Hot In Here (Ashton Heights Fire # 3) by Sami Lee

wall. The cone of silence had descended upon him and
Blair.
    At length, Blair asked. “That what you
want?”
    There was no hurt in his friend’s voice, but
Leo sensed it beneath the stoic surface. He dipped the sponge in
the bucket and washed the front wheel. “All I know is we can’t go
on the way we have been.”
    “ Meaning?”
    Leo sighed, threw the sponge in the bucket
and stood. “I’m over hooking up with these girls who don’t mean
anything to us, Blue.”
    “ Is this about Rob finding
the love of his life?”
    “ Maybe. Ever since I saw
how happy he is with Sierra…” Leo trailed off with a shrug. “I
guess I want the real deal now.”
    “ Does this have something
to do with Ally?”
    Neither of them had
mentioned her name in the week since Leo had woken to find her
gone. All Blair had said that morning was that she’d left, and Leo
had been too pissed that his friend had done his ejector-seat
routine with Ally to even talk about it. Things had been quietly
tense in the house the whole week.
    “ I liked her,” he said
gruffly. “I really liked her.”
    “ Yeah, well…so did
I.”
    Leo rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right.”
    Blair frowned. “I did.”
    “ That’s why you kicked her
out before I even woke up. Jesus, Blue. You didn’t even give me a
chance.”
    “ A chance to
what?”
    “ Talk to her. Tell her that
just because we’d all had sex already, that didn’t mean we couldn’t
go on a date for a real.”
    Blair’s eyes narrowed. “Are you talking
about all three of us, or just you and her?”
    “ You don’t want a
girlfriend,” Leo pointed out.
    “ And you do? You want a
girlfriend like Ally?”
    “ Not
just like Ally. I
want Ally. Shit.” Leo ran a hand through his hair, uncaring that
he’d probably got soap suds in it. “I haven’t stopped thinking
about her all week. Something inside me clicked when I saw her, and
maybe that’s something I could have followed up in some normal,
traditional way. Instead, we did our usual thing, and you kicked her out before
I could even talk to her.”
    “ That’s why you’ve been
freezing me out all week,” Blair concluded.
    “ That’s why I’ve been so
pissed at you I had to shut you out or risk slamming my fist into
your face.”
    The urge to do that very thing rose in Leo
again, and he channeled the frustration into kicking the bucket of
water at his feet so he wouldn’t damage his friend. The bucket
tipped over, spilling the soapy water all over the driveway.
    Crossing his arms over his chest, Blair
glared at Leo. “I have to say it’s insulting that you assume you’re
the only one Ally would have been interested in dating.”
    “ There was a connection
between us, I felt it.”
    “ I felt one too. You’re not
the only one with a claim on her.”
    “ What are you saying? That
you’d fight me for her?”
    Blair let out a disbelieving laugh. “What
I’m saying is that something normal and traditional would never
work for you, Chats. Not with the way you are.”
    Ridiculous, considering everything Blair
knew about him, that his words would make heat infuse Leo’s face.
“I could give it a go.”
    Blair shook his head.
“You’d never be fully satisfied. Just like I wouldn’t be if I had
to have vanilla sex all the time. It’s fine occasionally, but
before long, I’d miss the leather bindings. We have kinks, mate. No
point denying that.”
    “ So because I have a thing
for watching I don’t get to love anybody?”
    “ That’s not it. I’m saying
we’ve always worked well as a team, and if you want to find someone
more…permanent, then maybe I’d be into that.”
    Must be the day for big announcements. Yet
while Rob’s news hadn’t been a surprise, Blair’s statement shocked
Leo to the core. “You’d do a steady three-way?”
    “ Why not? We’re gonna run
out of girls anyway.”
    Leo made a pissed-off
grunt. “Don’t joke about something like this, you
prick.”
    “ You’re right.