That bothered me more than I expected.
Justin looked pained.
“You need to make up your mind,” Justin bit out. “I’m tired of wandering around waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
“No one said you should wait,” Langston argued. “Fucking go after her if that makes you feel better. I’m certainly not considering your feelings when I invite her somewhere.”
Great. This was quickly going nowhere.
“You should collar her now and get it over with,” Justin yelled.
“But…that’s not what I want from her,” Langston admitted.
I kept my mouth shut. It was exactly what I wanted from her and my brother knew it. As always, I was letting him lead because I knew that he was more practical when it came to shit like this. I tended to go after what I wanted, which, in this case, hadn’t been easy because I’d been holding back so much all this time.
“But is that your plan? To eventually collar her?” Justin asked, his tone no longer strained.
“It’s highly likely.”
“What does that even mean?” Justin snapped. “Are you saying that the two of you intend to claim her for your own but you’re biding your time? Or are you stringing her along?”
Langston’s gaze slammed into Justin’s. “Don’t act as though you haven’t noticed, Parker. From the moment I met that girl, I knew that she would belong to us.”
“Yet you’ve been toying with her all along.”
That seemed to piss Langston off. “I’m not toying with anyone. I’m merely letting her get her feet wet. She deserves to explore this because it’s obviously what she wants.”
“We don’t know what she wants,” I noted. “No one has bothered to ask her directly. We’ve only assumed based on her actions.”
“So, why doesn’t someone ask her?” Ben questioned, his irritation bleeding into his words.
“I think that’s a brilliant idea,” Justin agreed. “I think we should give her a chance to tell us what she wants.”
Langston glared at Justin. “Fine. Call her in here. Let’s get it over with.”
“I’d like to think we should at least have some options for her before we drag her ass in here,” Ben said, ever the voice of reason.
“I think the two of you are overstepping,” Justin insisted. “That woman has a good head on her shoulders. If she wasn’t interested in continuing this, she would’ve told us.”
“Maybe,” Langston agreed. “Or perhaps she doesn’t want to step on any toes. The woman’s a natural submissive.”
“Well, no shit. We figured that out from the second she stepped into the office,” Ben said flatly.
Justin took a deep breath. “I say we come up with a few options and let her decide.”
“Y’all can do whatever the hell you want,” I stated, feeling the need to get my two cents in. “I’m not willing to give her up. Not yet.” Not ever.
Justin’s tone was somber when he said, “I think we’re all on the same page there.”
Nineteen
I WAS BACK AT MY desk at two o’clock on the dot. I instantly noticed that none of my bosses had returned, and I didn’t know what to think about that. They had been holed up in the conference room for hours.
Seriously? What did they have to talk about for that long?
About ten minutes till three, I looked up to see Sir walking toward me. He looked tense, but he managed to smile when he approached, though it didn’t quite meet his eyes. I was shocked when he held out his hand to me, silently willing me to stand up.
“We’d like you to join us in the conference room, sweet girl.”
I loved when he called me that. And I loved when he looked at me the way that he was. As though I was the only person he wanted to look at.
“Okay. I just need to tell Jordan I’ll be in a meeting.”
Sir stepped back while I grabbed the phone and hit the button to dial the front desk.
“I hope this is good news,” he said by way of greeting.
“I’ll be in a meeting for a little while. Please hold all calls or send them to voice mail.”
“Yes, ma’am. And hey…good luck.”
I chuckled at his excitement, then hung up the phone. We had spent our entire lunch hour coming up with reasons our bosses were hiding out. All of which were completely ridiculous. After all, I couldn’t imagine it was anything serious. Things had been progressing quite well. And the more I had thought about it, the less tense I’d become. They were probably talking about work and now they wanted to have an impromptu Monday meeting…on Tuesday.
Sir was still waiting for me, so I turned to follow. He placed his hand on the back of my neck—a possessive move that stirred some sort of deep need inside me—and urged me toward the back conference room.
Once inside, I noticed that the blinds were open and Ben, Justin, and Master were still talking. They went silent when I joined them. There was tension in the air, something that I’d never felt before.
