So what the fuck were we doing? Instead of being men of action, instead we sat around, staring at each other like dumb motherfuckers. In fact, right now we were crowded in Nick’s living room again, trying to figure things out for the millionth time.
“You shouldn’t have made her apologize,” barked Tom at Andrew. “What the fuck were you thinking?”
The alpha got an offended look on his face.
“I didn’t make her apologize, she did it on her own!” he snarled right back.
But Tom was relentless, turning on Nick next.
“What were you thinking, trashing her butt at a place like Heartland Brewery? In public? Were you out of your fucking mind? No wonder she’s not coming back,” he spat to our host.
And Nick actually leaped out of his chair, fists raised, face red and angry.
“Shut up asshole,” he threw right back. “Shut up, she wanted it. That little ho is a butt slut, we’ve done anal with her multiple times before. Don’t put this on me.”
They were about to rumble when I held up both hands.
“We need to stop this,” I growled authoritatively. “This has gone fucking insane. We’re CEOs, men who have everything at our fingertips, and we’re getting riled up about a sweet female? What the hell?”
And the truth was in the air.
“She’s the best thing that ever happened to us,” grunted Damien morosely. “And you fuckers fucked it up.”
World War Three almost started again, a couple guys leaping up, fists clenched. But fortunately, I interceded just in time.
“She wants to be a chemist. I can make that happen. I run a cosmetics company, we have tons of laboratory scientists on our team.”
Tom rolled his eyes.
“Of course you can, Charlie. So why didn’t you do it before?”
That was a good question, my words slow and contemplative.
“I wanted her to come back without me offering a bribe. Because it is a bribe of sorts. I didn’t want to offer more money, a job, the promise of connections, or any of that type of shit. Other girls, no problem, I’m on it. But when it came to Joanie, I wanted her to come back on her own.”
And that was the crux of our issue. The brunette was noble. She was virtuous with a real sense of right and wrong. And something like the promise of a job wasn’t a guarantee her return at all. In fact, it might back-fire.
But what did we have to lose? We were six dumbasses sitting around mooning for our lost girl. Even worse, we’d been doing this for three months now, neglecting our other duties, hearts lost.
Fuck.
We’d lost sight of what makes us alphas.
Instead of taking, we were waiting.
Instead of owning, we were asking.
Was this our new way of life?
Instead of possession, were we the possessed?
Fuck.
Had we lost everything to the girl?
Our minds?
Our souls?
Even our hearts?
And swallowing my pride, the decision was made. Joanie was worth it. I didn’t care about my ego anymore. I didn’t care about giving her room, or more time to think. I didn’t care if bribing her with a job was what we had to do.
We had to get her back.
It was the only way to be whole again.
And with that, the six of us rose, grabbing our jackets.
Because our girl has been missing for three months … and we weren’t waiting any longer.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Joanie
It’s been a quiet three months. I’ve been holed up in Karen’s dorm when she’s at class, and when she comes home, I head to the library. Hudson is a great university, but her room’s so small that it’s impossible for us both to be in it at once.
But that’s okay. Because I don’t want to talk about my situation, not really. Of course, it’s been unavoidable with my best friend, but at the same time, I’m talked out. At this point, there isn’t that much more to say.
Because I’m pregnant.
I’m not sure who the father is, and it really doesn’t matter. All I know was that this baby was conceived in a mix of love and pleasure, and I’m not giving the child up.
No way, no how.
This baby is mine, and I’m going to raise her with memories of her fathers. All six of them, swirling in my mind again and again, a sweet yet sorrowful remembrance of days past.
Because I never went back to Nick’s penthouse after the shocking fight, nor did the billionaires come looking for me. Of course not. They were already interviewing replacements the next morning, me just a faded shadow.
But even if I’m a memory, I still have my thoughts, crystal clear and sharp. The smells of the men. The feel of their hands. Those hard bodies and deep voices.
And yes, their cocks.
Those massive ten inch monsters, taking me again and again, sixty inches total.
Sometimes while I doze, I’ll cry out.
“Tom! Charlie! Damien!” is my anguished voice. “Andrew! Aaron! Nick!”
Karen will shake me awake.
“Joanie, you’ve had another nightmare,” she’ll say firmly, lips pressed in a line. “Another bad dream.”
Because my eyes are filled with tears most times. But how can I tell her that these aren’t nightmares, they’re memories of good times that are now gone? The best experiences of my life in the hands of these charismatic, dominating men?
Because they’re ruthless for sure. I was tossed out like the dirty laundry just a couple hours after I left. They gave no quarter. No mercy. There’s no forgiveness.
But it’s all done now, and I don’t want to fixate on the bad. I have a child to think of, and it does no good to speak ill of her fathers. It’s better to remember the good times, and how much I loved them. How much I adored being with them, becoming my one true self in their presence.
These memories will have to last me a lifetime.
Because that’s all I have left.
No more.
Never again.
But I’ll focus on the future. I’ll make sure my daughter wants for nothing, and that she needs for nothing. So gone are my dreams of being a chemist. There’s no way I can go to school while heavily pregnant, or even taking care of a child.
But I haven’t given up. Instead, I’ve turned to freelance writing because it has a flexible schedule. I can take jobs when they come, or turn them down if I’m too busy. Plus, I should be able to put the baby in daycare a few hours a day while scribbling my thoughts onto paper. Actually, it’s the only real option on the table.
“How is this going to work? How are you going to survive?” asked Karen worriedly one day. “Do your folks even know?”
I took a deep breath.
“I’ll be out of your hair when my delivery date comes around,” was my soft voice. “I promise.”
But Karen shook her head.
“It’s not that Joanie. It’s that life is tough for single moms. Don’t you think you should tell the dads? Don’t they deserve to know?”
A lump formed in my throat. I didn’t know what to think when it came to the six men. Those hot, hard bodies, their blue eyes so intense. But I couldn’t bear it. I couldn’t bear facing them and seeing the disdain in their eyes, how little regard they had for me. I couldn’t bear seeing their shock and horror once they realized I was pregnant.
“Get rid of it,” one would spit.
“You did WHAT?” another would ask.
“It’s too late,” the last would say, a dead look in his eyes. “She’s past her first trimester. We’re stuck for life.”
Because that was the last thing I wanted. I didn’t want to saddle the alphas with a child they didn’t ask for. A baby who was nothing but a burden, an unwanted extra. After all, how many times did we talk about birth control? How many times did they ask me to go to the doctor to get on the pill? How many times did I dawdle, twiddling my thumbs?
So this was my secret to
keep. My greatest burden, and also my great treasure. The child was mine, and I would raise her the best I could, using whatever meager resources on hand.
Money. I needed money. Well, not immediately. The billionaires had paid me plenty, so I was set for the near term. But it wouldn’t last me forever unfortunately. And hunched over at Karen’s small desk, I forced myself to focus. Focus, focus. There was nothing but the story in front of me. The characters. The plot. The emotional development and growth of my heroine.
I was just getting into it when the door swung open with a creak. No worries, we don’t usually lock our doors in the dorms. It’s more of an easy-peasy come and go situation.
“Hey Kar,” I greeted, putting down my pen. “I’ll head to the library now that you’re back. Just give me one sec.”
But my tone disappeared into nothingness. Because it wasn’t Karen at the door. It was my six former lovers, huge and looming. And without a sound, they entered, cramming those massive bodies into the tiny dorm room before shutting the door with a firm click.
“Oh,” I choked. “Oh.”
Oh god, oh god. What should I do now? Instinctively, my body crowded closer to the desk, hiding my bump. I was only showing a little bit, and maybe by keeping my midsection hidden, they’d never know. My hands itched, but I resisted the urge to run them protectively over the curve.
The billionaires took everything in, blue eyes assessing. They didn’t suspect, did they?
“Good to see you Joanie,” drawled Nick. “It’s been a long time.”
I swallowed heavily.
“Good to see you too,” was my stammering reply. “How did you find me?”
Aaron threw his head back and laughed, like this was truly funny.
“Sweetheart, we’ve known where you were since the day you disappeared. In a city with billions of cameras, you think a person can stay hidden? No honey. We’ve known for months you were here. Why’d you pick this place, anyways?” he asked, looking around. “It’s positively tiny.”
I gulped. The room was packed to the rafters with Karen’s stuff. She had a narrow twin, and my sleeping mat with an extra blanket was rolled up tidily at the foot of the bed. I’d been making my home on her floor, which wasn’t ideal for a pregnant lady.
But I pretended nonchalance.
“My friend’s a student at Hudson,” I said casually. “When she offered me a place, I said why not? It’s as good as any.”
The alphas’ eyes surveyed the cramped room, but they didn’t judge.
“Sure,” was Tom’s slow drawl. “Okay.”
That made me gulp again, nerves in a flurry.
“So what’s going on?” was my careless voice. “What brings you here?”
Six sets of blue eyes gleamed.
“Well honey,” began Charlie slowly. “This seems like a tough position to be in. Sleeping on the floor of your friend’s dorm room, eating mess hall provisions. What if I offered you a job? Or do you have a job right now?” he asked, eyeing the scraps of notepaper on the desk.
Embarrassed, I dropped my hand over the scribblings. Because I was writing a romance novel, one that loosely followed my experience working for Elite Air. Of course, there weren’t six guys in the book, but there was an innocent virgin who meets a billionaire. So it wasn’t a hundred percent made up.
But my spine stiffened. Why was I embarrassed? I was dead set on making a living for me and my child, without taking a dime from anyone. Writing was honest and true. Writing was noble, which was more than I could say about working for them.
So my chin lifted.
“In fact, yes. I’m beginning a new career as an author. Chemistry isn’t all that you know,” was my light fib. “I decided this fit me better.”
Charlie’s brows raised.
“Really?” he rumbled. “That’s too bad to hear because I was about to offer you a position as a junior scientist with my company. You know we do cosmetics, sweetheart, so we’ve got an R&D team that’s always puttering around in the lab.”
My cheeks flushed. That would be amazing! A job in a lab without having to get a degree first? It was like winning the lotto or finding a golden ticket under a rock somewhere.
But my mind hesitated. I didn’t want anything from the alphas, not after everything that had happened. They had another girl already. The men had moved on just like that, ruthless and opportunistic.
Don’t forget, the voice in my head warned. They replaced you the minute you didn’t show.
So instead, I nodded stiffly.
“Thank you,” were my curt words. “But like I said, I’ve changed my mind. I’m not going to be a chemist anymore. I’m going to be a writer. Maybe I’ll write about chemistry,” was my confident statement.
But there was a waver in my voice because chemistry’s been my dream for so long. To see it presented on a silver platter with no way to accept broke my heart. But I couldn’t risk everything, not without losing myself all over again.
So trying to seem lighthearted even while blinking tears back, my lips turned up in a smile.
“So what brings you here?” was my merry question. “I take it you have a new flight attendant for the airline. Is she doing a good job?”
Oh god, the words tasted like poison in my mouth, choking me with the noxious fumes. But it was what it was. I’d seen the blonde with my own eyes, coming into the elevator. And if it wasn’t her, then it was some other trashy whore.
But who was I calling a trashy whore? That’d been me one a upon a time, and I’d loved every second of it. So instead, I smiled lightly once more, even though my heart was shattering into a million pieces.
“What can I do for you, gentlemen?”
The billionaires were silent, gazes searing my form. Oh god, suddenly it was sweltering in this dorm room, so small and stuffy. I longed to open a window, but there was no way to do that without giving away my shape. Or maybe it was just pregnancy hormones and its attendant hot flashes.
So I forced another smile.
“Well, if there’s nothing, I’ll get back to work,” I trilled merrily, nodding towards the door. “It was good seeing you again.”
But the alphas didn’t budge an inch.
“Sweetheart,” began Nick. “We didn’t hire anyone else.”
What?
I must have gasped because their eyes focused, becoming laser-like.
But who had been that girl in the elevator then?
There’s only one penthouse on that floor. She’d definitely been at the apartment.
Tom corroborated Nick’s statement then.
“Sweetheart, you’re our one and only. Sure, we had a string of girls before you but there’s been no one since. No one as sweet and innocent. No one as amazing,” he growled with finality, staring at my curves. “We can’t get you out of our minds.”
I didn’t know what to say. Literally, words wouldn’t form.
“Bu-but,” I stammered. “But.”
“But nothing,” swept in Damien, those blue eyes intense. “But nothing. You’re our one and only and we want you back. We want you to work for us again, but you don’t have to if you don’t want. We want you to live with us. To laugh with us. To spend your days with us. Does that make sense?”
No, it didn’t at all. This was a one eighty turnabout from my expectations.
“I’m sorry,” were my slow words. “But I don’t understand. When I came back that day, there was a girl ….”
The billionaires looked stumped.
“Who?” asked Andrew.
“What did she look like?” asked Aaron, genuinely perplexed. “There have been no females since you’ve been gone. Not in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, or anywhere else for that matter. Nowhere.”
But I shook my head slowly. I hadn’t been hallucinating. She was real. Opening my mouth, I began slowly.
“When I came back the morning after the fight, I took the elevator up to your penthouse. And when I got to your floor, a woman was coming out. She got into
the elevator with me. Tall, blonde, and real curvy.”
The alphas were genuinely perplexed.
“Are you sure?” rumbled Andrew, brow creased. “I sure as hell don’t remember anyone.”
If they were gaslighting me, then it wasn’t gonna work.
“I know what I saw,” was my firm tone. “The woman was blonde, dressed in a pink sweats with rhinestones on the back.”
Realization dawned in their eyes.
“Oh yeah, the rhinestones,” groaned Tom, rolling his eyes. “Those were tacky as shit.”
“Didn’t the rhinestones say something like “Lovergirl” or “Hello Booty”?” asked Andrew. “Superlame, that’s what fourteen year-old girls wear.”
I shook my head.
“I have no idea what was spelled out on her jumpsuit. All I know was that she came from your apartment,” I said vehemently. “And the six of you were inside.”
The billionaires nodded. But they weren’t worried at all, instead passing it off as no big deal.
“No worries, sweetheart,” rumbled Tom dismissively. “That hooch was nothing compared to you.”
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