Chapter 8
SIEGE
“This is yours?”
I heard Nero’s disbelieving tone from the backseat while Dex was pulling up the circular driveway on our property in Beaufort.
I’m sure there wasn’t really doubt in his question since he watched Dex turn off the alarm that sounded when our facial scanning feature at the gate read Nero’s unregistered face through the windshield.
Because it was the weekend, Cosette and I thought it would be a nice idea to spend it here, like a small vacation, seeing as the little vixen was eager to make use of the game room.
I was taking her overnight bag from her to load it into the backseat when Nero crossed the street and said hi to her, coming home from a run.
The sly vixen, already so comfortable and taking the ‘mi casa es su casa’ saying a little too seriously, suddenly asked him if he wanted to come with so we can play board games in pairs.
She invited him, and when he agreed, running back to his place to pack his own bag, it was only then that she asked me and Dex if it was okay.
Seeing her act in charge was hot as hell, and I didn’t have a problem with Nero anymore, so I obliged, but Dex was far from pleased when he found out Nero was coming with us.
One look from Cosette though, and he had no choice but to agree.
I still don’t know what kind of look she gave him, but I’m counting on a cute one, or a threatening one. Both work well on us, that’s for sure.
“Yeah. Well, technically, it’s still my dad’s, but yeah,” I said, a hint of pride in my voice. He doesn’t need to know that I’m actually letting go of my right to have my name in the deed for when my dad’s gone by invoking Exodus.
“Pretty cool, huh? Wait til you see the game room,” Cosette told Nero, pulling a grumpy Dex behind her with their fingers intertwined.
Poor guy was hoping for a lot of sex this weekend, and he must think having Nero here is a thorn in his plans.
“Come on, bro. I’ll give you a tour.”
With a slap and a squeeze to Nero’s shoulder, I motioned for him to follow me.
I was doing my part as Dex’s best friend so he could get some alone time with our little vixen.
He complains enough that her bed is too small for the three of us at her place, and I just know that if he weren’t holding himself back because I got with Cosette first, he would complain even more.
Nero followed behind me, nodding in agreement, but when I glanced back, he was also looking in the same direction I was. Behind us, Dex was already whispering hushed words to Cosette, whose tanned skin was beginning to flush a lovely shade of red.
Filthy son of a bitch.
“Well, well, well. What do we have here?” I asked with a smirk as I saw Dex appear at the bottom of the stairs.
Nero and I ended our tour down here at the game room where we’d be spending a lot of time over the weekend, while Dex and Cosette stayed behind upstairs.
I’m not gonna lie. I’m kind of disappointed. We haven’t been here twenty minutes.
“Really? You’re already done?”
Dex flipped me off, taking a seat on the armrest on my side of the couch instead of the space between me and Nero.
“She kicked me out. She said she wants to prepare dinner,” Dex explained, and I chuckled at my brother’s misfortune.
“And you didn’t help instead?” Nero asked, a smirk on his lips as well, seemingly amused at the situation.
“I actually offered to help, Mr. Goody Two Shoes. Ten seconds in, I was helping her tie her apron from the behind and she said I was too hump-y so she pinched my side until I left.”
Dex looked so offended, like he couldn’t understand why Cosette pushed him away like that, and I just patted his back to console him but he’s probably still horny that he jumped up from the sofa away from my touch like I just dumped a bucket of ice cold water on him.
“Does it not bother you?” Nero suddenly asked, raising an eyebrow at me.
Immediately, I knew what he was trying to do. It is quite a surprise that he waited this long to try to pit me and Dex against each other, hopefully to make either of us, or both of us, leave this whole thing behind.
The little vixen might think everything’s fine and dandy with having me and Dex, and having Nero back as his ‘guy best friend’—a bunch of bullshit, by the way—but I know Nero still doesn’t approve of us for her.
It’s in the way he would look at us with caution in his eyes. One time, he asked Cosette things about Dex and me, trying to see just how well she knew us, and to gather as much information as he could about the two of us.
“Dex trying to get with Cosette alone?” I asked, pretending I don’t know where the conversation is heading. “Nah. I get my time with her alone, too.”
Nero’s jaw tightened at my answer, as Dex finally plopped down on the couch between us.
“So, you’re really into this sharing thing, huh?”
Dex gave me a look that said, ‘Is this guy for real’, and I just looked at him with a ‘Play nice’.
“We’re not into sharing. I never even fucked anyone who’s ever had sex with Siege. We’re both into Cosette. And if sharing her is the solution, then fuck it,” Dex answered, leaning back while he threw his feet up on the coffee table.
“How did you even get Cosette to be with you? She hated your guts before she and I got into that argument about Andy,” Nero asked Dex, disbelief in his expression. I had no idea what he’s talking about but I think it has something to do with the time when I was kidnapped.
The latter just smirked, and he looked so in love I wanted to puke. I can’t blame him, though. I probably looked the same whenever I thought about Cosette.
“Well, for starters, I was there for her when she was sad and scared for Siege—which you didn’t do,” Dex started, and I gave him the elbow.
Does he really need to be a jerk?
“But I think the nail on the coffin was when I sang to her.”
I snorted my laugh, shaking my head in protest. “She didn’t even know the song was for her, douchebag,” I said.
“Oh, please. I eye-fucked her on that stage, and after my performance.”
Dex still had that obnoxious smirk on his face, probably imagining that night again. It really was the start of their own story.
Wonder what would’ve happened if I hadn’t ignited that spark between those two.
Would I have lost Dex? Or would the three of us have kept on hanging out while they just continued to settle for being friends?
Completely absorbed in my own thoughts, I was surprised to hear Dex speak again, and even more surprised by the tenderness in his voice.
“I’m pretty sure it’s just the fact that she felt it when she heard me sing, though.
I really poured my heart out into that song, believe it or not.
The cheesiest, most fucking romantic thing I’ve ever done in my life. ”
A silence fell upon the three of us, and I don’t know if Nero was thinking about the same thing as Dex and I were.
Cosette.
“She felt what? Love? Just because of a song?” Nero asked, trying to break through the sudden quiet in the stuffy air of the basement.
Dex turned his head so I couldn’t see what he looked like when he faced Nero, but I saw the smugness and malice leave Nero’s eyes as he looked at Dex.
“My genuineness.”