Page 99 of EverGreene
“I’ll be right there,” Ever answered her before turning back to me with an apologetic look on her face. “Think you can finish in thirty to forty seconds?”
“I feel like that’s a trap.” I laughed. Ever reached for my jeans, and I grabbed her hand, holding it in mine. “It’s okay. We can take care of me later.”
“I’m sorry,” she said apologetically.
“I mean, you did hog the entire five minutes, but I also guess that’s on me for not making you come quicker.”
“Exactly. It’s totally your fault.” She sighed, her eyes traveling to the door. “I need to get this meeting started. Jack’s probably already in the conference room with the client.”
I held up my hands. “It’s not me stopping you, Nevermore. I know I’m irresistible and all, but you really should learn some self-control.”
Her eyes traveled down to my pants and back up again. “I’ll see you tonight?”
I nodded. “That you will. Someone has to make sure Vinny gets the appropriate number of treats.”
“You need to quit bribing my turtle.”
“Afraid she likes me better?”
Ever rolled her eyes before turning to make her way to the door. “She’s a filthy traitor, is what she is.”
“Hey,” I called out to her. “Why don’t you leave your window open for old time’s sake?”
Epilogue
EVER
Six Months Later
“Ever?”
I looked at Katy, who stood next to me as we watched Loche throw one of his new teammates from the Marauders down in the ring. Off to the side of us stood Cole, Nix, and Malachi, who all watched the practice in the gym intently, playfully shouting out critiques to throw Loche off his game.
“Yeah,” I answered her.
“How much spandex does your boyfriend own? He has to be single-handedly propping up the industry, right? Does he invest in a new pair of shorts after every fight or just the ones he wins?”
I rolled my eyes, mentally calculating how many pairs of shorts I’d seen on Loche over the last several months. It was a staggering amount, and he would only be accumulating more with the sponsorships that came along with being a Marauder.
“That’s what I thought,” Katy answered, stealing anotherlook at Malachi, who stood with his arms crossed, intense blue eyes sizing up Loche’s performance. Since I’d known Katy, I hadn’t seen her so fixated on one person. She’d usually develop a crush and either lose it after sleeping with the guy or after a week had passed, whichever came first.
In the ring, Ben, the Marauder who was acting as a referee for this practice, called the match, declaring Loche the winner. No surprise, considering he’d been dominating most of the fight. Loche looked up and smiled when he found me. That annoying, charming smile he had did all the right things to me, and he knew that.
“Yup. I predict more synthetic fiber shorts with a stunning amount of elasticity in your future,” Katy said.
Loche jumped down from the ring to a hail of high fives from his new teammates before sauntering over to our group, all drenched in sweat and pheromone-laden. His abs glistened under the light of the practice gym, highlighting his tattoos that were now marred by a scar from his emergency appendectomy. The pristine pines appeared as though someone had taken a chainsaw to a portion of the elaborate forest inked there.
“How come you never fought like that during our matches?” Nix teased him.
“Because I was tired of carrying your asses,” Loche joked, slapping Cole on the back.
“You’ve come a long way since I met you,” Malachi added. “So much more composure. Still cocky as hell, though.”
“He swears a lot for a priest,” Katy whispered. “I wonder what else he can do with that filthy mouth of his.”
“It’s not like you, or any other person for that matter, is going to find that out.” I shot Katy a look as if to say,Not here.
“And that’s a goddamn shame.” Katy’s eyes widened when Malachi looked over at us, seemingly hearing her. “Oh, shit.” Inhaste, she made the sign of the cross as though doing so would absolve her of a solid decade’s worth of inappropriate thoughts and four-letter words. “That’s how that’s done, right?” She looked at me for confirmation.
