Page 45 of Snared

“Oh fuck off, Ellie,” she said.

“Hey, don’t get me involved in your lovers’ spat,” he replied.

Tristan tapped him on the back of the head.

“Ouch.”

“You’ll get your turn, Ellie. What was with those comments on stage? I thought we agreed—keep this low-key, let the drama die a natural death. But no. Instead, you two decide to add gas to that fire,” she said.

“It was going to come out one way or another. Everyone needs to think you guys are truly in love and married. I’m here to support you, Spidey,” Jax said, batting his eyes.

Charlie glared at him.

“As much as I hate to admit it, Jax is right,” Bash said.

“Whoa.” Jax pretended to stumble back into a chair. “Did you hear that, kids? Wolfie has spoken.”

“Ugh, you’re so annoying,” Charlie said, eyeing Jax. “And you”—she jabbed an index finger my way—“no kissing like that again.” She punctuated the last word by flopping down into one of the gaming chairs. “It was way over the top.”

I wanted to call her out and say I wasn’t the only one who’d gotten carried away in that kiss, but I also was pretty attached to my balls, so I smartly kept my mouth shut on that.

“Fine. But if this charade is going to work, you’re going to have to kiss me sometimes,” I said instead.

“Tame, quick kisses, fine. No more of this tonsil hockey shit,” she said.

“Do you two need to go back to the bedroom and work this out?” Jax asked.

Charlie glared at Jax. “No, we do not.”

Jax tapped his finger on his temple. “I’m sensing a lot of tension.”

“Because you’re irritating,” I said, secretly enjoying how flustered Charlie was getting while we discussed kissing rules. Scratch that. I wasn’t supposed to enjoy that.

“Cut it out, Ellie.” Charlie grabbed an empty water bottle and threw it at Jax.

Bash and Tristan’s gazes darted between all of us, their expressions changing from amusement to wariness as Jax continued to taunt Charlie.

Not that I could blame them. I was still on extremely slippery ice, I knew, but all I could think about was kissing Charlie again. Tasting her. Wrapping her long hair around my fist.

Fucking hell, I needed an ice bath.

“Enough, Jax,” I said. I needed to get control of the situation before it got out of control. If it hadn’t already.

“Testy, testy,” Jax taunted.

Bash chuckled. “You deserve any violence you get, Ellie.”

Jax growled. “Fuck off with that name.”

“Nah, I like it. Ellie.” Bash made the name almost have three syllables when he said it.

“If you children are done, I’m heading to bed,” Charlie said as she closed the pocket door, making sure to avoid looking my way.

“She’s not wrong about it being over the top. You wanna talk about that kiss?” Tristan asked.

“It was for show only,” I said.

He raised a brow at me. Yeah, I didn’t believe that either.

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