Daddies Brat

Warren

Loving her seems too small of an expression for what I feel for Jemma. Erik and Daemon’s confession of love three nights ago caught me by surprise at first. After I found my voice again, we grabbed a few beers and moved to the balcony. We had a long conversation about what we hope to share with the woman who stole all three of our hearts. The university has us under strict policies and regulations, but we’re willing to do whatever it takes for her. Anything.

This is our last night in London but more importantly our last moment to have Jemma all to ourselves. The girl has trust issues and after spending nearly two weeks with us it’s hard to tell why she doesn’t trust us enough to tell us who exactly might be missing her back home. And it’s another man. Of that I am dead certain. Whether he’s a love interest or not is another question.

I turn to watch Jemma moving around in the kitchen. She seems distant, even in our love-making and I fear we might have scared her with our little game. Instead of passing the day getting her to open up, we’ve spent it in meetings securing contracts for our company and it looks like tonight we will be spending it working on another coding issue with a new program. We’ve barely had a full night’s rest in days and we still need to wrap up a few more contracts.

Jemma has been cooking something that smells extraordinary and Daemon is about to make a break for the kitchen. I know he’s suffering with guilt from how it ended with Zira so he’s putting it all in with Jemma. I can sense he wants to get in there with our girl instead of being trapped here under a pile of work.

She’s been quiet since she talked with her friend and the events that followed. She’s barely left the kitchen in hours and our workload hasn’t helped.

Erik pushes up from the table and starts pacing behind me. “We could use her help. Why are you so dead set against asking her all of a sudden?”

Since her original help with the black-market virus, we’ve all left her to do her own thing. She can spend hours looking at her screen. Or rather hiding behind it.

I scratch at the scruff covering my jawline. “Something’s changed, man. She’s pulling away from us.”

Erik turns his chair around and straddles it, chin propped up on the back. “I know. I hoped I was just being paranoid, but…”

“Something is bothering her and we’ve failed somewhere along the line if she feels she can’t confide in us.” Daemon props his elbows on the table, interlacing his fingers.

He’s right, damn it.

“If we ask her for help now on that damn code, it would send the wrong message.”

I force a smile when Jemma walks out wearing my shirt and little else. No bra for sure. Maybe she’s picked up those sexy black lacy panties I set out for her this morning. I smile.

Yesterday it was Daemon’s shirt she wiggled into and the night before it was Erik’s.

She walks toward me and I open my arms as she slides onto my lap.

I can feel the guy’s eyes on us and she reaches out for Daemon’s hand and slides a smile to Erik.

“You guys ready for dinner? You’ve been working long enough. You have to be hungry by now.” Even her tone has lost color. What the fuck do we do?

“Not even close.”

Her brows pinch and I chuckle at her surprise. “I mean, how about we skip to the dessert part of dinner?”

She huffs out a laugh that reaches into my chest and squeezes my heart. “Nice try.”

I slide my hand up a creamy thigh and try for a peek.

She shakes her head with a frown. “No dessert for boys who don’t eat their dinner, Professor Thurston.”

Before I can challenge what dinner might be if she were game, she presses a finger to my lips.

“Back up a second. Did I hear something about sending a wrong message?”

“We’re trying to figure out a problem with coding. It’s always fucking coding giving us grief. We need a better team,” Erik jumps in, saving my ass.

Jemma perks up and the heavy weight we’ve seen pressing on her for the last few days seems to lift a fraction. “Oh? Let me give it a try.”

“No.”

She tenses up and I curse my inability to be more suave, but I don’t want her thinking we are seducing her this entire time all for the pretty brain of hers.

“Oh. My bad. I didn’t mean to insert myself.” She pulls out of my lap but I don’t let her walk away. I wrap my fingers around her delicate arm, but when she tugs for me to release I do as she silently asks. I never want her to fear me or us. Surrounded by three guys twice her size she needs to know bone-deep she will always be safe with us.

“It’s okay Warren. Dinner is ready anyway and I don’t want it to get cold before you get to taste-”

“No, it’s not okay.” I stand and gently turn her to face me. “We don’t want to ask you for help all the time because it looks bad. There’s more to our relationship than hot sex and coding.”

Her eyes dart to the other men before coming to rest on mine. “Kinky,” she says with a tired smile. Her face brightens with what I pray is hope.

“It’s been a little tense lately. I’m sorry about that.”

“We all are,” Erik adds.

“It’s not you guys. I promise.” She turns in my arms to look at each of us in turn. Holding our gazes and reaching for us. “It’s a whole mess of complications I left back home. I’m not sure I’ll have a job to go back to. School. And other things.”

“Our little worrier. You never have to worry about a job.”

“I’m not looking for a free ride, Daemon.”

I shoot him a shut the hell up look overtop her head only to get a mouthed fuck you in return.This is property © of NôvelDrama.Org.

Her shoulders rise and she takes a deep breath, “But we do need to talk.” She clutches her stomach. “I’ve been debating this conversation for days and it’s tied my stomach in knots. On top of all that you’ve all shown me a different way of opening myself up. It’s been a lot to take in, honestly.”

Her other hand trembles in mine and I give it a reassuring squeeze.

“Baby, you’re killing me.” I sit, pulling her with me and she fits so damn perfectly in my lap, my arms around her. “You know you can-”

Her hands come to rest on my chest and I have to take a deep breath before I can continue. That one, small contact makes me feel more grounded than I have my entire life.

Beside us, her phone rings on the dining table and we all four turn.

At first I’m stunned as I look at a familiar unsmiling face staring back at me. But I’ll be honest seeing the name Father under it is what has me reeling.

What the ever-loving fuck?

I snatch up the phone and spin it around. “Why is the dean calling you?” Something tells me we are about to have a big fucking problem.

Jemma goes sheet white before blooming into a glowing red. She grabs the phone and hits the end button.

“About that.”

Our little green-eyed girl has some explaining to do.

“Jemma?”