Page 124 of Naughty & Nice

“I’m not sure you should be the one I’m talking to about this,” I confess quietly.

“Noelle,” Lori warns. “It doesn’t matter what is it. I’ll never judge, you know that.”

I do. I do know that. Lorelei has been the best parental figure the three of us have ever had. I’m just not sure she ever needs to hear the words that are on the tip of my tongue.

I take a deep breath and close my eyes, shutting both of them from my vision as I summon the courage to confess. “Rix and me… we may never have happened if…” My words trail off, my stomach knotting.

“If…” Lorelei encourages.

Squeezing my eyes even tighter, I blurt, “If I didn’t hook up with Wilder first.”

Her gasp of shock rocks through me, and the stunned silence that follows doesn’t make me feel any better.

“Okay,” she muses as she thinks. “So… you want Rix, right? Not?—”

“I love Rix,” I say again as if it’ll magically fix everything.

“And Wilder?”

I shrug despite the fact she can’t see.

“He’s Wilder. He’s fun and easygoing and?—”

“The bad boy you shouldn’t want?”

“Something like that,” I mutter. She’s hit the nail on the head.

Wilder is not my type. Not that it seems to matter.

“How does he feel about all this?”

“I don’t know. He’s been… different.”

“How so?”

“I mean, there is literally nothing to do to keep him entertained here.” Apart from one thing that makes my face heat. “He hasn’t had his usual distractions. He’s been much more pensive, and quieter. He’s been thinking more.”

“Dangerous,” Lorelei says, letting me know she understands.

“Yeah,” I muse, holding back what I need to confess.

“Noelle, I can’t help if you don’t tell me everything.”

I both love and hate that she knows me so well.

“The three of us have hooked up. Together,” I blurt.

All the air rushes from her lungs.

“Wow. Okay. That sure explains the look on Wild’s face when Rix was kissing you.”

31

HENDRIX

By the time Wilder and I have finished messing around and crash back into the cabin soaked from head to toe and shivering violently, Noelle has dinner ready.

The scent of spices and tomato fills the air, making my mouth water and my stomach growl.

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