Chapter Nine
Gabrielle
The next morning I stood in the shower, luxuriating in the warm water washing down over my body. I used the same sponge that Lucas had use to wash me the night before to clean my skin and then a bottle of sweetly almond scented shampoo to wash away the lingering tangles from my gala hairstyle. There was still a smile on my lips from waking up half an hour before, tangled in both of the men. I couldn't tell whose arms and legs were where and I could hear both heartbeats on either side of me. It was a blissful few moments as consciousness settled over me and I became more aware of my surroundings. Had someone told me just weeks before that I would be in this position, I would expect that I would feel strange and awkward waking up with both of them. I would think that there would be a sense of discomfort when I faced them in daylight. From the moment that I started to wake up, however, I didn't feel any of that. Everything still felt right and comfortable, as though this is where I was always meant to be.
I was supposed to be meeting Jackson and Lucas for breakfast and I knew that I should be hurrying, but I was enjoying the morning too much to rush it. This was nothing like anything that I had ever experienced. I felt like I had taken a step out of my life and was experiencing a day in someone else's existence. I didn't know how long this ecstasy was going to last, and I wanted to savor every moment of it before I had to return to normalcy. Even when I did, though, I knew that I was never going to be the same. The two men had awakened me, introduced me to myself in ways that I would have never known, that I would have never imagined. I felt like they had awakened me and I treasured the feeling, wanting to discover more.
Finally I dragged myself out of the shower and got dressed. I wished that I had brought something more interesting to wear than the black jeans and sweater, but I hadn't intended on doing anything more than slipping out of the Club in the morning if I stayed at all. I did my makeup and slicked my hair back into a ponytail, hoping the curls would behave as they dried, and left the room to meet the brothers. They waited right outside the door to their wing and both turned and smiled at me as I stepped through the door toward them.
"Good morning again," Jackson said, kissing me on the cheek.
"Good morning," I said.
Lucas repeated his brother's greeting and I smiled as I accepted his kiss. I knew that there were others milling around the Club, but I wasn't thinking about them. I didn't mind if they saw us. We went to the restaurant and talked about the gala the night before as we ate. Keeping our voices quiet so that the few other people filling the tables around us wouldn't hear, we shared stories about the things that we had seen, and laughed about the reactions of some of the guests to the party. It felt comfortable and easy talking to them and I felt a moment of sadness when the meal came to an end and Jackson signed the bill that the waiter placed on the table. I assumed that it would be charged to a family account since I had seen no exchange of bills or cards.
We walked slowly away from the restaurant and I prepared myself to say goodbye to the men, but Lucas turned toward me just before I started for the wing.
"Can we show you around a little?" he asked. "Unless you have something you need to do."
"No," I said. "I don't have anything to do. I'd love to look around."
They smiled.
"Good," Jackson said.
We roamed through the Club and I listened as the brothers told me about its history, the founding families, and the important moments that had occurred there. I had to admit that I was impressed, intrigued by the mystery of the opulence and unspoken formality of the space. I wanted to know more about it, but even more than that I wanted to know more about the brothers.
They led me outside, and through the soft snow that was beginning to fall, to explore a labyrinth set in the grounds. I shivered slightly as I turned a corner and a voice from behind us startled me.
"You're going to bring her out here and let her be cold?"
I turned around and saw Talon and Aiden coming down the path toward us. I smiled at them, feeling a rush of excitement at seeing them. Talon slipped out of the coat that he was wearing and wrapped it around my shoulders. I could feel the warmth of his body still in the fibers of the fabric and I felt myself smiling as I cuddled further into it.
"Thank you," I said.
"Of course." He stepped a little closer to me and stroked along the side of my face. "I heard that we were lucky enough to get our hands on a virgin," he said.
I was surprised by the comment and felt my cheeks burn slightly. I didn't know how to respond.
"Talon!" Jackson hissed.
"What?" he said, tucking his finger beneath my chin and lifting my face up so that I looked at him. "She's not offended. She knows exactly how we feel about her. Don't you?"
I realized then with a delightful shiver that the heat that I had felt from all four of the men was as real and intense as I had hoped that it was. I nodded and Talon smiled at me.
"See?" he said. He licked his lips and I felt sparks tingling to the tips of my fingers and throughout my satisfied body. "I'm very happy to hear that," he said, speaking directly to me now. "It means that you will belong only to us."
There was something in those words, something that went beyond the fantasy of having all four men to enjoy and to enjoy me. I felt the intensity of something pulling us together, linking us in a way that I didn't yet understand. I looked into Talon's eyes, trying to better understand the words.
"Talon," Lucas said, sounding almost as though he were warning his older brother.
"What?" he asked.
"They haven't talked to her yet," Aiden said.
A strange feeling rippled through my belly. That sounded ominous and I worried about what he could possibly mean. I looked at each of the brothers and saw that they were exchanging unsure glances.
"What's going on?" I asked.
Aiden
This wasn't the way that this was supposed to work out. We weren't supposed to just suddenly drop the bomb of this whole situation on Gabrielle. The four of us had agreed that we were going to spend some time with her, getting to know her, warming her up to the possibility of her being with all of us before the stakes were suddenly raised. Talon had always been the most impulsive and least patient of all of us, and he was showing it now. Though he has learned to control himself as he got older and became more involved in the business, there was always the sense that he was a coiled spring, ready to burst with the slightest cause. Now he was doing just that, completely ignoring the plan that we created, and rushing forward. I could see the nervousness in Gabrielle's eyes and I knew that we couldn't just pretend that he hadn't said anything, or come up with an excuse. If we tried to push away the situation now, we would only make it more difficult when we did tell her. She wouldn't be able to trust us and it was a possibility that we would never have this opportunity again.
I looked at Jackson, trying to relay what I was thinking to him through my eyes. He seemed to understand and gave a small nod.
"There's something that we were meaning to talk to you about," he said.
"Alright," she said. "Is there something wrong?"
"No," Lucas reassured her. "There's nothing wrong. There's just something very important that we wanted to discuss with you."
She nodded.
"OK," she said.
"We can't talk about it here," I said. "We need to be somewhere more private."
This made her eyes widen even further and I felt like we were already getting off to a bad start. Maybe Talon shouldn't have suggested her. Maybe he should have just let the relationship among the five of us develop as it was going to and let us realize how perfect she was on our own. But there was no use in thinking about that now. We were here and there was no turning back. Either we talked to her about it now and gave her the opportunity to make her decision, or who put the possibility of her being the right woman for us behind us and continued on looking for someone else. I wasn't willing to consider anyone else, so I knew that we just had to be as delicate and careful about the way that we approached her as we could.
"Come back to our house with us," Talon said.
"Your house?" She asked.
"Yes," Jackson said. "That way we can talk without anybody interrupting us."
She finally agreed and we all went back to her room to help her gather her belongings. She offered to follow us, but we told her it would be easier if she rode with us. We would make sure that she was brought back to the club to pick up her car when we were finished. She agreed and we all got into the backseat of the limo that we used when all of us wanted to travel together. Gabrielle sat with me on one side of her and Jackson on the other, looking around the interior of the car with a slight look of awe in her eyes. I could see that this was beyond anything that she had ever experienced, and that if she did agree to our arrangement, this lifestyle was something that she was going to have to become accustomed to over time. I knew that the four of us would be happy to do anything that we could to introduce her to it and make her feel comfortable in the world that we were opening up to her.
An hour later we were sitting in the living room and I was watching Gabrielle's hand shake as she held a cup of coffee in front of her. She had only taken a few sips of it before Talon started talking, and now it seemed that she was holding onto it just to have something to grip. She was staring ahead of her, not really at any one of us, and her lips were slightly parted in surprise. After a few moments she seemed to snap back into reality and looked at each of us in turn.
"I don't think that I really understand what you're telling me," she said.
I looked at Jackson, who slid closer to the edge of the couch so that he could lean forward and look into her face.
"We told you about our father," he said.
Gabrielle nodded.
"He died a few years ago," she said, recapping what we had told her. "His will had two sections, one for when he died and one to be read on Talon's thirtieth birthday."
"If necessary," I added.
"If necessary," she said. "And that became necessary because none of you had gotten married and had a child."
Lucas shook his head.
"Not married," he said. "That wasn't part of the specifications. It just said that we hadn't been given full access to our inheritance because none of us had had a child yet. Our father wanted to make sure that the legacy had somewhere to go after us, and if it wasn't going to, then he needed to make sure that there were arrangements in place for how to handle everything."
She nodded again. It seemed to have become her go-to reaction when she wasn't sure what to say.
"And so you want me to…"
Her voice trailed off and Jackson leaned a little closer to her, reaching out to touch her knee to comfort her.
"We know that this sounds crazy. We get that. But it could be so perfect. You already told me about how much your family wants you to have a child and a comfortable life."
"I really don't think that this is what they had in mind," she said. "They want me to raise a family with someone, not to pop out a baby for a stranger to use as collateral to get money and control over a business."
"I would hardly call us strangers," Lucas said.
She turned toward him and I could see the way that they looked at each other. It was obvious that he had already touched her, tasted her, experienced her in the way that we all wanted to, and I felt a flicker of envy go through me. It wasn't that I minded. I was completely on board for the four of us getting to enjoy her and was happy for my brother, but it only made me want her more.
"And that's exactly what we want to do," Jackson said. "This isn't just about you having a baby for us. We want you to be there to raise it with us. All of us together will take care of the baby and be its parents. We'll make sure that it is given all of the opportunities in life and that it will be prepared to take on the responsibility of the family legacy when the time comes."
"We'll also take care of you," Talon added. "You won't ever have to struggle again. If you want to keep running your chocolate shop, we'll make sure that you have the money to do that. If you don't, you'll be provided for completely. It's up to you."
Gabrielle looked stunned and for a moment I wondered if anything that we were saying to her was actually getting through to her or if she had shut off somewhere in the conversation. I couldn't really blame her. I knew that this was a lot to try to take in and that it had come at her suddenly and shockingly. If Talon had given us more time with her, maybe it would have been easier to talk to her about it. Maybe it would have come up in a smoother, gentler way and she would have been more receptive.
"If a baby is all that you wanted, why did you use condoms?" she asked, looking at Jackson and Lucas. "Why didn't you just go for it and hope it worked out for you?"
I was slightly taken aback by the boldness of her question. I didn't expect her to be timid or shy about the situation. That was a major part of why we wanted her to be the one. She was upfront and honest, vibrant and full of life. She didn't seem like one to wither or shy away from what she was feeling. But the question had felt raw, like there was emotion in it driven by a story that we didn't know.
"That's not what we want, Gabrielle," Jackson said. "We didn't want our child to be looked at as some kind of one night stand accident. We chose you for a reason and it's important that you are in agreement. You have to admit that there is something between us. You can feel it as much as we do. But that might not be enough. We wanted to be totally transparent with you so that we could have your complete and unwavering agreement. This has to be something that is in your heart. You have to believe in it as much as we do. What has already happened between us wasn't about this. That was something that I would have wanted whether we were considering having a child or not."
"Me, too," Lucas said.
Gabrielle looked at each of us again. I could see all of the questions in her eyes, but I could also still see the need, the powerful draw that she felt toward each of us. Even though Talon and I hadn't had the chance to be with her yet, the heat between us was still obvious and I couldn't wait for my turn to experience every inch of her luscious body. Now I felt like I may never have that opportunity and the thought made my chest tight.
"I need to think about all of this," she said. "Can I have some time to think it over?"
"Of course," Jackson said.
"I'll have a car bring you back to the Club," Lucas said. "Take as much time as you need. You know where to find us."
Gabrielle placed her cup on the table in front of her before standing. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, as if she wasn't sure how she should leave. Finally she turned and walked out of the room toward the front door, disappearing out onto the porch to wait for the car without saying another word. I waited until I heard the car drive out of the driveway before I looked at Talon.
"Great fucking job," I said.
He glared at me.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"You know exactly what he means," Lucas said. "You weren't supposed to just spring it on her. We agreed that we were going to take our time and try to get to know her before we even brought it up with her."
"Why?" Talon asked. "Why should we bother doing that? I'm positive about her. I don't need any more time to think about it and I don't want to consider anybody else." His voice had dropped lower, taking on the deeper, more serious tone that it carried when he felt that there was no room for discussion in a situation. "I don't want to wait. I want her and I want to know that she's ours. If we had waited and danced around the reality of the situation, it would have just seemed like we were manipulating her when we finally did talk about it. At least this way she knows that we're going to be honest with her. She doesn't have to worry that we're hiding something or lying to her."
That was something that I hadn't considered. I had been thinking so much about us learning more about her before bringing the baby up that it hadn't occurred to me how it might impact her when she found out. Rather than feeling as though we were trying to make the situation easier, it could seem like we were trying to trap her, that we had lied to her and were taking advantage of her. That wasn't something that I ever wanted her to feel.
"What are we going to do if she says no?" Lucas asked.
"Let's not think about that unless it happens," Jackson said. "We did what we needed to do. Now all we can do is wait."