Inked in Lies (The Fallen Men 5)

That was his power, my foster brother, my ex-best friend. He could disarm even the mostly heavily defended hearts, regardless if they were male or female.

So Jake was laughing, mouth wide open, head tipped forward as if he couldn’t support the weight of it while Nova regaled us with a story of the time an older woman he’d taken home had asked him to rub down with baby oil before fucking her because she liked her men oiled. Apparently, Nova had slipped on the oil and nearly taken himself out on the edge of the four-poster bed.

I was too warm with good company, copious amounts of booze, and the two bodies that pressed closer and closer at my sides. The air was alive with something underneath the sound of a local band rocking out “Sex on Fire”, the smell of sweating bodies, and yeasty bear.

Alive with something dangerous.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that Nova wasn’t just there to charm my fiancé into liking him, that he wasn’t just suddenly resolved to that fact I was getting married to a man he’d once called ‘dull as a fallow field’, and he wanted to try for me to get along with Jake.

For all he pretended to be the affable, casual pretty boy, Nova was sharp as broken glass and just as jagged.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that Nova was playing a game.

Playing a game with us that I didn’t understand and Jake had no hope of winning.

Nova chose that moment to flash me his white toothed grin, wide and calculating as a shark’s.

“You’re flushed,” he murmured, swaying close to say the words against my cheek.

I touched my cheek reflexively when he pulled back. “No, I’m not. You know I don’t blush.” I was too dark to show the heat beneath my skin, and I was grateful for it for the layer of protection against everyone knowing what I thought.

His hand slid up my bare thigh, dangerously high, fingers curled into the soft, tender skin on the inside of my leg scant inches from my lace covered core.

“Sure feel it,” he countered softly.

My breath stuttered through my open lips. I licked them unconsciously and watched his eyes follow the path. Heat scorched down my throat more potent than any of the shots we’d thrown back and pooled between my thighs. I worried, with his hand so high, he might feel the sudden warmth there, so I shut my legs closed with a snap.

Unfortunately, that trapped his hand there, stamped between my thighs like a pressed flower I was saving for later.

A bead of sweat dripped down my temple and landed on my collarbone.

With his other hand, Nova quickly swept it away with this thumb and brought it to his full, pinkish purple mouth to suck away the taste of me.

I squirmed.

“You want her,” Jake said flatly from beside me.

It startled me so deeply, his voice, the fact that he was sitting beside me, pressed all along my right side, that my heart skipped a beat before shame swept over me. How had I forgotten about my fucking fiancé with him sitting right there beside me?

Because Nova Booth, the asshole, was playing serious games.

Nova tipped his head to the side, confusion set on his features as he looked at Jake. “Say again?”

Jake pressed his lips together then forged on. “You want Lila. That’s what’s going on between you. Whether you want to admit it or not, you want her, and you hate that she doesn’t want you.”

“Oh,” Nova let out a quiet hoot to the ceiling as he tossed his head back to bark out a laugh before locking eyes with Jake again, his face suddenly somber. “You think?”

There was a dare there, barely imperceptible but dangerous.

Oh, so goddamn dangerous.

Because Jake, my sweet Jake, was a proud man.

A finance guy. Not as overtly alpha as Nova, but man enough not to take a threat like that lightly.

He leaned forward over me, almost as if I was forgotten, and practically bared his teeth at Nova. “I know.”

They held eye contact for a long minute, two warriors in a stand-off I wasn’t sure could end without violence. But then Nova was laughing easily, leaning back into his relaxed, slouched position across the booth as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

He brought his beer to his lips and winked at me over the frosted glass.

Jake followed the interaction with narrow eyes, his pulse tattooing a strong beat in his throat.

And he did it.

He picked up the thread of Nova’s carefully planted dare and bonded us to it.

To him.

“Why don’t we test that theory?” Jake suggested, biting off the words, chewing through the poisoned apple Nova had been so happy to offer up. “Kiss her.”

“Excuse me?” I snapped, twisting in my seat to gape at my future husband. “Jake, seriously, think about this for a second.”