Page 21 of Zero Chance

Scoffing, she started up the steps to the upper level, while he called back, “Can’t deny it, can you?”

Pretending he hadn’t answered, she paused and glanced back, waving for me to follow.“This way.”

I exhaled and timidly shifted forward.

Just as I reached the first step, Oaklynn reappeared with what I assumed was a beard trimmer.“Incoming,” she called as she dropped it down into the lower level.

I was too nervous to peer over the railing to look at him, so I hugged the opposite wall as I started up the steps.

“Sweet.Thanks,” Keene returned.“Next time, if you could just lift your shirt a little and flash me more skin when you?—”

“Nice try, asshole.”Oaklynn flipped him off and started to spin away, only to catch sight of me.“Oh hey!This is a happy surprise.What’reyoudoing here?”

“I invited her,” Xander answered, looping her arm protectively through mine.“She’s my party bestie tonight.”

“She?She who?Who’re y’all talking about?”Keene yelled from the lower level.“Is thisshehot?”

Both Xander and Oaklynn peered over the railing to call down together, “None of your damn business.”

“Wow.Jeez.Rude,” he said, and a second later, a door shut, letting us know he’d disappeared into a room.

When Xander and Oaklynn grinned and high-fived, the door they were standing in front of opened, only for Alec to pause, his eyes wide with surprise when he saw us loitering.

He whipped it closed again, until only a few inches of his face showed, but not before we all got a look at his bare, wet chest and the fact he was wearing nothing but a towel.

“Shit, sorry,” he said, only to yell toward the stairs, “Dugger, you asshole.Did you take my freaking clothes while I was in the shower again?”

A muted laugh answered before Keene yelled up the stairs.“Yep!You’re welcome.”

“God, he is so immature,” Alec muttered.“First, he steals the downstairs bathroom so I have to come up here.Now this.”Rolling his eyes, he yelled, “Well, bring them back before I throat punch you.”

When Keene told him, “Nope.Not gonna happen,” Alec gritted his teeth in irritation, and Oaklynn sighed.

“Oh my God, Alec.We’ve seen bare chests before.Keene’s bare-chested right now.Just go.”

He hesitated, his gaze skimming nervously between me, Xander, and Oaklynn who were pretty much just planted outside the door to the bathroom, not budging as we waited for him to put on a show.

Grumbling something under his breath, he muttered, “Right,” and pulled the door open all the way so he could step into the hall.

“Excuse me,” he mumbled, bowing his face and hurrying past us as he clutched his towel to his waist for dear life.

Long and lean, his damp skin was pretty to look at.His chest and abdomen muscles didn’t necessarily bulge, but there was some serious definition to him.He would’ve been flawless save for a large freckle, or maybe it was a mole, just under his left peck and a massive, j-shaped scar on the right of his abdomen, where he’d had surgery to donate some of his liver to his sister a few years before Xander had donatedhers.But those things only made his bare, upper half look even more captivating.

Oaklynn, Xander, and I stepped back to let him by, none of us saying a word until he disappeared into the lower level.Then Xander tipped her face toward Oaklynn and whispered, “Thank you for that.”

Oaklynn’s eyes widened and her mouth gaped as she turned to me and Xander.“I know, right?Who would’ve guessedAlecwas hiding a chest like that under all those baggy T-shirts he wears.”

“Amen,” Xander murmured, lifting up onto her toes as if to get another peek of him down the stairs.Glancing at me with lifted eyebrows, she said, “You should see it when Damien goes shirtless around here, though.Holy mackerel.Nowthat’sa view.”

“Yes, Lord,” Oaklynn praised with a lifted hand and an angelic smile on her face.“She speaks the truth.My man is fine.”

Xander nodded.“He really is.”

I blinked, then said, “Andwhyhave you not invited me over sooner?”

Both Oaklynn and Xander blurted out a surprised laugh before Xander bumped our shoulders together.“See!Iknewshe had this kind of fun shit in her.”Then, to Oaklynn, she announced, “Oh, hey.I’m going to dress her up all hot and slutty for tonight.You wanna help?”

“Um, hell yes,” Oaklynn said and immediately followed us to the door on the left at the end of the hall.

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