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)
Like I’m the one being tricked.
My lower lip quivers, and clearly I’m not just angry. I’m hurt.
“Sweetness,” Chase says, advancing toward me.
I hold up a stop-sign hand. That pet name won’t soften me.
“Don’t,” I say, sounding wobblier than I want to. “What the hell is this pact for real? That first night you said it was a pact that you wouldn’t let a woman come between you? But is that the truth? Is it like a pact that you could both score me or something?”
My stomach roils at the awful thought. It’s a whole new way of being used. What if they made a pact they could both fuck me, then discard me after a week?
You idiot. They did.
I need to go. I turn around before anyone can answer, but Chase is lightning fast, grabbing my wrist, spinning me around.
“Oh god, no,” he says, sounding awful, then sighing heavily.
Ryker comes closer too, cautiously, like they both think I’m a wounded animal. Maybe I am.
“Trina, we dated the same woman once and we didn’t even know it,” Chase says, blurting that out like it costs him something.
Wait. What? That’s the pact? “You did? How does that even happen?”
Chase swallows roughly, looking almost embarrassed, but Ryker takes the question. “I was seeing her and then she went after Chase too. She was playing both of us,” he says, like he’s trying to keep his voice even, but I can tell that was hard for him to say.
“What do you mean exactly?”
“It was this whole thing,” Chase says, wincing as he lets go of my wrist. “Like a social experiment. She wanted to do what men have been doing all along,” he says, sketching air quotes. “And she engineered everything so she was dating four guys at the same time to see if she could actually pull it off. She specifically went after the two of us because she knew we were friends and wanted to drive a wedge, and she gave us different names,” he says, and he sounds ashamed. Like he was made a fool. And he was.
“I hate her,” I say, flipping from hurt to anger in a heartbeat. I despise that she hurt my two guys.
Chase’s lips quirk up. “You’re possessive.”
“Well, I don’t like that she fucked with you.” At my feet Nacho barks in solidarity. “My dog doesn’t either.”
“We didn’t either,” Ryker says, sounding tougher now.
“So what happened with her?”
Ryker lets out a long exhale. “She talked about it on some podcast. I never listened but my sister did for us and told me. It sucked, but she never named names. Ivy said it was her thing. She’s kind of a provocateur and she does these different social experiments, usually about dating. Claiming she’s a model, and seeing how men respond. Or pretending she’s rich. Or making herself look older to see how guys respond to older women versus younger women. She never uses names since it’s not about the people—it’s about what she pulls off. It’s this whole thing. It’s her shtick. So we all moved on.”
My spine tingles. I want to throttle her. “If I ever see her…” But then I focus on the more important issue. Them. What happened to them. “So that’s what the pact was about?”
“Yeah,” Ryker says with a nod. “I was falling for her and it sucked. Then I thought Chase was fucking my girl, and that messed me up. I was just in a really bad place. When we found out what was actually happening we didn’t want it to ever happen again, so we made a pact to be open about this stuff. Women, dating, and so on.”
That makes so much more sense now. “I knew the pact was about your friendship but the way you were talking tonight, it sounded different. Like it was about me,” I say softly, letting out a long, relieved exhale.
Chase tilts his head, stroking my arm again. “In what way?”
I sigh, feeling like the foolish one now. “I don’t know.”
“Yes you do,” Ryker presses, reaching for my other hand and threading his fingers through mine in a reassuring touch. “Be honest. That’s all we have here.”
Ugh. He’s right. I look up, meeting both their gazes. “I thought it meant you made a pact to see if you could both…fuck me. Like I was a game.”
Ryker squeezes my hand emphatically. “You are not a game.”
“You’re not some challenge we gave each other. You’re not a bet,” Chase adds, clearly determined to make me see that.
I feel stupid for thinking the pact was about me but comforted they don’t see me as a prize to be won or traded. “Good,” I say softly. “And I’m sorry you went through that. But I have to know something. Do you think this is the same thing?”
I sure hope they don’t because it doesn’t sound at all the same to me.