date with Austin scheduled.
Four men, three dates, in just two days. I should have spaced them out more.
The knock on my door startled me, even though I’d been waiting for it, and little bolts of electricity zipped out of my fingers.
After shaking out my hands and taking a deep, calming breath, I opened the door.
My mouth had opened to greet them, but words failed me as I took in the two handsome strangers before me. Sleek hair, pressed pants, shaved faces and bright shirts had transformed the normally rugged men into playboys.
Okay, not strangers, but they cleaned up really well.
Both looked at me with similarly stunned expressions.
“Hi,” I finally managed. “You two look great.”
“You look gorgeous,” Hurricane said, stepped forward, and kissed my cheek.
“Stunning,” Vortex said, kissing my other cheek.
I’d put extra time into my hair, curling it and piling the curls atop my head, and did my makeup as well.
“Thank you.”
“Are you ready to go?” Vortex asked.
I nodded and shut my door.
They hadn’t told me where we were going, just to dress nice.
As they led me to one of the garages, my curiosity only grew.
Hurricane stopped beside a fancy black sedan and opened the passenger door.
“Is this yours?” I slid into the car, purring mentally at the soft seats.
“Ours.” Vortex corrected.
Turning so I could see Vortex in the back seat and Hurricane in the driver’s seat, I asked, “You sure you’re not a couple?”
“Neither of us is gay. We just realized that we could enjoy the finer things in life a lot faster if we pooled our resources. Plus, sharing a woman is one of our kinks.” Vortex smiled. “We’re best friends who have fully accepted our bromance. More men would be like us if they weren’t so worried about being mislabeled as gay. As long as the girl we’re interested in knows we’re straight, that’s all that is important.”
The car started with a quiet purr, and we were on our way.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Somewhere our identities will be kept hidden,” Hurricane said, smiling as he maneuvered through the somewhat busy streets.
I rolled my eyes. “Fine, keep your secrets.”
Both chuckled.
Since the only thing I could do was sit back and wait, I relaxed in the comfortable seat and looked out my window at the city.
The Hero Association had built their headquarters here because it had been the hotspot for monsters. More monster sightings happened here than the three other major cities combined. After the headquarters was built, that number quadrupled. Most people lived in the surrounding smaller cities because they were less likely to be attacked, but were still close enough for heroes to reach if a monster happened to attack.
There were some who lived in the rural areas, growing crops, raising livestock, or just preferring solitude. It always saddened me when an attack on them was reported.
Some wanted the heroes to have assigned locations, but the Hero Association argued it was far more time efficient to have the heroes in one location so they could coordinate and dispatch the appropriate hero for the job as needed.
Now that I’d witnessed the darker side of the Association, I wondered if their true motive for keeping all the heroes in one spot was more nefarious.
Still, as I looked out at the city and the occasional building in repair, all I saw were smiling civilians.
And that was what it was all about. Protecting those who couldn’t protect themselves.
We pulled into an underground parking garage, Hurricane opened his window and scanned his eye. An unseen door opened to the left. Once inside the secret garage, the door closed behind us.
Overhead lights provided enough illumination to find a spot and then to make our way to a set of elevators that did it even have a button to call it.
Hurricane handed me a black and blue mask that glittered as I inspected it.
I arched a brow, but put my mask on silently when I saw them doing the same. Their masks hid most of their faces, and then after a moment, even I didn’t recognize them.
“Whoa,” I whispered.
They linked arms with me.
“For the rest of our time here, you need to remain touching one of us or you could get lost,” Vortex whispered in my ear.
I nodded my understanding.
Hurricane knocked on the elevator door in a strange pattern. The doors opened, and I hesitated to enter, but the men on my arms pulled me forward. The doors closed, and I squealed when we started descending.
Vortex rubbed his arm where we were touching.