Room One Hundred and Eleven (Bred By Billionaires)

18. Aiden

CHAPTER 18

Aiden

I imagined our reunion with Poppy a million different ways during every hour of the past six weeks and on the short flight on our jet out to Vegas. Somehow though, I didn’t picture this.

Carter knocks on her door with three short, loud punctuations of his fist.

“Coming!” Even a single word from her—especially that one—is a siren song after our time apart, making me adjust myself in my suit pants as she fiddles with the lock before opening her door.

She takes one look at us across her threshold and slams the door in our faces. “Crap!”

Something clunks as if her skull bonks into the wood separating us when she splays out on the other side like a starfish. It will take more than that to keep us out.

“Let us in so I don’t piss off your landlord when I kick this thing down.” Carter’s off to a great start.

“Less beast, more prince charming, remember?” Knox nudges him away from the door, patting his chest as if that will tame him.

“Go away!” Poppy shouts, though we can hear her ragged breathing clear enough through the cheap hollow core.

Knox holds Carter back, and I step in, placing my hand gently on the door. “Beauty, please. Can we talk to you face-to-face? Hear us out. If you don’t like what we have to say, we’ll go. Leave you alone for good.”

Please, please don’t let her take me up on that.

It’s probably a lie anyway. At least for Carter.

“You swear?” Her question is soft and laden with mistrust.

“Cross my heart.” I swipe my finger in an X over my chest, not that she can see it.

When the door opens the barest crack, Knox beams and sticks his face in front of it. “Hey, beauty.”

She laughs and doesn’t resist when he weasels his way inside.

“Damn, you look good.” He scans her from head to toe.

She’s practically glowing, even as she retreats a step.

“Why are you so afraid of us, beauty?” I cross to her and cup her cheek.

Her eyes close and she tilts her face into my touch despite her trepidation.

“You acted like you were going to take me prisoner.” She props her hands on her hips. “If that’s what you want, you can get right out.”

What? Is that really what she thought?

Before I can contradict her, Carter shunts me aside, his gaze fixed below her chin.

“You’re still wearing our necklace, beauty.” He trails his finger along the chain, over her collarbone, then across her neck.

She chokes down a whimper.

When he fists it, yanking it so tight across her throat that it digs into her flesh, she freezes. “Don’t break it. Please.”

“Why do you give a shit if you don’t want us around? Don’t care to accept our invitations? Ran from the monsters you must think we are to have you hiding from us and what we had together.” Carter doesn’t sound mad to me. He’s hurt.

Shit. I should have realized.

“Because…I’m terrified that I didn’t hate the idea of being yours as much as I should.” This time, when Poppy looks up, she’s filled with fire that clashes with Carter’s.

Self-loathing, sure, but something hotter underneath it too.

“Why would you?” Knox shrugs. “We’re not that awful, are we?”

“I heard you talking that morning. You said if I was yours, you wouldn’t let me work. You’d keep me cooped up. My only value would be my ability to give you children.” A red stain blooms upward from her chest to her cheeks. “I won’t be useless and held captive, relying on you three for everything in my world.”

Oh no. Is that what she thinks?

I can fix this. “What we meant is we wouldn’t let you run yourself into the ground anymore. With us to help support your efforts, you can still help people and do even more good.”

She stops, her mouth open as she reconsiders her argument.

Carter releases the necklace, both of them stepping away from the edge.

Still, he can’t help himself. “But you’re not going to be grinding away at long shifts for minimum pay day after day—giving to your patients, us three, and everyone else who needs you—until you have nothing left for yourself. That’s a deal-breaker.”

“So if we dated, I could finish school?” She swallows. “You’d be okay with that?”

“No.” Carter crosses his arms.

Her face falls.

“He means, we’re not here to ask you out,” I interpret for him.

“We’re playing for keeps, Poppy.” Even Knox is serious. “For forever.”

“Dream bigger.” Carter takes her shoulders in his hands and shakes her a bit. “You deserve the world. But we hope you’ll settle for us instead.”

“To show we’re serious, we thought a lot about what’s important to you, and we hope you’ll take our deal.” I draw her attention. “Whether or not you do, though, you should know we already paid your tuition for the rest of your program.”

Okay, so we actually did that plus set up a scholarship in her name for other students in need.

“What do I owe you?” Her eyes narrow.

“Nothing.” Carter’s clear on that, at least. “We also filed paperwork to found a charity focused on home healthcare in your dad’s name. You can run it if you wish. Work at it, if you want. Stay at home with our family if you’d rather. Or we can manage its operations together. I’m happy to assist, if you don’t mind our fingers in your pie.”

“She loves your fingers in her cream pie.” Knox snorts.

Poppy shakes her head at him but quickly refocuses on Carter. “You mean that?”

“I have the paperwork here.” I draw an envelope from the inside pocket of my suit jacket.

“We all know I don’t read that stuff.” Poppy cracks a tentative smile, reaching for me instead.

Her hug unwinds all the knots in my guts.

“Thank you.” She lifts her face toward me, and I accept her offer.

It’s the sweetest kiss I’ve ever shared with someone.

“Whether or not you want us too,” I whisper against her lips. “You get that, right? It’s not some kind of buyout. Nor a transactional exchange. No strings. This is a gift. An apology. Proof we would never try to turn you into your mother.”

She yelps as if we’ve hit the sore spot.

Knox is there to catch her when her knees go weak.

“You get it. Me . You really do.” She sniffles as tears slip down her cheeks.

“Of course.” Carter shrugs as if it’s no big deal. “You told us you don’t need to beg for love from someone who doesn’t care enough to stick around. You’ll never have to beg us—or anyone else—for anything ever again. Not only that, we don’t plan to let you go. You can run, but we’ll always follow.”

“Beauty…” A strangled groan escapes as I take a different approach and hope she understands how damn serious I am. How critical it is to me that she knows the truth even if she’s not—or maybe never will be—ready to say the same to me. “ Poppy , I love you.”

“Me too.” Knox has fewer words but a ginormous smile that radiates pure bliss. “I do too.”

Carter clears his throat and adds, “From the first moment I saw you, I thought you were made for us. But now I see that we were made for you .”

So close.

She wants to leap, I can sense it through our connection.

And yet…she still hesitates. “Even if I decide never to have a child? Or to keep working on my own dreams outside of the ones we share?”

“Of course.” I’m first to reassure her, especially since she knows I’m desperate for a family. Suddenly, without her, that dream seems incomplete.

“What made you change your minds? It feels a little too good to be true. Just like our weekend. What’s the catch?”

“Gunner told us to pull our heads out of our asses and do this right.” This time Knox’s lopsided grin doesn’t seem to amuse her. She tenses in his hold as if she might bolt after all.

“Gunner?” Poppy’s face drains of color. “He promised he wasn’t going to tell you!”

“Tell us what, beauty?” I tip my head as Carter spins away, aggravated to have been so close and not sealed the deal. “He said you missed us and that we needed to understand you better if we were going to have any shot at loving you.”

“Oh. Yes.” She reaches out to the side as if the room is spinning. “That. Well, then, before you decide to be too perfect, there’s something I need to tell you?—”

Is there someone else?

Have we waited too long?

Has she changed her mind about children?

“What’s this?” Carter plucks a tiny green onesie from the coffee table and holds it up. The contrast between the baby clothing and his powerful hands wrenches something in my soul.

That’s nothing compared to what Poppy blurts. “Our son or daughter’s first outfit.”

I only realize I’ve dropped to my knees when the floor smacks them, jarring me from my shock.

Knox rushes toward me. So does Poppy.

My face tucks against her belly, so I kiss the barest hint of a bump I can feel through the thin cotton of her dress. Over and over.

She spears the fingers of one of her hands into my hair, and the other in Knox’s. Both of us worship her and the precious gift she’s given us.

Yet when I look up, she’s starting straight at Carter.

He’s still several feet away.

Frozen.

His face unreadable.

If he fucks this up for us, I’ll never forgive him.