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Kace
Icould’ve gone after her last night. I should’ve. But I rattled her enough for one day.
Amaya has a way of running away from me when she’s overwhelmed. It’s not that she doesn’t want this to happen. She absolutely does. Something must have happened to her in the past six years that filled her with fear and hesitation.
She wasn’t like this before—the woman I met that night was a different Amaya. Bolder. Wilder. Infinitely more assertive. It’s what drew me to her in the first place. That spark is still in there. I saw it in her eyes, and I felt it in the way her body responded to me.
“Kace, maybe we should leave her alone,” Finn says.
We’re in my office, having the first coffee of the day. Elias sits by the window, lost in thought as usual. Finn has always been the chattier of the two and is attempting to be the voice of reason for once. That’s usually my role, but ever since Amaya walked back into my life, I fear I’ve lost that ability altogether.
“I can’t do that,” I reply, adding cream to my cup. “You don’t know her the way I do.”
“Technically speaking, you don’t know her either,” Elias shoots back.
It was clear as soon as we sat down for the interview that the three of us wanted Amaya. The women we usually share are professional, high-end escorts who are able to handle our preferences, and are well paid to do so.
The last time we allowed ourselves to get emotionally involved with a woman we didn’t financially compensate for such services, we all ended up with a broken heart—the kind of pain that ultimately led me to that bar, and to Amaya.
Amaya was meant to be a tourniquet, a one-time-only affair that was supposed to pull me out of my misery. And she did that. The trouble started after I left her in that hotel room and realized that I wanted to see her again.
“I never stopped thinking about her,” I say, absentmindedly stirring the cream in my coffee. “As soon as her resume showed up on your desk, Elias… I knew. It was the universe giving me a second chance.”
“Don’t you think you’re being a little over the top here?” Finn chuckles.
“Don’t you think you’re full of it?” I shoot back. “I saw the both of you. Rock hard, the minute she walked in. You understand, don’t you?”
“I doubt she’d be into it,” Elias says. “She’s a single mother, Kace. She has bills to pay. A kid to raise. That fuck-up of an ex who keeps bothering her. Amaya’s life is already complicated enough as it is.”
Ever since we were in the SEALs together, Finn, Elias and I developed a brotherly bond that transcends the norms of what is usually referred to as decent common sense. We’ve shared women many times. We even made the mistake of falling in love with the wrong one.
It could’ve been the perfect relationship, had she not turned out to be a heartless gold digger. It took a lot of cash and legal threats to make her disappear. We swore we wouldn’t take such chances again, but Amaya is different.
I knew that as soon as she poured me a drink, inviting me to sit at the bar and keep her company while the rest of the night unfolded around us. I could also tell from our conversation that she was genuinely kind and caring. She made me feel good, not like a million-dollar piece of meat.
I would’ve invited her back to San Francisco to join the three of us for endless nights of passion and debauchery and she probably would’ve said yes. But I’d just come out of that hot mess with Trinity. The last thing I needed was to try a do-over then and there.
Things are altogether different now. Amaya has grown. The fact that she has a kid who looks just like me has left me speechless. She didn’t know who I was at the time but she could’ve found out if she wanted to track me down and slap me with a paternity suit.
She’d tell me if he was mine, wouldn’t she?
“Earth to Kace!” Finn calls out.
I shake the thoughts away. “Sorry. You were saying?”
“Man, she’s got you hanging from a thread,” he laughs.
Elias allows himself a wry smile. “She does strike me as the kind of woman who leaves a lasting impression.”
“And then some,” I mutter.
“I take it last night went well,” Elias says.
“Sort of. She keeps running away from me,” I reply with a heavy sigh. “She’s scared, I get it.”
“It’s a good thing you didn’t lead with a foursome proposition directly,” Finn scoffs.
“I could ease her into it,” I suggest. “Listen, Amaya is—”
