“Is he kicking everyone out?”
“Sounds like,” I sweep some hair back over her shoulder. Her throat works as she swallows. “You okay?”
Her lips press together and she nods.
“We need to talk about this. It’s happened enough that we can’t sweep it under the rug again. Unless that is what you want?” I give her a way out of it. As much as I need to know what she thinks about all of this, I don’t want to make her uncomfortable.
Mace comes back in before she can answer, he watches us standing close together, a slight narrowing of his eyes. I’m not sure what to make of him. He says he doesn’t want any strings, and this doesn’t mean anything, but his eyes tell a different story. They’re practically blazing with jealousy.
His restraint is impressive, when he looks like he wants to drag me away from Cassie and probably beat the crap out of me. There is no way he can get away from what we did, he enjoyed it, and he submitted to me again. Probably why he’s so pissed.
“Bathroom is this way, no one is out there now,” he holds the door open for her.
Cassie gathers her things and follows him out. I hear her tell him she’s got it, stopping him in his tracks, then the click of a door. He really did kick them all out, it’s deathly silent out there. I’m not expecting him to come back but he walks inside, his body filling up the whole doorframe.
“She rode in on your bike,” he says in a low voice.
I’d like to tell him it means what he thinks. Cassie wouldn’t want me to lie.
“We had to, to make the people we were seeing trust us. It wasn’t planned,” I add.
If he didn’t want to show the relief at my words, he failed, fucking miserably and I smirk at him.
“Fuck off,” he grunts. He stays by the door keeping an eye on the room beyond it.
“You thought I claimed her.”
“What would I care if you did?”
“You tell me,” I shrug, nonchalant but my gut twists. “If you did, and went ahead with that, it says more about you than me.”
“Who shares their old lady?”
“She isn’t mine,” I grit out. His brow arches because he fucking knows it’s what I want. Would I share her if she was? It’s pointless thinking that. Cassie will never be anyone’s old lady.
“What the fuck is happening?” He mutters to himself.
“Isn’t it obvious?” When he doesn’t answer, I go on. “We both want her.”
“And she’s made it clear she doesn’t want either of us.”
“Is that what this is?” I nod at the table. His eyes go there too. His nostrils flare at the small wet patch. “Cassie wouldn’t let us if she didn’t want it.”
“That’s the thing though.It. Not us.”
“You seem salty about that, Mace.”
“Stop trying to fucking analyze me,Handlebar,” he snaps. “This isn’t an after intimacy therapy session. We all fucked. Again. And I…” he shakes his head. “I don’t know how to deal with that. Do you? I’ve seen the way you look at her. Fuck, I even wanted to get under your skin about it,” he adds.
The dynamic between me and him is different to when it’s the three of us. We don’t like each other and we’re jealous when the other does something with her. Yet, we’re capable of dealing with it if all three of us are involved.
What does that say going forward? We meet up and fuck? We explore it? Maybe it becomes more? How the hell does that even work?
“You’re as confused as I am,” Mace says, another frown marring his brow.
“Join the club,” Cassie appears behind him. He moves aside and clamps his mouth shut, letting her back in the room. She’s dressed and doesn’t look recently fucked anymore which is a pity. “This is messy as hell, but Eli is right, we need to figure it out.”
She heard us, Cassie doesn’t miss a trick.
