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TWENTY
Decima
All three ofthe men now staring at me and Blaze had seen me in some state of undress before. I probably would only have felt a little awkward at them walking in not expecting the provocative sight if those gazes hadn’t looked not just startled but also, on at least two of them, angry.
“What the fuck is this?” Garrison snapped, taking a couple of steps closer and then stopping with a grimace. His face had flushed red.
I grabbed my shirt and pulled it on, not bothering with my bra for the moment. Blaze scrambled for his boxers and slacks.
“I’d think it’s pretty obvious,” I said to Garrison, a little irritation creeping into my tone at the tone he’d taken with me. “We didn’t know you’d be back so soon, or we’d have taken this somewhere more private.” I wriggled into my sweatpants as quickly as I could, feeling more composed once all my own private bits were no longer on display.
Garrison’s furious gaze whipped from me to Blaze and back again. “And that would have made it better—if you’d hidden it and pretended nothing was going on?”
I opened my mouth and closed it again, not just irritated but confused now. Why the hell was he so angry anyway? It definitely didn’t seem to be just about getting unexpectedly flashed.
And Julius looked pissed too, in his own way. His stance was as cool and commanding as always, but his jaw had clenched and something in his deep blue eyes had hardened in a way I wasn’t used to, at least not when they were aimed at me.
“What were you trying to accomplish with this?” he demanded, looming over me.
I stared at him, now utterly bewildered. “The usual things someone wants to accomplish when they hook up with someone? Was there a rule no one told me about that Blaze is off-limits or something?”
If so, he definitely didn’t seem to know about it. He was standing there a few feet away from me, just in his slacks, looking tense but uncertain. I didn’t think he was totally sure what was going on here either.
“I think you know that’s not the point,” Julius said, his voice unshakably firm, and I started to get pissed off too.
“I obviously don’t,” I shot back, folding my arms over my chest. “You didn’t seem to have any problem with me sleeping with you and Talon, so I have no idea why getting it on with someone else in the crew would be such a big deal.”
Somehow his jaw clenched even tighter, but he held himself with his typical restraint. I couldn’t say the same for Garrison.
The younger man’s eyes flickered from furious to absolutely enraged. “You fucked the two of them too?” he snarled. “And you don’t think you have any explaining to do here?”
Blaze made a sweeping motion with his hands. “Let’s all chill out for a second and have a reasonable conversation. There’s obviously been some miscommunication somewhere.”
“No fucking kidding,” Garrison retorted.
Julius appeared to simmer down just slightly, but his voice was still taut. “I realize you haven’t had a whole lot of experience outside of your missions, Decima, but I would have thought you had some concept of the fact that people generally inform their partners if they’re seeing other people.”
I blinked at the bunch of them, the pieces slowly connecting in my head. Was that all they were pissed off about? I frowned.
“I mean… I thought we were all already partners. Isn’t that what you’ve been saying, about me being part of the crew? I’m attracted to all of you. You seem to be attracted to me. I didn’t think hooking up would be that big a deal. It’s not like we made any epic commitments—it’s not like we were even going on dates or whatever. It was just sex.”
“Just sex,” Garrison repeated, rolling his eyes skyward.
“Yes,” I shot back. “Just sex. Simple physical gratification. If any of you wanted more than that from me, none of you bothered to mention it. I’m not sure why I’m the only one at fault here when it seems like I’m the only one who actually was clear about what I wanted instead of keeping it a secret that I expected more.”
I searched all their faces, even Talon’s, who’d stayed silent through the conversation so far. I couldn’t read his impassive expression at all, but that was pretty normal. He simply watched the conversation with a slightly stiffened stance as if he’d rather not have been there at all. Wonderful.
Blaze glanced at me. “I didn’t realize—I figured if anything had happened with the other guys, you’d have talked about the fact that it wasn’t just them. I’m not blaming you, but lack of exclusivity is usually the kind of thing people assume will come up.”
“We’re not usual people, are we?” I demanded.
Julius cleared his throat. “Are you really trying to say that you had no idea this would be an issue?”
“Yes! You’re all so close with each other—you share so many things—I didn’t think you’d suddenly get all possessive and decide you owned me just because we got off together.” I scowled, my frustration growing. “It’s not like I’ve been going around picking up random guys off the street.”
Garrison snorted. “Thank God for that.”
I glowered at him. “I wouldn’t want to do that. For fuck’s sake. Did you go around announcing that we’d slept together to the rest of the guys?” My gaze jerked to Julius. “Did you?” And then Talon. “Or you? Seems like no. Apparently it wasn’t important enough for you to bring it up, so it doesn’t make any sense to me that I should have known I had to.”
