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God, I hope he means in the sexy way and not in the losing body parts kind of way.
Our waiter appears, hands out glasses of water, and goes over the restaurant’s lunch specials as Ashe nods along. If he notices that two of us are definitely not dressed for the occasion of being here, the waiter doesn’t say a word. Instead, he turns his brilliant smile on both of the men and then a less dazzling one on me.
He likes them, my brain supplies, a bit horrified at the realization. A second later, when he starts talking to the two men and leaves me pointedly out of the conversation, it snaps into laser focus. He’sflirtingwith him.
And worse, I’m fuckingjealous. A stir of it moves to grip my heart as I watch the three of them. Isaac doesn’t look particularly interested one way or the other, but Ashe appears to be either captivated or just a really good listener as the waiter tells him about…something.
So I do the stupidest thing that I can and reach out to stroke my fingers alonghisleg. Up his tight-fitting pants, over his lap, and only when he shifts to give me a quick, baleful glance do I pause and stare at him with my best wide, doe eyes.
“We need a minute,” he says, cutting off the waiter. “If you could let us look over the menu?” His brows raise, and the waiter looks visibly disappointed with the words.
“If you have any questions about the menu–”
“We don’t,” Ashe assures him. I try to move my hand, but Ashe grips my wrist and presses my palm to his groin, forcing me to grind my palm against him. “We just need a minute.” Thankfully our hands are hidden by the table, and the dim lighting, so I doubt we’re in any danger of being spotted.
But it doesn’t make me feel any less like we’re unintentionally putting on some kind of show.
The waiter finally leaves, taking the hint, just for Ashe to round on me with a smirk. “You’re jealous,” he teases, not letting go of my hand and instead forcing me to keep my movements going against his groin.
“I am not,” I snap, not trying to pull away.
“You’re absolutely jealous. Five minutes ago, you were talking about not wanting to be our sweet little pet, but now when another man looks at me, your claws are practically out, and you’re ready to fight.”
I wouldn’t consider this myfighting stance, but I don’t get the chance to say it.
“And we haven’t even spent much time together. You know, I thought it would be nicer of me to give the others time to get to know you. I want them to like you since they all want tokeepyou so badly. But now I see I was wrong.” He leans closer to me, and I’m acutely aware that Isaac is watching with a smirk on his face.
“I should’ve thrown you over my shoulder in San Diego,” Ashe purrs, tucking my hair behind my ear. “I should’ve brought you home right then and put a collar on you for us to keep. Isaac’s right.” His grin turns sly. “You’re really not getting away from us, Ari.”
That shouldn’t sound as tantalizing, as enticing as it does.But it does, and I can’t stop the way my body reacts with my heart racing and butterflies taking flight in my stomach.
I’m fucked up, clearly. I haven’t known any of them for long, but here I am,jealousand ready to compromise on my ‘I’m not a pet’ stance.
But I’ve also got to get a hold of myself, so I take a breath and pull away, trying to appear casual.
“Why didn’t you do anything to that man, Deacon?” I ask. “You don’t want the Rogers here, I’ve gathered. Why not send him back to his brother, bloody or dead.”
“That’s very Ezra of you.” Ashe pulls away slightly, though his hand returns to my thigh and his leg presses to mine once more as if to remind me that there’s no way to go if he doesn’t permit it. I find I don’t mind much. “We can’t do anything to Deacon if he doesn’t do anything tous. If Declan is the Rogers’ captain, then Deacon is his right hand. Dangerous, irritating, and a suck-up to his brother for sure. But untouchable unless he does something to hurt us first.”
“That seems…kind of inconvenient?” I offer, surprised by the words as if Cyril and his boys have some kind of special, secret code of almost-honor.
“It’s incredibly inconvenient,” Isaac mumbles in agreement. “Ineveryway.”
“But rules are rules,” Ashe just shrugs, sitting back in his seat. “Have you looked at the menu, by the way? The waiter is eyeing us like he wants to come back, and I’m about to make some doe eyes at him, so he does. I’m sure you don’t like the flirting, butIlike good service. So if this is the price of being beautiful–”
“You’re so full of yourself,” I mutter, picking up the menu and going through it while stillso, so aware of his hand on my thigh that maintains a steady, almost innocent path. It also serves to keep my knee from jiggling on the floor, though I still don’t know how I feel about him suppressing that reaction from my body.
“I am,” he agrees without shame. “But I also have every right to be. It’s just bad luck that he’s into guys and not girls, otherwise, we’d be having to pull Isaac off of him, don’t you think?”
“No,” I laugh. I’m not a lot of guys’ definition of pretty, with my curves and my height. Which I’m okay with, though it took alotof work to get to my level of mostly successful self-acceptance. “I don’t know how to tell you guys this, but next to you guys. I might as well be invisible. All of you are fuckinggorgeous. But, you know that, obviously.”
When I look up and see that they’re staring at me with varying levels of…something, I tilt my head to the side, suddenly unsure. “The waiter’s coming back,” I say, catching a glimpse of movement from the corner of my eye and finding myself relieved for it. “And I’m ready to order when you are.”
If I’m grateful for the interruption of a conversation that makes me unsure, I’m certainly not going to say it to either one of them. Not when they looked at me like…
Like I’meverything, and maybe I’m just the one who can’t see it.
