Scars (Marked #2.5) by Lynch Marti, Elena M. Reyes Page B

I would not let another man touch me. Fuck me, like I so desperately needed.
    “Quit fucking with me.” One would think that after the initial shove I would’ve pulled my hand back, but I didn’t. Instead, my fingers twitched and pressed a little further. Maybe I was a masochist.
    “Why?” His fake perplexity was getting on my nerves. Luke knew what he was doing to me. “Kind of like you right where you are.”
    Well damn.

12

     
     
    “Move.”
    “No.”
    “Oh for the love of God,” Sam groaned while pushing a not-so-amused Jaime out of the booth. “Luke, get your butt out of that seat and let the poor girl out. She looks like she wants to escape, and I need a break from the two of you.”
    “Samantha, mind your—” Her head snapped toward his, her hand still making shooing motions toward Jaime. Those eyes, so much like his, turned to slits while daring him to argue. The anger behind those orbs made him pause mid-sentence.
    “Shut it, dear brother. Wouldn’t want the beans spilled before it was time…would you?”
    Beans? Spilled?
    I was more confused than ever. My headache grew and my temples throbbed. This entire night had become too much, and I thought it was time I left.
    Emotions were a bit high. Our attraction couldn’t be denied, but it could never go past that. After my last breakdown, I made a promise to both Talan and myself that I would become a new woman. One he would be proud to have on his arm.
    A woman that only gave her body to the man she loved. Talan was all I needed, and on more than one occasion had proved this to me.
    “Fresh air does sound amazing,” I interjected, while the siblings…
    How had I not seen that? They’re related.
    My eyes snapped up and toward an again-quiet Jaime. He looked pensive and a bit sad. But why? So many questions ran rampant through my head at that moment, and the more they did, the more I needed to get him alone.
    “Jaime, can we—”
    “See,” Sam jumped in before I could finish. “She needs a break, and you two…” she pointed a manicured finger at them “…can talk while we are gone. Make up your motherfucking minds on how to proceed.”
    “Fine.” Luke stood up then, reluctantly, and let me out of that suffocating booth. Again, our bodies touched as he left me minimal space to squeeze through on my way out. His hard to my soft felt amazing. It was as if he were taunting me, daring me to push him away. “Hurry back.”
    Together we walked in silence toward the bathroom. Sam seemed to be lost inside her head, and I was drowning inside muddled thoughts that made no sense to me.
    “Are you okay?”
    “I like him.”
    We both spoke up at once. Samantha’s words didn’t register at first, but when they did, I felt no animosity. Like earlier in the evening, they made sense to me. The responsibility I felt toward Jaime had lessened because he would no longer be alone.
    This had been a setup. That was my next thought. Luke took the heat off Jaime while he showed me that he found someone. A girl that could and would give him everything I couldn’t.
    I felt used, and it wasn’t by Jaime.
    The room grew smaller—I was suffocating. Luke toyed with my emotions, was having a laugh at my expense. Why would Jaime allow this? Sam seemed nice, and if given a chance, I would have told him this. Given my approval.
    She looked like the type of girl secure enough to let us remain friends. Of course limitations would be set, but I was more than okay with that. The past was the past, and it was staying that way.
    Our ship had sailed a long time ago.
    We hadn’t been together since the last time in the parking lot of his lounge, and I was okay with that. And it wasn’t because of his lack of desire for me or me for him, but because I wanted more than a quick fuck.
    It didn’t feel right to use him like that anymore. While I cared for him, I would never love him as more than a good friend.
    “How long have you two been seeing each other?” I asked,