Page 65 of Throwing Fire

“Ree’s woulda if you’d been dancin’ with her. Whether or not you were allergic. It was all up my nose.”

“She doesn’t want to dance with me.” Still resentful.

“Kitten, she doesn’t really want to dance with me, either. She’s lost the man she wants to dance with. She’s just makin’ do.”

Kez lifts her head in surprise. “She has? Who?”

“Sokun Tyng.”

“Sokun? Tyng’s son? He was contracted. And ... oh.”

“Yeah, just like that.”

“I thought—” She trails off. Hot pink stains her cheeks, and it’s not arousal.

“I know what you thought. Since you didn’t know about Ree’s thing for Sokun, I can understand why you thought it, comin’ fromher direction. What I can’t understand is why you thought there was anything from mine.”

She buries her face in my chest. “I’m an idiot.”

I kiss the top of her head. Cuddle and sway until we’re close to the bed, then pull her down into it and roll her under me. Kiss her and look down into her flushed face when I say, “Have I ever given you a minute’s doubt?”

“No,” she admits, and she looks so miserable, so remorseful, that I almost back off. But this jealousy shit has got to stop. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. You’ll think I don’t trust you, and I do, it’s not like that.”

It’s exactly like that. “Am I anythin’ like him?” I ask.

“Like who? Chain? No.” She shakes her head vehemently, rasping the stubble of her hair against the pillow.

“Then why would I act like him?”

“Guys do?—”

“Notall guys, Kez. Every one of your exes sleep with Nev?”

She squeezes her eyes closed. Doesn’t answer me. That takes me aback.

“Kitten, has more than one of your guys slept with Nev?”

“Every guy I know has slept with Nevie,” she whispers. “Except you.”

That can’t be true. “What about your boy, Renn?”

“That’s how I met him.”

Fuck. I already know Duncan’s been in Nev’s bed, and that’s why Kez wouldn’t let him near hers. “Not Ape. And not fucking Gig.” I can’t believe they’d be that stupid.

“Both of them. Separately and together.”

That’s more than I wanted to know. “Has she fucked the whole planet?”

Kez grimaces. “Just most of Nock. And some of Hemos.”

“Kitten.” I lean in and kiss her. “I promise you, I will never, ever sleep with Nev. Or Myhre. Or anyone else you know.”

“How can you say that?” Those big, wounded blues search myface.

“Easy.” I’m not a two-year old and I don’t get led around by my dick. “First of all, you’re the only person I want to fuck. Second, even if you dumped me and jumped into bed with Acker, I wouldn’t ever fuck anyone you know. It would hurt you.” I cup her face in my hand. “I’m not in the business of hurting my kitten.”

“Oh, God, Hale.” She burrows into me like she’s trying to get inside my skin. I help her. Hold her close. Kiss what I can reach of her face. Rock her against me until she finally settles and sighs and begins kissing my chest.

---