ng to get ahold of you,” I whispered.

Horror crossed his face.

“In fact, it seems like you and Jack have had a plan from the beginning.”

“It’s not what it looks like,” Cal said, and took a step toward me.

I bit my bottom lip to try to keep from crying. My eyes already hurt with the strain. “Really? Because it looks like you two made arrangements to share me.”

“Love…listen to me—”

“It’s done, she’s yours?” I asked, glancing at his phone. “You’ve had your time?” God, all of it came together. Jack had said our timing was off before he left. It even looked like part of him wanted to stay. But he didn’t. Because it was Cal’s turn to have me?

I couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. The moments from the past flashed through my mind. The night I met Cal. The night at the bar I met Jack. The day they spoke outside the bar and I never saw Cal again until after Jack left.

“You set me up. Both of you did.” The tears that escaped hit my cheek and stung. But nothing compared to the last half of my heart breaking. “You’ve had your time?” I repeated one of the messages again. “Tell me you didn’t pass me between the two of you like some toy. Tell me you didn’t have an agreement to share me.”

I waited, and he said nothing. My entire chest burst open. Nothing compared to this kind of blow. I thought Brock was bad? Thought Jack leaving hurt? This was unfathomable pain, and it sliced straight through my sternum like shears.

“Tell me!” I yelled, and tossed his phone on the counter.

“We both wanted you,” he said softly. “The first night at the bar, we both saw you and wanted you. But when the fight broke out—”

“You took care of the fight that was happening at my table, and Jack took care of me.”

“I let you two be,” he said. “But when I saw you show up to the barbeque, that wasn’t planned. Jack had left town, I thought maybe it didn’t work out, and I still wanted you.”

“Well, lucky me.” Tears were streaming faster as I looked at the man I trusted. The man I thought would be in my corner, and the whole time he was cavorting with the man that was my corner. “What about the bar? The talk outside?”

“We were both shocked. The timing was off. He was gone, then I was gone to a wildfire…”

“What did you discuss outside?”

It was the one thing Jack never told me. The one time when everything shifted.

“Jack made his claim, I backed off.”

“No!” I said and tears came faster. “Tell me all of it.”

Cal closed his eyes for a moment. “After he left… we came to an understanding. We both wanted you, so it seemed like our only option was to…”

His stare held mine, and so much anger and hurt rose.

“Say it,” I demanded between gritted teeth.

“Share,” he whispered. He stepped closer. “But not like it sounds. I was crazy about you from the start, but in the end I agreed to back off because of Jack. But after you two broke up . . .”

“You were right there to swoop in.”

“He knew I wanted you. I told him and I was honest about everything. He was gone. And I wanted a shot to prove to you the man I could be.”

“Then what?” I cried. “How was this grand plan supposed to end?”

Cal paused. Whatever he was about to say was clearly painful. Eventually he forced out the words. “Jack still has feelings for you.”

I froze. I felt those words like a punch to my gut. I would have given anything to hear those words just a few short weeks ago. Now I felt as though my world was falling apart. How could everything have changed so much, so incredibly quickly? And if Jack still cared and Cal knew, then why…?

As if he heard my unspoken question, Cal continued, “He stayed away so I could have my time, just like I respected his time. Then, you could decide.”

Tags: Joya Ryan Reign Erotic
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