Page 255 of Cross Checked
Cade blinked once. “What voice?”
Both girls mocked his frustrated be-reasonable voice simultaneously.
“Pip.”
Briggs immediately joined in from the counter in a deeper voice. “Pip.”
Ryan, because apparently death by humiliation required full participation, added a dry, gravelly, “Pip.”
Cade whipped his eyes to me for clarification or defense—I didn’t know. I nearly spit coffee everywhere at how personally attacked he looked. “That is wildly exaggerated.”
“It is not,” Charm argued. “You sound like an angry lumberjack, but in love.”
Aura lost it instantly, wheezing into her coffee.
Ryan pinched the bridge of his nose, shoulders shaking. “It’s so true it’s insane.”
Briggs looked at Cade with academic seriousness. “Spot-on accuracy.”
Cade looked down at me slowly. “Our friends are terrorists.”
“You love us,” Charm informed him.
“Debatable.”
Ryan lifted his mug. “You live with us. We are going nowhere.”
“Unfortunately,” Cade muttered.
Briggs grinned. “And yet you brought her here. To us. For approval and a hint of judgment.”
Charm pointed at the side of his neck and squealed. “Ohemgeee.”
My stomach dropped instantly.
Cade barely reacted. “What?”
“You have hickeys,” Aura told him.
His eyes narrowed slightly. “Interesting accusation.”
“Not accusation.” She leaned farther over the counter. “Evidence.”
My face became nuclear.
Charm gasped dramatically. “Bliss Danielle Bennett.”
Ryan leaned closer, eyes narrowing. “Oh, that is evidence.”
Briggs hopped off the counter and took one step toward Cade like he was inspecting a crime scene. “Brother, did you or did you not enter this kitchen wearing visible bite marks?”
“I hate this house.”
Cade looked way too pleased with himself now. “Oh, I love it here.”
Aura stared at the scratches by his neck. “Seriously though, B, what happened to him?”
Cade answered immediately. “Passion.”
