Page 57 of Resisted

“You are.”

Silence.

“Hello?”

“Hey,” they all muttered at once.

The fucking audacity. I stood, took a step toward Boyce, grabbed his hair, pulled his head back, and kissed him. Before he could even react, I pulled back, going to Silas, where I pushed the paper out of the way, gripped his hair and kissed him. I hadn’t expected Silas to grab my shirt, but the moment I was about to pull away, he chased my lips before remembering himself. His fingers tightened before suddenly releasing. I pulled away, and he kept his eyes closed, not willing to look at me before I moved to Vincent, who eyed me with a lopsided grin.

I hesitated because now that I thought about it, kissing them was a fucking terrible idea. What did I expect to come out of it? I had their attention now, of that I was sure, but did I really want to be in the spotlight? After last night?

“Well?” Vincent eyed me, his body relaxed as he waited.

“Yeah. I’ve changed my mind.”

His smirk fell from his face. “What? Why?”

“If you won’t play fair, then I don’t think I need to either.” I dropped back down to my chair, grabbed my coffee, and sipped it, trying to hide a smug grin behind the rim of the ceramic.

“I played fair.” Was he pouting?

“Fairness aside, I’m making the rules this morning.”

Silas folded his paper and placed it on the counter. “What rules?”

Well, fuck. I really needed to think what I said through, I hadn’t expected for any of them to challenge my words. I mean, I should have expected it. Absolutely. I just hadn’t planned for it.

“Rule one—Vincent needs to make my coffee from now on.” I straightened my back, trying to act regally as I recited the rule.

“Rule two,” Vincent added, “Baby needs to stop using my full name.”

“Never.” The word slipped out, the passion behind it apparent. I enjoyed using his full name. It felt powerful.

“Never,” he repeated. Was that never to rule number one, or just a mockery?

It didn’t matter. I knew he would continue to make coffee. I cleared my throat, “Rule number three—you need to stop giving me the silent treatment.”

“No one is giving you the silent treatment,” Silas said with a sigh.

“You all were avoiding looking at me,” I pointed out.

“We were being polite,” Silas answered.

“Polite? Polite about what?” What could they possible be polite about this morning after having all their hands in my honey jar—Oh? Oh.

“Yep.” Vincent looked amused.

He must have noticed the moment I realized. “You didn’t want to bring up last night in case I didn’t.”

“Ding. Ding. Ding.” For being so handsome, Vincent sure was annoying.

“I mean, we can talk about it, if you need to,” Boyce added, almost shyly. Probably because it was his lips I was riding off into the ecstasy sunset. I smiled to myself, amused at my analogy.

“I’ll pass on the talk,” I stated because if it was awkward now, there was absolutely no way I would make it through a talk about our four-way dance party.

Boyce watched me for a moment before licking his lips, and even though he didn’t verbalize his thoughts, I knew. I could feel it in his gaze, and my skin burned at the implications. “No talk then. What’s the plans for today?”

“I work.” Though to be honest, I didn’t want to be there.