Big Three: MFMM Contemporary Romance

by Demi Donovan

  I know I’m overhearing something I probably shouldn’t, but there’s no good way of letting them know that I’m here without making it seem like I’m eavesdropping. Which of course directly leads to me actually eavesdropping.

  “I don’t see why not. I’m tired of Robert and his bullshit. We can promise him whatever the fuck we need to in order to make him sign the papers, but as soon as that’s done, we’re out of here. I’m taking Candice and he can only fucking dream about seeing her again without paying me for it.”

  “We could just stipulate that in the contract. You’re already getting primary custody anyway…”

  “I want full custody. And he’s never going to see his little girl again after that,” Milan says, pure hatred in her voice. “Exchanging me in for a fucking younger model… screw him. He never deserved me and I’m not going to give him the satisfaction of getting everything he wants.”

  “Milan, the only reason he is going to be signing that contract is because he thinks it will guarantee that you’ll give him more time with Candice, like you promised,” Mallory says evenly.

  I can hear from her voice that she does not approve of Milan’s plan, but she can’t exactly sway her against it either. Even if they are friends, Mallory ultimately works for Milan. As do I.

  “I know. Which makes it all the more sweet. He signs the contract thinking that out of the goodness of my heart I’ll give him more time with Candice – my daughter – and actually he’s signing away his rights to see her ever again. Maybe I’ll be nice and sell him a Christmas or two for a million… but I wouldn’t count on it.”

  There’s silence for a moment and I stand up quietly, my heart beating thunderously in my chest. It seems so loud to me that I keep thinking they must hear it too.

  “Those sons of Roberts are nothing but trouble. NFL players, playboys… they’re not the kind of influence I want around Candice,” Milan says curtly.

  That’s bullshit and I have no doubt that Milan knows it. If she’s ever seen her daughter with those men, she would know that they love her unconditionally and would do anything for her. I now realize that this is exactly why Austin, Callum and Troy were at the meeting with Milan – to make sure that she wouldn’t pull something like this.

  And she’s going to do it anyway.

  “Maybe we should get more wine first and then see whether or not this is wise,” Mallory says, prompting Milan to stand up and follow her into the house.

  I can hear them arguing over it as they head in but I’m certain that Mallory has no chance of persuading Milan from her plan. I start walking towards my bungalow again, my head swimming.

  She’s my client and I can’t tell the brothers or Robert anything about what I just heard. It’s obvious that Candice has been expecting something like this from her mother but she doesn’t know exactly what, considering how careful Milan was with waiting for her to be behind closed doors before she started discussing it with Mallory.

  I wonder if Candice has told Robert about her fears and that’s why he was so adamant about not signing the documents without them present.

  Probably.

  The whole thing makes me sick to my stomach. When I get back to my bungalow, I lock the door behind me and spend the rest of the night trying to figure out what I should do.

  When I see the lights coming on in Austin’s bungalow, I can feel my heart breaking for him. His mother leaving him when he was a baby, the death of a woman who was like a mother to him, his father’s womanizing ways, his divorce… and now the possibility of losing his sister without being able to do anything about it…

  And selfishly, I feel my heart breaking for myself as well. If I don’t tell Austin or the twins about this, there’s no fucking way there could ever be anything between us. But if I do tell them, I’d be betraying my confidentiality with my client, which would be inexcusable.

  I’m between a rock and a hard place and this whole adventure just got so much more painful.

  Twenty-Six

  Callum

  I probably haven’t had a decent night’s rest for a while now. It’s hard to sleep when you’ve got Lily on your mind.

  And she hasn’t left my thoughts for a second.

  The last few days have been filled with wholesome family fun. Everyone’s having a good time while I’m fucking obsessing about Lily, trying to pretend like everything’s normal.

  It’s not fucking normal.

  The day we spent together, the four of us hidden away in the bungalow, was the best I’ve ever had. I never thought that I could share with my brothers like that, while at the same time wanting to make sure that Lily was getting everything she could have ever desired. I always thought that if things ever got serious, sharing would be off the table completely.

  Hell, Troy and I’ve done it before a lot of times, but it’s only been about the sex. About plowing the woman as thoroughly and as brutally as we fucking can. I never thought that we could stand side by side in a relationship with someone but the more I think about it, the more I believe we could.

  I’ve always been at my best when surrounded by the people I love and my brothers are my warriors, the men I can trust with my life and who trust me with theirs. We’re partners in crime and I have no doubt that we could make Lily the happiest she’s ever been. Give her everything she could ever need. And so much more.

  And I know she could give me what I need as well. Give us all what we need and what we desire. She’s like a rock that anchors me in place, gives me stability when I feel like I’m scattered otherwise. I’ve barely known her for a couple of weeks and I’m already absolutely fucking sure that she’s the one.

  Not just for me, but for Troy as well. And Austin.

  And it sounds fucking insane when I try to put it into words, but I know it’s true and the right thing for all of us in my heart.

  “You with us?” Troy asks, elbowing me in the ribs.

  I’ve been standing on the beach, on the edge of the water, watching Candice and Lily try to learn how to surf from some beefcake instructor who keeps giving Lily way too much ‘personal’ attention. I didn’t notice it but my hands are in tight fists and my breathing’s constricted.

  “I am,” I say, but it comes out more as a growl.

  “I hear you,” Austin says, stepping up behind me, his arms crossed on his chest and his eyes narrowed.

  “You hear what?” I scoff.

  “I hear the fucking annoyance in your voice,” he grunts back, waving one hand in the general direction of Lily and the instructor, who is showing her how to get back on the board.

  By grabbing her by the waist and then hiking her up on it by pushing her up by her ass. An ass that should only be touched by me or one of the other Stephenson brothers.

  There’s a growl deep in my chest and I’ve never felt so fucking protective of someone before.

  Ours.

  The thought is so fucking clear in my head.

  “I’m going to bash that fucker’s head in,” Troy says grimly.

  We must make some sight. Three Stephensons, tall, broad and ripped as hell, glaring daggers at some hapless beach bum who thinks he’s having a good time with a hot client. It’s a good thing that he hasn’t noticed us watching him yet, because I think he’d voluntarily drown himself if he did.

  It’s better than facing our combined wrath.

  “Sure, that’ll make things better,” Austin comments dryly.

  I toss a scathing glare at him.

  “So what the fuck are you suggesting?”

  “I’m suggesting we stop obsessing,” he says, running a hand through his hair.

  He looks more frustrated than I’ve seen him in a long fucking time, and it’s not like Austin Stephenson has been a shining bastion of good will and happiness lately. His eyes are glued to Lily and the blond prick that has his hands all over her under the guise of ‘teaching’ her.

  My blood fucking boils.

  “Sure, you look like you’re completely fucking c
alm about this,” Troy scoffs before I can.

  “Listen, I’m trying to keep us all cool-headed, alright?” Austin snaps.

  “Real bang-up job with that one,” I growl.

  It’s obvious none of us are particularly chilled out at the moment. I don’t think any of us expected this woman to affect us the way she has, but she’s completely consumed us without even knowing it. I lay awake at night, imagining our future with her. Whenever I see her, I want to smother her with kisses.

  This is not in my character.

  This is not how I’m supposed to be fucking behaving.

  I’ve screwed my way through most of the United States and now I’m pining? Fucking pining after a woman I can’t reasonably have because I want her to be as much mine as she would be my brothers’. And that’s so fucked up that there’s no real way of explaining it to anyone but myself and my brothers.

  “Way I see it, we have two options here,” Troy says.

  I look at him, frowning.

  “There’s two different ways to drown blondie over there?” I ask, motioning at the instructor.

  It gets a chuckle out of Troy and Austin, so if nothing else, it at least lightened the mood a little. Not that I think that murder should be particularly funny, but whatever.

  “No, we’re not drowning anyone. Maybe just kick him around a little,” Troy says with a wink.

  I can get on board with that.

  “No, what I’m saying is that I think Lily wants this as much as we do. I talked to her yesterday. She didn’t tell me what’s in her past that makes her so guarded, but I’ve got a hunch. I think what she needs from us is to know that she will be safe with us. And I think we need to show her that she can rightfully expect that from us. That we will be there for her.”

  “If we come on too strong, we might just scare her off,” Austin says, his posture relaxing slightly.

  Out of all the conversations I thought I would be having at my fathers’ wedding, this is definitely not one of them. Standing with my two brothers, trying to desperately figure out a way how we could show a woman that being together with the three of us would be something that’s not utterly and undeniably insane.

  Which, truth be told, it kind of is.

  “I’m listening, though,” I say, and Austin nods.

  We both look at Troy, who grins wide.

  “Time we put our heads together then.”

  I don’t know what surprises me more. The fact that Troy’s going out of his way to impress a woman who we seem to have very little actual hope of winning over, or that he’s the smartest guy out of the three of us.

  Both are sort of equally shocking.

  Twenty-Seven

  Lily

  I’m exhausted.

  It’s two days from the wedding now and the whole day has been spent in carefully tucked away boardrooms in the back of the resort, listening to Milan and Robert scream at one another while I and Robert’s primary lawyer look on mostly helplessly.

  Both of them have gone through the divorce process enough times to barely need us there for the legal stuff, and they definitely do not want to be interrupted amidst their vehement dislike for one another.

  By the end of the day, we’re no closer to them agreeing on signing on anything, but I really need a drink.

  “I think we made some nice progress today,” Robert’s lawyer – a nice, clean-cut guy by the name of Blake – tells me as we lock up for the night.

  Milan stormed out five minutes ago and after a particularly salty rant in her wake, Robert did the same. It didn’t matter much though, because between the two of them, they have so many contradicting requests and so much general spite that making a workable contract out of this mess is sort of impossible.

  Which is what I think Milan is banking on.

  “Did we?” I ask Blake, almost scoffing at the notion.

  I don’t, because I think he’s a nice guy and he’s as much between the jaws of inanity here as I am. I can bet a good amount of money on the fact that this was not Blake’s first choice for an assignment.

  “Well, I’ve seen worse,” Blake says, shrugging. “And the base contract is really good. I think I can tweak it based on today and we can present it again tomorrow.”

  “You think the happy couple will consider anything that might look like a step back for one of them? They’re not particularly in a compromising mood, in my opinion,” I say, a glimmer of hope coming to life in my chest when I look at Blake’s confident face.

  He’s taking this far better than I am. But then again, I don’t think he’s dealing with quite so much distraction at the moment as I am.

  And he doesn’t outright dislike his client, which probably makes it easier as well.

  I can’t say how many times during today I just wanted to stand up and scream at the top of my lungs that Robert should not sign anything, because Milan has no intention of ever giving him time with Candice again. That their daughter is far too important to be having this petty fight over and they should be focusing on what’s good for her, instead of focusing on how hurt or angry they are at one another.

  I didn’t say a word though. Because I can’t.

  And it’s eating me up inside.

  “Well, Robert made a promise to Andrea that the wedding would go off without a hitch and I don’t know about you, but in my book still being married to my ex-wife is sort of a major hitch.”

  He chuckles at that and I give him a half-assed grin that doesn’t really make it to my eyes. I wish I had his confidence in this… and his naiveté.

  “Tell you what, let’s agree to work on this together, alright? I’ll send the draft changes to you tonight and you can look them over so we can present them together tomorrow morning.”

  “I think that would be great. Thank you, Blake,” I say, honestly grateful for the offer.

  All I want to do is crawl into bed and forget that this day ever happened. I need to somehow manage to avoid the Stephenson brothers during the whole process as well because if I had reason to stay away from them before, those have doubled now. I’m terrified that if I run into them, I might just blurt out the whole fucking horrible secret.

  I part ways with Blake at the front entrance of the resort and he waves at me with a tired, but charming grin. I stand there for a moment longer, wishing that I could still be attracted to guys like that.

  Men that have their life all graphed out, knowing where they’re going and where they’re coming from. Men who live simple lives and would offer the same to me.

  But I’ve been burned by one of them, and now men completely unlike Blake have set my world on fire in a whole different way. I don’t think I could ever even consider spending my life with someone so… average.

  Which is just perfect, because I can’t get the men I really want either.

  Gnawing on my bottom lip, I trudge through the resort towards my bungalow in relative darkness, guided by lit torches lining the pathways. My shoulders are hunched like the weight of the world’s on them and whenever I think of Candice’s happy smile when she was playing with her brothers, it almost feels like it is.

  I feel like I’m doing wrong by her… but the only way to keep my confidentiality agreement with my client is to do that. To throw her, her brothers and her father under the bus.

  Who is supposed to be able to live with that?

  You’re not supposed to form personal relations with clients, a voice inside my head reminds me, sounding a lot like my old ethics professor at college.

  I distinctly remember how much I loved that professor’s classes, how I thought she was saying all the right things and how I would never stray from the ethics of my profession. After all, people had defended murderers and kept their secrets safe and were the bastions of our profession at the same time – I couldn’t be any less.

  It would be strictly professional, I would keep my emotions out of it. That’s what I’d told myself.

  And it had worked.

  Until the S
tephensons came along.

  Now everything’s screwed up and I don’t know how to fix it.

  I’m so deep in thought that I don’t initially even notice the petals scrunching under my open-toed sandals as I approach my house. I frown when I finally make out the little red petals and stop in my tracks to look at them. As I look up, I see that there’s a whole trail of them leading up to my bungalow.

  And the lights are on inside.

  What the…

  My heart starts beating fast as I make my way forward. As I grab the doorknob, I notice my hand shaking a little from the confusion and the anticipation. I think I know what this is, but it feels like a dream I’m afraid to wake up from.

  I push the door open and I find a dinner table set in the small lounge room before the bedroom, with blood red roses, the same color as the petals leading up to the bungalow, in a simple glass vase in the middle of the table. It’s decked with food, and the most delicious looking cherry pie, and the whole building smells divine.

  But I really only have attention for the three nervous faces of the men standing in the room. Austin, Callum and Troy are all there, dressed in business casual, with button-up shirts and slacks and clean shaves. I’ve never seen them look so anxious and they’re studying my expression hard.

  I think all they can read off of it is pure surprise right now.

  “What is this?” I ask, stunned.

  “Come in,” Austin says, and as if not of my own volition, I push the door shut behind me, but don’t lock it.

  He walks to me but doesn’t grab me in his arms like my brain immediately suggested that he should do. Instead, he stops in front of me and the twins join him, setting me to face the wall of delicious men just like they did in my office last week. This time, though, I’m not trying to hide from them or to get away as fast as I can.

  “We wanted to show you a different side,” Callum starts.

  “One that doesn’t have to entail fucking you to shreds,” Troy offers with a grin, and I have to mirror it.