Tymber Dalton - Contractual Obligation

“Forever,” Doug emphasized, his sweet brown eyes never leaving hers.

Gordon stood there, silent, for a long moment. “You’re trying to tell me it’s going to be the three of you, together?”

“Yeah,” Tate said. He looked at Gorden. “Do you have a problem with that?”

“I have a problem with the fact that you two seem to be playing some sort of game with her heart.”

“It’s no game,” Harper said, struggling to speak up and make herself heard despite her weariness and pain. “I love both of them, and they love me. You’ll have to get used to the fact that our family business really is now a family business.” She lay back, the men helping ease her onto her pillows. “If I’m to run this company, I insist on them being part of it.”

Gorden heavily sat in one of the chairs. “I’m not explaining this to your father. You get that pleasure. He’s going to shit himself. Do you honestly think he’s going to be okay with this arrangement?”

“I don’t care if he’s okay with it or not. He has no choice but to be okay with it or keep his opinions to himself if he wants to be part of my life.” She looked from Doug to Tate, then back to Gorden. “No, I didn’t know Doug and Tate were together before Doug started this job. It’s okay. I understand his rationale. He didn’t do it to play games, he did it to help his family. I’m just lucky enough that both these guys love me as much as I love them.”

Gorden started to reply when his phone rang. He let out a joyless laugh. “Great. That’s your father.” He answered, started to speak, then Harper motioned for Gorden to hand the phone to her.

“Hold on, here’s Harper.” He brought her the phone.

“Honey? What’s wrong? What’s the matter?” Her father sounded frantic.

“I’m okay, Daddy. I’m in the hospital.”

“What!”

“It’s okay. I had surgery. Appendicitis. I’m going to be fine.” She couldn’t say anything else because of the flurry of questions on the other end of the line from her father. When he settled down, she continued. “Daddy, everyone tried to get hold of you. I’m okay. I’m out of surgery and in a—”

“What hospital? I’m on my way right now.”

“Daddy, it’s okay. I don’t need you rushing up here and getting yourself hurt.” She glanced around the room, her gaze ending up on Tate. “I have Tate and Doug and Gorden here with me. I’m okay. Please promise me you’ll take your time.”

He was silent for a moment. “Doug’s back?”

“Yes.”

“But what about Tate? I was under the impression that you two were—”

She sighed. “Please, Daddy, we can leave that for later. They’re okay, we’re okay, everything’s okay, I’m okay. Okay?”

He finally let out a snort. “Okay. Now where the hell are you?”

“I’ll let Gorden tell you that. Love you.”

“I love you, too. I’ll see you in a couple of hours.”

“Get a shower before you come up here or you’ll stink like bait.”

He laughed. “Yes, ma’am. Now I know you’ll be okay if you’re handing out orders.”

She handed the phone back to Gorden, who gave him the info and then hung up. “Well, he warned me we’re going to have a long talk.” He waggled his finger at Harper. “I’m pointing him straight back to you, young lady.”

She closed her eyes as she nodded. “No problem.”

Gorden was going to say something else when the nurse came in. “Sorry, guys, I need to get her vitals, give her more meds, and she really needs her rest.”

Harper didn’t open her eyes, but squeezed Tate and Doug’s hands before releasing them. “Go get something to eat and get your own showers. Someone please bring my phone and laptop.”

Doug leaned in and kissed her forehead. “Phone, yes. Laptop, not until you’re feeling better. I’ll bring you your Kindle and you can research.”

Her eyes popped open. Both Doug and Tate were smirking. Gorden shook his head.

“I don’t want to know. Don’t tell me.”

“No problem,” she agreed.

Tate leaned in and kissed her, too, then Gorden. “Get some rest, sweetheart.”

“I will. I promise.”

Tate knew Gorden wouldn’t wait long. He turned on them in the hallway, down by the elevators. “Spill it. Now.”

Tate and Doug exchanged glances, before Tate took over and gave Gorden the short version while Doug suddenly found his shoes very interesting to stare at. When he finished the story, Gorden stared at him, then Doug.

“Let me tell you both something,” Gorden said, his voice low and angry. “If the two of you fucking hurt her, I will fuck the two of you up so badly you’ll wish you’d never even met her. And Harrison, I’m sure, will help me. Do you both understand me?”

Tate stepped in, toe to toe with him. He dropped his voice, too. “Let me tell you something, Gorden. We love her, and we will never hurt her. If you or Harrison give her a hard time about her choice in this, then you’ll deal with us. Do you understand me?”

Doug nodded his agreement.

Gorden studied the two of them for a moment before nodding. He didn’t back down, however. “Fine. But both of you have to prove yourselves to me that you’re looking after her best interests.”

“That’s fair,” Doug said. “I hope you stop feeling that way at some point before our fiftieth anniversary together.”

Gorden rolled his eyes, but he laughed. “You two idiots are just stubborn enough to make this work, aren’t you?”

Tate and Doug both nodded. “And considering how stubborn Harper is, you know there’s no way in hell this won’t work.”

Harper napped for several hours before Doug and Tate returned that afternoon. She was happy to see they’d arrived before her father.

“How you feeling, sweetie?” Tate carried an overnight bag she assumed was for her and set it on the floor next to her bed.

“Tired. Hungry. They said I can’t eat yet, but if I feel up to it, I can have clear liquids tonight.”

Tate, then Doug, leaned in and kissed her. “We’ll start bringing you good food,” Doug said, “as soon as they clear you to eat.”

“I’d kill for a cheeseburger.”

“We’ll see,” Tate said. “Maybe I can wrangle you one.”

“Or a milkshake.”

Doug shook his head. “No way.”

“What?”

“No. I’m not letting you have one.”

She arched an eyebrow at him. “Did you say ‘let’? I know I didn’t hear you right.”

“You have diabetes. You have to watch your diet.”

She glared at Tate. “I’m sorry,” he said. “When we found you, duh, the first thing I did was check your sugar. Kind of obvious.”

She sighed and returned her attention to Doug. “I’m not your mom. I’ve lived with this since I was a kid. I manage it.”

“How did you hide it?” he grumbled.

“The same way you hid Mr. Blue Eyes, here,” she said. “I just didn’t tell you.”

“I mean your meds and stuff.”

She shrugged. “I used the fridge in the garage and the one in my office. It wasn’t that hard.” She poked him in the chest. “Don’t you go all mother hen on me, now. I’d say me hiding that ranks a lot less than you hiding Tate.”

“Yeah, I have an ass that’s too cute to hide,” Tate snarked in an obvious attempt to lighten the tone.

She somehow avoided laughing. “You’ve got that right.” She finally got a smile out of Doug.

“Yeah, it is a cute ass,” he agreed.

She squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry. You’re right, I should have told you about my diabetes, and yes, it was stupid of me to hide it.” Looking back, she couldn’t understand or explain why she didn’t tell him sooner. It was pretty childish of her. “I was going to tell you the night of your mom’s party, when I saw her and found out about her diabetes.” She felt herself blush. “Then I found out about Tate.”

“Well, I’m not complaining,” Tate teased. He glanced at the open doorway to make sure they were still alone before leaning in and dropping his voice. “I got to fuck her ass first. So nyeh.” He stuck his tongue out at Doug.

Harper couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing, as did Doug. It hurt, and she held a pillow to her abdomen as instructed by the nurse while she tried to stop laughing. By the time she had herself under control again, tears of laughter and pain were rolling down her face. “Stop, please, you’re killing me.”

Doug smiled. At least he didn’t look sad anymore. “He just has this thing about being first, Harper,” he said. “He got to be the first to fuck my ass, too.” He leaned in and kissed her, then whispered, just loudly enough Tate could also hear, “But I’m calling dibs on your ass right now for the first time the three of us are in bed together.”

How could she be in so much pain and yet her pussy had suddenly gone totally wet, her clit throbbing at the thought of making that fantasy come true? She swallowed hard. “Okay,” she whispered.

Tate grinned. He reached across the bed and smacked Doug hard on the shoulder. “See there? You’re a fucking sadist. You just made the poor girl horny. Hell, you just made me horny.”

“Don’t mind me,” she said with a smile. “I wouldn’t be offended if you two wanted to give me a show.”

“Oooh, she likes to watch,” Doug joked.

“You just wait until I’m feeling better,” she shot back. “You two better hope you can keep up with me.”

“I like a challenge,” Tate said. He stroked her cheek. “And there’s the Harper I wanted to see, my sweet, feisty girl.”

She blushed as she looked from him to Doug and back again, then burst into tears. Both men leaned in close, holding her, trying to get her to tell them what was wrong. How could she put it into words that, despite the fact she’d just gone through major surgery, nothing was wrong? In fact, she’d never felt like things were going more right in her life.