Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
As their offspring, my behavior reflects on them, so I must be careful to also avoid being the talk of the town—unless I get an award or win a competition or something like that. Otherwise, I should keep my head down and avoid standing out too much.
But what if they were wrong?
What if everything they’ve ever told me about living was wrong?
Maybe people don’t care as much about my life as I think they do.
Or, even if they do care, how much thought do they really put into it? I know my parents probably spend hours talking about some scandal one day and then never mention it again.
Why should I care whether they care?
A smile breaks out on my face as I realize what this means for my whole life, what possibilities lay in front of me, what adventures are just waiting for me to experience.
I wrap my arms around Liam and Ollie, who are sitting on both sides of me, as tears roll down my cheeks. “Thank you, Liam and Ollie.” I look across the room to see Mason and the twins coming over to join the group hug. “Thanks, Mason, Noah, and Nathan.”
“You are loved, Ava,” Noah says.
“It’s just so easy to love you.” Nathan comes up from behind the couch and wraps his arms around my neck. His breathing scorches my skin, waking up my desire, despite the emotions wreaking havoc in my chest right now.
Strange. I’ve never felt anything like this. I lift my hand up to stroke Nathan’s soft hair.
“I’ve never wanted to protect anything more. You’re so precious to me, beautiful.” Mason sits on the rug in front of me and caresses my legs. When our eyes lock, we share a tender look that says volumes about how we feel.
“I’ve loved you from the time I saw you having dinner with your parents,” Ollie says, reminding me of the first time we met.
I giggle. “That has to be a lie.”
I was feeling hideous that night, thanks to my parents’ incessant criticism over dinner and my weight gain. (I’ve gained even more since then, and I totally blame Nathan and his devilishly delicious cooking.)
“No, I was there and I saw it myself,” Liam says in his deep, baritone voice. “It was love at first sight for my kid brother, although Mason and I couldn’t take our eyes off you either.”
“All five of you must be blind,” I say playfully, more out of embarrassment than anything else.
“They say love is blind, but that doesn’t mean you’re not beautiful, beautiful,” Mason says. “I mean . . . I couldn’t stop staring at these long legs—” he runs his fingers lightly up my thighs “—and that spankable ass.”
“What he’s trying to tell you,” Liam says, “is that he loves you. And I do, too.”
I giggle. “I love you, too. All five of you. And I can’t even believe this is happening. I can’t believe how lucky I am to have all of you in my life.”
“Don’t speak too soon,” Nathan teases me. “You may regret it when we disagree on something and we all gang up on you.”
“I don’t care. You’re worth all that trouble,” I say, laughing as hands and arms envelop me with warmth.
“So you’re saying you don’t care if we gang up on you, huh?” Mason asks wickedly. “I’d like to test that.”
I know what Mason means, of course. I’m a high school teacher in a small town; not a nun. Besides, I have Internet access.
And to be honest, I have been looking forward to sleeping with all five of them at once, but Liam's been busier than any one of us in the lead-up to the hearing.
Well, now that the hearing’s over, he probably won't be working on his laptop late into the night anymore, which means we’ll have time for anything.
Is this the right time to be doing that, though? We’re in the middle of a crisis here.
“Now?” I ask Mason.
“Why not?” Nathan asks, his lips grazing my ear and lingering for a while, causing my skin to tingle.
“Because . . . we have problems?”
“There will always be problems, beautiful. That’s just life.” Mason’s on his knees on the rug in front of me, dragging his lips from my bare knee up my thigh, pulling my pencil skirt up inch by inch and quickening my heartbeat.
“What matters is we stick together and try to enjoy life anyway,” Noah says. “And right now, I can think of a few things that will help you enjoy life a little bit more.”
“Fuck that,” Nathan whispers in my ear. “You’ll enjoy it a lot more, Ava.”
“Nathan goes for the hard sell. I believe in under-promising and over-delivering.” Noah winks.
I can’t even respond anymore because Mason’s parted my legs and continued kissing up my thighs. He’s so close to the top it’s all I can think about. And Nathan’s nibbling on my ear lobe doesn’t help my already-crumbling self-control.