Page 33 of Break: Vol. 2

I flicked my gaze back and forth between them. Fuck. Yes, I was going to cry.

"You're beautiful and smart and wonderful," Dex said.

Big, honking, ugly-ass tears. It wasn't going to be pretty.

"We love you," they said as one.

But who gave a shit about pretty when four of the hottest athletes—four of the most amazing men in my life—were proposing to me?

"Will you marry us?"

Cody was the one who lifted a velvet covered box and opened it. I stared down at the prettiest little blue rock I'd ever seen. It wasn't a diamond. A diamond was too plain for us. We were unique. We were different. I loved that about us.

Just as I predicted, huge fat tears began to trail down my cheeks and drip off my chin. I nodded fast, almost giving myself whiplash as I tried to answer before they could think that they’d made a mistake and decided to change their minds.

Dex smiled at me. "You want to verbalize that, Baby?" he asked.

"Fuck yes," I said with a trembling hand as I reached out for the ring. Taylor took it from Cody and slid it on my finger. "I want to marry the fuck out of you. Out of all of you."

Taylor whooped, but before he could lift me into the air—Darren was there, doing it for him and swinging me around as I cried and laughed and cried some more.

I couldn't believe that one fateful night almost four years ago would lead to a lifetime of forever. One night was all it was supposed to be until they realized they couldn't let me go. Until I realized,Icouldn't letthemgo.

Epilogue

Dex

Jamie’s naked body moved against me, a soft sigh escaping her as she slept pressed to my side. On her other side, one of the guys—in the dark, I thought I could pick out Darren’s body—slept as well.

All week, hell, all fucking year since we’d gotten back from that damn trip on my family’s cruise line, I’d been a wreck. I’d hidden it well, I knew, but the anxiety was still there. Today, it’d all come to a head.

We’d sat down, the four of us—Darren, Cody, Taylor, and me—and we’d decided what we wanted months ago. We wanted her, Jamie Houston, and we wanted her forever. Our lover. Our wife. We’d made this plan and though I’d been all for it, there had always been the lingering doubt of whether or not she would even want all of us. Whether or not she would wantmeafter what she’d been through.

Even now, as I lay there with her body pressed to mine and her scent in my nose, I still wondered if she hadn’t just said yes because of the others. What Stephan had tried to do … I closed my eyes as I felt my fists tighten. Her soft slumbering breaths stuttered and I knew if I didn’t get up and leave the room, I would wake her. I didn’t want to wake her when I was feeling like this.

Carefully, I extracted myself from her slumbering form and as quietly as I could manage, I snuck from the room and into the shared living room. I paused for a moment and thanked whoever had been lazy enough to leave a pile of laundry by the couch because I’d totally forgotten to grab clothes before sneaking out like a thief in the night. I grabbed a pair of basketball shorts and pulled them on before going to the balcony doors and slipping out into the night.

I didn’t smoke, but as I stood there against the railing, staring up at the night sky and the moon hanging overhead, I kinda wished I did. At least, I’d feel like I had a reason for being out here. Quiet contemplation didn’t seem good enough.

Not ten minutes went by, however, before I turned at the sound of the balcony doors sliding open again and spotted Jamie’s soft blonde-brown hair sliding over her shoulder as she peeked out. “Hey,” she whispered, giving me a soft smile. “Do you want to be alone or can I join you?”

Without hesitation, I held my hand out for her. “You can join me,” I told her.

Her smile when it came was beautiful. She slid the rest of the way outside, revealing that she’d slipped into one of my shirts, before coming to me. The sight of it on her body always sent a visceral reaction through me. It was almost like she was letting me mark her. The moonlight gleamed on the ring on her finger. She was letting me mark her, I realized. She was letting all of us mark her.

Jamie took my hand and approached the railing, moving to lean her head against my arm.

“I’m sorry if I woke you,” I said gently, cupping a hand around her waist, loving the feel of her in my arms.

She wouldn’t be doing this if she didn’t love me, right? “It’s okay,” she said. “I don’t mind.”

I dipped my head down and inhaled her sweet scent. She smelled something like strawberries, maybe a new shampoo? Whatever the case, it was addictive.

“Are you okay?” she asked after a while. “You were kind of quiet when we got home tonight.”

Home,I thought, turning back and glancing through the balcony doors into the interior of the apartment I’d shared with her and the guys for the last few years.

My family had lived in hotel after hotel and mansion after mansion, but not a single one of those places had ever felt like a true home. This tiny apartment with its messy bedrooms, cramped kitchen, and whining air conditioning unit had felt more like a home than the many in the years before I’d come to Winthrope and met the others.

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