“Are you good?” he asked with a quiet voice.
I glanced over my shoulder. “I’m perfect. Are you okay?”
He wrapped an arm over me. “I’m not sure how I feel because I’ve never felt like this before. All I know is that this feels right.”
Cruz lifted the covers and slid in close to me. I burrowed into his chest, with Ryatt snug against my back. I’d never felt like this before either. I’d loved Cruz for so long, but I loved him even more because of Ryatt. Because he needed Ryatt as much as I did. And Ryatt needed us.
Chapter Fifteen
Ryatt
I couldn’t sleep. McKelle’s soft snores blended with Cruz’s even breaths. I’d almost fucked up the best thing that had ever happened to me. I’d known the minute I’d walked into the MC, that there was nowhere else I wanted to be but here with them.
I’d been so sure I was going to prison. Nothing good ever happened to me. This time I wasn’t going to let my fears and insecurities fuck this up. I slid out of bed, felt my way to the dresser, and grabbed my phone.
Once back in bed, I turned down the brightness of the screen and opened the thread of text messages and photos McKelle had sent me while I was locked up.
McKelle: I don’t feel like doing anything. Except you. I’d do you, right now.
The picture was from the couch in her dad’s loft. Her bare feet were on the table in front of the couch.
Her next text filled two screens on the phone.
McKelle: Jazzy said something to me today. She said relationships are like roses with thorns. They can hurt and you can bleed, but they’re still the most beautiful flower. I think she’s right. Every color of rose has a meaning. White is purity. Pink is for innocence. Yellow is friendship. I know you probably don’t wantto talk about Cruz. He’s a red rose for me. A wild rose that won’t be clipped. He’s always been my red rose. I want red roses with you, too. I want you to know that the most beautiful roses have thorns, and just because the thorns occasionally hurt, it doesn’t change how much I love red roses.
She followed it with a black and white selfie. I couldn’t be sure where it was taken because it was a closeup of her face. I stared into her eyes, and a lump welled in my throat. She was stunningly beautiful, but it was the glint in her eyes and the tilt of her lips that had my gut in knots.
“Can’t sleep?” the husky words broke the silence in the room.
“No.” I turned my head on the pillow. In the glow of my phone, my gaze connected with Cruz’s.
McKelle had rolled to her back as she slept. One arm stretched over her head and the other tucked under the blanket. Loose tendrils of hair had escaped her braid as it rested against the soft slope of her bare shoulder and curled around her pebbled nipple outlined beneath the thin sheet.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“McKelle asked me the same thing. I’m home. I know I belong with both of you. When did you know you wanted me with you both?” Before I could finish, Cruz answered.
“Breakfast with her dad.”
“Really?” That was early days, and I’d still been hoping she’d choose me.
“After the day you were at the track together, I knew that she and I couldn’t go back to the way we were. She was so fucking happy…because of you. But it was when we had breakfast with her family that I realized things had changed for me, too. She and I won’t work if you’re not part of us.”
“But she’s in love with you,” I said.
Cruz didn’t speak. Silence lingered between us.
“I’m in love with her,” I confessed. A gust of breath slipped over her slightly parted lips. Lips I could imagine kissing forever.
“Ryatt.” His voice reached me in the darkness, seeping into my skin and curling around my bones. “I killed for you.” He took a breath. “I’d die for her.”
Our breaths permeated the space between us. I closed my eyes, afraid to speak because my throat thickened with emotion. I’d fallen in love with him, too. I’d feared going to prison, feared losing her, but I couldn’t fear this.
“You don’t have to worry about me,” I finally said and set my phone on the old rickety table next to the bed. “I know what I want.” I lifted my gaze to his. “What we both want.” I tugged on the sheet, exposing more of her breasts.
“Her.” Cruz carefully brushed her bangs from her face. His gaze followed the contour of her jaw, along her neck, and down the slope of her chest.
When his gaze finally lifted to me, I stared at him for what he was. My friend, my brother, her boyfriend,and our lover.
