“Nah,” Crew coos, reaching out to grab my hand and drag me closer. “Not a mistake, but the best idea you’ve ever had.”
Then his lips are on mine, and I freeze again.
Am I supposed to kiss him back?
Get your shit together, Mason. Of course you’re supposed to kiss him back.
So I do, and it’s a damn good kiss. When Crew pulls back, I barely stop myself from chasing his lips. But then he’s turning my head toward Kiara, who’s watching me with desire in her eyes.
“May I?—”
“Yes,” she cuts me off, giggling. “Shit. Sorry. I hope you were about to ask if you can kiss me, because otherwise this is going to be embarrassing.”
Instead of answering her, I kiss her, and it’s everything I imagined it would be—and so much more.
We are so fucked, but I couldn’t be happier about it.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Kiara
Ireach for my phone blindly, blinking my eyes open so I can see why it’s going off.
“Dad?” I ask, confused about why he’s calling me.
“Oh, no, Kiki. Did I get my times wrong? I thought you’d be awake by now. These damn time differences are going to be the death of me.”
I sit up in bed, glancing at my alarm clock. I’m surprised it says it’s after six.
I turn to wake up Crew, only to find the bed empty.
“It looks like Crew decided to let me sleep in,” I tell my dad, rubbing my eyes.
It’s Sunday, and after three days of twelve-hour shifts, I tend to sleep harder than normal.
“Should I call back?”
I climb out of bed, shaking my head as if he can see me. “No, Dad. Absolutely not. It has to be after midnight there. Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”
Dad chuckles. “We went out for dinner and a show. We just got back to the apartment. Ren’s the only one sleeping right now. The rest of us wanted to stay up and talk to you and Mason. How are things going there?”
“Do you mean have Mason, Alexander, and Davis declared their undying love for me?”
Silence follows my question, and I laugh.
“Hold on. I’m going to mute you while I go to the bathroom and get ready. Give me like five minutes.”
I don’t bother waiting for an answer as I mute the phone and put it on speaker. I can hear a muffled, hissed conversation and laugh to myself as I use the bathroom and wash my hands before brushing my teeth. I run a quick brush through my hair before unmuting the phone.
“So, have you all decided on a cover story yet?” I tease, grabbing Crew’s sweatshirt from the back of the chair and tossing it over my pajamas. I swim in the damn thing, and it’s way too hot outside to be wearing it, but inside the house, it can be a little cold. I love lounging around in his clothes.
“Why would we need a cover story?” Dad asks.
“Hmmm…so you’re not going to pretend like you didn’t know that they were interested in me, and no one bothered to tell me?”
“It wasn’t our place,” Evelyn’s voice cuts off whatever my dad was about to say. “We were in an awkward position.”
I sigh, running my hand through my hair as I head downstairs. “I guess that’s true. I don’t know who all is home right now since I woke up, but we can jump on a video call if you want.”