Chapter Four
“Oh, my God, it’s fucking hot here,” Thomas muttered. He was waving a newspaper in a vain attempt to cool himself off.
Not that Stefan was faring any better. He might have been born somewhere damn hot in the summer months, but he didn’t much like the heat of California. “Hopefully the A/C is working on the vehicles, and in whatever location we end up copping a squat in. Too much of this and we’ll bloody well melt under our fucking gear.”
“At least there’s no sand to work its way into the crevices,” Lincoln said. He then pointed to where their two trucks were sitting. “Those are ours.”
“Which means all we need to do is stay off the beaches,” Antonio said. He caught the keys Lincoln tossed his way. “Shouldn’t be too hard given her star status. I doubt she’s one to haunt the local strips of sand.”
Chuckling, Stefan followed him to the one truck and climbed in. Once the engine was on they stayed put until the A/C finally kicked in, and they no longer felt like they were cooking. “I don’t think we brought enough sunscreen with us.”
With a nod, Antonio got them out of the airport and headed for the freeway. For the next hour and a half, they inched their way along with the rest of traffic until finally, they were able to escape to side streets. With the assistance of their GPS system, they found the house Brooklyn Anderson had rented, or rather that Dionysus had rented for her.
At the gate, Antonio rolled the window down with a curse and leaned out to hit the button. A disembodied voice came through the speaker. “Yeah, we’re the hit squad sent out to whack some actress chick,” Antonio said.
The gate buzzed open.
“We need to get that fixed,” Stefan said. “No way in hell are we letting her stay here with something that lousy at the front gate.”
“We may need to do more than that, bro. Fucking hell, what era are those cameras out of?” Antonio asked as they crept up the driveway to the house.
Stefan didn’t know, but he did know one thing—they were definitely being upgraded. From what he could tell there was only picture, nothing else. The place was begging for an assault to happen, with a sign out front reading Come the fuck in.
They parked outside the front door and climbed out of the truck as Thomas pulled the other SUV up on their tail. Hopping out from behind the wheel, the man shook his head. “Did you see the shitty setup they have here?”
“We didn’t plan on this, so hopefully the party god is up to getting us a few items.”
“You called, and here I am,” Dion said as he walked out of the house. “So I see that you found the place. That’s always a good thing.” He put his hands in his jeans pockets and looked at the men. “Brooklyn is out back swimming, so you can tell me now what you need to have, and it will be yours.”
Thomas wandered up still scribbling in the notebook he had in hand. Pausing in front of the god he tore out several pages and handed them over. “Those exact models, no deviations. It’ll be a good start, but be ready for more once we get inside, and check out the back. Don’t know who sold her on this place but they really have no clue on security.”
“I rented it for her because it’s in a gated community, and she felt that was security enough. She wasn’t as famous as she is now. And now I don’t think she wants to be here any longer because deep down inside she’s a country girl and wants to be left alone.”
“Well, while we’re here we’re going to make it as secure as possible to keep everyone, and everything, out of here,” Stefan told him. “She’s famous now, and that brings an impressive array of problems. But she’s also more, which attracts the other sort of attention. You’d better introduce us to her so we can get to work without her freaking out to see us meandering around the place. Especially once we whip out the chainsaws.”
“All right, well, come through the house.” Dion moved to the front door and opened it. He walked in and waited for the men to join him. The sounds of water being displaced were heard when they walked out of the sliding doors. They could all see the woman in question. She was slicing through the water as if she were part of it.
“Brook, hey.” Dion crouched at the end of the pool and touched her head when she got to the edge. “Brooklyn, these are the men that are here to protect you. Come on out and meet them.”
“Holy smokes, they’re big,” Brooklyn muttered, which had the men chuckling. She grabbed one of the large towels and wrapped herself in one and took a smaller towel so that she could start to dry off. “Hello.” She offered her hand to the first man. “I’m Brooklyn. Thank you for coming to take over my protection. Dion says that you’re the best.”
Stefan took her hand and gave it a shake. Shock and awe assaulted him as his hand buzzed alive just from her brief touch, but he did his best to remain composed and introduced himself and the team. “Pleased to meet you, ma’am. I’m Stefan,” he told her before letting her hand go to wave at the others. “Antonio, Lincoln, and Thomas. Our goal is to keep you safe during your time here, without intruding too much into your life. For the most part, you won’t even see us around unless we’re traveling, or out in public for any reason.” Shifting his stance slightly, he rubbed his palm to the seam of his jeans. Damn hand still buzzed from the brief contact with her skin.
She was looking at her hand, mouth open slightly. “Did you just shock me with a joy buzzer?” she demanded finally. “Because that tickled, stunned, buzzed, whatever you want to call it.”
“No, ma’am,” he assured her. Stefan held his hand up to show her his bare palm to prove his point further. He could have said something about the dry air, static electricity, but he knew better. He’d heard about it from the others, and knew precisely what it was. This woman, Brooklyn Anderson, was his and Antonio’s. It made sense since Lincoln and Thomas had always seemed to be partnered up together, as he and Antonio were. He’d had a gut feeling before arriving, but that little shock only proved it. She was theirs. Likely a good thing. Dion would have killed Thomas inside of a month if things had gone any other way.
****
Brooklyn looked at the man’s hand with a bit of a frown. “If you didn’t shock me with one of those things then how in the world did you do that? I’m so confused.” But she found herself leaning into the large man. She had even stepped a bit closer to him while talking. “Stefan, do you know what that was all about?” she asked the man, as if he were the only one there with her at that moment.
She saw him throw her cousin a look before he slowly nodded. “I have a pretty good idea what it was. Not exactly something I feel super comfortable discussing with him glowering at me.”
“Who, Dion? He’s a pussycat. Dion, you wouldn’t hurt anyone, would you?” she asked her cousin. “Dion, you do look angry, why?”
“Yeah, Dion, why the angry face?” Thomas asked.
“You, puppy, do not have the right to call me Dion. That is reserved for Brooklyn alone. As for why.” He shrugged, and Brooklyn noticed the façade that he wore most days slide into place and said, “At least it’s not you. I only want the best for her, and we both know that won’t be you because you are far too cocky and simply not right for her. I’m angry because someone is out to kill one of my favorite humans.”
“What do you mean? At least what you said to Thomas?”
“Your men will explain it all. For now, they need to finish looking over the property and doing what they must to keep you safe. Don’t you, gentlemen?”
“Oh, Dion, you could have saved yourself so much heartburn by asking. I could have told you that weeks ago,” Thomas said with a smirk. “Lincoln and I will do the loop while you two chat. Come on, Dion, be a good little manager and show us around, will you?”
“He’s going to fry your ass,” Lincoln muttered with a nod to her. He gave Thomas a shove toward the house.
“Can’t, then it fucks up everything and out comes the big bad. He can’t do a damn thing to me until everything’s in order, and he knows it,” Thomas chuckled.
“I can make damn sure that certain parts of your body aren’t working, though. I know you enjoy making that little brain of yours work and the weekend parties that you have certainly say as much. So you see, I could very well make your life hellish.”
Brooklyn frowned. “I’m so confused. How could you do something like that?”
“That’s for later, cuz. For now, why don’t I get these shitheads out of your hair?” Dion walked toward the house with Thomas and Lincoln.
“You can’t do that, either,” Thomas said. “If you do then it fucks everything up, and you know it as well as I do. I’ve been paying attention, Dion. You mess with the little brain, and it can’t do what it needs to do to seal the deal.”
Lincoln threw her an apologetic look. “I’d apologize for him, but he’s only going to get worse while we’re here.”
Brooklyn just shook her head. She couldn’t think of anything else to do at that moment. Good lord, these men were like four-year-olds hyped up on sugar. “Are you guys serious right now? What in the world are they talking about?” she asked Stefan since the others were pushing each other into the house.
“It’s a long story,” he told her. He threw a look at the other man, Antonio if she recalled correctly, who stood silently watching her. “One that will take a bit of time to explain. To be sure though you should likely shake his hand, too. If you wouldn’t mind.”
Brooklyn turned to the other man and offered her hand to him. When she got the same shock again, she had wide eyes. “What in the world?” She was now looking at her hand, confused and feeling a little odd. “What is going on? I know it’s not static electricity because I just got out of the pool, so what was it?”
“The first indication of the bond,” Antonio told her. He was rubbing his fingers down the side of his leg with a slight frown on his face. “We have one hell of a whopper of a tale to tell you. It’s all true, but you may not believe us right away. One good thing to having Dion here, I guess.”
“Not like we can actually get rid of him,” Stefan muttered. “Let’s go sit down. You may want to have that stability in a few minutes.”
“Okay.” Brooklyn moved in just a bit closer to Stefan and then oddly enough found herself reaching out toward Antonio. Her fingers brushed his just a moment before she pulled her hand back. “Sorry. I don’t know what got into me.”
“It’s all right,” he said. He reached out to take her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Come on, let’s go sit down so we can give you the short version. Even at that, it’ll take a bit to get through it all. Then we’ll have to give you the proof you’ll need to fully grasp what we’re about to tell you.”
“Okay.” Brooklyn let them take her inside, and they settled on the couch together. She liked that they both bracketed her between them. She cocked her head to the side and watched them. “I’m listening,” she said and crossed her legs and waited.
Antonio pulled the throw off the end of the sofa, and shaking it, he settled it over her bare legs. “This will take a bit of faith for the time being. Go with it. We can prove everything we’re saying very quickly, but we need to tell it in a certain way. Can you give us a bit of leeway?”
She had to smile because of how touched she was at Antonio’s covering her with the throw. “Thank you,” she told him finally and leaned back. “Okay, I’m ready for whatever you have to tell me. Believe it or not, but I trust you both. Fully. I don’t understand why, but I do. Is that normal?”
Stefan rubbed his hands down his thighs before leaning forward to plant his elbows on his knees. “Okay, here we go. To answer your question, from what we’ve seen with the other women, or keys, is that they instinctively trust the men who were chosen as their mates. The shock you felt is one of the clues as to the bond that can form between the key and two of the men, or as the gods occasionally refer to us, the Knights. The bond is when all three souls merge for a moment during a time of real openness. This happens during sexual release, but that’s for later, and I’m getting ahead of myself.”
Blowing out a breath, he steepled his fingers. “Millennia ago, the gods had a bit of a turf war. You might recall it from history classes, and the study of the Greek gods. Most of that mythology is actually propaganda, but the basis behind it all is truth. Ares, Zeus, Hades, they are all real. They locked Hades down when he figured out how he’d been shafted when the gods split everything up. He was given the Underworld, but he didn’t realize that he’d be tied to it. That for him to live he had to have souls populating it consistently. Not just boarders, but a new influx almost constantly. And the bigger the sin that committed their soul to Hell the greater the surge of power. But he was also banned from entering the earthly realm as part of the deal, which for him was a deal breaker. Unfortunately, he didn’t read the fine print before signing on the dotted line.”
He shot her a look, and she gave him a slow, slightly shaky nod. “The universe has to have balance. Light to dark, good to evil, and so forth. And since the Fates hate Zeus with an undying passion they decided to throw in their own loophole to Hades’s curse. Zeus sealed him down there for all eternity, but the Fates gave him a way out. Six keys to be born into mortal women descended from the gods themselves. If he got all six in his realm before they bonded in this lifetime with their men, the seal would break, and he could once again come to earth. If he got the majority in his realm, and to see his side of things, they could break his seal. Or if he got the one key out of the six, the master key if you would, and could make her his with a full, willing bond, she could unlock the seal that keeps him out. He’s currently looking at a stacked deck in our favor. You are the fifth of the women marked by the Fates as a key. Which means he’s desperately using his acolytes to search for you, and the last of the keys. He knows that one of you is the master key. You with me so far?”
“So far, I think. I mean it’s a whopper of a story, but keep going.” It was a lot to take in, and she honestly wasn’t so sure that she believed in them. Cocking her head to the side, she rubbed her hands up and down the blanket that had been placed on her lap and nodded, trying to grasp everything they were saying. Then, when everything started clicking into place, she spoke. “And you’re saying that I’m one of these keys.” They had stated that she was the fifth key, but she had to hear it again. “And what happens if one of his acolytes gets their hands on me? There is no way that I would willingly tie myself to the devil, so what happens then?”
“He’s not the devil, not the one portrayed. He’s Hades, God of the Underworld, and of the Dead. Hades, like any god, has ways of altering your reality. He’s the only one that doesn’t play by the rules that Zeus and the others put into place centuries ago. And he can get away with it because none of the gods want to go into his realm. It’s pretty much a guaranteed ass-kicking if they do. His realm, his rules. And yes, you are one of the six women descended from Greek gods who were chosen to be a key to his seal,” Antonio told her.
“Right,” Stefan said, sitting back so his shoulder brushed hers. “Your reality, should one of the acolytes grab you and take you to him, would be whatever he deemed it to be. He could make you believe anything even as your soul screamed it wasn’t right. Eventually, even your soul would give in to stop whatever he was doing to you. It would be torture, just not the sort you likely are thinking it to be.”
“Right.” She found herself leaning into the men that were on each side of her again. “I guess that would explain why I’m feeling so comfortable with the two of you around. Why I am finding myself reaching out to touch you.” Which was so not her. She wasn’t the touchy-feely sort of person, yet she was constantly reaching out to both men.
“That first spark was the start of the bonding process. Each touch will pull us all closer together. I know this sounds like you don’t have a choice, that it’s all preordained in the stars, but you do have a choice. We can’t make it for you. It has to be yours and yours alone. But we should likely finish telling you the rest of this mess first if you’re up for a little more stretching of your beliefs.”
“I think that I need more than a five-minute meet and greet. I feel comfortable with you both, I believe that you are both strikingly handsome, and I feel completely at ease. That’s not something easy for me, being entirely comfortable with anyone. It comes with the whole package, that Hollywood package that makes me uncomfortable with touch.”
“We’re not planning on rushing you, Brooklyn,” Antonio said. “You definitely don’t need to make any decisions right now. What Stefan meant by what he said, is that you call the shots in everything that does, or does not, happen between us. Only you. While we may voice our opinions from time to time, you have the final decision.”
“Right, sorry if that wasn’t clear,” Stefan said softly. “I know this is all overwhelming, but there is a little more if you’re ready. Or we could get Dionysus in here to prove the gods actually exist.”
“My cousin?” she asked with a frown. “I’ve known him for years. There is no way that he’s a god. He’s, he’s like a big kid. A playboy who knows how to party.” There was a long pause as she put together what the god Dionysus was all about. “Oh, shit.” She covered her mouth then. “Yes, I think we should get him in here so that I can smack him for lying to me.”
“Oh, thank the gods,” both men muttered. Stefan got up and moved to the doorway. “Dionysus, we need you to pop in to blow her mind a little. She also has some things she’d like to say to you,” he called out.
When Dion literally popped into the room with them, Brooklyn jumped. She felt her eyes go wide and swallowed hard. “Holy crap balls, they weren’t kidding.” Brooklyn stood and wrapped the blanket that had been around her legs around her body. She was shaking now, shivering from the chill in the air. She walked up to Dionysus and lightly hit his shoulder. “That’s for lying to me.” Then, because she still loved the big goober, she hugged him. “I still love you, but you are so on my shit list for never saying anything to me in all these years.”
His arms wrapped around her to hug her close. “I couldn’t tell you, Brook. It goes against the rules we have to abide by until those chosen as yours make themselves known to you. I wanted to tell you,” he said softly. “I never actually lied to you, though. I can’t lie. I did fudge the truth slightly, and only to keep you safe until it was time for these two to enter your life.”
“But you appeared younger, and then you aged. How?” She shook her head. “Goodness, I’m so upset with you.” But at the same time, she knew she couldn’t be too upset with him because he had protected her. Dion had shown up every time that she had needed him to keep her safe. “And you guys? Are you all part gods as well?”
“We’re descendants,” Antonio said. “When we were chosen to be part of the program we also got extra training from Ares up on Olympus. This apparently had a few interesting side effects that have started to show up in a few members of our group. The time up there, even though we were shielded, woke up the dormant genes so we’re starting to get some of the traits of the god who happens to be our ancestor.”
“Ah, and who am I descended from? Is it you, Dion?” she asked with a frown. “Because I have never seen myself as much of a party animal, not like you are. Don’t get me wrong, I adore you, but Jesus H. Christ, can you ever party.”
Dionysus smirked down at her. “There are very few who can keep up with me, Brook. I am the original, and we all know it’s hard to top the guy who invented it. Plus, alcohol doesn’t affect me quite the way it does a mortal. As to whom you’re related, that would be Aphrodite.”
“That explains a lot.” How men, and even women, would proclaim their undying love for her. It had always weirded her out how people would constantly tell her that they loved her. “How will I know that what these men might one day feel for me is real? I mean if I am descended from her, it’s tricky, right?”
“Not really,” Dionysus said. “Because you were paired off long before you were even born they can only feel true feelings. That little spark you felt is the portion of the bond inside of you recognizing the other pieces to complete yourself. It is beyond the control of the gods, and what they bring to the table. Not a one of us can override it, alter it, or change it. Hades is the only one that is outside of our rule book because he’s a grade A asshole.”
“Yeah, it sounds like it. That explains why I haven’t been able to get into any real relationship in my life, doesn’t it? I’ve never been able to fully trust anyone, and now I know why. I’ve been waiting for these men to come into my life.” She just hoped she didn’t mess it up. “Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had relationships, just none of them have panned out, and now I understand.”
“It would never work because they were never right for you, Brook. Without the bond, you were always uncomfortable, and they were too infatuated with your appearance to bother getting to know the real you. Unfortunately, that’s a side effect of your genetics, and one that will always be around. But with the bond, it will be dulled down. Should you go through with it, of course,” Dion said.
“Of course.” She already felt the pull to both men. She felt the draw of having them close and wanted to have them closer. Just knowing she could reach out and touch them was a sinfully delightful temptation to her. She reached back and let her fingers twine with Antonio’s as he stood just at her back.
He gave her fingers a light squeeze before his thumb started to stroke over the skin of her inner wrist.
“I’m going to go keep the joker and his quiet friend company while you three keep chatting. We should likely do lunch soon since the director pushed the meeting up, and we’ll need to bail out of here early, Brook.” Bending slightly, he pressed a kiss to her forehead. Dion didn’t say anything else, and turned to leave the room in a more traditional means of getting from place to place.
Brooklyn turned to look at the men again. “Okay. I need to go upstairs and get a shower and put on clothes instead of sitting here with you both in my bathing suit only. Do you guys want to walk up with me? That way you can start to take notes on what you need and don’t need.”
“We’ll definitely walk you up,” Antonio told her. “We’ve already started our lists. Thomas, for all his joking around, is meticulous. He’s documenting everything as he goes through the house. We will need to take a look around the back half of the property, but we’ll wait until you and Dionysus are in the kitchen.”
“Sounds like a plan. Thomas, he seems as if he has something weighing heavily on him. Is he okay? He was all jokes and giggles, but he seemed as if he had something bothering him.” She walked toward the stairs, not surprised when the men followed her.
“He’s okay,” Stefan said. “Or as close to it as he ever gets. Given what he said to Dionysus earlier it seems he and Lincoln already knew they would be last up on the list. How that’s possible I’m still trying to figure out, but it’s not an immediate concern. He and Lincoln have both been a little off for a time now. Hopefully, they’ll settle back in when it’s their turn to find their key.”
“We can hope. There was that brief moment of sadness that crossed the man’s features. It was something that twisted a knife in my heart,” Brooklyn admitted. She walked into her bedroom and then looked back at the men. “Give me five minutes to grab some clothes and then I’m going to shower and change. I should be out in fifteen to twenty minutes. You are welcome to look around anywhere you want to.”
“Go ahead, we’ll be here until you’re out,” Antonio told her. He brushed his hand against her arm lightly before he moved over to the large windows that looked over the back of the property. Stefan also touched his fingers against her skin in a short stroke. He then moved to look around her bedroom.
She liked the touches, she realized, as she walked into the bathroom. Just the smallest of gestures and she felt those to the center of her very soul. It was a feeling that she wanted, often. While thinking of what was happening to her emotionally, Brooklyn got into the shower and cleaned up. Once that was finished, she walked out with her robe on and a towel in her hair. She had been so caught up in thinking about the way those men made her feel she forgot her clothes.
Three minutes after walking into her closet she was out and dressed. “Now then, how poorly protected is my home?”
Both turned to give her a look, and slowly shook their heads. “Oh, honey,” Stefan said before he clucked his tongue softly. “Be glad you have a god with deep pockets. This is going to take some time and a lot of money. Whoever sold you on the idea that this was secure should be shot. It looks it, sure. But it is most definitely not.”
“Great. Dion rented the place for me. He’s my manager, you know,” she told them with a light smile. “I wanted to live in my home that I have in Texas. I know that it gets hot there, but it’s beautiful. That home better be secure with Dion having arranged for a group to install the latest and greatest toys to it.” Shrugging, she found herself once again reaching for Stefan and brushed her fingers against his. “Sadly, I don’t get to spend as much time back home as I would like.” She was Texas-bred, in and out.
“Funny, cousin Dion didn’t mention that,” Antonio muttered.
“Can’t imagine why,” Stefan said. Shaking his head, he moved toward her. “We’ll get this place top of the line for security.”
“Wait, what? We have certificates?” Antonio asked, sounding stunned.
Stefan threw him a look and rolled his eyes when he faced her again. “Who do you think did her place in Texas?” he asked quietly. “I knew there was something a little odd about that job. Little did I realize just how strange it would turn out to be.”
“Wait, you guys did my home? That’s, well, that’s weird.” They had been in a place that not many had been. Her home was her sanctuary, and she didn’t let just anyone in, but if they had done it then she knew that it would be the top of the line everything. “I knew that Dion said that the best did it, and now I understand who the best are.”
“Not the best, just guys who know what’s needed, and what isn’t. Too many companies go for flashy, and it ends up screwing the whole balance. Sometimes less is more in the best possible way. We actually did it as a favor,” Antonio told her. “And we didn’t even know it was for Dionysus. We really need to have a talk with Ares when we get back. Maybe throw him into Mik’s crosshairs for a couple of hours.”
“Fucker would likely get off on it,” Stefan said. “We should get you downstairs for lunch, and then apparently we need to head off for some sort of a meeting if I remember correctly.”
“Yes, crap, I forgot about that,” Brooklyn grumbled. “He keeps moving the meets up and then pushing them back. If I didn’t know better, I would swear that the man has ADD or something. Either that or he needs a new secretary to schedule his days instead of the latest couch costar that he has riding his junk.”
“Whatever it is, he’ll be sticking to our schedule from now on. He moves a meeting, changes anything without one hell of a good reason and he’ll have us to contend with. Let’s go get you fed so when we get there, we’re all in the right frame of mind to deal with this jerk,” Stefan said. Then he held out his hand for her to take.
She took Stefan’s hand and smiled up at him. She nodded and took a deep breath. “Thank you. I can’t seem to give up touching you. Both of you. I feel safer, I feel more relaxed, and just plain right when you are touching me.”
Grinning at her, he pressed a kiss to her temple. He urged her into the kitchen where Dion was unpacking takeout containers from her favorite place.
Antonio smirked at her and went over to peek into the containers Dion was still digging out. He even got his fingers slapped twice by her cousin.
Brooklyn took a seat and sat back waiting. “I could have told you that Dion refuses to let anyone touch the food until it’s all out and uncovered. It’s a small quirk of his, isn’t it, Dion?”
When her cousin just shrugged and continued to pull containers out, she patted the seat at her side. “Sit down. He will finish pawing the food in a moment. He settles it out in alphabetical order. He’s a bit obsessive.”
“A god with OCD, who’d have thought it,” Stefan muttered. He sat down next to her while Antonio continued to mess with Dion. Whenever the god turned his back, Antonio would rearrange the containers ever so slightly. “Bro, stop fucking with the guy who can drop your ass anywhere in the world without cell reception, and sit down. The sooner we eat, the sooner we can get to this meeting, and get Brooklyn through the day.”
Wearing a shit-eating grin, Antonio wandered over to the table, and popped something he’d managed to pilfer from one of the containers into his mouth before he dropped into another of the chairs.
The back door opened to reveal the other two men coming inside with Lincoln ticking things off on his fingers, and Thomas furiously scribbling away in a little notebook, likely jotting down everything Lincoln was listing.
Once the food was all out Dion passed out plates and told everyone to dig in.
Thomas sat down still writing in the notebook. He threw her a look and then tore out a bunch of pages from the book to hand over to Dion.
She took the plate that Dion offered her and started to eat once she was sure that everyone had a plate. They didn’t talk for a while, just light conversation. Once they had finished eating, she leaned back and sighed. “That was delicious, Dion. I think that we are going to have to send you out for food more often.”
The god snorted and shook his head. He then looked at the clock on the wall. “We need to get moving if we’re going to meet the director. I know you guys want to make an impression, so go and change. I’ll get all the leftovers tucked away. We’ll be grateful for them when we crawl back here later today.”
Antonio chuckled while wiping his mouth with his napkin. Setting it aside he got to his feet with the rest of the men. “We’ll be ready to go in five minutes.”
“So how are they to prepare themselves to make an impression?” Brooklyn asked as she watched the men leaving the room. She stood and helped Dion gather the plates and put away the leftovers, waiting for him to actually answer the question, which he didn’t.
When she and Dion went out to the front hall, it was to find all the men dressed in suits. And these were in no way off the rack. Each was custom-fit to the man wrapped in the high-end materials. They wore dress shoes that didn’t quite look right to her, but she couldn’t put her finger on it, and also mirrored sunglasses.
“Wow, that’s what you meant when you said make an impression.” She walked up to Stefan and found herself straightening his lapel. When she realized what she was doing, she stepped back and blushed, if her visage in the mirrored sunglasses were accurate. “I’m so sorry. I know better than to just walk up and touch someone.”
He reached out to catch her hand and pulled her in closer. Lowering his head, Stefan pulled the sunglasses off so she could look into his violet-colored eyes. “Never apologize to us, honey. You have our permission to touch at any time you want. You’re ours, and we’re yours. There are no rules between us except whatever we decide to put in place privately.” He tugged her in a little closer so she felt the heat of his breath on her cheek before Stefan’s lips brushed against her skin.
She felt that sizzle and had to bite her lower lip to keep the moan from escaping her throat. She found herself leaning into him even more, her hand slipping into his suit and around his waist so she could give him a gentle hug. She felt the weapons then, and that quickly brought it home that there was danger out there stalking her like a predator would prey.
After that amazing kiss she was ready to go. “Okay. I have it.” She had her purse in her hands and pulled out her dark sunglasses. Slipping them on, she let the persona of the Hollywood starlet slide over her and went quiet.