Chapter 20 #2
“Seven letters, no vowels, and an mmms at the end,” I say, fixing my gaze on Jayden’s.
“Technically it’s just an M and an S.” He grins, dropping his eyes to Finley’s thigh, where my hand is still resting. Leaning forward, he looks up at me with the sun deckling his mossy eyes gold in places. “Since you’re so confident, how about we make it interesting?”
“Here we go,” Auguste groans, pushing himself out of the water in one swift move that flickers droplets our way. “I’m out. There will be no belly piercings, dick piercings, nipple piercings...”
“We haven’t gone that far yet,” Jayden cuts him off.
“It’s a matter of time before you or Rio are going around with sparkly nipples,” Auguste throws back, grabbing a towel and drying himself off. “I’m out. I want no part in these sado-masochistic games you play, JJ.”
Finley’s eyes grow wide, begging for more detail.
“Later,” I tell her.
“We’re Comets, Brucey, not fucking cowards,” Jayden calls after him.
Auguste flips him off and heads down the steps to the decking area, yelling, “I have a pup to walk and a smart woman to talk to… oh, and for future reference, I’m a Comet not a fucking moron.”
“Rude,” Jayden coos with an I-actually-don’t-care shrug before he carries on, “Anyway, you guess the word, and I take everyone out for dinner. You don’t, and you buy dinner. My pick because Finley doesn’t know the hidden gems.”
“Out?” Finley asks with a hint of worry. “Like out out?”
“Would you like that?”
Finley thinks her answer through before she asks, “Is it safe?”
“You’ll be with me and JJ.”
I glance at him, and he adds, “We’ll take my car. The windows are blacked out so no one can see in the back, and we can call the restaurant in advance to ask for a table out of view.”
“Are you comfortable with it?” Finley asks me.
Honestly? After the incident at the hotel, taking her anywhere is a concerning prospect. But I want to make Finley happy. I want to give her what she’s never had before.
We can’t hide away from The Fellowship the rest of our lives...
“Yes,” I reply.
“So it’s a deal?” Jayden asks.
“It’s a deal.” I hold out my hand, waiting for him to shake on it.
Instead, he spits in his hand and then holds it in front of Finley. “Come on, Lucky.”
“Huh?” Fin eyes him skeptically.
“Spit.”
Her brows pull up into her hairline. “On your hand?”
“Well, yeah. A spit-shake is worth more than a legal binding contract. And I should know, my dad is an attorney.” Jayden grins.
“Umm… Jayden…”
“The quicker you do it, the less gross it is. Bacteria is building every second you hesitate, beautiful…” He catches himself too late, leaving a flicker of worry in his stare while Finley’s cheeks bloom with a rosy flush.
A bashful smile tugs at her lips as I look between her and Jayden. His face is as flushed as hers and there’s something about the way his chest is rising and falling that makes it hard for me to breathe. That makes it impossible to tear my gaze from them even as they both divert their eyes to me.
Finley tugs at the hem of her dress. Jayden fusses with his hair, tugging at the dark strands like he does when we’re on the bench during a hard game.
It’s only when I smile at him that he relaxes again, and after a beat, he continues with dialed down mirth. “We can look away if you want?”
Finley levels him with a deadpan expression that makes it hard for me not to laugh when I glance at him and he’s holding the Morrow panty-dropping grin. It’s so famous, that it’s got fan-made social accounts.
“Christ, I can’t believe I’m actually doing this,” she mutters to herself before spearing me with her mesmerizing gaze. “So you can’t go back on a spit-shake?”
“He can’t,” Jayden is quick to answer for me, like he’s desperate to have her spit on him.
Holy shit.
He totally is.
With his hand still out in front of her, he offers, “If you don’t want to spit on me, I can spit on you.”
Fuck.
A silent gasp balls the air in my lungs.
I swallow in vain at the lump swelling in my throat the instant her cheeks glow brighter, all the way to the tips of her ears as she sweeps her hair back.
Finley drops her gaze to his hand, her cheeks hollow, and my chest tightens, strangling my heart’s frantic thrum.
All my thoughts are overtaken by images that have no place in my head. Her and him. Him and her.
Shit.
In a demure move, she tucks the stray tendrils framing her face behind her ear and then leans forward. Lifting her eyes to Jayden’s with a smile on her tempting lips, she sucks in a deep breath. Determination glints in her stare.
She’s going to do it.
At any given time, Finley is gorgeous, radiant, a beacon of everything a person could ever dream of. Together, with Jayden, she’s exquisite. He brings out a part of her that’s beyond any hope or imagining I’ve ever had.
They’re so fucking perfect.
God.
My heart trips over itself when she delicately spits into Jayden’s palm.
Damn.
Unfettered heat pounds through my veins. And I know I shouldn’t like this. I shouldn’t feel so at ease... happy and content at the sight of them like this. Together. At the images in my head of them. Together. But...
Holy fucking shit.
What is wrong with me?
My cock is throbbing as it jerks in my sweats.
“Eli? Earth to Eli?” Jayden extends his hand toward me while Finley blots at her lips with her thumb and forefinger. “Spit and shake, man,” he demands, nodding down at his glistening palm.
What am I doing? I ask myself as I follow his instruction and spit into my palm.
My breath sticks in my lungs when I grip his hand, and he squeezes mine back. The spit making our skin slip while we hold each other’s stare.
One second, two… three…
The sudden heat of the sun focuses on me. Its intensity drying me from the inside out as my chest pulses and an ache I’ve never felt before burns in my gut.
His eyes soften, darkening to a shade of amber that reels me in. Deeper and deeper. And when he licks his lips, my cock spasms, unravelling all the crazy in my head.
No. No, no...
His spit. Her spit. My spit.
Our spit.
Fuck, fuck… fuck.
This is ridiculous.
It’s wrong. I shouldn’t feel this way right now. They shouldn’t affect me like this. Finley, Jayden...
He’s my best friend. My partner on the ice. A safety I rely on.
I can’t allow myself to go down this path.
Especially not with Ryker around. Maybe it’s because of our encounter today, and all the shit it’s dredged up.
And now I’m all messed up and reading into everything more than I should.
Because this is Jayden, and I know he’s open with his sexuality, and he cares about me.
He’s been my shield from the moment we met, so of course I care about him. Of course, I have feelings for him. Right? It doesn’t mean anything.
We’re friends.
Period.
“Deal?” He rumbles. His voice is hoarse, kind of breathless, and it makes the buzz inside me stronger.
It takes me forever to find my voice. Finley’s stare is burning into me, my body is broiling in anticipation, and Jayden’s biting his lip—licking it like he can taste the mix of the three of us squelching between our palms.
What does it taste like to him?
What would it taste like to me?
Is she thirsty for it, too?
Finley looks it. Her chest is matching the rise and fall of Jayden’s. Of mine.
And her pink tongue swipes at her lips. Like his. Like mine.
“Deal,” I croak, dragging my gaze from Finley to Jayden, and back. Back and forth.
That magnificent flush on her ears and cheeks has spread to her delicate throat, all the way down her neck to the swell of her breasts, set to squeeze out of the square neckline of the dress she’s wearing.
“So…” Fin starts with an audible gulp, snapping my eyes back to hers. “You have one guess left.”
I’ve known the answer from the moment I saw all the vowels listed beside the hangman.
Rhythms.
Clearly, I’m an idiot because as I’m about to say it, I pause. Looking between them, I take in their expectant expressions.
All I want is to see them smile. Big. I’m consumed by the need as I guess, “D.”
Yeah, I’m an idiot, but the victorious gleam on Jayden’s face—that cocky, gloating grin—that he shares with Finley is worth the loss.
“The answer is rhythms, Elijah,” Finley titters with nose-wrinkling glee.
It’s one of her favorite words to play along with zinc and syndrome. I’m totally captivated by their delighted expressions when Jayden squeezes my hand, still grasped in his.
I don’t know how many times we’ve high-fived or shaken hands before.
They’re countless. Yet, it’s only now that I notice the way they fit together.
Seamless. Snug. The golden hue of his tanned skin making mine appear lighter as his thick fingers trace the underside of my wrist when we pull apart.
Our hands sliding with the slick residue of the spit on our palms, rubbing into the rough lines like a balm smoothing over the story that has been and that will be.
Of what it could be.
Fisting my slick hand, I offer the other to Finley as I push to my feet and bring her with me.
While she adjusts her dress, I pick up the trash along with the books on the table hanging in the middle of the sun bed and start down to the decking area with Jayden falling into step with me on my left and Fin on my right.
The moment is so perfectly opportune. Uniquely absolute. It’s providence at its best.
I’ve never felt safer. I’ve never belonged in a place or a time as completely.
I wish that it would stretch infinitely. That it could last forever.
Except I know better—life isn’t this easy.