Page 18

"I 'm standing in front of the building."

"What are you wearing?" Dare asked in his sexy voice.

I rolled my eyes. "My birthday suit."

"Uhhhh.” There was the sound of footsteps on the other end as well as behind me. “No, you're not!" I grinned when I heard his voice in double form as both an echo and in person. I pressed end call, but before I could turn around, two thick arms circled me. "If you were in your birthday suit in public, I'd have to tell Dex," he growled playfully as he bit my neck. "And you know how he'd react to that."

I laughed and slapped his arm. "Come on, we're already late. Where are the others?"

He finally let me turn around and face him. Tipping my face up with a finger under my chin, Dare leaned down and gave me a light kiss. "They're already upstairs," he answered.

I shook my head at him, unable to resist the smile that came to my lips as he released me to take my hand and pull me into the white brick-faced building with a light-gray awning over the entrance and a sign that read The Balden Suites .

We bypassed a doorman, who must have recognized Dare because he said nothing as we strode by him, and instead merely inclined his head respectfully. Darren pulled me along behind him towards the first set of steel doors in a row of elevators. There were four elevators in total. Two on one side and two on the other. I glanced around as he pressed the up button.

"How long have you guys been here?" I asked suspiciously. He seemed to know his way around far too easily.

Dare scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I just got here about twenty minutes ago," he said.

"And the others?" I prompted.

He shrugged.

"Why do I have the feeling that you guys have been holding out on me? What am I about to walk into?"

Dare cast me a dopey grin.

"Don't look at me like that," I commanded, tugging my hand against his vise-like grip.

"It's not bad, I promise," he said, refusing to release me.

"Uh huh." I folded my free arm around my stomach as the elevator doors opened and we got inside. He pressed another button and I turned my face away as we began our ascent.

"Jamie." He reached around for my other hand and pivoted, pulling me completely against him, chest to chest. I propped my chin on his sternum and glared up at him. "Do you trust me?" he asked.

"What kind of question is that?" Of course, I trusted them.

"Do you trust all of us?" he pressed.

I rolled my eyes. "Of course, I do."

"If you trust us, then know that you'll love it."

I narrowed my eyes at him as the elevator dinged, letting us know that we'd arrived. " What exactly will I love, Darren?"

The elevator doors slid open and he stepped out, dragging me with both hands on my wrists. Before I could say anything else, my eyes lit on the room and my mouth dropped open. I turned as Dare released me, and then turned again, trying to take it all in.

"This is..." I couldn't believe it. "It's..."

The floors were white marble, the walls a beautiful soft lavender. There were tables by the front with freshly picked tulips in glass vases.

"Dare..."

"Do you like it?" I pivoted as Dex's voice came from an archway to my right.

"Do I like it?" I repeated. "It's amazing. It's gorgeous." I stepped through another archway into what looked to be a living room area. Two giant sectional couches with lovely purple throw pillows. A glass coffee table. An 82-inch television screen. I quirked a brow and smirked at that. Of course, they would. I stopped spinning like Annie in Daddy Warbucks's mansion and turned back to find that Dex had joined Dare and they both hovered nearby, eyeballing me.

"It's impossible," I finally said. "How the hell can we afford this? I thought we were just getting a cheap apartment."

"There's no such thing as cheap in New York City," Cody said, coming in from another entrance with Taylor and a tall, unfamiliar woman not far behind.

I frowned at the woman, but noting her black pantsuit and severe haircut, I figured she must be the realtor. "Hello there," she said with a bright smile, coming forward with a hand outstretched. "I'm Maude Thompson, from Hallvorn Real Estate."

I nodded, taking her hand and shaking it lightly before stepping away. "It's nice to meet you," I replied, "but I think there's been a mix up."

"Oh, there's no mix up, sweetcheeks," Taylor said as he swaggered towards me. "And we're not renting this place; Dex is buying it. It's practically a done deal."

I turned and glared at the man in question. "He wouldn't do something like that without asking his fiancée first, now, would you, Dexter?"

"Uh oh." Cody's eyes widened. "She said your full name, man. You know that means she's mad."

Mad was an understatement. We'd talked about this. We'd had many, many discussions about him using his trust fund when we didn't need it. With all five of us working, it wasn't impossible to find a decent apartment. Difficult? Yes. Had we found one yet? Well … no, and the place we were staying at was … well, it was affordable, but definitely a longer commute.

Dex, for all his smooth demeanor, didn't even bat an eyelash as he thanked the realtor. "Thank you so much for coming by to show us the place and give us the key, Maude," he said, taking her hand as she passed by him.

"Of course, Mr. Smythe," she said with a blush as she glanced between him and the others. "It was my pleasure to help you out." I narrowed my eyes on her. Yeah, I just bet it had been.

"Just call me Dexter," he said.

I lifted a brow as Cody's hands came down on my shoulders as if he half expected to need to restrain me. He wouldn't have had the need, though, if I didn't watch as the woman put her long manicured nails on Dex's arm and batted her lashes at him. Didn't she just hear me call him my fiancé? I thought with venom. She was at least a good ten years older than him.

"Oh, yes, well..." she shot me a look and quickly looked away when she noticed my expression, "please, just let me know if there's anything more I can do for you."

"We will, thank you. Dare, would you show Miss Thompson out?" Dex gestured for Darren and he chuckled quietly as he took Maude's elbow and steered her out of the room and back towards the elevators.

Once she was gone, I turned to Dex. "You can't be serious," I started gesturing around. "I can't afford this. We can't afford this."

Dex approached slowly, his eyes heating up as he did so. "Baby," he said in a low tone that sent shivers down my spine, "you're not the only one living here. We all are. We needed a bit more room than a shoebox-sized New York City apartment for millennials."

"We are millennials," I pointed out. "What's wrong with wanting a crappy apartment where I have to live on top of you?" I blinked my eyes up at him innocently.

He smiled and shook his head as Cody's hands fell away from my shoulders and Dex's hands slid around my waist, pulling me into him. "God, I want to spank your ass," he whispered as he leaned down and kissed me. My eyes slid shut as his tongue intruded, slipping between my lips like he owned me. Fact was, he did. They all did.

I groaned against him as he twirled his tongue around mine, pulling back only to nip at my bottom lip which left my legs feeling like jello. "But as much as I want to please you, Jamie, we can't live on top of one another in a tiny cardboard box."

"I didn't say it'd be a cardboard box," I said defensively as he released me back into Cody's arms. "It'd be a perfectly reasonable wooden box. Four walls. One roof." I leaned against Cody's broad chest, sighing as he held me up and kept me from falling to the floor.

"This is four walls and one roof," Cody said helpfully.

I growled his way, earning a chuckle from his throat.

Dex shook his head. "You can't expect four guys to live together in a two bedroom apartment."

"We could have gotten a four bedroom," I offered helpfully. "I don't mind bed-hopping."

"We're not in college anymore, Jamie," Dare said as he reentered the room. "We need to figure out our future."

"I thought we were," I replied, holding up my left hand and presenting the ring they'd given me on graduation day several months ago. "Kinda already taking the next step, guys. Consider the future figured out. We're getting married."

Cody laughed again, the sound vibrating against my back as Taylor moved into view, holding up a bag of potato chips. My eyes lit on it. "Where'd you get those?"

He munched, reaching into the bag for a chip and instead of answering me, he stepped forward and presented me with one. I narrowed my gaze as I let my mouth drop open to accept the treat. Salty goodness coated my tongue, and I licked my lips. My stomach rumbled. I'd forgotten to eat lunch while I was with Roxi earlier, and apparently coffee wasn't going to cut it. But none of the guys seemed to notice. Instead, their eyes were solely focused on my lips as I licked them.

"Um … guys?"

"I think we should hold off on talking," Darren suddenly said.

"I completely agree," Dex replied.

"What?" I blurted as Cody's arms tightened on me, his hands moving down to the hem of my shirt. I turned and looked up at him. "What do you mean? Why?"

Taylor dropped the bag of chips on a nearby table and stepped forward. "I think, what that means, sugar tits," he said as I rotated back to him as he crowded my front, "is that you're far too irresistible."

"I just—" My words were cut off when his mouth slammed down on mine. That's all it took to ignite a fire within me. A moan spilled out as Taylor’s mouth devoured mine and Cody’s fingers moved down my front as he released me from my shirt and reached for the button on my jeans.

His fingers feathered across my flesh as he unbuttoned and unzipped my pants, sliding them down along with my underwear.

"Wait," I pressed against Taylor’s chest until he released me. Cody whipped my shirt off before I could say anything more. I shook my head, trying to clear away the fog of lust they were pulling me into. "We can't do this here, the realtor could come back!"

"She won't be coming back," Dex assured me as he moved around my other side.

"What do you mean?" I sighed as Taylor's mouth descended on my neck. He licked and sucked, making my knees go weak, especially when he dragged the edge of his teeth across my skin. He knew what that did to me and he wasn't playing fair. Cody bent on the floor, removing my feet from the puddle of clothes that had fallen down my legs.

Dex held up a set of keys. "The place is ours, Jamie. No more arguments."

"But—" I gasped as a set of familiar fingers—Darren's—unclasped my bra and whipped it down my arms. "Guys!"

"Shall we take this to the master bedroom?" Dex asked.

"I think that's a great idea," Darren said.

I growled even as Taylor snatched me up into his arms and made a dash for it. "Last one there is the last to come!" he yelled behind him.

I rolled my eyes, but couldn't stop myself from laughing as he dodged around the others and carried me through the suite—which was more massive than I originally thought; with wide hallways, tall arching windows, and … was that a bathroom we just passed? It was massive!—towards the master bedroom.

My back hit a bed so comfortable I groaned in relief and sighed when a masculine body descended on top of me. Taylor's lips took mine once more in a fiery kiss, and I shivered as his hands skated down my sides. "You ready for it, pumpkin?"

I laughed and nodded exuberantly. "I'm not over you guys going behind my back on the whole buying a place thing," I said though. "But I'll let you make it up to me with a few orgasms."

I circled my arms around his neck as Dex, Darren, and Cody entered behind him. "How magnanimous of you," Dex said with a wicked gleam in his eyes.

"I know." I grinned. "I'm the best fiancée in the world, right?"

"You're the best wife ," Darren replied.

"Why don't you come over here and show your wife just how awesome she is then?" I replied.