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I blinked, startled by the question.
But admitting that I got a secret thrill out of arguing and bickering with Chloe was not something I was willing to tell these men who were like family to her. The way her barbs could turn me on was a deep dark, filthy, and incredibly sexy shame.
But Gray didn’t dwell on that question, thank God.
“Does your life seem exciting and new when she’s around?” he went on, asking next.
“Seeing as I’veknownher my whole life,” I deadpanned. “How would I be able to tell?”
Even though, yeah. Every time she had stopped by the bar when I was working, it was as if my antennae picked up and locked onto her, alert to everything she did. Everything else just faded into the background when Chloe was near.
And wow… Why had I never realized that before?
“Do you make special time for her?” Gray added.
Well, Ihadrearranged my whole work schedule for her, so that one felt like a check.
“Do you idealize her, make sacrifices for her, put her wants and needs ahead of your own…” Hell yes. I had put her wants ahead of my own—especially in that basement when I’d wanted more than anything to go find a key, but she’d wanted me to stay.
“Are you always eager to see her again,” Gracen started reading the list off faster now. “…Have great sex together, share your opinions with her, open up—”
“Go to a different website,” I ordered suddenly. I already had too many items checked off this list; I needed something new that Ihadn’tdone yet.
“Uh…” Gray glanced up in surprise, then shrugged before he returned his attention to the screen. “Okay. Let’s see what else we have.”
“Oh, Jesus,” one of the other guys groaned. But Gracen and I ignored him.
“Alright…” Gray announced as if he’d found something good. “You gain romantic love by mixing attraction with social factors.”
I squinted. “Socialfactors?”
“Yeah, you know…” He rolled his hand as he explained, “Like, you have similar beliefs and morals and backgrounds.”
I shrugged. “We already have that.”
“Ooh, wait!” Gracen held up a hand. “This one looks promising. First, you have to know what your natural defenses are, then work to shut those down so you’re vulnerable around her.”
“I have to dowhat?”
“Yeah.” Gracen nodded as if he agreed with all that shit. “Then you have to accept problems about yourself that you don’t like but can’t change.”
I blinked and started to panic. Black spots formed in my vision.
But what the fuck had Pick gotten me into? And what the hell had all these men surrounding me committedthemselvesto? These instructions felt like straight-up torture in the worst way ever.
“Don’t be afraid of getting rejected,” Gracen was reading on, making the cold sweat he’d already created just get worse as it dripped down the center of my spine. “Don’t play immature gimmicks, like, if she does this, then I’ll give in and do that.”
“Okay…what?” I asked, not breathing so well over here. “What does that even mean?”
“Jesus,stop!” Trick finally called, waving his hands to halt the entire conversation. “Just stop.” Glaring at Gray, he shook his head sadly. “Why the fuck are you people being so complicated and emotional? This isLukewe’re talking about here. Simple, straightforward, male Luke.”
“Yes. Thank you.” I liked where he was going with this. Simple and straightforward made so much more sense to me than whatever the fuck Gracen had been going on about. But I still had to sniff and frown at him—because he was Trick and I was pissed at him—before I demanded, “Then what doyousuggest I do, only other person in this room who’s never been in romantic love before?”
“Hey, I’mwaitingto fall in love until I meet that one special woman I’m going to marry and spend the rest of my life with,” Trick countered with a small scowl my way. “It’s still the one first of mine that I can save for her.”
“You are so weird,” I told him, while secretly jealous that he had deep thoughts like that.
“And you’re seriously overthinking this,” he spat back.
