Page 84 of The Very Naughty List

“That’s for being a brat,” he tells me, his voice husky.

I smirk at him and get him back with two snowballs at once while Sebastian has him distracted with a snowball strike to the shoulder.

Just as I’m reaching down to scoop up another handful of snow, someone snatches me up by the waist. I’m thrown over a muscled shoulder, and I yelp as the world tilts around me.

“Nick! What are you?—”

“Someone is coming,” he informs me, striding quickly around the side of the house to get us out of sight. “And no one gets to see you like this, flushed and beautiful and naked. No one but us.”

Butterflies take off in my stomach, and I laugh at how much he acts like a guardian grizzly bear sometimes. From my upside down view, I catch sight of Sebastian and Reid as they join us to walk back inside. I can only imagine what we look like—three big, burly, naked men with their cocks hanging out, carrying a naked woman back to their house.

This would definitely be a good bit of juicy gossip—ifanyone had actually seen us.

28

HAILEY

After a changeof clothes and a hot cup of cocoa, I sit all curled up on the couch beneath a blanket that Nick pulled out of the closet for me. It’s extra thick and warm and feels homemade. I wonder if it’s something that perhaps Mrs. Cooper made for her kids years ago.

Bruno is curled up on the couch beside me, openly snoring with one paw on my lap as if we’ve suddenly become best friends.

“Jesus, they really do make ’em different in Montana,” Lorelai says, her voice coming through the speaker on my phone. “Butt ass naked? All three of them? And you too?”

I chuckle. “Yup.”

“Yeah, there’s no fucking way you couldpayme to run around in the snow naked like that. I get cold when it drops into the fifties here.” She snorts. “Not even the promise of three dicks could get me to willingly go streaking in a frozen tundra, no matter how good the sex was.”

Leaning deeper into the couch cushions, I adjust the phone at my ear. Bruno gives me a slightly put out look as I disturb his slumber, then rests his head on my lap alongside his paw.

I smile down at him, scratching his ear as I say, “Well, the sex isreallygood, so that helps. But that’s not why I did it. It was just… fun.”

“Justfun?” Lorelai’s voice shifts a little, and I hear the unspoken question in her words.

“Yes,justfun.” I nod firmly, trying to cut her off before she can get started. “I told you, I can do this without getting too attached. Yes, I like them a lot. Yes, it’s been amazing getting to see all these new sides of them.”

And I’m going to miss them so much when I leave again that I don’t know how I’m going to breathe.

That thought hits me hard, nearly knocking the wind out of me, and I take a second to recover my voice before I speak.

“I’m not gonna lie and pretend these guys don’t mean something to me,” I tell my best friend. “But they’vealwaysmeant something to me. Nothing has changed, and nothing has to change. We’ve still got the rules in place.”

“Right.” She laughs softly. “Therules.”

“What?” I ask, because I know there’s something else she wants to say.

I can almost hear her shrug over the phone. “I’m just saying, not everything in life fits into a neat little box. Not everything follows the rules.”

I pick at a loose thread on the blanket, biting my lip. “I know. But this has to. It’s the only way to make sure no one gets hurt.”

“Okay.” Lorelai hesitates, and I wish she was here with me right now so we could be having this conversation face to face. When she speaks again, her voice is a little quieter. “I just want to make sure you don’t let the past hold you back from what you want in the present, or even the future. You ran from your past once, but you don’t always have to keep running.”

“I know,” I whisper, thinking back to the bar the other night, and how amazing it felt to sing in front of people, despite theutter terror of it too. It felt like shedding a piece of that past I’ve been running away from, but I know that parts of it are still clinging to me, weighing me down like anchors.

“Shit, I’ve gotta go.” Lorelai makes an annoyed noise. “Derek just sent me an SOS message, he needs me to run to West Hollywood to pick something up for him. Sorry!”

“That’s okay.” I roll my eyes, knowing what a nightmare her boss can be. “Tell him I said ‘fuck you.’”

“Oh, I will. And I’ll throw in one from myself while I’m at it.” She makes a kissing noise through the phone. “Love you! Talk soon, okay? Bye!”

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