Vane knocked back his drink, and I winced as he downed the booze in one long swallow. He let out a hiss between his teeth and then set the empty tumbler on the coffee table. The small sounds he made were loud in the quiet room, and as he scanned our surroundings, an odd guilt ate at me again. I was in a beautiful home with clothes I hadn’t paid for after more or less fucking over every person I knew—including Stormy. What the hell had I done to deserve this? How could I ever make it up to everyone? I shifted uncomfortably. I should be trying harder to do the things Stormy asked me to do. At least I could give him that.
Vane finally snapped his gaze around to meet mine and his jaw hardened. “What about the rest of it? Why did you piss away the mayorship?”
My gut clenched and I sucked in a deep breath. “It’s boring. It’s hard work? After I won—”
“We won.” He knocked his elbow against my side in a none-too-friendly move.
“Afterwewon, it wasn’t fun anymore. The job wasn’t what I thought it would be, and yeah, it was fun being the mayor, or at least having theperksof the mayor, but much less exciting than I’d figured…. And that sounds stupid.” I leaned away from Vane. His face was red again, and the horrible scowl he wore made me want to crawl away into the nearest pit and curl up there.
“What the hell do you need to happen for something to be exciting? We were in a position to make changes in this city! Maybe if you’d done more of the public interactions—”
“But that’s your specialty.” I shrugged and felt hopeless. “It’s probably better this way.”
“Well, you know you fucked me, right?” He turned toward me, and I shoved myself away from him, though I couldn’t go far. “I happen tolovemy job. Me, JP, and Jaxson? Hell, even that fuck Kalinski—”
“What?” I sat up straight. “The kid who tried to blackmail you? What does he have to do with anything?”
Vane waved a hand to shut me up. “We’re going to have to work our asses off because of you.” He was close to yelling, and I leaned away from him as he turned and grabbed my shoulders. “You picked the absolute worst fucking thing possible to doand did it. Why? I need a goddamned answer.” I flinched as his voice picked up volume, and he shoved me. I caught myself on the arm of the couch and lifted a finger.
“How mad will you be if I don’t have one for you?”
The bedroom door smacked open and rebounded off the wall from the force. Stormy stood there dripping and beautifully pale with only a towel around his waist. My mouth watered. The tattoo in the center of his chest was vibrant. I wanted to lick the drops of water off his body and spend some time tracing my tongue over his artwork.
“You will not yell at him,” Stormy said. He looked ready to walk over and stomp Vane into the floor, which should not have had my stomach heating the way it did—but maybe I wasn’t a very good guy when it got right down to things. Stormy’s towel was loosely held in one hand and slipped down a bit from his waist, so that my eyes got stuck on the vee of muscles that led down to his fun parts. My mouth went dry as I stared at him and got stuck looking at the dark line of hair that came into view at his groin. He gave Vane a warning snarl and then went back in the bedroom and slammed the door behind himself.
“This is what you picked? Aprons and that bossy little prick? What. The. Fuck.” Vane groaned. “I don’t get it.”
The collar was way too tight around my neck. I plucked at it and had a hard time swallowing. “I’m sorry I made the campaign trail suck and gave Lightman something to jump all over your balls about, but I won’t apologize for being here with Stormy. He’s the only good thing I have right now.”
Vane’s expression fell and he sighed. “You don’t have to apologize. He’s a prostitute. There’s a time and a fucking place to have your fun with a hustler, but they never fuckinglikeyou. Are you confused?” Vane leaned forward and hooked his thumb toward the closed bedroom door. “It’s all about cash or other tradeables with them. What does he think he’s getting from you? Because trust me, he’s going to be pissed off when he doesn’t get it later. You better figure it out.”
My gut sank. I didn’t think it was like that with me and Stormy right now—only thehustle—but Vane was looking at me like I was the dumbest man he’d ever met. Maybe he was right. When had I lost sight of the retail aspect of what was going on? Vane just had it backward. I was selling myself to Stormy right now. Was he getting what he wanted? “I….”
Vane tipped his head back against the couch and stared at the ceiling. “You are a shitty fucking friend. If you want to get into who is the shittier person, me or you, yeah I didn’t call you in jail. Boo-fucking-hoo. I was busy cleaning up your fucking mess. You fucked me. Dry.”
“I’m sorry.”
Vane growled. “I’m sorry I had to strand you here.”
“I’m not stranded.” The bedroom door cracked open and Stormy peeked out to smile at me before he closed it again, and I had to laugh. So much for him letting me have a conversation without him butting in. Vane had one thing right, he was bossy, but I didn’t mind.
Vane’s lips thinned and he whapped my arm. “Are you okay? I can give you a loan to get you out of here.”
I snorted. “And I would pay you back how? I owe everyone and their mother, and I still have fines that are on a payment plan.”
“What do you mean?”
I fought down an eye roll, but fuck it, it’s not like I was the mayor anymore. I pulled a face at him and stuck out my tongue, and the corner of Vane’s mouth twisted into a smile. “No one is ever going to hire me in this city.”
“Maybe I could set you up at my real estate—”
“No, you can’t. You’d have the same problem my dad does, times a thousand.”
He sighed. “Fuck.”
Vane and I stared at each other, and I jumped when he smacked my arm again. “We’re going to, uh, Jaxson and I are going to do it. For real.” He spun around the band on his wedding finger.
I turned and leaned my elbow against the back of the couch. “Get married?”
