“Oh, stop being such a prude, Sage,” Dexter’s voice teased above me. “Serge likes the flirting, don’t you, darling?”
So much for feigning sleep.I sighed. “You are ridiculous,” I hedged, reluctantly pulling away from his chest and sitting up in the space beside him. I felt sleep-rumpled and disoriented, unable to fight the blush which traveled up my own neck as my gaze landed on the fully dressed red-headed man in the doorway.
Sage Weldman did not look happy this morning. His long hair was tied back in his signature ponytail, and his blue eyes were blazing, narrowed as they were at the man whose bed I was sharing. Arms folded across a slim chest, he glared at his best friend. “You can’t just bring men home with you without warning me, Dex.” His expression softened as it shifted towards me. “Not that I mind you being here, Sergio. I just…” he shifted uneasily on his feet, “I wasn’t expecting to find you here. In bed. With Dex.”
Despite being a few centuries older than both dragons, I felt like an adolescent caught sneaking into a paramour’s room. I cringed. “I apologize,” I said, only for Dexter to scoff.
“For what? Finding me irresistible?”
“That isn’t what this is.” I looked back over at Sage, hoping my expression was firm and stoic and didn’t betray the jumbled mess of embarrassment I felt flipping my stomach. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I arrived late and did not want to disturb Beckett and Ollie…”
“It’s fine,” Sage waved my explanation off with a gentle smile, then scowled at Dexter. “But you could have at least texted me so I didn’t walk in on—”
“On what? Nothing happened,” Dexter’s tone lost its teasing lilt, and he swung his legs from the bed, taking planes of smooth,unblemished skin —and one sinful pair of short boxer briefs— out of my arm’s reach.
That was probably for the best, all things considered.
The blond dragon stalked over to his friend and folded his arms, glowering, “And, quite frankly, you’re embarrassing yourself and are insulting Serge, too.”
Sage blinked, his cheeks turning pink. His Adam’s apple bobbed, and he nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry. It was…it was just a surprise, and I doubled down. Sorry. Tobothof you.” Blue eyes darted between both Dexter and me, and the entire situation felt supremely awkward.
“Besides,” Dexter rolled a shoulder casually, “Serge knows he can do a hell of a lot better than me, don’t you, sweetheart?”
It was an off-the-cuff self-deprecating question laced with the same mood as the previous night. But before I could open my mouth to retort —not that I had any idea what to say to him— he had slipped through the door, declaring that he was commandeering the bathroom for his morning shower, leaving Sage and I bemused and awkward in his wake.
This is not exactly the return to Shifters Sanctuary that I imagined.
Chapter Four
Okay, so I might have overreacted a little that morning.
Fine.A lot.
I might have overreacted a lot.
But, in my defense, I hadn’t expected to find Dex snuggled up in bed with…well, with someone who wasn’t me. Not that I had any right to assume he’d be snuggled up with me, either, considering the clusterfuck that was the current state of our friendship, but here’s the thing: Dexter knew how I felt about him. Or, at least, he knew how I felt about him a hundred years earlier.
Of course, telling him how I felt about him is what led to us not speaking for a century, so…maybe he thought I’d moved on? Except our interactions over the previous few years were all strained with the tension of The Thing We Wouldn’t Talk About, so I just assumed he knew I wasn’t over it. Overhim.
And, yeah, seeing him with Sergio stung even more because I wasn’t blind. I could see how hot Sergio was. If I wasn’t stuck pining over my best friend, I would have been all over that man like a rash…much like Dex seemed to be.
But the fact remained none of that was Sergio’s fault, and I made an ass out of myselfandmade the poor guy feel uncomfortable and unwelcome because of my own stupid jealousy.
Nobody ever accused me of being the smart Weldman brother.
I knew I had to apologize. To Sergio, at the very least. Dex probably also deserved an apology, but I had no idea what to say to him. ‘Sorry I acted like a jealous freak because even after all this time and your attitude lately, I’m still in love with you?’
Hard pass on that.
Especially when confessing my feelings made him cut and run all that time ago. If he ran again, I didn’t think I could handle it.
But I was a grown-ass man. A dragon. I wasn’t a coward.
And I was in the wrong.
Damn it. I have to apologize to Dex, too.
“What is that look all about?” Brandt’s question brought me out of my thoughts and I blinked.
