That night Steven, Mia, and I make our way to the planetarium. I push Mia in her stroller while Steven walks along beside us. He’s close to me. His arm occasionally brushes against mine as we walk. The planetarium is decorated in bright, colorful shapes and big block letters cut out of constructio
I must be some kind of masochist, wanting rejections from all four of the brothers, one after the next. When Mia’s eyes begin to droop, I look back to Steven. He’s holding his credit card up to the vending machine. He already has two waters and three candy bars in his arms. On his way back to us,
Even as I’m walking toward her, I’m surprised when Carrie doesn’t move away or attempt to disappear, like she has done so in the past. This confirms my earlier suspicion that she really just wants to talk to me. I come to stand beside her. Her gaze has flitted past me and now looks at her resting
Even back at the Pyramid, Mia’s restlessness continues. Her loud wailing and crying summons the other brothers as well as any alarm until Archer, Beau, Steven, and myself are sitting around her on the floor, while Neil watches safely from just beyond the doorway. I can tell from the desperate look
After leaving the living room, I return to my closet, where I am once more seriously packing. This time, I move all my packed boxes toward the door. I’ll leave my boxes here for the movers, I’ve decided. For right now, I’ll just throw some clothes into a duffle bag and camp out at the penthouse. T
Neil, in the end, helps convince me to at least sleep on my decision. He doesn’t want me to walk out the door before the last moment I absolutely have to per our contract. My body is still tingling pleasantly tingling from our lovemaking and warm and relaxed from our shower together. I don’t put
Wait. War? “You know why,” Beau says, snapping back at Archer with a similar tone. “We made her cry.” “She’ll cry again. Worse next time,” Archer says. “You need to harden yourself.” “Neil,” Beau starts. “He’s right, Beau,” Neil says, and I’m thrown for a loop all over again. Why are they go
I fall asleep in the nursery, in a high-back chair I pulled up beside the crib. I watch Mia until my eyelids are too heavy to keep open, and darkness drags me under again. When I wake again, it’s early morning, the sunrise just breaking over the trees out the window. I look at the view, then at Mi
I’m happy because I have four hearts beating alongside mine.“Do you feel it, too?” I ask. “My connection to each of you?”I blink my eyes open once more. I want to see their faces, their reactions.Neil has his hand over his own heart. “It’s strange. It’s like part of you is inside of me.”“Me, too
In the darkness of my mind, I floated, surrounded by the comforting embrace of love. Distantly, I could feel another presence, one that grew stronger and stronger, the more I focused on it: my wolf.As I thought of her, she appeared before me as if I willed her into being. Maybe I did. We are in my
Damn alpha wolves and their heightened senses.“I’ve already made my choice,” I say. “Honestly, I think I made it a long, long time ago.”Archer relaxes marginally. Steven starts to smile.Neil turns to me, worry still on his face. “You say that now, Chloe. But the pull could be strong…”“I don’t ca
The eve of my birthday, I rest in bed and stare at my ceiling. It’s late, near midnight, but I still have my bedside light on.With my feelings shared and grown with Neil, Archer, and Steven, I didn’t expect to spend any night alone, especially the one right before the day that could change everythi
I awake to a sharp knock on my bedroom door. Neil’s arm is still draped over me but some distance had inched between our hot bodies in the night. I’m able to slink out from under his arm without him waking.Naked, I quickly stop by the bathroom to throw on my fluffy bathrobe. Then, after glancing ba
They.Beau glances at me and see my incredulous look. “What do I need to go out every night? Can’t a man just enjoy staying home for a change?”“You can do whatever the hell you want,” I say.“Good, then.” Beau slumps down on the couch. He stretches out, lifting his feet up and into my lap. “Now tel
For the rest of the morning, I desperately try not to think about Neil. Whoever he’s in love with, I won’t be offended by it. The hurt I feel has nothing to do with this new person. She must be great for her to have won Neil’s affections.The hurt is my own loss, my own problem. I let my feelings fo
After Steven and I have cleaned ourselves up with a quick shower, we fall back into bed together, giggling and laughing all the way. My now, Steven has discovered a few of my tickle zones, which he is exploiting. As revenge, I touch the places I now know make him shiver.For a while, nothing seems l
His hands fumbled with the buttons of his own shirt. Such usually steady hands are rendered useless by his nervousness.“Allow me,” I tell him. I lightly bat his hands out of the way before replacing them with mine on his shirt buttons. My times with Neil have served me well. I’m able to undo all th