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“My brother groomed Bambi for over a year. She thought it was love. I’m not sure she doesn’t still think that to be honest. She’s not…she’s not well. Not after everything that happened to her. She’s fragile, and despite how it might seem, I don’t like to hurt women.”

She bites her lip, the only tell that her frostiness is thawing.

“You’re keeping secrets from me with her?” she asks, her voice going thin.

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I’m being completely honest with you, Sweetness.”

She tilts her head to the side, finally unfurling one arm to place her hand on my stubbled cheek.

“We both know that’s not true, Storm.”

Beep.

The sound from my phone cracks like a death knell, and I throw it across the room.

“Shae, I’m not cheating. I don’t want anyone except you. What do you need me to do to feel safe with me?” I ask, and the words stun me. I have never concerned myself with another woman’s emotions, but when it comes to Shae? It’s my top fucking priority. “Tell me and I’ll do it.”

Goddamn it, I’m begging.

She shakes her head again and a perverse, dark part of my soul gets a thrill when a single tear rolls down her cheek—not because I want to make her cry, but because it means she feels something.

She feels something for me, about us.

“I should be more mature about this,” she says, almost more to herself.

“Do you think I’m cheating on you, Shae?” I grab her hands when I ask the question, leaving my expression completely open to her.

We hold each other’s gaze for a long time, what seems like forever, but after releasing a slow stream of air and breaking the intensity with a blink, she sits on the bed and says, “No.I don’t think you’re trying to be with her, but she wants to be with you.”

She sniffs and squeezes my hand.

“Desperately,” she adds.

I tilt my mouth to the side, knowing I can’t lie to her.

“I’m seeing that now.”

At that confession, she jerks, almost as if she expected me to deny the statement.

“So the question is, what do you want me to do to make you feel safe, Sweetness? Do you want me to end the friendship?”

She bites her lip again and looks down to her lap where our joined hands now rest.

“No.I—that’s a childish response. I wouldn’t ask you to give away a twenty-year friendship because I can’t handle a little jealousy.”

“Is that what it is, Shae? Are you jealous of Bambi?”

An annoyed, irritated look flashes on her face before she says, “Whatever, Storm.”

And then she rolls her eyes and it’s like the sun coming out after a category five hurricane.

I grin. “Nah, jealousy? I don’t think that’s it.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Oh, really?”

“Really,” I say, moving my hand from her lap to the elastic waistband at the sides of her hips. “Because you’d only get jealous if you thought she had something you didn’t. But you know you’re the shit. Right, baby?”

I tug at her sweats, and she lifts her hips without me having to make the verbal request. I take her panties with the outer fabric, making cautious moves as I remove them from around her ankles.