Page 17 of Rot In Knotty Pieces

“Gotcha, Cabin Three. Get my dick wet and run loose. Heading for the slip and slide now. Catch you in eleven.”

“No can do. It’s feeling a bit hot under the bonnet. Let’s meet again on my baby girl’s birthday at our home away from home.”

“Ooh, a party! I love it. Watch out for rodents.”

I am one hundred percent sure that’s Mark. No one else sounds as damn cheerful and even-tempered as he does. Evil, evil son of a bitch. I really, really dislike him. But he’s right; as the best friend, he is untouchable.

Pix scowls. “Roger that. Over and out.”

“What did all that mean?” I ask.

“Mark said that they are being watched. I told him to run and to kill anyone who follows them. He said he understood and was going to catch me on the eleventh, which is in three days. I said no and told him we’d meet him in five weeks on his baby, Vicious’ birthday. I told him we were heading for a heat, so he will keep people away. He followed up with a parting blow, letting me know Megs and Desi are out here, somewhere.”

I blink at him. “You said all that?”

“Mark and I have become very good at saying a lot with not much and not much with a lot. It’s a very good way to sound like we’re talking irrelevant shit when we are actually conveying really important information.”

“No shit. Interesting. So, Mark is your best friend? And we can’t kill him?” I ask, hoping he might just deny it.

“Yes, he is, and absolutely not. I mean, you could try, but Mark is…well, no offense, but I’d bet on Mark.”

Damn it. Fine. No killing. Also, mildly offensive.

“And not Bonnie?”

“Bonnie is my other best friend.”

“And Sariah?”

“I have lots of best friends,” Pix growls in irritation.

“Hmmm,” I say, studying him with interest.

“What now?”

“Am I a friend?”

“No.”

I growl at him and follow on his heels, offended, completely and ridiculously hurt. “Why not?”

“Because you are the alpha I want to dick down. We are not friends. I do not want to be friends. King, let me tell you plainly, I want to be fucked eleven ways to Sunday and made to scream. I want to say goodbye to them, and I want you to pick me up and chain me to our bed for months at a time.”

“Oh.”

I stare at him, trying not to let my thoughts get too heated, but it’s near on impossible.

“Okay. I, uh, yeah, we’re never going to be friends.”

Pix presses against me and kisses me hard. It's sudden, violent, and full of the taste of him. It’s temptation and a promise, and I’m not ready for the way it hits me, and I’m not ready for it to end.

“Thank you for coming for us,” Pix murmurs. “For her.”

“And for you,” I growl. “You are mine, too. I worried less because you are so damn deadly, but I wanted to kill anyone who got to look at you while you were gone.”

Pix’s eyes shutter. He exhales roughly. “That was just about the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me.”

I brush my knuckles across his cheek. “I missed you.”