He tucks a sooty strand of blonde hair behind her ear. “We didn’t act worthy of you, Penny. That’s going to change.”
“We’re your men. Forever,” I breathe into her ear. “You get a hundred percent of us. And that means we have to work together to make you happy, keep you safe. We’re on the same team from now on.”
Nick drops his forehead to her shoulder. “Team Penny.”
I press a kiss to her temple. “Say you believe us.”
Penny seems to battle a smile. “I might need…oh…forty or fifty years of convincing.” When we growl into relieved kisses of her neck, she laughs, but breaks into a cough that distresses me and Nick. “I love you, Nick and Zeke.”
Two sets of arms close around our girl and hold tight. Hold her like we’ll never let go. And we won’t. “We love you, too, Penny. We’ll never, ever stop.”
EPILOGUE
Penny
One month later
W hen I hear Nick’s heavy footsteps coming up the stairs, I quickly hide the folded newspaper beneath my school books, but my heart is still bouncing and zigzagging off my rib cage, the bold headline impressed on my memory.
Body of Russian Mobster Washes up on Riverbank.
In the month since the second fire that almost took my life, there has only been one night when Nick and Zeke didn’t sleep beside me. They kissed me on the head, made me promise not to open the door…and when they returned home, there was a dark satisfaction in them I should have found alarming.
I didn’t.
My two lovers are obsessed beyond reason with me. It shows in everything they do. The way they escort me to and from class, help me with projects, encourage me. Their obsession is in the two sets of hands that wash me in the bathtub, usually right before those same hands drag me out with lustful intention, positing me how they need me. It’s in the way they never let a day pass without telling me how much they love me, while I’m eating breakfast on one of their laps, sunbathing in the backyard or sketching designs in my notebook.
Here’s the thing…I’m obsessed with them, too. Their honor. The way they’ve become equal partners in the business of me. Penny. Their heroism and yes, yes of course, their bodies. The lovemaking. Their non-stop eagerness to make me a mother. These men have become my life and I know their hearts and minds. So if they avenged me—and my father—with violence, I know they had no choice. And while they never let me feel anything but safe, I can admit to feeling ever more secure now, with Boris Volkov out of the picture.
Sensing Nick standing in the doorway of my bedroom, I remain on my belly poring over my books, but I part my thighs just a little, knowing he can see beneath the plaid skirt I wear just for him. Daddy. One of the men who apparently kills for me, then comes home and checks my homework.
The floor shakes a little as Nick drops to his knees behind me, one rough hand gliding up slowly from my ankle, over my calf, stopping high on my thigh. “What are you working on?”
Dampness is already spreading on the crotch of my panties. “Um…I’m studying for my fashion merchandising final.”
Nick hums low in his throat and flips up my skirt, revealing the frilly, white panties he bought me, leaving them in my drawer without a conversation.
Right alongside the cheetah print thong Zeke bought for me to rile up Nick.
Thinking of my other man, my lips spread into a smile. No longer does the rule exist where both men need to be present to touch me. And life is much sweeter since they developed that trust. Not only in each other, but in me. I’m never going to love one of them more than the other. They both own equal parts of my heart—and that’s how it will always stay.
Since Zeke’s apartment was damaged in the fire, we’ve all moved into Nick’s house, each of us taking our own room, but usually sleeping in the master bedroom together, their heat never failing to give me the best sleep of my life. Of course, Zeke insists on paying half the mortgage—and I plan to contribute one day when I start my own fashion line. They only laugh when I tell them that. But it will happen.
I can be pretty stubborn when I set my mind to it.
“Your date with Zeke is tonight,” Nick says, straddling my bottom with his big, uniformed thighs, not a hint of jealousy lacing his tone. “But you’re going to give Daddy a little attention first.”
I turn over and watch his hungry eyes travel down my halfway unbuttoned blouse. Most of my nights are spent at home, but once a week, Nick and Zeke trade off taking me on dates. Nick’s are more traditional, like dinner and a movie, while Zeke usually takes me go kart racing or dancing. Both are perfect to me.