Page 2 of All Bets are Off

Jase sits on the chair next to mine, obviously waiting for me to speak.

I sigh. “That stupid foursome messed with my head. I never should have made that bet.” Logan and I had been making dumb bets for years, trading a threadbare one-hundred-dollar bill back and forth, sometimes with more money added andalwayswith the loser taking a good ribbing because we both pride ourselves on never backing down. But sex had never been brought into the mix, unless you count the sex swing I had Logan buy just to see his cheeks turn that pretty shade of pink.Wait. What the fuck, Hammond?

“You wouldn’t have made that particular bet if there wasn’t already something there you were curious about,” Jase points out.

On the day in question, it had been my turn to make a bet for a while, and I’d been trying to come up with something good. That night, at a bar in D.C. near my apartment, I got this idea to bet Logan I could convince two ladies at the bar to have a foursome with us. I had only fifteen minutes in which to do it, and if I succeeded, Logan had to actually go through with it with me.

That kind of thing was more my cup of tea than it was Logan’s, and I knew the only reason he accepted the bet was because he didn’t think I could arrange it that fast. To be honest, I was a little surprised myself at how easily I managed to set it up. When I returned to the table with the two attractive women, Logan’s face was the picture of shock. I admit I felt smug.

I expected a fun if not slightly awkward time, considering my best friend would be naked in the bed with me and the two girls, but what followed had been one of the best sexual experiences of my life. And for weeks afterward, I tried to figure out why.Whyhad it been so good? It wasn’t the first time I’ve slept with more than one woman at once.Why, when having a man in the bed with us should have made it awkward and weird for me, did I find it so fuckinghot? I told myself it was because Logan and I are comfortable with each other, but that only explained why the experience wasn’t awkward, not why it was sogood.Seeing my best friend naked, only inches away from me while banging someone, should not have turned me on like it did.

Jase’s next words jolt me out of my thoughts. “When Logan stayed with me before Christmas, he told me about the second bet.”

“What did he tell you?” I ask carefully.

“That you instigated a game of gay chicken. Not cool, man.”

Embarrassed, I run my hand over my face.

“He said you were the one to back out, and then you acted weird afterward. But he seemed sure you two would work through it, and I assumed you had. Yet here we are, months later, and you’re still staring after Logan like a love-sick puppy and looking at Colt like you want to kill him every time he gets near your man.”

“Logan’s notmy man, and have you seen the way Colt follows him around? Also, I wasn’t being weird afterward.” I clap my mouth shut, realizing how defensive I sound.

The curiosity got to me. Ihadto initiate that second bet and find out for sure how it would feel.

“The novelty of the foursome threw me. The whole thing was just so kinky. I wanted to make sure that was it, that’s all.”

“So, you bet you could go further than Logan but wound up freaking out and had to stop.”

“I didn’tfreak out,” I snap.

Leaning into my space, Jase focuses his unusual eyes—light blue with a burst of brown around the pupil—on me. “Tell me, how far did you get before you quit?”

No way was I going to tell him I had my hand down Logan’s pants before I gave in, so I ignore him, busying myself drying off with a towel.

“Come on, West,” Jase says, tone serious. “It’s been months since that last bet. Why is this still bugging you? Logan seems to have forgotten about it.”

And that’s another thing. How is it that Logan can let it go, but I can’t seem to? He was there, kissing me back, giving as good as he got.

Tossing the towel into the basket in the corner, I turn back to face Jase. “I don’t know. I want to forget about it, believe me. But I can’t. And it’s not only fucking up our friendship, it’s bleeding into our job.”

“How about admitting to yourself that you’re attracted to your best friend and seeing where that takes you?”

“No,” I say. “If there’s anything I know, it’s that doing that would be a terrible idea.”

Jase studies me a moment. “Slade called me this morning with a case, and I was thinking of assigning Hawk or Mal, but maybe a trip out of state for a while will do you good.”

Maybe he’s right. Getting away from Logan for a while might help.

CHAPTER TWO

Logan

“Jase didn’t say anything about a case at the meeting this morning,” I say as I watch West tuck several pairs of socks into a mesh pocket of his suitcase.

“He brought it up to me yesterday.”

“Why did he give it to you?” I ask.

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