Page 56 of His Lovebug

“No, but I don’t need to drain his bank account to be happy.” I raised my eyebrows at him. “I’ve never asked Matt to spend money on me. He might do it because he wants to see me look nice, but that’s it.”

Jackson frowned and stared out the window, glaring at the storm.

With a shrug, I turned around in my seat.

Matt pulled into a parking spot at a pharmacy, right beside the automatic doors, and I hopped out, rushing inside. The air-conditioning hit me, and I shivered. My shirt clung to my pecs, and Matt grazed my nipple with his thumb as he came up at my side, smirking. The sight of his large hand on my chest had my cock twitching.

“Behave,” I murmured, then took off to find a knee brace. There were two different kinds, so I grabbed both. I wasn’t sure why Matt had thought I would know what Royal needed without ever setting eyes on his injury. Eventually, I found Matt in a well-stocked candy aisle.

“Bugs for my lovebug?” He held up a bag of chocolate ladybugs. They were cute with hearts on their shiny red tinfoil backs instead of dots.

“No! Let’s get peanut butter cups.” I pointed them out, and he grabbed them.

“Let’s get both. We’ll share with Royal,” Matt said decisively.

“And me?” Jackson smiled as he wandered over to stand a few feet away from us, looking adrift.

Matt rolled his eyes, snagged the braces out of my hands, and then took off toward the registers at the front of the store.

I walked beside Jackson to stand near the front doors while we waited for Matt. In the fluorescent overhead lights, he looked even more beat up than he had in the Hummer. Deep purple swirled around his eyes and the right corner of his mouth was a solid bruise.

“Why didn’t you disappear? Neither one of us was paying any attention to you. You could’ve vanished.” I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. “We would’ve gone back to the Courtesan and taken care of Royal.”

Pink brightened his cheeks. “Where would I have gone? I’m broke.”

“You can’t tell me you have zero contingency plans.” I rubbed my hands along my arms, still chilly.

He stared at his shoes and tapped the tips on the dingy white-tile floor. “Maybe I want to see if there’s someone in this busted-up city who can make me happy, too.”

Matt came toward me with the plastic bags looped over his wrist and stared me right in the eye as he unwrapped a ladybug. His tongue danced the chocolate out for me to get a good view of it before he devoured the tiny morsel. What would he taste like now? Sweet and delicious, I bet.

I licked my lips.

“There’s someone for everyone,” I breathed out to Jackson, then let Matt grab my hand and tuck me against his side as we left the pharmacy together.

Matt passed Jackson a chocolate ladybug, and that’s when I knew that despite everything, they would work out their problems. You didn’t quietly wish an enemy good luck.

EPILOGUE – PART I

COLT

“What do you think about these flowers?” Quin shoved some purple violets in my face, and I frowned, giving them a whiff before shrugging.

“They’re. ..nice?” I offered, not quite sure what else I was supposed to say.

I didn’t know why he’d dragged me along for wedding planning anyway because I didn’t care what we bought, as long as I ended up making him my wife as soon as possible. We could stand in front of an altar naked as the day we were born with hippie songs playing in the background, and I’d still be the happiest man alive. I didn’t tell him that.

He huffed and turned to Morgan. “What do you think?”

“They’re boring,” she said, giving me a pointed look.

I shrugged because I was useless when it came to this kind of thing.

Rolling her eyes at me, she pointed at bright pink flowers that I hadn’t seen before. “What about them? Moth orchids.”

Okay, so not flowers. Or were they? I didn’t know what orchids were considered.

Quin stepped toward the arrangement and stroked one of the petals thoughtfully before dipping to read the label on them. “Phalaenopsisamabilisorchids, also known as moth orchids.”

---