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Ryan folded under the pressure, stepping forward. Jason and Kyle were already kissing either side of my neck, their hands reaching for my body.

“I promise I’ll make it up to you,” I cooed at Jason, raising a hopeful eyebrow. I maintained eye contact with him even as Kyle began kissing me. Kept a steady gaze, as Jason’s fingertips traced their way up the insides of my thighs…

“Please?”

Reaching down to my hip, I pulled on the tiny string tie of my bikini bottoms. Looking Dakota right in his crystal blue eyes, I bit my lip and offered it to him.

“Fine,” he sighed finally, pulling at his collar. “But if we’re gonna do this right now?”

I gulped, half with excitement, half with the breathless anticipation of what was coming next. I hadn’t been with the four of them at once in way too long.

“You’re getting every last inch of what you’re asking for…”

One

SAMMARA

“So…. How’s engaged life?”

Melissa grinned at me from her own treadmill, which she’d slowed down to what I called ‘gossip speed’. It enabled us to keep our conversation low and comfortable, but still be drowned out in every other direction by the constant whir of the machines’ motors.

“It’s amazing,” I said proudly. “Just like the last time you asked.”

She chuckled, her light-hearted laugh echoing through our little corner of the gym. “Should I stop asking?”

“Hell no,” I grinned. “A girl never gets tired of such a question.”

I glanced down at my ring, reflexively. Or rather, my rings. Gold for Kyle, my sexy soldier. Platinum for Dakota, my dirty-blond giant. Rose gold for Ryan, as emotionally complex as the alloy itself, and brushed palladium to represent Jason, so strong and beautiful.

It had been six months since Bora Bora. Six months since the most amazing engagement any girl’s ever likely to have. An engagement filled with the most love, the most laughter, the most excitement…

And of course, the most life-changing, mind-erasing, four-on-one sex.

“You got a date all picked out yet?”

“No,” I lamented. “That part’s tough. It’ll depend on them all being home at once, of course. And then there’s the other factor…”

The other factor. The one part of the whole beautiful equation that nagged at me, more and more, as the weeks and months went by.

“Still nothing?” Melissa asked.

“No.”

“It’ll happen, Sammara,” she said reassuringly. “Don’t sweat it.”

“I know,” I said, more out of reflex than anything. “I’m… I’m really not.”

A long stretch of silence passed. It almost got awkward, but Melissa smiled and swooped in.

“It’s probably just stress,” she said. “Stress about work, stress about the expansion. Your business is growing faster than you can keep up with it,” she went on. “That’s a good thing!”

A good thing. Yes, it definitely was. Since starting Universal Designs almost three years ago, it had blossomed from a decorating and staging service into a full-blown renovations company. And then last year…

Last year I’d brought things to a whole different level.

My ultimate goal — my dream, really — was to not only renovate, but actually build too. As much as I loved restoring old, historic properties, I wanted to somehow be involved in their creation as well.

And then it hit me… or rather, Kyle had suggested it one night. We were curled up on the couch together, after a particularly long marathon of old, scary movies.