Page 82 of Hate Me

“Some guys don’t like fellatio, neither giving it or receiving it,” Caleb pointed out.

Bastian burst out laughing. “Fellatio? Fucking shit, Cal. I see your vocabulary has expanded while you were away.”

“Fuck you. My vocabulary has always been expansive and on point, and you know it.”

Bastian laughed again.

Caspian rolled his eyes at him, then returned to stroking Caleb’s jaw line. “Watch your show, lovely. All is well.”

“Aww,” Bastian said. “Look at you two.”

“You like it?” Caleb asked, all peacefully as Caspian tended to him.

“I do. I’m glad you’re sorting that shit out between you.” He sighed heavily. “I just hope we can get there with Sky.”

I stepped across the threshold. “Well, you’ve certainly pulled out all the stops.”

Bastian and Caspian swung their heads toward me, and Caleb bolted up from Caspian’s lap then did the same.

Surprising me—yet again, as seemed to be the theme lately—none of them said a word.

They just looked out at me, a slew of emotions flickering across their features from concern and care to lust, then curiosity.

Through it all, one thing was coming through loud and clear above all the rest.

A shitload of tension.

I swallowed hard as I felt it rolling through me and affecting me.

Then I walked further into the room.

They turned with my movements as I walked past the couch, then took a seat in the Barcalounger adjacent to it, closest to Bastian.

I sank into it and curled my legs underneath me.

Then I sucked in a breath and looked out at them. “Thank you for the heartfelt gifts, for all of it.” A sheepish smile took me, as I admitted. “I don’t know what else to say, how to—”

“You don’t need to do anything,” Bastian said, rising to his feet and pulling the throw off the back of the couch, jostling Caspian and Caleb in the process. “You don’t need to say anything.”

I frowned. “I don’t?”

He smiled and draped the throw over me, then tucked it in. “Seeing that look on your face was what we were going for. That’s enough for us, beautiful.”

“Look?”

He reached out and brushed some stray strands of hair out of my face. “Your smile, your eyes lit up.” Pulling away, he asked, “Comfortable?”

Oh my God, they were killing me. I could barely get my next words out with Bastian’s making me all choked up. Seriously, only them, only they could pull this off with somebody as guarded as me—and currently trying to maintain a shutdown state that made it even harder for anyone to connect with me. “Uh… yeah. Thanks.”

“Good,” he said, sitting back down on the couch with Caspian and Caleb. “Cal, resume.”

That was when I realized that they’d paused their show when I’d walked in.

To attend to me.

To give me their undivided attention.

I jolted as my chair moved and I looked to see Caspian reaching out and pulling it closer to the couch where they were. He winked at me, then the three of them settled back into the relaxed positions they’d been in before I’d walked in.

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