Each of them had wanted me to make a choice between the three of them. And though it had aggravated me like no other, they argued and started a competition over me. I had very little reason to believe they thought of sharing me.
But what if I told them as much?
It was a possibility. But given everything that I knew and understood of them, I wasn’t sure they would all be willing to share me. Not that I hadn’t seen glimpses of their ability to share from even the very first night we had spent together.
Still, I wasn’t sure. Though, there was a glimmer of hope. A very, very small one.
I held up my hand and judged the length of time I had been soaking in the water. My hands were super wrinkly and pruny. It was high time that I climbed out of the bath. The question was whether or not I could face the men just yet.
So, I took my time getting dried off. Instead of getting dressed, I simply wore a robe. I was starting to run out of clothes with how often the men wanted to rip them from my body. Deciding to stick with just a robe was the safer choice.
Once I was out of the bathroom, I curled up with Malachi and took a nap. I wasn’t sure how long I was out when I woke up an empty mattress. Muted chatter came from the patio, and I let out a breath I had been holding.
At first, I thought I had woken up with the men gone again. And that idea sparked a paranoid one where something happened to them. But I was relieved to see they were all standing on the patio, chatting.
That made me smile.
I slipped off the bed and tip-toed to the sliding glass door. I opened it a crack, and a blast of icy air blew into me. I sucked in a breath of shock. The sound caught the men’s attention and they all turned around, opened the sliding glass door all the way, and stepped inside.
“What are you doing awake?” Dallas asked, stepping inside first.
“Did you have a bad dream?” Steele asked, curiosity coating his words.
I smiled. “No. I just woke up. All I needed was a small nap.”
“So, what you are actually saying is” Dallas said, smiling as he spoke, “you missed us.”
I pointed at him and chuckled. “You got me.”
Everyone let out a laugh.
I sucked in a breath and said, “Really, I wanted to talk to you guys about something.”
“You want us to help you move here?” Dallas offered. “In a heartbeat.”
“That would be amazing,” Steele said.
I chuckled. “Tempting, but that’s not what I wanted to talk about.”
I moved to the bed and got situated. The men joined me, taking up the other three corners of the bed.
“We’re dying over here,” Dallas said.
I laughed under my breath. “I wanted to tell you I owe you more than I could ever repay. I know that you three are waiting for me to choose one of you, but the fact is, I can’t. I’m so grateful to all of you for everything you’ve done for me. I can’t choose.”
The men stared at me with confused expressions.
“Wait. What?” Malachi said. It was the first words he had said. He had been so quiet the entire time, I worried something was bothering him.
“Did I miss something?” Steele asked, confused.
I smiled. “Yeah. Mostly because I wasn’t finished.”
“Out with it, woman!” Dallas said, nearly growling out the words.
“I can’t choose one of you because that is an impossible decision. So, I choose all of you,” I said.
The room fell still and silent. My heart palpitated and I sucked in a breath, waiting for one of the men to react. I almost thought I had exploded their brains until they each cracked into a smile and pounced on me.