Page 245 of The Lies We Play

Fuck.

I feel it everywhere.

I lower my mouth to her shoulder because I need somewhere to put what it does to me.

Her skin is warm. The room is even warmer. The air feels too close, full of breath and need and the tiny sounds people make when they are trying not to confess something too soon. I kiss the curve of her shoulder, then the slope beneath her collarbone. Her head tips toward Halston, her mouth still caught by his, and that exposes her throat to me.

I take the invitation.

My lips move there slowly. I feel her pulse beneath my mouth. Too fast. Alive and mine and his, not owned by either of us. I bite gently, and she breaks the kiss with Halston, gasping.

“Creed,” she moans.

I smile against her skin. “I’m here.”

“I noticed.”

Her voice shakes on the last word, so she adds attitude to cover it. My girl, trying to build a fortress out of sarcasm while half-naked between two men who know exactly where the gate is.

Then I kiss lower.

Her breath catches.

The first taste of her skin there, soft and warm beneath her collarbone, sends a pulse of heat through me. I drag my mouth lower, over the rise of her chest, and have to pause for half a second just to look at her. Her breasts are bare, full and beautiful, her nipples tight from desire and the way both of us are watching her. I want my hands on her. My mouth. Halston’s mouth. I want to see her held between us until every clever defense slips from her face.

Halston looks at me over her shoulder.

His eyes are dark.

I know that look.

It says, not too fast.

It says, don’t overwhelm her.

It says, I am already overwhelmed, but need more—both of you.

I slide one hand around Liv’s waist, holding her against me, while my other hand comes up to cover Halston’s where it rests on her back. His fingers tense under mine.

There.

A flinch most people would miss.

I don’t.

“Stay,” I tell him quietly.

His gaze snaps to mine.

Liv goes still between us.

The room changes.

That single word lands where all three of us can feel it. Stay. Not just here. Not just in the bed. Stay in the kiss. Stay in the wanting. Stay in the version of this where none of us steps back to make it easier for someone else to survive the feeling.

Halston’s jaw tightens.

Then he turns his hand under mine and laces our fingers together against Liv’s spine.