Page 133 of Meet Me in the Dark: The Complete Series

"I... I... We..." I take a deep breath, trying to figure out what to say. "Jackson and I-"

"Are fucking," Lexa says.

My eyes widen in utter shock. I look back and forth between Lexa and Sophie, the former is arching a brow at me, as if she's just stating the obvious. The latter doesn't look at all surprised.

"You... you knew?" I sputter out.

Lexa and Sophie both laugh, and I narrow my eyes at them.

"I'll let you in on a little secret," Lexa whispers as she leans in. "We knew your little secret."

I give her an exasperated look and she grins. "When we were all here getting things ready for the baby, and you were taking forever and a day in the basement, Soph sent me down there to get you. Imagine my surprise when I found the laundry room door shut and heard your moans and Jackson's groans behind it."

"Oh God," I groan, bringing my free hand to my now very hot face.

"Yeah, he was groaning like that. But much louder, and deeper." I drop my hand just in time to see Lexa smirk before she continues, "His groan was more like..."

"Stop. Right now," I plead.

"She ran back upstairs to tell me," Sophie says.

"Naturally," I sarcastically add, giving Lexa an exasperated look.

"I told her to burst into the room to catch you two with your pants around your ankles." Sophie shrugs. "But she said we should give you a chance to tell us yourself."

"See how nice I am?" Lexa beams. "I even let you finish before I started calling for you from the top of the stairs."

I thought I couldn't get any more embarrassed. Wrong. My entire body flushes at the sounds she must have heard comingout of that room. And all the while, I went back upstairs thinking they were none the wiser.

"You guys could have said something," I murmur. "I'm sure you were laughing at me like crazy on the inside."

"We thought you would tell us," Sophie replies, then slowly asks, "So why didn't you?"

"What was there to tell? That we agreed to have sex? That the time in the laundry room wasn't the first or last time? There wasn't much to tell. We were just giving one another what the other needed physically. It wasn't anything more."

"Wasn't?" Lexa tilts her head. "Past tense, meaning either you guys aren't fucking anymore, or it did turn out to be something more?"

I roll my eyes. "Why are you always reading between the damn lines so well?"

"It's not so hard when you're looking like someone just ran over your dog," she explains. "Sex is good, but no sex is good enough to have you looking like that if you lost it. But love..." God, it hurts to hear her say that word. "Love lost will have you looking like you are right now."

I swallow. "Yeah, it became something more, but only for me. I did a very, very stupid thing and fell for him. So I did the smart thing and ended it a few days ago."

"Well, Jackson was just at your house taking care of you, so was that before or after you ended things?" Sophie asks.

"He told you he came over?"

"Yeah," Lexa answers. "He was keeping us all updated on how you were while he was there. I figured he was fucking you back to health. Far be it from me to say how people should heal."

I finally chuckle, and it does relieve the pain inside of me just a little. "I swear I cannot stand you sometimes."

"But you love me always." She winks. "And you love him, don't you? That's what you mean when you say you fell? You love Jackson?"

I nod. "And he didn't sign up for that, for feelings, for me to love him, for me to trick him into continuing something when it had become something else for me."

"Are you serious, Char?" Lexa exclaims.

"You don't think it would be tricking him to have continued having sex and not tell him that it meant more to me now?" I ask.

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