Page 97 of Loving Lies (Granton University 3)

“And now I’ve actually done it more than you,” Tess teased, bumping her hip into Bailey’s. “Who’s the pure one today?”

Bailey swerved her head around to gape at Tess. “What? How the hell many times did you two little humping bunnies go at it last night?”

“Last night?” Tess asked. “Twice. This morning?” She gave a modest little shrug. “Only once.”

“Three times?” Her best friend gasped and stepped away from her so she could stare her up and down. “Oh my…why you dirty ho. I’m so proud.” She wiped away a non-existent tear. “But wait. Just how many orgasms did lover boy manage to give you, huh?” With a snarky grin, she folded her hands over her chest and nodded as if she knew she had Tess in a corner now.

But Tess only preened. “Four.”

“F—” Bailey’s mouth was too busy hanging open to finish the word. She whirled to Paige. “How do you have four orgasms from three rounds of sex?”

Paige sighed and patted Bailey’s arm sympathetically. “You obviously haven’t had any decent experiences with the subject if you don’t know the answer to that.”

“Well, that’s for damn sure. The one and only time I let a guy do me, it was less than stellar. I’m talking zero fireworks. It’s no wonder I haven’t been all eager to try it agai—wait. Wait, wait, wait. Are you trying to tell me even Xander has gotten you off more than once in a single round?”

Turning all kinds of red, Paige discreetly cleared her throat. “His record’s three so far.”

While Bailey was too speechless, what with her jaw bouncing off the floor from dropping so far, Tess made a contemplative face and wrinkled her nose. “Three, huh? Jonah and I will have to try for four then.”

A male snort came from the other side of the partially closed bathroom door. All three ladies glanced at it, then at each other. Bailey marched over and yanked it the rest of the way open, exposing an eavesdropping Logan who jumped back in surprise.

“Well, well. Looks like Mr. Perfect Xander is quite the peeping Tom.”

“Logan,” Paige gasped, darting around Bailey to reach his side. “I can’t believe you just listened in on our private conversation.”

“You were talking about sex,” he mumbled, scowling no doubt to hide the flush in his cheeks. Then he leaned in close to his girlfriend and hissed, “And why did you tell them only three times?”

Paige blinked, clearly stu

mped by his question. “Because I wanted to be honest?” She phrased it more as a question than an answer.

“You still should’ve said something like five. Made it sound really impressive.”

“Yeah.” Paige snorted out a laugh. “But who’d believe that?”

“I still don’t believe three,” Bailey spoke up, raising an eyebrow as if to question his abilities. “You must have some kind of talent with—”

“And I think that’s my cue to leave again.” He was gone before anyone could stop him. The loud click of Paige’s room door closing signaled that he was gone for good this time.

Paige, Tess, and Bailey exchanged arched glances before they burst out laughing.

Tess realized this was one of the happiest moments of her life. She had two amazing friends, a non-fake boyfriend who made her insanely happy, a future to look forward to, and a life worth living. It was strange how much good had endured through so much tragedy. But it helped her realize that, if she could just survive through all the hardships, she might come out okay on the other side.

“I don’t see why the hell you two had to drag me along to this crap. I don’t do musicals.”

“Because,” Jonah told Bailey as he turned around to send her a smirk. “If I have to sit through this shit, then so do you.”

She snorted, turned around to scowl at some poor girl who’d bumped into her from behind, then whirled back to finish glaring down Jonah. “As if I care what you think. You’re not my boyfriend, pal. I don’t need to please you.”

“But you do care what Tess thinks, and she wants to please me. So, if you want to please her, you better start pleasing me too, woman.”

As she sputtered back a string of obscenities, calling him every dirty, male chauvinist name in the book, he chuckled and shook his head. But damn, it was way too easy to rile her up. Next to him, Tess squeezed his hand and bumped her shoulder into his. When he glanced down, she rolled her eyes.

“I think you get too big of a kick out of teasing her, sometimes.”

He loved how she only shook her head and smiled, amused, instead of reprimanding him for purposely ticking off her best friend. But yeah, he did totally love saying inappropriate stuff to Bailey just to see her completely overreact.

Pulling Tess’s knuckles to his mouth, he kissed them softly. “But I need some kind of entertainment to me get me through the next few hours.” Because sitting there, watching Aubrey’s end of the year play was going to drive him batty for sure. The first time some guy in tights started singing soprano, he was probably going to detonate from the agony.

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