Page 48 of Royal
Fuck. What if he was seeing someone?
We hadn’t talked about our relationships—or lack thereof—yet. I was sure he didn’t have a boyfriend, since we’d fucked. Royal was many things, but a cheater wasn’t one of them. He could’ve been casually dating a few guys, though. The night of Beth Monroe’s murder, Royal had been shacked up with some dude in a hotel room. He clearly was no stranger to hookups.
The thought of some other guy’s hands on him made me clench my jaw.
“Gray?” Royal shifted closer and grabbed my hands. I realized I’d bunched both of them into fists. I relaxed them, and he entwined our fingers. “Stop looking like you’re going to kill someone.”
I stared down at our joined hands as my heart thrashed around. His touch alone had the power to soothe my mind. I didn’t know how he did it.
“I did make plans on my way home,” Royal said, standing up and grabbing his phone off the coffee table.
“Oh.” I stood, too. “I can leave.”
“No,” he said, a little quickly. I smiled. He clearly wanted me there.Thank fuck.“Brysen is coming over, and we’re going to eat and game. Do you wanna stay so you can meet him?”
Puzzled, it took me much too long to respond.
“You want me to meet him?” From what I knew, Brysen was his best friend. And yeah, knowing someone else had taken over my best friend title made me irritated again.
“I do,” Royal answered. “If you and I are going to be friends again, I want you to meet him. He means a lot to me.” I scoffed and looked away. He touched my jaw and tilted my face back to his. “And so do you.”
Goddamn him and those blue eyes.
“So stop being jealous,” he added with a smile. It was clear he was enjoying my jealous streak a little too much.
“Can you blame me?” I snatched hold of his wrist as he pulled his hand from my face. I brought it back and rested it on my cheek, loving the slight coolness of his fingertips on my skin. He had poor circulation in his hands, and they were almost always cold. “I was an only child, so I’m not used to sharing.”
Royal cracked a smile. “Well, better get used to it, buddy.”
Buddy. I inwardly cringed. In no fucking world did I ever want to just be Royal’s buddy. Unless, of course,fuckwas added to the front of it. NowthatI could deal with, at least for a while.
Royal ordered Chinese to be delivered, and I was surprised by the amount of food. He’d gotten the sweet and sour chicken with a side of fried rice, and I’d ordered the same as him. On top of that, he’d ordered General Tso’s chicken, a large order of fried rice, five eggrolls, beef and broccoli, and egg drop soup.
“Are you feeding an army?” I asked once he got off the phone.
There was a knock on the door, followed by, “Open up, biatch! I’m gettin’ wetter than a whore at a sausage fest out here.”
“The army has arrived,” Royal said with a laugh before going to open the door.
Brysen wasn’t what I’d expected. For one, he was about half my height—not literally, but the guy was extremely short. His wild blond hair matched his equally wild personality. He walked into the house, muttering about being wet and hungry and how Royal was a sadist for taking so long to answer the door.
What struck me most was his resemblance to Jonathon. They had their differences, but their curly blond hair and small build were identical.
When I became friends with Royal in high school, Jonathon had followed us around and wanted to be a part of our circle. I was an only child, but he’d made me feel like I had an annoying little brother. His death had crushed me, too. It’d closed me off even more from the world.
I looked at Royal, who was watching me with a knowing smile, one that was a little sad.
“Whoa,” Brysen said, as his hazel eyes spotted me for the first time. “Who’s this hottie? An appetizer before the Chinese gets here?”
I snorted a laugh.
“Brysen, this is Grayson,” Royal introduced us.
“Grayson?” The twink’s brows rose to the heavens. “As in, your ex-boyfriend Grayson?” He walked closer, as if inspecting me. “Hmm.”
As he walked around me, I turned my head to keep an eye on him. He was so short that all I saw was his crazy hair as he walked in circles.
“Be nice, B,” Royal said, lifting a hand to his mouth to hide his smile.
