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We were standing in the front office. Flynn and Ry were waiting for us in reception with their solicitors. I hadn’t seen him yet, but Tristan messaged me to say he was with them. A yearning so deep it bordered on painful filled me. I wanted to see them. I needed to. But there were another few hours yet on my shift, and Inspector Puglisi would be after my head. Running away to the Brisbane office was tempting, but two hours in traffic each way was enough to keep my feet planted firm.
“I’ve mirrored the hard drive. If there’s anything on there, I’ll find it.”
“Knock yourself out.” Zali smiled, but it reminded me of a shark rather than the genuinely warm woman she could be.
She turned her gaze to me. I was standing far too close to her, my hand on her lower back as she wavered. Her shoulder pressed against my chest, and she leaned into me.
The tech left, and I murmured low enough that only she could hear, “Where’s the yacht moored?”
“Marina Mirage.”
“I get off in three hours.”
She nodded, her lips parting and her tongue sneaking out to wet her lips. I wanted to bite it, to suck her tongue into my mouth. To feast on her lips.
“Good.”
I gestured to the door with a tilt of my head. “Let’s get you back to your men.”
I knew she wanted to say more, but thankfully she held her tongue. The inspector would be keeping a close eye on our interactions, and I didn’t want to give her any more ammunition than she already had.
With a small smile, her gaze lingering on my lips, she nodded. “Yeah.”
I walked out into the reception area and watched as Flynn slipped off my jacket and handed it to Tristan before he launched himself at Zali. He embraced her tight, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and pressing their heads together. I couldn’t hear the words he was saying to her, but when she wiped her cheeks with the heel of her palm and nodded, my shoulders fell. I’d tried my best to shield them all, and for the moment, it was working, but who knew how badly they could be hurt if the techs discovered anything.
Without letting Flynn go completely, she wrapped her arm around Ry and squeezed him tight. He was rigid, but he kissed her forehead and patted her back awkwardly. I wanted to be right there with them, in the middle just like Zali, even with Ry’s discomfort.
But I couldn’t.
I looked away, my yearning so palpable, I could have reached out and touched it.
My gaze clashed with Tristan’s.
The breath rushed from my lungs, my knees almost buckling.
Dear god, he was potent.
His pale green eyes were smouldering, fire burning in their depths. He possessed an intensity the likes of which I’d only ever seen on one other person—Ryder. Tristan was dangerous to my sanity. To my willpower.
I’d succumbed to him once.
I’d wanted him ever since.
But the timing was never right. After he’d served his sentence and we crossed paths again, I was neck deep in being there while a man grieved for his lost wife and son as well as dealing with a far-too-talented teenager, her sidekick, and their shadow.
I’d wanted more than a one-night stand by then. Tristan wasn’t ready to give it. He still came onto me every time we saw each other, but as the years passed, my feelings got more and more confused.
It hit me that Zali, Flynn, and Ry were all grown-up when we celebrated Flynn’s nineteenth birthday. Roe and I had taken a six-pack each down to the boat to celebrate. We wound our way through the Maseratis and Aston Martins in the car park, drooling over them and doing the same to the yachts in the marina.
But the picture that greeted me when we got to Zali’s yacht was what had stolen my breath. It had solidified a yearning in me, like a picture finally coming into focus. It had also sealed my fate. I was doomed to be single forever.
Zali was lying on the sun deck on the bow, wearing the tiniest bikini I’d ever seen while basking in the late afternoon sun. Ry was aft, barbecuing, and Flynn sat with his legs hanging over the side closest to us, reading a book.
I wanted them, and not just some abstract desire to sleep with them either. The craving to have all of them in my arms and in my bed together was overpowering.
But it would also be the ultimate betrayal.
How could I want them? What was wrong with me that I couldn’t decide on just one person? It was ironic that Tristan had become my safest choice.
