Page 153 of Till The Sun Dies (Checkmate 2)

33

Angelo

Barfight

“Time to go, Alesi.” Kane slams my wallet against my chest and turns back to get his. Opening the leather, he counts cash and chuckles. “Thieving woman.”

“Who?”

“Jessie. I had a couple hundred cash in here this morning. Now I have ten bucks, all in singles.”

“How do you know it was Jess?”

He pulls a silver packet out and holds it between two fingers. “Because she left a condom. She’s playing with me.”

“Gross.” I turn toward the suite door and move into the hall. “I don’t wanna know about you and Jess and condoms. It freaks me out.”

“That’s fine with me.” He follows me into the hall and waits until the door closes and the light flashes red on the lock. Moving to the next door – mine and Laine’s room – he tests the lock as he passes. “I don’t wanna talk to you about Jessie, anyway. But we need to talk about you and Laine.”

“You don’t have to worry about us. I think we have it under control now.”

“You were with her all day today, you ball-less bag of sissy-hood. She was right there in a bikini and I didn’t see you touch her once.”

“We kissed last night.” Am I thirteen or thirty? It sure fucking feels like I’m thirteen again. “I finally got a taste.”

“You did?” Smiling, he slaps a palm over the elevator call button and steps in when the doors slide open. “So why didn’t you grab her today? She’s yours, man. Act like it.”

“She’s not mine. Not yet, but I’m working on it.” Moving down a floor, the doors slide open again to reveal an elderly couple that clutch to each other and pretend the thug isn’t three feet ahead of them.

“Are you coming?” Kane snaps.

The lady squeezes her floral print handbag to her chest and shakes her head.

I slam my hand against the control panel to get the doors to close again. “Walk then, you judgmental bitch. You’re wasting our time by making us stop.”

The doors close, but instead of acknowledging my outburst, Kane turns to me with a grin. “What’s your plan? I want a play by play so I can laugh when you forget how to speak when you see her. Your current MO is ‘I’ve got this!’ then the second you see her, you turn into a brainless idiot.”

“Shut up. Mind your own business.”

“Itismy business when your girlfriend is in my room whining at me when I’m trying to show Jessie a good time. Ijustget Jessie’s pants off, and bam, the Twink barges in and bitches about you like it’s my fault you’re stupid.”

I push out of the elevator and wait for him with a pounding heart. “She bitches about me?”

“Every fucking day of my life.‘Ang won’t kiss me, Ang is blind, Why doesn’t Ang like me back?’It’s annoying as fuck.”

“Wait.” I grab his arm and swing him around just as we step onto the street. “She asked you those things? Truly?”

“Truly. Like six billion fucking times a day. I’ve been living a Dr. Phil episode for ages, because Laine has a crush, and she thinks you don’t see her. So we sit down and talk, I tell how she should jump in and grab your dick, because then you’d probably admit you like her too. This goes on for an hour, I start my period, she leaves with an ‘I’ve got this!’ attitude, I grab my girlfriend to remind myself I’m a man, thenyouknock and say the same shit about her. I swear, it’s tempting to tie you both to the front of separate trains, put you on the same tracks, and smash your faces together until you get it. I had no clue the happiness of my relationship depends on the happiness of yours.”

Rolling my eyes, we slow our walk when the girls come back into sight a block ahead. One elevator behind them. That’s as much space as Kane was giving the girls, and I didn’t even pretend to argue.

They walk hand in hand. Throwing their heads back with laughter, and swinging arms reminiscent of when they were younger.

Always attached.

Always giggling.

“You promise she said that about me? That she likes me?”

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