Chapter 18
Alec
I wake up in bed without Tegan. A groan vibrates my throat as I turn over and look at the clock beside the bed. It’s midnight. Only an hour after we fell asleep. Or maybe I was the only one who fell asleep.
Panic grips me. These motels aren’t the best places.
I’ve barely zipped my jeans before I reach the door and rip it open.
If I know Tegan, she’s headed toward the vending machines to eat away any stress she’s feeling, so that’s where I run, bare feet and all.
Gravel stabs into my soles as my eyes scan the aged signs.
I finally land on one that says Vending Machine in scribbled handwriting.
I take the left, then stop as I turn the corner.
Tegan is there, with two packages of discarded snacks beside her on the ground. But she’s not alone. I close the gap between us in three long strides and rip whoever it is away from her.
“Hey, man!” the familiar voice says, and I take a step back.
“Tye? What the hell are you doing here?”
His blue eyes look like icy circles in this light, and they narrow on me now. “She shouldn’t be out here alone, and I was making sure she knew that.”
I turn toward Tegan, who’s toeing the ground and refusing to meet my gaze. “I was just hungry,” she whispers, and her features twist into something similar to how she looked at the pool at the last motel.
I pull her into me, and her head drops to my chest as I wrap my arms around her. Is she okay? I mouth toward Tye.
He shrugs.
I lift her chin and make her look at me. “Let’s go back to the room.”
She nods, and we head back toward my room. Tye’s footsteps mirror ours. He’s following us back. We slip inside my room, and Tye closes the door behind him. He has beers and a bottle of something stronger beneath his right arm. I didn’t even notice.
“Is that why you were out?” I ask.
“Tomorrow’s the midnight party, but I thought we could start our own tonight.” He rattles the cans at his side. “But then I found her alone. Ace, you can’t let her wander around places like this by herself.”
My spine stiffens. “You think I let her go by herself?”
Tye shrugs.
“I ran out there as soon as I noticed she was missing.” I grab Tegan’s arm and turn her toward me. “Don’t do that again, pup. I’m not kidding. If something happened to you . . .” My voice trails off as I remember Tye’s presence. “Go to the bathroom.”
“Why?”
I gesture toward the bathroom. “Now.” I turn back to look at Tye. “Pour me a beer. We’ll be right back.”
I bring Tegan into the bathroom and close the door behind us.
“Why are we here?” she asks without looking at me.
“Because I need to make sure you’re okay. Did anyone hurt you?”
She shakes her head, her dark hair grazing her shoulders. “There was a guy, but Tye came around the corner.”
“Wait, did he—?”
“No, nothing like that. He just kept staring, and then he came up beside me like he was going to get a drink from the machine. It was just weird. But Tye scared him away.”
“You ran off to get food again. I told you that you don’t need to binge when you’re anxious. I can take care of you.”
She just stares at me.
“What upset you?”
“I don’t know,” she whispers.
“Yes you do. Talk to me.”
She blinks. “You fell asleep, and I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened. You couldn’t get hard around me. It made me feel . . . bad.”
This is exactly what I worried about. That my erection issues would make her feel less than what she is. Especially when she’s already so insecure.
“Oh, pup,” I whisper, and put my hands on both sides of her head. I pull her face to mine and kiss her. “My . . . problem has nothing to do with you. Absolutely nothing.”
“Am I too fat for you?” she asks, and my heart sinks into my fucking stomach.
I kiss her. “I’m very attracted to you and your body, exactly as you are.”
Her cheeks flush, and a knock on the door draws our eyes away from each other.
“Hey, everything okay in there?” Tye asks.
“We’re fine!” I call out. I turn back to Tegan and lower my voice. “We’ll talk more about this later.”
We go back into the bedroom, and Tye looks more concerned than he probably should.
“She’s okay,” I say.
After a few tense moments, he finally turns to the dresser and pours cold liquor into two smudged glasses. He offers one to me, and judging by the curiosity in Tegan’s eyes, I imagine this is something she hasn’t tried before.
“Can she have one?” Tye asks, as if I’m her fucking dad.
“If she wants one.”
She definitely wants one. She’s underaged, sure, but she’s safe in this room with us. If she wants to explore with a bit of alcohol, who am I to stop her?
She nods and steps forward to take the glass I was offered, and Tye pours a new one for me.
I smirk as Tegan takes a sip of the golden liquid.
Her face contorts the moment she swallows.
I reach out to take the drink away from her, and she shakes her head while chugging the remainder before handing the empty glass to me.
“Slow down.” I hand the empty glass to Tye and let him fill her glass again.
Before long, Tegan is very loose. Her glazed eyes accompany a full smile.
She’s giggling and happy. I don’t hate it.
I’m even a little buzzed myself, and Tye is nearly as drunk as she is.
They both lie back on the bed, talking in low voices.
About what? I don’t know. I fold my leg beneath me and sit at the foot of the bed.
“What’re you guys talking about?”
“Tegan was just telling me about the big sale you guys did yesterday.”
I run my hand through my hair. “Yeah, that was a bit of a low blow, even for us.”
Tye shakes his head. “Feeling bad about it, Ace? The crowned king of deceit? Are you getting soft on us?” He and Tegan share a laugh. “I’m not upset about her utilizing her bruise to make sales. She’s thinking on her feet. That’s the type of person who does well in this business.”
“Yeah,” I say. “I guess you’re right.”
“You’re the one who told me that you wanted to make her a ruthless saleswoman.
” His hand drops to her thigh. Though a thin set of leggings separates his skin from hers, jealousy lights in my gut like a pilot light on a furnace.
Heat builds at the sight of them. Instead of getting angry, however, I get curious. My eyes ping-pong between the two.
“Why don’t we play truth or dare?” she asks after taking a swig of her drink.
Tye pulls his hand away when he realizes where it was resting. I wish he wouldn’t have moved it. He finishes his beer and sets it on the bedside table. “I’ll play.”
“Truth or dare,” Tegan asks me as she sits up.
“Dare,” I say.
She cups her cheek and looks around the room. “I dare you to run to the van and back . . . naked.”
“Really, pup?”
Tye bites back a laugh. “The lady speaks. Get naked and run, Ace.”
I put down my drink, strip off my clothes, cup my dick, and rip open the door. Off I run, across the fucking parking lot. My fingers touch the van, and I run back. Thankfully, all the other rooms have their curtains closed. Tegan’s smiling face is visible through my window, though.
“You’re an asshole,” I say through a laugh as I pop back into the room and grab my clothes off the floor. Tye looks away as I get dressed, but Tegan’s eyes remain on me.
“Truth or fucking dare, Tye?” I ask as I zip my jeans and sit on the bed.
His lips twist as he considers his fate, and Tegan sits beside him. “Dare,” he finally says. Bold move.
And my next one is even bolder.
I bite the inside of my cheek as I look like I’m trying to come up with the best dare I can, but I absolutely know what I’m going to ask, and it could make or break this friendship.
“I dare you to kiss Tegan,” I say.
He laughs. Sobers. And then laughs again. “Wait, what?”
“I dare you to kiss her.”
“I don’t understand,” he says.
As if all my fears about her accepting my kink were for nothing, Tegan doesn’t say anything. She just blushes. She’s not saying no, though.
This awkward moment lingers, and no one moves.
I’m just about to say I was kidding so that I can salvage this painful fucking moment, but Tye leans toward Tegan.
She leans toward Tye. His hand hooks around the back of her neck and pulls her the final few inches before his mouth presses against hers.
His lips spread, and she whimpers as the kiss deepens.
And I’m suddenly hard as fuck.
Tye growls against her mouth and crawls over her, then pulls away and wipes his mouth. “Oh god, Ace, I’m sorry.”
I try to argue, but he’s already standing up. He knocks the beer can over and panics as he tries to put space between all of us.
“I have to go,” he says, and I have to get up and catch his arm before he leaves. He rips his arm from his grasp. “No, Ace. I’m leaving.” The walls tremble as he slams the door behind him.
Fuck.
Tegan sits on the bed with her hand pressed over her mouth as if she did something wrong. She didn’t, but I can’t stop and tell her that right now. Against every fiber of my being, I follow Tye out the door.
“Tye!” I call after him, but he’s still walking away. When I catch up to him and grab his arm to stop him, he doesn’t pull it away this time.
“Dude, I’m sorry,” he says.
“Don’t be.”
“No, I refuse to let a girl get between us. You’re my best friend, and I—”
“It’s not like that. It’s—”
“It was a mistake, Ace. Please, just let me sleep this off.”
I release his arm, and he disappears down the dark hallway.
I grind my palm into my eye. I understand why Tye is upset.
I don’t think he’d ever understand a desire to share.
Not just a desire, a need. He would think he was doing something wrong even if I told him it was what I wanted.
Just like on the bed. I asked for it, and yet the guilt still ran him down.
So much for that bright idea.
I head back to my room so I can confront the other third of this fucked up trifecta I’m trying to create with two people who are not into sharing like I am. When I walk in, Tegan swipes a tear from her cheek to keep me from seeing. I sit beside her and pull her into me.
“I’m so sorry, Tegan.”
“You wanted me to kiss him . . .” she whispers.
I close my eyes for several moments before opening them again. “Yeah, I did.”
“Why?”
“Because if he played with you, I could get hard enough to play with you too.”
Her eyes widen as she learns the gravity of what I meant. What I want from this relationship. I want her to have my heart, and I want to be a large part of her heart, but I want a little bit of hers to be occupied by someone else too.
And that’s fucked up.
Instead of discussing it further, she flops back on the bed and closes her eyes. The topic is shelved for now, but if Tegan ever wants something more from me, we’ll have to talk about it eventually. For the time being, I need to get some sleep. I’ll need all my senses for the midnight party.