He turned and left my cubicle before I had the opportunity to tell him that having dinner with him-ever, wasn’t going to happen.


    I put my head in my hands, wondering just how long it would take for Darin to spread some vicious gossip about me around to the rest of the office staff.


    And then I remembered: it’s only gossip if it’s not true.


    Still, I couldn’t think that anyone I worked with would have the nerve or the audacity to ask me straight-out about my private and personal life.


    Darin had no ss.


    I was betting the rest of my colleagues did.


    I snuck out of work an hour early, wanting nothing more than to put this day behind me. Darin’s innuendos had unnerved me. I didn’t need him stirring up any drama, especially since my internship was ending next month, and I had applied for a permanent position with the bureau.


    I beat both Eli and Cain home, going to my room to take a shower and change into something suitable for La Chaumiere. If I even had anything suitable, that is.


    I saw that two wrapped boxes had been ced on my bed. More gifts? One dress-sized box, the other one small.


    My guys…damn.


    I knew I should probably have waited until they got home, but shit, you knew that wasn’t going to happen.


    I tore into the big box immediately, taking off the lid, and separating the tissue paper.


    Oh. My God.


    It was the most beautiful ck dinner dress that I’d everid my eyes on. It was simple, but chic in the way it was cut. It had a sweetheart neckline with long sleeves that tapered at the wrist. It was perfect for La Chaumiere. I looked at the designer tag and saw that it was Donna Karan.


    My Eli.


    The other box contained a pair of earrings that matched the birthstone encrusted ne they had bought for me. My birthstone was on the post, and each of their birthstones dangled daintily on a tiny gold chain from it. There was a note in the box.


    “These will look great with the ne.”


    ~~~


    Lindsey, Trace, Darcy and Easton were already at La Chaumiere when our threesome arrived. I felt nervous for some reason, and by the time our entrees were served, I was pretty damn sure that Darcy had finished analyzing me under her mental microscope.


    “I love your ne,” shemented, ncing over at my birthday gift, “And the matching earrings,” she finished, her eyes skimming over them.


    I fumbled with an earring, and felt my face flush under everyone’s perusal.


    “Thank you,” I said. “Birthday gift from my roomies,” I smiled, doing my best to avoid looking at Eli who was sitting across from me. I felt Cain’s hand move over to cover mine in myp. He gave it a squeeze.


    “Well, they certainly spoil you; that’s for sure,” Lindsey piped up, taking a sip of her white wine. “How about a birthday toast?”


    Trace cleared his throat.


    “If I may?” he said, raising his ss of wine. “To our little sister on her birthday-in hopes that this will be the best one yet, and wishes for many more toe. And also to wee Paige Matthews as the newest member of the F. B. I. family.”


    “What?” I gasped, my eyes immediately widened in surprise.


    Trace and Lindsey’s smiles were panoramic, and contagious, it seemed, as everyone else at our table smiled as if it were no surprise that my application for permanent employment with the F. B. I. had been epted.


    “You were going to find out tomorrow anyway,” Trace said. “I just pulled rank a little bit to get the information to make your birthday that much sweeter,” he finished, giving me a brotherly wink.


    All eyes were on me and, for some reason, I was simply speechless. I mean, I thought I’d had a fairly good chance, but in all honesty, I just wasn’t one to believe in myself all that much.


    “You seem surprised, babe,” Cain said quietly, his gaze prating me.


    “I just don’t know what to say,” I said, a smile finally breaking through.


    “Well I do,” Trace said. “Good job, Paige. You worked your ass off and I, for one, am proud as hell of you.”


    “Hear, hear,” Eli chimed in, beaming.


    “Congrattions and cheers,” Easton said, as we all held up our wine sses to tap with one another’s-well, except for Darcy who was obviously not imbibing since she was pregnant.


    “Thank you all,” I said, suddenly feeling shy at the amount of attention on me, and seriously not ustomed to it. “This is totally awesome.” I took a long sip of wine, and the warmth spread throughout me; my brother’s words echoed over and over in my mind. I never would’ve guessed just how much hearing Trace tell me that he was proud of me would make me feel. I felt an unfamiliar bit of self-pride and damn it felt good.


    I was grateful as hell when Easton started conversing with Eli and Darcy started talking to Lindsey about the new nursery for the baby. I could feel Cain’s hand move from mine, and gently rub my nylon-d thigh beneath my new dress. Immediately, my face warmed with a flush, and I felt that familiar tingle in my belly.


    I took another sip of my wine, looking over his way, but he had started conversing with Trace. Although I knew where his focus really was at the moment: between my freakin’ legs.


    I crossed my legs and squirmed a bit, however that did nothing to dissuade his talented fingers from finding my mound, his thumb now rubbing against my slit from outside my clothing.


    Sweet Baby Jesus!


    “Umm, excuse me,” I said, “I’ve got to make a visit to the Little Girl’s Room,” I lied. If I continued allowing him to do what he was intent upon doing, it would only be a matter of minutes before I’d be moaning my release.


    “I’ll go with you,” Darcy piped up, scooting her chair back. “Thesest couple of months are hell on the old dder.”


    “Hurry back,” Cain said with a slight twitch of his lips, as he looked over at me.


    The door to therge powder room had barely closed behind Darcy and me when she spoke.


    “Hold up, Paige,” she said from behind, causing me to halt in my tracks.


    Oh…dayumm.


    I turned around to face her, and the usatory expression on her face didn’t go unnoticed.N?velDrama.Org owns this text.


    “Can we sit for a minute?” she asked, nodding toward the intricately carved, plum velvet settee against the mirrored wall of the powder room.


    “Sure,” I shrugged, my pulse speeding up a bit because this could mean only one thing: Eli had shared the details of our rtionship with her.


    How stupid was it that it hadn’t even crossed my mind to ask him after all these weeks?


    “Paige, you must know how important Eli is to me, right?”


    I nodded silently.


    “Then, please don’t think it’s none of my business, because when ites to protecting him, there are no boundaries for me. Are you fucking Cain behind Eli’s back?”


    Holy shit.


    “Wh-what?” I stammered, momentarily taken aback by the


    conclusion she’d jumped to. “Why would you ask me that?” It was my turn to put some edge in my voice.


    She leaned back against the cushion on the settee, one hand rubbing her baby bump in a circr motion, as if that had some sort of calming effect on her.


    “The chemistry going back and forth between the two of you is kind of…well, obvious. And let’s just say I’ve been around long enough to know when a dude’s feeling you up under the table,” she finished, her eyes directly on mine.


    Busted.


    “It’s not what you think, Darcy,” I replied, feeling a sigh escape through my whole body. I hated that I feltpelled to be so secretive about my feelings for these men. It wasn’t that I was ashamed of it; it was just that I wasn’t ready for the negative reactions, disapprovingments and judgy attitudes that I knew would be forting.


    “Then what is it?” she asked pointedly.


    I fingered my new ne nervously, trying to decide whether I should tell her, and wondering if I did, could I trust her not to broadcast it?


    Her eyes were now on my ne, watching as my finger rubbed each stone in it.


    “Wait a minute,” she said slowly, “That’s a custom ne, isn’t it?”


    She didn’t wait for me to respond. “That’s your birthstone in the center. And the aquamarine-that’s Eli’s birthstone for March. What month was Cain born?” she asked, her eyes narrowing just a bit.


    “May,” I replied, knowing that if anyone knew the birthstone for each month of the year, it would be Darcy.


    “Emerald,” she said quietly. “Oh my God.”


    I looked over at her and hesitated only for a moment. “Please don’t say anything to Lindsey or Easton. I’m not sure if we’re ready to go public with our rtionship just yet.”


    “Oh my God,” she repeated, shaking her head back and forth. “How did I not see this?”


    I didn’t answer because it was obviously a question she was posing to herself.


    “I mean, I still talk to Eli on the phone at least once or twice a week and he has said nothing. I mean Christ almighty-it never urred to me that he’d cross back over.”


    Huh?


    “What?” I asked, not sure what she meant by that.


    “Oh…sorry,” she said, with a slight smile. “Eli told me a while back about that brief, albeit disastrous marriage of his. He said because of it, he’d made the decision to pursue only those of his own gender. That it was safer for his heart that way. Wow-what the hell did you do to my brotha from anotha?”


    I felt myself smile in relief. Darcy was okay with it and it helped that someone I knew wasn’t going to give me shit about it.


    “Darcy, please,” I said, putting just a hint of pleading into my voice to grab her attention. “Can you please keep this to yourself until…well, until further notice?”


    “No worries,” she replied, nodding. “Your secret’s safe with me. But hey, is it okay if I give Eli shit about keeping it from me?”


    I giggled softly. “As long as Easton, Trace or Lindsey are nowhere around when you do. I’m in a nice ce with my brothers at the moment, and I don’t know-I guess I kind of like that.”


    “Deal,” she replied, “But I think maybe you’re not giving them enough credit here. It is your life and your business after all.”


    I nodded.


    “By the way,” I said, wanting to change the subject, “I see you’re gestating very nicely. When’s the baby due? All Eli says when I ask is that it’s April or May.”


    “He’s such a bonehead, isn’t he?” she teased. “We’re expecting our baby girl, Carson, around the twenty-seventh of April. Eli always says that if she takes after me, she won’t arrive until early May.”


    Iughed because that is exactly the type of thing Eli would say about Darcy.


    Still, I knew that he loved her, but not the same way that he loved me, so I was more than fine with it. Those two actually did seem like brother and sister in many ways. More so than Trace and me, it would seem. But that was something I hoped to change, now that I would be residing in D. C. permanently.


    “I love the name you picked out for her,” I said wistfully. “Carson Matthews is an awesome name for a girl.”


    “Or a boy, as Easton has so eloquently reminded me once or a hundred times. Geez, sometimes I think Lindsey’s right.”


    “About what?”


    “Your oldest brother can be quite stuffy, Paige,” she replied, trying her best to use a British ent, but kind of failing at it.