Page 72 of Tempt

She stood up. “Love can be as destructive as it can be healing. You’d do well to keep that in mind for the next few days. These two have a way of fucking the people they love over.” And then she left, her bedroom door softly closing a moment later.

To say I was stunned was probably an understatement. I expected her to say that Theo didn’t approve of his friend and his sister dating. Or maybe a secret baby or something like that. Certainly not a story sadder than just about anything I’d ever heard before, or a doomsday proclamation to end it all.

“She has a unique flare for the dramatic,” Theo finally said, looking up at me. I swear he was asking me if I believed in love.

“Dramatic,” I agreed. “And not terribly responsible for her own role in things.”

Theo blinked and Higgins’ head snapped up. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

And that was truer than true. I had no idea what she’d gone through or what the details were. I only knew what I’d heard, and what I thought the two men sitting in front of me needed to hear, too. “You two did a phenomenal job of fucking up your lives, and I’m sure that plays a big part in all of this, but what I just heard was someone so mad she couldn’t acknowledge her own role in all of this. She made her choices, and she continues to make them.”

Maybe I was talking about Nicki, but I knew deep down inside I was saying all of that for myself, too. I needed to believe that I had a role in everything that was happening. I didn’t want to feel like I was helpless or a victim to what was about to happen with Toni.

So I took a page out of Nicki’s playbook. I stood up. “I have a day tomorrow. I’m going to bed.” And got myself out of that room before I got pulled down into the muck.

* * *

I wasn’t asleepwhen Theo came to bed thirty minutes later. I knew it was thirty minutes because I’d watched every minute tick by on the clock. I’d also listened to Nicki crying in the next room, and Higgins and Theo talking. This safe house had the thinnest walls ever and I loved and hated that equally.

I hated that my questions had made Nicki cry.

I hated that I knew how tortured Higgins was by their past.

But I hated most of all that I knew how much Theo blamed himself for all of this. I didn’t quite understand the depths of it yet. It was almost as if there was more than he was telling me. Sometimes I got the feeling I’d only just scratched the surface of Theo’s past.

Despite all that, I loved hearing Higgins go to Nicki’s room instead of his. And by the sounds of it, they were having a long overdue conversation about what they wanted out of life.Thatwas good at least.

I also loved hearing Theo with Higgins. It was a revelation. Theo had shown me parts of him I thought no one else knew, but I was starting to realize I was wrong. Nicki and Higgins knew some of that too.

There were dimensions to Theo I was just starting to touch. He’d taken the man he was destined to be, and hidden him deep under layers of protection. iON Innovations was just one part of him, but he’d made it seem like so much more. It was the mask Theo wore to make his life work—the life he’d been thrown into when everything went wrong—and he’d done a phenomenal job, but I had a feeling the act was taking it’s toll on everything else.

I waited while he silently stripped off his clothes and slid into bed behind me. I liked to fall asleep on his chest, but tonight I was already curled up in a ball around the spare pillow. It was a nice change of pace to have Theo meld against me from behind. He fit so perfectly—as if he were made to wrap around me like a shield.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I didn’t mean to upset everyone.”

He nuzzled the back of my neck and planted a kiss. “Don’t be sorry. It’s all fucked up and they needed to have it out.”

“But on the way here you said—”

“I was wrong. I knew I was wrong as soon as I saw them together.”

I didn’t expect that answer. “What do you mean?”

Theo dropped kisses on my shoulder as he ran his hand down my bare arm. “I’ve always blamed myself for everything that went wrong. I was the big brother and Nicki was my sister to protect. I didn’t see them the way that they are. I don’t think I knew what to look for until I met you.”

“Oh…” He pressed his hips against my backside, asking for permission to continue. I pressed my hips back, desperately wanting the contact.

“Now I know what it feels like to want someone—needsomeone—so desperately you can’t think straight.”

Theo was already hard and I tilted my hips so that the head of his cock pressed at my entrance. The contact took my breath away just as much as it did the very first time. I reached back with my free hand to cup his neck. I wanted to feel him even closer than he already was. He groaned at my touch. “Are they really that bad for each other?”

Theo shook his head and started rocking his hips, pressing against the ache. “They have bad luck. Too young, too screwed up, too hurt. But they’re older now. I think if they can put the past aside they might be able to finally figure it out.”

I moaned as he slid inside and forced my body to expand around him. I pulled him closer and he sucked lightly at my shoulder, continuing his slow, steady rocking.

I reached for my phone on the nightstand and turned on music, cranking it loud. I was never quiet and the talking in the next room had also turned to a similar activity, at least that was how it sounded to me, and I didn’t exactly want the sounds of their makeup to interrupt the connection between Theo and me.

“Thank you,” Theo chuckled.

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