Loved by Them: A Reverse Harem Romance (Quintessence Book 5) Read online

  “Why does anything have to be wrong?” Devon asked with a scowl.

  “Because you’re not working and it’s still only the afternoon?”

  Devon rubbed at his chest. There was an ache there, and he wasn’t sure why it wouldn’t go away.

  He’d already Googled ‘how a heart attack starts,’ and though he had one of the symptoms, the rest were absent. Not that that gave him much relief.

  “Do you think she’ll leave us now that she’s rich?”

  The question popped out of his mouth, and Kurt, who was sitting in his usual spot, came out of his writing daze to demand, “Why would you even think that?”

  “Kurt,” Sean said gruffly. “Don’t be hard on him.” To Devon, he murmured, “Tell me your reasoning.”

  He gnawed at his lip, and worked through the thoughts that had been flooding him these past few days. Since the tango class, Sascha had undoubtedly perked up. She was happier all around. He’d even heard her singing an old Sinatra song down in the kitchen. But… money changed people.

  “Janna wanted our money.”

  “Sascha never has,” Kurt countered.

  “No, but we didn’t think Janna did either, did we? Yet she did.”

  “Sascha’s not avaricious.”

  “I know that,” Devon snapped, aggravated at Kurt’s short-sightedness. “But… what’s the advantage of being with us if it isn’t the money?”

  Sean tilted his head to the side. “Have you spoken about this with Sawyer?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  Devon shrugged. “He’s busy.”

  “When aren’t you both?” Kurt argued.

  “True, but I didn’t want to talk to him about this. He’d just get angry. I don’t want to be yelled at by a pissed off Scot. Sascha will hear, and she’ll get mad at him for shouting at me.” He rubbed his chin. “It’s easier just to ask you.”

  A glint appeared in Sean’s eye. “Why do you think she’d shout at him for yelling at you?”

  He thought about it. “She does that. When Andrei’s being sarcastic, she does too.”

  “She’s protective of you,” Kurt murmured.

  “I suppose so, yes,” Devon said, having thought about it some more, and agreeing that was the case.

  “Was Janna protective of you?” Sean asked quietly.

  “No,” he said after a moment’s thought. “But Janna was a bitch. The only person she protected was herself.”

  “Yes, that’s true. She was number one in her mind. Do you think Sascha feels that way?”

  “No, but we’re a lot of work. We’re good in bed but she has to put up with our moods and tempers. We work all the time, barely leave the house unless it’s for business.” He shrugged. “She’s young. We’re not. If it isn’t because we can care for her, and do so well, why stay with us?”

  Kurt sighed and pressed the tray with his computer to the floor. “You do know there are several ways to care for someone, don’t you, Devon?”

  He blinked. “There are?”

  “There are,” Kurt confirmed.

  “But, she looks after us. Not the other way around.”

  Sean murmured, “Why did we pressure her to go to the doctor’s, Devon?”

  He frowned. “Because she wasn’t going to go without being pushed.”

  “Why did we do that?”

  “Because we wanted to make sure she was healthy.”

  “Exactly. That’s an example of us taking care of her. This shitstorm with her family… would you say it’s rattled her?”

  “Without a doubt. It’s taken two weeks for her to start wearing lipstick again.”

  “And what have we done to put her at ease?”

  Devon pursed his lips. “I spoke with that judge who knew my dad and had them put an injunction out on anyone who printed her name, then you leapfrogged off that and started proceedings against the first paper who released her image.”

  Sean nodded. “Yeah. What else?”

  “Sawyer told those reporters that were sniffing around he’d shove a calculator up their ass if they didn’t forget our address.” Not that it had worked. Only the injunction had stopped the reporters from swarming around—their having learned of their address thanks to being ratted out by some bastard from the hospital Sascha had been treated at after the accident.

  “What else?”

  “Andrei’s handling Jacobie so she doesn’t have to.”

  Sean’s brows rose. “Have we told her any of that?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because she doesn’t need to know. Plus, I don’t think she wants to.” He scratched his temple. “I suppose we are caring for her. Should we tell her? If she knows we care maybe she won’t leave.”

  “Why would she leave?” Kurt demanded angrily.

  “Because she has billions behind her now, Kurt,” he explained patiently—the man wasn’t an idiot. Couldn’t he see that? “She can do whatever she wants. Be whatever she wants. Go whenever and wherever she wants. Why wouldn’t she when the alternative is staying here, cooking for us, and washing our clothes?” He blinked. “Isn’t it obvious?”

  Sean pinched the bridge of his nose. “Please tell me you haven’t spoken about this with Sascha?”

  Devon scoffed. “As if I would. She might not want to leave—if I talk about it, it might put the idea in her head.”

  “Your logic astounds me,” Kurt said with a grunt.

  “My logic is logical,” Devon argued, making the other man shake his head.

  “You knock some sense into him,” Kurt directed at Sean. “I need coffee.”

  Devon watched the tension in Kurt’s back as he headed out the door. In a white Henley, the muscles in his shoulders were bunched up visibly.

  “Why is he so mad?” Devon asked, scowling at Kurt.

  “Because you’re talking about something none of us want to discuss.”

  “Even you?” Devon asked, eyes round.

  Sean sighed. “Even me. But, at the same time, there’s no point in even thinking about this, Devon, never mind discussing it.”

  “That’s only because you don’t have an answer,” he retorted crossly, folding his arms across his chest as he did. “You and I both know she has the world at her feet now. What’s to keep her here?”

  “Love.”

  Devon pursed his lips. “I don’t trust love.”

  “No. And I know you have good reason not to either. But, the way you feel for Sascha… do you have faith in it?”

  Devon thought about that. “I don’t know that she feels the same way I do.”

  “That’s where the faith part comes in,” Sean said with a small smile. “But, the way you feel… let’s imagine she feels the same. Would you leave her?”

  Technically, Devon had the world at his feet already. But he didn’t want to go anywhere other than up to his office or down to the kitchen to sneak whatever it was Sascha had been baking today. The entire house smelled like cinnamon.

  She’d introduced him to the spice, and ever since, was filling his new addiction with baked treats.

  “We need to be more exciting,” he said, instead of directly answering Sean’s question.

  “That isn’t what she wants, Devon. She fell for us even though we’re all wed to our work.”

  “Doesn’t matter. If we stick with the status quo, then that just gives her the impression we’re settling. I don’t want her to feel like that. No one should feel like they’re not valued.”

  Sean grunted. “You do realize that the last two months have been ‘boring’ because of Sascha, right? There’s never not a week where one of us doesn’t have some engagement… she can always go with us.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Sean rolled his eyes. “Last month, I had a seminar in Amsterdam. I cancelled it because she was still having those bad migraines. Andrei had that gala. I know you avoid your stockholder meetings, but you could always take her to LA and New York
and attend in person. Then, we both know Sawyer hasn’t gone to visit his family in a while. I’m sure she’d love to see Aberdeen, Edinburgh… he’d take her. Then Andrei wants to take her to visit his grandfather in Moscow. Kurt has so many PR stunts he can’t keep up with them… there’s plenty for her to dive into if she wants.”

  “But does she know that?” Devon demanded, stubbornly holding onto the topic. The idea of going to those stockholder meetings of the corporations Sawyer had made him start up was abhorrent. Why wouldn’t it be to her? But hell, if she wanted to go, then go they would.

  “Does she know what?”

  The sound of Sascha’s voice had Devon’s head whipping around to look at her.

  “You look beautiful,” he blurted out, not to distract her, but because with the light coming in from the hall at her back, she looked like an angel.

  Well, a sexy angel. And really, angels had no business being sexy.

  She had fitted trousers on that made him want to check out her ass, and a simple cotton blouse that floated as she walked. Her hair was tucked into a kind of rolled under ponytail, and red paint slicked along her lips. He wondered what it would look like with that red smeared on his cock.

  “Thank you, Devon,” she told him sweetly, sending a smile his way that had his heart thudding. She stepped aside and he saw Kurt was there with a tray in his hand.

  Eying her cast, he asked instead, “When’s the pot due to come off?”

  “A few days.”

  He nodded. “I’ll go to the hospital with you.”

  Her lips twitched. “Thank you. But don’t think you can distract me.” The warmth in her eyes, however, told him exactly how much the offer meant to her.

  “You can’t,” Kurt said gruffly. “Sascha’s appointment is on Wednesday at twelve, and you have that online conference. Sawyer and I arranged it already.” After Kurt placed the tray on Sean’s table, he turned to Sascha. “I’m taking you.”

  Her grin, when it came, was wicked. “So many kind invitations to go to the doctor’s. I’ll have to be terrified of the grocery store… would that make you come with me too?”

  Sean chuckled. “We already told you to go online and have them deliver it here.”

  She winked. “Only teasing. Anyway, I got another call from them. There’s been an opening on Monday. They said they can see me then.” She gestured at the tray. “Sawyer doesn’t want you having coffee for the next few days, Devon. You’re to have chamomile tea. But I’ve sweetened it with honey and I made your favorite banana bread as a consolation prize.”

  Devon heaved out a breath. “Jesus H Christ. Chamomile or coffee, I won’t sleep.”

  “He wants you rested for that online meeting,” Kurt told him as he poured out a coffee for himself, Sean, and Sascha.

  To his right, Sascha was hacking into a banana loaf. She placed a very thick slice on a plate and brought it over to him.

  With his legs sprawled, she had room to step between them. Before he knew what she was about, she’d perched on his lap. “Time to eat,” she murmured, a twinkle in her eye.

  “I know how to eat,” he said with a huff.

  “You looked like you were going to be mutinous.”

  “Mutiny and stupidity aren’t the same thing, Sascha,” he informed her. “I’m mutinous about the coffee, not about the cake.”

  She snickered. “I stand corrected.”

  He huffed, but grabbed her as he resituated himself in the armchair and hauled her against his chest. She settled down again, this time more comfortably.

  It astonished him how perfectly she fit there. It was right. Everything was when they were together. He pressed his head to her throat, and closing his eyes, murmured, “You smell good again.”

  “Again?” she asked after a moment’s pause. “Did I stink before?”

  “No. Well, you did when you were vegging. But you stopped wearing that stuff I like.”

  “Perfume?” She shook her head. “You’re charming in the most bizarre way, Devon. It’s a good thing. Otherwise you’d end up with more black eyes than a boxer.”

  He huffed. “Don’t remind me.”

  “Of what?”

  “Of my days pre-Sawyer.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I was beaten up. All the time.”

  She pulled back. “You?” Sascha eyed him. “Don’t bullshit.”

  He scowled. “Why would I bullshit about that? I didn’t always have a bruiser for a best friend. Before, I was little and loved math and said stuff people didn’t like. I was in more fights than Mike Tyson.”

  “Oh my God! That’s terrible!”

  He winced at the shriek. Americans really knew how to shriek. Rubbing his ear, he murmured, “It’s a fact of life. I’m sure it’s the same where you’re from.”

  She gnawed at her bottom lip. “I guess.”

  He rolled his eyes. “You guess? I’ll bet you were popular.”

  More gnawing. “Maybe.”

  “Don’t worry. I won’t hold it against you. Our kids will have some cool genes in them, otherwise there’s no hope for them at all.”

  She froze in his lap. “Kids?”

  He stared at her. “Yeah. Kids.”

  Kurt snorted. “You look like a deer in the headlights, Sascha.”

  “I feel like one,” she said hoarsely, and before Devon could say another word, grabbed the banana bread and shoved it in his mouth.

  Whole.

  It was either chew or choke.

  But it silenced him.

  For the moment.

  “What’s all this bullshit about you thinking Sascha’s going to leave now she’s rich?”

  Devon peered over his shoulder and grimaced when he saw Sawyer looming in the doorway.

  “Keep your voice down.”

  “Why? Because you know if she hears, she’ll be angry?”

  “Maybe,” he said with a grunt. “Look, it doesn’t matter. I’m just…” He rubbed his chest. “I like her, Sawyer.”

  Though the scowl on his friend’s face didn’t disappear, it softened. His red hair was a tousled mess around his equally red face. From the skintight tee and shorts, it didn’t take much to figure out Sawyer had been running.

  “I know you do,” Sawyer said quietly as he stepped deeper into the room, bringing with him the scent of fresh air and sweat. “But saying shit like that is one way of making sure she stops liking you.”

  “Sascha won’t stop liking me,” he argued. “She loves me.” Sean had said so, and she’d told him too. Neither of them were prone to lying.

  “Well, then. What’s the problem?”

  “Money. It changes people.”

  “Not Sascha. She isn’t people. She’s ours.”

  He grunted, and bored with the topic, shoved a file across his desk. “Here. You need to look through this.”

  “What is it?”

  “My solution for P vs NP.”

  Sawyer’s nostrils flared. “You’re fucking with me,” he said hoarsely, staggering back. He went to sit down, but there was no chair behind him so instead, he toppled to the ground.

  Devon jerked upright. “Sawyer? Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” he dismissed, gawking up at him from the floor amid piles of loose paper Devon had flung there as he worked. “You haven’t solved it. You couldn’t have done it.” He gaped at the sheets in his hands.

  A little pissed at his friend’s lack of faith, he grumbled, “It was easy in the end.”

  “In the end?” Sawyer bit off. “Jesus Christ, man.”

  Shrugging, Devon sat back down and reached for a piece of paper which he began to fold.

  Wondering if Sascha would like a bouquet of paper roses, he murmured, “It’s been easier to think about that than anything else lately.”

  Sawyer rubbed his knuckles against his forehead. “I-I can’t believe it, Devon. You’re like… You’re going to be as rich as Sascha.”

  He immediately huffed. “We are.”


  Sawyer shook his head. “I’ve barely worked on P vs NP. Aside from checking your workings out.”

  “We’re partners.” Devon shot his best friend a look. “You know that.”

  “But this is…”

  “You shared the Nobel prize with me, and we both know that was more yours than mine.”

  “Because your input was pivotal! My input on this wasn’t.”

  As he folded the paper, he stuck his tongue between his teeth as he worked on getting the lines as straight as possible.

  Origami was one of the tools he’d learned as a child to maintain a calmness he rarely felt.

  Inside, he was a roiling mess of confusion. Nothing made sense outside of the math, not even Sascha. But she didn’t add to the melee, she was like the origami—she calmed him. Brought a peace to his world that otherwise was noisy and messy and disturbing.

  “Devon, you’re a legend, man.”

  Sawyer’s outburst broke into his concentration, and he scowled at his friend. “You didn’t know that already?” Everyone always told him his name would outlive him, didn’t they? Wasn’t that the definition of a legend?

  Laughter burst from his friend. “You’re a dick sometimes.”

  “Only sometimes?” Devon blinked. “I’m doing something wrong.”

  Sawyer shook his head. “I’m still… I don’t even know what to say, Devon.”

  “You’ve said plenty. Most of it repetitive and unnecessary.” He shot Sawyer a pointed look. “I’ll throw that on the fire before I take sole credit for it.”

  Sawyer’s eyes widened in distress and he dragged the folder against his chest. “You dare, I’ll beat you senseless.”

  Satisfied he’d made his point because Sawyer wouldn’t beat him, not after a lifetime of saving him from beatings, he said, “Fine. Then add your name to the credit page.”

  Sawyer closed his eyes. “Devon, man, it’s not right.”

  “You keep me fucking sane, Sawyer,” Devon bit off, suddenly furious at Sawyer’s obstinacy. “There would be no solution if it weren’t for you. Hell, for that matter, Andrei, Kurt, Sean, and Sascha should all be on there too.” His voice rippled with emotion. “I can’t do this without you. Any of you. It’s too much. The noise is…” He clenched his eyes, hating the moisture that had gathered there but was unable to stop it. “It deafens me. You bring the quiet.”