Page 50 of Marked

“Where exactly in my nonanswer did you think it gave you the right to have my entire townhouse boxed up and delivered to your house?”

“Our house, and not everything is here. I told Keaton your clothes were off-limits.”

“That’s true. He did.”

At least my best friend was attempting to help a brother out. The same couldn’t be said for his fiancée, who was seconds away from cracking up laughing. Lord knew if she exerted herself too much, she might go into early labor. Hell, she should probably be sitting down.

“I can’t even with you right now.”

When Lanie put her hands on her hips, I switched tactics, hoping to appeal to her more reasonable side.

“It’s safer for you here, Darlin’.”

“Says who?”

Uhh…damn. Tread carefully, Noah.

First off, where did the little voice in my head come from? Second…why didn’t I listen?

“Everyone?”

No. No. No, you idiot!

“How’s this for safe?” She waltzed right up to me, shoved my chest with both hands, and said the one thing guaranteed to stop me in my tracks and bring me to my knees.

“Bean bag.”

She safe-worded me.

“Fuck!”

Spinning on her heel, she stormed out my back door onto the deck, Henley hot on her trail. I should’ve been happy she didn’t insist on leaving all together. Tearing myfingers through my hair, I began to pace a path among the myriad of boxes littering my living room floor.

Keaton furrowed his brow. “She’s mad I didn’t bring her stupid bean bag couch?”

“Fuck!”

Mercifully, the doorbell spared me from having to explain further. Not that I was ashamed of my bedroom proclivities, it just wasn’t any of their business what we did behind closed doors. But based on the scathing look I received from Jade when I opened the door, I’d have to give them something. Without Koen and Keaton’s help, I didn’t stand a chance in hell of getting past Lanie’s girl squad to beg for forgiveness.

“What did you do, Noah? Jade’s phone has been blowing up for the past three minutes.”

“Fuck.” I slammed the door shut behind Koen.

“Seriously. Enough with the fucks.” Keaton walked to my fridge and grabbed three beers. He had to have brought them by earlier when he dropped off the boxes because I knew for a fact they weren’t in there before we left for Denver. “Try stringing together a complete sentence?”

“I fucked up.”

“No shit, Agent Obvious.” He handed first me, then Koen, a beer before popping the top off of his own.

“I wasn’t that late getting here. What the hell did I miss?”

For the second time in my life, I blurted, “I’m a Dom.”

Beer sprayed out of Koen’s mouth, drenching everything in its path; the floor, the couch, my shoes. Meanwhile, Keaton still had the bottle tilted back against his mouth and from what I could tell, he was draining the contents. Eventually, he set the empty bottle down on my coffee table, then scrubbed his fingers across his eyes.

“Bean bag wasn’t about her sofa, was it?”

“Not even close,” I confirmed.

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