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I jerk my chin in his direction. “You should see what that fucker can do with his mouth.”

Nico smiles, just a quirk of one side of his mouth. I’d told him to mention it, but I know the asshole is aware of my obsession over this woman and has more than likely deduced that I don’t like how close his hands are to her tits.

Previousobsession. I have to remind myself this isn’t the girl I fell in love with as a stupid fucking kid.

This Everest is nothing more than a lying whore. She’s our property and will be Kato’s wife, but that doesn’t change the fact she destroyed all three of us, destroyed our lives, and altered who we might have become had she not ripped our hearts and souls to shreds.

My comment seems to fly right over her head for all of two seconds before her eyes widen, and she glances at Nico then back to me.

“You two…?”

I smirk and spread my knees wider, pumping my hips up once when her eyes drop to my lap. Because of course my dick is hard as stone, and it has nothing to do with memories of my time with Nico.

Or anyone else, for that matter.

It’s Everest. It’s her mere presence back in my life, and it pisses me the fuck off.

She shouldn’t be able to affect me this way. While my head is fully aware of that, my body still remembers the way she felt beneath me, the way her ass or cunt squeezed my dick, the way she would look up into my eyes when she was on her knees with my cock in her mouth.

Everest’s gaze bounces between Nico and me again and I can tell Nico is doing his best to keep from laughing.

He finally glances up for a brief second to look at her before refocusing on the design. “Don’t look so surprised. I’m hot and can suck a dick like no one’s business.”

“I didn’t know…” She’s looking at me now with furrowed brows. “When we were…when did you become…” She can’t get her thoughts straight. I frazzled her and I’m loving every second of it.

“I’m not gay if that’s what you’re asking, and neither is he,” I say, nodding my head at Nico.

“Bi,” Nico says without looking at her.

“You’re bi, too? When did you…I didn’t know that.”

“One – not bi. A good fuck is a good fuck.” She doesn’t need to know every dot of ink on my skin, the jewelry littering my body, even the men and women I fucked over the past few yearswere all an effort to purge this bitch from my mind. “And two – of course you didn’t know. You ran away like a fucking coward.”

“I didn’t fucking run away!” she practically screams at me.

Her cheeks are red, her eyes glistening with unshed tears, and her chest is rising and falling in deep breaths.

“I need you to calm down and slow your breathing or you’ll end up with wavy ass lines, sugar,” Nico says, his gun hovering in the air as he looks from her to me then back again.

When his eyes drop to her full tits, I’ve had enough.

Yanking the sweater from her grasp, I position it to at least cover her nipples, while still allowing him plenty of room to work.

When a tear rolls down her cheek and her breathing doesn’t slow, Nico lifts his hand completely and rolls the stool back a bit, putting space between them.

She and I are in a standoff, both refusing to be the one to look away first.

“I…” Her throat bobs as she swallows hard. “My dad –” Her voice comes out choked. “I didn’t run away,” she whispers this time. “And if you let Kato announce the engagement, if you make me go through with this wedding…if my dad finds out I’m alive, we’re all going to end up dead this time.”

If her dad finds out she’s alive? The fuck is she talking about?

Remember? I’m dead. That was what she’d said last night. It had flown over my head at the time. I figured she was speaking figuratively, as in the girl we knew was dead.

Now…

“Talk,” I order, leaning forward to rest my elbows on my knees, letting my hands hang between.

She sniffles, raises a hand to wipe away the moisture on her cheeks, then shakes her head. “It doesn’t matter. But just…you guys have to stop all this. Just pretend I never existed. You need to punish me?” She gestures toward the half-finished outline ofthe tattoo. “Fine. Do what you need to do. But do not let Kato announce the engagement, do not let him tell people I’m here. And we cannot have some public wedding or some shit. I’m trying to protect you. Why can’t you understand that?”