“How did you know?” Oliver asked.
“She was really a virgin?” Callum could scarcely believe it. She was so beautiful, so sensual. How had she remained untouched all these years? Were American men idiots? Had he known her as a teen, he would have spent all his time trying to get into her knickers.
“Do you two know her at all?” Rory shook his head as though tired of the lot of them. “She was obviously inexperienced. I wasn’t sure she was a virgin, but I knew she hadn’t had more than one or two men in her life. After her parents died, she tried not to be a burden or create problems for her sister. She never got into the kinds of trouble other teenagers do. She went to school and she worked a job to help out Piper financially.”
“How do you know this?” Callum demanded. He and Tori had talked about a lot of things, but mostly current events and things like movies she enjoyed.
“Because I asked her. I like her. That’s a foolish thing to say. I love her.” Rory looked as resolved as he sounded. “I wanted to know everything about her.”
Another brother he had to compete with. “Yet you’re willing to give her up for Oliver?”
Rory shook his head. “Not anymore.”
“So you two will battle it out?” Oliver’s shoulders drooped wearily.
How long had it been since he’d managed a decent night’s sleep? Years, Callum would bet.
Before he or Rory could answer, Oliver sighed. “I told you she would tear us apart. It’s why I tried to stay away from her.”
“That’s not the reason, and you know it.” He was sick of his older brother’s denial. “You stayed away from her because you’re convinced every woman is Yasmin. I bet she wasn’t a virgin when you took her the first time.”
“No, she wasn’t and she was also a liar. She claimed she’d had one lover, though now I’m sure it was many more. I didn’t care. I don’t care about virginity. It isn’t some prize to be claimed. Though I think in Tori’s case it was a gift she gave. I fear I rejected it quite harshly.”
Rory clapped Oliver on the shoulder, a gesture both soothing and threatening. “You made a mistake. You can apologize for it.”
Oliver shrugged. “Do you know what I was really angry about?”
Callum could bet. “That you may have gotten her pregnant.”
An unwilling sympathy flared through him. Callum didn’t want to feel for Oliver, but he knew how those lost children haunted him. Perhaps if he and Yasmin had made the decision together that they weren’t ready for children, Oliver might have forgiven himself. But the bitch had convinced him that she’d wanted those babies. She’d sworn that she had miscarried, and Oliver had blamed himself for not seeing through her.
“Tori would never deceive me the way Yasmin did. If she found herself pregnant, she would talk to me. Even I’m not that stupid,” Oliver said. “I know intellectually that Tori is as far from Yasmin as a rabbit from a rabid tiger, but in the moment, I reacted poorly.”
“All right, then we huddle up here until we come up with a plan of action,” Rory suggested.
Callum was a bit worried Rory would ask him for a white board and dry erase markers and turn this entire thing into some weird business meeting. “What kind of action can we take?” The enormity of the situation hit him. They really were fucked. He loved Tori. Rory loved Tori. Oliver would never admit it, but he loved her, too. “No matter what we do, she gets hurt. Two of us do, as well.”
Could he actually battle it out with his own brothers? That hadn’t seemed like a real possibility until tonight. Now Callum wasn’t sure he had the right to take her from them…or them from her.
“Or we do this together like we should have from the beginning,” Rory cut into his thoughts. “We go after her as brothers looking for a wife. We treat her with respect and love.”
Though he’d just been thinking the same thing, Callum recoiled. “That sounds terrible. Especially the ‘respect’ part. That sounds very much like none of us will be getting any.”
Rory stared at him, a single brow arching over his left eye. “I put forth a plan, and the only problem you have is with the word respect?”
“I can respect her and still sleep with her.” Callum was actually shocked to find he was okay with everything else.
Perhaps they could share her, share the intimacy. Share the responsibility. Lift each other when they were down. Become a team to create a truly cohesive family.
Yes, he didn’t mind that concept at all, but the no sex bit wouldn’t work. Ever.
“As it happens, I agree with you,” Rory assured. “I think we should take her to bed as soon as possible. When I talked about respect, I meant we have to think about her needs. We have to respect that she might need a bit of time to get used to the idea. We definitely have to respect the relationship we’re attempting and one another. So no plotting behind my back to run away with her. I will hunt you down. You might be the athlete in the family, but I was the marksman.”
Callum grinned, feeling something ease inside him. “Don’t run off with our girl or I’ll shoot you like that fox at Benedict Pine’s eighteenth birthday party and beer bash. Got it. Hey, I just thought of rule number two. Never mention anything that happened at Benedict Pine’s eighteenth birthday party. Tori is surprisingly sensitive for a girl from Texas. She’d be upset about the fox. Well, and the strippers.”
Oliver slapped at the bar, gaining Cal’s attention. He scowled. “What is wrong with you two? It’s not going to work. Cal, do you understand what he wants?”
“He wants to share Tori.”