Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 37885 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 189(@200wpm)___ 152(@250wpm)___ 126(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37885 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 189(@200wpm)___ 152(@250wpm)___ 126(@300wpm)
Now that surprised her. “What?”
“We were celebrating some success,” Drake said. “We were at a nightclub, and we let the happiness get to us. We weren’t careful and then we kissed.”
“Why would it matter if the two of you are together?” Abby asked, looking between them. “I came between this?”
“No,” Drake and James said in unison.
She was a little taken aback as they both turned toward her, and each one held her hand. The moment they touched her, she felt complete.
“We’ve been together for a long time,” James said.
“But we both knew we’d need another. A third. A woman,” Drake said.
“To share?” She looked between the two men.
“We love each other, and we both want a woman to share. We want you to be that woman,” James said.
“Do my parents know this?” Abby asked.
“No. They think we’re together and only want each other. What we want is not conventional. We know that,” James said. “We agreed to keep our relationship private. That we’d find what made us happy. We’d find the perfect woman, and in doing so, we’d be able to live it together.”
“You’d be married to James, and seeing as I work for him, it’ll explain why I’m around. It will protect us all.”
“Oh.” Abby looked from one to the other. “But, you weren’t going to allow me to be part of this, were you? At the beginning of our marriage, you hated me.”
She wasn’t an idiot.
There’s no way James would change his mind so damn quickly like this.
James and Drake shared a look.
She saw it.
“You were going to use Drake and me, weren’t you? You were going to use our time together to create your cheating scenario?” She was suddenly overcome with so much pain.
“I’m not going through with it.”
“But it started out that way, right? That’s what you wanted? Me and Drake to appear to be cheating?” They’d lied to her. Maybe it was the small sip of wine, but she was having a hard time right now to deal with everything.
“I’m not going to go through with it.”
She took a step back as she looked at the two men that she’d been falling for.
Of course they’d use her.
Why not?
“We’re not doing this, Abby,” Drake said. “We want you.”
“I think I need some time right now.” She took a step back. “I need to process everything.”
She needed to go to a room and have a good cry. She’d known something was going on, just not the true extent of it.
“Abby,” James said.
She shook her head. “Please, I just need some time.”
She took another step back, and they let her go. She went to the spare room, sat on the bed, and stared at the floor.
It shouldn’t hurt this much.
There’s no way it should hurt, but it did.
Because James and Drake were not just two strangers to her.
In a short amount of time, they’d become so much more, and now she didn’t want to think of her life without them.
****
Three days they’d given her.
James stared at her back where she sat on the beach. Drake had gone into town to grab some supplies. His idea of winning her back was with some food. It wasn’t a bad idea, but James knew he’d hurt her.
He and Drake had talked about it last night.
They wanted Abby for keeps.
For the rest of their lives.
They wouldn’t hide who they were from her, not anymore. He trusted her.
Heading down to the beach, he took a seat beside her, giving her space that she said she needed. He wanted nothing more than to pull her into his arms, but he didn’t.
The past three nights had been horrible. She fit between him and Drake so well that he missed her constantly.
He watched as she tucked some of her hair behind her ear. It didn’t stay there for long as the wind picked up, flicking it out of the way.
“We never meant to hurt you,” James said.
She laughed. “You did. You just didn’t care.”
“I thought you were like your parents.”
This made her chuckle. It was forced though. Forced humor.
“I hurt you.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said.
“I was on cloud nine,” he said. “I’d gotten another breakthrough in my career. Drake and I are always in a good place. He’s been with me through the highs and lows and one night of losing myself in an alley with him, your parents caught the entire thing on camera. They had pictures and a video.”
“Does it really matter if people knew you were together?” she asked.
“I guess not. Drake and I, we like our privacy more than anything. It’s no one else’s business what we do or who we do it with. I love him. I will do anything for him. We knew it wouldn’t be enough though. We wanted a woman to share. To make us whole. So we decided not to make our relationship public.”