Maven put his arm around me. “Think of her as my girlfriend. Think of her as Banyan’s girlfriend. Think of her as Chance’s girlfriend. Whatever it takes. We don’t insult women in general, but especially not ones who are connected to this house. I’m here for a few more weeks. That’s all. Anyone speaks to her or about her in a disparaging way and I will ruin you. Trust me on that.”
“And the website is gone.” Banyan blew through his fingers like smoke was there wafting through the room. “I think you’ll find that right now if you look. Someone has bought out the parent company that owned it. First order of business was to have it taken down. Took about three weeks to make it happen, but notice went out today. Think about it. If it was that easy to take down a big website company that hosts hundreds upon thousands of individual sites what else it might be easy to do. Maven’s nicer than me. I think you all know that.”
Chance raised his hand. “So we’re done with this? Just to be clear. D.O.N.E. done.”
“All right, man,” a brother from the other side of the room called out. “Most of us never cared in the first place. Thanks for getting that site down.”
This was such a bizarre moment. I rounded on Banyan as we walked toward the elevator. “You had the site taken down?”
He blinked. “Of course. I mean I might have preferred to pound fists and kick ass but this was less illegal.”
“I might just let you paint me naked.”
He snorted before he lifted his brows. “For real?”
“Giovanna.” A voice I’d never expected to hear in the hotel lobby called out to me. I stopped, abruptly. The elevator dinged open, but I didn’t move toward it.
A man approached, a fast gait, his hair as gray as I remembered it. It never thinned. Other people went bald. Never my father.
“I’ve been searching for you everywhere. A girl in the dorm told me you were likely here.” He shook his head. “Chasing you all over town is not my idea of a good time.”
Chance looked at Banyan. “That greeting after nine months of not seeing each other?”
“Dad.” I cleared my throat. “What are you doing here?”
“Well,” he said, throwing his hands in the air. “You sent us that email about failing school and then had the nerve to bother the head of your mother’s department. What did you think was going to happen?”
I’d wanted their attention, and it seemed I had gotten it. “I thought you might email me back.”
He pointed to the guys. “Who are these people?”
Something about the way he said it was what set me off. “These people? These people are my boyfriends.” Yes, I’d used the plural right out there in the open and in front of my father. It was so damned freeing and unexpected, I almost didn’t know what to do with myself. “They’re the reasons that I am functioning while my roommate went around trying to kill me more than once. They’re the reasons I survived when I had nowhere to go and you left me to practically starve.”
My father turned red in the face. “Young lady I will not have you make a scene.”
“Why not?” I threw my hands in the air. “There have been a whole bunch of scenes involving me lately. Huge ones. I’m good at scenes.”
Banyan touched my back before he stepped forward. “Sir, I’m Banyan Iburgess. My friends right there are Maven Stone and Chance Montgomery. As Giovanna said, she’s dating all three of us. A little unconventional for sure, but it works for us. Would you like to come upstairs? We have a room and we can all sit down and talk.”
“No. I’ve withdrawn Giovanna from school.” He’d done what?
“Dad? How could you do that?” Could he just do that?
“The dean and I have spoken. He agrees the best thing for you is to take some time off after the unfortunate events happening here. This semester won’t be on your permanent record and you will return to India with me.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to return to India with you. I want to stay here. I have things I want to do, Dad.”
“Young lady, I am not going to discuss this any further with you. Go get your things. Now.”
Most of my things were in a bag Chance was carrying. “And if I say no?”
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, Vonni. You know you can stay here with us.” Chance leaned over to kiss my temple. “Stay if you want to.”
Just stay? Just like that? And do what? I’d been withdrawn from school. My job was gone. I should just stay with the three of them like some kind of kept woman? I closed my eyes. It was the last thing I wanted. I had to have some kind of purpose, some kind of direction.
And then there was the problem of my parents. I couldn’t allow things to continue as they were. If there was any possibility of ever having a real relationship with them I was going to have to work this out.
“She has to go.” It was Maven who spoke, which surprised me. I lifted my lids. “You do. You know that, right?”
I nodded. “Until August. As had been planned. I have to try to… be seen by them. To get them to see who I am.” And love me anyway.
Banyan looked away. “Fuck. That’s five months, Giovanna. I don’t want to lose you. We had weeks and it was too long.”
“I need a minute, Dad.” I wasn’t going to discuss this with them with him standing there. “Wait here. I’ll be down in a bit.”
He groaned. “Ten minutes. No more.”
“She’ll take just as long as she wants.” Chance hit the elevator button, and it opened. “Cool your heels somewhere. You can wait. Like she has.”
No one had ever spoken to my parents like that before. At least, not in front of me. Chance didn’t even seem the least bit intimidated. My palms had broken out in a sweat and the second the elevator doors closed, I found it hard to breathe.
“Easy.” Chance tugged me to him, his body vibrating against mine. “You can breathe. And you can go or not go. It’s your choice. You have them. I promise you that.”
I believed him. “Much as I would like the three of you to play prince charming and ride me off on your horse, I’m rather tired of feeling like I need to be Cinderella in the first place.”
“She has to go because if she doesn’t, she’ll never know what would have happened if she did.” Maven leaned against the side of the elevator, a scowl on his face. “But, yes, if you don’t want to, don’t go. Stay here. With me. I’ll help you figure it out. I’ll pay for college.”
Banyan had been so silent. When he spoke it was in a low tone. “Grand Canyon.”
The door elevator opened. Maven shook his head. “What?”
“She’s going to take us to the Grand Canyon someday. On a trip. She’s going to pay for it. It’ll be the first time we’re allowed to take her away. She isn’t going to let us keep her here. I wish she would. But you won’t? Right, Giovanna?”
This was awful. I sighed. “August is too long. I’m not staying till August. Six weeks and I’m back.”
Chance’s face untightened a bit. “That’s better. Not great, but better.”
I stopped breathing as soon as we got into the room. “Can we do this? Can we make it six weeks? Is that too long? I just got you back. I can’t stand the idea of losing you. Oh dang it, I don’t know what to do.”
“Dang it?” Banyan grinned. “Dang it?”
I hit him in the arm. “That’s not funny.”
“It is a little bit.” He outright laughed.
Maven took me in his arms. “We can make it because this is forever. Forever survives six weeks. This isn’t like before. We’re not avoiding saying what we should have been saying. And… fuck, I hate this timing.”
“There was never going to be good timing for Vonni to leave for six weeks.” Chance sank onto the bed. “You have to facetime or whatever every day. Your phone works and I’m going to see to it that it stays that way. You have to let me continue to do this much and not say no.”
I put my arms around his neck. “I don’t want to continue to hurt all of yo
u. But I won’t let you go. Can I be selfish like that?”
“You can.” Chance kissed my arm. “Because we’re going to be selfish, too. We’re keeping you, too.”
Maven put his arms around me from the other side and Banyan came from behind.
So much had happened in so little time.
“This is good timing,” Banyan added. “Enough time for the police to find Molly. Then when you come back this whole mess can be over.”
I met Maven’s gaze. He still didn’t believe that. And neither did I.
My phone dinged at thirty thousand feet in the air, and I gasped. Had I forgotten to put the thing on airplane mode? My father snored next to me.
I grabbed it, turning off the volume. I wasn’t going to crash the plane using it, was I? For safety’s sake I turned on airplane mode and then turned on the plane’s Wi-Fi. What had dinged? It took me a second to realize it was the app Maven had put on it that worked internationally. I stared down at it.
All three guys had texted me on it separately.
The first was from Banyan. I’ve told you I love you, right? Well in case I didn’t, I love you. And if you hate India I’ll come get you.
Next was Maven. Well, this sucks. But I refuse to be dour for the next six weeks. When you get back, we’re going to the beach. We won’t consider it a trip. Not like the Grand Canyon. It’s just the beach. I own a house. Well, my family does. Anyway, miss you.
Chance was last. Forty-two days. Day one down. Forty-one more to go. Love you.
I sat back in my seat. This was going to be okay. Dashing through the air on a trip I didn’t want but had to take nonetheless, I suddenly believed.
Chance
I stared at the clock in the hotel room and breathed. Or at least I tried to. She’d been in the air for hours. I rolled over. The bed felt hard tonight. I could hear Banyan’s music through the wall of the hotel. He was lucky it was me living next door to him and not some stranger. He’d get kicked out of here otherwise.
I understood his lack of interest in sleep. I didn’t want to either. We’d all been so calm in letting her leave because why make it harder on her when she had to go. Those were her parents. Until she’d managed to deal with them, she wasn’t moving forward. I’d had to kick my father out of my life. I knew how hard this was.
When she did it—and she was going to have to do it—she’d need us, and we’d be there.
But damn how I loved her. This wasn’t temporary. This wasn’t going anywhere. And that’s how I knew I could share. Because if Maven and Banyan felt even half of what I did it was so overpowering they’d never be over it.
None of us would.
I was so sick of missing her.
But I’d make it through another six weeks.
Or I was going to go get her. The world wasn’t so big that I wouldn’t find her anywhere she went. Six weeks or I was getting her and bringing her home.
“Six weeks, no more, Giovanna,” I spoke to the empty room. Maybe it was the universe I was letting know.
Dearest Reader
Thank you so much for reading Unexpected (Reverse Harem Story #2). Do not fret. Undeniable, the third and final book in Giovanna’s love story, which is how I think of this story, is coming very soon. I am typing away at it already, I promise you. If this series is the first time you are reading me, then I invite you to check out my website at www.rebeccaroyce.com and check out the over fifty other books I have written. There, you can sign up for my newsletter where we can stay in touch.
Or find me on twitter
www.twitter.com/rebeccaroyce
Or on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/458490741256283/
Or on Instagram
Rebeccaroyce79
Please turn the page to see the (almost) complete list of my books.
And feel free to come bug me about when the next book is coming out. I love chatting.
Love
RR
Afterword
Dearest Reader
Thank you so much for reading Unexpected (Reverse Harem Story #2). Do not fret. Undeniable, the third and final book in Giovanna’s love story, which is how I think of this story, is coming very soon. I am typing away at it already, I promise you. If this series is the first time you are reading me, then I invite you to check out my website at www.rebeccaroyce.com and check out the over fifty other books I have written. There, you can sign up for my newsletter where we can stay in touch.
Or find me on twitter
www.twitter.com/rebeccaroyce
Or on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/458490741256283/
Or on Instagram
Rebeccaroyce79
Please turn the page to see the (almost) complete list of my books.
And feel free to come bug me about when the next book is coming out. I love chatting.
Love
RR
Other books by Rebecca Royce…
Wings of Artemis
Kidnapped By Her Husbands
Rescued by Their Wife
Crashing Into Destiny
Meeting Them
Reclaiming Their Love
Loving Them
Ship Called Malice
Saving Them
Dark Demise
Light Unfolding (coming soon)
Last Hope
Tradition Be Damned
Past Be Damned
Destiny Be Damned
Compassion Be Damned
Future Be Damned (coming soon)
Dragon Wars
Forever
Eternal
Always
Evermore
Endless
Wards and Wands
Hexed and Vexed
Curse Reversed
Tragic Magic (Coming Soon)
Safe Haven
Everywhere and Nowhere
Dimension X (coming soon)
More coming soon…
Soul Bound
Prisoner of the Dragons
More coming soon…
Shadow Promised
Strange Days
Weird Nights
Bizarre Years
More coming soon…
The Warrior
Initiation
Driven
Subversive
Redemption
Justice
Warrior World (spin off of The Warrior)
Deacon
Micah
Jason (coming soon)
The Westervelt Wolves
Her Wolf
Summer’s Wolf
Wolf Reborn
Wolf’s Valentine
Wolf’s Magic
Alpha Wolf
Angel’s Wolf
Darkest Wolf
Lone Wolf
Fallen Alpha
Alpha Rising
Alpha’s Strength
Alpha’s Sacrifice
Alpha’s Truth
Alpha Enticing
Hidden Alpha (coming soon)
The Capes
Seductive Powers
Adrenaline Rush
Last Ascension
The Conditioned
Eye Contact
Embraced
Unlawful (coming soon…)
The Outsiders
Love Beyond Time
Love Beyond Sanity
Love Beyond Loyalty
Love Beyond Sight
Love Beyond Expectations
Love Beyond Oceans
Love Beyond Flames
Love Beyond Lies (coming soon)
Cascade
Haunted Redemption
Phoenix Everlasting
Fragility Unearthed
Persuasion Enraptured
Reverse Harem Story
Unconventional
Unexpected
Undeniable (Coming Soon)
Stand Alone Titles
Planet Bear
Under The Lights
No Quitting Allowed
Mr. Wrong
Bite Marks
Bitten Surrender
The Vampire and The Virgin
Demon Within
Crimson Lust
Find Me (coming soon)
About the Author
As a teenager, I would hide in my room to read my favorite romance novels when I was supposed to be doing my homework. I hope, these days, that my parents think it was worth it.
I am the mother of three adorable boys, and I am fortunate to be married to my best friend. I live in Austin, Texas where I am determined to eat all the barbecue in town.
I am in love with science fiction, fantasy, and the paranormal and try to use all of these elements in my writing. I’ve been told I’m a little bloodthirsty so I hope when you read my work you’ll enjoy the action packed ride that always ends in romance. I love to write series because I love to see characters develop over time and it always makes me happy to see my favorite characters make guest appearances in other books.
In my world anything is possible, anything can happen, and you should suspect that it will.
I’d love to hear from you! Please visit my website at www.rebeccaroyce.com to sign up for my newsletter and learn about my books!
Cheers!!
Rebecca
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