Page 31 of Glamour & Gumballs

“How?”

“Win.”

I scoffed.

“Think about it, Rhetti. No one believes you’re interested in taking a mate. You just have to fight your possessiveness enough to keep them thinking that way.”

I was so pissed, the obnoxious nickname he’d been using for centuries didn’t even register.

“She wants to cause chaos,” I said flatly. “You think I can sit back and pretend not to be affected the next time she kisses some asshole in the jungle? It took everything I had not to kill Jim when I smelled him on her skin. If he’d been close enough, I would’ve done it.”

Kyle’s grin widened. “She can cause chaos without getting physical with anyone.”

“How do you figure that?”

“She starts rumors. Walks around with a hickey on her neck, with her scent mysteriously washed clean. Someone will inevitably mention that they saw her leave a few minutes after someone else, and then the gossip will begin.”

“You think I can let someone else mark her neck? We’re not even together, and the idea pisses me off.”

“You mark her neck, moron.”

I kept pacing.

He watched me, waiting.

Though the bed was massive, Erin was already starfished across it, taking up eighty percent of the mattress. Her right hand was only a few inches away from Kyle’s arm.

I itched to move it further.

“I shouldn’t even be talking about this with you,” I finally growled, running a hand through my curls. They weren’t tangled, for the first time since I landed on the island. “You could tell everyone else that I want her.”

“Do you want her?”

“I don’t fucking know.”

Kyle laughed. “Like hell you don’t. And I told you from the beginning that we were allied, whether you liked it or not.”

“That doesn’t mean a damn thing in this game.”

“Sure it does. And beyond the game, we’re friends, Rhetti. Even if you sometimes wish we weren’t. And friends don’t let friends die when there’s a woman they’re finally considering living for.”

“That’s not convincing.”

“The woman wants you,” he said.

“I don’t know that.”

He lifted an eyebrow at me. “Her pheromones kicked in when she was pressed against you. I was right there. Her scent is there to pull you in. Not me. And for the record, I think I deserve a woman who actually likes me. You can have this one.”

I grimaced.

He wasn’t wrong on either front.

“You’re really going to help me get to the end?”

“Sure am.” He winked. “I’ve got a few more months in me. You don’t.”

“What do you want in exchange?”

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