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“I don’t understand...” Angel turned to Adam. “Did you use to date her or something?”
He choked. “Oh God no...”
“She’s the type of woman who firmly believes every man wants her,” Chris said. “And that all she has to do is crook her little finger and they’ll come running.”
“If you look up narcissistic personality disorder, you’ll have a good idea of her personality.”
“You should have seen how she dismissed Hilary and Jessica,” Chris said, shaking his head. “The only reason she didn’t immediately snub you is because she thought you were friends with Lexie and not another submissive. As soon as she realized you were competition, she was done with you.”
“She thinks all of you want her?” Angel asked, looking around the group.
“She used to think I wanted her too,” Olivia said with a smirk. “I disabused her of that notion. Which is why she doesn’t want Jared to be friends with me anymore. Fortunately, he’s not that far gone.”
“Ignore her,” Adam said, wrapping his arm around Angel’s waist and almost pulling her off of her stool before she shifted to accommodate for his extra weight. “We all do.”
“As much as we can anyway.”
The conversation circled around, mostly focusing on Marissa’s various antics throughout her and Jared’s relationship. Angel now realized exactly how discreet Adam had been when he’d told her about the couple. His friends had no problem talking about how Marissa had threatened to kill herself the last time Jared had tried to break up with her. Ugh. She couldn’t imagine trying to force a man to be in a relationship with her like that. Why would you want a guy you could only keep around by such extreme measures?
Fortunately, such negative thoughts and conversation were circumvented by the arrival of Justin, Jessica, Hilary, and Liam. The only one missing was Rick, although they all talked about him and Adam told everyone Rick was going to be in town to look for some apartments next weekend. Angel was surprised to hear Rick was going to be staying with Adam. Not that she had a problem with it, because of course she didn’t get a say in it, but should she be irked he hadn’t mentioned Rick’s visit at all?
What point were they at in their relationship?
“Oooo good!” Lexie said, brightening. “That means Angel’s free to come to our Ladies’ Night!”
Adam groaned as Angel perked up. “Ladies’ Night?”
“She means ‘trouble waiting to happen’ night,” he said, pulling Angel onto his lap. She went willingly enough, pleased his possessive display hadn’t been solely for Marissa earlier. “Just because Rick is staying at my place over the weekend doesn’t mean that Angel won’t be spending time with me.”
“Yeah, but we wanted to invite her to Ladies’ Night anyway,” said Jessica. “We hadn’t gotten the chance to yet.”
“It’s on Saturday night,” Lexie said brightly. “We’re having it at my new place.”
“You have a new place?” asked Patrick, suddenly appearing behind her. How did a man that big manage to sneak up on an entire group of people? Despite the greetings thrown his way, Patrick wasn’t at all diverted from the question Lexie hadn’t answered.
And Angel had thought Adam was Mr. Grouchy. Patrick more than beat him out for the title. The scar across his cheek looked particularly intimidating when he was glaring like that.
Intimidating to everyone except Lexie apparently. She eyed her brother’s best friend with a peculiar mix of annoyance, resignation, and sexual frustration. “Yes, I have a new place, I wasn’t going to live at my parents for the rest of my life.”
Patrick ignored the obvious sarcasm in her tone. “Where?”
“None of your business.”
“Well we can’t help you move in without knowing where.”
“I don’t think I asked you to.”
“Lexie,” he said, his tone threatening. Angel glanced around the circle at all the fascinated watchers to the drama. Did they all see what she saw? A young woman with an infatuation and a man who was fighting his own attraction? Or did they see Lexie as Patrick’s little sister, the way he was trying to treat her? Most of them looked either thoughtful or highly entertained, so it was up in the air.
“It’s BYOC—bring your own chair,” Lexie said, turning her back on the big Dom entirely. Unperturbed, she ignored the growling noise he made behind her. Justin’s cough sounded suspiciously like a laugh and Olivia wasn’t doing a damn thing to hide her amusement. “I don’t have any furniture yet other than my TV.”
“Good. A night in sounds perfect,” Patrick said. “Every time you go out you wreak havoc.”
Tilting her chin up, Lexie willfully ignored him as she kept her gaze on Angel. “I’ll text you the details.”
25
Adam
