by Katie Ford
But there are always hard choices in life, and the fact we were even discussing this demonstrated the depths of our feelings for Katie.
“So what you’re saying is that it’s a no can do, right?” I asked. “I mean, we leave and it’s over bros. This dream is over, she’ll never let us back into her heart.”
The statement was mushy, it was emotional, but it was also true. If we treated this girl like one more skeezy whore, there was no going back. We could beg on our knees, but Katie’s heart would be lost to us, probably forever.
So the silence in the suite was ominous. Here we were, three billionaires with limitless resources, and yet, clearly there were limits to our lives. How the hell had one sweet girl turned everything on its head? How in the world were we left so powerless, with few options?
And unfortunately, there was no clear path forwards. At least none that I could see. None that my buddies could see either. We were at an impasse, and on the one side there was the woman of our dreams, curvy and full, filled with light, love and laughter.
On the other side stood our careers, powerful empires built on the backs of thousands of men. Were we gonna let all that go? Did we have to choose? When did life get so damn complicated?
But I guess that’s what love is about. Because when love shows itself, everything gets mixed up. There are no rights or wrongs, there’s only compromise and muddling your way through. So how were we going to figure this out? I only hoped there was a way to resolve things … with the sweet girl in our arms.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Katie
The coffee was bitter on my tongue, the insides of my mouth curdling. I sipped anyways because caffeine was desperately needed at this point. Sleep last night had been practically non-existent. All I did was toss and turn once the billionaires left, restless and unhappy.
Before, I’d drift off immediately, my body sated, muscles relaxed. But last night was a vastly different experience because even with my body trashed, I was hollow inside now, like a jack o’ lantern with its insides carved out.
So what to make of the situation? The billionaires wanted something real, but I just didn’t see how things could work. They lived in New York. I lived here in Knox. Were they going to come down here on the weekends for a series of flings? I loved them, but how was that even close to okay? I’d just be one more whore, the one who happened to live in Knox, Tennessee, breathlessly waiting like all the others.
Because they probably had women in every city, just a phone call away.
Ladies who put on fancy lingerie, drinking champagne.
Amanda in Atlanta.
Tracy in Dallas.
Mindy in Oklahoma City, not to mention women in London and Paris.
And I was just one more.
My mouth went sour, tears rising in my eyes again. Because oh god, the joke was on me. I was nothing but another dumb female, a plaything for the billionaires.
No.
It wasn’t gonna happen.
I wouldn’t let it happen.
Bile rose in my throat as I rushed to the bathroom, hacking and coughing into the toilet.
I couldn’t do it.
I couldn’t let this come true, it was too demeaning.
Other women might be okay with it. In fact, they might even want it. After all, they’d only be “on call” once in a while, whenever Mason, Kane and Tyler happened to drop by. It’d be easy. Get your hair done, get your nails done, put on some seductive lingerie and presto whammo! That was it. The billionaires would bang you for a couple days, and then they’d leave, your sweet spaces sore.
But I didn’t want that.
No way.
Even the thought made me feel lost and empty inside, like there was nothing but dank air in my form.
How can anyone live like that?
How could I live with myself, most importantly?
But this was what Mason, Kane and Tyler wanted. What they were used to. And wiping my eyes again, I took a deep breath. I was gonna tell them no. I had to, for my own self-respect and sense of dignity. No matter how hard it was, I had to say no.
Even if it meant giving up my dreams.
Giving up the idea of the non-profit.
Going back to my meaningless job.
My heart broke once more, splintering into smithereens.
Because love’s not easy. I’d given my all to the alphas, and yet they couldn’t meet my needs in return. So choking back another sorrowful cry, I staggered out of the bathroom, unable to breathe. But I had to move on. I had to, there was no choice. My dreams had been dashed before they even began, and to be honest, they were never real. The hard truth was that nothing had changed, not one bit.
So slowly, I dragged on some clothes, listlessly tying my hair up in a ponytail. Even though my curls are usually springy and voluminous, today they looked limp and lifeless, exactly how I felt.
It was time to go to work at the magazine again, the dead-end job with nothing to offer.
My life was passing away like the sands in an hourglass, totally meaningless.
And yet there was nothing to be done.
Picking up my lunch bag, I dragged myself over to the front door, squinting as a ray of sun squeezed in through the crack.
And then bam! Something hard hit me on the forehead. What the?
It was Tyler’s chest. I’d literally walked into a wall of man, the billionaire as dark, dangerous and ominous before.
“Hey,” came my weak cry. “What are you doing here?”
They were silent for a moment.
“May we?” asked Tyler. “May we come in?”
I stepped aside, nodding wordlessly. Might as well. It didn’t matter if I was late to work. The truth is, I didn’t care anymore, my soul a piece of lead.
The alphas filed in, and suddenly my living room was too small, the air hot. But they were calm and collected, lowering those massive frames onto the sofa.
“We know what you said last night Katie, but there’s more,” began Mason.
Hesitantly, I sat.
“Okay,” came my slow word. “So what did you have in mind?”
My nerves were getting the best of me. Had they come back to tell me they’d changed their minds? Because they could have saved themselves the trip instead of letting me see what I’d be missing one last time. Cruel, just cruel.
But taking a deep breath, Mason spoke first. Was I imagining things or was he actually a little nervous? Imagine that! Usually nothing got under their skin, but there was definitely something edgy in the air today.
“We were wrong last night,” he began. “I get it. We get it. It was painful and we regret that.”
I raised an eyebrow at them.
“It was painful,” I said slowly. “But I can’t expect you to understand. Your life is so different from mine,” I managed to choke out. “You live in the big city with billions of people. There are bright lights everywhere, a Starbucks on every street corner. Here in Knox,” I managed, “we don’t even have Starbucks. We have Old Joe’s Coffee Shop.”
The alphas shook their heads.
“Honey, who cares about Starbucks? Why are you even talking about that?
I took a deep breath.
“I guess I’m just trying to get across that I understand. Knox is nothing like New York City, so it makes sense. We have different values. We have different ideas of what the good life is, and what it should be. I forgive you,” I said softly. “I forgive you just the same.”
The billionaires looked thunderstruck then, paralyzed almost. Taking a deep breath, I continued.
“I forgive you,” came my words again. “I can’t expect you to understand my wants and need when you have no basis to understand. Your backgrounds are different. Your needs and wants are different, heck, the way people treat you is different. But I’m a certain way, and what we want doesn’t match.”
Mason stared at me coolly. Oh shit, my speech hadn’t gone down well. They were going to grind me into the dust
and make me feel like the dumbest person on the planet.
But men who love you don’t do that. They don’t treat you like crap. Because he nodded slowly.
“Everything you said is true, baby girl, except one thing. And that’s that you love us, and we love you. So you’re missing a big part of the puzzle.”
I gulped heavily then, blood rushing hotly through my veins. My head dropped as my hands wrung themselves in my lap.
“Yes, that’s true,” came my small voice. “But it’s not enough. All the love in the world can’t change that we’re from different planets. Men are from Mars and women are from Venus, get it?” I choked, raising tear-stained eyes. “I’m from Pluto and you guys are from Jupiter.”
The guys stared at me.
“Honey, you have been reading too many women’s magazines. What’s with the planetary stuff?” drawled Kane.
“Yeah,” rumbled Tyler. “I thought we were all from Earth.”
I snapped then.
“FYI, there’s a very famous book by a very famous psychologist called Men Are From Mars and Women Are From Venus. It’s all about working together and trying to resolve your issues, not that I would expect you to know,” came my snappy reply.
Mason stepped in then.
“Calm, calm,” he soothed. “We’re here to make stuff work, not break out into arguments about aliens.”
I got mad then, real mad. Bouncing up, the riot act spewed from my lips, steam boiling from my ears.
“Get out,” I breathed angrily. “Get out. Clearly this is a waste of time. Get back on your fancy private jet and leave.”
But Kane held up his hands this time.
“Naw honey, no need to bust a joint. All we’re saying is that you’re poetic and lyrical, which is something we’re not. We’re simple folk,” he added, gesturing to the three of them. “We don’t get poetry, not at all. Can you be a little more direct, baby girl? Do it for us.”
That made my temperature go up even more.
“Here’s direct for you,” I hissed. “Get out now. NOW! GET OUT!”
But how in the world was one tiny brunette going to move three large alpha males? The billionaires stayed seated, watching me lose my cool, and shit, but they were amused by the whole thing.
“Gotta love it,” rumbled Kane. “She’s a beauty when she’s mad.”
“Absolutely,” agreed Mason, his eyes trailing hotly over my heaving form. “Full of sass and fire, just our type.”
And finally Tyler stepped in.
“Calm down, pretty girl,” he soothed. “Because we’re here to say we’re moving to Knox. That’s right,” he added after my surprised gasp. “The three of us are packing up and moving in, whether or not you’re ready.”
I stood frozen, unable to speak.
“You’re mo-moving here?” came my stutter.
“Well, not here here,” said Kane with an amused tone. “I mean, honey, this is a one-bedroom. A nice one-bedroom, sure, but you can’t expect the four of us to squeeze into six hundred square feet.”
But I was in no mood for jokes.
“What are you talking about?” I asked in a low voice. “Don’t pull my leg please, not anymore.”
And suddenly all three men were serious.
“Baby, we’re not as depraved as you think,” began Kane.
“Or we are,” corrected Tyler. “But we want to change our ways.”
“Because sweetheart, we’ve lived long enough as complete assholes. We’ve always had things go our way, and sure, it was a little weird when you weren’t interested. Okay, more than a little weird, a lot weird. We were freaked out,” rumbled Mason.
“More than freaked out,” added Kane wryly. “Completely fucked up. We couldn’t figure out why.”
I was silent for a moment.
“So you’re moving to Knox because …?” my voice drifted off.
And Tyler took a deep breath then.
“Because we love you, baby girl, and we didn’t do right by you the first time around. Like morons, we went around doing what we’ve always done. Using girls. Giving them gifts. Expecting them to be on call afterwards.”
“How could you do that?” I asked in a trembling voice. “You were leaving without saying goodbye. Without even a goodbye.”
The three men grew serious then, leaning in close, blue eyes fierce.
“It was a mistake,” growled Mason. “We shouldn’t have. And we’re here to make it up to you. To show how much we care, we’re moving here, to tiny Knox, Tennessee. Effective immediately.”
I sat back then, unable to believe my ears.
“But why?” I asked plaintively. “Or how? I don’t get it, this is all so sudden.”
But the men were gentle.
“Honey, we treated you like all the other girls, and it was startling when you didn’t cave. Normally, it wouldn’t be a big deal. You didn’t want the emerald necklace? Fine, exchange it for a ruby one. You want a different apartment? Fine, just ask your broker to send some floorplans. So when you didn’t get on board, it threw us for a loop.”
“But a good loop,” interrupted Tyler. “A real good one. Because we realized that things were gonna have to change. We want to make a commitment to you, baby girl, to do something that means something. And moving our ops down here is the ultimate sacrifice, upending our lives to show you how much we care.”
I shook my head, lips trembling.
“But I don’t want that from you,” came my low voice. “It’s not about sacrifice. You belong in New York. I belong here. It’s just the way things are, I get it.”
If I’d surprised the men before, then they were doubly surprised now.
“No, honey, you’re not listening,” rumbled Tyler gently.
But that wasn’t true.
“I can’t ask this of you,” were my slow words. “You’ll resent me forever if you move. You’ll hate it here. It’s not just that we don’t have a Starbucks, but we don’t even have any ATMs. If you want to go to the bank, you park your car, get out, and go in to see a live teller. You talk to a human being. It’s different down here and I don’t expect you to understand. So don’t do this for me, please. You’ll just hate it after two months and hate me too.”
But that’s when all three men got on their knees, surrounding my form. Tyler took my left hand, Mason took my right. And Kane placed a possessive fist on my thigh, the three men marking me as theirs all over again.
“Sweetheart, that’s where you have it all wrong. We’re not doing this for you. We’re doing it for us. Don’t you get it? We’ve been leading fucked up lives for so long that when something good happened, we couldn’t even see. You were like a gift from the heavens, landing squarely in our laps, and yet we were such idiots that we almost let you get away. So this isn’t for you baby girl. This is for us.”
I was stunned then, staring at the men, heart racing.
“For you?” I asked weakly. “You’re doing this for you?”
The billionaires nodded, blue eyes penetrating.
“We want to change sweetheart. This visit to Knox is the best thing that’s happened in a long time because it brought us you. It let us see a different way of life, where generosity has nothing to do with money. Where giving means helping others, without expecting something in return. That’s the kind of life we want to lead, baby girl, and you’re the woman we want at our side.”
I was flabbergasted.
“But what – what caused this?” I asked softly. “I mean, what made you think this way?”
At that, the billionaires laughed a little.
“I think we were always this way,” began Kane. “But we lost sight of our roots.”
“Remember, we built our empires using bare hands,” added Mason. “Brick by brick, stone by stone. It’s been a long time since we were upstarts, but once upon a time, we were simple men, and the simple things in life brought us joy. But after so long as assholes,” he added wryly, “you lose sight.”
“So th
at’s why we love you,” finished Tyler. “Sweet, sweet Katie with the big brown eyes and innocent ways. You remind us of what really matters, and what’s really going to make us happy. And that’s you, baby girl. That’s being here with you, living the good life, exploring the future.”
And with that my heart raced furiously, tears rolling down my cheeks in streams.
The alphas looked stricken.
“What is it?” rasped Tyler. “Why are you crying?”
“Oh shit,” said Mason in an anguished growl. “We completely fucked up, didn’t we? I’m sorry, honey, I’m so sorry.”
But it wasn’t that. They were tears of joy this time, tears of belief and positivity. Because my billionaires were willing to uproot themselves, to move massive amounts of money and people, only to start over here, in little Knox, Tennessee. Who’d have thought it possible? Who’ve thought that three men would uproot their lives for me? Because I had nothing to offer but my heart and soul, my everything theirs.
But evidently, that was more than enough because suddenly I was laughing and crying at the same time.
“I love you too,” came my choked words. “And yes, I want you to stay. I desperately want you to re-locate here. I don’t want to be – to be some woman of the night, someone you fly in and fuck before taking off.”
“You’ll never be that,” growled Mason tenderly, kissing my forehead. “Never. You mean too much to us.”
“We’ll never do that to you,” assured Kane, placing a kiss on my neck. “Absolutely not.”
And Tyler was last.
“All we ask,” he rumbled, blue eyes hot, “Is that you give yourself to us in marriage. Because honey, we have to make it legal before man and god and everyone else that matters. Will you, sweetheart?” he asked, eyes searching. “Will you, Katie Evans, marry us?”
And what could I say but yes? Passionately, I kissed each one, whispering my promises, my hopes and dreams against their lips. Because this relationship started out as a fling, nothing more. I hooked up at my best friend’s wedding with not one, but three hot alphas. It was never supposed to be more than a dalliance, a quick roll in the hay and nothing more.
