Page 14 of Rough Fantasy

Rory closed his eyes and remembered her reaction to him, to the picture he had painted for her. “I talked to her about it.”

“You what?” Zee almost shouted and sat up. “I told you to leave her alone.”

His reaction was over the top. It was one of the reasons that Rory thought Zee needed to work the woman out of his system. “Hold on, lover, I just talked to her. That’s it.”

Zee laid back down with a huff. “Do you ever listen to me? Do you ever listen to anyone?”

“Not when I’m right. And buddy, believe me, I was right about Maura.”

Zee said nothing for a moment. When Zee was quiet like that, Rory knew his mind was working the issue. “What did she say?”

“I told her to just think about it. It’s a week where there can be no rules.”

“She doesn’t need you tempting her into something that would end up hurting her.”

That caught his attention. “What?”

Zee sighed. “I guess she heard a rumor about us and suggested a threesome. She immediately took it back.”

“When were you going to tell me this?” Rory asked. Silence. “Were you ever going to tell me?”

“I’m not sure.”

And that chaffed at Rory. He knew they both had secrets, but, still…it rankled him.

“I don’t know,” Zee admitted. “You don’t understand her very well.”

“How do you know that?”

“If you did, you wouldn’t be so flippant about this. Bloody hell, anyone who knows Maura well knows she wouldn’t handle this.”

“Explain.”

Zee shot him a look, but said, “She doesn’t like change. You’ve seen how she is at the office. She doesn’t live in the moment. She likes everything to go as planned. She probably planned on hooking her brother and Jillian up.”

He filed that bit of information away. “Maybe she’s at a point that she wants to make a change.”

“And what about when we get back, working with each other every day.”

Rory shrugged. “I don’t think that will matter.”

“Of course you don’t,” Zee said, his voice sounding weary. “You never think about the consequences of your actions.”

Annoyance had his gut tightening, along with a healthy dose of worry. And that aggravated him even more. He had never really worried about the consequences of his personal life and now Zee had him worrying. Dammit.

“Don’t make me sound like a shit. I might make a few mistakes here and there?—”

“You mean the mistake like in Tokyo where I almost got my bloody head blown off.”

“That was five fucking years ago. I can’t believe you’re bringing that up.” Rory drew in a deep breath trying to gain hold of his temper. He didn’t want to fight about something that happened when they were both so green they didn’t know what they were doing in the field. “I have thought this through. I left it up to her. You know you want it, Zee. I do too. We haven’t done this in a long time.”

“Because every time we do, you disappear. It’s the sign you are freaking out.”

“No it’s not.” Rory frowned. “Are you serious?”

He huffed again. Zee was always kind of a huffy guy and most of the time, Rory loved it. Not now though, not now that he was ripping his character to shreds. “No. I’m making shit up. Of course I’m serious.”

“I think you’ve been smoking weed again.”