“No one can hate anything when they’re getting the D like I justknowhe’s delivering.” Chloe took a sip of her drink andshook her head. “The Steele men have a certain way about them…”
Sutton nodded. “That they do. And I’m not sure NC-17 is a high enough rating for that sex-with-your-clothes-on we just witnessed between you two.”
“It wasnot?—”
“Tell me about it,” Chloe interrupted, her head bent toward her phone, her thumbs flying over the screen. “I’m telling Xander to drop Emma at his mom’s and get his ass over here. Might need to sneak off to the bathroom for a little grown-up time.”
“I already texted Atlas.” Sutton slipped her phone into her purse. “I give it three minutes before he comes storming through the door.”
“Then it’s time for a toast before they descend!” Chloe raised her glass. “To our favorite black cat and the golden retriever who finally chased her down.”
“Welcome to the family, Willa.” Sutton clinked her glass with mine. “The Steele men can be a real pain in the ass…”
Chloe leaned in, her voice dropping to a not-quite whisper. “But those dicks, am I right?”
I choked on a laugh and shook my head, cheeks burning hotter than the bourbon. But they weren’t wrong.
“You two are the worst,” I muttered, but the words came out softer than I meant them to.
That was just the booze talking, not anything else. Not the warmth or the laughter or the ridiculous toast or feeling like I actually belonged to something…someone.
Like I was finally part of awe.
I blinked hard, trying to shove the feeling away. Push it back down where it belonged—out of sight and out of mind. But it stayed right there, lodged in my heart like a splinter I couldn’t dig out. Small but sharp and impossible to ignore.
When I glanced over at the bar, Lincoln was laughing at something Declan said, his grin wide and carefree. He looked so damn good, all confidence and charisma. He turned in my direction then, like I was a magnet drawing his gaze. And when he caught me looking before I could pretend I wasn’t, he smiled just for me. Slow and lazy and as smug as sin. Like he knew exactly what I was thinking.
Then he picked up a lowball glass filled with amber liquid, a lemon peel on the rim—a Black Cat. He raised it in my direction with a smirk on his lips that said he was toasting a secret only the two of us knew.
The trouble was, I didn’t know which secret he was referring to because we shared so many.
And no matter how many times I told myself this thing between us was fake, that look on his face—the one that saidminewithout saying a damn word—was starting to feel all too real.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
WILLA
I should’ve gone home,but for some reason, I let Chloe and Sutton talk me into another round. And then they talked me into a game of pool, even while their bodyguards—er, boyfriends—stood watch from behind the bar.
All four of the Steele brothers were here tonight, three of them focused on this pool table and nothing else. And I knew if a certain bespectacled librarian had been in tonight, Declan would’ve had his attention snared too.
“Uh-oh,” Sutton muttered, chalking her cue, her gaze caught on something behind me. “They’ve lost patience with us, Chlo.”
I turned around to see both Atlas and Xander stalking toward us, the crowd splitting like the Red Sea.
“Oh, oh!” Chloe bounced on her toes, a bright grin on her face. “You know what that means! Time for three on three!”
“We’re in,” Sutton said, leaning into Atlas’s side as he wrapped a possessive arm around her.
“Your counting’s off,” I said, wondering just how much they’d had to drink tonight. “How about two on two, and I sit this one out?”
“Absolutelynot.” Chloe gave a firm shake of her head. “We need Lincoln.”
Xander stepped up behind her and pressed a kiss to her temple. “Don’t love that you said that as soon as I got here, chaos.”
Chloe tipped her head back and grinned at him. “It’s for Willa, obviously. Let’s school the newlyweds since they’ll be all distracted with sex eyes.”
No.No.
