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I followed her as my internal battle was waging war in my head. What did I do with this? Should I be worried? I wasn’t doing anything wrong. Aspen knew that, right? We weren’t a couple. We were friends.
“Yum!” Ramona said, letting go of me and walking over to where Aspen was putting plates and flatware on the table.
She glanced up at Ramona, and again, there was that damn fake smile. “Trinity is a great cook,” she told her.
I needed to say something. I just didn’t know what the fuck I was supposed to say. We hadn’t seen each other in three days. Dammit. This was not supposed to happen.
A hard slap on my back was followed by, “Hey, brother.” Kye’s tone made it clear he was pissed. Possibly angry.
What the hell did he have to be angry about? Nothing I had done was wrong.
I watched him walk over to Aspen and lean down to whisper in her ear. His hand touched her hip, and my legs started working again. I was going to rip his hand off his fucking body. Ramona’s arms wrapped around me then, and she pressed up against me, stopping me.
“I want another beer.” The pleading sound was meant to be sexy, but right now, it annoyed the fuck out of me.
“Oh,” Trinity said. “We are all here. Uh, okay, great.”
I shifted my gaze to the door she’d just walked through, followed by Huck. If looks could kill, I’d be dead. Trinity was livid. Huck raised his eyebrows at me as he walked by.
Yeah, what the hell was I supposed to do? Send Ramona packing? She’d just swallowed my damn cum. I couldn’t kick her out. Someone could have warned me Aspen was coming.
“Beer, please,” Ramona said again, still holding on to me.
Fuck, fine. If she’d stop touching me.
“Yeah, I’ll be right back,” I muttered, then turned to get the hell out of that room.
When I walked out, Gage was heading this way with his arm thrown over Shiloh’s shoulders. He glanced over my shoulder and winced. “Damn. You brought her to eat? I always knew you were a cold son of a bitch, but I didn’t know how deep that shit went.”
“What?” Shiloh asked.
Gage pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “You’ll see,” he told her.
I stalked to the bar and grabbed two beers. I wanted to throw them both against a wall. Why were they acting like I’d fucked up? Aspen and I were not a couple. Aspen knew that. Even thought she was acting all strange and shit. Slamming the cooler closed, I headed back to the conference room to get this over with.
Ramona was on me the second I walked inside. “Thank you!” she said, taking it, then spinning around to face the table.
My eyes found Aspen. She was sitting between Trinity and Kye. He was saying something to her, and a small smile touched her face. It wasn’t fake, but it didn’t meet her eyes. He bumped her shoulder with his arm, and I wanted to hurt him.
Ramona went and sat her ass directly across from Aspen. Motherfucking hell. Could this get any worse? Like I was going to be able to eat anything with Aspen sitting there beside Kye, who kept touching her. I was stuck over here because I’d decided I needed to blow off steam.
I heard the talking going on around me. I just couldn’t focus on it. My head was pounding. Aspen lifted her eyes and met mine. The hurt look in them was worse than a damn knife being shoved in my chest. I wanted to reach across the table and grab her. Hold her and tell her … fuck, I didn’t know. What would I tell her?I’m sorry I needed to fuck. She means nothing to me.
The tight smile she gave me was it, and then she looked away.
“You made everyone’s favorites,” Shiloh said.
“Aspen made the brownies. I can’t take credit for that. They’ve got homemade fudge icing in them, and I won’t lie—I licked the bowl when she was done.” Trinity was talking to everyone, but I felt like she was glaring at me as she spoke. I didn’t look at her.
“I’m gonna eat two,” Kye said, winking at Aspen.
She blushed, and I had to grip the chair to keep from flying over the table and tackling him.
“It was my gran’s recipe. She always made them for special occasions.”
“So, you can cook too?” Shiloh asked.
Aspen nodded, tucking some hair behind her ear. She looked so damn shy and unsure. This was my job. To sit beside her and reassure her. Hold her hand. Whatever she needed.
