She picked at a loose thread in the bedspread. Something twinkled in the moonlight, and I got a glimpse of the huge pink diamond shaped like a bow now adorning her left hand. My stomach suddenly hurt. “And he’s been visiting you….”
“Yeah.” My voice sounded strangled to my own ears.
“Every night.” I didn’t respond, and my silence didn’t go unnoticed by Coby. Her gaze was curious and trusting, making me feel even more like shit. “What were you guys doing?”
I sucked in a breath when I remembered my deal with Ocean. I get to see Coby if I keep my mouth shut, but that was never going to happen. I wasn’t going to lie to Coby. That’s not how we rocked.
I just hoped she wouldn’t hate me too much.
Ocean made their marriage sound like a business arrangement, but the way he guarded her like a dragon hoarding treasure…
Yeah, no.
It was definitely more than that.
“I kissed him, Coby.” The confession had been blurted out, and I wished I could say I felt better, but I only felt worse, especially when Coby sat up with a frown.
“What?” I’m going to be sick. “When?”
“Today,” I confessed, my skin flushing while the room spun. “And yesterday. And the day before. And the day before that. It started with a deal. A kiss in exchange for…you.”
“Why would you do that?”
My lips parted, but nothing came out. Every reason I wanted to give just sounded like an excuse. Because Ocean had been right. He’d given me a choice, and I made it on my own. I chose to kiss him, and I didn’t care about the consequences… at the time.
“I don’t know why,” I said with a gulp. It was the truth. I had no fucking clue why I’d want to kiss a monster. And not just any fiend. The heir to the fucking mafia. My best friend’s fiancé. “I’m sorry, Coby.” She didn’t speak for a long while, and I was too much of a coward to look her in the eye, so I kept staring at the ceiling. “There’s something else you should know,” I said after a few minutes. Coby still didn’t respond, but I knew she was listening. “He said…”Kill me now. “He said he wants us both, Coby. Like on some sister-wives shit.”
Turning my head finally, I watched as my best friend’s lips parted and her eyes widened.
She was the picture of shock, except the thing is… Coby was a terrible fucking actor. When she remembered how well I knew her, she dropped her gaze and continued picking at the bedspread.
And then, finally, she spoke. “Isn’t that illegal?”
I gave her a look. “Ocean’s in the mafia, Coby. I don’t think he cares.”
She finally met my gaze. “Right. Well… what are we going to do?”
This time, I was the one to look away. I stared at the wall while I wrestled with my warring feelings. I couldn’t recall Coby and me ever being afraid to tell each other what we were thinking. It just made me even more determined to get us away from Ocean Kilpatrick.
“I don’t know.”
We were quiet for a while, but even more surprising than Coby being the first to speak was the absolutely insane shit that came out of her mouth. “I think we should do it.”
My stomach felt like Coby had just carved a hole into it, leaving desire to rush in and fill the emptiness. I used what last bit of my head not fogged by my lust to say, “Coby…bestie…sweetie…are you out of your mind?”
Sharing a man, much less our captor, was crazy. And out of the fucking question.
“What’s the big deal? You and Ocean are the people I love most in this world, and he’s offering to take care of us both and keep us together.Clearly, you like him, so I figured… why not?”
I shot from the bed and placed my hands on my hips. “Really? What the hell do you mean by ”clearly I like him’? I do not like that psycho, Coby Perry!”
Coby groaned and tipped her head back. “Why are you yelling, Hunter?”
“Because you’re talking crazy!”
She didn’t respond until she was standing too. “Am I?”
“We don’t even know Ocean, and you want us to become his little pets just like that?” I snapped my fingers for emphasis.
