Page 14 of You’re ours now (Masked Men)

Chapter Thirteen

Storm

Once Mellie fell asleep last night, Zayne joined us to finish our planning. We all agreed that giving her a Valentine’s Day to remember is the priority, but equally important is telling her it was us. We could have done it last night, but with how upset and betrayed she was feeling, it was best to let her cool down a little.

I woke up feeling terrified today. This could very well end our friendship, and that’s something I can’t imagine living without. My every memory involves her.

She is the only girl I have told I would marry. Even if it was in the first grade, I meant every word. When I learned to ride a bike, she was right there cheering me on with her little pigtails and toothless grin. When I went through my awkward stage, she told me I was the handsomest boy she had ever met. Then when my voice cracked, she never laughed, only said my body was changing and I was becoming a man. She was there for everything, and I’ll be damned if she is not by my side for the rest of my life.

I want to see her face as she walks down the aisle when I’m standing at the altar. I want her to be the mother of my babies. And I want to see her grow old.

Julius is already in the kitchen cooking us breakfast. We have the entire day planned out, starting with breakfast in bed, then we’re going to take her for a mini hike, because let’s face it, walking far isn’t her idea of fun. Julius managed to get some disposable cameras for us to take photos, and we’ll have a picnic lunch overlooking the entire town. After that Julius has booked us into a painting class, and then Zayne has hired out an entire movie theater for us to watch the movie Valentine’s Day. Once we are done, we will come back home where he has organized a company to set up roses, wine, chocolates, and the works. Then we plan to tell her everything.

I only hope she forgives us.

Even if she’s pissed, I will spend the rest of my life making her see we did it because we care and wanted her to have her fantasy made reality. Sure, we should have come clean and given her the choice, but we know her and she wouldn’t have agreed. Not because she didn’t want to, but because Mellie puts us first, before herself. Now we need her to see what is right in front of her: three men so perfectly suited to her she never needed to go looking elsewhere at all.

Once her breakfast is ready, I gather her gifts, and Julius brings the food on a tray. Opening the door to her room, I snort at the sight. Zayne and Mellie are wrapped in each other’s arms, Zayne’s leg is thrown over the top of her, and her head is burrowed against his chest.

“Wake up sleeping beauties,” Julius chirps, and both Zayne and Mellie untangle themselves.

Mellie smiles, and it’s the best feeling after how down she was last night.

“Do you want to do gifts or breakfast first?” Zayne asks, wrapping his arms around her again once she sits up.

“Gifts,” she says, beaming.

I nod and hold out the three gifts to her.

She nervously opens the smallest one first. Her eyes go wide, and her mouth falls open when she pulls out the dainty necklace. We each buy her one gift every year, and this year is no different.

The jewelry is from Julius, and he outdid himself with this one. It has each of our birth stones embedded in an infinity symbol.

“This is so pretty,” she says, and Zayne holds his hand out to her. She gives him the necklace, and he helps her put it on.

Next, she opens Zayne’s gift; he is always the wild card. Mellie could end up with tickets to Timbuktu or a plant. She unwraps a box, opening it to find a candle inside. She pulls it out and laughs, holding it up for us to see. It reads: light me if you’re horny. “There’s more in there,” Zayne says, and she digs around and pulls out a mini vibrator. She giggles and slaps him on the arm.

“I love it, thank you. Just what I might need tonight.”

“Now open mine,” I say, before I can think too hard about Mellie fucking herself while I watch.

She rips the paper from mine and the smile takes over her face. I got her a photo book of all four of us over the years. Her eyes water as she flicks through the pages and I almost regret my choice—of course it’s a stupid gift. Mellie suddenly jumps from the bed and flings herself into my arms, clinging to me and burying her head into my chest.

“Best gift ever,” she whispers against my neck. I squeeze her tight against my chest, hoping we do enough today so this isn’t the last time I get to hold her.

“Don’t crush her, she needs to be in good working order for what we have planned today,” Zayne jokes.

I flip him off and put Mellie back on her feet. Here’s hoping everything works out the way we have planned.

As predicted, Mellie hated the walk, though snapping pictures helped take her mind off the fact that it was exercise, plus lunch at the top of the hike made up for the one measly mile. After we ate and Mellie took a million photos, we headed to our next stop where we all painted awful portraits of Mellie accompanied by so much damn laughter. Next, we moved on to the theater and even though the movie was one we had all seen a million times before, the smile on her face as we ate popcorn and listened to Zayne recite the words was totally worth it.

Now, as I drive us home, my stomach is in knots. It’s time for us to lay our cards on the table and see what happens. I hate surprises and not knowing how things will play out. We could say nothing and go on as normal, but none of us want to do that. We want her to know how we feel, though putting voice to our thoughts and emotions is going to be the hardest thing we’ve ever done.

“Why are you driving so slow?” She knows she has one surprise left, and Mellie loves surprises almost as much as she loves the idea of love. I only hope she has an open mind.

“I’m doing the speed limit,” I grumble, subtly pressing the gas pedal so the odometer reflects that.

Zayne, who is sitting behind me, grasps my shoulder and gives it a squeeze. I’m sure they are feeling these nerves as much as I am.

When I pull into our house and Julius clicks the button to open the garage, I’m hit with the overwhelming need to puke.

Once I kill the engine, Mellie excitedly jumps out of the car and the three of us trail behind her. She makes her way into the living room and squeals as she jumps up and down. There are candles flickering, wine chilling in an ice bucket, red rose petals scattered everywhere, and someone has moved the furniture to the side to make room for a human-sized dog bed, which is piled high with pillows and blankets. Fairy lights decorate the ceiling, and the entire room looks magical. I wish the circumstances were different.

“I’m going upstairs to change,” I mutter, turning and walking away.

The other guys both say the same and follow behind me. None of us say anything else as we all walk into my room, where we have stored the masks. I change into my sweats, but we leave our tattoos visible this time. The mood is somber as we pull our masks into place.

“This is it,” Zayne says. “Let’s go get our girl.”

If only it were so easy.

As we stride into the living room, the lights are off and the room is illuminated by the strings of fairy lights. Mellie hasn’t spotted us yet and is standing, happily squirting whipped cream into her mouth straight from the can. After a second, she looks over her shoulder and screams.

“Storm!”

I fucking break. She’s so panicked that she has called for me to save her. So I rip the stupid fucking mask from my face, revealing my identity, and her eyes go wide, her mouth dropping open in surprise. The other guys do the same and tears fill her eyes.

Zayne hurries across the room and takes her in his arms. I wait for her to yell and fight him off, but she doesn’t. Instead, she collapses into his embrace as both Julius and I move closer, lingering nearby, unsure what to do next. When she calms herself, she pulls back from Zayne.

“I need someone to explain, but first I need to sit.” She walks over to the big dog bed and takes a seat in the middle, and the three of us do the same.

“I don’t even know where to begin,” I murmur.

“From the start would be good.” She clutches her hands in her lap.

“I work for the company who is making True Love’s Match ,” Julius says, and her attention falls to him. She doesn’t look mad, but Mellie is good at holding in everything until she explodes. “When I saw your audition tape, I admit I got jealous, and it gave me an idea. You deserved to live out your fantasy, but I didn’t want to put it in the hands of a stranger. So, I pulled your application.”

She gasps and her hand rises to cover her mouth.

“I’m so fucking sorry, Mellie,” I say, running my hand down my face.

“I’m not,” Zayne states and we all look at him. “What?”

“You’re not sorry we lied to our best friend?” I ask, and he shakes his head.

“I’m sorry for how Mellie felt yesterday, and I’m sorry we didn’t come clean the day after it all happened. But I’m not sorry for being stupidly in love with her, and you shouldn’t be sorry for loving her either. None of us should be, and if it wasn’t for this stupid matchmaking show, none of us would have had the balls to say anything,” Zayne snaps.

“You love me?” she whispers.

I nod. “I’ve loved you for as long as I can remember,” I say, as tears run down her pretty face. Leaning forward, I wipe them away with my thumbs.

“When I was sixteen, I knew I loved you,” Zayne adds.

“For me it was eighth grade, when you punched Zeke in the nose because he called me a dork, even though he was three times bigger than you,” Julius says, pushing his glasses up and wiping his eyes.

“But you’re all my best friends!”

“If that’s all you see us as, we really hope we haven’t messed up our friendship. If you want us to go back to how things were before, we will forget this ever happened. You are our world, Moo. We would do anything for you, including lying so you get to live out your fantasies, even if it’s one of the stupidest things we have ever done.”

“I’m just having a hard time believing it was you.”

“I fucked you on the pool lounger,” I say, and she smirks as her eyes sparkle at the memory. “And I gave you that orgasm you always complained you never had before.”

Her face flushes, either from embarrassment or arousal—either way, I’ll take it.

“And I had your ass,” Zayne says.

“Okay, okay, I believe you. But what does this mean for us, for our friendship?”

“No offense, Moo, but fuck our friendship. We want to date you. We want to make you ours,” Julius tells her earnestly.

“I stand by what I said at the resort. You’re ours now, Mellie,” Zayne adds with his signature cocky smirk.

“The ball’s in your court. We understand if you need time to think it over,” I say, feeling more hopeful now that maybe we haven’t royally fucked everything up.

Mellie stands and looks down at us and smirks. “I think... I think I need a head start before you come and find me. The winner gets to cover me with chocolate and lick it off.”

She doesn’t wait for our reply, running out of the living room and down the hallway.

The three of us look at each other, stunned.

Well, fuck. I guess it’s every man for themselves because I plan to find her first.