Read Online Fuel the Fire by Krista Ritchie, Becca Ritchie - Free Book Online Page B

thought this would happen.” Her voice cracks.
    Lo frowns and looks down at his wife. “Are you crying?”
    Lily wipes her eyes.
    Rose is trying not to cry.
    Daisy looks upset.
    I didn’t predict this. I couldn’t have.
    “It’s just,” Lily begins, “you can count on so few things in life and one of them is Rose’s hair.”
    “Jesus Christ,” Lo groans.
    “It’s true,” Daisy nods.
    I never knew her hair was so special to her sisters. “She wanted to change it,” I tell them. “Can you all be supportive of this?”
    Lily frowns in deeper confusion. “You really wanted to change your hair, Rose?”
    Daisy keeps shaking her head. “This doesn’t feel right, does it?”
    Rose takes a sharper breath and pulls back her shoulders, getting in the game. “Call it what you want,” she replies, “a quarter-life crisis or a change of scenery—I just felt impulsive and destructive and…” Her nose flares. She lifts her chin. “And I did what I wanted. So there .” If we were alone, I would fuck her.
    “So there?” Lo gives her another look like her body has been hijacked by fictional creatures. “Didn’t you used to brush your hair three-hundred times a day?”
    “I can still brush my hair even if it’s blonde, and the absurd frequency is a rumor that one of you”—she points between Daisy and Lily—“started behind my back.”
    Lily crinkles her nose. “Might’ve been me.”
    Daisy stares up at the ceiling. “Or me.”
    “And I think we said one-hundred brush strokes, didn’t we?” Lily asks Daisy and mouths, when was this?
    Daisy shrugs and shakes her head. “New Year’s?” she whispers.
    Rose snaps her fingers repeatedly. “Concentrate.”
    Lily and Daisy spin back to her sister, both of them standing taller like her minions or soldiers, when in fact they’re her adoring, admiring little sisters. I can see, between them, why Rose would want this for Jane. I want it for her too, someday. It’s what we’re fighting for in the end.
    “I am blonde now,” Rose says proudly. “Deal with it.”
    My lips rise.
    “Queen Rose has spoken,” Lo banters.
    “I’m going to wash Rose’s hair and then we can head out,” I announce to the room.
    Lily nods, stealing one more look at Rose before she departs. Daisy follows suit.
    Loren reaches the doorway but doesn’t leave. Instead, someone else walks in. I rub my mouth, frustration pulling my brows. When I meet Rose’s eyes, she’s smiling at me, the smug kind of smile that I always have for her. She’s gloating at my distress.
    I nearly turn towards the counter, my erection worsening. When I need one fucking second, I lose five more. Time is rarely on my side.
    Ryke walks further into the bathroom, holding lime-green Nikes by the neon blue laces. He stops short, jaw unhinging at the sight of Rose. “What the fuck.”
    Rose crosses her arms, tightening the shirt which unfortunately pops a few of her buttons, unbeknownst to her. I restrain myself from pinching the bridge of my nose.
    I motion between the two of them. “Rose has decided to dye her hair. Of the events we’ve all shared together, this is really mundane.”
    “It’s fucking weird,” Ryke mutters, his gaze lingering on her breasts.
    After Rose’s warped image of me sharing her with another man, one I don’t celebrate at all, I’m not really in the mood for a wandering male gaze. I almost walk in front of her, which would piss her off more than it would help any situation.
    Lo smacks the back of his brother’s head before I move a muscle. 
    “Fucking A, let me process this,” Ryke says, rubbing beneath his hair.
    “Process what?” I ask. “Rose’s hair or her breasts. You do know that women have them, right? Or are you just now figuring out basic human anatomy?”
    Ryke flips me off.
    “Oh good, he knows where his fingers are,” I banter. Rose begins to button her shirt.
    “Fuck you,” he curses.
    “No, fuck you.” My facial muscles tighten. Definitely, not