Read Online Fever for Three by Julia Talbot - Free Book Online Page B

go.”
    Then before they could even get untangled, she was gone.

Chapter Five
     
    Oh fuck.
    Cheri zoomed down the highway toward her house, tears streaming down her face.
    Oh God.
    She was a fool.
    All this time she thought Josh and Paulo were into her and…it was some sort of sex game—tag or something. See who could get into her pants first. They didn’t need her.
    They were together.
    Them. Paulo and Josh.
    Oh God.
    All she’d wanted to do was talk to Josh about school, for heaven’s sake. His nephew had bitten her hard enough she’d needed bandages, Josh’s sister didn’t seem to care, it had made her see weird things behind her eyes and…
    Did they have to be so pretty together? It made it even more awful. They were like…like really good secret-stash porn.
    This was what she got, wasn’t it? For feeling as if she was all that and that two guys would want her? Here she’d been agonizing over how to tell them, how to choose between them. All along they’d been playing her.
    She took the turn into her drive too fast, almost flipping her car, and she slammed on the brakes, sitting there shaking hard. Okay.
    Okay. First.
    Inside. Have a beer, check the bandage. Tomorrow …
    She had the rest of the week off. Tomorrow was ice cream and tequila and watching every chick flick she owned, starting with Steel Magnolias , damn it. She hiccupped, her breath trying to come too fast for her body to handle.
    Okay. Okay. Go in.
    She headed in, locked the house up and grabbed a beer out of the fridge. She tried to open the bottle and her arm screamed, the punctures pulling. Her knees buckled and she crumpled to the floor, crying hard, so ashamed and pissed she couldn’t bear it.
    Cheri just sat there and cried, her sobs making her whole body shake. She couldn’t stop, even when the noises turned into these weird little howls.
    Why had she left Texas? What the hell was she doing in the New Mexico desert?
    She missed her mom so bad.
    The door flew open, the lock giving way, and she could smell them. Paulo and Josh.
    She scrambled back, growling deep in her chest as she grabbed a knife from the rack hanging on the island, backing away toward her bedroom and safety. She was no one’s game, and she was no one’s second best.
    They had each other, damn it. They didn’t need her and she was going to make sure they knew they weren’t getting her.
    Assholes.
    “Cheri. Baby,” Josh called to her, his voice soft, easy. As if he was gentling a horse.
    “Y’all go away.” Her hand shook, and she rounded the door frame, reaching back for the door.
    “No.” The door wouldn’t budge because Paulo had zipped ahead to get a hold of it. “No, you have to listen to us.”
    “Get out of here. I have a knife. I don’t want to talk to you.” The room was swimming and her arm throbbed. “I’ve had a bad day.”
    “No, baby girl.” Josh advanced on her. “The moon is almost here. You have to let us explain.”
    “Explain what? That y’all are…together? I get it. Now go away. I won’t tell, okay? Just let me go to bed!” She was going to lose her shit.
    “It’s not that simple.” If it wasn’t for the knife she was waving, Paulo would be touching her. If he touched her, she might break.
    “Go away, please.” The tears were coming again and she wasn’t going to be able to stop them. “I’m an idiot. I know it. So do you. Just leave.” Her head was throbbing and her eyes felt gritty.
    “No.” Josh’s voice was sure, firm. “No, baby. We need you to breathe.”
    Paulo was making this deep, weird noise, rumbling for her. It made her want to reach for him, which was crazy.
    “Get out of here. I’m so tired and my arm hurts.”
    “ Querida .” Paulo touched her arm. “We can make it better.”
    She jerked away, crying out as her cuts pulled.
    “Shh.” Josh knelt down on her other side. “I’m sorry, baby. So sorry you had to find out we were mates this way.”
    “Why did you two…” She covered her