Page 43 of False Catch

"Kinsley, stop."

"Why?" She leans in, lips near his ear but voice carrying. "Is there someone else? Someone who wouldn't want to see us together?"

She knows. She absolutely knows.

"There's no one," Gray repeats, but his voice is strained.

"Prove it." She shifts to face him fully, one leg over his lap now. "Kiss me."

The coffee shop is watching. Half the lacrosse team just walked in. Camera phones are probably already out.

Gray looks at me, and for the first time since I've known him, I see panic in his eyes.

"Kinsley," I intervene, "maybe this isn't—"

"I'm not talking to you, Beckett," she says without looking at me. "I'm talking to my ex-boyfriend who claims he's single but won't even kiss me."

Gray's jaw clenches. He's trapped. Kiss her and betray whatever's building with Reese. Refuse and confirm every suspicion about our team dynamics.

"One kiss," Kinsley says softly. "For old times' sake. Unless there's a reason you can't?"

Gray moves so fast I barely track it. He stands, physically lifting Kinsley off his lap and setting her aside. Not rough, but firm.

"We're done here," he says flatly.

"Gray—"

"We're done, Kinsley. We've been done. Stop this."

He walks out, leaving me with three very interested women and a coffee shop full of witnesses.

"Well," Madison says after a beat. "That was interesting."

"Very," Kinsley agrees, standing and smoothing her yoga pants. "Beckett, you should probably go after him. Wouldn't want him doing anything... impulsive."

The threat is subtle but clear.

I throw money on the table and leave without responding. Gray is two blocks away, pacing like a caged animal.

"That was subtle," I say.

"Fuck off."

"She knows something."

"She knows enough." He runs both hands through his hair, messing it up for the first time I can remember. "She's going to use this. The Spring Formal thing was just the opening move."

"You could have kissed her. Quick peck, no big deal."

Gray turns on me, and the look in his eyes is almost feral. "Could you? Could you kiss someone else when you can still smell Reese on your clothes? When you know she's back at the house probably curled up with Zane? When you're so fucking close to claiming her that your teeth ache with it?"

I step back, surprised by the vehemence. "Jesus, Gray."

"I can't..." He stops, visibly pulling himself together. "I can't pretend anymore. Not with Kinsley, not with anyone. I'm halfway to mated with someone I can't have, who's fucking other members of our team, who doesn't even know what she's doing to us."

"She knows," I say quietly. "After last night with Zane, she has to know."

"Does she? Or is she just taking what she needs from whoever offers?" His voice is bitter. "Bo, Zane, probably Jackson and Eli next. Working through the team like a—"