Page 41 of Double Dare
“The best kind. Told you they’d put your mouth to shame.”
Hardin stands up, his arms in the air. “Well, we can’t all find people with twenty-four-seven sex drives like Laken!”
Jed scoffs. “Uh, Freya? Hello? Have you met her?”
“Twenty-four?” Liam asks me, brows raised.
I laugh. “Not even close, but I’ll let them think it.” Then I throw a pillow, smacking Hardin in the face with it. “You’re always bitching that you can’t keep up with Frey.”
“She’s using me for sex and breaking my tender heart!” Hardin defends, clutching that tender heart in his chest.
Rayne shakes her head at everyone. “What happened to letting Liam settle in before we got into the fuck talks, eh? Class this place up. Genevieve, keep them in line.” Rayne points at Gen.
“Heck yes, I got this.” Gen simply clears her throat, and everyone looks at her. Her cheeks blush, but she’s owning that these days. “At least pretend to be civilized until Liam gets the lay of the land, gentleman. Shall I make tea?”
Then sparks the conversation about boozy tea, so I give Liam a hug, pass my empty mug to Zahn to put away because he owes me, and say goodnight.
When I lean down, both Jed and Kade kiss my cheek.
Fuck. I make my casual exit before any of them can say anything about it. We haven’t discussed this being public yet.
Chapter 17
Oh, here we fucking go. Get ready for the bullshit.
Kade looks at me, trying to make it casual so it doesn’t set off an eruption of questions from our brothers. I glance back, taking a sip of my whiskey, trying to seem like everything is all fucking dandy and normal. We haven’t had that chat yet. The one where we’ve even talked about what we are and if we want to let the fam know yet. I look away from him, hoping nothing is coming, but the living room is eerily silent, and I brace for impact.
“You sharing your girl now, Jed?” Kolt taunts, starting this shit show off.
“Are you shitting me?” Zahn scoffs. “All I had to do was parade around here with a broken heart for a year to get a shot at Lakes?”
“You fucking her, Kade?” Dom asks, sitting next to Liam now that Laken isn’t hogging him. “What the actual fuck have I missed?”
“I knew your dick wasn’t enough for Lakes,” Hardin laughs. “No chick with that sex drive gets just one dick.”
“Shut your mouth, Hardin Dare,” Mom snaps. “Leave them be.”
While her intention might have been to ease us out of this, all it does is alert them to the fact that something is seriously going on. Knowing her, she fucking knew it, too. Mom grins at us, calling our bluff, forcing our hand to see how we’re going to handle this. Yeah, we better get used to it if this is our new reality. Questions and accusations are going to come from everywhere, and Mom, that knowing bitch, knew our family would be a good testing ground. I glare at her, feeling the tension roll off Kade. Yeah, not the time. Not yet.
They start to lay into us hard, and just before Kade opens his mouth to say something utterly classic, I nudge him with my shoulder and get off the couch. Kade stands, ready to follow me out so we can vent in peace.
“This is it, boys!” Four says. “The fight to end them all.”
“Twenty on Jed.” Bass digs into his pocket.
“I’ll take that action. Kade’s a beast,” Bo jumps in.
I swipe Mom’s smokes off the counter, throw on a coat and some boots, and try not to slam the front door open. Am I more pissed that they’re goading us, or am I more pissed that Bo bet against me in a fight? Asshole.
I hear Mom call them all twats as the door closes behind Kade. He takes the pack of cigarettes from my hand, lighting one and running a hand through his hair.
“She threw us under the fucking bus,” he vents.
I light a smoke, leaning over the railing. “She’s testing us. Showing us we’re going to have to handle this bullshit from the world, not just the family.”
“We don’t even know what the hell this is yet. She fucked us over.”
And she did it on purpose. She did it to push us to evaluate what we are. It’s none of their business, and she’d never actually out us, but if we don’t settle on a dynamic, we’re going to be floating around in this weird limbo forever. Fucking hate when Mom proves points by pretending to defend our honor.