Christmas Eve
Zeke’s fingers curl around mine and pull me from the car.
“Can I take off my blindfold yet?”
I recognize West’s scent coming up behind me. His arm slips around my waist, his hot mouth on my ear. “Soon, princess. Have a little patience.”
The biting wind whips my hair, and I shiver despite being wrapped in my coat and scarf.
“You cold, shorty?”
“A little.” I shiver again.
Xander’s arms snake around me from behind, and the heat of his body warms me.
“Keep walking,” Zeke urges. The three of us shuffle awkwardly forward, the sound of late-night traffic humming in the background and the scent of the city in my nose. Where the hell are we, and what deviousness have my guys cooked up?
“Is this my Christmas present?” I bounce on my toes. “Because I have the best surprises planned for you.” I giggle at the thought of the gifts I’ve picked out for each of them.
“Nope. Not a Christmas gift,” West replies.
We come to a stop, and I turn my head in every direction, straining to hear anything that might offer me some clue as to where we are.
“You ready, shorty?”
“Yes!” I squeal, then remember to add, “Please.”
The blindfold falls from my face, and I blink as the bright lights of the WXZ lobby come into focus. “You brought me to your building?”
West squeezes my hand in his. “Not our building, princess.”
Xander presses his lips against my ear. “Our building.”
I frown. “That’s what I said.”
“Look up,” Zeke says, and my eyes follow his to the giant polished steel WXZ sign twenty feet above our heads. Except that it no longer says WXZ.
“WXYZ?” They changed their company name? “What’s the Y for?”
Zeke brushes his lips over my knuckles while Xander rests his chin on my shoulder. I turn to West for an answer.
His eyes narrow, and I feel like I’m missing something obvious. “The Y is for you, princess.”
“Me?”
“You, baby doll.”
“I don’t understand.”
West smiles. “We changed the company name and drew up a new contract. The business is yours now too. We all have an equal share.”
I shake my head. “No. I can’t do that. I … You three worked so hard for all this. I don’t want it.”
“We know, shorty, and that’s exactly why we want you to have it. You’re one of us.”
“But … this is too much.”
Zeke turns my face to his. “Baby doll, we might not be able to legally marry you, but we found a way to tie you to us forever. This is purely selfish on our part.”
“It was either this or knock you up,” Xander says, chuckling.
“And we did consider swapping out your birth control,” Zeke adds. His nonchalant shrug makes me believe he’s serious, but before I can voice my outrage, West chimes in.
“But we figured you wanted to work on your career for a few years first.”
I let out a quick laugh. “You boys don’t do anything halfway, do you?”
Zeke smirks. “Never have. Never will.”
“So, what do you say, princess? Will you be our business partner?” West takes a folded brown envelope from his jacket pocket and holds it out.
Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I glance at the building, then back at them.
Zeke tilts his head to the side. “You need us to get down on our knees, baby doll?”
Despite the cold weather, heat blooms beneath my skin. An image of the three of them on their knees for me makes me lightheaded. “Not out here in the street. But maybe when we get home.”
West rustles the pages and Zeke produces a pen. “Not unless you sign.”
“Come on, shorty. I’m freezing my nuts off here.”
With trembling hands, I take the pen from Zeke and glance over the papers. “I promise you it’s all completely above board,” West assures me. “It makes you a quarter owner in everything. It makes you officially one of us.”
I smile at the three men who’ve brought me more joy than I ever thought possible. “Forever?”
Their voices join together like a chorus. “And ever.”
