Page 22 of Hearts Storm

A smile tugs at my lips when I see a text from my twin sister Lizzy. She’s been on my ass about me going back home to Lakeside for a weekend incessantly over the past few months. But work keeps getting in the way. The fires up in Canada this year have been brutal.

I text her back. Letting her know I’ll be there.

A snort falls from my lips when I see Brex’s message. I kind of feel bad now for leaving him out of all the fun this time. We’ve been sharing ever since shit went sideways with me and Melissa.

Ugh.

Just the thought of her name sends a cold spike of ice slicing through my chest. Mel was the reason Brex and I started sharing in the first place. She was also the reason I swore off relationships. The reason I don’t do feelings anymore.

We met in our sophomore year of college. She was gorgeous—curly brown hair, big brown eyes, and a laugh that could fill a whole room. I fell hard and fast, the way you do when you’re in your twenties and think you’ve got the whole fucking world figured out. We were together for almost two years. I thought she was it for me. I was even planning to propose after graduation.

Then, one afternoon, I walked into our apartment and found her bent over the kitchen counter with Derek—a guy I’d sat next to for three semesters in science class. A guy who’d borrowed my notes, eaten my food, and laughed at my jokes—grunting and rutting into her from behind.

I stood in that doorway for what felt like an eternity, watching her face contort, mouth open in pleasure while he fucked her.

She didn’t see me at first. But when she finally opened her eyes and met my gaze across the room, she didn’t look surprised at all. She just... kept going. Got even louder as she ordered the asshole to go faster as she locked eyes with me.

So, I walked out. Didn’t say a word. Didn’t slam the door. Just turned around and left.

That night I ended up at some frat party I had no business being at, doing my best to get as wasted as I could when Brex found me in the backyard, sitting on the grass.

“You look like shit,” he says, handing me a fresh beer.

“Found Melissa fucking Derek in our kitchen this afternoon.”

He doesn’t say he’s sorry. Doesn’t give me some bullshit adage about how she’s not worth stressing over. He just sits down next to me and sips his beer.

“Women, man,” he finally says. “They’ll gut you if you let ’em.”

All I can manage is a brief nod as I sip.

Then he elbows me in the ribs and grins. The same grin that’s gotten him out of more trouble and into even more panties, more times than I can count. “You know what we should do?”

“What?”

“You see that hottie over there?”

He jerks his chin at a girl standing over by the keg. With long red hair and curves for days, she’s the exact opposite of Melissa. “We need to get your mind off all the bullshit. I hear that one is down for taking more than one guy at a time.”

I stare at him like he’s lost his goddamn mind. “What the fuck? Are you being serious right now?”

“Dead serious.” He claps me on the shoulder, his grin spreading wider than a dancer’s legs at a strip club. “Think about it.”

Tossing his empty cup aside, he leans back on his hands, giving the redhead a wink when she glances our direction. “No strings. Just two guys giving a hot chick the best night of her goddamn life. No expectations. Just sex.”

At the time, the idea of sharing a woman with anyone—let alone one of my best friends—was fucked up on about seventeen different levels.

But then flashes of Melissa getting railed on my kitchen island flashed through my head.

“Okay,” I hear myself say.

Brex’s eyebrows shoot up. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

And that’s how it started. And for years, it’s actually worked out pretty damn well.

I trudge into the bathroom. The hot water does nothing to wash away the memory of how Reyna’s skin felt or how tight her pussy gripped me as she squirted all over my dick.