So, if Cade was convinced that Brody was a good guy now…
Why the hell was everyone else still hung up on it?
“Alright,” someone said loudly, slapping me on the back and then hanging with their arm across my shoulders. “Go on, then.”
I blinked at Xavi. Where had he even come from? He was clearly a lot drunker than the last time I’d seen him. Which was impressive, given how much I’d downed – and I felt annoyingly fine. “What?” I asked, unable to keep up with whatever drunk mental gymnastics he was doing.
“Taeho said no,” he replied, reaching forward and grabbing my cocktail from the bar. Before I could stop him, he shoved the tiny blue umbrella out of the way and poured the rest of it down his throat, not even asking if he could have any. “So, go on, then. I’ll be yours for the night.”
I glanced over at Brody, so dumbfounded for a moment I couldn’t even speak.
It looked like there was only one of us who was going to end up lonely tonight, after all.
Brody
“No, thanks.”
I blinked, not sure I’d heard Ace correctly. By the way he was staring at him, Xavi was taken aback, too.
“What?” Xavi asked, then he tossed his head and rolled his eyes. “Come on, darling. You don’t have to play hard to get. It’s not attractive, anyway.”
“I said no,” Ace said, reaching up to extricate Xavi’s arm from his shoulders, letting it slump down by the shorter man’s side. “And I meant it.”
Xavi pouted at him, but I was barely paying attention thanks to the rush of relief that swept over me at hearing those words. Ace wasn’t going to sleep with Xavi tonight.
In other words, I wasn’t getting swapped out – sent over to room with someone else like an unwanted gift being given to the next person.
It wasn’t as if Ace was exactly choosing me. It was probably more that his pride was hurt by Xavi ignoring him earlier – and given I had suspicions about him being asexual, it wasn’t exactly a surprise to me that he didn’t want to spend the night with Xavi. Although, if they’d done it before like he hinted they had, maybe Xavi already knew sex wasn’t on the cards and just wanted to save face.
It wasn’t anything to do with me – it was all to do with Xavi and Ace. Still, I was relieved that I wasn’t going to have to go through that shame.
“Well?” Xavi said, spinning towards me and quite literally turning his back on Ace, leaving me floundering for a grip on the conversation.
“Well, what?” I managed.
“How about it?” Xavi sauntered a step closer to me – all he could manage, given the short space between Ace and I. He was right up next to me, so close I could feel the heat of his body. And smell his breath. He’d drunk a lot. “Want to come back to my room, sugar?”
I looked into his face and felt my heart stutter in my chest. He was being serious. It seemed like Xavi didn’t really mind who he slept with, so long as he slept with someone – but the attention was almost intoxicating. He wanted to sleep with me. He was willing to sleep with me, even knowing who I was and what reputation I had.
That was the moment I realized it had been way too long since the last time.
I licked my lower lip, trying to think of what to say.Yescame to mind easily – it was on the tip of my tongue. I wanted a hot body under mine. I wanted to make him cry out – I wanted him to make me cry out. I wanted his attention. His affection. Kisses, touches, looks that would set my blood on fire. I craved it.
I swallowed hard.
The voice of reason in the back of my head told me that I wasn’t going to get any of that from Xavi.
It would be a quick, dirty fuck in a hotel room with a guy who didn’t even like me or who I was, and when we finished, I would feel even worse about myself than I did now.
I cleared my throat. “No, thanks,” I said, trying to mimic Ace’s careless tone – since I didn’t have any words of my own I could possibly use.
Xavi pouted again. “God, what a drag,” he said. He turned sideways, spreading his arms out, landing one of them on my back and the other on Ace again. “You two need to loosen up.”
“I’m pretty loose enough already,” Ace commented drily. I didn’t know whether he was being sarcastic or just taking the words at face value, but the idea of him being loose – ready – open – set my pulse fluttering faster in my neck. I couldn’t deny that I found Ace attractive. His sharp cheekbones, that long and sleek dark hair that begged to be stroked or held in a fist, the lean body I had glimpsed earlier… I couldn’t help but picture him under me on the hotel bed at that moment, and I had to look off to the side to compose myself.
“I could help you both out with that, you know,” Xavi said. Despite the slight slur on the edge of his words, he seemed completely stable – even able to twist words just as well as Ace was. “Those beds in the rooms… looks to me like if you pushed them together, there would be room for three.”
I coughed, wishing I hadn’t already finished my drink. Being able to down a whisky right then would have really, really helped. Without it, the only thing I could do was picture it even though I didn’t want to.
