“Hey, is everything okay?” Ollie leaned his head back on the couch and looked over at her. The movie still played on the screen, loud explosions filling the room, but it was obvious that neither he nor William were watching it anymore. Ollie because he’d been waiting for her to return, and William because he was completely zonked out.
“Hmm? Oh, yeah. That was just my dad. He wanted me to know he was going to be stopping by the office in the morning.” She tried to make it sound like no big deal, even though it most definitely was.
Ollie’s brows scrunched up in the middle. “I thought he was on permanent hiatus.”
Sabrina spread her hands out in front of her, all “what are you gonna do?”
“That was the plan, but you know businessmen. Can’t stay away to save their life.” She chuckled, but her statement was literal. It was imperative that her father no longer be in the thick of the workplace environment. It was far too stressful, and his heart just couldn’t take it anymore.
Ollie just laughed with her. “Well, I look forward to seeing him then.” He sighed as he leaned forward and grabbed the remote from the table. “I don’t know about you,” he said, clicking off the television, “but I’m beat. Ready to head to bed?”
Sabrina was about to say yes, but then she remembered something. “I don’t actually have anything here to change into.”
“That’s no problem. I’m sure Willie would be fine with you borrowing a couple things.” He had that soft, playful smile as he stood and turned toward her, and she could already envision being wrapped in his strong embrace, nestled up tight against his chest, listening to his heart beat against her ear as she fell asleep. It was her favorite thing to do these days, but Sabrina had to be practical.
“Actually, it’s a problem. I also don’t have anything I need to get ready for the office in the morning.” Regrettably, she added, “I think I’m going to have to ask for a rain check on the sleepover.”
“Are you sure? You don’t have to wear clothes to the office, right?”
“While I may be in charge, I’m pretty sure there are laws against that sort of thing.” She laughed and winked at him. Closing the distance, she flattened her hands on his chest and reached up on her toes to kiss him. “I’ll make it up to you later.”
Oliver’s hands wound around her waist. “Who said there has to be a later?”
“I did.” She pushed away, severing contact before this got out of control and she didn’t leave after all. “If I stay any longer, I won’t have any energy left to get home. I’m already half asleep.”
“Maybe that’s the plan.” He waggled his eyebrows.
“What’s the plan?” William’s sleepy voice claimed their attention, and Sabrina looked over to see him reaching his arms into the air to stretch. He let out a loud yawn next, then stood up. “Wow, how long was I out?”
“Not long,” Oliver supplied.
“Then why does it feel like I missed something?” William sized them up, reading the feel of the room.
“I’m not going to be able to stay over tonight after all,” Sabrina informed him. “I didn’t bring anything that I need to get ready with me, and I need to be in the office early.”
“Her father’s in town. He plans to show up at work tomorrow, so she’s getting the jump on him.”
William gave her a knowing look. “Making sure everything is neat and tidy before big daddy rolls in to case the joint?”
“Basically.” She intended to get there before her father and finish up any paperwork that needed finishing, as well as tidying up. Her dad had always been a stickler for a clean workplace, and she’d been letting her office go lately. She was giving herself an hour head start to straighten up her office and get things in order before his grand appearance.
“Then we won’t keep you.” William approached, wrapping her up in a giant bear hug. “Will we, Ollie?”
Oliver surprised her. “Actually, ‘Brina has a point. I didn’t bring anything either, so I should head out too.”
“Everyone is abandoning me,” William lamented.
Sabrina cupped his stubbled jaw in her hand. “I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to you too.”
“Too? It sounds like you have a lot of that going around.”
“She already promised me,” Oliver said with a grin.
“Maybe we can do this again tomorrow night,” she suggested. “We still have to finish the movie anyway.”
“If you bring cake, you got a deal.”
She smiled up at William. “Deal.”
They sealed it with a kiss, and then she was slipping on her shoes by the front door. Already, Sabrina regretted leaving. She’d wanted to sleep beside her guys. It was always the best rest she had, and anymore, sleeping alone was just plain lonely.
Oliver walked her out, and they took the Hargreaves’ private car back to her place first. With a sweet kiss good night, he let her go, waiting until she was safely inside the building before the driver pulled away.
Sabrina’s mood threatened to deflate. Being in her apartment alone didn’t feel right anymore. She missed the brothers’ presence, and they’d only been separated for a short time. It didn’t bode well for her if things didn’t work out in the long run. She may never sleep again.
Shaking off the disturbing thoughts that didn’t warrant consideration, she rode the elevator in silence, reaching her apartment door a couple of minutes later.
She’d been right. The apartment felt cold and lifeless without them here, and sadness began to creep in. It was late, but was it too late to gather a few things and run back to William’s place? Or maybe Ollie’s? Yes, it was. William was probably already asleep, and Oliver soon would be. She had no idea what Conner was up to, but she could imagine that he was burning the midnight oil. He just seemed the type.
As she got ready for bed, occasionally reaching down to run a hand down Binx’s back, as he’d been winding himself around her legs since she’d walked in, Sabrina imagined them all living under the same roof, what their routines would be like. Ollie would be the laid-back one, the one who was always up for a good cuddle. William would be a touch more serious, but just as playful as she’d come to know him to be. And Conner? Well, he’d probably be the one to come to bed late, after everyone fell asleep, always preoccupied by the coming day’s agenda.
Together, they’d balance each other out, show one another a better way of doing things, and together, they could be truly happy.
It seemed like such a fairy tale coming true, Sabrina was afraid to put too much thought into it beyond that. She didn’t want to get her hopes up only to be let down. For now, she wanted to live in the moment.
But as she pulled back the covers on the bed and prepared to get in, her feline roommate turning in circles at the foot of the bed in preparation for his own good-night’s sleep, she turned her attention to her phone instead. She had to see the picture of the four of them one more time first. With a couple of taps, she was looking down at their handsome faces, and then her own. She looked…happy. Not that fake kind of smile people put on for show, but genuinely happy.
She credited that to them.
Her guys were changing her, and, she felt, for the better.
Reenergized, she left the room with her phone in hand. She’d had an idea earlier what she wanted to do with that picture, and despite the hour, she didn’t want to wait a second more to bring it to reality.
Firing up the printer she kept at the corner office space she’d set up in a wedge of space between the dining and living room, she loaded up the picture paper and connected her phone with the device.
In a matter of moments, she held a physical copy of their budding relationship in her hands. On her way back to the bedroom, she picked up a sparkling gold leaf frame containing a generic picture of a puppy leaping into the sky to catch a Frisbee, and peeled off the backing. Once the picture of the four of them was tucked safely inside, she set it down on the bedside table.
There. The perfe
ct image to go to sleep and wake up to. It would be her daily reminder of what she had and what she had to look forward to. Climbing into bed, she clicked off the light and closed her eyes, a satisfied smile on her face.
She had her work, respect of her colleagues, and three amazing men in her life who would do just about anything for her. Life didn’t get much better than that.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Sabrina didn’t make it into the office as early as she wanted or expected. Not sleeping with her guys had, as she’d suspected, thrown off her schedule and she’d spent far too many hours tossing and turning. As a result, by the time the alarm went off in the morning, she couldn’t peel her eyes open, let alone pull herself from the bed.
When the pounding on the front door occurred, however, she took one bleary-eyed look at the alarm and bolted out of bed in a flash. The mad dash to the door had her heart racing in a panic, and when she threw it open, she didn’t spare a glance at the person standing in wait on the other side, expecting it to be one of the brothers.
“I slept through the alarm,” she explained as she hurried back to her bedroom and started stripping out of her pajamas and into a hastily selected outfit that she’d pulled from the closet.
As she raced through her morning routine, she called out, “I hope you brought coffee. I’m barely functional today. I didn’t get much sleep last night because you weren’t here.” She huffed a laugh, but no response from her visitor came.
“I’m sorry if I worried you. It wasn’t intentional.” She applied her mascara with a little more care than she’d ripped the brush through her hair and yanked it into a topknot, secured with bobby pins and a gallon of hairspray.
A quick look in the mirror and she decided to call it good enough. She wasn’t out to impress the masses. Just the four most important men in her life: her father and her lovers.
Sabrina slipped her feet into a pair of wedge heels to match her black on black knee-length pencil skirt and blouse and grabbed her clutch from the top of her dresser. She was wrist-deep in the small billfold in search of the tinted pink lip gloss she kept in there, on her way toward the main living area, when her guest finally spoke up.
“I hope you don’t make this a habit, but from the sound of it, you do.”
Sabrina startled to a standstill at the rough timber of her father’s voice. “Daddy! What are you doing here? I thought we were meeting at the office.”
“That’s what I thought too.” His round cheeks were ruddy and his crystal blue eyes intense. Standing sentinel beside the kitchen counter with his stocky arms folded across his barrel chest, he looked every bit the formidable man she’d grown up with. She could count on one hand the number of times she’d caused that look, always careful not to raise his ire, and this time was just as unnerving. Whatever she’d done to piss her father off, it was lost on her.
Feeling like a little kid about to be taken to task, Sabrina took slow steps toward him, stopping a few feet short and bracing herself against the counter’s edge. “I overslept. It’s not a habit, but it was a rough night.”
“So I gathered,” he grunted. “You’re seeing someone?”
She sucked in a breath, her voice mousey when she admitted, “Kind of.”
“Kind of? He sleeps over enough to interrupt your sleep when he’s not here. I’d call that more than ‘kind of.’”
“We haven’t been seeing each other very long, but it’s getting serious.”
He raised a speculative brow. “You know how I feel about whirlwind relationships.”
They never lasted. She knew the spiel, and Sabrina didn’t care to hear it again. She knew all the drawbacks and was choosing to ignore them in favor of the benefits. This was a good thing. She was determined to make it so.
“It’s my life,” she stated plainly and without inflection. She didn’t want to get into an argument, especially considering his health concerns.
“Fine.” He raised his hands out in front of him, calling for peace. “As long as it’s not one of those Hargreaves boys.”
Swallowing hard, Sabrina withheld commentary. At least she knew what side of the fence he stood on. God forbid their relationship did end up going the long haul, learning the truth would give her father an aneurism for sure. Good thing she’d put that picture she’d printed last night in her bedroom and not the living room.
“Anyway… I hope you didn’t come all this way just to scold me for not showing up to the office before everyone else.” Just because he’d always made a habit of being the first one in and turning on the lights didn’t make it a requirement for her.
“Partially,” he admitted. “You know how I feel about being prompt.”
“I’m always prompt and on time. That’s never been an issue.” Already, Sabrina was regretting his decision to come home. His visit was a glaring reminder of how overbearing her father was and how critical he could be of her life and her choices.
Noticing her discomfort, he said, “Look, pumpkin, I didn’t come here to criticize. When I didn’t see you at the office, I took care of a few things and then decided to swing by and pick you up.”
“You did?” Was it wrong that she immediately worried just what he’d done at the office and if he’d screwed up anything? While they both worked toward the common goal of the good of the company, they had a very different approach to doing it.
“I thought it would be good for employee morale if we showed up together.”
Of course, it was always about keeping up appearances. Just like her clothes, her apartment, and the school she went to. Even the position she held in the company, but that was her goal in life. What it looked like to others didn’t hold much weight to her. She was well aware that many thought she’d only gained the position because she was a daddy’s girl rather than actually possessing the qualifications.
“Sure. Good idea.” Her deflated emotions were showing, and she didn’t care. Sometimes, it was more exhausting to try to hide it all away than to just let it all hang out. This was her father. He’d hurt her feelings, and she wasn’t going to put on airs for him just to spare his feelings.
“Why do I get the impression you’re not happy about that?”
“It’s not that, Daddy.” She huffed and bit her tongue to keep from saying something that would only cause problems. Instead, she checked the time on her phone. “We should go. It’s getting late.”
“Right. I have coffee waiting in the car.”
Now that was something that she could look forward to. Not only did she need a solid dose of caffeine, it was always a treat to travel in the lap of luxury. She’d grown so accustomed to being driven around by Ubers and cabs or just plain walking to get where she needed to go, that having a car waiting at her fingertips was an unexpected treat.
Especially when it came in the form of a luxury BMW outfitted with all the latest tech imaginable.
Her father lectured her the entire drive to the office, while Sabrina merely listened with half an ear and sipped her coffee. It was too early in the morning to deal with this level of crap, and she wasn’t in the mood. With every minute that passed alone with him, her mood grew sourer. By the time they arrived and he parked in the spot that was always reserved for him, no matter how long he’d been away, and reminded everyone that he could pop back up any moment, Sabrina was in a terrible mood.
The last thing she was fit for was human consumption. The best thing would be for her to turn around and return home and to her bed for a do-over, but that just wasn’t an option.
They rode the elevator together, suffered through numerous delays created by nosey people who had to meet and greet the infamous Jonathan Colloway, founder of one of the most successful businesses in the city. Altogether, it took them an astounding and frustrating fifteen minutes to make it to tenth floor of the building.
Where the accolades began again.
It seemed everyone and their mother was out in droves this morning, as if word of his arrival had hit the streets and
everyone had to meet him, shake his hand, and have him kiss their babies.
Well, maybe it wasn’t going quite that far, but Sabrina wouldn’t have been surprised. She was embarrassed for them, practically tripping over themselves for a moment of access. In reality, they probably weren’t as excited to meet him as they were hoping that some of his wealth and luck would rub off.
Once they finally made it to her office, Sabrina paused just inside the door, staring at her space.
“Did you clean?”
“I told you I came in and you weren’t here. But your mess was. Didn’t I always tell you that a clean workspace was a productive one?”
Ah yes, the lectures never stopped. She’d always had the tidiest bedroom and house in the neighborhood growing up, and now she was expected to do the same at work. To be fair, she’d only relaxed on the practice after he’d left, but that was only in cases where she was too tired to bother at the end of the day. The janitor always took care of the general stuff, like changing out the garbage, but no one but her ever touched her desk and anything inside of it.
At that moment, she was thankful that she didn’t stow away any deep, dark secrets there because surely, her father would have found them and the lecture would have been about something entirely different.
Leaving the question hanging, she approached her desk and sat down in the luxurious leather chair on rollers and used the underside of the desktop to pull herself in.
“So, what’s on the agenda today? Are you hanging out a while?” Please say no. She already knew the answer, of course.
“Yes, I will be. There are several things I intend to address, with this office and the clients scheduled to come in later, namely your ten o’clock.”
Sabrina’s brows furrowed as she flipped through her mental itinerary. “Mr. Hargreaves?” Whatever did he need to speak to him for? Hargreaves had been a virtually silent partner thus far, choosing his sons to take his place and monitor progress while helping keep their name alive and relevant. As far as she knew, he was merely popping in for a rundown on the latest and then he’d be on his way. Golfing, if she recalled.
Indecent Proposal: A Reverse Harem Romance Page 17
