Fusion by Nicole Williams Page A

room, their eyes bouncing between William and me. Bryn’s landed on me, her face forming into a knowing smirk when she saw what I guessed was unbridled anticipation on my face.
    “Time for bed, husband of mine,” she said, nodding her head up the stairs at William.
    The man sprung off the couch and was across the room in Immortal world record setting time.
    Walking over to the coat closet, Bryn pulled out a few things from the top shelf. Turning around, her grin took up half her face. Only after she’d walked across the room and dropped the items in my lap did I understand the reason for the smile.
    “You’ve got the couch, Hayward,” she said, with a wink.
    I punched the pillow and blanket for good measure.
    “You guys have like five bedrooms in this palace,” I said, watching Emma. She was trying to fight a smile. “Why do I get the couch? I always get the couch.”
    William, like Bryn, wasn’t trying to hide his smile. “Because all of our bedrooms are on the second floor. Where Emma is sleeping. You need at least a floor between the two of you if you’re going to sleep under my roof.”
    My mouth fell open. This coming from the guy who broke just about every rule of our kind to be with the woman he loved?
    “Are you guys kidding me?” I said, throwing the pillow and blanket on the ground. “You two crawled into each other’s beds every chance you got.”
    Bryn and William looked at each other, their smiles growing. Bryn cleared her throat before looking back at me. “And you made that so incredibly easy for us every chance you got, right?”
    Ah, so that’s what this was about. Payback. I’d given them a hard time at every turn and this was a little tit for tat.
    “Pleasant dreams,” William said, choking on a laugh before he hauled Bryn up the stairs.
    I grumbled something after them.
    Emma’s smile had dimmed, but she still looked way too amused. There was nothing amusing about being told, on the first night I actually could, I wasn’t “allowed” to spoon, suck face, and sleep until sunrise with my girl.
    “You look too happy given the circumstances,” I grumbled as Emma walked over. “I am pretty happy given the circumstances,” she said, stopping in front of me. “I get to spend a whole night with my boyfriend and his family.”
    “Not the whole night,” I said under my breath.
    She laughed a few notes before leaning over and dropping a kiss into my temple. “Good night, Patrick.”
    “It could be a helluva lot better than good if I wasn’t on couch patrol,” I said, watching her head up the stairs. The sway of her hips, the way her hair moved, it was like I was already dreaming. “Love you, Em.”
    “Love you, couch cop,” she called back, her voice light.
    The world no longer made sense. Everyone but me had turned into a regular smartass. I had officially become the butt of all jokes.
    Kicking my shoes off, I stood up and started unbuttoning my shirt, resigned to the fact I’d be surfing the sofa‌—‌alone‌—‌all night long. Pulling my arms out of the sleeves, I tossed the shirt on the floor, unbuttoned my pants, lowered the fly, and dropped them.
    I snatched the pillow and blanket and threw them on the couch. Hitching my hands on my hips, standing in the living room in nothing more than a pair of boxers and a scowl, I stared at those stairs longingly. One floor, one hall, and one door were all that separated me from heaven.
    I took one step towards the stairs, then one more. My heart was about to explode out of my damn chest, just from being two feet closer to her. I knew I was one second away from sprinting up those stairs and knocking down every door until I found her, so I made myself take a step back towards the couch. Not because I actually thought William and Bryn cared if Emma and I shared the same room and bed, but because maybe that’s what she wanted.
    Maybe, after everything she’d learned today, she needed that privacy and separation from me. I had to