Fuck. That’s not what I meant.
She thinks I don’t care about her. That this is only physical. I should tell her that’s not true. I don’t. Because maybe it’s easier if she believes that.
I reach for her, then think better of it. “This year will be fun. But it can’t get physical again. And it can’t be more than friendship.”
She doesn’t respond, and the rest of the drive is silent.
When we pull into the garage, she opens the door and steps out before I turn the car off. I follow her to the elevator. We ride up without speaking. She stares at the doors and won’t look at me.
Inside the penthouse, she heads straight for the stairs.
“Tania.”
She doesn’t stop and keeps walking.
Silas appears from the kitchen, coffee in hand. He assesses me, then looks toward the stairs where she vanished.
“What did you do, Callum?”
“Nothing.”
He doesn’t believe me. I don’t blame him. I am lying, after all. I did do something. And fuck, I want to do it again.
I head to my room and close the door, leaning against it. I can still taste her. Still feel her clenching around my fingers. Still hear that sound she made when she came.
I’m fucked.
Because I told her it can’t be physical. But I already know that I can’t stay away.
CHAPTER 8
Evan
Iwalk into Silas’s office and stop in the doorway. Callum’s gripping the back of one of the chairs across from Silas’s desk, knuckles white.
Silas is behind the desk, spine rigid, with his fingers pressed flat against the wood. “You crossed a line.”
I should leave and let them work this out. But that’s not what I do. I’m the one who keeps things from exploding.
Callum’s grip tightens on the chair. “What line? The one where we all pretend we don’t want her?”
“The one where we keep this arrangement exactly what it is—fake.”
Shit, what did Callum do?Now is not the time to ask. But he must have fucked her or at least kissed her.
I’m jealous. I can admit that. But if this were real—if we were actually in a committed relationship with her—would I still feel this way?
Callum would still be fucking her, but I would be, too. We’d share her. I just never thought about what that would actually mean—what it would feel like in practice instead of theory.
And now something’s obviously happened between them.
“Oh, come on.” Callum laughs, bitter and sharp. He drags a hand through his hair. “You’re telling me you don’t want her, too? That you haven’t thought about it?”
A vein in Silas’s neck pulses quickly with the fast rhythm of his heartbeat. He is trying so hard to rein in his temper. “It doesn’t matter what I’ve thought about. I didn’t kiss her. I didn’t stick my dick in her.”
Callum throws up his hands. “Well, I didn’t stick my dick in her, either.”
“I don’t want to know the specifics,” Silas seethes. “Whatever you did with her went too far.”
