Page 143 of Deceit

His full lips press a kiss to my cheek, the rough edges of his short beard abrading over my skin, and I melt in my chair.

Yep, melt.

His touch still gets me to fall victim to him and everything thatisKace Bishop.

“You look beautiful,” he whispers as he pulls back. My body immediately rejects him stepping away from me, but he does.

Rounding the table, he stops to say something to Stormi, and Marty’s head shoots up to where Bishop answers him back with a feeble smack to the back of his skull. His light blue tee and dark jeans mold to his body and I watch with too much unnecessary interest.

He settles in next to Mills, who hands him a glass of dark liquid, and he immediately takes a hefty sip. A light smirk illuminates off his features at what my best friend says and I blink a few times to make sure that I hadn’t just imagined the last two minutes.

He seems…okay.

Not that I wouldn’t want him to be.

I was just expecting him to be livid pissed at me and still hold a grudge. I mean, he had for me wanting him to open up to me for three-plus years. He did the exact same thing by evading me, but now I couldn’t take back what happened.

I’m pregnant and he’s fine.

Two things I should want.

Two things that I have to want.

Alexander heads most of the conversation with my friends during appetizers. At the same time, Ledger seems very interested in knowing more about him, but I can’t eat a thing.

The boys are courteous—sweetly so because they know how much this means to me—and Blue cracks her inappropriate jokes which don’t phase me anymore. Poor Alexander will have to get used to it at some point or another.

He does wonderfully and answers every damning question from Marty, asking if he carries any weapons in the house and if he works exceptionally late hours. That he’ll be stopping by with his kid so they can have what he called “those playdate things” and to hang out with me for pizza night.

Kyson is silent for most of the time, which isn’t too out of the ordinary, but I can tell he’s conflicted. Mills is trying to crack stupid puns, but I catch his eyes a few times, and it’s then that I realize he’s trying to hide it too.

They don’t like him.

And I can’t make them.

If they hate him, I can only hope that within time it’ll change when they see how well he treats me. In their vision, no one will ever be good enough.

I can say the same for them even though Marty has Stormi, and I enjoy her company. She’s a good fit for him.

After dinner, no one wants dessert but more drinks. Stormi and I sip on virgin margaritas while the boys pick at the leftover appetizers they didn’t finish off from earlier.

I dodge Bishop through most of the meal and keep my eyes elsewhere. Paying particular attention to him isn’t going to help the situation, nor the guilty pull that latches me to his gravity.

When the restaurant begins to clear out and quiet down, so does my squad. Ledger, Marty, and Stormi leave first while Mills asks Alexander stupid questions about being a CEO of his company and if he gets to destroy his competition with random methods I don’t pay attention to.

I don’t notice Bishop until he nears Kyson and I, causing me to tense in anticipation of how this is going to go.

I’m not sure how to act or what to say.

I don’t want to make the taut air between us worse, but if anything, I usually know how to read Bishop.

“Ready to take off?” Kyson asks Bishop, wrapping his arm around my shoulders to tuck me into his body. Then he leans in to whisper for all of us to hear, “Do we get to become knights or some shit to protect the princess?”

I roll my eyes but squeeze him harder. “Will you guys please shut the fuck up about the royalty thing? I’m not becoming a princess. But if I do, we’re going to go live on an island. I’ll make sure to stock up on the sunscreen since you burn easy.”

“You’re an asshole,” he quips, pressing a kiss into my hair. “I think I’ve taken all the redheaded jokes I can for this year.”

“Thank you for coming tonight, I—“ Kyson silences me by crushing tighter into his hard body.

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