STRIPTEASED: A Standalone Reverse Harem Romance (Roommates Book 1)
STRIPTEASED: Chapter 25

On Sunday, I spent the afternoon in my favorite chair, watching the football game with Austin and Tonio.

Except none of us were paying it much attention.

“Where’s Denver?” I asked. I didn’t have to ask about Emma, because I knew she was upstairs working in the little room we’d fixed up for her. Tonio’s sister had encouraged her to get her next book out as fast as possible. Since Emma had a hard drive full of older stories, it seemed likely she could publish again before Christmas. That gave her about six weeks.

“At the university,” Tonio responded. He had the other armchair, and Austin was stretched out on the couch.

There was a state school thirty minutes up the road, but we rarely drove up that way. “What for, the library?”

“No, he’s watching some dance rehearsal,” Austin answered. “He thinks it’ll give him choreography tips.”

“So you’re really leaving?”

“Just for six months,” Austin said. After the twin’s announcement yesterday, we’d all been subdued, not to mention downright exhausted from the events of the night before. So we hadn’t gotten many details. “That’s not that long.”

“Unless you decide to go on the next tour, too.” Evidently Tonio had been talking to the twins because he knew more about the situation than I did.

“Being on the road like that… the hotels, the different cities, no home base… it’s not easy,” I said quietly.

They both looked over. “How do you know that?” Austin asked.

I didn’t answer. The version of me that had gone from town to town with as part of a crew—a crew that only valued my brawn, not my brains—didn’t exist anymore. I’d begun to change before I met Emma, but she helped me complete the transformation.

When they realized I wasn’t going to respond, Tonio turned to Austin. “Why are you doing this again?”

Austin swung his long legs off the couch and sat up. “What am I supposed to do, tell my brother that no, he can’t live out his dream? He’s always been there for me. Always.” Austin ran his fingers through his short hair and exhaled loudly. “It’s not like we can work at a strip club forever. You guys don’t want to, either.”

“True,” Tonio said, and I nodded.

Tonio wanted to run his own business. I wasn’t sure what I wanted, but it didn’t include being a bouncer. However, I knew just as surely as I knew my own name that it involved Emma. I hated what this was doing to her. She’d been so upset after the twins told us about going on the tour. She said she was tired and asked Tonio if she could take a nap in his room. Maybe she’d gotten some sleep, but her eyes had been red and puffy when I went to check on her.

I wanted to be mad at the twins for hurting Emma and breaking up the group just when everything had gotten so good. But I couldn’t be angry with Denver. He was so damn happy that it was like he was walking on clouds. And Austin… it was clear he didn’t want to go, yet he was doing this for his brother.

Over the years, I’d come to like Austin well enough. It would’ve been hard not to. He was lively and funny. But I’m not sure I ever truly respected him. Now that he was doing this for his brother, I did.

Even though it hurt Emma.

“You know that you two are going to be a novelty act, right?” Tonio asked.

What?

Austin nodded. “Look at the hot twins. Watch them dance. But hey, it’s not like we haven’t been fetishized before.”

“Does Denver know that?”

“No. And no one had better tell him,” Austin said fiercely. Then he sighed. “But who knows, maybe they would’ve hired him anyway. He’s talented enough, and he’ll be good at designing the choreography.”

No one spoke for a few minutes, and I could hear the game again, but it didn’t interest me at all.

Then I looked over at Austin. “You should have told us about the tour before the five of us spent half the night in your room.”

“Would that have stopped you from joining in?” Austin was calmer than he had been before.

“No, but it might have saved Emma some heartache.”

Tonio responded instead of Austin. “Whatever feelings she has for us were already there. The other night just sort of… sealed the deal.”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or scowl. All I knew was that normally, I’d want to beat the crap out of someone who upset Emma—like that asshole at the club on Friday evening—but this time I didn’t.

Austin sighed again. “I didn’t mean to upset her. Hell, that’s the last thing I’d ever want to do. But Denver’s family.”

“I kind of thought we were becoming a family,” I said.

Tonio looked over at me and nodded.

“Me too,” Austin said.

Fifteen minutes later, I was tired of pretending to watch TV while trying not to think about the twins leaving. I decided to focus on something that always made me happy—Emma. “Do you think we should throw Emma a party or something?”

“Her birthday’s in March,” Tonio said.

I tried not to feel annoyed that he knew when her birthday was, yet it had taken him and the twins a couple of years to figure out when mine was. But things were different now. I knew they wouldn’t forget in the future. “No, I mean to celebrate her book coming out.”

Austin mulled it over. “She liked the champagne and chocolate thing we did for her before.”

“I was thinking bigger than that. Like what you guys did for my birthday.”

“Like a surprise party?” Austin asked, but I shook my head.

“How about a book signing?” Tonio suggested. Austin and I looked at him in surprise. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot today. I spoke with my sister yesterday, and I told her about what happened on Friday night.”

Austin and I stared at him, and he rolled his eyes. “Not what happened downstairs, idiots.”

“About the creep at the club?” Austin asked.

“No. Jesus, a lot of things happened on Friday,” Tonio said. “I told her about those two women from the gym bringing in the books for me to sign. We could buy a bunch of Emma’s paperbacks and sell them to people at the party. Then Emma could sit at a table and sign them.”

“I bet she’d like that,” Austin said.

I could just picture Emma wearing a pretty dress, her cheeks pink with pleasure every time someone presented a book for her to sign. “Where would we hold it?”

“I’ve got some ideas about that,” Tonio said. “I really think this could work. It would give Emma a chance to sell some books, and maybe it could also be a party for all of us. It might be our last chance to get together for a while.”

“There’s still Thanksgiving,” I reminded him.

“Well… about that…” Austin trailed off.

“Shit. I thought you guys weren’t reporting for rehearsals until the beginning of December,” Tonio said.

“They want Denver to get there early, and we’re kind of a package deal.”

That killed the idea of eating Thanksgiving dinner together. Even if Austin wasn’t going early with Denver, there was no way Emma would want a celebration where all of us were present except Denver. The idea didn’t sit well with me, either. “I guess that means we need to put this together in the next week or so.”

“Guess it does,” Tonio said.

“I’ll fill in Denver when he gets back from the university,” Austin said.

Then we all went back to watching a game no one cared about.

A few days later, I tiptoed into my room and set down my camera equipment, trying not to wake Emma. I liked the days when she joined me for early morning trips to the woods, but it was also nice to get back and find her fast asleep in my bed.

I studied her as she slept. She was on her side, facing the spot I’d abandoned a couple of hours ago. Her hand was in front of her, almost touching my pillow. As if even in sleep, she was reaching for me.

It was a wonderful thing, and something I’d never truly experienced before. Even when she didn’t share my bed, she sought me out every day. We still hugged the first time we saw each other. Even a few weeks ago when I’d gotten caught in a rainstorm during my morning hike and returned soaking wet.

I wasn’t sleepy, but I couldn’t resist the thought of sliding in next to her. She just looked so damn inviting. Those soft pink lips. The red-tinged blonde hair that fanned out over her pillow. I liked the fact that she still slept in one of my old t-shirts. Of course, I also liked it when she didn’t wear anything to bed.

I stripped down to my boxers and climbed in next to her.

“Knox,” she murmured as I picked up her outstretched hand and kissed it. It always amazed me that even though she took turns sharing our beds, she never woke up confused about where she was or who she was with.

“Go back to sleep,” I whispered, pulling the covers up to her shoulders. I didn’t know whether I should try to get some more shut-eye or whether I should just watch her sweet face as she slept.

She solved that debate by rousing again. “Knox?”

“What is it, sweetheart?”

“Can I be the little spoon?” Her voice was slurred from sleep, but her request was quite clear.

“Of course.” I lifted the covers and she scooted over, pressing her back against my chest. I wrapped my arms around her and rested my chin on her head, smelling the sweet, citrus scent of her shampoo. “Go back to sleep—I’ve got you.”

Times like these, I never wanted to let her go.

Hours later, we sat side by side at the kitchen table, Emma’s laptop in front of us. “What about this one?” she asked.

“It’s up to you,” I said.

We’d looked through dozens of pictures of the twins taken on the night of the photo shoot at the gym. At the time, Emma thought they weren’t right for the book she was finishing up, but for her next one, she thought we might find a shot of either Austin or Denver that fit the bill.

“All right.” She scrolled through endless photos. In most of them, I couldn’t even tell if it was Austin or Denver. She always knew, however.

“Are you excited about the book signing?”

“Very. I still can’t believe so many people are coming.”

“It helps that half the female population in Riverside are in love with Austin and Denver. When they invite people, people come.”

“Well, women come,” Emma said and then giggled at the double meaning. But then, as usually happened these days, her smile faded. It was hard to be excited about the book signing when she knew the twins were leaving two days later.

“When are the paperbacks supposed to arrive?” I knew the answer to that, but I wanted to distract her from her sadness.

“Thursday.”

“And if we get this cover done, we can put your next book up as a pre-order, right?” I was less sure about this answer.

“Right. Ronnie says that if people like my book it’ll give them something else to buy.” She smiled at me. “You really did your homework.”

“We all did. Tonio’s been looking into which book review sites you might want to send your next book to. And Denver’s been trying to figure out online advertising.”

Crap, I hadn’t meant to make her face fall again. I patted her arm. “It’ll be okay.”

I wasn’t sure if I meant the book signing or us. It was hard to imagine how empty the house would feel with just me, Tonio, and Emma. Sure, two men should be more than enough to keep Emma safe and happy. And maybe if she’d met Tonio and me after the twins moved out, it would feel right—but it didn’t.

We’d been a team when we met her and we’d been content living here together. But the way I saw it, we were four pieces of a five-piece puzzle. We didn’t know that Emma was the missing piece until after she moved in. From here on out, no matter what we did, we’d always know if there were pieces missing.

“We’ll be okay,” I said, altering my words slightly.

She leaned over and rested her head on my shoulder. “I know we will.”

Too bad neither of us sounded very convincing.

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