Page 26 of Extraction Play

“When were you going to tell me about the ex?” Micah asked, his tone a little sharper. Pixie recognized the hurt, and guilt crept through her because she’d known when he hadn’t.

“You had your own issues to deal with when I showed up,” Eva said, trying to smooth down some of the errant strands of hair. “I didn’t want to burden you with more. Besides, I figured I’d be going home and getting back to normal, just without Jack and Sienna.”

“Two exes?” Micah’s brows crept higher as he carried the chicken to the kitchen table. “Clearly, I’ve underestimated your lifestyle.”

A faint grin lifted her lips.

Pixie swallowed hard. Micah had no idea how filthy his sister could be—and how much Pixie liked it.

“What are you going to do?” Pixie asked, needing to derail the train of thought.

Eva shrugged. “I started looking into apartments in Reno, but to be honest, my heart’s not in it. My work is remote, so truthfully, I can be anywhere.”

Here. Eva could be here.

But she quickly squashed the hope sparking inside her. Eva was still Micah’s sister, and truth be told, Pixie hadn’t heard back from Francis about the resident position. That could change everything.

Micah met her gaze in the wordless communication they’d perfected years ago. Pixie nodded.

“If you need to crash here longer, you can,” Pixie said. That was a dangerous-as-fuck proposition, but the idea of Eva heading back to Reno, no one awaiting her there, no home to return to, drove a dagger straight through her heart.

Micah placed the pasta on the table, along with a bowl of green beans. He was far better at cooking than her because he actually paid attention to the food he made. She tended to burn things with the way she wandered away at a moment’s notice when she realized she forgot to send something in the mail she meant to three days prior or an alarm went off on her phone to remind her to take her meds.

Part of it was her own mind’s rebellion. After an entire childhood of being responsible, she’d completely given up in adulthood.

“Eat up.” Micah sat opposite her. “Eva, you don’t have to decide about your living arrangements yet. But like Pix said, the couch is open, and I’m not going to kick you out. And fuck the asshole who went back on his agreement.”

“I’d offer to enact vigilante justice, but we all know I’d be the worst assassin.” Pixie slid the chicken breast on her plate and scooped up some cavatappi and green beans.

“You’d probably apologize to your target before deciding to quit the job,” Micah joked.

Eva didn’t say anything, but she took a few tentative bites of the food, which Pixie counted as a win. Eva’s shoulders sagged as if she was weighed down by the heaviness of her predicament, and Pixie wanted to curl up against her to offer her solace any way she needed.

Whether it was cuddling on the couch or kneeling before her and obeying every command.

“You’d be a much better assassin,” Pixie teased Micah. “You’re a vicious little thing.”

Eva’s lips upturned the slightest bit. “You’re not wrong there. The lengths he went to for payback against Jerry in high school were admirable.”

Micah shrugged. “The guy wouldn’t stop picking on me, and I couldn’t afford to get caught. And he was the idiot cheating on his girlfriend.”

“Planting the fake pregnancy test in his locker and watching him dive-bomb with both girls was a stroke of genius.”

Pixie snorted. That sounded like Micah. Observant and resourceful.

She shifted in her seat, and her leg bumped against Eva’s. Against her better judgment, she didn’t pull back. The warmth of her silken skin sent a zing to her pussy, and need trickled through her. Eva didn’t move her leg back either, and Pixie’s heart thumped a little harder. They were careful not to look at each other, even though the connection flared between them hotter than ever.

Pixie took another bite of the pasta, smothered with whatever garlic and butter sauce Micah had whipped up. “This is delicious.” She thrived on days like this, when she and Micah spent time together. Why was she even considering the resident position? Her best friend had returned to San Francisco. Her family was at Whipped. And her mother lived an hour away, though that always swung back and forth between the pros and cons column of staying, depending on where she was.

However, when the loneliness swept in, the suffocating isolation…

Eva let out a shaky breath. “Seriously, I owe both of you so much.”

Micah brandished his fork. “What have you done with my bossy, snarky older sister? If you keep up with this nice shit, I’m kicking you out.”

“Please, like you aren’t at Parker’s every other night,” Pixie said.

Micah’s lips twitched with a grin.

---