“I’m not going there. I mean the woods. Anywhere really,” I stammered. “I mean, with him. With Aiden. I’m not going to the woods with Aiden. For sex.”
Holy mother of god, shut the fuck up, you idiot.
Xander cocked a brow at me, but didn’t say anything.
“Fuck,” I muttered, shooting a glare at Aiden because I knew he had to have seen Xander behind me when he’d said all that shit. “You’re an ass.”
As I stalked off toward my tent, I heard Aiden laughing behind me. “You’re welcome,” he called to my back. I was too pissed to even care that I was leaving the two men alone together. Let the fuckers tear each other a new one. I was damn tired of all of it— Aiden’s “help” and Xander choosing to believe everyone else but me.
I shook my head as I walked away, not realizing until I reached my tent that Bear had followed me back. “What do you say, Bear?” I asked as I knelt down to pet the dog. “It’s just you and me from here on out, okay? They can both go fuck themselves,” I said sourly.
Luckily, the dog agreed with me, if the wet tongue that drenched my face was anything to go by. Finally, someone who took my side.
Chapter 19
Xander
Hearing Aiden make a suggestive comment about fucking Bennett, along with Bennett’s silence, was a brutal reminder that Bennett wasn’t really mine. Of course, he wasn’t mine. But the idea of Aiden, or anyone else for that matter, putting hands on Bennett’s naked body made me physically sick. And truth be told, after his kiss by the fire the night before, a part of me had started to wish for things to be different. I’d even toyed with the idea of putting the past in the past where it belonged and seeing where things could go with Bennett, even if it was just for a few days until he left. But even if I could have managed it, I knew I didn’t want just three days of Bennett. I wanted all or nothing. And that was something I just couldn’t have.
I watched Bennett long enough to see him disappear into his tent, but when I turned to go, Aiden stopped me. I was expecting him to give me a cocky smirk and then rub Bennett’s preference for him in my face. So I was shocked when he gently said, “He really likes you, you know.” He shook his head as he fiddled with the cap on the water jug. “This shit with you has been eating him up. Don’t let my teasing make you mad at him again, Xander. I was just giving him a hard time. It’s what good friends do.”
I took a moment to study him, wondering what his agenda was. Guys like Aiden always had one. I’d known a million Aidens in my lifetime and every spoiled trust fund kid I’d ever known, with the exception of Bennett, was always out for himself first, and everyone and everything else came second.
“He says you’re not together anymore, but everything I’ve seen says something different,” I said, hoping I didn’t sound as petulant as I felt.
“We’re not… haven’t been since freshman year in college.” There was a subtle shift in his voice as he glanced at Bennett’s tent. It was heavier somehow… and there was something there. Regret? No, that couldn’t be right. I really, really didn’t want it to be right.
“You touch him… constantly. You say things that normal friends don’t say to each other. I don’t go around telling my friends I want to fuck them in the woods.”
“Normal,” Aiden said with a quiet chuckle. He shook his head and then motioned to a nearby rock before sitting down on it. I reluctantly sat down next to him, but he didn’t speak again until he’d taken his boots off and hung his bare feet in the lake.
“You want to know why it didn’t work out between him and me, Xander? I mean, do you really want to know, or do you want to keep making assumptions?”
I ignored the subtle jab and said, “Tell me.”
“He needed more than I could give him. I knew that pretty much the second we went from being guys who happened to live in the same dorm to friends, then lovers.”
I flinched at the last words. Even though it wasn’t news to me, the reminder still stung, and I knew it likely always would in some way.
“His heart was so damn big, and he gave as much of it as he could to me right away.”
“What does that mean, ‘as much as he could’?”
His eyes slid to mine. “You know what it means.”
The bottom of my stomach dropped out at that. No, he couldn’t possibly mean…
“No,” I said. “It wasn’t like that between us… ever. We were kids… we were just friends.”