Chapter 3
Millie
They’ve been here for two hours straight, sprawled across my living room floor. Maddox and Liam are both hooked into headsets, eyes glued to the television, their voices rising and falling with the rhythm of whatever game they’re playing.
I don’t know what I expected when they said they’d “hang out,” but it wasn’t two enormous men, all lean muscle and dark laughter, bickering over who stole whose loot.
They’re both in black T-shirts that cling a little too well, the fabric stretching over shoulders that look carved rather than grown.
Maddox sits cross-legged, head tilted toward the screen, his long fingers flicking the controller with a focus that makes my stomach flutter in ways it absolutely shouldn’t.
Liam lounges beside him, one knee bent, his shirt riding up just enough to reveal a strip of tanned skin. I catch it out of the corner of my eye and quickly look away.
I’m supposed to be reading. That was my brilliant plan—sit on the couch, pretend I’m not half-distracted by the sounds they make. I take another bite of homemade pepperoni pizza and try to pay attention to the book in my lap.
It’s a romance novel, because of course it is, and the heroine is currently describing how the hero’s hands feel against her waist. My eyes skim the lines, but the words start to twist themselves into details I know. Maddox’s laugh, low and rough. Liam’s voice, light and coercive.
I wonder how good it would feel having both of them lavish all their attention on me.
“Get him, get him!” Liam shouts, pulling me out of my reverie.
“Would you quit yelling in my ear?” Maddox snaps back.
They sound like brothers. They move like it too—Maddox shifting to block Liam’s reach, Liam shoving his shoulder in retaliation. My pulse picks up for no reason at all, and I close the book with a thud, pressing my palm against the cover like I can trap the heat under it.
What is wrong with me?
I grab my soda and take a long sip, the fizz biting the back of my throat. “You two are loud,” I call over the noise. “I’m going to read in my room before I lose my hearing.”
Maddox glances over his shoulder and grins, all dimples. “Sorry, Millie. We’re about to crush this level.”
“Good luck,” I mutter under my breath. Maddox just waves at me, eyes back on the screen. Liam gives a distracted half-smile, thumb tapping buttons like his life depends on it.
I retreat to my room before my imagination gets me in trouble. The door clicks shut behind me, muffling their laughter. I lean against it for a second, eyes closed, breathing through the wave of heat curling low in my belly.
Suppressant. Right.
I cross to the medicine cabinet and take another one. The pill goes down with a swallow of soda. I sit on the edge of the bed and let out a long breath. Maddox is hot—no denying that—but I’ve already learned the hard way what happens when I blur lines with my best friend.
Liam was my comfort once. My mistake, too.
We met in high school, all of us orbiting around the same bonfires, the same late-night coffee runs. Maddox and Liam were in my class despite being older than me. We somehow ended up in the same Chemistry group. Out of the five people in the group, I ended up being their friend.
Then, after high school, I moved to New Jersey where I studied Library Science and thought I was never going to see my friends again.
When the opening for a chance to join the Driftwood Cove Public Library as a volunteer came up, much to my sister’s disapproval, I took the job.
I moved back to town and reconnected with my friends. Liam was working with his mother, learning the ropes and all that. They had left town for a few years before they came back and reopened the Nook. And Maddox had dreams of officially joining the firefighters.
We just clicked. We partied together, hung out outside work, and encouraged each other. I had been so surprised to learn that the two best friends had become a two-person pack, and I was just glad they wanted me to be part of their elite little club.
Then everything changed.
It was late on a Friday night. Maddox had left the bar early so he could go study for his exams, which left me and Liam sipping on tequila. That was when my heat suppressants backfired.
When the heat hit harder than I had anticipated, he offered to help. He’d said it like a joke, but the way he’d looked at me that night hadn’t been funny at all. I’d let him. I needed someone I trusted, and he’d been gentle, careful, everything I didn’t know I wanted.
After that came the hook-ups—behind closed doors, no labels, no promises.
Just release and familiarity. I thought it was clear what it was.
We were friends who helped get each other off.
Maddox was okay with the two of us doing that, as long as he didn’t have to hear the details. That always made Liam laugh.
Everything was going great. Liam was a fantastic fuck.
We would go months without needing to hook up before we succumbed to our desires.
I think part of it was because the night I lost my virginity, he did, too.
It had actually been kind of sweet navigating all that awkwardness together.
From our first kiss to my first heat and his first knot.
We got so good at the sex part, only fucking when we both needed it. And then he ruined it all by telling me that he had started catching feelings.
It was a few months ago, after a fun bonfire out by the cliffs. Maddox was hooking up with one of the other firefighters on his team, and so he left early. Liam and I had a lot to drink, and as always, one thing led to another.
I was upset because I had learned that Shepard was into Sadie. I was feeling vulnerable, and although Liam and I had mastered how to fuck without him knotting me, I’d begged him for it.
I’d needed it. Needed him.
Liam had complied.
Afterward, locked together with his knot pulsing inside me and sweat sliding between us, he had pushed his hand into my hair and tugged.
The move always gets me weak in the knees.
“Babe,” he had said, his other hand pressing against my clit.
I had moaned, rocking against him.
It felt so good.
It always felt so good with him.
I was still straddling him in the back seat of my car when he told me he was falling in love with me.
He’d looked at me like he expected me to say the same thing back. I hadn’t. I didn’t know how. Things had shifted, and we’d agreed to stop. Pretend nothing happened.
Now, watching him next to Maddox, easy and unbothered, makes me question which of us pulled that off better.
A knock rattles the door.
“Millie?” Liam’s voice, low, cautious. “You decent?”
I sit up fast, heart jumping. “Yeah?”
The door opens, and both of them step in. Maddox has Nimbus in his arms, the cat sprawled like royalty against his chest. Liam stands just behind him, tall enough that the doorway looks too small for the both of them.
Nimbus meows once, bored with all of us.
“You okay?” Liam asks. His eyes flick over me, quick but searching. “You’ve been quiet.”
“I’m fine.” My voice sounds a little too bright. “Just needed a break from all the shouting.”
Maddox shifts Nimbus to one arm. “The new game we wanted to play isn’t compatible with your TV. We might head to my place, if that’s cool.”
“Of course.” I nod, trying not to stare at the veins along his forearm or the way his shirt fits across his chest. The two of them fill my small bedroom, all warmth and size and presence, and I hate that my mind immediately goes somewhere it shouldn’t.
“I’ll read for a bit and head to bed,” I say. “You guys have fun.”
“Night, Mills,” Maddox says, his grin softening at the edges. Liam gives a small nod. Then they’re gone, the door closing behind them.
It takes half an hour before I hear the rumble of their bikes outside. The sound fades down the road, leaving the house too quiet.
I stare at my reflection in the mirror. My cheeks are flushed, my skin too warm. My body doesn’t care that logic says no. My hormones clearly didn’t get the memo. I mutter something unrepeatable and brush my hair out of my face.
I need to start reading thrillers. Something with blood and ghosts instead of kisses and hands sliding up skirts.
Nimbus jumps onto the dresser, tail curling around his paws. “Don’t look at me like that,” I tell him. “It’s not my fault they look like that.”
He blinks, unimpressed.
I grab a hoodie and head downstairs. The living room is clean—dishes washed, controllers stacked neatly, blankets folded. They even wiped the counter. There’s a note stuck to the fridge with a magnet shaped like a fish.
Thanks for dinner. We’ll bring the drinks next time. —L & M
I can’t help smiling. For all their chaos, they’re good men. Too good for me to mess this up again.
Still, something in me hums when I think about them. About how Maddox had looked at me earlier, his eyes catching on my mouth before he turned away. Or how Liam had stood a little too close in the doorway, his scent familiar enough to bring back things I’m supposed to have forgotten.
I shake my head, open the fridge, and reach for the bottle of wine that isn’t there. “Fucking Liam,” I mutter. He must have finished it.
I slam the door gently, lean my forehead against the cool metal, and sigh. I feel off. Not just from the suppressant or the long day. Something’s restless under my skin. Maybe seeing Shepard today stirred it. That man could always throw me off my balance.
Nimbus weaves between my legs, purring, rubbing his head against my ankle. “At least you still like me,” I say, reaching down to scratch behind his ears.
The house feels bigger when it’s empty. I sink onto the couch, curling my legs beneath me, the book open on my lap again. I try to read, but the words blur. My mind keeps drifting back to the noise of laughter, the smell of them in my house.
Liam’s cologne—cinnamon and clean soap. Maddox’s darker, a hint of pine.