I didn’t grab my damn purse so I don’t have my keys. My eyes widen as the two big men surround my car, eyes fixed on me like predators, wary and wild, staring down their prey.
“Now, Alex. Don’t run again. We’ll just follow you. We’ll always follow you.”
Kade steps up to the door and I lock it quickly, shivering when I hear him swearing.
“Dammit, come on, baby girl. We didn’t mean anything by that. I know you love your job. Hell, you’re a fucking genius when it comes to people. I would never expect you to give up your job. Neither would Sebastian. We just wanted to let you know that there’s an option if you want it. We want to take care of you any way you let us. But if you don’t want to stop working, that’s alright with us.”
Sebastian steps up to the driver’s side window and I jump when he growls, “I would never ask you to give up something you love. Just like I hope you’d never ask me to give up something I love. I love you, Alex. I know you’re not ready to hear it. I know you’re not ready to say it. But it’s the truth. I knew it as soon as I saw you. You’re it for me.” His dark gaze shoots to Kade’s. “You’re it for both of us.”
“I just need time. I don’t know what’s going on. I never thought…”. My voice trails off and both of them nod. “You never thought you’d find love with two men. We get it. We’ve had years to get used to what we wanted. You’ve barely had weeks to figure out what’s going on here.” His hand lifts and his big palm flattens on the window. “But, baby. Don’t let fear of the unknown keep you from the best thing that could happen to you. We’re good guys. We just want to love you.”
“All of you,” Kade grins sexily, his tousled blond hair bringing images of what we did last night back into my head.
I push them away. “I need some time. Some space. I…” I shake my head and tears sting my eyes again. “I just don’t know what’s going on.”
“We found each other. We found love. Don’t flag the play, baby girl. Let this play out. I guarantee we’ll be good to you.”
My lips tip up as he starts spouting some football gibberish. I barely know anything about football. How can I make him happy? I know nothing about what makes him tick. Nothing except what he told me in sessions. And that’s stuff that I shouldn’t know.
Guilt tugs at me. I know stuff that a girlfriend might not know. All because he was my patient. It’s wrong on so many levels.
I shake my head. “Please let me be. Let me think. I can’t think when you’re standing there.” I can’t think when they’re surrounding my car, when all that muscled masculinity that was pressed against me is just inches from me again.
Sebastian nods at Kade and both of them move away. I watch them warily. “We’ll go. But please just think about this. This is a good thing, Alex. Don’t run.” Those dark eyes of his flash with something wild. “We’ll give you space to think. Time to work things out. But if you fucking run? All bets are off and we’ll find you.”
Both of them step away and go back into the house, returning with the rest of their things and getting in the car they drove here last night.
And I let my head fall onto the steering wheel, feeling something that I never thought I’d feel again.
Abandoned. I asked them to leave but now the aching pain of that loss is like a tidal wave pouring over me.
Tears streak down my cheeks and I rest my hands on the wheel, my head on them as I sob out the fear and loneliness that I now feel. One night with them and all I see without them is a long, lonely future, bare of all love. Stripped of any kind of joy.
Just dark, lonely days and nights. Shivers dust my skin and I slip into an uneasy sleep, my head resting on the wheel, tension dragging at my dreams.
Did I do the right thing?
Chapter9
Kade
“It’s been two weeks and she still hasn’t called or tried to get in touch,” I growl, running my hands through my hair, tugging at it like a crazy person. My head hangs between my shoulders and it feels like there’s a heavy weight on my shoulders. My heart feels like it’s been chugging along for years and now it’s struggling to even keep beating.
It’s hard as hell to keep from going over there and dragging her cute little ass out and back to our place. I’m losing my mind wondering what she’s doing, what she’s thinking and who she’s with.
Sebastian groans and throws the case files he’s looking at down on the desk. “You think I’m not going crazy. I am. I can’t concentrate and I almost lost a fucking easy ass case yesterday. I could have made sure a man who was stalking a woman went straight back to doing it because I fucked up.”
“You’re still going ahead with the pro bono shit then? For battered women?”
“You don’t remember how gutted she looked when that patient died? This is fucking important, Kade. Don’t make light of something you don’t necessarily understand.”
I shoot him an impatient look. I understand it fine. But I don’t know what either of us are going to do if Alex doesn’t figure out what she needs. What we all need.
Sebastian’s head lands on his crossed arms on his desk. “Why hasn’t she called?” he asks and I can hear the need, the aching pain in his voice. The same ache that has taken root in my chest, my heart refusing to beat as hard, as strong, until she comes to us.
Then like we’ve conjured her up from our dreams, she’s standing in the doorway, tapping on it, her lower lip caught between her perfect white teeth.
“Can I come in?” she asks, her voice shy and soft. A little sad.