Chapter Twenty-one
***Autumn***
Iwaitedpatientlyto strike. Zeke had the misfortune of arriving back at the house that night, coming in for dinner with a big, stupid grin on his face. Con and Griff had sensed my mood pretty early on, it seemed. They had both been watching me with concerned looks on their faces. They had no clue what was coming for them. I’d stewed. I’d cleaned up a dog poop accident. I’d smiled when asked how my day had been. I’d tucked the children into bed and read bedtime stories because I was a good nanny and because I could multi-task reading and envisioning killing their fathers.
I went downstairs as quietly as possible and found them all sitting in Griff’s office, talking over their nightcaps. I slipped into the room and shut the door behind me, catching their attention. Then, I just stood there, glaring at them, trying to decide which one I wanted to verbally stab first.
Zeke stood up and moved closer to me. “Hey, Autumn. What’s wrong?”
I all but hissed at him. “I’ll tell you what’s wrong, you giant asshole. I spent the day with Stacy Laray, listening to her tell me what a slut I am for fucking her ex-husband.”
Griff growled and stood up. “Fucking—”
“Oh, I’m hardly finished. You just sit back down and get ready to listen to me, you even bigger asshole.” I stomped towards them and jabbed my finger towards all of them. “I got to listen to what a fucking cliché I was. I heard all about the other nannies before me. The bedroom nanny and the laundry room nanny and who knows what other nannies you had around here. I had to sit there and be a fucking professional while that-that woman pointed out what a goddamn joke I am!”
Con sat forward and shook his head. “Auti, we—”
“You shut the hell up, too!” I kept moving towards Griff. “Your lovely ex-wife told me all kinds of stuff while simultaneously ignoring your children. Meanwhile, I’m thinking of just how easily I fell into the role of the slutty fucking nanny. You have no idea how angry I am. I daydreamed about using your dicks as bowling pins today.
“And I know it’s my fault! I’m the jerk who suddenly decided to live out her best ho life, but still! I hate all of you.” I sucked in a huge gulp of air and leaned over Griff’s desk to poke him in the chest, hard. “And you. You are a giant wad of dicks. Do you hear me? Just a big, huge cluster of nasty dicks. With balls!”
Griff surprised me by reaching over and grabbing me. He easily dragged me over the desk and into his lap, wrapping his arms around me like steel bars that I couldn’t even budge against. “Stop yelling, woman. Just shut up and let us reply, would you?”
I fought against his hold and even tried to bite him, but he just shook me and pressed his traitor lips against my ear.
“Stop fighting me or I’m going to bend you over this desk and give you what you deserve.”
I flushed and struggled harder. “Do you still hold Stacy like this?”
Griff stood up and bent me over his desk with a loud growl, then he brought his hand down hard on my ass. When I immediately stopped fighting him and shouting, he sat back down and pulled me into his lap again, holding me just as tight. “You feel like listening now?”
“You spanked me.” I fought back tears as the sting of my ass drained all the anger out of me and just left me with my real feelings, which were all hurt.
“I’d do it again if it got you to stop shouting at us. Will you stop and listen now? Let us clarify?”
Zeke came forward and sat on the edge of Griff’s desk. He brushed my hair out of my face and smiled. “You’ve got a temper on you, sweetheart.”
Con sat on the other side of the desk and grunted. “That’s an understatement.”
I shifted and tried to get my arms free so I could hide the fact that I was almost crying. “Let me go, please.”
“I’m proud of you for asking so nicely, but no. You’re going to sit here, and you’re going to listen to us.” Griff rubbed the side of my neck with his nose and sighed. “Stacy is really good at getting to people, Autumn. She could be a professional mean girl.”
“Well, you married her.”
Zeke laughed. “She’s got you there.”
Con caught my hand and held it. “We’ve never had nannies before. Not like this, where they live in and all that. My ex-wife stayed at home with the kids most of the time. Even after the divorce. The only reason we needed to hire a nanny this summer was because Jenny’s in school and can’t watch the kids like she normally does.”
I frowned. “No bedroom nanny and laundry room nanny?”
Zeke shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. You’re the first traditional nanny and definitely the first staff member either of these two have touched. Me, on the other hand… I dabbled in my younger years.”
Griff’s arms softened around me. “Autumn, I’m pretty sure everything she said to you was a lie. She just wanted to hurt you.”
I sniffled. “Not the part of me being a slut. If you three haven’t caught on yet, I’ve been sleeping around.”
Zeke nodded. “We know. We’ve talked about it.”
“So, you think I’m a slut, too?”
Griff laughed. “No, of course not.”
Con squeezed my hand. “You’re free to sleep with whoever you want.”
“Hopefully, just the three of us. That’d be less hurtful to my ego.” Zeke grinned. “Kidding, mostly.”
“So, what? You aren’t upset?” I frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“To be honest, we don’t really understand, either.” Griff shifted me so I was sitting across his lap and could look at him. “We all want you.”
I frowned harder. “Um… What does that mean?”
Zeke shrugged like it wasn’t the weirdest thing ever. “It means that we’re all interested. For some reason, we all like being shouted at and threatened, apparently.”
“It means that we know we’re each making moves on you and we’re accepting it. You can date us and pick whoever you like the best.”
I stared at Con with a dumbfounded look on my face. “What?”
Griffin sighed. “We came to the conclusion that since none of us were willing to back off, then we’ll all just keep seeing you, if you want. You can date us and figure out which of us you like the best.”
“No big deal.” Zeke tried to hide a laugh and failed. “Sorry, I can’t help it. It’s ridiculous, but there’s no other way to sort it out. We all want you. I’m not backing down. They aren’t either. So… Instead of a duel to the death, we’re just going to all date you. If you want.”
“Of course, just if you want.” Con dropped my hand and sighed. “You can say no right now and we’ll all respect that.”
My brain had to be shattering. I blinked at the three of them and slowly stood up. Walking to the other side of the desk, I stared back at them and felt my brows furrow. “I think I’m going to bed.”
Griff laughed and shook his head. “Fucking pain in the ass.”
I flipped him off and kept walking backward, staring at the three of them like they’d lost their minds. “Sorry for threatening you.”
“No, you’re not.”
I glared at Griff and then turned and walked away. Maybe I was dreaming. Or maybe, just maybe, I’d fallen and hit my head. Maybe I was dead. I figured I’d just tuck myself into bed and face it all some other time.