Chapter 57

Chapter 57

Imogen

"What's this?"

There was a forced lightness about Kyle's voice as I stood stirring a big pot of lamb stew. The way he pushed my hair aside, his fingers forcing a whole-body shiver out of me as he traced the mark Asher left, had my hands releasing the wooden spoon to slap down on the metal counter. Something in that touch made me want to arch my back and part my thighs, letting him, letting all of the sleuth, take me right here in the kitchen. Instead, Kyle pulled his hand away and confronted Asher.

"You marked her?"

Need, jealousy, and a hunger to do the exact same thing is what I got from his tone before I dared to look up and watch the drama as it unfolded.

Kyle's just being protective , Asher informed me. It's what he does.

"Yes," I replied to Kyle. "That's what happens when I ask for it, isn't it?"

"You…" All the steam seemed to go out of Kyle then. His brows creased as he searched my face. "You wanted it?"

"I want it all."

There was still a part of me that couldn't believe that I had the right to reach out and stroke Kyle like this, finding the hem of his shirt and sliding my hand underneath. His skin was shockingly hot, his stomach muscles bunching in response to my touch. His eyes bore into mine, looking for evidence to support or disprove my statement.

"All of it?" That left me reluctant to speak, the words feeling too big for the kitchen. Asher left off slicing up breadsticks for garlic bread and moved closer to me, but Kyle stepped in his way. "Imogen?"

"That's what I said, didn't I?"

This was all an act, me putting my hands on my hips like I was some cocky girl rather than just me. But fake it before you make it, right? Kyle's lips finally twitched up into a smile.

"Then you better come with me."

"Where?" I squeaked, but he just grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the kitchen.

"Tell your mate to hold down the fort," Kyle called over his shoulder, "because we've got something better than stew for you."

That was all the clue I got before I was dragged upstairs.

"We don't use this part of the building much," Kyle explained as we walked past room after empty room. "It was built just in case we had enough clients needing somewhere to stay. As of yet, it hasn't really been used, so we decided…"

"You aren't going to leave me hanging like that," I snapped, pulling my hand free before looking around me. Dimly, I heard the muffled sound of someone cursing long and hard about something. I drifted closer, wondering at the source of it, only to find this.

Heaven, that's how I'd describe it later, because that's what it was. A far larger room than the one I was currently staying in, but it was nowhere near as finished. The generic grey curtains in every room were replaced by these sage green ones with a nubby texture, the pale grey walls restful on the eyes, but that wasn't what I was focussed on. Firstly, the massive bed spanning the entire wall on one side, big enough for one woman and three bears to sleep on. Two, boxes and boxes of books. My fingers twitched, wanting, needing to pick up and fondle each one, but it was the last thing that really caught my attention. Lucas sat on the floor with a screwdriver in hand and the beginnings of a bookcase on the floor, a screw hanging from his lips. It dropped to the floor when he saw me.

"I thought you were off getting Asher?"

"Asher's done enough for today," Kyle informed him, walking further into the room, and I couldn't help but follow him. "And anyway, I think Imogen needs to see this. It's her room."

"Mine?"

I'd been excited about my apartment, willing to overlook how old, dated, and worn out it was because I knew that's all I could afford, but this? I saw that they'd already created two bookshelves and set them against the wall opposite the bed. I'd be able to stare at my pretties before I went to sleep, gloating over them like a dragon might its hoard. My feet took me closer even as my brain stalled, unable to believe what I was seeing.

"Of course it's for you," Lucas said, putting the tools down. "You don't think Kyle would ever read for fun? Well, nothing more weighty than Men's Health magazine."

"Oi!" Kyle's response was automatic, but as he considered what Luc said, he shrugged. "Though I guess that's true. I could put all my back issues…" My eyes jerked up to meet his, narrowing without thought, so he threw his hands up. "In the bin, obviously."

"So…" Lucas' cheeks flushed pink. "Do you like it? All the girls kept going on and on about the Billy bookcases on the videos I watched, and?—"

"It's perfect."

My hands slid over the painted, white wood, then the decorative trim they'd bought to link each bookcase together. It would look beautiful, elegant, and like a library of old by the time we were finished, but more than that.

It'd look like something I'd dreamed about my whole life.

They got it, I realised as I turned around. Maybe not the books and the desire to read, but they understood that I loved it, and as a result, spent all this time and money making sure I had the perfect place to do it. Tears filled my eyes as I moved closer, and this time I didn't even try to hold them back. They spilled down my cheeks as Kyle and Lucas rushed towards me.

"Hey, if it's not right—" Luc started to say.

"It's right. It's better than right." I clung to each one of them, burying my face in their chests. "It's everything I could've wanted."

"See, I told you," Kyle hissed over my head as his arm wrapped around me.

"OK, fine," Lucas replied, hugging me close with his other arm.

They rubbed small circles on my back as I just experienced it. At first, there was a painful flush of pleasure that seemed to dismantle my carefully constructed defences so fast I was forced to suck in a breath. That transmuted into the sweetest of pains as I thought about the time and effort they'd put in. No one had ever done anything like this for me, and it felt like I was still struggling to get my head around the fact they had. But most of all was a certainty I shouldn't have felt. That they'd do this kind of thing for me over and over, rising to meet whatever need I had, that's what had my fingers clawing at their sides. It wasn't that they were doing nice things that made me feel like I loved them.

Just that they were willing to put my needs first at least some of the time.

"I need to make you dinner," I babbled. "Your favourites every night. Just tell me what you like."

"Imogen—" Lucas chided.

"Steak and blow job day? That's every day for you guys. Every damn day. Steak with Diane sauce. Steak Kilpatrick. Surf and turf."

"Imogen—"

"Don't like steak? What about roast lamb and apple pie?"

The words were spilling out, because by saying them, I didn't have to admit how they were making me feel. I felt like I needed to even the score, each act of kindness weighing the scales down further in their favour. I was accruing debts I could never pay for.

That I didn't deserve.

I sat with that feeling for a moment, my eyes taking in the bookcases, the boxes, the bed, and then finally them, wishing that I'd claimed them too. Then they'd see it. How this made me feel.

How being cared for made me feel about them.

I needn't have worried though. Each man searched my face and seemed satisfied by what he saw.

"So, I brought you up because I wasn't sure how you wanted your books shelved," Kyle said.

"Alphabetical or by series?" Lucas added. "I was thinking by series."

"Series." I was smiling so wide it felt like my face would crack. "Definitely by series."

Sometime later, Asher appeared by the door with a bottle of wine tucked under his arm and four bowls of stew on a tray. The savoury smells drew me forward. Well, that and I felt strangely protective of the books. Luc had managed to find so many of my favourites and more besides. There were covers and titles I'd never seen before, begging to be cracked open and read. Instead, I took the tray from him as I felt something like a featherlight brush against my mind.

So they did good? I could hear the good humour in Asher's voice. Then let's have some dinner and maybe… some more truth or dare?

Truth or dare?

He moved forward as the others rose to their feet, glad to leave the torture of tackling IKEA assembly behind for dinner.

"Man, this smells amazing," Kyle said, pulling one bowl towards him as he sat down, well clear of the books thankfully.

We'd come full circle, eating my grandmother's stew again as the three of them laboured to make my life better, about to play a silly kids' game, but when I stared into Asher's eyes, I saw something there now that wasn't present before. A sureness, a confidence in me, in us and that made me wonder what exactly he'd dare us to do.