Page 328 of Power Play

“That you were together.”

Pain sharpened behind my ribs. “They knew we were fucking around. They had to know.”

“They knew enough to understand something was happening. They didn’t know you had been trying to make her your girlfriend for six months.”

My teeth locked. “She told them? Last night is when she finally told them?”

“She had to after Easton asked.”

The anger returned so fast that the mug shook between my hands.

We had never discussed making some ridiculous announcement until recently. I didn’t expect her to hold a press conference or change her relationship status for people who needed social media to understand what was in front of them. I had assumed Bee and Aye knew because my guys knew. Cade, Easton, Rider, and Briggs understood exactly how deep I was, and none of them betrayed that confidence to their women because they knew it wasn’t their story to tell.

That loyalty didn’t escape me. Neither did the humiliation beneath it.

Charm hadn’t trusted her best friends with the truth. She wanted the brown barrio kid in private and kept the Chicano bad boy they all remembered from KFU hidden from the two women who had loved her since she was twelve.

“And?” I forced out.

“Bliss asked how long.”

I looked away, and Briggs answered without needing the question.

“Almost six months.”

The words sounded different in his voice. They sounded real and fucking humiliating.

Six months of Charm sleeping in my bed while refusing to give our relationship a name where anyone could hear it. Six months of waking up beside her, teaching her Spanish, learning the way her mind moved through poetry, buying food for my apartment because she forgot to eat when she studied, and allowing myself to picture a future I had never asked anyone else to enter.

Six months became a confession she finally gave her friends after I took back my key.

“I told you,” I said.

“I know.”

“All of you knew.”

“The guys knew how serious you were.”

“Because I didn’t hide her.”

“No, you didn’t.”

The answer hurt more than it should have.

I drank the coffee even though it had become too hot against my tongue. “What did the girls say?”

“Bliss looked wrecked. Aura looked like she wanted to shake her.”

“She would have to stand in line.”

“Easton and Cade are with you.”

“Were sides assigned?”

“Nobody needed to assign them.”

I looked at him.