Page 85 of Legendary

“I’m sorry?”

“You heard me.” She pushed her hair over her shoulder and moved to walk out of the room.

Leah and Garrett stepped out of her way, while Reese and Elise both followed after me as I was right on her tail. I heard Beetee mutteroh boyunder her breath.

I caught her arm, twirling her around. “You aren’t going by yourself.”

“Do you plan to stop me, Nicholas?” I couldn’t tell if she was joking or not. Her face was leaning more towards the latter.

“I will if I have to.”

Elise busted out laughing. “Good luck with that. You haven’t hypnotized her with your dick well enough to get her to do what you say, pretty boy.” I gave her a look that said, now was not the time.

“It almost sounds like youwantto go alone.” Reese stuck his hands in his pants pockets.

“Excuse me?” Dani asked, her brown eyes narrowing.

“Last time we saw you with the guy you were all on his lap, so I would be a little concerned too with you wanting to spend alone time with him.”

“Reese, just stay out of it,” I pleaded, trying to step in front of him so I could just talk to Dani. He knew a good chunk of how I felt about her, so I didn’t know why he was pushing. Or maybe knowing my feelingswasthe reason.

“Did he tell you to come alone or something?” I asked, trying to make sense of her decision.

“No, he didn’t, but he could sense you last time and I need him focused on explaining everything to me, not to throw digs at you and make himself seem better.” Dani answered before looking back at Reese, knocking her shoulder into my bicep. “And I don’twantto do this, Ihaveto. I made that clear.”

“And that’s all fine and dandy and I can understand letting us stay here—” He pointed between Elise and himself. “But you really plan to keepmy best friend in your bed all night and then go running off behind closed doors with one of your special friends?” Reese made air quotes around his last two words.

“Reese, I mean it, fucking stop.” I was about to shove him into the other room and shut him up myself, but I could see Dani out of the corner of my eye and it didn’t seem like she needed my help with this.

She had smoke tendrils coming off of her hair as she gave him a shove, making him teeter back for a moment. “What I do and who I do in my bed is none of your fucking business, but if you must know, yes, I did have insanely mind-altering sex with your best friend last night and yes, I’ve also had sex with Dimitri, which now having fucked Nicholas, I know was mediocre at best.”

Elise glanced over at me mouthinggood job. I scrubbed a hand down my face, realizing now that I should have just waited to speak to her in her room.

Dani pointed her finger at Reese’s chest, pushing it right into his sternum. “I can do what needs to be done without letting my past get in the way. Dimitri can make all the passes he wants but I know how to say no. The fact that you think I can’t do that is insulting and makes me want to slit your fucking throat, but luckily, I’m nice so I won’t do that. I don’t need to be babysat by either one of you and I’m going whether you like it or not.” Reese pushed her finger away, but he definitely noticed the smoke coming from her. Elise shooed Beetee away, silently telling her not to interfere.

“Dani…” I started, but she put her hand up as if shushing me and turned to make her way to the stairs. I let out a sigh as I used my hand to push back my hair, feeling exhaustion wash over me. I gave Reese a hard look which he eventually acknowledged.

“What?” he asked dumbly.

“Seriously? You really don’t know what you fucking did.”

“I just said what needed to be said.”

I shook my head at him, prepared to pull my own hair out. “No, no, you didn’t. I wasn’t thinking that at all. That’s you. I likely could have gotten her to side with me or at least be willing to consider the options, but you had to open your mouth and just speak your mind, when no one fucking asked.”

Elise clucked tongue. “Word of advice. If you are trying to get a girl to hear you out, try not to underhandedly call her a whore. Not a good look.”

Reese closed his eyes, but there was no real tension in his body, it was like he was deliberating with himself on what to say next. He’d been doing shit like this since we were younger. Opening his mouth and speaking the first thing he thought, but once he really thought about it, he’d regret it. I don’t think he ever considered a day when he might not be able to make upfor his opinionated tongue. I stepped up closer to him, letting my voice be a whisper.

“You need to go upstairs and talk to her. Everything that will go on after her talk with Dimitri will go to shit if you guys are at different sides. I care about her, alright, more than I think I can comprehend. If you care about me, you’ll go up those stairs and you’ll fix this. Dimitri is yet another person who basically used her, lied to her and you think she’s forgotten that. Give her more fucking credit. I’ve given you passes over and over again Reese, and I just can’t do that anymore.” I stepped back and watched as his hazel eyes bore into my brown ones.

I saw the same eyes that I’d seen my entire life. The eyes of someone who cared immensely for me and knew when I wasn’t kidding. His eyes softened a bit as he nodded once and ran a hand through his long hair. He was never one to cave so easily but when our friendship was on the line, my faith in him, then he clearly thought twice. I didn’t like this divide between my friendship with Reese and whatever this was with Dani. He could keep whatever hostile shit he had going on with Elise, but I didn’t want that for him and Dani. They didn’t need to be best buddies, but I didn’t want to feel any underlying tension between them anymore.

“Both of you have done so much groveling while you’re here. I love seeing men admit they’re fucking idiots.” Elise smiled over to Beetee who just huffed, but she smiled back. Reese gave her fake smile filled with disdain and started to head up the stairs.

“Hey Reese,” I said, gaining his attention again. “You say something to insinuate anything like that about her again and we’re going to have a serious problem.”

He stared at me and muttered, “yeah,” before making his way further up the stairs.

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