Her face heated. “That’s not true!”
“I’m really trying here, Mandaline. And I meant it when I said I’m willing to wait as long as it takes to earn your trust back. It doesn’t mean you can slam the door in my face every time I try, though. Based on what happened with Carl this afternoon, I don’t have any doubts about how you feel. But you have to let me in. Please?”
“Why is this so important to you?”
He cupped her cheeks in his palms and kissed her, deeply, passionately, making her body take on a life of its own as it pressed against him and her arms encircled him. She softly moaned, but then he lifted his lips from hers and smiled.
“Because,” he softly said, “you’re that important to me. I know I can’t protect you from every possible bad thing in this world, but whatever happened out there is one bad thing I won’t let have you.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
He smiled and kissed her again. “Good,” he said when he let her come up for air. “Then no more arguing about it. No more excuses, no more trying to shut me out. I’m not changing my stance on waiting you out, but quit fighting me and at least let me into your life.”
She rested her cheek against his chest and listened to his heart thundering in her ear. Closing her eyes, she dropped her defenses and tried to really feel him, sense his energy the way she did with clients.
All she could feel was love and sincerity.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
He kissed the top of her head. “You might not be thanking me after a few months cooped up in this apartment with us,” he teased.
Dinner was delicious. Mandaline watched as Sachi the voracious carnivore experienced nearly orgasmic bliss over Ellis’ perfectly cooked steaks.
“I’m telling you,” Sachi mumbled through a mouthful of food while jabbing her fork in the air at Mandaline, “shit or get off the pot, girlfriend. Tarzan and the chief are perfect for you.”
“You’re just a steak slut,” Mandaline teased.
“Duh.” Sachi swallowed and looked at Ellis. “We could get her drunk so you two can have your way with her.”
He laughed. “No. I promised her I’d limit her to one glass of wine.”
Sachi scowled. “You’re absolutely no fun.”
After dinner, Sachi and Mandaline retired to the bedroom with a box of plastic garbage bags. She felt a little guilty that the men had made the bed that morning, and that Brad had done such an awesome job cleaning and tidying things up. She’d rarely made her bed, especially since moving in to the apartment, and Julie had gotten by with just pulling the covers up.
With the door closed behind them, the other side of Sachi appeared. She touched Mandaline’s arm. “Where do you want to start, sweetie?”
“I’m thinking socks, underwear, and bras go in one bag. Do you think we should donate those or throw them away?”
Sachi kindly smiled. “Let’s bag them up and I’ll take care of them for you.”
At times like this, she absolutely loved Sachi to death. “Thanks.” They found them in three dresser drawers. There were a few pairs of funky, psychedelic knee-highs that Sachi fell in love with and put in her keeper pile. Mandaline ended up taking two pairs of thick, wool hiking socks that looked brand new.
The rest went in a bag that Sachi set just outside the bedroom door.
“Okay,” Sachi said. “Drawer by drawer to start?”
Mandaline nodded.
There were three dressers in the room, a large one and two smaller ones. With Pers and Damiago watching from opposite sides of the bed, it took them an hour and a bucket of tears to finish sorting everything. By the time they finished they had a keeper pile for Mandaline, a larger one for Sachi, a pile to see if any of the other women on staff wanted, and several more bags in the hall for Sachi to take to donate.
“Let’s get your clothes put up,” Sachi suggested.
“But…” She turned and stared at the tubs. What she had likely would barely fill the large dresser, and that included the items in her keep pile. “Okay.”
That took another half hour, and the room looked much larger with most of the tubs unpacked, excluding one of costumes and a few heavy winter items.
“Now the guys can use those tubs and the other dressers,” Sachi said. “You won’t have half your living room taken up with their crap.”
They tackled the closet next. There were a few things Mandaline wanted, and still more for Sachi. By the time they finished, Mandaline had drained her wine glass and was sitting on the bed with Sachi and sobbing on her shoulder.
Sachi let out a sigh. “It’s okay, sweetie. It’s healthy to let it out.”
“I feel like I’ve done nothing but cry lately.”
“Well, that’s because you’ve done a lot of crying.” She hugged her and stood. “Stay here, I’ll be right back.” She grabbed the empty wine glass and headed to the kitchen. She returned a few minutes later with a smile and a full wine glass. “Here.” She handed the glass to Mandaline. “I think you need it tonight. I told them it was for me. And the boys are loading all the bags in my car for me. Drink up.”
Mandaline quickly gulped down the wine. When the guys finished loading the bags for her, Sachi called them into the bedroom. “We left those two dressers empty, and there’s plenty of room in the closet, too.”
“Thanks, Sachi,” Brad said.
Ellis nodded. “Thank you.”
“No problem. And with that, I bid you adieu for the night.” She gave everyone a last round of hugs before heading down the stairs.
Ellis smiled and walked over to the bed. “So Sachi was your wine beard tonight, huh?”
She snorted a laugh. “Sorry. She made me.”
Brad stretched. “I don’t begrudge you. Not with what you’ve had to do. I’m going to grab some of our stuff and start unpacking it.” He returned to the living room, where she heard him rummaging around.
Ellis sat next to her on the bed. “You all right?”
She nodded and leaned against him. He draped his arm around her shoulders. It felt so good, so right nestled up against him.
“Can we still have our movie and snuggle night?” she softly asked.
He kissed the top of her head, another gesture she’d quickly come to love about him. “Of course we can.”
“I’m going to grab a shower while you guys work on unpacking.” She stood, wobbling a little, but didn’t fall over, which she considered a very good sign. It took her three tries to remember in which drawers she’d put things before she had a pair of underwear and a large T-shirt to sleep in.
Maybe I won’t need either of them.
She stepped into the shower and let the hot water run over her. She wondered if the temporary peace she felt was due to getting that emotional task out of the way or the two glasses of wine.
Either way, she didn’t care. For the past several days she’d felt like she was running in place emotionally.
She hated that.
When she got out of the shower, it was nearly eleven o’clock and the men had finished putting away as much as they could. The living room looked a lot better, although there was still a pile of things in the corner.
“I thought I saw a couple of dressers over there,” Brad said, pointing at the doorway to the warehouse. “If you don’t mind, I could dig them out tomorrow and move them so they’re along the wall by the door. We don’t mind going over there to get stuff.”
“Sure. That sounds good.” She grabbed her pillow from the couch, then went into the bedroom where she pulled down the covers and crawled into the middle of the king-sized bed.
For the first time, Mandaline thanked Julie for it.
The men had both changed into shorts and snuggled along either side of her.