“Yes.” Dante rubs the back of his neck.
My cheeks flush, remembering how I got him to let me stay there on my own. When I smirk at him, his cheeks stain pink.
“You should have insisted she come and stay with us.” The fear in his voice is raw.
I’ve been avoiding looking at him, but now I shift my attention to him. His hands are fisted on the table. On instinct, without conscious thought, I put my hand over his.
Everything freezes in place. There’s just Wyatt and me for the space of a breath. Tingles burst through me at the contact. I snatch my hand away and time speeds back up. Wyatt’s dark eyes capture mine with their heat and feral need.
Awareness splashes over me, leaving me hot and achy.
“She didn’t want to come here.” Dante clears his throat. “She didn’t want to be around you.”
Wyatt’s eyes widen and his attention shifts to Dante. I suck in a breath. Fuck.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Wyatt asks.
I find my voice. “It means that I didn’t want to watch you flaunt women in front of me. You can’t begin to understand how I’ve felt for years. Watching you with other women, knowing it would never be me. And then to be forced to live with you and watch women rotate out of your room and having to smile and act like it’s not shredding my heart into pieces. Fuck that. It means I didn’t want to want you more than I already do.”
My heart pounds in my chest. It takes me a second to comprehend what I just let out into the universe. I sit back in my chair, semidazed.
It wasn’t a secret. Not really. I was never subtle, but I never came out and admitted it before.
Finn takes my hand and entwines our fingers, giving me his support. I don’t draw away from him. He doesn’t burn me like Wyatt does. Finn and Dante and even Drew light me on fire, but none of them hurt as much as Wyatt does.
The way I feel about Wyatt is an ache I can’t shake off.
Wyatt takes a breath like he’s going to explain everything to me.
“No.” Dante leans forward and looks at both Wyatt and me. “We’re not getting into that just yet. We need to figure shit out before we open that wound.”
It does feel like an open sore already. At least for me. The wound never scabs over. It never heals. It just festers with every breath.
I squeeze Finn’s hand and release it. Right now I need to stand on my own.
“I didn’t want to move into your apartment and work with you too. It seemed like overkill, so I asked Dante to not tell you.”
Wyatt’s gaze lifts to Dante.
Dante shakes his head. “I was doing what was best for all of us. The minute she entered this apartment, things would change. No one was ready for that.”
“And now we are?” Wyatt runs a hand through his hair.
Dante stands. He gathers the leftovers from lunch and cleans up the table. “We are. And we will.”
It seems like a natural break so I walk over to the couch and wait for Peabody to climb on my lap. The guys finish putting everything away. When Dante comes over, he hands me a glass of white wine and sits beside me.
Peabody stands and goes to sit on his lap. The little traitor.
Finn stops at the bar and pours scotch into three glasses. Wyatt sits on the edge of the couch like he wants to be able to bolt at any minute.
Dante drapes his arm around my shoulder and I lean into him, grateful for his warmth and comfort. This weekend just gets more stressful by the minute.
“Drew should be here.” Finn sits and glances at the other two before his green eyes focus on me.
“He’s busy. I have brunch with him tomorrow.” Taking a sip of my wine, I watch Wyatt over the rim.
“I saw him last night and this morning.” Wyatt rests his head against the couch. “He had somewhere to be today, but whatever you guys want, he’s probably all in.”
