Page 60 of Bones

Skull puts his palms up and offers me a small smile. “Yes, Blade did find you. And you said you wanted Bones to leave you alone, but you said nothing about me.” He flashes me a wide smile.

“Cute,” I mutter, opening the door to let him in. “You wasted a trip here. I’m perfectly fine. I just wanted a little time to wallow without Bones sitting on my front door.”

“Bones, huh,” he whispers, sitting down on the edge of the bed. “What are we watching?”

“Skull,” I say, sighing heavily. “Go home to your family. You don’t need to be here.”

Instead of listening to me, he toes off his boots and lies back on the bed, his arms crossed behind his head. “What’s She’s the Man?”

I gasp. “You’ve never seen it? It’s one of my favorite movies.”

“All right, let’s see then.”

My eyes snap to him, but he keeps his eyes on the screen. He looks so relaxed, without a care in the world. His peaceful expression only makes me angrier.

“You’re going to just lie here and watch a movie with me?” I ask, each word going higher in pitch.

“Yeah. It was a long ride out here, and I’m tired. Let’s watch this movie, I’m curious now.” He pats the spot next to him. “Come on, Doc. Relax. All your problems aren’t going anywhere.”

Suddenly feeling drained, I lay back on the bed next to him and start the movie. I watch his facial expressions during my favorite parts, smiling when he laughs.

Eventually, my eyes drift shut.

I barely got any sleep last night, and I’ve been running on empty all day.

Before I completely pass out, I feel a warm blanket come over me, and a soft kiss to my temple. “Sleep, Doc, I’ve got you.”

When I wake up the next morning, Skull is still fast asleep next to me. He’s on top of the blanket while I’m under it, but he’s turned to face me. He looks almost boyish when he’s asleep, his long lashes resting on his cheeks and his mouth soft. What was it like for these women to be with both of them?

I know I’ll never get that chance, and I don’t even know how to feel about that. I’ve never looked at Skull in a sexual way. I mean, of course, he’s gorgeous. Hello… he looks like Bones, but I guess I thought it would be wrong of me to even look at him like that.

It’s his brother.

There’s a line there, or so I thought there was.

Meanwhile, Isla got to experience both of them. Together.

Worshiping her body. What the fuck am I meant to do with that?

Am I disgusted or jealous? I don’t know how I feel. But why does it feel like it’s the latter?

I hate that she knows Bones like that. That they know each other so well, yet I’m supposed to pretend like that doesn’t mean anything.

He opens his eyes, and they soften when they land on me.

“I need you to fill in some holes for me,” I blurt out, and only when he starts laughing do I realize how that sounded.

“No, not in the way Bones filled Isla,” I mutter.

He stops laughing and sighs. “Sweetheart, my brother loves you. What happened with Isla was before you, and before I met Isla, Bones and I would share women all the time. I know it sounds weird to other people, but that was our normal. We’d just worked together as a team on everything. Then, when I fell in love with Isla, we were both pushed out of our comfort zones. I suddenly had something he didn’t, and my first reaction was to share that with him.” He winces as he says it.

“I know it sounds fucked up, trust me. After it happened, I knew it wouldn’t happen again. And Bones didn’t want it to… Neither did Isla. It was something we all experienced together, which helped us figure out how we wanted it to be going forward. Bones didn’t love Isla, and she wasn’t the one who stopped him fucking around… that was you. You’re his Isla. The woman who changed everything for him.”

“He should have been honest with me, Skull. Everyone knew but me, and now I feel so stupid.”

“Hey,” he says gently, pushing my hair off my face. “The only stupid one here is my brother, who should have laid it all out for you. He was afraid it would be too much for you and that you’d walk away. I know that doesn’t make it right, and I told him he needed to tell you. I think he thought he had more time.” He pauses and then smirks. “You know he’s a procrastinator.”

“So you shared women before Isla?” I ask, and he nods.