The righteous scowl on Dex’s face made her take a step back. “No dates? No preliminaries?
You think that I just woke up this morning and decided I wanted you and took you?” It had sure seemed that way, but his tone suggested something much different. “Didn’t you?”
“So all the lunches and dinners don’t count?”
He and Slade had taken her out at least once a week for almost six months. “Those were about business.”
“They were excuses, Hannah,” Slade said with a sigh. “You’re not our admin. You’re Gavin’s. When we decided we wanted you, Dex and I decided to go slow, ease you into this. It’s not exactly a traditional relationship.”
It wasn’t, but she’d been crazy about the entire James Gang from the moment she’d met them. Something had fallen into place the first time she’d been in a room with all three.
“Aren’t we f**king smooth?” Dex said, bitterness dripping. “She didn’t even realize we were interested.”
Only because she was brutally inexperienced. Hannah hadn’t dated much in high school.
She’d gone to the local college, but by then her grandmother was ill. She’d never had much time to herself, even since coming to Dallas. She was usually busy with work. Now she thought back over the last year and could see some signs she shouldn’t have missed.
“You remembered my birthday.”
“Of course we did,” Slade replied. “We planned it for weeks. We’ve already started planning next year’s, though I will admit it was going to be better than a little cake and a couple of presents.”
They’d given her the eBook reader she’d been coveting, and she loved it. Maybe they’d paid more attention to her as a person than she’d thought. “I liked my party.” They had thrown it for her at one of Hannah’s favorite diners. It wasn’t really their speed.
When she’d gone after work for a down south, home-cooked meal, they’d been waiting for her.
If they’d had nothing but seduction on their minds, it would have been more advantageous for Slade and Dex to take her some place quiet and upscale, get her alone and tipsy, then whisk her back to their lair. Instead, they had invited her friends, sipped iced tea with her, and smiled all evening. When they’d walked her to her door, neither had asked for a “nightcap.” Instead, they’d hugged her, kissed her forehead, watched her walk into her apartment, and left.
“I’m glad you liked it, Hannah.” Slade sent her a sad smile.
She bit her lip. “I don’t understand what you see in me. Or maybe I’m afraid I do, and I don’t like it.”
“What do you think we see in you?” Dex asked.
“A quiet submissive? Do you like me because I do what I’m told?” Dex almost choked, and Slade slapped a hand over his face, howling.
“You don’t do what you’re told, Hannah. Didn’t I ask you a couple of days ago to stock my office with Cokes?” Dex asked.
Hannah winced. He had. “Yes.”
“And what did I get?”
“Green tea is very healthy.” She’d expected him to complain more, but when she’d smiled at him, he’d just said thank you.
“It’s disgusting,” Dex replied.
“And he drank every single one,” Slade countered. “How about the time you took the keys to Dex’s motorcycle and my car after we had a beer at the office happy hour?”
“Yep.” Dex nodded. “I still have that written down in a note for future punishment.” Fine. So she wasn’t always obedient. “I gave them back when I knew you’d be sober. And I only did those things because I was trying to protect you.”
The second the words were out, she wanted to take them back.
Slade sent her a sly glare. “Doesn’t that sound an awful lot like the reason I took your phone, Hannah?”
“It’s not the same,” she argued.
“Why not?” he shot back. “You said that you were trying to protect us. Well, we tried to protect you.”
“I did it because I didn’t want you to get hurt.”