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For now, she needed some time to step back from the generosity and process the enormity of it all. The store, the opportunity, the charity.
She hoped they didn’t think she was rude.
She wished she was strong enough to vocalize what this meant to her.
She prayed that one day, she’d be the woman Liam—and Mack—deserved.
Chapter Nine
Mack
An impromptu nap was one hell of a way to start the evening.
How the hell any of them had actually fallen asleep right there on the carpet, he didn’t know. His body was stiff in several places from the unyielding floor—his back in particular warned him not to do that again—but there was a special kind of joy simmering beneath the various aches.
He hadn’t wanted intrude on the moment Liam and Sierra shared. There’d been a sweetness he’d never experienced between them as she laid on her lover’s chest, her expression strained from too much information being thrown at her. But as the seconds passed, her body flush against Liam’s, that strain had lightened, lifted, and drifted away.
A testament to the bond two people were capable of forming.
When Elias stopped his wife from using their husband as a trampoline, Mack had automatically stepped in to help Sierra, only to feel foolish when Liam deterred him—gently, but deterred nonetheless.
He hadn’t known how badly he wanted to be included in that bond, taken seriously as their third, until Sierra held out her hand and invited him in to what was an incredibly private, intimate moment.
No hesitation, no stipulations, no words.
Just an extended hand and a silent plea for him to join them.
For a week, he’d been besotted with her. She beguiled him in ways no other woman possessed, pulled on strings he hadn’t known he’d buried under years of dedication to his work. He’d reached the point where her voice brought his cock to standing with only a whisper, and a whiff of her scent kept him hard for hours.
He'd yet to understand how Liam functioned so well around her.
All it took was one sweet, unchoreographed gesture for his heart to fall.
His friendship with Liam continued to grow, faster than he anticipated. Cultivating and maintaining friendships wasn’t a skill he’d practiced over the years—the only ones he had really were Tristan and his employees, but it wasn’t the same.
Tristan was just Tristan, stuck to him like glue no matter what.
His employees were, at the core, good people, but their relationship was neverjustfriends. There was always that overtone of boss versus subordinates, because it couldn’t be any other way.
“Pensive tonight, Mack.” Liam slid a beer in front of him before staking his claim on the stool to Mack’s right. “Changed your mind about doing a scene tonight?”
“Nothing could possess me.” Lifting the bottle, he clinked it against Liam’s, then sipped. “Just thinking about this afternoon. How easy it is just tobewhen I’m around you two.”
“We aim for a no conflict zone whenever possible. We’ve got enough drama without making more.” Spinning the stool around slightly, Liam kept one eye on their girl as she came toward them, lugging a weighty gym bag over her shoulder. “Time’s going by fast, Mack. Have we bored you yet?”
Bored wasn’t even on the agenda. Every minute he spent with Sierra was an experience in itself, and when Liam added his presence to the mix, the world felt whole.
It was getting easier to admit there were unfamiliar emotions getting stirred up, Mack thought. Sierra fulfilled several emotional needs, yet Liam was quickly shoring up the gaps still remaining.
Were those emotions sexual?
He couldn’t deny Liam was an attractive man. Fit, rugged, with charm, dominance, and compassion that made his internal compass as alluring as his outer appearance. While it might be fun and educational to explore where that attraction went, Mack didn’t feel an urge to submit—or demand submission.
The love he felt for Sierra was consuming, whereas his feelings for Liam were more like love for a brother. Maybe that would change once they scened together, when clothes and inhibitions were stripped.
“Hardly. It’s been refreshing, getting to know you both before… well, almost before anything sexual.” Last weekend had blown his brain wide open, and his dick cursed him every day for not repeating that blessed event. “Spending time with Sierra is like reading a different book every day.”
“She’s an enigma.” Liam drank slowly, his eyes on his woman. “The more you get to know her, the more fascinating she becomes. People mistake her for being slow or stupid because she’s so shy. Sierra’s smarter than they give her credit for, Mack; she just uses her brain for simpler purposes.”
