No Simple Sacrifice (Secrets of Stone Book 5) by Angel Payne, Victoria Blue

Better you than me, man.
    Inside two seconds, he’d stepped back from her—as if just touching her to push her away was too much to ask. “Find the brake pedal now, please. We’re going to spare you the discomfort while we can. We’re in a relationship with someone now, and it’s pretty serious.”
    She assessed him with saucy swagger. “Well, that’s not what I just heard.”
    Screw the swagger. She was outright triumphant, a conquering princess with a secret, and damn proud of it.
    Fletcher and I responded with numb stares.
    What the hell ?
    He recovered before me—probably a very good thing. Though more gregarious than me, his temper always ran a lighter shade than mine—and his patience for petty girl talk, much deeper. “Okay, I’ll bite,” he practically drawled. “What, exactly did you hear?”
    She inhaled dramatically. I was shocked a Georgina-of-the-jungle chest thump didn’t follow. “ Well. Taylor told me, that Talia told her that you guys aren’t together at all. She said it was just a fling. A One Night in Vegas, and that was it.”
    “‘She said’.” I bit out the reiteration, back teeth grinding. I sucked to royal proportion at female code. “So…Taylor said that or Talia said that?”
    “Talia told it to Taylor. Then Taylor just told me. Just now. On the phone. On my lunch—”
    “We understand.” Though Fletch cut her off like a Mack truck to a deer, it was still better him than me. Personally, I wanted to pop the woman’s head off, just like mutilating my sister, Lizzy’s Barbies when we were kids. I was barely keeping my cool, but refused to make this innocent pay the price for my rising wrath at Talia. “Innocent” being relative, of course.
    Fletch, picking up on my tension like the true buddy he was, clapped a hand to my shoulder. “Listen, Melissa…there’s definitely a misunderstanding here.”
    “Anything I can help…clear up?” She flipped her head, one-two , executing a perfect toss-toss of the blonde mane, before parking her hands on her lush hips. Amazement blended into my agitation. As recently as six months ago, those hips would’ve inspired a thousand erotic scenes in my head. Now… nada .
    “No,” Fletcher emphasized. “We’re good. Really. No offense. We’re just not interested in anything right now.”
    “Right now?” Another toss-toss. A contemplative pout. “So I’ll just pencil you in my calendar for next time, then.”
    “No.” He rolled the word in glass now. “Not next time either.” When the woman appeared to comprehend that as clearly as a quantum physics equation, he took another step backward. “We’re…we’re going to just head on in to our meeting now. You take care of yourself.”
    He shifted by another step—clearly the one who was thinking around here. My statue status was sealed by pure shock. The woman had gumption—or something —actually pulling out a business card while Fletcher was basically telling her to fuck off… after he’d told her we were off the damn market.
    “Well,” she murmured, “if you change your mind…or just get a little lonely while you’re here and she’s there…”
    Fletcher, jamming his hands back into his pockets to avoid accepting the card, flashed his fakest-of-the-fake smirks. “No thanks. We don’t have time to be lonely.” Another fat lie—we’d both been pining for Talia like a pair of Edwards with our Bella.
    “Well, I’m not looking for anything other than a good time, if you catch what I’m saying.”
    Fletcher finally, reluctantly, took the card. Shoved it in his pocket while looking only at me. “I think we’re done here, yeah?”
    “Yeah.”
    It was still all I could manage. Disbelief and irritation were quickly escalating into bewilderment and fury. What the fuck was happening—and how had we not seen it coming before we left? Had we been blinded by our own wants and wills instead of paying attention to tells from Talia to the contrary? Had we missed all the