Exposed (VIP 4)
“You sound like an Urban Dictionary page,” I mutter.
“Fine. You are fucking. Is that better?” He grins wide.
“No. And we’re not having this conversation.”
“Yes, we are,” Scottie interjects. “Because it’s galactically stupid what you’re doing.”
“Oh, well if it’s galactically…” I roll my eyes and steal Jax’s shake. Chocolate. Good but no strawberry, damn it. “Listen, you two are imagining things. Brenna and I are not bumping uglies.”
“Yes, you are.” Jax takes his shake back. “It’s completely obvious. Every time she blushes and ignores you, every time you grind your jaw and ignore her, you just make it more so.”
“We always ignore each other.”
“Not like this. You two fairly hum with sexual tension.”
“God help me,” I plead to the sky. “Seriously, if you get me out of this nightmare, I’ll be a good boy from now on.”
Jax snorts. “No god would accept that bargain, Ryland. Best you ask the guy downstairs.”
I flip him the finger. Even though he’s probably right.
“Jax’s poetic phrasing aside,” Scottie says. “It’s clear something is going on between you two.”
“Plus,” Jax says. “And this is just a suggestion. If you don’t want anyone to know, you probably shouldn’t suck face in the kitchen during family dinner night.”
Blood drains from my head and rushes to my toes. “Shit. You saw that?”
“That horror is burned on my brain now, thank you very much. Hell, I should get an Oscar for backing out and pretending I saw nothing.”
I scrub my hands over my face, the urge to jump up and run riding high. But they’d only hunt me down later. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” I lower my hands and glare around the table. “She will kill me if she knows we’ve even talked about this. Do you get that?”
Scottie makes a sound of affirmation. Jax, however, squirms like he’s just realized this. Dumbass.
“More to the point,” I go on. “She’ll be horrified and humiliated.” The truth chafes. But I don’t blame her. This conversation is horrifying me too much as it is.
Then something else occurs to me, and I go ice-cold. “Shit, does anyone else know?” Whip knows, of course. But he’s nice enough not to say the words out loud, which kind of makes it still a secret. The others, though… “Does Killian know?”
No, he couldn’t. If Killian knew, he’d be here, punching me in the face.
“Calm down.” Jax leans back to slurp his shake. “No one else knows.”
I pin him with a stare. “Not even Stella?”
He waves his shake with an idle hand. “She doesn’t count. We’re a relationship unit.”
“God.” I groan and pinch the bridge of my nose where a headache is forming. “Which means Sophie knows too.”
Scottie’s smile is brief but fond. “No. I love my wife, but that doesn’t mean I’m unaware that she has the biggest mouth in all creation.”
“You keep things from her?” Jax is aghast.
“Not important things that affect us or our family. But Rye is right to look terrified…”
“I don’t think I looked terrified…”
“The whole group knowing Brenna is consorting with him would devastate her.”
“Thanks,” I grumble. “Glad to know consorting with me is so awful.”
Jax chuckles and slaps my shoulder with good humor. “Your reputation precedes you.”
“You’re about to wear that shake home, Johnny Boy.”
He takes an extra-long suck of it. Asshole.
Sighing, I reach over and steal Scottie’s shake, taking a drink before he can stop me. The man is a low-level germaphobe, so I know he won’t want it back. Scottie gives me a repressive glare.
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t fuck with him in this way, but he’s pissed me off. And I’m thirsty. So, I drink some more of his salted caramel shake before I speak. “You’re both wrong, by the way. This thing with Brenna and I just started. And it’s complicated.”
“Of course, it’s complicated,” he snaps. “Which is why it’s stupid.”
“Galactically,” I deadpan, slurping on his shake. Figures he’d get something salty.
His glare is glacial. “Quite.”
When I say nothing—because he’s not entirely wrong—Scottie sighs. “Even you should be able to understand how complicated it will be when this thing goes south, and we’re all left dealing with the fallout.”
When. Not if. As though the very idea of Brenna sticking with me isn’t even worth contemplating.
My teeth grind. “Even me?”
“You’re not the brightest penny when it comes to this stuff,” Jax says.
I’ve played the role of the band’s unofficial clown. Mainly because I don’t like sweating the small stuff, and someone has to lighten the mood. But, until now, I hadn’t thought my guys actually believed I was an idiot.
“I have near-perfect recall and an IQ of one-fifty. Try again, asshole.”
Jax shakes his head. “I was referring to romantic shit. You want to tell me you know what you’re doing there?”
I deflate with a sigh. “Fine. I’m romantically challenged.” I point my stolen shake at them. “And we’re not talking about this.”