The Very Naughty List

41. Reid

41

REID

Although Hailey’s hair is mussed from being in the hospital overnight, her cheeks a bit more pale than usual in the aftermath of her accident, she’s never looked more beautiful to me than she does in this moment.

I can see the hope that rises in her eyes as she processes my words, and the words that Nick and Sebastian spoke. For a moment, her lips start to curve up in a heart-stopping smile—but then she shakes her head, her face crumbling.

“But how could this ever work?” she whispers. “It can’t . People will talk. If we think the gossiping and rumors are bad now, can you even imagine how much worse it could get? People will judge us. The Divas, Dylan, the town gossips. Everyone will condemn the four of us being together. They’ll say it’s scandalous and taboo and?—”

“We don’t care about any of that,” I say, and my brothers nod in agreement, their expressions serious.

“But what about Lucas?” She blinks away the tears in her eyes, still shaking her head. “You can’t say that you don’t care about your best friend. I know all three of you love Lucas. I can’t come between all of you.”

“He’ll get over it,” Nick tells her, conviction in his voice. “The three of us and Lucas have been best friends for years. I have faith that our friendship can withstand this.”

“And even if he doesn’t forgive us,” Sebastian adds, “we’re still not willing to give you up just because of him. We’ll do everything we can to make things right with him, to apologize for lying to him. But I think I speak for all of us when I say that we won’t apologize for how we feel about you. Because there’s nothing wrong with that.”

“That’s not what the world will say,” Hailey whispers, biting her lip. “There will always be people who will judge us. Even if he can get over the fact that we lied and snuck around without telling him, he might not be able to accept all four of us together.”

“Your brother loves you,” I tell her gently, staring into her gorgeous green eyes. “He wants you to be happy—and if this is what makes you happy, do you really think he’d try to stop you? I think you need to give him a chance to surprise you. He was pissed and surprised when he found out, but he’s not an asshole. He’s one of the best people I know.”

Hailey lets out a breath, her lips quavering at the corners as emotions churn in her eyes. She glances between me and my brothers again, her delicate throat moving as she swallows.

“Are you sure you really want me? That you want this?” She turns toward Nick. “I’m so messy and chaotic, and you like things to be simple and organized. Won’t I drive you crazy?”

He chuckles, arching a brow at her. “You do drive me crazy, songbird, but not like that. You drive me crazy in the best way—in a way I never even knew I needed until now. You’re like a breath of fresh air, a whirlwind that swept through our lives, and I need your kind of chaos to keep me from getting too lost in my own head. I need you .”

Her chest rises as she drags in a breath, and I can feel the way her walls around her heart are starting to come down. I fucking hate that her shitty ex made those walls a necessary defense, and I hate that we didn’t do a good enough job of letting her know the true depth of our feelings until now. I was too afraid to rock the boat, afraid of what would happen if I admitted to myself that this was never a lie… but I should’ve come clean to Hailey a long time ago.

She shifts her gaze to Sebastian, her brows drawing together a bit as she breathes, “What about you? You said yourself that you want people in Chestnut Hill to see you as more than your bad boy reputation. How do you think that will work when everyone knows that you’re sharing me with your brothers?”

Sebastian flashes her a wicked grin, taking her hand in his. “I think I don’t give a fuck. You taught me that, shortcake—to not care so much about what people say about me. You showed me that I’m worth more than my reputation, whatever it may be, and that the only people’s opinions that matter are the ones I love.”

“A-fucking-men to that,” I murmur, and my voice draws Hailey’s attention back to me.

She stares into my eyes, still holding Sebastian’s hand as she gazes at me as if she’s searching for something—one final word to convince her that this really could work between all of us, maybe.

“You of all people must realize how many things could go wrong with this,” she says, her emerald eyes shining. “I’m always gonna be a brat, you know. I’m never gonna make things easy on you. It’s one thing to say you like that side of me when this was supposed to be temporary, but can you honestly see yourself wanting that forever?”

I don’t even need to think about it before giving her my answer.

“Hell, yes. I fucking love it when you sass me, baby. And I guarantee I’ll never get tired of it.”

That draws a small smile out of her, her expression radiant with growing hope, and I can tell she’s starting to believe me. To believe us. I know she’s had her heart guarded for a long time, thanks to that pathetic excuse for a man she once called a fiancé. But now she has real men in her life.

I step closer to her and lower my voice.

“It makes me hard as hell when you act like a brat, trouble. I love it when you argue with me, because I enjoy giving you something else to do with that gorgeous mouth of yours.”

Hailey’s tentative smile grows with that remark, a spark of heat glinting in her eyes.

“Well, what about the times when you’re a bossy dick?” Her lips twitch at the corners. “What about when you piss me off?”

I can feel an answering grin spread across my face.

“Then I’ll get on my knees to apologize. Baby, I’ll get on my knees and beg you to stay here with us if I have to. We don’t want you to leave. None of us do. We want this.”

Her breath hitches, her body swaying toward me. “I do too. I just don’t know if?—”

Before she can finish that sentence, I drop down to my knees. I’ll do this right here and now in order to prove to Hailey that I’d do anything for her.

“Reid, what are you doing? Whatever this big, dramatic gesture is, you… you don’t need to do it.”

I can hear the trembling in her voice, and I don’t move from where I’m kneeling in front of her.

“This isn’t just a gesture,” I tell her honestly. “It’s real. And you might not think that you need us, but we sure as hell need you.”

Something is beating at the inside of my chest, keeping time with my racing heart. Every part of me feels like it’s straining toward Hailey, desperate to banish any shred of doubt from her mind. I want to break down and crash through all of the walls that she’s built around her heart. I want to show her that real men won’t hurt her, that we won’t hurt her—ever.

And if the way to do that is to lay my own soul bare for her to see how desperately the three of us need her? Then that’s what I’ll do.

“The flowers in my tattoo are because of you,” I murmur, tilting my head up to meet her gaze. “It’s not just a coincidence that they’re your favorite flower. I got them because you were always on my mind, and because I felt like I had to have a part of you with me in some way. I guess a part of me always knew that things between us were meant to be more. I just didn’t realize how much more.”

Hailey’s lower lip trembles, and she reaches out to take Nick’s hand in her free one, as if she needs that connection to both of my brothers right now. Something to ground her, to hold her steady.

Good. That’s what we should always be for her .

“Everything about this feels right,” I say, my throat clenching as I swallow. “I don’t just want you, Hailey. I want to share you with the two people I’ve known and loved for my entire life. I want us to work together to take care of you, to keep finding new ways to make you scream our names. I want us to be your home . Because you’re ours.”

Beside me, Nick sinks down to his knees, kneeling on her left side. Sebastian, who’s standing on her other side, drops down as well so that the three of us are all looking up at her.

“Ours,” Nick echoes, kissing her hand as tears slip down Hailey’s cheeks.

“Ours.” Sebastian murmurs the word like a prayer, pressing his lips to her other hand.

Hailey drags in a shuddering breath, nodding as she meets each of our gazes in turn. When my brothers release her hands, she runs her fingers through Sebastian’s messy dark hair and strokes Nick’s scruffy beard. Yearning shines in her eyes as she looks at me, and I forget how to breathe momentarily.

“I didn’t mean the things that I said at the hospital—the things I said to Lucas and Pippa. I just didn’t know how to handle it, and I wanted to make everything okay for everyone. I thought I was making things better, but I just made them worse.” She pauses, taking in a slow breath and letting it out. “I didn’t want to get my hopes up and have my heart broken, especially not after how hard I’ve tried to protect it.”

“You don’t need to protect your heart from us,” I promise, hoping that she already knows that by now.

“I know.” She nods, her expression soft. “And as much as I tried to push down my feelings and remind myself of all the reasons that this could never work, I still can’t convince myself that it isn’t what I want. I can’t remember a time in my life when I felt as happy as I’ve been since I moved in with the three of you. No one makes me feel like you do.”

The bright winter light streaming in through the windows catches the strands of her honey blonde hair, making it gleam like gold. She looks like an ethereal goddess, our goddess, filled with a radiance that shines into every corner of our lives.

As I gaze up at her, the mistletoe I convinced Nick to help me hang in the entryway the other day catches my eye. She’s standing right beneath it, and a smile tugs at my lips.

“Look, baby.”

I point above her head, and Hailey glances up to see the tiny piece of greenery dangling there.

“You came back into our lives because of Christmas, so I guess it’s only fitting that we should show you just what you mean to us by kissing you under the mistletoe,” I murmur.

Her shy, happy smile hits me right in the chest. “I like the sound of that. Now get up here.”

I grin, shaking my head as she reaches for me. “Oh, I don’t think we need to stand up to kiss you.”

For a second, she looks confused, and then starts to bend her knees as if she’s going to come down to our level by kneeling too. But as if he’s read my mind, Nick quickly puts a hand on her thigh to keep her upright.

“You’re going to stand right there, trouble,” I tell her, reaching up to deftly undo the button of her pants, “while we stay on our knees and kiss you under the mistletoe. After all, no one said that mistletoe kisses need to stay above the waist.”

Hailey laughs softly at my words, her breath quickening.

Holding her gaze, I unzip her pants. She traps her lower lip between her teeth in that sexy way it always does when she’s turned on, and she shimmies her hips a little to help me as I gently tug her pants and panties down her hips and legs, careful not to aggravate any of her bruises.

Her pretty pink folds are already glistening with arousal, and I can’t stop myself from dragging my tongue up her slit, savoring her taste. She gasps, and her hands fly to my shoulders, her nails pressing through my shirt and into my skin. But I don’t want to get too carried away too fast, so instead, I place a gentle kiss on her pussy.

“You’re next,” I tell Nick, who’s kneeling to my right, and turn her carefully to face him. He swipes his tongue over her too, then kisses her clit. The shudder that wracks her delicate body makes my dick strain against my pants.

“God, every inch of you is beautiful, songbird,” Nick groans, stealing another kiss before he turns her toward Sebastian.

“More than beautiful. Perfect,” Sebastian murmurs as he rests one hand on each of her thighs and kisses her pussy, teasing her entrance with his tongue and eliciting a protracted moan from her.

The sound does something to me, and it must affect my brothers the same way, because all three of us descend on her like a pack of hungry animals. Sebastian eats her out while Nick and I kiss and lick at the tender, sensitive skin of her thighs until she’s shivering.

“Oh, my fucking god,” she whimpers as Sebastian’s tongue parts her folds and flicks at her clit. We alternate going down on her, making sure that she never goes more than a few seconds without one of our mouths on her flawless little pussy.

Angry purple and blue bruises, big and small, litter her legs from the crash, and I kiss each one I can find, my lips barely more than a whisper on her skin. It kills me to think about how much worse things could’ve been, how we could’ve lost her, and how lucky we all are that the worst didn’t happen.

It’s a Christmas miracle .

That thought awakens something in me—a need to show her how much she means to me.

Suddenly filled with a fierce determination, I nudge Sebastian out of the way and bury my face in her pussy, my tongue driving into her. She shudders against my mouth, her fingers sliding through my hair.

“So good,” I groan. “We’re never letting you go, trouble. Never.”

Nick isn’t about to let me have her all to myself, so he pushes me out of the way and starts eating Hailey out like he’s afraid he’ll never get the chance again.

We keep passing her between the three of us, taking turns feasting on her and letting our bodies say all the things our words can’t express adequately. We share her just like we always have, one of us working her pussy while the others tongue her clit or play with her breasts, until she’s clawing at our hair and begging us with incoherent words.

“Please,” she gasps. “Please, I need to come. Oh god, I’m so close…”

Finally, Sebastian stands to kiss her mouth, holding her gently by the back of her head, while Nick flicks at and sucks on her clit, and I hungrily plunge my tongue in and out of her.

“Come for us,” I beg, needing to feel it. To remind myself that she’s still here, that she’s alive, and that this connection between us still burns just as bright as it always has. “For all of us. Right now.”

Her body starts to tremble, and her fingers dig into my scalp as she turns as rigid as a board and then shudders against my face. Nick keeps working her clit, and the gush of arousal that accompanies her climax soaks my lips and chin, turning me on even more as I fuck her with my tongue.

As the orgasm finally subsides, she slumps a bit, resting more of her weight against us. Nick leans back, and I carefully scoop her up into my arms and kiss her forehead repeatedly as she nuzzles against me.

“More,” she whispers, already sounding sleepy, and I chuckle.

“Not yet, baby. Fuck, I want nothing more than to carry you to bed to show you just how badly we all need you, but we don’t want to hurt you. You need time to recover first.”

“Okay.” She sighs, and the fact that she gave in so quickly lets me know that she really must be exhausted. “But… will you lie with me?” she asks, gazing up into my eyes.

I stroke her cheek and smile, my chest aching. “Of course we will, trouble. Always.”

She beams at me, and I carry her to the bedroom and lay her down like she’s the most precious jewel in the world.

The three of us help her get under the covers, then carefully climb into bed with her. I can’t keep my hands off her, so I pull her to my chest, where she rests her head against my shoulder and sighs contentedly. Sebastian presses his chest against her back, tenderly kissing down her neck and shoulder, while Nick sits at the edge of the bed and reaches under the covers for one of her feet to massage it.

Hailey’s gaze moves between us all, emotions roiling behind her eyes as she takes a deep breath.

“So this is… real?” she whispers. “We’re really doing this—the four of us, together? Are you in?”

“For as long as you’ll have us,” I say immediately, at the same time Sebastian answers, “Fuck, yes,” and Nick nods and grunts, “Definitely.”

All three of our voices blend into one, and tears shimmer in Hailey’s eyes as a shaky smile curves her lips.

“Good,” she whispers. “Because I’m in too.”

I grin back at her, my heart thudding against my ribs.

I swear, those are the best words I’ve ever heard in my life.