Page 109 of Bulletproof

“On that note,” I said, pulling my hand free, “good night.”

I was across the floor fast and then outside, walking toward my cottage. I had forgotten for half of a second that Aaron Sutter always, invariably, ended up making me feel like shit. It was his gift.

Inside my cottage, I peeled myself out of my clothes and took a long, hot shower. There were no roaches, and I knew there wouldn’t be. Ipo had informed me that big ones lived outside, not inside, and that as long as I kept things moderately closed up, I shouldn’t have nightly visitors, just one once in a while.

Apparently, no matter how clean you kept your house, you were going to have bugs. It was the tropics after all. She said that late-night chirping I had been hearing was a good thing; it meant the geckos were out, and they ate the roaches. We had played the What Would You Rather Have in Your House game and came to the joint conclusion that between bugs or lizards, lizards were preferable.

When I came out of the shower, drying my hair, towel wrapped around my waist, I heard the pounding on my door. Aaron was there when I opened it.

“What?”

“I’m sorry.”

I squinted at him. “How long have you been out here?”

“Who cares? Forgive me.”

“Forgive you?”

“Yes.”

“Forgive you for being a dick,” I said snidely.

“Just—I’m sorry, and you know I never say that to anyone.”

And he didn’t, which was really too bad.

“Why are you fighting with me?” he grumbled at me.

“I’m not doing anything. It’s all you,” I assured him.

He scowled, pushed by me, and fell down face-first onto my bed. “I wanna sleep here, okay?” he said, slurring his words. “Just fuckin’ lemme.”

I rolled my eyes as I continued to dry my hair. I left the door open because I figured Jaden would be right along. I was wrong though. It was Hayes.

“Jory, I wanted to—oh.” He was surprised at finding Aaron, now passed out on my bed, sprawled out. “See if you were all right after he started in on you.”

“I’m used to it.” I smiled at him. “It always degenerates into that, which is why we’re no longer together.”

“You realize, of course, that he’s crazy about you.”

“He might think he is, but he’s not.”

“Jory, from what he said after you left, you’re the only boyfriend he’s ever kept just to himself. He said that thinking about other men fucking you, even now, makes him sick.”

I nodded.

“I mean, tonight, all he did was watch, you know? Some men, that’s all they do. They sit and jack off, watching, and others are on the floor, getting fucked and sucked and everything else.”

“Sounds hot,” I lied.

“No, it doesn’t. Not to you, it doesn’t.”

“Hey, I watch as much porn as the next⁠—”

“But if you had the chance, would you do porn? Would you agree to be the guy in the swing with nine guys waiting to fuck him?”

“Porn can be just two guys fooling around too, Hayes. Some of the hottest stuff I’ve ever seen in my life is one guy begging and the other guy giving it to him.”