“Then we saw your picture and knew we had to be the ones to tell you about your inheritance,” Ashe added.
I ran my hand over the back of my neck. “We blew that, didn’t we? But shit, sweetheart, you’re too ha
rd to resist.”
“We wouldn’t let anyone else have you,” Ashe finished, toeing off his shoes.
“I didn’t ask a question,” Natalie said, pointing to the way Ashe kicked his shoes out of the way.
He shrugged. “I’m not shy, sweetheart. I’ll answer naked.”
“My question, sweetheart,” I said. Her gaze was level, her demeanor calm. Good. “Why do you work for that asshole?”
She pursed her lips, as if she were eating a lemon, or thinking about how much a dick her boss is. “I like the industry.”
“You mean you like lingerie,” Ashe countered.
“I do. I like to wear it because it makes me feel pretty…feminine. It’s not for a guy, but for me.”
“You took the job because you like lingerie. That’s good. Being in a field you like is good. But why stay? You can just go to the mall and get sexy little scraps of lace…” I ran my hand over my face thinking about what was beneath her white shirt. Pink? Lavender, maybe? Satin? “Why stick around when you’re sexually harassed? There are all kinds of jobs with your skill and background.”
She gave a slight shrug. “It hadn’t been too bad, until recently. That night at the restaurant, that was the worst. I’d been thinking about switching jobs, but now…well, now I have a lot to decide.”
Being an heiress certainly helped with options. She could continue to work for the asshole—although we’d certainly try to talk her out of it—or another company or not work at all. Hell, she could become a llama farmer if she wanted. She could do anything she wished with that sharp brain of hers.
But not today. Not now. We’d be there for her no matter what she decided, but now I couldn’t help dropping my gaze to her chest. “You’re wearing something skimpy and sexy now?”
She nodded. “I wasn’t expecting a guy…or guys to see it. Like I said, I wear it for me.”
“You wear it for us now, too,” I said. “Show us.”
“Yeah, sweetheart, put us out of our misery.”
She gave us a sly glance, then put a hand on the wall for balance as she removed one sock, then the other.
“Cruel, woman. Very cruel,” Ashe said, slowly shaking his head. He palmed his dick through his jeans.
“My turn,” she said. “Where’s the bedroom?”
Fuck yes.
I held out my hand, just like I had that night in the restaurant. She glanced at it, then me. Took it. Giving her warm palm a little squeeze, I led her through the family room and up the stairs, down the hall and to the master bedroom.
“This is your house?” she asked as I flicked on the light just inside the door.
“I live about a mile from here,” Ashe added. His house had acreage. As he’d grown up in Portland, one of his requirements for moving to Barlow had been a view and space. No close neighbors. It wasn’t anything like Steele Ranch with the thousands and thousands of acres, but he had room to breathe.
While I liked my house, my home was now with Natalie, wherever the hell she was. If that meant moving to Boston, so be it. If she wanted to live in Ashe’s house here in Barlow, that was fine, too. I’d live there with them. Or, we could find something that was new to all of us. I didn’t care as long as she was in it. But that was added to the growing list of things that didn’t matter right now.
“I think you have to take something off,” she said, eyeing us both.
We were both shirtless at this point. Neither of us wasted time in shucking our jeans so we stood before her in our underwear. Ashe had on black boxer briefs, I had on navy boxers.
She paused, ogled, her eyes growing wide at the way my dick tented my boxers.
“You’re so smart, sweetheart,” Ashe said. “Do you think we’d be here with you if we didn’t want you? All of you? For the long haul?”
“I…” She licked her lips. “I just don’t understand why you want me.”