18. Bailey-Rose #3
“Now you have your own, but you didn’t deserve mallows, so you don’t have them,” Vili informed Lysse before taking his seat and sipping his own cocoa.
Watching the way these men interacted reminded me of my brothers—they were a real family to each other.
It was the way packs should be, and I hoped it stayed that way.
However, I’m not na?ve enough to believe there can’t be issues within a family unit—even within my own family, there were fights. What mattered was how they ended.
“Sweetheart, I believe you were about to tell us another piece to the puzzle,” Yun-Sun said, bringing us back on track.
I slurped up another marshmallow before diving back into my heartbreak.
“When I found him with the other woman, I’d been gone for the past three months.
The final project for my Fine Arts master’s degree had to be done in person on campus.
Up until that point, I’d been doing school online to keep my stress low.
Also, with my many doctors’ appointments, it was easier not to find specialists in another city.
For this final project, however, there was no other choice, I had to go, but Randall encouraged me to embrace the experience. ”
“I’ll bet he did,” Gareth grumbled.
Dropping my gaze, I traced a finger around the rim of my mug as I continued, “We video-chatted most days, and things between us seemed good, or so I thought. In my effort to get the project done and presented to the Fine Arts faculty, I ended up being able to come home three days early. I have a key to his place, so it wasn’t like it was unusual for me to pop in unannounced.
Seems he didn’t think I would show up randomly, or he wouldn’t have been so careless. ”
Lysse squeezed me tighter in a comforting hug.
“Rosie, you have nothing to feel bad about in this situation. His giving you a key meant you had every right to show up there whenever you wanted. If he didn’t have anything to hide, then none of this would have been an issue.
Randall is the one who fucked up, not you. ”
“Yeah, well, the only reason he was fucking her is because I can’t have sex like a normal person.
You guys have seen how easy it is for me to set off my monitor.
No one wants to deal with that in the heat of the moment,” I muttered, then chugged the last of my hot chocolate like I was taking a shot.
“Care Bear, have you already forgotten our afternoon delight? There were no alarms going off on my watch,” Warrick reminded me.
The guys whipped their heads to look at Warrick then back at me. Vili had a pleased smile on his face as if he fully supported the fact Warrick and I fooled around. Yun-Sun looked a little uncertain, but Gareth didn’t look happy.
“What the hell does that mean?” Gareth demanded.
A little taken aback, Warrick’s eyes went wide. “Are you asking me to give you a play-by-play?”
“No, but you were at the bar which isn’t the most private location,” Gareth reasoned.
“Wooow,” Warrick said, drawing out the word as he set down his mug.
“What’s next, are you going to ask me if I let others watch?
Made her scream loud enough everyone knew what was happening in my office?
Or maybe you want to be a real ass and ask me if I pushed her to fool around while she was upset and vulnerable? ”
Gareth recoiled like he’d just been slapped. “What? No, I would never assume you would do something like that.”
“Then why are you treating me like we did something wrong? You didn’t say shit to Ulysses when he had her screaming on the bathroom counter, why now?” Warrick challenged.
Gulping like a fish out of water, Gareth attempted to answer the question but couldn’t seem to find the answer.
“Stop it,” I snapped, drawing their attention.
“Warrick was nothing but a gentleman and knew exactly what I needed to hear and feel to keep from spiraling. Randall threw some of my biggest fears in my face when he told me the woman he was banging was a hooker. Since he couldn’t have sex with me the way he wanted, he found it with other women he paid, or at least that’s his story.
None of that matters, though, because I wanted…
no begged for everything that happened between Warrick and me. ”
Gareth looked guilty as hell while rubbing the back of his neck, unsure whether to meet my gaze or not.
“Being Alphas makes you overprotective, quick to leap to conclusions or fix problems, but I don’t ever want you accusing each other of something so awful as taking advantage of me.
Gareth, do you truly believe that Warrick wouldn’t do everything possible to keep me safe while I was with him today? ”
“Of course, I don’t believe that,” he admitted, shoulders slumping. “I’m upset because I wasn’t there to protect you, and something bad happened. Fuck, every time I think I have a handle on this issue, shit like this comes up, throwing it in my face.”
Now I was totally confused.
When Gareth met my gaze, I could see the pain in his eyes. “I had a little sister, she died, and it’s my fault.”