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“I apologize too,” I started, but Viper waved us off.
“Guys, nothing to be sorry for. I asked for dirty laundry; you delivered. And here I didn’t think you two had anything despicable in your pasts, but what a fun turn of events.”
“Viper.” Levi shot him a shut-the-hell-up look.
“What? Oh. Sorry, I meant interesting, not fun. For you, anyway.”
Levi sighed and banged his head against the high back of the throne chair as Viper smirked.
“Soo,” he said, looking my way. “You’re the ex-boyfriend, huh? That explains all the sexual tension.”
Busted. I guessed it’d been too much to ask that he not put two and two together, but running out after Drew had probably nailed that coffin shut.
“I can see it. All that ‘rivals vying for the same thing,’ pretending to hate each other’s guts. It’s hot. Glad I could help you twocometogether.” When he shot us a wink, my face was back to burning. Everything out of that man’s mouth was to push the other person’s buttons. “By the way, I got you refills.” He gestured to the full glasses on the table. “Interesting choice, club soda, Hudson. Am I right to guess you don’t drink alcohol?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm.” He tapped his lips. “That have anything to do with that epic hangover from college, or is it something else?”
I glanced at Drew. Well, if we were coming clean, I may as well tell the truth. “The repercussions of drinking weren’t worth it.”
“Oh? In what way? Because I have to tell you, all my drunken nights have all been completely worth it,” Viper said with a devilish grin.
“If I hadn’t gotten drunk that night, if I hadn’t been too hungover to go to class, then Drew wouldn’t have done what he did.”
Viper raised a brow.
“That’s an awful lot of responsibility to take over someone else’s actions,” Levi said.
“It’s my decision.”
He held up his hands. “Fair enough.”
“I just never wanted to put myself in that position again,” I said. “I don’t like not being in control.”
As Viper drummed his fingers along the edge of the chair and studied the two of us, there was a knock at the door.
A blond woman poked her head inside. “Sorry to interrupt, but the chef’s station has the tasting ready for you and Halo.”
“On it. Thanks, Paige.” Once she disappeared, Viper got to his feet. “Well, I think you two have given me enough to think about. I’ll let you know my decision at the party, which will also be a sort of ‘hey, fuckers, I wrote a book about all of you’ announcement.” He rubbed his hands together. “Should be fun.”
As Viper peaced out, Levi took the reins. “I know this is all a little unorthodox, but thanks for rolling with it.”
“That’s one way to put it,” I said, feeling a little off-kilter from the rapid ping-ponging of emotions over the last hour. “But no problem.”
“Call it an intro to what working with Viper will be like. I’d warn you off, but you can’t help but love the guy…when you don’t want to beat him over the head with a bottle.”
“Sounds like a good time.” Drew smiled, but I wondered what was going on in his head. If any of what I’d said had gotten through.
We followed Levi’s lead as he got to his feet.
“So we’ve got a few hours until the party begins. If you’d like, I’ll show you the rest of the house, introduce you to the band if they haven’t killed each other, and we can go from there?”
And somehow get some alone time with Drew to finish what we started…
25
DREW
