Page 39 of Third Wheel

“That’s a nosy question.” Kincaid frowned, putting his fork down on the side of his plate and straightening up with a protective air that would have made her heart flutter if he’d been single.

“Yes, but I’m glad she asked. It hadn’t occurred to me that I should go get tested. If Jeremy was cheating on me with one person, he could have been cheating with more than one. And even if he wasn’t…”

“Yeah, no, it’s best to go get tested.” Zach shook his head. “That sucks. How long until you hear back?”

“By the end of the week, she said, which is good because I’m meeting Sam and Morgan at Stronghold on Saturday. Not thatI’m planning to hook up with anyone, but at least it would be an option if I wanted to.” Amy stabbed at a piece of chicken on her plate, perhaps a little harder than necessary, and ignored the look that she saw Kincaid and Zach exchange out of the corner of her eye.

“You never really seemed like a hook-up kind of person to me,” Zach said gently.

That was true, but at the same time, it made her hackles rise.

“Well, being the relationship kind of person put me in a position where I stuck it out with a guy who did the bare minimum, if that, while I ignored red flag after red flag and then was about to marry him despite all that because I thought that’s what I was supposed to do.” The bitterness that coated her voice was so thick she could taste it, and she hated that Kincaid and Zach were hearing it, too, but once the words started, she couldn’t stop them.

“I’m not even sure I loved him by the wedding day or if I was just there because I couldn’t bear to admit that I’d wasted years with him. And then he left me anyway, in the most humiliating way possible, so you’ll have to excuse me if I think maybe being a hook-up person sounds a little better right now.”

Panting by the time all of it had spilled out of her, Amy stared down at her plate; she couldn’t bear to look at either of them. They hadn’t done anything wrong. If anything, they’d done everything right. She was starting to open her mouth to apologize when Zach reached over and put his hand atop hers, which she hadn’t even realized was clenched in a fist.

“You deserved a lot better than him,” Zach said gently. “It’s not your fault that he turned out to be shitty.”

“It’s my fault for putting up with it for so long. I just…” Her voice trailed off… because what was she supposed to say?

That part of her had liked that he’d needed her to do things for him, even as she’d resented him for making her do everything?

That she hadn’t thought she could do any better?

That she’d rather have been miserable with him than face the uncertainty of being single?

Pathetic. There wasn’t a thing she could say about why she’d stayed with Jeremy for so long that didn’t make her sound utterly pathetic.

“And now you won’t again. Sometimes, you get into a rut, and it’s hard to get yourself out of it, and the longer it goes on, the deeper it gets.” Kincaid’s voice was firm, gentle, yet somehow distant, as though he wasn’t really talking about her but about himself, as if he really did understand, which made her feel a little better. “And when you’re in the rut, it’s hard to see what’s outside of it. But it doesn’t really matter how you got out; the important thing is that you did, and now you know what to avoid.”

Amy took a deep breath.

“That sounds a lot better than ‘man, I’m stupid,’” she confessed, causing both men to focus their attention on her in a way that made her squirm in her seat. Holy crap. One Dom giving her ‘the look’ was bad enough… having it doubled?

Scary.

Also hot.

It made her think of what her friends had said about them having threesomes.

Which was such a bad idea.

Stay out of the gutter, brain.

Easier said than done.

Because now her thoughts were in a rut.

“So, how was your day, Kincaid?” she asked, doing her best to change the topic of conversation and the direction her thoughts were going in.

It worked for the conversation, at least.

15

Zach

Saturday night at Stronghold was crowded and full of predators. Zach scowled at yet another Dom, who looked as if he was headed toward Amy’s group of friends, who were hanging out in the Lounge area of the club. Not that the Dom was doing anything wrong. The Lounge area was where available submissives gathered.

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