat of it as it beat down on my chilled limbs. The heater in this cabin was total crap that I really needed to get fixed; otherwise, I was going to freeze to death in my sleep. My two down comforters just weren’t enough anymore. Maybe if I begged them a little, I could convince Sexy One, Two, and Three to fix it for me. Could I really stoop to that level, though?

  Hmm. Maybe.

  I’d only been in the shower for a total of five minutes, when the water suddenly turned ice cold on me as I rinsed the shampoo out of my hair. I screamed in surprise and went to jump out of from under the liquid hypothermia, but my foot caught on the edge of the claw foot tub. I immediately went tumbling, taking the shower curtain down with me and getting wrapped up in it like a butterfly in its cocoon. Unfortunately, I went down so hard, my ass dented in the feeble wooden floor. I hissed in pain and groaned in aggravation.

  Who the hell in my family did I have to blame for such awful luck? This just wasn’t normal.

  I heard my front door crash open just before Tobi’s voice called out to me. “Lowen? You okay?”

  I rolled my eyes. This was all their fault. The cabin only had one large water heater to power both sides. An unfortunate flaw in the construction of this cabin and one of the few reasons I hated this place sometimes. But, up until these guys moved in next door, I’d never had to worry about sharing the hot water.

  I was about to shout back as I gathered myself up, the shower curtain wrapped around me, but the door to the bathroom suddenly opened. Tobi and Ezra appeared in the doorway, both with matching looks of shock when they realized I was naked and the shower curtain was pretty much see-through. I squealed and wrapped the shower curtain tighter around me, hoping if I gathered enough of it; it’d at least be a little opaquer.

  “Shit!”

  “Sorry!” They shouted simultaneously, both covered their eyes and tried to back out the room.

  “Seriously? What the hell, guys? Like it’s really cool you are making sure I’m not getting axed by some dude in a mask, but you couldn’t knock?” I yelled at them.

  “That would completely defeat the purpose of us saving you from being axe murdered,” Tobi stated sarcastically.

  “Tobi, don’t argue with her right now. We’ll just be going. So sorry, Lowen,” Ezra mumbled out and grabbed Tobi’s shoulder, steering him out of the bathroom.

  “And get out of my side of the cabin, damn it!” I added just as they slammed the door shut.

  I couldn’t believe they’d both just barged in like that. I was fine with them being all nice and neighborly by checking on me after hearing that disaster. But, coming into the bathroom was the last straw. First the music, then my hot water, now this? I swore I was going to kill them all if they kept fucking with me like this.

  I made sure the coast was clear before quickly dressing in an off-the-shoulder, long sleeve shirt, some yoga pants and my black, snow boots. I put on a little mascara and lip-gloss to look a bit more presentable to the world than I had been the last few days. Though, I did so rather violently and ended up having to start over a couple of times. I was pissed off from not having a complete shower. I’d had to finish washing my hair in the sink to avoid my whole body being blasted with more ice-cold water. I planned to have a few choice words with those guys about the water issue, the second I got some breakfast in me.

  Unfortunately, just as I exited my door to head down to my Jeep, Tobi called my name from where he and the other two leaned against the railing of the porch. I felt so angry; I didn’t even notice they stood there.

  I groaned, not wanting to deal with this right now. I just wanted coffee and food before I had any kind of altercation with them. There was no telling what would come out of my mouth if I faced them now.

  “There’s our girl! What’s up?” I heard Jasper say before he slung an arm around my shoulder and began walking down the steps with me. Tobi and Ezra followed close behind.

  “What’s up? Ha!” I let out a humorless laugh and shrugged his arm off my shoulder, turning to face them all. “You three have been nothing but trouble since you got here! First, you blast your music so loud that I’m positive the neighbors two miles away could hear it. Second, I had to rinse my hair in my sink after being blasted with cold water, because you took all the hot water! Third, because two of you barged in on me naked. And fourth … “ Shit. I couldn’t think of a fourth.

  “And?” Tobi asked expectantly. I didn’t like the amused tone behind his question.

  “And ... and you don’t recycle! I mean what’s up with that?” It was totally lame, but it was all I came up with. I was just so angry! Okay, I wasn’t angry so much as I was embarrassed.

  “Listen,” Ezra said coming down past Tobi and Jasper to stand on the step above mine. “We’re sorry. We haven’t been very good neighbors. We promise we’re not that bad.”

  I sighed. “Maybe I was a little bit of an asshole, but in my defense, no girl would be in a good mood wrapped up in translucent plastic after busting her ass and the floor.”

  “Completely understandable,” Ezra supplied. “We probably shouldn’t have just barged in. How about you let us buy you some breakfast to make it up to you and let you get to know us?”

  I raised my brow in disbelief. “You want to buy me breakfast?” My interest was a little piqued. I hadn’t worked the last couple of weeks, so my wallet was a bit on the light side at the moment. Plus, who in their right mind would say no to free food?

  “Yes! Let us buy you breakfast!” Jasper added excitedly.

  “It’s the least we could do,” Tobi added.

  I didn’t want to say yes, but all three of them were giving me the most pitiful looks. I was a bit jealous of men who could execute that look flawlessly without it looking childish. It was like a biological cheat code to lure women into immediately falling for their bullshit. And damn it, I fell for those stupid faces. Well, I fell for their pleas. Not them. I didn’t fall for people.

  I rolled my eyes and sighed, “Fine! But I want the biggest fucking stack of pancakes, enough bacon to clog my arteries for a year, and a massive cup of coffee. Deal?” I looked at each of them, their faces all lit up with victorious smiles.

  Jasper threw his arm back around my shoulder and guided me the rest of the way down the stairs. “Anything you want, beautiful! We got you!”

  I didn’t like how my stomach practically flipped when he called me beautiful. As annoying as they were, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t again fantasizing about their gloriously naked bodies covering mine. All at once.

  Fuck, I really did need some food and coffee....

  “It Won’t Be Pretty”

  I decided I was going to do the driving. I didn’t feel like being a back-seat driver and frankly didn’t want to have to worry about yelling at one of them if any of them drove like idiots.

  This just seemed like a safer route.

  We pulled up to Tammy Sue’s Diner, the one place in town where you could get some seriously amazing pancakes and not have to worry about breaking your bank to get them. Though in all honesty, I should’ve picked a more, high end
diner for them to take me. But Tammy Sue’s food couldn’t be outmatched by even the most expensive steak. That was my opinion, at least.

  Tammy Sue was an older woman in her later fifties. She owned this diner with her late husband Henry, who passed away some six years ago in a car accident. She loved this diner as much as he did, especially because he named it after her. Everyone in town knew and loved Tammy Sue. If you walked in here and complimented her cooking once, you were family.

  The diner was modeled after one of those you’d find in the fifties. It had the infamous checkered flooring, chrome bar stools with red leather cushions, and bright, white booths with solid black tables. There was a jukebox in the corner that only played the best of the fifties and sixties music like Buddy Holly, Connie Francis, Elvis Presley, and even some Little Richard. Thankfully, the waitresses didn’t wear poodle skirts and roll around on skates. Most of them were too old for that anyways.

  We walked in and I got a booth at the back. It wasn’t my usual spot, unfortunately, but the one I usually sat at only seated two. So, I’d had to settle for a different one.

  The guys slid into the booth with me. Tobi and Jasper took the seat across from me, while Ezra slipped in next to me, blocking me in between him and the wall. They all picked up their menus and began perusing, each of them occasionally looked up over their menus at me. I didn’t need a menu since I always got the same thing. Except this time, extra bacon was going to be added. And, what the hell? Let’s go crazy and throw in a fourth pancake. I deserved it.

  Donna, one of the usual servers here, had seen us sit at the table and gaped when she spotted the three hotties surrounding me. It made me wonder if that was the face I made when I saw them all shirtless.

  Donna was about six years older than me, putting her at around thirty-three-years old. She was obsessed with infomercials and a mother of five. I gave that woman serious props for that. Kids freaked me out. I loved Sara’s baby, Jackson, but only because I could give him back to his mom. Otherwise, kids were just a Trojan horse to me; so much evil shoved into tiny, cute packages. You never knew if they were upset or in need of an exorcism. I wasn’t chancing it by having any.