Page 43 of Whispered Promises

Grabbing a plate, I remove the top from my burger and grab the mustard, slapping a liberal amount on the top, before adding chilli sauce to the bottom bun. More is always better.

“Yeah, that is the only time you can seem to share. Nice to see you have some sort of chivalry underneath your inner child,” he replies, bumping his shoulder into mine affectionately as he walks past and sits on one of the sofas, a plate of food on his lap.

“Rosy’s coming round tomorrow for dinner, isn’t she? What have you decided to make?” Noah enquires, sitting back into his chair with a plate.

“Mm,” he agrees around a mouthful of his burger. “I’ve been messaging about some ideas, and we settled on Indian. She liked the idea of a curry.”

“You’ve been messaging?” Nate questions. His face is all pinched and screwed up.

Surely, he knew we would be talking to her, since we gave her our numbers too. The pouty expression on his face has me thinking he didn’t.

“We chatted today too.” Should I be poking the bear? Probably not, but he does make it so easy.

Stuffing a few chips into my mouth, I smile at the scowl he throws my way, “Best friends talk. A lot. Like all the time,” I trail off, enjoying imagining the steam curling around him with every exhale he makes.

Are his nostrils…flaring? Oh, they totally are.

Cackles erupt from me. Honestly, he really does make it too easy to push all those buttons.

“Maxi,” Noah scolds, ever the patient parent. But I know he would’ve talked to her too, so I’m not really wrong. Okay, perhaps I don’t need to poke bears.

Huffing loudly, I roll my eyes. “I’m sorry for pressing your very tempting, big red button,” I say to Nate, watching as the vein in his head starts to pulse. Thick lines crease his brow as his gaze fixates on the whites of his knuckles.

Bry throws a chip at me. I duck, so it sails past and slaps Nate in the face, then lands on his plate.

His shoulders drop from around his ears, and the tension in him deflates. Crisis averted. Since meeting Rosy, it definitely seems to have him on edge more than we’re used to.

Interesting. It seems the bear has taken a liking to her.

In that moment, I can’t help but feel concern for the man who’s been there for me through some of the hardest times in my life. To him, it’s very black and white, and he can’t see outside of his own obsessive need to have something for himself.

I can see the appeal. Rosy has a way of making you feel centred, a safe place to land…like every moment in your life has led up to this, to her, and the idea of it being snatched away once you’ve felt her warmth caress you is enough to make a man feel feral.

Nope, that’s definitely not me. Shifting uneasily in my seat, I veer away from the deep dive my thoughts were about to take.

His reaction kind of makes sense, though. Whilst I avoid relationships with women due to my ex blindsiding me, he avoids them because of his soul-sucking snake of a mother.

She’s what you’d call a narcissistic, emotional manipulator…or a toxic bitch.

It makes you wonder if any of us would be able to function in a stable relationship…

Well, perhaps Noah, but I think he would miss us all too much if we had to all go our separate ways for someone.

Thank fuck we’re all happy to just continue like we have done, just the four of us.

EIGHTEEN

NATE

The conversation before dinner last night has been playing on my mind. It’s unsettled me knowing that she could leave and want someone else instead…and the pulsing, irrational need to have her makes me want to claw at my skin, shred it, and let the beast within take over.

Fuck, and that kiss?

It’s done something to me. I’ve had a taste of her, and she’s let me in. Now it’s rewired my body and brain or some shit.

My thoughts have been consumed by her, and fuck if it isn’t driving me nuts. It’s building inside me, and I don’t know how to balance out that driving force to covet with the need to keep her happy too.

Because she sure as fuck won’t want me hounding her every move, her every breath.