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“I don’t need to know punchline of this.”
Iain smirked. “To cut the sexual tension.”
For fuck’s sake.
“Right.” I nodded, somewhat amused but unable to smile, because a movement in the corner of my eye seized my attention, and when I turned, I saw AJ doing what I’d been dreading all goddamned night.
“Ah, shit. Here we go,” Iain said, grabbing his drink off the bar and turning to watch with me as she gently arched her back, still talking as she let that blazer slide off her smooth shoulders and down her arms.
Leaving her in a dress that made me want to punch a hole in the wall.
“Fucking Christ,” I growled between gnashed teeth, white-knuckling my drink as I stared, because I had no idea what the fuck that dress was, but I knew she’d worn it to make me want to rip it clean off her body.
I couldn’t tell if it was an illusion, but it looked totally sheer around her waist and ribs, and a little bit down her hips. It had me pretty fucking certain she wasn’t wearing panties, which was double the torture, because I already knew she wasn’t wearing a bra. The lacy cups holding her tits looked just a little too small, pushing her cleavage up in a way that was impossible not to look at.
And that made my temper rise fast, because she wasn’t standing beside me in that dress like she was supposed to. She was standing with some guy who was grinning like an asshole, barely trying to hide the way his eyes lit up like he’d won the jackpot.
“You look like you’re going to have an aneurysm.”
Iain’s remark pierced my consciousness but did nothing to piss me off more, because my fury was already at capacity.
“If he touches her, I’ll kill him.”
“Please don’t do that,” Iain said flatly. “We don’t do that shit anymore.”
I slid my eyes to him and that rare reference to our rowdier past. “You don’t,” I said, making him snort.
“Neither do you, jackass. We both have careers now. And women in our lives who’ve made us better. Smarter.” From the corner of my eye, I saw him take a drink, still watching me before he asked it. “What did you do to fuck up?”
“She found out about something she wasn’t supposed to know.”
“You gonna tell me what?” he asked.
“No,” I said, and he simply nodded, because if anybody did, Iain understood having private matters you just didn’t talk about. He’d had plenty of his own. We’d both battled our demons side by side during college and law school. We had our shitty ways of dealing, had been through a thousand stupid, reckless decisions together. We both knew what it was like to have to blow off steam pretty much every night, because there were things in our lives that were never going to be settled.
The difference was that I was the one person who knew all about Iain’s past. At least before Holland came along. I knew why my best friend once had that taste for chaos. Trouble. Being reckless.
Iain, however, knew nothing about my life before I met him. Nobody knew.
Except for the people involved.
Leaning back on the bar, Iain took a leisurely drink. “You’re wasting time,” he said.
My stare shifted to him, but I said nothing. He looked at me.
“If you want her, Adam, tell her the truth. All of it,” he said, still relaxed but fully serious now. “Everyone has a past. Doesn’t mean we have to live in it. I’m telling you this, because I know now. I kept secrets too. I lived a double life. I did all the same things you’re doing, because we’re the same person in too many ways. We’ve always known that.”
My gaze drifted as I thought about it, because I knew he was right. We were both at least a little fucked in the head. It was probably what drew us to each other in college.
But now he was out of that place.
And I wasn’t.
“It took you long enough to realize she was the one. Don’t let it take longer,” Iain said, watching me as I watched her. “It’s not worth losing her. You know I can tell you that from experience.”
I did know that. I knew exactly what kind of darkness he had been through. What my sister saw him out of.
I also knew I was never going to let AJ leave with anyone but me.
