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But then those notes I’d been finding on my truck had rushed to the forefront of every thought, and I’d gotten a horrible, sinking feeling they weren’t a prank Brian had been pulling on me.
“Do you know what it’s like to watch you with her when I know what it’s like to be touched by you? When I know you want me too?”
“Touched?” I’d ground out as she’d spoken, nearly choking over the word. “What the fuck, Samantha?Stop.” The harsh word had snapped through the kitchen and reverberated back to us as I’d grabbed her wrist and shoved it away when she’d reached for me.
The tips of her fingers having just barely grazed the bottom of my shirt as if she’d done that move so many times when I’d only ever hugged her before then.
“The hell is wrong with you?”
“Oh?”
My head had shot up at the unexpected voice to find LT standing just inside the kitchen, eyes wide with surprise and a hint of amusement as she’d looked between the two of us. Samantha’s wrist still in my grasp. Our bodies only inches apart because Samantha had somehow gotten closer.
“Not what—”
“Didn’t realize there were so many of us vying for your attention,” LT had said over me, all while I’d roughly shaken my head and forcibly moved Samantha farther from me.
“Not what it looks like,” I’d finally said through clenched teeth, words hard and sure.
LT had just shrugged. “Guess we’ll see about that.” She’d gestured from me to Samantha and back again as she’d continued through the kitchen, toward the entryway. “I think I’ll skip my coffee today...leave you two alone.”
“You don’t need to leave,” I’d said quickly, ready to fucking beg Litany to stay anywhere near me for the first time since I’d met her.
“Oh no, you two clearly need privacy. Maybe a bedroom?” she’d offered with a wicked laugh, then had hurried to brush off the fear and rage I could feel bursting from me. “Don’t worry, I won’t say anything to a certainfiancéeyou like to keep reminding me you have. Think of ways to bribe me with keeping quiet, handsome. I’ll see you tonight.”
“Stop her,” I’d begged as I’d turned back to Samantha. “Tell her there’s nothing happening between us.”
Samantha had just given me a wounded look, but her voice had remained assertive. “I’ll be your secret, but I’m not going to lie to her.”
“My secret?” The words had come out on a heaving breath and twisted laugh. “What secret? We’re nothing. You are nothing to me other than Scarlet’s best friend.” Gesturing toward the garage, I’d stepped closer to Samantha. My anger leaking into every strained word. “You’re her best fucking friend. What the hell are you trying to do right now?”
“I’m not nothing to you; I’ve felt the way you touch me,” she’d said with a confidence that would’ve been laughable if it were any other situation. Before I’d been able to remind her that I’d never touched her in the way she was implying, she’d continued. “And you and I both know she’ll just do to you what she did to Aaron.”
My head had jerked back. “The hell did you say?”
“She burned him to be with you. She’ll do the same to you.”
“No, see, that was something that destroyed her,” I’d said through clenched teeth. “That wasn’t something she did to him—something she went through—for the hell of it. And that isn’t something that’ll happen again.”
“Maybe it already is,” she’d said as if she’d known something I hadn’t.
But I hadn’t believed her for a goddamn second.
“I know you don’t want to be the one to leave her, but I know you want to be with me. So, it’s nothing to help us get what we both want.” An icy trail of dread had worked down my spine when Samantha had looked at me like she was about to offer me the damn world. “A mention that you might not be what she really wants. That she’d be happier with someone else. A whisper about someone else’s perfect qualities. Someone close to her. Someone she sees every day. Someone like Brandon...”
I’d entered some Twilight Zone. I’d been sure of it.
“The hell?” I’d breathed, my head shaking as I’d struggled to wrap my head around everything—literally everything—Samantha had been doing to us. “That’s my relationship you’re fucking with. Brandon’s my best friend. He’smarried.”
“I want to stop hiding,” she’d said as she’d once again moved closer to me. “And I know you do too.”
“There’s no hiding,” I’d said furiously. My voice low but firm as I’d waved my hand in front of her. “There’s nothing happening between us. And I’ve never fucking touched you.”
In a move that had been nearly too quick to prevent, Samantha had grabbed my hand and tried pressing it to her breasts.
“Enough,” I’d snapped as I’d ripped my hand from hers. “You need to—” The words had died on my tongue as soon as it had clicked into place.
The move she’d just tried to make. Where she’d tried to place my hand.
