AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“That’s on you,” I say, my anger rising. I shut my own eyes and take a deep breath. “That’s what I know.”
“Callie—”
“I’ll tell you what else I know, Weston Thorpe. It’s never going to happen again,” I say, watching Finn pull his phone away from his ear. He starts swiping, and I know we’ve got maybe another sixty seconds to get this settled before my brother gets back to the table.
West’s eyes pop open at that, narrowing on me. He doesn’t like being told what to do. Of course he doesn’t. I should maybe choose my words a little more carefully.
“Can’t have Finn finding out you went home with a guy, after all,” I say to bait him, because goddamn it, if I have to feel angry and humiliated, then he should too. West’s not gay—I certainly wouldn’t have a problem with it even if he were—but I suspect he wouldn’t want other people thinking he might be. And even if nothing sexual happened between Raleigh and him last night, it seems like an easy button to push.
West’s face goes bright red, but the anger seeps from his expression. Instead, he looks worried.
“West?” I ask, distracted out of embarrassment. He looks… upset. “West, what—”
My brother is still standing outside, pausing right outside the door to swipe at something on his phone.
“Let’s just clear the air,” says West, his eyes flicking up to the window before coming back to meet mine. “While I don’t exactly relish the idea of Finn finding out I went home with Raleigh, I’m a lot more concerned about you. Do you realize what would happen if Finn finds out I laid a hand on you last night?”
“I’m a grown woman,” I say.
West shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter, Callie. It won’t matter if you’re ninety. You’re the most important person in his world.”
I sit back, energy drained. “And he’s the most important person in yours.”
West sighs. “I can’t jeopardize that.”
“Maybe you should have thought of that before you kissed me,” I say, stung. The hit lands; West flinches.
“I did,” he says, his hands clenching on the tabletop. “I’ve thought of almost nothing else since seeing you again at Hale House. Not to mention all the times I thought about it back in high school.”
I blink a few times before I can speak again. “You’re lying.”
“I’m not,” he says, the hint of a grin floating around his mouth. “But you had a pretty hard time of it back then, and I was easily distracted. It was easier to stay away.”
“You didn’t seem to have any trouble keeping your distance last night.” That part burned—that West never touched me. That I’d wanted him to, so badly.
“You think that was easy for me?” West checks the door again—Finn’s still on his phone—and leans forward, dropping his voice to a near whisper. “I know the way your skin flushes where Raleigh touched you. I know you liked it when he fluttered his tongue against your clit just so. I know the way you took his fingers, his cock, the way your hips—”
“Stop,” I whisper. I’m going to die, right here at this tiny cafe table, embarrassed and turned on and desperate to touch him. “Why are you doing this?”
West holds my gaze. “Because I have never wanted anything more in my life than I wanted to touch you last night,” he says. “Or more than I want to touch you right now. Raleigh did for me what I couldn’t do for myself.”
“Raleigh,” I say, breathing deeply and sitting very still, trying hard not to give away how invested I am in the question I can’t help but ask. “What if I wanted to see him again?”
West’s expression tightens. “I think you should,” he says. “Of course you should. If you want to. I’ve got a pretty good idea he won’t say no.”
“Would he say no to seeing us both?” I ask.
It’s West’s turn to blink.
“I think he’d say yes,” I say.
“That’s… that’s not—” West wipes a hand over his mouth. “What are you getting at?”
“If you want him there, I want him there, too,” I say in a rush.
West was into it, all of it, last night, and I don’t think it was just because he wants me. I don’t even think it’s because he wants control, though I got that impression, too. I’ve never been interested in kink, but controlling Raleigh and me, telling us what to do, all of that clearly got West going at the time.
I can’t say it was a turnoff. Far from it.
