Page 84 of Burden of Proof

“Hey,” Smith whined, clicking through the true crime documentaries and not really paying attention to either of us. “I don’t want to wear work clothes all night.”

“Your work clothes are jeans,” Finn accused. “You can wait your turn.”

Laughing, I shoved Finn toward the bedroom, promising Smith after he found us something to watch he could change into a pair of sweats. I followed Finn down the hallway, not caring in the slightest when he made himself at home on my bed while I dug a pair of sweats and a shirt out from the dresser for him.

“Can I spend the night?” he asked softly, taking the clothes out of my hand but not getting up from the bed.

The uncertainty in his voice stopped me in my tracks, and I ruffled my hand through his hair, smoothing it back before kissing the top of his head.

“Of course you can,” I promised him. “You never even have to ask.”

CHAPTER 25

LINCOLN

The music was loud, thumping up through the floor and vibrating my legs. I had my hands in the air, swaying with Silas pressed against my back and another gorgeous man inches away from my front. He’d tried to get closer, but I pushed him off. There was no real harm in letting him watch since he’d never get to touch. It wasn’t like my ass wasn’t already all over the internet anyway.

Silas slid his arm around my waist and splayed his fingers out across my stomach, singing along to the remix of the song we’d been dancing to, lips moving into a kiss against my ear when the DJ remixed the beat into a new song that wasn’t familiar to either of us.

“I need some air,” he panted, hooking his finger through the belt loop of my shorts and hauling me backward toward the patio door.

It had been months…probably longer, since we’d come to Rapture just to dance, and I was having the best time and never wanted to let it go that long again. We’d started the night on the couch, and I’d had nothing but plans to stay there, but as the night wore on we both got a little bit antsy. There were no words exchanged when we decided to go, and I knew I’d missed Silas,but I hadn’t realized just how much until we were back in the swing of something that used to be very common for us.

Outside, the music was barely more than a drumbeat, still ringing loud in my ears. We headed toward the corner of the patio, and I pressed Silas against the wall, slanting our mouths together and licking past his teeth. He groaned against me, spreading his legs to make room for me between them, laughing when I broke the kiss to trail my mouth up his jaw to his ear.

“I’m having the best time with you.”

“Same.” Panting, I turned so my back pressed against the fence, our shoulders touching as we both caught our breaths and people watched. “What do you think they talk about at their little dinners?”

He chuckled. “You mean Marshall and the rest of them?”

“I mean Hunter and the rest of them.” I laughed and rested my head against the fence. “But yes.”

“Boring shit, I imagine. But sometimes not. Like, they’ve talked about me before, and their other brother Andrew. I’m sure they talk about their love lives.”

I bit the tip of my tongue between my teeth, wishing the pain would be enough to settle my breathing back to normal.

“I’m sure they have weeks of content with me,” I said.

Silas knocked his shoulder against mine. “Why do you say that?”

“Because of us.” I gestured weakly between the two of us, the fact we’d been plastered against each other all night, kissing half the time and touching the rest. “Because I’ve slept with Smith, because I’m a sex worker, because I’m in love with Hunter.”

My best friend’s eyes went wide, and he arched a brow at me. His reaction was clearly in response to the last part of my confession, not the rest of it. I’d, of course, left out the story of how Hunter and I had met, because him being a sex worker was something I was certain he’d want to take to his grave. Notbecause he had issue with it for me, just…it wasn’t something he wanted to talk about with anyone else.

“In love?”

I nodded, and Silas’s mouth settled into a soft smile. “I like that for you.”

“I like it too.”

“I don’t know any of them to be cruel men, Linc. No one is judging you at their table.” Silas paused, and I could feel his stare on me. “Are you judging yourself?”

Patron saint of being called the fuck out.

“Yes and no,” I answered. “He just made partner at his firm, you know. And it feels like a choice for him to be dating a man who lives in a studio apartment and puts his asshole on the internet to pay rent.”

Silas scoffed, rolling his eyes at me. “It is a choice, and he’s made it.”