“It’s in shambles since meeting you, thank you very much,” Tobias clips, but he’s looking down at me and battling a smile. “But if it makes you happy, you can grind it to dust.”

I bat my eyelashes at him. “It really does.”

He goes right on smiling, but there’s a slight hardening of the planes of his face. “Are you done threatening to leave, Elise?”

My smile drops. “It’s not a threat. It’s not an irrational decision, either. These men trashed my apartment, and I don’t want to involve any of you in a situation that could get worse before it gets better. Gabe, Jameson Crouch is your boss. Being involved with me might even jeopardize your job.”

“Better than jeopardizing your safety, Elise,” Gabe says gruffly.

Banks crouches down in front of me. “At the risk of replacing Tobias as your least favorite—”

“Hey!” Tobias complains.

“Elise.” Banks sighs, shakes his head. “You’re looking for any excuse to get rid of us. The urge to protect yourself from pain isn’t going to go away overnight. You’re searching for an escape hatch because you’re afraid of going down with the whole submarine.”

“Insert torpedo dick joke here,” Tobias murmurs.

Banks studies my face, a pulse tapping in his temple.

The longer he looks at me, the more exposed I feel.

“Are you just the coach? Or do you double as the team psychologist?” I mutter.

His lips tilt at one end, but his eyes remain as intense as ever. “You know I’m all about giving you choices and making sure we don’t overstep…” Banks reaches out and frames my jaw in his hand, tilting my face up. “But so help me God, you are not going anywhere without us until this shit is over. Is that clear?”

Oh…my God.

I don’t have the words to describe what happens inside of me in that moment.

Until now, I thought I was craving the sense of control these three men give me, but that hint of dominance from Banks has riddled me with need. Maybe the circle of four is big enough, powerful enough to hold more than one kind of pleasure. More than one kind of escape. Or maybe I’m still in control after all, because Banks is eye level with me, waiting for my response, even as his hand slips down to my throat and squeezes lightly, eliciting soft groans from Tobias and Gabe. They’re waiting for me to say yes to being owned. Yes, to owning them. I’m still holding the reins, but they want to take them for a while.

And it’s galling for someone so independent to admit that I do want to hand over control for now. I’m in a tailspin. My job is on the line, possibly my safety, too. I don’t know which direction my future is heading, and I’m scared of how much these three people are starting to mean to me. I don’t want to think, I just want to feel, and leave it to Banks to sense this and gamble on it.