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“Uh, and why were you doing that in the first place?” he asked.
“Because you said you’ve done this before, asshole. You’re supposed to lie.” Fuck, I had to get a grip. I was being ridiculous.
The dick actually smirked at me.
“And you know what we never talked about?” I pressed. “You getting engaged to that damn security guard.”
He coughed around a laugh and rubbed the back of his neck. “When were we supposed to talk about it? The years we didn’t acknowledge each other, or the twenty minutes since we kissed and made up?”
I shot him a glare—motherfucker—and sat down on the bed to remove my boots.
Elliott sat down next to me and settled our bags of convenience store goodies between his feet. “First of all, me saying I’ve done this before only means I’ve donethis—I’ve combined two chairs into a nice bed on a private jet. I distinctly remember boarding the jet after two months in Nicaragua, looking like I’d entered a mud-wrestling contest. For the record, the shower in the bathroom is fucking tiny. And then I crashed.” He nudged my elbow with his. “Alone, Joel.”
Was he just saying that?
I side-eyed him.
“Secondly,” he went on, leaning in. He pressed a kiss to my shoulder. “You know why I split up with my ex? Apparently, I talked in my sleep and said the wrong name one time too many, and that’s how he justified cheating on me.”
Fuck.
I was a moron.
“Tell me it was my name you said in your sleep,” I muttered.
His mouth twitched with amusement. “You know it was.”
Okay. Good. Now I could refocus. “That asshole cheated on you?”
“Out ofhurt, he said. Can you believe that?” he chuckled.
No. I really couldn’t.
Well. I could believe the hurt, but to retaliate by cheating was just a shitty excuse for being a shitty person.
I released a breath and relaxed a little. “I may be a possessive dick, but I hate betrayal. I’m sorry you had to go through that.” Then I grabbed his hand. “I’m also sorry for this freak-out. I wish I could say it won’t happen again, but we’ve missed out on so much time together that it’s gonna be a while before I feel we’re really in this together.”
He brought my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles. “We’ll remind each other as often as it takes. How’s that?”
I nodded once and kissed his cheek.
“My ego’s been bruised enough that I won’t mind the outbursts of jealousy,” he admitted with a little smirk. “You’ll probably be on the receiving end of similar moments of insecurity from me.”
I smiled, despite it was fucked up. I’d only ever felt possessive and jealous when it came to Elliott, because…I didn’t know. He was different, and he hadn’t truly been mine before. He’d been that dream guy I’d been low-key in love with for twenty-five years who kept slipping through my fingers.
He was mine now, though. And he was going to stay that way.
* * *
Shay Tenley
“Baby, wake up.Shay.”
I gasped and coughed as I was wrenched away from the cell, from the smell of rust and soil, from the constant humidity, from the darkness—and I sat up and scrubbed at my face, suddenly surrounded by luxury cloaked in darkness.
Fuck.
“Come here.” River lifted his arm, and I was quick to cuddle up against his side. He tucked me in with my blanket. “You sure you don’t want us to take the other bed in the back?”
