Then everything changed.
It was late on a Friday night. Maddox had left the bar early so he could go study for his exams, which left me and Liam sipping on tequila. That was when my heat suppressants backfired.
When the heat hit harder than I had anticipated, he offered to help. He’d said it like a joke, but the way he’d looked at me that night hadn’t been funny at all. I’d let him. I needed someone I trusted, and he’d been gentle, careful, everything I didn’t know I wanted.
After that came the hook-ups—behind closed doors, no labels, no promises. Just release and familiarity. I thought it was clear what it was. We were friends who helped get each other off. Maddox was okay with the two of us doing that, as long as he didn’t have to hear the details. That always made Liam laugh.
Everything was going great. Liam was a fantastic fuck. We would go months without needing to hook up before we succumbed to our desires. I think part of it was because the night I lost my virginity, he did, too. It had actually been kind of sweet navigating all that awkwardness together. From our first kiss to my first heat and his first knot.
We got so good at the sex part, only fucking when we both needed it. And then he ruined it all by telling me that he had started catching feelings.
It was a few months ago, after a fun bonfire out by the cliffs. Maddox was hooking up with one of the other firefighters on his team, and so he left early. Liam and I had a lot to drink, and as always, one thing led to another.
I was upset because I had learned that Shepard was into Sadie. I was feeling vulnerable, and although Liam and I had mastered how to fuck without him knotting me, I’d begged him for it.
I’d needed it. Needed him.
Liam had complied.
Afterward, locked together with his knot pulsing inside me and sweat sliding between us, he had pushed his hand into my hair and tugged.
The move always gets me weak in the knees.
“Babe,” he had said, his other hand pressing against my clit.
I had moaned, rocking against him.
It felt so good.
It always felt so good with him.
I was still straddling him in the back seat of my car when he told me he was falling in love with me.
He’d looked at me like he expected me to say the same thing back. I hadn’t. I didn’t know how. Things had shifted, and we’d agreed to stop. Pretend nothing happened.
Now, watching him next to Maddox, easy and unbothered, makes me question which of us pulled that off better.
A knock rattles the door.
“Millie?” Liam’s voice, low, cautious. “You decent?”
I sit up fast, heart jumping. “Yeah?”
The door opens, and both of them step in. Maddox has Nimbus in his arms, the cat sprawled like royalty against his chest. Liam stands just behind him, tall enough that the doorway looks too small for the both of them.
Nimbus meows once, bored with all of us.
“You okay?” Liam asks. His eyes flick over me, quick but searching. “You’ve been quiet.”
“I’m fine.” My voice sounds a little too bright. “Just needed a break from all the shouting.”
Maddox shifts Nimbus to one arm. “The new game we wanted to play isn’t compatible with your TV. We might head to my place, if that’s cool.”
“Of course.” I nod, trying not to stare at the veins along his forearm or the way his shirt fits across his chest. The two of them fill my small bedroom, all warmth and size and presence, and I hate that my mind immediately goes somewhere it shouldn’t.
“I’ll read for a bit and head to bed,” I say. “You guys have fun.”
“Night, Mills,” Maddox says, his grin softening at the edges. Liam gives a small nod. Then they’re gone, the door closing behind them.
