“Tell me, baby,” he said.
She shook her head, thrusting her hips up to his. He took the love she silently offered. Cole knew he could wait for her to speak the words. He wasn’t letting her go. Callum might chose to hide from his own feelings, but Cole was man enough to fight for the woman he wanted.
Cole made love to her. He made his thrusts slow and long. Every moment meant the world to him.
The moment they reached their pinnacle, he reached for Callum’s hand, holding his friend as he loved their woman.
They lay on the bed with Simone in the middle. None of them spoke as the sexual haze began to ease. Simone fell asleep first. Her soft sounds soothed his soul. Next, Callum fell asleep. Cole turned over gazing down at both of his friends. Both of them meant the world to him. He’d give his very life to make sure they were safe.
No matter what happened in the world, he knew his future was in that bed beside him. For the first time since he’d gotten back from the war zone, sleep came easily to Cole. He no longer dreamed of the battle filled with never ending rubble. In his dreams was a woman running through a field. A woman with raven black hair and icy blue eyes. Her body was full with a nicely rounded stomach.
Cole followed the woman in his dream as she was chasing something. The woman bent down and turned. The woman in his dreams was Simone, and in her arms was a child. Their child. Callum moved up behind her, stroking the baby’s head. He felt like he’d been stabbed in his heart. His two friends were happy without him.
Then, they turned to him. Simone’s smile brightened up her entire face. Both, Simone and Callum held their hands out to him, inviting him.
Cole took the steps in his dreams, approaching the people he loved more than anything. The child in her arms looked up at him.
“Dadda.”
Chapter Nineteen
Simone woke up the following morning. Cole and Callum lay against her. Neither man was touching her. They were facing toward her with smiles on their faces. She wondered what they were dreaming about. Then she tensed, realising she was no longer needed. They’d caught the bad guy. Her presence in their home was unnecessary. She climbed out of the bed by going down the middle so neither of the men was disturbed. When she stood at the bottom staring at them, she couldn’t stop the yearning inside her.
She wished for the first time in her life that she somehow had a prior claim to a man. Since her eighteenth birthday she’d never felt any need to keep a man around. Looking at Callum and Cole made her want so much more. There was a time when she wanted a family of her own. Fear had made her leave those dreams behind.
Turning away from her dreams, she went to the bathroom to freshen up. Once she was done, she put the coffee on then made her way to the guest room to dress in her clothes. She sat on the end of the bed she’d rarely slept in. Cole had demanded her presence in his room most nights. Her body awakened to the love they’d given her last night. The moment she asked them to make love and not fuck her, she’d wanted to take the words back. They showed too much between them. Why would they want to have her when they could have any woman they wanted on the planet?
Getting up from her seat, she grabbed her suitcases and began packing away her things. She didn’t want them to ask her to leave. If she got everything ready, she could go on her own accord.
The time passed as she put each item of clothing into her suitcase. When she was done, she rolled the case into the office where she’d been working. She looked at all the mess on her desk. Only yesterday, she’d been happier than she could ever recall.
She grabbed the files and began packing them away. Her hands were shaking with each file she finished. Tears filled her eyes, and her throat felt like there was a lump inside it.
“Don’t cry, Simone. Don’t cry.”
Her mother had cried, which only embarrassed her father.
She rubbed her eyes then cursed when more tears fell.
What the hell was wrong with her?
“That suitcase better not be packed,” Callum said, leaning against the door.
Simone cried out, looking up to see both men leaning on either side of the door. They wore running pants. No shirts. They looked like they’d walked out of an exercise magazine.
“I think she was leaving us, Callum. Don’t you?” Cole asked. The thick muscles of their arms caught her attention. They were talking about her as if she didn’t exist.
“I’m, er, I’m finishing the filing, and then I’ll be on my way.” More tears fell, and she wiped them away, cursing at the same time.
“She’s crying, Cole. I don’t like those tears.”
“I bet she never cried when she was younger.”