Page 116 of The Heart

They quit the PDA immediately.

Luke sets her down, and the two of them and their fucking smiles stroll past me, hand in fucking hand, into the house.

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“Don’t you people ever sleep?” I say once I follow the noise of music and voices to the game room set up in the basement.

After traveling all the way here, we spent another several hours installing our own security system around the house and property, then organizing all of our shit in one of the larger sitting rooms upstairs.

How in the fuck do they still have energy?Then I look around, and roll my eyes.

That’s how.

It looks like a frat party threw up in here. Between the alcohol, soda and sugar, no wonder they’re all fucking wired.

In the twenty minutes it took for me to double-check all they security systems, they’ve already made themselves right at fucking home down here. But I guess they always do this shit. We could be in a bunker trying to survive a nuclear fallout and they would still fucking act like this. I guess it could be worse. Better than shitting themselves over what we’re about to pull, like normal humans would be.

I shrug, then snag the bottle of tequila off a nearby table.

“Ha!” Ava shouts as her third dart lands in the center of the dartboard. She retrieves them, then waves them toward Ryan. “Your turn.”

“Oh, no way,” he says.

“Why not?” She stares at him.

“Um…” He pushes his glasses back up. “Because I’ve never played and those look sharp.” He eyes the darts in her hand.

“You’ve gotta be shitting me. Here.” She walks over, holding them out for him, and he puts his hands up like he doesn’t want anything to do with them.

“Um, no, that’s okay. Maybe next time,” he says, then tries to flee, heading toward the pool table.

“Oh no you don’t,” she says, grabbing him by the arm. She forces his hand out flat so she can place them in his palm.

And watching a grown man turn beat red from his interaction with our little intern suddenly makes me grateful that I came down here to see it.

I find Leena perched on Luke’s knee as they watch Jace and Colton square off in a game of pool. Both of them throwing taunts and laughing.

“Watch the stitches, Fisher,” I mutter as I walk past them. I can see how he’s leaning against the table for support.

“Sure thing, boss.” He then proceeds to hobble over to take his shot. I shake my head.

Stubborn bastard.

I head straight to Leena, leaning down to plant a kiss on her perfect mouth. I glance over at Luke’s mouth, then to the eyes watching me, his lips tipping up into that fucking smirk. I try to stifle my smile, but I can’t fucking help it as I straighten. I pull up a chair and sit next to them, taking a swig of the tequila and hoping it will calm my dick down before passing it to Luke.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now? Bullshit you haven’t played!” Ava shouts over the music.

“I haven’t, I swear!” Ryan replies, laughing and throwing up his hands. I look over, nodding in approval when I see three darts in the dead center of the board. “It’s just math and physics!”

“Leave it to Ry to make throwing darts fucking nerdy.” Jace laughs.

“We should have put some money down. Lesson learned,” Colton replies. Ava glares at both of them, then the board, as she takes her turn. A smug looking Ryan sips on a diet soda nearby.

“Corner pocket,” Jace says but I’ve stopped watching. I’m too busy studying Leena as she stares at Colton. I glance at Luke, wondering if he’s picked up this little development. He sneaks a look back at me that says he has.

I run a hand over my face. We told her she could fuck him, not fall in love with him. I take a moment to process this information.

I know Luke noticed this to some extent before we gave her permission, but I didn’t believe him.

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