Page 46 of From Best To Bested

Roman stepped closer to Ezra’s chair and dropped his towel.

“What can I say? You really get me worked up.”

“Yeah, and you really get everyone else worked up.” Ezra’s expression fell flat; only the anger in his eyes remained. “You think I didn’t hear about that scuffle?”

How? Roman had literally just left the showers, escaped Jake. How had Ezra already heard about the near incident? An incident, but Roman couldn’t call it that. Nothing happened. Nothing.

“I have eyes everywhere.” Ezra spun a hand around, gesturing. “You were gonna let Finnegan treat you that way and say nothing?”

“No, I was.” Roman paused, embarrassed, ashamed, regretting his silence. “I just didn’t wanna make a big deal out of it. I didn’t wanna ruin your night.”

“Embarrassing me was better?”

“What? No. Never.” Roman shook his head. “I was fine. I handled it.”

“Oh, you handled it. Did he apologize? Did he regret his choices?” Ezra stomped toward the door. “I’m finding him and handling this.”

“Wait—”

“Stay here until I’m back.”

Roman stood alone and naked, awaiting Ezra’s return.

Dinner time had come and gone, and lights out would follow in another two hours. Roman had redressed while he waited. His stomach gurgled, and he rifled through the desk drawers, grabbing a couple snack goods. He considered all the prep work he put into getting himself ready for a passionate evening with Ezra and figured that was probably off the table.

Part of him anxiously awaited Ezra’s return, worried what Jake might do, what his crew would do. Another part of him buried that concern with sweets and the knowledge that Ezra was no fool. He didn’t do reckless; he didn’t do foolish.Everything about Ezra was calculating. The problem was that so was everything about Jake “the Snake” Finnegan.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t my favorite boy in the whole wide world.” Jake breezed into the cell, whistling as he took in Roman.

He dropped his snack, eyed up Jake, and tried to prepare for the worst.

Jake’s eyes were swollen, dark rings from the bruising that spread across his face like a blotchy painting. Roman didn’t see any rage in his eyes, any aggravation at the massive bandage that covered Jake’s nose. The man appeared as carefree and dangerous as he always did.

“Here I thought I was your favorite boy in the whole wide world.” Ezra slapped a hand on Jake’s back as he trudged on in after.

What the hell was happening? They were smiling, laughing, acting buddy-buddy like nothing had happened between them.

“Favorite man,” Jake corrected, turning to wink at Roman to ensure he caught the distinct difference. He did.

“What’s going on?”

“We worked out our differences,” Ezra said, arm flung over Jake’s shoulder. “Come here.”

Roman anxiously obeyed.

“We realized it was just a big misunderstanding.”

Misunderstanding? Roman nearly boiled over at that, but when Ezra swung an arm around Roman too, he worked to settle his emotions for Ezra’s sake. Roman couldn’t stand this hold Jake had over Ezra. Since saving his life during an arena event, Ezra continued giving this psychopath the benefit of the doubt. Jake had attempted to assault Roman, and all Ezra could manage was that it was a misunderstanding.

“Can I talk to you?”

“Absolutely.” Ezra smiled, tightening his hold around Jake’s neck.

“Alone.”

“Well, we can’t talk and be alone because then you’d be alone and unable to talk to me,” Ezra stated with a perplexed expression. “Unless by talk, you really mean communicate, in which case you could most certainly communicate alone in the form of a letter and then pass it along to me when you are no longer alone.”

“Can I talk to you without Jake here?” Roman snapped, a bit more aggressive than he intended, a bit more aggressive than Ezra liked. Taking a calming breath, Roman let the rage fizzle away because he wasn’t mad at Ezra.

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