Contractual Obligation

by Tymber Dalton

  Gorden shrugged. “I was ordered not to. Do you honestly think I’m going to cross her? And don’t even start with me, son. I don’t know the whole story, but I can guess what it’s going to be. Your glass house isn’t rockproof.”

  Doug shut up. He knew he deserved that and more. Every bit of it.

  Fifteen minutes later, a nurse came out to talk to them. Harper’s condition was stable. The problem was her appendix, but despite the infection, it hadn’t ruptured yet, so that was good. Had it been a couple hours later, however, it might not have ended well. Surgery would take a while longer, and then she’d be moved to recovery.

  The men thanked her and sat down to wait some more.

  Four hours later, Harper was out of recovery and in a private room. The men gathered around her bed once they were allowed to visit her.

  Doug felt a little jealous that her first pained, sleepy smile was for Tate. He swallowed that back.

  Tate leaned in and kissed her on the forehead. “Hey there, sleepy. How you feeling?”

  “Been better,” she whispered, but the faintest of smiles curled her lips. She turned her head to look at Doug. “Welcome home.”

  He forced a smile and also leaned in to kiss her forehead. “Sorry it wasn’t under better circumstances, sweetie.”

  Gorden stepped in, forcing Doug to move out of the way. “Hey, sweetheart. I’ve been trying to call your dad, but I think he’s on the boat.”

  She nodded. “It’s okay. Don’t let him freak out too much when you talk to him.”

  “I promise nothing. You know how he is.”

  She offered up another weak smile. “Can I talk to Doug and Tate alone, please? Just for a couple of minutes.”

  Gorden glared at the men and then nodded. “All right. I’ll be outside the door if you need me.”

  When the three of them were alone, she looked at Tate, then Doug. “I guess he told you what happened.”

  Doug stroked her hair. “Yeah.”

  “I want you two to be happy.”

  “We’ve got news for you,” Tate interrupted. “We’re changing the terms of the contract.”

  “What?”

  Doug nodded. “You’re getting a two-fer. We both love you, and neither of us is giving you up.”

  She looked confused. “What?”

  Tate took her hand in his. “If you think you’re getting rid of either of us, or of both of us, think again. The only way the two of us will leave you is if you order us gone.”

  * * * *

  Maybe it was the aftereffects of the anesthesia. “What are you saying?” She couldn’t comprehend it.

  “What we’re saying,” Doug said, “is that the three of us”—he pointed at Tate, her, and then himself—“are going to have a happily ever after together.”

  “But what will people say?”

  Tate snorted. “Since when has that ever factored in anything you’ve done? If you want, we can still go along, at least for now publicly, with the charade that it’s just Doug that’s your boyfriend.” He stroked her cheek. “At home, however, be prepared for your social calendar to be full. Because you are stuck with us.”

  This couldn’t be happening. Sure, she’d fantasized about it, especially after all the erotica books she’d read and then falling for Tate, but she never dreamed it would be something they’d want to do, too. “You mean it?” she whispered.

  Both men nodded. “Damn straight we mean it,” Doug said. “And we’ll show you exactly how much we mean it once you’re better and out of this hospital bed. You’ll be lucky if you can walk straight.”

  She laughed, then moaned over the pain it caused. “Please don’t make me laugh.”

  “Sorry,” he said. He gently squeezed her hand. “And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Tate. I just wanted to help my family. I didn’t do it trying to take advantage of you. I really do love you.” He looked at Tate. “And Tate. If you both still want me after all this, there’s no way in hell I’ll walk away from either of you ever again.”

  Maybe it was the pain meds. Maybe it was the fact that, due to the surgery and the pain, she felt more alone and vulnerable than she ever had in her life.

  Maybe she was just certifiably insane.

  She nodded as she started crying.

  The men gathered around her, trying to reassure and calm her. “It’s okay,” Tate softly said. “We’re here. You’ll never be alone again, baby.”

  “Yeah,” Doug agreed. “We’ll take care of you. We promise.”

  She was still crying and holding both of their hands when Gorden returned a few minutes later. When he saw her tears, he exploded. “What the hell have you two assholes said to her?”

  He started toward the men, but Harper found the strength to sit up. “No, Gorden, it’s okay,” she reassured him even as she pulled the men’s hands more tightly to her. “I want them here. I love them.”

  He pulled up short. “Them?”

  She nodded. “Them,” she softly repeated.

  “What the hell is going on?”

  Tate brushed the hair away from her forehead. “It’s a long story, and I’m sure you’re not going to like parts of it, but rest assured, Doug and I promise we’re going to take good care of her.”

  “Forever,” Doug emphasized, his sweet brown eyes never leaving hers.

  Gordon stood there, silent, for a long moment. “You’re trying to tell me it’s going to be the three of you, together?”

  “Yeah,” Tate said. He looked at Gorden. “Do you have a problem with that?”

  “I have a problem with the fact that you two seem to be playing some sort of game with her heart.”

  “It’s no game,” Harper said, struggling to speak up and make herself heard despite her weariness and pain. “I love both of them, and they love me. You’ll have to get used to the fact that our family business really is now a family business.” She lay back, the men helping ease her onto her pillows. “If I’m to run this company, I insist on them being part of it.”

  Gorden heavily sat in one of the chairs. “I’m not explaining this to your father. You get that pleasure. He’s going to shit himself. Do you honestly think he’s going to be okay with this arrangement?”

  “I don’t care if he’s okay with it or not. He has no choice but to be okay with it or keep his opinions to himself if he wants to be part of my life.” She looked from Doug to Tate, then back to Gorden. “No, I didn’t know Doug and Tate were together before Doug started this job. It’s okay. I understand his rationale. He didn’t do it to play games, he did it to help his family. I’m just lucky enough that both these guys love me as much as I love them.”

  Gorden started to reply when his phone rang. He let out a joyless laugh. “Great. That’s your father.” He answered, started to speak, then Harper motioned for Gorden to hand the phone to her.

  “Hold on, here’s Harper.” He brought her the phone.

  “Honey? What’s wrong? What’s the matter?” Her father sounded frantic.

  “I’m okay, Daddy. I’m in the hospital.”

  “What!”

  “It’s okay. I had surgery. Appendicitis. I’m going to be fine.” She couldn’t say anything else because of the flurry of questions on the other end of the line from her father. When he settled down, she continued. “Daddy, everyone tried to get hold of you. I’m okay. I’m out of surgery and in a—”

  “What hospital? I’m on my way right now.”

  “Daddy, it’s okay. I don’t need you rushing up here and getting yourself hurt.” She glanced around the room, her gaze ending up on Tate. “I have Tate and Doug and Gorden here with me. I’m okay. Please promise me you’ll take your time.”

  He was silent for a moment. “Doug’s back?”

  “Yes.”

  “But what about Tate? I was under the impression that you two were—”

  She sighed. “Please, Daddy, we can leave that for later. They’re okay, we’re okay, everything’s okay, I’m okay. Okay?”

&n
bsp; He finally let out a snort. “Okay. Now where the hell are you?”

  “I’ll let Gorden tell you that. Love you.”

  “I love you, too. I’ll see you in a couple of hours.”

  “Get a shower before you come up here or you’ll stink like bait.”

  He laughed. “Yes, ma’am. Now I know you’ll be okay if you’re handing out orders.”

  She handed the phone back to Gorden, who gave him the info and then hung up. “Well, he warned me we’re going to have a long talk.” He waggled his finger at Harper. “I’m pointing him straight back to you, young lady.”

  She closed her eyes as she nodded. “No problem.”

  Gorden was going to say something else when the nurse came in. “Sorry, guys, I need to get her vitals, give her more meds, and she really needs her rest.”

  Harper didn’t open her eyes, but squeezed Tate and Doug’s hands before releasing them. “Go get something to eat and get your own showers. Someone please bring my phone and laptop.”

  Doug leaned in and kissed her forehead. “Phone, yes. Laptop, not until you’re feeling better. I’ll bring you your Kindle and you can research.”

  Her eyes popped open. Both Doug and Tate were smirking. Gorden shook his head.

  “I don’t want to know. Don’t tell me.”

  “No problem,” she agreed.

  Tate leaned in and kissed her, too, then Gorden. “Get some rest, sweetheart.”

  “I will. I promise.”

  * * * *

  Tate knew Gorden wouldn’t wait long. He turned on them in the hallway, down by the elevators. “Spill it. Now.”

  Tate and Doug exchanged glances, before Tate took over and gave Gorden the short version while Doug suddenly found his shoes very interesting to stare at. When he finished the story, Gorden stared at him, then Doug.

  “Let me tell you both something,” Gorden said, his voice low and angry. “If the two of you fucking hurt her, I will fuck the two of you up so badly you’ll wish you’d never even met her. And Harrison, I’m sure, will help me. Do you both understand me?”

  Tate stepped in, toe to toe with him. He dropped his voice, too. “Let me tell you something, Gorden. We love her, and we will never hurt her. If you or Harrison give her a hard time about her choice in this, then you’ll deal with us. Do you understand me?”

  Doug nodded his agreement.

  Gorden studied the two of them for a moment before nodding. He didn’t back down, however. “Fine. But both of you have to prove yourselves to me that you’re looking after her best interests.”

  “That’s fair,” Doug said. “I hope you stop feeling that way at some point before our fiftieth anniversary together.”

  Gorden rolled his eyes, but he laughed. “You two idiots are just stubborn enough to make this work, aren’t you?”

  Tate and Doug both nodded. “And considering how stubborn Harper is, you know there’s no way in hell this won’t work.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Harper napped for several hours before Doug and Tate returned that afternoon. She was happy to see they’d arrived before her father.

  “How you feeling, sweetie?” Tate carried an overnight bag she assumed was for her and set it on the floor next to her bed.

  “Tired. Hungry. They said I can’t eat yet, but if I feel up to it, I can have clear liquids tonight.”

  Tate, then Doug, leaned in and kissed her. “We’ll start bringing you good food,” Doug said, “as soon as they clear you to eat.”

  “I’d kill for a cheeseburger.”

  “We’ll see,” Tate said. “Maybe I can wrangle you one.”

  “Or a milkshake.”

  Doug shook his head. “No way.”

  “What?”

  “No. I’m not letting you have one.”

  She arched an eyebrow at him. “Did you say ‘let’? I know I didn’t hear you right.”

  “You have diabetes. You have to watch your diet.”

  She glared at Tate. “I’m sorry,” he said. “When we found you, duh, the first thing I did was check your sugar. Kind of obvious.”

  She sighed and returned her attention to Doug. “I’m not your mom. I’ve lived with this since I was a kid. I manage it.”

  “How did you hide it?” he grumbled.

  “The same way you hid Mr. Blue Eyes, here,” she said. “I just didn’t tell you.”

  “I mean your meds and stuff.”

  She shrugged. “I used the fridge in the garage and the one in my office. It wasn’t that hard.” She poked him in the chest. “Don’t you go all mother hen on me, now. I’d say me hiding that ranks a lot less than you hiding Tate.”

  “Yeah, I have an ass that’s too cute to hide,” Tate snarked in an obvious attempt to lighten the tone.

  She somehow avoided laughing. “You’ve got that right.” She finally got a smile out of Doug.

  “Yeah, it is a cute ass,” he agreed.

  She squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry. You’re right, I should have told you about my diabetes, and yes, it was stupid of me to hide it.” Looking back, she couldn’t understand or explain why she didn’t tell him sooner. It was pretty childish of her. “I was going to tell you the night of your mom’s party, when I saw her and found out about her diabetes.” She felt herself blush. “Then I found out about Tate.”

  “Well, I’m not complaining,” Tate teased. He glanced at the open doorway to make sure they were still alone before leaning in and dropping his voice. “I got to fuck her ass first. So nyeh.” He stuck his tongue out at Doug.

  Harper couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing, as did Doug. It hurt, and she held a pillow to her abdomen as instructed by the nurse while she tried to stop laughing. By the time she had herself under control again, tears of laughter and pain were rolling down her face. “Stop, please, you’re killing me.”

  Doug smiled. At least he didn’t look sad anymore. “He just has this thing about being first, Harper,” he said. “He got to be the first to fuck my ass, too.” He leaned in and kissed her, then whispered, just loudly enough Tate could also hear, “But I’m calling dibs on your ass right now for the first time the three of us are in bed together.”

  How could she be in so much pain and yet her pussy had suddenly gone totally wet, her clit throbbing at the thought of making that fantasy come true? She swallowed hard. “Okay,” she whispered.

  Tate grinned. He reached across the bed and smacked Doug hard on the shoulder. “See there? You’re a fucking sadist. You just made the poor girl horny. Hell, you just made me horny.”

  “Don’t mind me,” she said with a smile. “I wouldn’t be offended if you two wanted to give me a show.”

  “Oooh, she likes to watch,” Doug joked.

  “You just wait until I’m feeling better,” she shot back. “You two better hope you can keep up with me.”

  “I like a challenge,” Tate said. He stroked her cheek. “And there’s the Harper I wanted to see, my sweet, feisty girl.”

  She blushed as she looked from him to Doug and back again, then burst into tears. Both men leaned in close, holding her, trying to get her to tell them what was wrong. How could she put it into words that, despite the fact she’d just gone through major surgery, nothing was wrong? In fact, she’d never felt like things were going more right in her life.

  Except—

  Her father swooped into the room, surrounded by a cloud of several dozen Mylar balloons nearly obscuring him. “Where’s that goldbricking little girl of mine?” he boomed from inside the mass.

  She tried not to laugh. “Hi, Daddy.”

  His head popped out of the balloons. She didn’t miss the glare he briefly shot at both men before his smile returned. Tate and Doug stood and moved out of the way as Harrison took over her bedside. He handed the balloons off to Tate. “Take care of these, please. And welcome back, Doug.” He sat next to her bed and grabbed her hand. “How are you?”

  “Daddy, I’m fine, really. They said I can go home in a couple of
days as long as I don’t have an infection. They caught it before it ruptured. I’m on antibiotics…”

  He wore her out. Doug and Tate stayed out of his way, in the corner, watching the TV and trying to remain invisible. She didn’t miss when her father occasionally shot dark looks their way.

  When the nurse came in a little later to give her another round of meds and check her vitals, Harrison grilled her for all the information. Harper rolled her eyes and told the nurse he was her father. Before the nurse would answer any of his questions, she filled out a form with Harrison’s name and made Harper sign it. As Harper took the pen, she noticed additional spaces for people allowed to access her information. She filled in Gorden, Doug, and Tate’s names.

  Her father watched but didn’t comment.

  As the nurse talked with Harrison, she changed out Harper’s IV meds and took her vitals. She updated the chart. “Any more questions, sir?”

  Now satisfied Harper wasn’t dying, he’d apparently been appeased. “No,” he said, his tone gentler than before. “Thank you, nurse.” He returned his attention to Harper. “You sure have a way of scaring the crap out of me, you know that?”

  “Considering this is my first hospitalization since I was a kid, I think you’re exaggerating just a little, Daddy.”

  “Maybe,” he groused. “But you’re still my little girl.”

  “You should go get something to eat,” she said, more to get him out of there than anything.

  He looked at Doug and Tate, but didn’t say anything to them. “You’re right,” he said. “I’ll stop by again before visiting hours end.” He kissed her. “Love you.”

  “Love you, too, Daddy. Thank you for the balloons.” When he left, she noticed Tate and Doug visibly relaxed. “You two will have to face him at some point. You know you will.”

  “Just not today and not here,” Tate said as he glanced at the time. “But he’s right, we need to go take care of some stuff at the office and let you get some sleep.” He kissed her. “We promise we’ll play nice.”

  Doug agreed as he leaned in to kiss her. “Yes, we won’t get into it with him or Gorden. We’ll come back later.”