Series: Cobalt Empire Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 234
Estimated words: 226965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1135(@200wpm)___ 908(@250wpm)___ 757(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 226965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1135(@200wpm)___ 908(@250wpm)___ 757(@300wpm)
He cups my cheeks like I’m cupping his. “I think I can get behind this.”
“Really?” He believes in the butterfly effect. His actions can change events. Fate is relinquishing control to the universe.
“I don’t know how else to explain the photo, but I’m not explaining it away. I want to be fated to be with you. But more than anything, I just want to be with you, Harriet. Fuck everything else.”
I smile off of his. We pull each other into a crushing kiss. He lifts me up against his chest, and I gasp into his lips as he brings my back to the mattress. I’m underneath him. His warmth, his love, his heart.
We tangle into deeper, emotional kisses. Our limbs like knotted branches of a tree, wrapping, weaving. We root to the earth. We plant into the ground.
We are bent, gnarled, twisted things.
And we’ll thrive as we grow together. As one.
63
BEN COBALT
Tom has his hands out like he’s grasping a ball of reason in the air. “Dude, I say this with all the love in my veins—”
“In his veins,” I emphasize to Eliot while I hit the elevator button to take us up to the 21st floor.
Eliot grins at me, but we’re listening as Tom finishes, “Ben should not be your roommate.” It’s the fifth time he’s shared these sentiments just this morning alone.
We all look like we rolled out of bed. Hair a little unkempt. Drawstring pants on (the kind I slept in). I’m not even wearing a shirt. We did just wake up about ten minutes ago. The three of us went to the lobby to grab our mail. Our bodyguards sifted through it already to trash any threatening letters or used panties (Charlie gets those all the time). Normally they bring it up to us, but there was miscommunication on the security team, and it ended up at the front desk.
As the elevator brings us back upstairs, Eliot says, “I’m much better roommate material, Tom. You play music at all hours. You’ll disrupt his sleep.”
“I will disrupt his sleep?” Tom touches his chest. “You fuck at all hours.”
I almost laugh, but I can’t tell if this is becoming heated between them in an aggravated way. They rarely, rarely fight, and I’m a little worried this might start one.
“An exaggeration,” Eliot says to me, then to Tom, “Not even I can fuck 24/7, brother. Physically impossible.”
“Eliot Alice, listen. Ben’s just going to get kicked out of his room every other night because of your hookups. He’s going to end up on the couch. Exactly where we don’t want him to be.”
I glide my fingers through my messy hair. “I don’t mind crashing on the pull-out. It’s really not a big deal—”
“No,” they say in unison.
Eliot rests a hand on the elevator wall as he faces Tom. No shirt, Eliot’s cut muscles flex to where I’d believe he was admiring himself in the mirror. But the mirror is actually behind him. “I don’t need sex,” he says. “The rate at which I bring girls over will drastically decrease when Ben rooms with me.”
I have a visual of Eliot passing out after Charlie and Beckett tried detaching a very incessant girl off him when he was far too drunk to consent. I honestly debated whether she slipped him something that night.
“Maybe that’s a good thing,” I tell Tom.
Eliot outstretches his arms, clutching a stack of envelopes in one hand. “Rooming with me is the better option.”
“I can also wear headphones,” Tom says, more to me than to Eliot. “You’ll barely hear my music.”
“That’s a good point,” I tell Eliot.
“See,” Tom says. “I’m the best option. You heard it straight from Ben.”
“Roll the tapes,” I smile over at him. “I’m pretty certain I said you’re both good options.”
Eliot raises his brows at Tom. “You aren’t a Virgin Mary. What happens when you bring over RJ?”
“My band is on life support. You think I have time to reignite that?”
“That’s exactly why you will, brother.”
Tom groans up at the elevator’s escape shaft.
“You seek him out when you are emotionally—”
“Okay, okay, okay,” Tom says quickly. “How about I delete his contact? Because I will.” He pulls out his phone.
“Whoa, whoa,” I cut in, holding out a hand to stop him. “Let’s not nuke your relationship because of me.”
“It’s not a relationship,” Tom emphasizes. “It’s a casual—casual,” he repeats to Eliot, “situation.”
Eliot is mouthing to me, relationship. I have a feeling the truth is somewhere in the middle, considering something with even an ember of emotion might be deemed as “serious” to Eliot.
As they go back-and-forth again, I glance between them and catch myself smiling. I never thought Tom and Eliot would fight over me this hard. Both even liked the idea of me rooming with one of them over them sharing. To be honest, I think they want to keep an eye on me, to help me, and being further isolated isn’t the way.