Page 29 of The Retreat

“You can thank your mother for that.” I reach for his hand. “Take a deep breath, we can do this.”

Cassie finds us when we re-enter the ballroom, jumping at me in a hug.

“Way to steal my husband,” she snickers in my ear.

“You owe me.”

Olivia joins our little group with Oliver and Isaac.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about this.” She gets a hug from both Owen and me, then puts a hand on her hip. “We need to do lunch so you can fill me in.”

“Me too!” Cassie chimes in. She’s well aware Owen and I were not secretly dating, but I’m sure she wants to hear the whole story.

“You can both come to the apartment,” Isaac suggests.

“Absolutely not,” Oliver and Owen say at the same time.

Everyone stares between them. “It’s bad enough Colin is there. Stop inviting more people in. It’s crowded enough.”

The fact that my mere existence annoys Oliver really does bring me joy.

“They aren’t moving in, relax.” Isaac waves Oliver’s reasoning away.

A server pops up behind me, startling me. On reflex I swing my arm out, knocking over a tray full of drinks. The server and I stare at each other in shock for a second. Oops.

“I-I-I-I’m so sorry,” she stammers, quickly dropping to a crouch to gather what she can of the broken glasses.

“You are a menace to the public,” Oliver deadpans, and I glare at him.

“Fuck off,” I tell him. To the server, I apologize, but she runs away with what looks like tears in her eyes. Shit.

“Mother is going to have a fit over this.” Owen sighs.

“It was not the girl’s fault,” I try to argue.

“No, it was yours,” Oliver says.

“Knock it off,” Owen snaps at both of us before I can retort.

The tinkling of glass sounds again, and Owen groans a half second before grabbing me again, more aggressively this time, and slams his mouth on mine.

Oliver and I bickered half the night until Owen separated us. The more alcohol I had, the worse it got. I’m almost sorry for it.

“I behaved, I deserve a kiss,” I announce to my silk-clad husband, scrolling through his phone.

“I’ve kissed you eleven times tonight, and you made a server cry.”

I cross my arms over my chest. “Those were pecks for the crowd, and that was an accident! And I convinced Isaac to suck Oliver off in the bathroom so he didn’t murder anyone. I saved a life tonight. I’m a hero.”

“Excuse me?” He looks up from his phone with his eyebrows pulled together.

“The only excuse for you is Oliver.”

“I don’t need to know any more about my brother’s sex life than I already do. Keep those details to yourself.” He goes back to his phone while I crawl across the bed in only short shorts to straddle his lap.

“Oh, I have so many more details. I guess you’ll have to kiss me to stop me from telling you about that time I walked in on them in the dorm. Isaac was tied–”

Owen grabs my face. “If you don’t stop talking, I’m hiding your sex toys.”

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