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But was any of it real?
Drawing my hand away from Trace’s as if I’d accidentally stuck it in the lake of fire, I shuffled backward to find my seat between Lachlan and Merrick.
I swore my rations tasted extra dry and stale—or maybe it was just because my mouth seemed to have gone completely dry. My gaze kept shifting around the circle to each of the men, and every time I locked eyes with one of them, the heat hovering around us seemed to grow.
“Ye know…” Lachlan drawled, dusting off his hands once he’d finished his meal. “This whole partnership thing is great and everything, but once we reach the gem, all bets are off. I’m going for it, even if I have to knock you fools into the fiery pits of hell. I won’t feel a bit bad about it.”
The two other men turned to look at him, their eyes narrowing. Merrick took a swig from the water bottle to wash down his last bite, then passed it to Trace as he spoke.
“Of course. That was the agreement. We’ll each go after the gem with everything we have.” He shrugged lightly. “Although some of us may have a bit more of an advantage than others.”
“Yeah, well maybe that’s because some of us started going after the gem early, which was not what we agreed upon,” Trace grumbled, shooting Merrick a glare as he passed the water bottle along to me.
I took it, but I was so distracted that I just held it poised near my mouth, my lips slightly parted, frozen in mid-motion as I watched the three men around me bristle at each other.
“I won’t apologize for wanting the gem,” Merrick shot back evenly, determination in his voice. “And I won’t apologize for doing everything I can to get it. I would think you two might be happy for me.”
“We might,” Lachlan growled. “If ye hadn’t spent weeks at the beginnin’ of the semester talkin’ about how much ye didn’t want the damn thing. Trying to turn us against it. But now that we know how perfect it is, can ye blame us for wantin’ it too?”
Merrick’s face flushed, and his gaze slid to me before he rounded on Lachlan, his jaw clenching. “I was hurt. And I was angry. I was trying to convince myself I didn’t want this.” His voice softened. “But that was never possible. It may be the only thing I’ve ever truly wanted.”
“Then you should’ve fucking told us that before you let us get attached!” Trace said with a scowl. “We’ve both spent the past month thinking the gem is fair game, when all along, you’ve already claimed it for yourself.”
Ooookay.
“Guys! Guys!” I stood up, still holding the water bottle in my hand as I threw my arms out in a wide gesture. “The ‘gem’ is right here, and she doesn’t exactly love being referred to as ‘it.’”
The men had all been slowly leaning toward each other, as if each of them were preparing to launch an attack on the other two, but now they froze, tilting their heads to look up at me. Chagrin warred with anger in their expressions.
I raised my eyebrows. “I mean, you are talking about me, aren’t you? Your secret code isn’t exactly hard to decipher.”
There was a moment of silence, and I honestly started to wonder if they had thought their code was totally uncrackable.
Then Trace shook his head. “We just didn’t know, Snow. That’s all. I mean, we knew about you and Merrick from before, but not that it was still a thing. At least, I didn’t.”
He shot a suspicious glare at Lachlan, and the big man raised his hands. “I didn’t fuckin’ know either! If I had, I would’ve told you.”
Lach turned to cast an accusatory scowl at Merrick, who was shooting daggers out of his eyes toward Trace.
I scrubbed my free hand over my face, torn between amusement, lingering desire, and confusion. It wasn’t like I had a problem attracting guys, but I’d never been pursued by three men at once. Especially not three men I actually cared about.
And when I added in the fact that I wasn’t sure I could even trust their feelings, or my own, it left me clueless about how to proceed.
But letting these three friends rip each other’s heads off, particularly when we still had an unknown number of deadly challenges ahead of us before we reached the end, seemed like a horrible idea.
“Listen. You’re not going to get anywhere fighting over… the gem.” I rolled my eyes as I went along with their lame metaphor. But honestly, I wasn’t great at talking about this kind of stuff, so using the thinly veiled reference actually kind of helped.
Trace shook his head. “No offense, Snow, but I know what I want. And I fight for what I want. If you don’t want me, that’s one thing. But if you tell me there’s even a chance…” His blue eyes gleamed in the firelight as he shifted his gaze to me, the same intent look on his face as earlier. “Then, yeah, I’ll fight.”
Fuck. I guess we’re not hiding behind the gem metaphor anymore.
The other two men turned to look at me too, and I suddenly felt like a billion-watt spotlight was trained on my face. I was positive my cheeks were flushed, and I could feel my breath coming a little faster. I wasn’t exactly the type to get nervous, but this was an entirely new situation for me, and I had no idea how to handle it.
Especially because I had no answer to give them.
What do you tell three men who are looking at you like they want to devour you? Like they want to snatch you up and make you theirs?
Like they want you to choose?
