Josiah: Can we meet up and talk?
Me: No.
Josiah: Why not?
Me: I’m busy tonight.
For good measure, I send a picture of the fire before locking the phone and putting it facedown back in my lap. Looking up, I notice all three sets of eyes are watching me expectantly.
“Spill,” Voss demands.
“There’s nothing to spill.” I know there’s no getting out of this. I’ve been backed into a wall, and like sharks who caught a whiff of blood, they won’t back down until they get what they’re looking for.
Voss scoffs. “Oh, please, Segan. If this were me or Wade, or hell, even Augustine, I may believe that, but this isyouwe’re talking about. The most reclusive fucker I’ve ever met, and you suddenly havesome guy from your past”—he uses finger quotations to emphasize his point—“in yourbed, and you expect us to believe there’s nothing to tell? Yeah fucking right, man.”
“Okay, first of all,” I mutter, holding up a finger. “He was in my bed simply because he was over to work out with me when the storm hit, and he couldn’t drive home.”
“Bullshit.” Wade chuckles. “Your house has several bedrooms. Him sleeping in your bed would never be your first choice.”
“They were definitely fucking around before I walked in,” Augustine chimes in. “The room reeked of sex.”
Throwing another glare his way, I toss my arms in the air. “Hello? What the fuck is going on? You’re supposed to bemybodyguard. What if they were spies for the paparazzi?”
Augustine throws his head back, laughing as the other two join him.
“So glad this is so fucking funny to you guys,” I grumble. Standing up, I shove my phone into my pocket before adding, “You know what? I’m going to bed. Fuck all of you traitorous assholes.”
This only makes them howl with laughter louder.
Rolling my eyes, I step inside the cool house, dropping my empty glass in the sink before heading upstairs to my room. I undress, heading into my ensuite and starting the shower, then climbing in, all while trying to keep my mind off Josiah.
Trying, but epically failing.
He’s right. It is childish of me to ignore him like this, but I don’t know how to be any other way. I wasn’t prepared for how raw and flayed open I would feel after delving into all that information with him.
Which is probably stupid because I’ve never told anybody before, so naturally, it would be hard. But it’s not just that, I don’t think. I think it’s spending time with him at all after what he did. After how he left like I meant nothing to him. As much as I try to tell myself it doesn’t mean anything, it does. It destroyed me when he left Utah. It destroyed me when he looked me dead in the eye, and told me he didn’t want me to come with him, but instead to stay behind and look after Lana.
Being near him in any capacity now, even all those years later, is rocking me to my core. It’s fucking with me, and I hate it. But in the same breath, all I want is to give in and be near him. Josiah is just as addicting as he was when I was younger.
Which is probably the only reason I find myself sitting with my back against my headboard after I get out of the shower, in nothing more than a towel tied around my waist, my phone in hand, calling him. My heart pounds with each ring, the blood roaring in my ears. The line finally connects, and my stomach lurches into my throat as his gravelly voice comes through the speaker.
“Segan, hey.”
I close my eyes, envisioning he’s right in front of me, not over the phone. “Josie.”
He groans, but I can hear the smirk in his tone. “That’s sticking, huh?”
“Sure is.”
He chuckles. “Thought you were busy, country boy.” The roughness of his voice is incredibly attractive, especially when behind my closed eyelids, he’s towering over me as he speaks. Looking down on me with his steel-gray eyes, his full, pink lips tugged into a cocky smirk.
My dick’s getting hard just from the mental image. “I was,” I reply, my voice coming out much huskier than I intended.
“So, what are you doing now?”
“I… just got out of the shower.”
Josiah exhales a breath into the phone. “Really? How was that?”
