Page 61 of Adoring Delaney

“Luke, Matt, Trey, Drake, and Logan.”

She said nothing.

“So, Logan is the wise-ass of the group. He’ll also probably hit on you within minutes of meeting you. Matt comes from money, a lot of it, but you’d never know it, though he will sneak away to pay the check and will get irritated if someone mentions it. Luke is pretty standoffish. He likes to watch more than he talks so don’t be surprised if he doesn’t say more than hello to you. Trey looks like he should’ve been a male model and has serious issues with aggressive women. And considering I’ve watched many throw themselves at him I understand why. Drake is the most chill. He’s like a duck, everything rolls off his back and nothing stresses him out and he’s the one you want at your back when shit hits, he’s that good under pressure.”

Still nothing.

I glanced over at her. She was staring at my phone, her face blank.

“You have nothing to worry about, baby. I wouldn’t put you in a situation I thought you’d be uncomfortable in, promise.”

“Your background picture is me.”

“Yeah.”

I wasn’t sure where she was going with her comment but I didn’t like the softness in her tone.

“It’s recent.”

“Honor sent it to me. She took it the last time you were over there. You were helping Carson frame some picture she’d taken or something.”

“Did she do that a lot?”

Oh, shit, we were approaching the danger zone. I didn’t want to lie to her but I had a feeling she wouldn’t be happy to know about all the information our family had supplied.

“Laney—”

“I’m not mad. I’m just curious.”

“Since Honor’s been around, I get more pictures than I used to. Before I only got what my parents sent me. The ones from family get-togethers. And occasionally Ethan or Jason would send me one.” I took a breath because I had to come clean about everything before it crept back up and she found out later. “Ethan told me the most. He wasn’t keeping tabs on you, but he’d tell me things he thought I’d wanna know. He also knew about us. All the way from the beginning, I never hid anything from my brother. He was also my lookout if I was in town visiting you. But your brother emailed me, too. Since everything that happened with Lowe, your brother, mine, Jackson, and Nick have been sending me more messages. But that’s only because they were worried about you and they knew you’d been avoiding me.”

“Mercy told me my brother talks to you. I already knew he was feeding you information.”

Mercy had not been my biggest fan. As a matter of fact, she’d flat out told me she hadn’t liked me much for Delaney.

“She knew about the baby. I told her while we were in the hospital.”

I wasn’t sure how I felt about Mercy knowing before me, but I decided to let that go and just be happy Delaney had someone she could confide in and offer her comfort. Mercy may not have liked me much but she adored Delaney.

“And for the record, she begged me to tell you. She also told me if I didn’t take a chance and see if we could move forward, I’d regret it.”

That shocked the hell out of me, even though Mercy had softened a tad toward me, I hadn’t thought she’d give Delaney that advice. Though Mercy had provided a few pictures herself.

“I can’t believe you saved this old playlist.” The sudden change in topic and the humor in her voice gave me pause.

“What playlist?” The bassline of “Undiscovered” filled the truck and I smiled. “I have fond memories of this soundtrack,” I told her.

Damn, I wished I wasn’t driving because I was sure her face was flaming red. One of the many things I loved about Delaney. She looked and acted sweet and innocent, the mere mention of our sex life while outside of bed made her blush. But when we were in it, she held nothing back.

And when Delaney let herself go, she did it in a way that was so fucking wild she set me on fire. The blaze was scorching and I had to fight to keep myself in control.

“I bet.” She giggled.

Hell, yeah, she remembered. It was a night neither of us could forget—one of many. She’d read some spicy romance novel about a tortured man who liked to tie his women up. The book had given her lots of ideas she wanted to try. Things I was more than happy to indulge her curiosity.

I’d always been in control when it came to sex, but after that night, we’d taken it to a whole new level. One both of us got off on.

“First time you let me blindfold you and tie your hands this song was on. And by the time we’d made it to “Where You Belong” you were begging me to let you come.”

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