A dull laugh bounces through me. “When you take heaven and earth out of the equation, Chloe, all you’re left with is hell.” I look to Gage. “And that’s exactly where you are. You just don’t know it yet.”
Chloe presses out a forlorn smile. “Skyla, so petty. Are you still planning my demise?” She pats her belly. “It would be a double homicide. The half-brother or sister of your own boys. What would your children think of their mother?”
“Believe me, I’ll be their hero once I slaughter you.” I glance to her stomach, and just the sight of it spears my heart with pain. “But it looks like you don’t need a protective hedge around your neck. He planted one inside of you. I wouldn’t plan on getting too attached to the baby. But then, you never do get too attached.” I pull Logan with me into the crowd and wrap my arms around his neck as we begin swaying to the music as if it were a slow song.
Logan Oliver is a resplendent sight tonight, all testosterone and sex, hooded lids, dirty grin, flannel over jeans, three-day-old scruff. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he were gunning to get laid—but this is Logan. He makes the girls moan in passing every single day.
He tips his head back. “Laying it on a little thick, are we?”
A tiny smile twists on my lips. “You love it and you know it.”
“I love our spontaneous engagement, too. I’m glad you said yes.”
I can’t help but frown at him a moment. “You knew I’d come around.” I toss a sly wink his way.
He gives a slow blink. “Gage is about to blow a hole through the roof.”
“You do realize that at the last two New Year’s Eve parties there was a literal hole blown in the roof.”
“I remember. Last one was at the bowling alley and it’s just now recovered. But I think Gage should bottle rocket through the ceiling, any ceiling. It’s just the beginning of a long list of things I wish for him.”
I shrug up at him. “It was pretty easy to rile him up.”
“If you want, I can unzip my pants and you can ride me like a bronco right here in the living room.” His brows twitch because the dirty bastard means it.
“That would be fun,” I say without the proper inflection. For a moment, I envision Gage’s fury, the old Gage, the one who actually cared. This version might cheer us on. “But when I’m with you”—my fingers dig into the back of his hair, thick and smooth, something I can get used to touching all night long—“and I will be, the only show I’ll be putting on will be for your viewing pleasure. I may have a broken heart, but I have needs.” I glance to the floor, embarrassed that I’m being so brazen, asserting myself sexually at the most inopportune time. Logan wants all of my heart and he has it, but in Gage’s wake, a thousand emotional walls have erected themselves, towers that rise into the sky and mask daylight and all of the good emotions I should be reveling in, and instead, all I see is black.
He nods as if he understood. “Just for the record, I’m not opposed to revenge sex in or out of the public eye.” His gaze penetrates mine. “I made my feelings about you well known last spring, and I stand by them. I’m sorry he broke your heart, but I do not doubt for a moment that you belong with me.”
“I know. I mean, I realize how you feel. My head feels the same. My heart is still plastered over the walls, trying to figure out how to go on beating after that utter pummeling he gave me—gave us. You loved him, too.”
“I still love him, Skyla.”
“I know, and believe me, it’s a betrayal, Logan. As petty as it sounds, I want you to hate him as much as I do.”
“I hate what he did. And I hate it more than you can imagine. Possibly more than you do. I know your head is everywhere right now and your heart is nowhere to be seen, but, like I said, if you see him watching and feel the urge to drop to your knees and offer up a BJ, I’m in.”
A laugh rips through me and I feel somewhat human again, not that I am human—I’m anything but. “You are a dirty, dirty boy, Oliver.”
“You need to stop flirting with me.”
“Oh, honey, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
He gives me a twirl and I spot Emily in the corner with a blue light aglow next to her as she works furtively doling out those prophecies as fast as she can get them to paper. There’s already a line snaking into the living room, and I’m glad about it. The busier Em is, the less the odds that she’ll have time to whip one up for yours truly. But let’s be honest. Emily Morgan always seems to make time for me.
A hand taps over Logan’s shoulder and I squint into the dark to find Marshall pushing him out of the way.
“I believe the lady deserves a gentleman.” Soon enough, I’m in the sexy Sector’s arms, gliding clear across the room into a thicket of bodies, doing exactly this at supernatural speeds. Those brilliantly beautiful vibratronics of his strum through every last inch of my body. My God, just holding onto Marshall Dudley is like visiting a sexually satisfying day spa.
“Hey, handsome.” I run my finger along his jawline. “Rumor has it, I’ll be making a pit stop into your private chambers this evening. I believe a wild, thoughtless romp should start the year off right.” This, the night before Gage and Chloe’s wedding. I strongly like the idea of showing up for their nuptials—and by showing up, I mean standing in the back long enough for the farce to commence so I can scoop up the boys and run the hell home—good and thoroughly satisfied by the surly Sector before me. A ragged sigh escapes me. How a part of me longs for the days where Gage and I simply thoroughly satisfied each other and were far more than content by that alone.
“I’ve no intention on defiling your body—yet.” He runs a gentle line down my lips with the tip of his finger. “However, I am certain you will have creative, and might I add, satisfying dreams for many, many hours into the night.”
“Then it sounds like I’d better call it an early night.” I give a quick sweep around and my heart stops cold when I spot Gage with his arms wrapped around that demon doing exactly this. “He’s a monster, Marshall.” The words swim from my lips like traitors.
“That he is.” Marshall takes a deep breath. “Focus, Skyla. Do you know what my good friend Ezrina is doing at the moment?”
I shake my head, my gaze still painfully pinned in that horrid direction.
