Huffing, she tossed both hands in the air. “Well now, thanks to my so-called friends, I need to go inside and change underwear.” When she stepped back into the cabin, I followed, but she stopped me cold with a single hard look. “Alone.”
“But I can help,” I offered. Help her get out of them—that was for damn sure.
“You and your friend’s help are why I need to change. Give me a minute.” Her gaze darted over her shoulder. “Or a couple.”
Before she could close the door, I slapped a palm to the center of the thick wood. “If you do anything other than change your soaked panties, like play with that delicious cunt to take the edge off, I will know, and you won’t like the consequences.”
“I wasn’t,” she whispered, but I heard the lie. It was in that single glance she gave to her bedroom that was filled with indecision and longing. I arched a brow silently, calling her out on it. “Fine, maybe, but it’s your fault.” She waggled a finger between me and West.
“Then let us take the edge off for you,” he suggested, coming to stand beside me.
“No, that would make this”—she gestured between the three of us—“even more complicated and confusing.”
“Oh, shortcake, there is nothing confusing about it. We want you, and you want us. You’re the one holding back, making this complicated.” I hovered so close that she had to tip her head back to maintain eye contact. “We’re consenting adults. We’re asking for a chance to show you we’re different. Not a marriage proposal, just a chance.”
“But what if you don’t like who I really am?” she asked. The fear in her eyes made my heart clench.
“Then you’d have gotten hundreds of orgasms out of it and the solid answer that we’re piece-of-shit humans, because thatis the only type of person who wouldn’t see your value.” Unable to stop myself, I leaned in close and pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth. “Go change those soaked panties, Juno. We’ll be waiting.”
Standing tall, a soft chuckle vibrated in my chest at her frozen, confused expression. After a few seconds of her gaping at me, I gently grasped her shoulders to turn her into the cabin, smacking her ass lightly to get her moving.
I choked on a stifled groan at feeling her cheek jiggle with the light smack. Hopefully soon I would get to see my pink handprint on each ass cheek, or the plump globe mold around my fingers as I squeezed tight.
“You’re so fucked,” West chuckled.
I shook my head and turned to face away from her cabin before I broke and followed her.
“No, asshole—weare.”
Shoulder pressed against the porch post, I stared off into the distance, savoring the pleasant evening. After a few seconds, I gave voice to what I’d been thinking about all afternoon. “Knowing he didn’t physically hurt her doesn’t make me want to kill him any less. That shit she’s talking about is the same bullshit Mattie’s ex spewed at her.”
“But Juno didn’t have you, or anyone, to counterbalance the lies with truth. I know what that feels like.”
The heat pumping through me from earlier, warming my skin to the point of sweating, cooled at his sobering tone. Twisting around, I found his unfocused gaze fixed on the porch’s white-painted boards.
“Maybe, since you both being alone is similar, that’s something you two can work out together,” I hedged.
West shook his head. “No one needs my fucked-up past in their heads. It’s bad enough that it’s in mine.”
I wasn’t a sensitive guy, but seeing him looking so distant, hopeless, had me swallowing hard to clear the emotions clogging my throat. I couldn’t protect him from his past, but I sure as hell would do anything for the man to help him process the awful things he’d survived.
West was loyal, dedicated, brilliant when it came to anything with an engine, and soulful when you least expected it. He deserved a full life without assuming he didn’t because of what was done to him as a kid.
“That’s your call,” I murmured. “But she might be more understanding than you think. Sounds like her childhood wasn’t great either.”
“Neither was yours,” he added with a bit of bite to it, telling me we were edging into an uncomfortable territory for him.
“Yeah, but I had Mattie, and when she was home, I had Mom. We were poor as shit, but we had each other, and Mom, for all her other bad qualities, tried to be a good mom.” I grasped his shoulder and squeezed. “Just think about it.”
Before he could respond, the door swung open and Juno stepped out, ending the conversation. West’s pinched features transformed into a wide smile, though I noticed it looked stiff, unlike earlier.
Hell, if she could help him heal from his past, then I’d give her whatever she wanted. My best friend deserved to be happy, and so did she. Which was why this had to work between the three of us.
Juno eyed us after closing the door and locking up. “Everything okay out here?” She arched a questioning brow in my direction. “Lovers’ quarrel?”
West huffed. “You’re confusing lovers with fuck buddies.”
I trailed behind the two as they descended the steps, heading toward the parking lot.
