Page 24 of Deadlier Obsessions

Gage chuckles loudly. “I don’t think not getting what you want means I don’t love you, but what do you want?”

Stella jumps up excitedly. “I want to go to Paris.”

“Fucking Paris,” Gage groans but he doesn’t say no. She pushes him onto his back, and straddles his lap, holding his wrists over his head, her pretty tits dangling over him. “We could write another filthy book while we’re there and try out everything we write.”

I laugh because suddenly I know we’re going to Paris, because Gage cannot refuse an offer like that.

Mav storms into the room. “Get dressed. We need to talk.”

That’s all he says before he leaves, and then I hear his footsteps go toward the living room.

GAGE

The expression on Stella’s face tells me she’s panicking. She’s in her head, and probably thinking worst case scenarios long before we get there.

“Breathe, baby.”

She swallows hard. “Do you think she’s leaving?”

I chuckle as I grab her face and kiss her quickly on the lips. “No, baby. Might she be tied up somewhere? Yeah, that’s a possibility, but there’s no way Mav would let her leave. And neither would I.”

Sebastian and I pull on matching sweatpants, and Stella grabs a pair of tiny black shorts and a white t-shirt that saysTakenon it. Yeah, we’re possessive assholes like that, if our women are ever out in public, we want other men to know they are fucking off limits. I stare at the shirt as I think about Mav saying he’d marry Lucy. The thought of it pisses me off, because that would make her his, not ours. And I don’t like it.

When we make it to the living room, I don’t miss the way Mav has one arm around Lucy’s back, and the other around her front, as if trying to prevent her from running. The three of us sit on the other end of the couch as I question Mav, “What’s up?”

He rolls his eyes at me and focuses his attention on Stella. “What do you want?”

She doesn’t respond because she’s too busy fidgeting with her shorts.

“Stella,” he barks, making her jump. “What?”

Mav runs a hand through his hair, I’ve never seen him like this, he looks like he’s been through something traumatic.

“What do you want?”

She shakes her head in confusion. “I don’t know what you mean.”

He groans in annoyance, like we’re supposed to know where his fucking head is. “Out of life, Stella. What do you want? Marriage? Babies? What do you fucking want?”

She glances between Sebastian and me, as Pretty Boy grabs her hand. “It’s okay, baby girl, just answer the question. There isn’t a wrong answer.”

“Well, I always imagined a future with a husband and children, but there are five of us so I don’t see it happening with us. Maybe one day still, but I don’t know.”

I look over to Sebastian and he’s thinking the same thing I am. Neither one of our women see this as permanent.

Mav speaks up, “I’ll marry Lucy, and one of you can marry Stella, problem solved.”

I jump out of my seat. “Fuck you, asshole. That’s not happening.”

Arching an eyebrow, he says, “Like hell it isn’t.”

“There are five of us, dickwad. You get what you want and then what? Sebastian or I are the odd man out, with fucking nothing?”

He shrugs and I storm over to him and get in his face. “Fuck you. You aren’t taking her from us. You’re talking out your ass cause your head knows better. She’s ours, not yours.”

SEBASTIAN

What a fucking betrayal. I’ve known, pretty much since everything went down at that book show, that Mav had a fascination with Lucy, obsession really. Taking her virginity didn’t help matters, but I thought we were all good with the way things were, happy even. But now he wants to take Lucy from us, and that thought alone makes it hard to breathe. That’s the funny thing when you are in a group of five people, you know how you feel about things but sometimes you’re so stuck in what you want, you never consider anybody else’s feelings. That’s what Mav is doing right now.

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