Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 90475 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90475 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Yeah, but I didn’t kiss Trina in public today. Because of ground rules the three of us set up. And, more so, the ones we didn’t set up. That’s what pisses me off. I took them into consideration, but you didn’t.
I press my lips together so I don’t let that awful truth out. I’d be the schmuck in this temporary threesome.
Pass.
“Yeah, I know,” I say, just to say something. So I don’t seem like I’m silently stewing in my own…self-loathing.
But goddammit. I could have kissed her on the street. And then where would that have left him? We’d be two dudes messing around with the same girl, only this time everyone would know. There is no winning in this situation. Someone will always be the third wheel. I huff out a breath. “Look, this whole thing is just a bad idea,” I say.
Because, evidently, I can’t handle my own heart. It’s me. I’m the problem.
But Chase isn’t done. He’s pacing, loosening his tie, jerking at the knot. “No. It’s not a bad idea. It’s just…I made assumptions and then I asked her. I should have checked with you too, but I didn’t want to draw any more attention to her, or us, or whatever the hell this is,” he says, gesturing wildly to the hall, then the kitchen. “Like, hey, let me ask Ryker too because…that girl? That fantastic girl? Yeah, we’re both spending the week with her. At my house. No big deal, right?”
When he puts it like that…
Still, I cross my arms. I hate that I’m so annoyed. But mostly, I don’t want him or her to know the truth. I’ve got to keep that locked up.
“And I know we have a pact and all,” Chase adds.
The fucking pact. That’s the thing. That’s the heart of this. I’m the guy getting shafted again. “We made a pact for a reason. So this shit wouldn’t happen,” I say, even though I know on one level this situation isn’t like Selena-slash-Abby, but hell, if it doesn’t feel like I’ve been blindsided a second time.
“This isn’t the same,” he says, his tone softening at last as he downshifts to apologetic. “Look, we should have made ground rules for public stuff. I should have thought of ground rules for public situations. I didn’t think to do that. That’s on me, man. And I’m sorry.”
Two words—I’m sorry—and it’s impossible for me to stay mad at my friend.
Even though I was never mad at him. Not really. I was mad at myself.
I reach out my hand, it’s all good style. “We’re cool,” I say, letting go of my irritation once and for all.
He smacks back, obviously relieved as he says, “Let’s just make a new ground rule that we’ll talk about stuff that we don’t have a ground rule for.”
“A ground rule for a ground rule. How very meta,” I say dryly.
“And Ryker’s back,” Chase says with a grin, then comes in for a bro hug.
I clap his back when the sound of footsteps grows loud.
Too loud.
Too close.
Followed by the pad of paws.
And then one very angry-looking goddess. “Is that what you think? We’re cool?”
25
A NEW PACT
Trina
It’s one thing to talk about me while they’re playing with me in bed. That’s something they know I like. It’s a bedroom kink they’ve unlocked.
But to do it behind my back?
I park my hands on my hips. Like a mob heavy, Nacho sits next to me and barks in my defense. My little enforcer.
“You’re making plans for me without me?” I ask with narrowed eyes. Maybe I am overstepping as a guest. But so be it. If I cross a line, I’ll stay with—ugh—Cassie.
That’d be better than two men thinking they can make decisions for me.
“I thought you were asleep,” Chase says with a gulp.
“And that makes it okay?”
“We didn’t want to bother you,” Ryker adds quickly. That’s unlike him, to give a snap, emotional answer.
But I don’t care.
“Oh. By all means then, continue arguing about the ground rules for this bad idea. I’m not bothered at all.”
Ryker groans, dragging a hand down his face. “I didn’t mean that,” he says, sounding devastated.
But is he devastated I heard them? Or devastated over what he said?
“What did you mean then?” I point to Ryker. “Because you said it was a bad idea.” I wheel on Chase. “And you mentioned that damn pact. And yet no one asked me a thing about any of this,” I say, with a fire fueled by my own irritation but stoked by this surge of emotions I’ve been feeling tonight. By this new overflow of them for their kindness, their humor, their sexiness. Hell, I’m learning about hockey for them, and now they’re talking about me behind my back, and it feels like it could be Jasper all over again.
Like everything is a lie.