Once I pulled my clothes back on and lamented the stubble on my legs that I’d utterly forgotten about, I went on the search for Griffin. I’d be damned if he would love me and leaveme.
“Griffin Bell!” I shouted. “Get your humongous, sexy self back here!” I stomped toward the living room,furious.
He was standing in the middle of the living room, facing Ellion and Chandler. They all turned to me and they all looked pissed. I stopped short, not sure what sort of argument I was walkinginto.
“What the hell?” Ellion askedme.
He was mad atme.
“Don’t you dare,” I said, narrowing my eyes at the three of them, standing there like a bunch of judgmental grannies. “Don’t you look at me like that. You were all into it in the gym when it was you I had my legs wrapped around.” I didn’t even want to talk to them if they were going to act like what Griffin and I had done was wrong. I should’ve hidden in the library. “And,” I pointed at Chandler. “You told me to go after him. You said he hadn’t been turned on in years. Well guess what, Sir Flirts-a-Lot? It’s been a while for me,too.”
I’d worked myself into a real steam. “Every time I get around you guys, you piss me off. I’m going to go hide in the library and love on Shakespeare and pretend I didn’t just get treated like a one-night stand and then judged forit.”
“Linda, wait,” Ellion cried from behindme.
I keptwalking.
“I’m going to follow you,” hesaid.
“Why?” Our voices echoed in the hallway. Mine especially, since I wasn’t making any attempt to lower it. “Do you know what happened between Griffin and me?” Iasked.
“You…” Poor Ellion looked miserablyuncomfortable.
“We fucked,” I said bluntly. “We were both horny and honestly pretty lonely on my part, and we used each other for some relief. And I willnotapologize forthat.”
Ellion sighed. “I wouldn’t ask you to. I just wanted to know whyGriffin?”
It clearly cost him a lot to ask that question. I gathered he didn’t care for being sovulnerable.
“I don’t know. No particular reason. It just worked out that way.” I hadn’t thought anything through. It was obvious from the get-go that Ellion felt shadowed by Griffin. He would need some extra attention. “Look, I’m stranded here. I’m attracted to all three of you—strongly attracted. Watching you two fight was a huge turn-on for me. Maybe I got carried away. I don’t know what to say, Ellion. I felt pretty good about what happened until Griffin took off and you two gotmad.”
“You shouldn’t feel bad. I think Chandler and I were jealous you didn’t pick one of us, especially given how Griffin treated you.” He took my hand. “Come back to the lab with me. You can read your book on the couch while I review more video. It’s taking forever to get through itall.”
I nodded and took his hand. “Okay.” I was still hurt but I didn’t believe Ellion meant anyharm.
We passed through the living room where Chandler and Griffin still stood talking. I put my nose in the air and passed by without saying a word. I wasn’t really mad at Chandler, but Griffin was definitely on my shit list for running out onme.
I snuggled in on the couch after grabbing my book. The book sucked me in, and before I knew it, Ellion tapped myshoulder.
“You hungry?” heasked.
My stomach growled. “As a matter of fact, I am.” I followed Ellion to thekitchen.
We were rustling around in the refrigerator, looking for sandwich ingredients, when the lights went out. The house was silent, as the heat had turned off with the lights. No fridge noises,nothing.
“That’s not good,” Ellionsaid.
“Nope,” I agreed with a sigh and put the sandwich ingredientsback.
I heard Griffin stomping his way toward us. “What happened?” he called from the livingroom.
With the darkness outside, the inside of the house would be pitch black if not for the fireplace in the living room. At least we’d bewarm.
“No idea,” Ellion replied. “I was going to go check thegenerator.”
“I can't believe I never thought about it, but how’s this place powered?” I asked. Growing up on a farm that had electricity piped in from the local power plant made me take it for granted. I'd never imagined how difficult it must be to retain power way out in thewilderness.
“Mostly gas generators. Some solar power, though not now, obviously. We've been dabbling in hydroelectric power, too,” Griffin replied from the general direction of the kitchendoorway.
