Page 59 of Severed By Vengeance

I choked on my spit. “W-what?”

“Have you impaled yourself on Derek Cain’s dick?” She punctuated every word.

Priya threw her head back and laughed, letting herself fall onto the couch. “It’s a valid question,” she said between snorts of laughter.

I pushed my cousin away and shook my head, trying to hide my smile. “Did you forget we just met?”

She rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Did you see the way he was undressing you with his eyes? Right here, in public? For what it’s worth, Pri and I weren’t even in the room.”

“Not even for a second,” my friend concurred, still giggling.

“Had I been you, I would have kicked our intrusive asses out and taken Mr. Muscles to bed with a quickness—or the couch, the floor. Wherever.”

“If I wasn’t married, same! And he looks like he knows some things too. If you know what I mean.”

They nodded at each other in unison, complicit smirks lighting up their faces.

There was never a dull moment with these two. Lex and I had been best friends since the womb. Born only three weeks apart, we grew up more like sisters rather than cousins. We were often calledlas gemelas, the twins, as kids, because we looked so much alike.

Though that lasted until about the seventh grade. While Lex got to shop for D-cup bras and hit up all the cool stores at the mall, I was still rocking sports bras, and the Girls’ section at Target was my unfortunate go-to. After my diagnosis, though, I quit competitive gymnastics, and things finally started filling out where they were supposed to. With a good four inches on me, Alexa and I might never belas gemelasagain, but we were and would always be inseparable.

“You got all that from a thirty-second encounter?” I asked, propping my feet on the coffee table.

“You know how I am at reading people.” Priya flipped her brown, wavy hair over her shoulder. “That man has secrets. He’s wound up pretty tight, sure, but there’s something about those mysterious eyes that tell a thousand stories.”

Priya and I had been roommates during our freshman year of college. And she and Lex had fallen right into a close friendship the moment I’d introduced them. Solidifying our sisterhood, we’d been dual maids of honor at her wedding three years ago.

“Peel back those layers, girl. And let that man get into those sexually repressed, eight months celibate guts.” Alexa chimed in, propping her feet next to mine.

I couldn’t hold back my laughter. “Oh my God! Why are you keeping tabs on my sex life? And weren’t you insinuating he could possibly be a serial killer?”

“Well, is he?”

I huffed out a breath. “No.”

“And does he have a dick where his dick should be?”

I threw a cushion at her face. “You two are worse than men!”

“Eva?” Priya questioned in a bewildered tone. “There’s a tiny cat in your living room, and it’s staring at me.”

I was officially the world’s worst pet owner. How had I already forgotten about Diego? I scooped up the little furball and nuzzled him against my neck.

“I saved him from a ditch. Derek helped. Isn’t he the cutest?”

Lex backed away from us, one eyebrow quirked. “Well, I’m not a cat person, but it’s definitely adorable. You keeping it?”

“So, you and Derek saved this cat, huh? You know what that means?” Priya said, scratching behind Diego’s ear. He closed his eyes and purred at her touch.

“I’m afraid to ask what you think it means.”

“Well, you two basically adopted this cat together. That makes him your fur baby.”

Lex pointed at us. “She’s got a point.”

“You two are so twisted,” I said, chuckling and cradling Diego.

“Look, Eva, if you’re not taking that fine ass man to bed, please, let me know. I will gladly step up. After all, we do look alike, no? I mean, except I have a better rack.”