Page 36 of Mayhem
Paetyn watched Erin look between them, taking a drink from her glass and shaking her head.
“Are the two of you going to do this often?”
“Take care of you? Yes,”Paetyn replied.
“I don’t need you to take care of me.”
Paetyn listened to her words. She didn’t need them to take care of her. She was right, and they all knew it. However, the fact that she’d said need and not want let Paetyn know that she indeed wanted them to take care of her in some aspect. This just wasn’t it. He hated to break it to her, but giving and doing was how they showed their affection, coupled with the usual.
“We’re aware, but we like to. Let us, please,”Paetyn requested. “You flying is for your safety.”
After a moment, Erin sighed. “Fine. Thank you.”She then turned her attention to Cruz. “Speaking of safety, you still need to show me where to put my billing information.”Erin grabbed her purse and pulled her phone out.
“No,”Cruz responded. When Erin looked at him as if she was going to protest, he spoke again. “Refer back to the conversation you just had with Paetyn.”
“Cruz,”she protested, holding her phone out to him. “Show me.”
“Is this a trait you, Alijah, and Chayse share?”Cruz questioned. “This prejudice against letting your men take care of you because they want to? Because they can afford to?”
“Fine, I’ll just figure it out myself,”Erin countered.
Paetyn watched Cruz smirk at her. “You won’t. I disabled that feature on your profile. That’s why you couldn’t find it.”
Erin glared at Cruz briefly before dropping her phone back into her purse. She leaned back and looked between them again. “So, what are the two of you doing this weekend?”
“Idon’t think we have plans other than our bi-weekly game,”Paetyn responded.
“I could occupy your Sunday if I wanted?”she questioned.
“You can occupy whatever day you want,”Cruz informed her.
Erin smiled at them, and the three finished their drinks before Paetyn placed enough cash on the table to cover their bill and a tip for Frankie. He could tell that Erin wanted to protest, but he raised a brow at her. Instead, she handed him her clutch before taking his other hand and reaching back and grabbing Cruz’s.
Paetyn would admit this was new, but he liked it. It usually took a bit longer for someone they were in a relationship with to initiate physical contact between either of them and even longer for both of them at the same time. In the beginning,they were often the ones making it happen.
He led the way out of the restaurant and to the car. She released his hand, going around to the passenger side with Cruz. When they were in the vehicle, Paetyn handed her clutch to her.
The drive back to her apartment was filled with more conversation, and Erin and Cruz debated whether a little black car that passed was a Beetle since she’d pinched him and Cruzwhen she saw it. It wasn’t, but Paetyn wasn’t going to burst her bubble.
The three approached her front door when they pulled into her building’s parking lot. Erin unlocked it before turning to look at them both.
“Since this was technically a date, this now makes it the part where you kiss me.”
Paetyn found himself chuckling along with Cruz. But it didn’t last long, as Erin grabbed the sides of Cruz’s shirt, rising slightly on her toes. Cruz leaned down to meet her, and Paetyn watched as she kissed him softly. Once, then twice, biting Cruz’s lower lip before pulling back.
When she pulled away, his friend went to grab her back, but Erin sidestepped him, closing the distance between herself and Paetyn. She placed her hands on his shoulders, and Paetyn leaned down to meet her. Her lips pressed against his is what he imagined clouds felt like. When she pulled back, she ran her tongue along Paetyn’s bottom lip, and before she could move away, he placed his hands on her waist, Cruz coming to stand at her back, boxing her in.
“You’re playing with fire, Maly,”Cruz informed her.
“You’re overestimating our patience, our control. It’s damn near non-existent because we’ve been using it to keep from taking you on the nearest surface every time we’ve seen you over the past year,” Paetyn told her.
Erin’s breath hitched as he raised one hand to run down the contour of her neck while Cruz’s hand went to the opening of her shirt and moved upward. Their hands bypassed one another, taking the trail the others had already traveled.
“You didn’t make it easy on us,”Cruz told her as he gripped her chin, tilting her head back against his shoulder.
Paetyn wanted nothing more than to undress her slowly. To give her a taste of what he’d been through the last year and ahalf, but he wouldn’t. Starting their relationship off by having her on bed rest for a couple of days was not what he wanted because he knew it was exactly what would happen. However, he’d allow her to make the choice. Because if she asked them to, they’d give it to her.
“Tell us goodnight,”Paetyn said. “Or…”He let the option hang in the air but ensured the implication was clear by undoing one of the two exposed, closed buttons on her shirt.
