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“Morning,” Dominic grumbles to the room at large, and Tristan just nods at Xavier, sparing me a glance.
They go about making coffee and getting breakfast together, but I slip out of the kitchen and back up the stairs, needing a moment to gather myself.
I wasn’t expecting this. Any of this.
When the three of them suggested this arrangement, I thought it was going to be strictly business. Yes, they’re all handsome and rich and they smell like a dream. Yes, all three of them exude Alpha confidence and presence like breathing. But it was never supposed to be more than a mutually beneficial thing.
Now I have to admit to myself that there’s another layer to it. Because they’re more than just my bosses and the men I’m currently sharing a house with. All three of them bring something unique to the table, and the more time I spend with them, the more of them I’m getting to see.
Seeing more just makes them feel like real people instead of unattainable gods or something. And them being real people makes them relatable. Touchable.
I bury my face in my hands and let out a sigh. In the privacy of my own room, I can admit to myself that it’s not just that the three of them are attractive. It’s that I’m attracted to them. Deeply. And I can’t hide from that fact anymore.
Chapter 18
Penelope
The next few days are blessedly uneventful. Work is relatively quiet, and my dreams aren’t haunted by nightmares of the past, so there’s been no need to crawl into anyone’s bed.
Xavier made dinner, and the remains of roast chicken with vegetable and fluffy mashed potatoes are on the table. I feel pleasantly full and warm, bundled up in one of Xavier’s sweatshirts.
“Your hands are freezing,” he said when I came to help him with dinner, his finger wrapped around mine to show me how he wanted the carrots cut.
“I get cold a lot,” I told him, making a face. “And Dominic gets… grumpy when we touch the thermostat.”
Xavier just laughed because we both knew that was an understatement and he went to fetch me one of his sweatshirts to put on.
It’s oversized on me, which was a surprise, considering I’m not a small woman by any metric, and the sleeves slip down over my hands, letting me tuck my cold fingers into the fabric.
It’s comfortable, sitting there all warm while Xavier and Tristan talk about business.
For once, no one is arguing. The two of them tell stories about how they started their businesses and the early days of being in charge and finding their footing.
“I knew I wasn’t going to get anywhere by playing it safe,” Xavier is saying, gesturing with the fork in his hand. “There were a hundred different companies already doing what I was doing, and they had more experience and more of a reputation in the industry. If I was going to make it, I had to stand out.”
“But you weren’t in the tech field at first,” Tristan says evenly.
“Right,” Xavier agrees. “That part came later. I started with security, but not the cyber kind. More the kind that involved being able to beat up an idiot threatening someone else. I took the jobs that no one else wanted because the clients were too picky or wanted ridiculous hours or whatever else. Eventually, I made a name for myself.”
“Is it true you were a part of Donna Hamilton’s security detail?” Tristan asks, naming a very popular actress.
Xavier grins. “Sort of. I put her detail together. Hand picked every member of it and headed it up myself when she went to that film festival that turned into a shit show. Not all the celebrities there walked away without getting hurt.”
“But she did.”
He nods. “She did. And I gained the reputation for being pretty unshakeable when the shit hits the fan. It helped a lot with getting more clients and building the business up.”
“How did you turn that into a cybersecurity business?”
“Bella,” Xavier says. “My sister. She was really worried I was going to get myself hurt if I kept doing jobs that required me to put myself between people and danger. I think her exact words were ‘if you end up dying because you took a bullet for some overrated, untalented celebrity, I’ll never forgive you’.”
I laugh at that. I’ve only met Xavier’s sister the one time, but I can definitely see that being something she’d say.
“So I figured if I wanted to save my family some stress, I’d try to branch out. I was always good with computers, and I learned coding in college. People want their data protected with the same kind of intensity that being a glorified bodyguard takes, so it was pretty easy to repurpose the skill set.”
“That’s impressive,” Tristan murmurs, and Dominic nods.
It’s nice to see them getting along like this, and I smile, glancing over at Tristan. He looks like he’s in a good mood, so I take the chance and ask a question.