I ting it against a wineglass.
“Listen up.”
A long table full of Exes does just that, and my chest prickles with heat. I push through that hot flush.
“I’m standing in for Crabs. For Harry. Just until he gets back.”
I don’t expect a round of applause, but that’s what I get. And I get some piss-taking, but that’s even better. They’re letting me know they’re okay with me sitting at the head of their table despite falling for Flynn’s bullshit. After a few days of feeling stupid, it’s a lot. So is the responsibility to keep them on the straight and narrow until Harry gets back.
I’m also aware of movement to one side, a latecomer arriving just in time to hear me get even gruffer than my cousin. “I’m making a new rule until Harry gets back. You all listening?”
Plenty of Heppel Exes nod, but they’re not my focus. Blake and Adey are. They don’t only sit far apart from each other. They’re at risk of doing what Harry mentioned—fucking up what really matters. Their friendship, and all the other friendships around this table, suddenly weigh as heavily as Blake’s quads of steel did across my legs this morning. I’m pinned by the pressure to get this right.
“This is the new rule: No more banging between any of you while Harry’s gone. No one-night stands. No friends-with-benefits arrangements. No just-this-onces or just-the-tips. Keep your dicks out of each other.” I take a deep gulp of red wine, needing liquid courage to admit this weakness. “I won’t deal with the fallout half as well as Harry.”
Blake stares down at his own glass.
I need his agreement, so I swallow down another dose of hive-inducing house red and keep going.
“Some of you have been living in each other’s pockets. Spending all your time together. If any of you have been secretly shagging whenever you’re together, press pause until Harry gets back, okay?” I find Adey at the far end of the table. He pushes pasta around his plate instead of looking at me. “Givemea break, yeah?”
I raise a glass of wine I know I’ll regret knocking back when I’m itching later.
“If Charles Heppel is the reason you’re here, sex is off the table. And off any beds or hallway carpets. All boning each other is off-limits, agreed?”
I can’t regret making that request when Blake slowly raises his glass. Every Ex here must all take pity on me—they all join him. At least, I think everyone agrees until that late arrival speaks up.
Someone with a soft Scottish accent asks, “Does that rule include visitors? I mean, Charles did send me.”
He comes into my eye line.
All I see is mahogany.
Candlelight finds bright embers in dark auburn hair, and I notice something else in addition—he’s nervous. The hand he shoves through his hair shakes.
I make myself focus on his face.
That’s a mistake.
It’s everything I like. Pretty. And delicate in a way I can’t help staring at while he stammers through an apology for interrupting. It’s full ofcannaes, didnaes,andwouldnaesbefore I tell him, “You ain’t interrupting.”
He smiles then, relieved, and starts over.
“I’m Alasdair. Alasdair Sinclair,” he says quietly while a tableful of Exes leans in, and forget highly sexed cats. They’re a wolf pack closing in on fresh meat. Don’t ask me why I touch Harry’s pen, but it works some kind of leadership magic. Theylean back, giving Alasdair space, and he continues. “Charles told me to ask for…” He pulls out a phone, scrolling for so long that, if he was on the street, muggers would have time to snatch it. Even his accent is too soft for survival in this city. “Sorry, sorry. I know it’s here somewhere.”
I’ve been tied up once today already. Now a Scottish burr wraps me. “Ah, here it is.” He wets his lips, gaze flicking around the watching Exes, and boy, I know that front-of-the-class feeling. It gets me talking in a hurry.
“Go ahead, mate. Who are you here for?”
His smile flickers, uncertain. “For someone called Carpet Burns?”
I’ve never sounded rougher. “That’s me.”
His shaky smile firms, and like that pretty little desk I revealed layer by layer, he shows me something hidden—his warm brown eyes hold silent laughter. “Then it’s a shame about that new rule.”
Every Heppel Ex here leans in again, the nosy fuckers.
I barely notice.
