Page 140 of Taming the Beasts
Grudge frowned. “But I saw you on your phone...”
“It was nothing. And don’t call Otto a boy toy,” I added to hopefully distract everyone from serial killer worries. “He’ll hate that. Besides, you look great,” I said. I should have let him look for that shirt dress or whatever the fuck he’d said. He was probably going to tell everyone why he was dressed this way now. My boyfriends wouldn’t be pleased.
Grudge shrugged. “If you say so. Not sure it’s a great look for meeting your boyfriends.”
Yeah, I know.
“But Kebe will probably like it. Speaking of which, Kebe is going to the wedding, right? I’m excited to meet her.”
“Yeah, yeah. You can sit with her and everything.”
“Great.”
No, nothing was great. Because it wasn’t Huxley with a warm smile who met us at the end of the sidewalk. Titan was waiting with the bouquets instead. He glared at Grudge.
Oh screw me.This was not a good last minute change. “Thank you, Titan,” I said and grabbed both bouquets. I handed the bigger one to Emma as we stepped behind the hedges at the end of the lane so that no one from the town square could see us. “Where’s Huxley?”
“Callum needed help with something last minute.”
Well, that was sweet of Huxley to help. I liked that the guys finally all seemed to be getting along.
“Are you going to introduce me to this random shirtless man?” Titan asked.
Emma laughed.
I was glad she was finding this amusing. “This is Grudge.”
“Grudge.” Titan lowered his eyebrows. “Right. I’ve heard all about you. Where is your shirt, man?”
Grudge laughed. “Zoey didn’t plan a proper bachelorette party so I did a quick striptease for the girls...”
Titan lowered his eyebrows even more. In a way that had me a little worried.
I stepped in front of Grudge to block him from view. “Titan.” I grabbed both sides of his face so he’d focus on me.
I swear his nostrils flared.
“Titan,” I said again. “I love you.”
His eyes softened.
If there was one thing I’d learned this week, it was that I loved every single one of my boyfriends. Otto and I had told each other how we felt a while ago. And nowthat I’d said the words out loud to Bennett too, I wanted all my boyfriends to know how I felt. There was no point in holding back. I was scared about what was going to happen tousin a few hours. But for now, we were still anus. And I wanted him to know.
“A striptease? Really?”
It was okay that he didn’t say he loved me back. We were still very new. I did my best to push the thought to the side. “You have nothing to be jealous of.”
He looked at Grudge over top of my head and then back at me. “No stripteases from other men.”
“Does that mean you’ll give me one?”
He just shook his head.
I smiled. Yeah, I loved him even when he was ornery. Which was good, since that was most of the time. “I’ll take that as a yes, big boy.”
“Stop it.”
“You love when I call you that.”
