Page 18 of Filthy Rich Santas

I head into the store for a quick restroom pitstop, passing my friends as they head back out with enough road trip snacks for the next five hundred miles. I snort, shaking my head as I try to ignore the sound of Lana’s laugh. Ryder, naturally, is still teasing her while Tristan watches with a small smile on his face.

The three of us have always been united in our desire to look out for her. I don’t even want to think about what my friends would have to say if they knew how fucking attracted I am to her, not to mention the fact that Caleb would kill me.

I’ve done my best to shove it aside for years, but it’s never gone away.

And it should.

It needs to.

There’s no fucking way I can have her. And even if I could, I shouldn’t.Wouldn’t. I don’t do attachments, and I have no interest in all the things a woman like Lana wants and deserves.

Like a family.

“Jesus,” I mutter, staring at myself in the mirror after doing my business. “Get a fucking grip.”

I shake my head and brush those thoughts away, washing my hands and heading back out to the SUV.

Tristan’s already behind the wheel with Ryder next to him, leaving me no choice but to get in the back with Lana.

“Got enough room?” she asks me with a smile, resting her hand on my leg for a second.

“It’s fine,” I say curtly, the soft weight of her touch almost undoing all my earlier efforts to get my cock under control.

I move her hand back to her own lap, annoyed with myself. I usually have impeccable control.

Ryder turns around to face Lana from the front seat, sending a brief pulse of gratitude through me for keeping her attention diverted. I stare out the front windshield, ignoring her soft laughter as he teases her.

At least, until he brings up her visit to the goddamn sex club.

“Was Radiance your first choice, or have you been doing some comparison shopping with the other clubs around town?” he asks.

“Oh my god,” she groans, covering her face as her skin flushes pink. “Can we please just all forget that happened?”

I’m pretty sure that’s impossible. I sure as shit haven’t been able to.

“What?” Ryder raises his brows. “Are you saying we’ve got competition?”

“No, no, of course Radiance was my first choice,” Lana says, laughing despite her obvious embarrassment.

She’s so fucking sweet. Always has been.

“Why, um, why did the three of you decide to open it?” she asks. “I’ve always kind of wondered that.”

I’m pretty sure she means she wants to get the conversation off of her recent visit.

“It was Tristan’s idea,” I say, happy to go along with avoiding that topic and more than happy to throw my friend under the bus to make that happen.

Tristan meets her eyes in the rearview mirror with an easy smile. “That’s right. I mean, I knew we all had an interest in kink?—”

“Sure, you kneweventually,” Ryder cuts in with a laugh before turning back to Lana. “We each fell into kink separately, and it wasn’t until a certain night that included far too many shots of Patron that we all realized we had that in common.”

“So the three of you, um, all have the same kinks?” Lana asks hesitantly.

“No,” Tristan says without elaborating, “but it’s a big enough part of each of our lives that it made sense to open a place like Radiance.”

Lana smiles. “I have to admit, it’s not what I would have guessed you’d do. I always thought… well, I guess I just never imagined a sex club.”

“You thought I’d aim for a professional hockey career, like Caleb?” Tristan asks, a hint of strain in his voice that I only recognize because of how well I know him.

---