“Of course, baby. Anything our girl wants, she gets,” Jason says and kisses me. The others kiss me too then race each other to the showers.
Beck and I stay behind to wait for another shower to open up. “That was a lot to take,” he says. I’m still naked, exposed without a hint of modesty. I spread out on the bed. He lies next to me and kisses my breasts, almost absentmindedly. It’s not meant to arouse, just something loving he does to be close to me. It feels good. His gentleness is a welcome juxtaposition to all the hardness I’d just experienced earlier.
I smile lazily. “My body is wrecked. I’m not going to be able to sit right for a week.”
He laughs quietly. “Get used to it cause there’s going to be a lot of those days. I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that Winston is obsessed with your ass.”
“You seem pretty preoccupied by it yourself.”
“I’m obsessed with all of you.”
I brush the hair out his eyes and try to mold it back into its perfect coif. It doesn’t want to stay and keeps falling to the side. “I’m so happy right now. In fact, I don’t think I can possibly be any happier.”
“I think you could,” he says.
“How?”
“It’s a surprise.”
“Should I be worried about my ass?”
His laughter shakes the bed. “Not that kind of surprise. But trust me, you’ll love it.”
“I’m sure I will because I love you.”
“I love you too, pretty girl.”
I snuggle up to his side and try not to fall asleep while I wait for the showers to open.
Nine
It’s been several weeks and Beck still hasn’t told me what my surprise is. Whenever I ask, he just smiles and says, “You’ll see. A surprise like this takes time.”
I glare at him, but don’t push too hard. Besides, they’ve done plenty to distract me as of late. The first week after the app sold, the boys whisked me off on a romantic trip to the Bahamas, and let’s just say there were a lot of deliciously sore nights after that. No time to think much about big surprises. But now that we’re back to work and we’ve come up with a new idea for an app, it’s business as usual and now I want to know.
Normally I have all the patience in the world, but I see the boys huddled in corners throughout the day without me. They hush and scatter whenever they see me coming. And there’s a man who keeps showing up at the office to talk to only them. I’ve never seen him before, but I don’t like the way he looks. I try not to let it hurt my feelings because Beck assures me it’s all part of the surprise. I’m starting to really hate surprises.
At lunch we sit in the breakroom. I’ve barely touched my salad, picking at it and moving lettuce around with my fork.
“What’s wrong, babe?” Jason asks.
They all stare me down.
I put on a weak smile. “Nothing.”
“No lying,” Trey says.
I made the same deal with all of them about lying that I did with Beck. We swore to each other always to tell the truth, but since they’re keeping things from me, I’m entitled to keep my feelings to myself.
“She’s upset about the surprise,” Beck says.
“Wait, you don’t like it? I thought you—” Derrick clamps his hand around Trey’s mouth, shutting him up.
I thought he was going to accidently spill the details, so I sat up and prepared myself, but now that he’s been silenced, I deflate back into my chair again.
“Soon, Anya. I promise,” Beck says.
“You’ve been saying that for almost a month.”