Page 54 of The Proximity Effect

Archer leaned down to press a soft kiss to my lips. “I know.” His voice was unusually gentle.

Liam disappeared into the bathroom, returning a moment later with a warm cloth. He cleaned me gently, his touch soft and caring, and I felt a wave of affection wash over me. This was more than sex; it was intimacy, connection, and something deeper than anything I’d ever experienced.

Once I was clean, Liam tossed the cloth aside and climbed into bed beside me, pulling me into his arms. Archer joinedus, his body pressing against my back, his arm draped over my waist.

I let out a soft sigh, my eyes fluttering closed as exhaustion washed over me. My mind was in a deliciously hazy post-orgasmic state where even forming coherent thoughts seemed like too much effort. But there was one thought I couldn’t help but have as I drifted off to sleep: What did this mean?

Chapter 19

Winter Is Coming

Evan

Istared at my computer screen, but the words blurred together like someone had dumped water on them. Valentine’s Day event proposals, menu suggestions, and activity schedules all faded into a meaningless soup of letters while my mind kept drifting to last night. The gray sky outside matched my mood—gloomy with a chance of sexual frustration. And that was saying something, considering I was usually the human equivalent of a golden retriever on a sugar rush.

Did they...?

The question had been torturing me all morning, poking at my brain. I’d spent half the night imagining what might have happened if I hadn’t chickened out like some teenager at his first dance.

Me. The guy who once streaked through a black-tie charity gala on a dare. In my defense, I raised ten grand for puppies, and my assets were well received. Yet there I was, pacing outsidethat door like a nervous wreck before walking away, my usual confidence deserting me.

AndI’dbeen the one who instigated the whole thing after seeing Archer march toward the elevators like a man on a mission. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to partake in some carnal pleasures, because I totally did. My heart was already feeling a little too hopeful about the whole situation. Bearing witness to the pleasures Tessa would undoubtedly experience with all of us at once would be my undoing. I didn’t just want her; I wanted my best friends back.

I glanced out the window at the heavy clouds rolling in. They reminded me of the storm brewing in my head: dark, chaotic, and full of Tessa. Tessa laughing at my jokes. Tessa at the spa, all flushed and gorgeous. Tessa with Archer and Liam...

The door burst open, nearly giving me a heart attack as Frank walked in. The surly old man did not know what knocking meant, and I was pretty sure he considered doors more of a suggestion than a barrier. “What are you doing in here and where are Archer and Liam? There’s a storm coming!”

“It’s just snow, Frank.” I waved him off, still half-lost in thoughts of what might have happened in that honeymoon suite last night. “We get snow all the time.”

The silence that followed was so profound I swore I heard my brain cells dying one by one. Frank stood there, mouth slightly open, staring at me like I’d suggested we replace all the beds with bouncy castles.

Then he started laughing with a deep, full-bodied laugh that made his whole frame shake and usually set off car alarms in the parking lot. I was about to join in, thinking I’d accidentally made some brilliant joke, when he cut off so abruptly it was like someone had hit his mute button.

“Gavin would have battened down the hatches days ago.” He crossed his arms over his chest, and the mention of Gavin’s name hit me like a punch to the gut.

I straightened in my chair, trying to maintain my usual devil-may-care attitude. “Come on, it’s winter. Snow is kind of our thing… right?” My voice had that slight wobble that showed up whenever I was trying to convince myself more than others.

“This ain’t your regular powder day.” Frank’s eyes narrowed, his usual good humor nowhere to be found.

I laughed nervously, but it came out sounding more like a guinea pig having an existential crisis. “How bad are we talking?”

“Biblical.”

“Like we need to build an ark and load up all the animals, or…”

Frank held up a hand, cutting off my ark-building plans. “Son, we’re at the end of the plow route. Dead last. Sometimes it takes days before they get to us depending on how many feet we get.”

“Days?” My voice cracked like I was going through puberty again. “But we’re a resort. Don’t we get priority or something?”

“No.” Frank marched over to a bookshelf I’d ignored for the last three months, pulling out a thick binder. He dropped it on my desk with a thud that made me jump.

I flipped it open, and my eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. “Holy... this is like a novel.” The list of preparations and tabs seemed endless, each item more daunting than the last.

“You boys need to get your acts together.” Frank pointed at the binder like it held all the secrets of the universe. “Everything you need to do is in here. We’re expecting up to four feet of snow. That might not seem like a lot, but average vehicles can’t drive through that.”

“Right. Yeah. Totally got this.” I didn’t got this. Not even close. But I plastered on my best ‘everything’s fine’ smile, the same one I’d been using since I arrived at the resort.

Frank gave me a look that my fourth-grade teacher used to give me when I tried to convince her my dog—that didn’t exist—really did eat my homework. “I’ll go find the maintenance manager and see how I can help.” He turned toward the door with the kind of purposeful stride that made me feel like even more of a fraud.

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