Claiming Isabella

by M. E. Clayton

  What the hell?

  I put my hands on my hips. “What do you guys think you’re doing?”

  Avery went into the kitchen to start packing my dishes. She looked back and spared me a quick glance before explaining. “I told Nick about the flowers this morning, making him call Chase and ask him if he knew-which he did, because Q already told him-and since we all knew there was no way Julian would continue to let you live here by yourself, we picked up Kane, got some storage boxes from SMA and whala…here we are.”

  I dropped my head and pinched the bridge of my nose. I called on God to give me strength and patience. I looked up. “Did it ever occur to you guys that maybe Julian took the news calmly?”

  They all started laughing.

  They all laughed and it didn’t help when I heard snorting coming from behind me. Julian wrapped his hand around my waist and kissed the top of my head. “That’s me. All calm, cool and collected Julian Moretti.”

  “Oh, thank God, you told him. This would have been awkward as hell if you hadn’t spilled the beans yet,” Chase points out.

  “Motherfucker!” We all turned to find Quinn rubbing her forehead.

  “Jesus, are you okay?” Chase rushed over to her and asked.

  She ignored him, rubbing her forehead. “Ace? Sweet Baby Jesus, are you getting a look at that?”

  I turned to see Avery resting her elbows on the kitchen bar, ogling Julian. “I’ve already seen it,” she confirmed. I couldn’t stop my smile when I realized they were talking about Julian’s naked torso.

  “Uh, you do know that Nick and I are standing right here, right?” Chase questioned.

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love you, and you’re hot as hell, but….Jesus, would you look at that?” She started waving her hands towards Julian.

  “Mmmmhmmm,” Avery agreed.

  Nick groaned as he stink-eye Avery. “For the love of God, Julez, will you go put on a shirt?”

  I turned to look at him and he was fitted in only a pair of pajama pants.

  Christ, he was beautiful.

  He smiled and winked at Quinn. “Not sure the girls want me to.”

  Nick’s eyes narrowed at him. “I don’t care what the girls want. And we’ve talked about you smiling already. Knock it off!”

  He raised his hands in mocking surrender. “Okay, okay, relax, Sav.” He chuckled as he turned around to head back to the bedroom to put a shirt on.

  “Oh, My Father who art in Heaven,” Quinn breathed.

  “Yep, I’ve seen that too,” Avery drooled.

  Quinn was finally getting a look at the tattoo splayed across Julian’s back. It was truly a magnificent piece of art. I didn’t blame her one bit.

  “Uh, still standing right here, Quinn,” Chase reminded her and Julian’s laugher followed him back towards the bedroom.

  Quinn turned towards Chase and wrapped her arms around him. “I know, and believe me when I tell you that you are sexier than sexy, but that tattoo is…is…just is,” she tried to explain.

  Nick just shook his head. “It’s a goddamn travesty. Julian’s not a piece of meat, ladies.”

  Kane finally piped up, “You guys are all so strange.”

  Julian finally came out of the bedroom dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. He even put on shoes. “Okay, Dove, let’s get moving,” he said, grabbing a box.

  I knew deep down they were all doing this to protect me, and while I still wanted to be offended, I really wasn’t. I’d do the same for them if I thought the Quinn or Avery was being creeped on. But I figured I should get something out of all this upending of my life.

  “I’ll go peacefully on one condition,” I announced.

  They all stopped and gave me their attentions. “Okay, what is it, Dove?”

  “You, Chase, Nick and Kane, all, have to move me out of my condo shirtless.” The men’s shocks of outrage were drowned out by Avery and Quinn’s hootin’ and hollarin’.

  “Hells yeah,” Quinn erupted, enthusiastically.

  “Ta…a…ake iiittt offfff,” Avery hooted.

  Julian smirked, not at all shocked by my request. He must have known there was still some residual heat running through my blood after last night. Chase, Nick and Kane were a little harder to convince.

  “No way,” Chase refused.

  Nick shook his head. “Not happening.”

  “Uh, that’s a hard no, Iz,” Kane mumbled.

  I crossed my arms and raised a brow at the rebellious trio. “Fine. Then I guess we’ll just have to look at Julian.”

  Chase snorted. “Pfft, like Julian’s going to…” Before he could finish his sentence, Julian had pulled his shirt off.

  “You traitor,” Nick accused, then pointed at Julian. “You no good Benedict Arnold sonofabitch!”

  Julian just turned and winked at me as he started plucking my pictures off the wall and placing them into a box.

  “I can’t believe this bullshit,” Chase muttered right before he, too, removed his shirt.

  “That’s what I’m taking about,” Avery cooed.

  “Seriously, Imp? I’m standing right here. You know? With all my love for you just out there for the world to see,” Nick threw at her.

  She just shrugged a shoulder. “Prove it,” she challenged.

  “Goddamn it!” But like a man in love, Nick pulled his shirt off, as well.

  “Life is good,” Quinn pronounced.

  “Can we, please, get back to work, now?” Chase asked.

  I tsked, “Nuh, uh, uh...”

  Kane was shaking his head. “No way, Izzy. I am not taking my shirt off.”

  “No, I think you are,” Avery chimed in.

  “No way, Ace,” he protested again. “I am not sleeping with any of you girls, so your feminine wilds have no power with me,” Kane naively stated. “There is no good night fuck in this for me if I let you ladies objectify me and my perfect male body.”

  Quinn put her hand on her hips as she regarded him. “We’re having a pool party tomorrow at the penthouse. Me, Iz and Avery will all be in bikinis and you can even bring a date.”

  His gazed flittered between me, Quinn and Avery. After two seconds in thought, Kane whipped his shirt up over his head. “Fine. But they better be actual bikinis. No one-piece bullshit,” he huffed.

  I stood there as Quinn and Avery walked over to flank my sides.

  The sight before us should be sculpted into a national monument.

  Julian, Nick, Chase and Kane were sexy as hell all on their own. But all together, like this, shirtless and working their muscles…hell, I almost came from just looking at them.

  “Where’s my phone? I need my phone,” Quinn panicked.

  Avery nodded towards the men. “I need that vision blown up in poster size for my office at home.”

  “Make three copies,” I agreed.

  “Mary, Joseph and Jesus, how did we get so lucky?” Avery asked as Quinn was dumping her purse out, looking for her phone.

  Chase looked over at us. “Uh, we’re shirtless as you demanded, ladies. Do you think you girls can help here?”

  Quinn held up one finger. “Sure, just give us a second.” She then went on to start snapping pictures of them individually and together. By the time she was done, she had 17 different pictures of the guys in various states.

  “I need all those sent to my phone or email,” I told her.

  “Same here,” Avery piped up. “I’m wondering if there’s an online site that can make wallpaper out of those pictures.”

  Quinn and I just hummed in agreement.

  After a few more minutes ogling, we finally joined the guys and got to work.

  It was the best Saturday ever!

  Chapter 7

  Envy: Because love looks good on my friends.

  Isabella~

  It’s been two weeks since I moved in with Julian, and I have to say, no wonder Quinn and Avery always looked so happy these days. Living with Julian felt right. Going to sleep and waking up with him made the world so much
easier to deal with.

  It took most of those two weeks to get all my stuff settled. We did have the pool party that Sunday, so I didn’t do much in the way of unpacking that day. And, even though Kane ended up winning the race, Julian still reaped the rewards that night. Not sure if Kane’s date gave up the ass-I mean, we did explain the contest to her-but I’m sure he got lucky in other ways.

  And the girls had been right to demand a pool party. The sight of those men half-naked, dripping with water had all three of us with our phones out. Hell, I’m surprised my phone had enough memory space for all the pictures I took. I know Avery had been originally kidding about making the moving photos into wallpaper, but…I don’t know…

  It was so worth looking into.

  So, since I’ve moved in, I’ve been tackling the unpacking a little bit every evening after I got home from work. Julian and I discussed it and we left all my furniture back at the condo in case I decided to rent it out. I hadn’t exactly decided what to do with it, but I knew Julian thought I was holding onto it as a Plan B.

  How do I know? Because he told me so right before he fucked me, telling me over and over again how he wasn’t ever going to let me leave.

  I was just walking out of a marketing research meeting when Janie passed me in the hallway. “Oh, my God, Isabella! The bouquets you’ve been getting so far have been beautiful, but the one that just came in is truly stunning!”

  I knew I wasn’t going to be able to keep the situation a secret much longer. It was to the point where I didn’t even want them delivered into the building anymore. “Thank you, Janie,” I muttered, unsure what to say.

  “Well, they’re sitting on your desk. You can’t miss them,” she gushed. I just nodded and made my way to my office.

  I pushed open the door, and sure as shit, there was a brilliant, stunning bouquet of roses sitting on the edge of my desk. I deep, heavy unease settled in chest. Unease at who could be sending them and why haven’t they just asked me out already? And an unease at how much of this Julian was going to be able to take before losing his mind.

  While he reacted…uhm, enthusiastically…when I told him, he was actually a lot calmer than I thought he would be. I was half-ass expecting him to handcuff me to the bed and keep me there prisoner forever.

  And not in a good way.

  I let out a sigh and made my way to the desk. It wasn’t until I rounded the desk that I noticed a card nestle in the middle of the bouquet.

  The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. And I wasn’t too proud to admit the note made me nervous. I prayed it was a simple note, revealing who’s been sending the flowers, but I had a bad feeling it wasn’t. I sat down and dialed Julian.

  “Hey, Dove.” His voice greeted smoothly and affectionately.

  “Hey. Are you busy?”

  “No, not at all.” And then I heard him distantly announce. “This meeting is over. We’ll pick it back up later.”

  “Julian!” I scolded.

  He just chuckled. “You wouldn’t be calling me, at work, if it wasn’t important, Isabella.”

  I huffed. “That’s not the point, Julian. Even if I feel it’s important, your job is still your job…”

  He outright laughed then. “Isabella, baby, when are you going to get it through your beautiful, insecure head that nothing comes before you? Nothing and no one, not even Nick and Chase.”

  I could hear a voice in the background. “Way to trivialize our love right in front of me and Nick, Julez.” I couldn’t stop the muffled laugh that escaped me.

  Chase was something else.

  “Oh, hey, uhm…Nick and Chase are with you?”

  Julian’s voice got low and serious. “Yeah, they’re right here. We were going over some quarterly projections, and it was just us, so it really wasn’t a big thing to end the meeting.”

  Okay, great. “Can you put me on speaker?”

  Even though Julian wasn’t talking, I could feel the waves of wariness radiating off him over the phone. “Sure thing, Dove,” he whispered.

  “Hey guys,” I tested the speaker.

  “Hi, Iz,” Nick greeted.

  “Hey, Izzy, what’s up?” Chase chimed in.

  I took a deep breath and decided to just dive into the deep end of the pool. “I got another delivery today. They’re roses,” I clarified, like that made any difference. “I’m calling because they came with a card this time.” And it was making me nervous, but I left that part out.

  Nick pounced. “Did you open it? Touch it?”

  “No. I…I don’t want to open it,” I confessed. I had called wanting to be strong and not worry Julian overmuch, but I couldn’t hide the anxiety coursing through my body at the card.

  “Don’t touch it, Iz,” Chase instructed. “We’ll be right there. Okay?”

  I was nodding before I realized they guys couldn’t see me. “I won’t, but-”

  “But nothing. Do not touch anything. We’ll be right there, Iz,” Chase reiterated.

  All my I-Am-Woman-Hear-Me-Roar went out the window at the seriousness in Chase’s voice. My voice cracked, “Julian?”

  His voice was smooth and coated me like a healing balm. “I’m here, baby.”

  I don’t know why I asked…maybe fear, maybe doubt…but I did. “Do you love me?”

  “No. Love doesn’t come close to describing what I feel for you,” he responded like clockwork.

  A couple of tears escaped and all I knew was that, in this moment, I need him. I need Julian’s unwavering sense of safety and security. “Please hurry.” I didn’t care that Nick and Chase could hear me. I didn’t care if they thought I was weak.

  All I cared about was Julian.

  “We’re on our way, Dove,” Julian promised and then hung up.

  SMA was probably a 20 minute ride to Willshire with traffic, but I was pretty sure they guys had no problem racking up whatever traffic tickets they needed to in order to get here. I pictured Chase driving, while Nick was busy trying to calm Julian. They were three of the most sought after, wealthiest men in the country. It wouldn’t look good for them to come barging in here like madmen.

  Instead of waiting in my office with the roses taunting and stalking me, I decided to go downstairs and meet them. It would save time from having the receptionist call me.

  It wasn’t even 15 minutes later, when three gorgeous, Armani-clad suited billionaires came storming through the front lobby doors of Willshire Marketing.

  Jesus Christ, what a sight.

  People milling about in the reception area parted and moved out of their way as they made their way over to me. I had to smile when all three men stood before me.

  How did I get so blessed?

  “Hey, Iz,” Nick leaned in to kiss my cheek.

  Once he let go, Chase took me in his arms. “Hey, Izzy.” I hugged him back.

  When I pulled away from Chase, I looked up at Julian. His face betrayed nothing, but I knew he was wound even tighter than I was. I waited for his cue. I knew everyone in the lobby was looking at us. And I knew Stella, the lobby receptionist, was ten seconds away from fainting at the sight of them.

  Julian leaned down, took my chin in his hand, and lowered his lips to mine. I sighed and gave into him. He wrapped me up in his arms and kissed the top of my head. “I got you, baby.”

  I wanted to weep. I wanted to cry in the knowledge that these three wonderful men dropped everything they were doing for me. I knew most of Chase’s and Nick’s loyalty stemmed from their love for Julian, but that didn’t make their gesture any less sincere.

  I turned to a…well, very flabbergasted, Stella to let her know they were with me. Well, I mean, not that she had any doubt, what with the affection they just bestowed upon me, but still “Hey, Stella, this is Julian Moretti, Nicholas Savage and Chase Alexander with SMA, Global, Inc. I have an impromptu meeting with them. They can sign-”

  “I can do it!” she blurted out. “I mean, I’ll do it. Their names, I mean. I mean, they can go with you. Wherever
you’re taking them. I…I can write. I can write their names down. On the log.”

  I looked up at Julian, Chase and Nick and Chase looked like he was going to bust out laughing at any second. Nick had a smirk on his handsome face. And I knew Julian was seconds away from rolling his eyes at the poor woman.

  I took pity on her. “Thank you, Stella.”

  And because Chase was such a flirt and couldn’t leave well enough alone, he smiled and winked at her, causing her to start choking on her own spit. Jesus!

  I grabbed Chase’s by the arm of his suit and pulled him forward. “I’m so going to tell Q,” I threatened.

  “What’d I do?”

  He knew exactly what he just did to that poor woman.

  The bastard.

  We made our way to the elevators and I could feel eyes on us, everywhere. But I guess that’s what you get when these three commanded so much respect. I reveled in the fact that Avery, Quinn and I knew them like nobody else did. It felt like a gift to know these men the way we did.

  And it was a miracle to be love by them.

  We climbed into the elevator, and the second the doors closed, Julian reached for me and pulled me into his arms. I wrapped my arms around his waist and just held on.

  Nick and Chase didn’t speak, but I knew they knew Julian needed this contact. Needed me. “Thank you guys for coming,” I offered.

  Have you ever seen three perfect male faces look offended? It was kind of funny.

  “Puhlease,” Chase scoffed.

  “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that, Iz,” Nick harrumphed. “If you want to thank me for something, then thank me for making sure Julian doesn’t have any pending court dates over this shit.”

  I smiled into Julian’s chest and his hold tightened around me. But the smile didn’t last long when he said, to no one in particular, “There can’t be any court dates if there’s no body.”

  I knew things were becoming unhinged when Chase supported that statement. “So, we’ll just have to make sure there’s no body.”

  “And hope this elevator has no voice recording,” Nick added.

  Sweet Baby Jesus.