Page 127 of Rock Giant

“I know that, Balin.”

She also knew in her soul that was a lie.That she was having her emotions manipulated by Nash, and—possibly unwittingly—by Balin.

“Good.”He flashed her a smile, which faded just as fast as it’d appeared.“Are you sure you know that?I promise he loves you, and I know we had that earlier conversation, but he’s not cheating on you.”

No.The cheater was her.Nash just got off on bending the rules and her to his will.

Would Balin be so eager for them to fix things if he knew the truth?What would he say if she mentioned they were in this position because Nash had decided watching her and Rock Giant was a fantabulous idea and she’d foolishly agreed, and then when Nash had lost control of the situation and changed the rules, she’d gone a step further and took a hammer to the very idea of them by shagging his rival?

“It’s been forty-eight hours.Isn’t that enough wallowing?”

Two days.Was that it?It felt so much longer.

And honestly, she didn’t know what was worse, Nash being present and ignoring her, or Rock Giant’s suspicious absence.They’d been staying in different apartments, but she’d seen the rest of the Black Halo contingent out and about around Flåm, but not Rock Giant.There’d been no sign of him at all, and he was a hard man to miss.Clearly, he was avoiding her.Hardly a surprise, given she’d metaphorically socked him in the teeth.

He probably never wanted to see her again.

Surely, she ought to feel a little bit relieved at that, not as if she’d had her soul snipped from her.

“Balin.”She risked an upward glance.“What is it you think happened in Bergen?”

Her question etched two deep grooves between his eyebrows.“Ah, yeah.I was kinda hoping we weren’t going to have to get too heavily into the details.”He took a breath, then plopped himself down on the lower bunk.“Okay, so, a fourway in my room.Two lasses, a guy, and me.”He raised his hands, then pressed one of them to his heart.“Nash wasn’t involved.I promise.He categorically did not participate.He barely even watched.”

“Right.”

It wasn’t any sort of news to hear that Nash had gone straight from watching her to watching Balin.His actions did leave her infuriated, but simultaneously strangely cold, almost indifferent to the fact.She felt detached from the event, as if it hardly mattered anymore.

“Honestly, babe.He spent most of the night in the bathroom hurling.Said his stomach was off from the burgers we got, but my guts were fine.”

He wrinkled his elegant nose as if the stench of vomit were assaulting it, but the bunkroom didn’t smell any different to usual, namely the familiar scent of worn socks and residual farts.

“He was verifiably bad, though.He spent the night in the bathtub ’cause he didn’t want to risk shuffling any further than that away from the loo.”

“I wasn’t aware that he’d been ill.”

“Aye, yeah, he was proper sick.Lee was talking about fetching you at one point, but Nash insisted he didn’t disturb you.”

But not because he’d wanted to spare her the sight or effort of having to look after him.

Her silence deepened Balin’s frown.In fact, he started to look downright worried.

“He loves you.”

“Yeah.You said.I know.”

“Thing is, the way you’re looking at me right now, I’m not sure you do know.You guys aren’t going to split over this?Come on.No, that’s dumb.You’re solid.The two of you are getting hitched.I’ve already got my best man speech written.”

Had he?

“Jo.You’re scaring me.”He reached out and grasped her hand between both of his.“Doll, don’t do this.It’s bad enough dealing with Jez and his heartbreak.If you dump Nash, you’re going to fuck up the band.”

Jeezus, was that true?She didn’t need that burden on her head.Bad enough that doing so would make a mess of her own life.

“I’m not going to dump him.”

“You’re not.”He squeezed her hand.“That’s right.Course you’re not.You’re gonna take your Uncle Balin’s advice, and fix this.”

“He’s going to dump me.”