I blink. “What?”
“Yeah. Since we’ve been together, yes, she’s gone out with lots of other guys, made it look like she had relationships with a bunch of them,but she’s not sleeping with them. She hasn’t slept with any of them.”
“How do you know?”
He laughs. “Because for starters, since I’ve been with her, I’ve helped fix her up with a lot of them.”
“What?”
“Yeah. Plus, it’s a smokescreen to hide what we’ve been doing. No one knows about me and her. Well, except you now. And—” He clamps his mouth shut, but before he can look away, I grab his chin.
“And? Andwho?”
It takes him a moment to answer, but I wait him out, holding his chin so he can’t look away.
“Ellen,” he finally admits. “She knew about us.”
It feels like he nailed me in the guts with a sledgehammer. “What?”
She never told me. Even after all the little comments I’d made to her in private when Case went somewhere with yet another guy.
“She knew. Because Casey made a few arrangementsin her will, and she wanted someone else to know why she did it so no one thought I was trying some sort of fuckery.”
“Arrangements?”
“Like she wanted me to handle the funeral, personal property and assets she’s left me, things like that.”
This leaves me confused and conflicted. “Really?”
“Really. She loves me, and I love her. She doesn’t have to cheat on me, because if she ever did want tofuck someone else, all she’d have to do is tell me that. Ditto with me. That’s our deal. She has no reason to lie to me about it.”
It’s not an exaggeration to say I deflate over that news. I release him, except he doesn’t let me get away with that.
He kisses me. “There’s room for you, too. Iwantthis.You’rethe one who was just talking about being poly together.”
“I feel like the world’sshittiest friend,” I admit.
“She creates the image she wants people to see. You’re not the only one who thinks she’s a serial dater. That’s what shewantspeople to think.”
“But…why?”
He frames an imaginary headline. “Senator Forrester’s Chief of Staff is a Kinky Bitch,” he says. “Or, how about,Governor Forrester’s Staff Filled With Freaks.” He slowly shakes his head. “We’re protecting you,asshole.” Then he smiles, and I laugh.
I laugh and feel like I’m losing my mind.
I try to get him to let me make love to him, but he wants to work on the speech still, so we compromise.
I make love to him.
Thenwe go back to working on the speech, this time with me sitting up in bed and his head in my lap, his laptop balanced on his stomach.
By the time we finally fall asleep that night,I’ve left plenty of marks all over him, and we’ve both come so many times we’re empty.
For now, everything in my head is…quiet.
Blissfully, peacefully quiet.
* * * *
