Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 63741 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63741 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
“Nice place,” Abby said as we drove away.
“Yeah.” My throat tight, I didn’t say anything more.
We quickly settle into our old routine. She’s a student too, and we work out a schedule for chores, and occasionally share a meal.
I’m finally free to focus on my classwork the way I need to if I’m going to graduate on time.
I’m also miserable. I know my move is for the best, but I miss them so much.
The new apartment is closer to the shop than our old one was, but I’ve been spoiled by living with the men. I have to force myself to buckle down and study while I’m on the bus in the morning, instead of daydreaming about what Zeb might have made for breakfast, how yummy Griffin looks when he’s not fully awake, and what sculpture Frank is working on now.
At the shop, things are even worse. Every sight, every scent, every sound from the men stabs me through the heart. Griffin no longer teases me, and no matter how much it annoyed me at times, its absence is incredibly painful. Zeb is surlier than ever, Frank even more taciturn.
Despite this, the business is doing very well. I’m briskly professional and friendly with everyone who walks through the door, and we’re booked out several weeks in advance. Soon, it’ll be time to add another artist to this location.
That will probably be a good thing; it will change the dynamic, and hopefully break some of the unbearable tension between me and the men. I make a note to talk to Gage and Kai about it—assuming I still have my job. I haven’t heard anything more from them yet about the complaint that was made against me, and I hope it’ll fade away, but it’s still hanging over my head.
When Ava calls, I can’t help myself—I tell her everything. Again. “It sounds like you miss them a lot,” she says, gently pointing out the obvious.
“I do. I know it was just sex, but—”
“You keep saying that.” She sounds faintly amused, but I know she’s not making fun of me; she’s been there. “In my vast experience—” we both laugh at that “—just sex is not enough to make you this unhappy.”
“It was really good sex,” I whisper.
She sounds like the big sister I never had when she says, “Ember.”
“I know. I know! But even if it’s more than that for me, it doesn’t mean they feel the same.”
“You could talk to them.”
“I lived with them for weeks, Ava.” I roll onto my back on my bed, staring sightlessly at the ceiling. “They had plenty of time to let me know if they wanted more than a fuckbuddy.”
“Men are weird,” she says fondly. “Awesome, but weird. They may not have realized it until you were gone.”
I sigh. “Maybe once I’m done with classes and graduation, I’ll talk to them.”
“Okay. Let me know if there’s anything I can do.”
“Thanks, Ava.”
I roll again, onto my side, and am reminded of my healing tattoos. The sight of them makes me sad. Which makes sense; I’m grieving, after all. Even if what I had with Frank, Zeb, and Griffin was just sex on one level, it was also more than that, and the loss of it has left an ache deep inside that nothing seems to soothe.
LEXY
Thorn’s cooking dinner, and I’m setting the table, Gage and Kai helping me. “How’s everything going with the new location?” I ask them. I’m curious whether they’ve clued in to the tension Ember reported between her and the men.
“They stopped by the main location the other night, actually,” Kai says.
Something about the way he says it puts me on alert. “Who did? All of them?”
“Just the guys,” Gage says, repositioning the centerpiece on our table slightly.
“Huh.” I try to sound nonchalant. “Just to say hi, or—”
“They were worried about Ember.”
I look at Kai sharply. “Worried about her? In what sense?”
“A client over there lodged a complaint about her,” he says.
I suck in a breath. “Oh, no.”
“They said it was bullshit,” Gage adds. “They were pretty pissed off at the suggestion that she’s not doing a good job. They also said the client—who happens to be a woman, and who, according to them, has been flirting with all three of them—is jealous of Ember.”
A smile tugs at the corner of my mouth. “You don’t say.”
“Okay, Lex.” Kai folds his arms, smiling indulgently. “We know you had lunch with her recently. What did she say?”
Dammit. I don’t want to get Ember in trouble. “What she said was that the guys are really getting on her nerves.”
He and Gage exchange glances. “But you don’t believe her,” Gage says.
I sigh. “Look, I know you don’t want employees dating.”
“We instituted that policy for a reason,” Kai says.
“And it makes sense.” I look between them. “But you also know that the heart wants what it wants.”