Her head fell forward, shielding her face for a moment, then she looked back up.“That I’m in love with you.”
The breath Knox had been holding burst from his lungs with a woosh.“What?”
Cheeks blazing, eyes dark with regret, she said it again.“I’m in love with you.With both of you.And I know it screws everything up, that this was supposed to be just you guys helping me with my birthday wish, which we haven’t even really gotten to yet, and this is way more than you bargained for, especially with Mo being such adickabout it, and you probably don’t want anything more to do with me after this—”
“Chloe,” Jesse tried to interrupt, but she kept going.
“And I wouldn’t blame you, because it’s all such amess, and Mo’s right, people will be assholes if we were all together, liketogethertogether, and you might lose business because of it, and I don’t want to be responsible for that, so I’m going to call a ride share, but I wanted to tell you how sorry I am, and that I’ll stay out of your way at the pub until the restaurant is finished, and you don’t have to worry about me telling anyone anything about this—”
Knox tried to get her attention.“Chloe.”
“Trust me, I’d just look like an ass, the idiot who fell in love with not one, buttwomarried men, who wants to be known as that girl, right?Well, Bailey and Gwen, they’ll know, because they already know and I tell them everything, but they’ll keep it between us, because they’re my best friends—”
“Fuck this,” Jesse decided and, rising up, knee walked across the mattress, put his hands on her face and cut off the stream of babble with a hard, fierce kiss.
When he lifted his head, her eyes were wide, her mouth in a shocked O.“What was that for?”
“To shut you up,” Jesse said, and kissed her again, longer and sweeter and with a lot more tongue.“That,” he said when he stopped, breathing hard, “was because I’m in love with you, too.”
She blinked, her eyes going wider.“You are not.”
Jesse just grinned, the dimple popping in his cheek, and Knox choked back a laugh of pure joy.“Am so.So’s he.”
Chloe swiveled her head around to stare at Knox.“You are?”
“I really fucking am,” he said and snatched her out of Jesse’s arms for his own kiss.
When he’d finished, she looked up at him with wide, hazy eyes.“But…it was supposed to be no strings.”
“I never said no strings,” Knox said.“Jess, did you say no strings?”
“Uh-uh.”Jesse nuzzled the nape of her neck.“I like strings.Iwantstrings.”
“Oh.You’re not mad, then?”
Knox shook his head.“Nope.”
“The opposite of mad,” Jesse assured her.
“That’s good,” she said and let out a shaky sigh.“So what happens now?”
Knox cocked an eyebrow at Jesse over Chloe’s head.“Makeup sex?”
Jesse grinned.“Makeup sex.”
“I’m good with that,” Chloe decided.
* * * *
After makeup sex, there was a makeup shower, and then makeup pizza, which they devoured in the middle of the big bed.And Chloe asked the question that had been turning around in her head ever since the makeup orgasms had faded.
“Um, question.”
Knox bit into his second slice.“Shoot.”
“What happens now?”
Jesse groaned.“Jesus, woman.Haven’t you ever heard of a refractory period?”
