Page 14 of Finding Their Place

“You could have closed the door,” she said with a shrug.

As if that would have stopped her from treading on my heels when she’d sunken her teeth into a conversation I wanted to escape. The woman was a pitbull when she set her mind on something.

Just out of spite, I shoved off my underwear along with my jeans, giving her a view of my ass.

I swore I heard her breath catch—and it made me feel just a slight bit better while I tugged on the sweats I’d discarded earlier in the day.

I turned back around in my usual home garb.

Haley’s cheeks were a bright shade of pink, her nipples poking against her shirt.

Jesus Christ.

I scrubbed a hand down over my face, scruff scraping my palm as I took note of the hunger in her eyes.

Can’t. Go. There.

“Wine,” I croaked out, and she nodded and scampered away, leaving me cursing in my head and fighting the chub that refused to deflate.

I stretched my neck side to side, so damn amped up on emotions I wanted to get drunk. Or fuck.

Preferably both.

“Damnit, I’m a mess.” Still muttering to myself and dick once more as discouraged as my mind, I went out to the living room, collapsed on the couch, and listened to Haley pop the cork and pour two glasses.

“Feel free to bring the bottle,” I told her.

“Already done.” She rounded the couch and handed me a glass—then a Blow Pop she’d tucked the stick in alongside the glass’s stem.

My girl.

I swallowed hard then guzzled my wine down, wishing for something stronger.

“Come here, baby.” Haley patted her thigh, and I sank into my usual spot when I was the one needing comfort, the lollipop firmly enclosed in my mouth.

Her hand twined into my hair, and I closed my eyes, breathing a sigh of relief.

“I love you, Haley.” The words escaped from my heart without thought, but I’d never been so damn honest with her.

“Love you too, Garrett.”

Her echo tightened my throat again rather than making my heart soar because I knew we would never share the kind of love I wanted more than anything.

6

Wyatt

Maybe I was just too damn picky, but I’d spent hours throughout the week searching all Missing Link had to offer and couldn’t find jack shit. Or maybe some inner fear I refused to face made me hesitant to poke any of the hot guys or women I’d seen pictures of—because experience had told me that rarely did a person appear as good as the image they’d uploaded to snag a fish on their hook.

Looks weren’t everything.

I wanted someone or two someones I would click with emotionally and mentally.

A married couple hoping for a boy to smother with love had caught my attention in the couples bin of possible match ups, but I desired to be the one of the triad being the main giver.

Thanks to parents who’d offered affection and unconditional love without hindrance all through my life, I had a lot stored up, ready to be lavished on whoever owned my heart. As an only child, I had one hundred percent of their attention and hadn’t lacked like my employee Blaine had while growing up in that damn cult.

He’d found the two who filled his empty emotional vat, and I wanted someone who needed me in the same way.

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