and settled back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest.
"What do you want, Rogue? I've got work to do."
"Looks like it," I agreed, striding into the room and kicking the door closed behind me before snatching the tequila and taking a hit from the bottle. It burned like a motherfucker on the way down and I scrunched my face up as I smacked the bottle back down on the table.
Silence fell between us while JJ just continued to scowl at me and I huffed out a breath of frustration.
"Just spit it out, JJ. Whatever it is is clearly eating you up, so just give it to me straight."
"Shouldn't I be asking you to do that?" he asked bitterly. "Or were you planning on stringing me along a little longer before you told me you'd decided on Fox in the end after all?"
"What the fuck are you talking about?" I snapped. "I've made it more than clear to you that I want you. But you know how complicated it is with me and the others too. The five...four of us are so tangled up in each other that I don't think the knots will ever come free. So why is me kissing Fox suddenly the end of the fucking world?"
JJ winced at my slip over Chase, but he clearly wasn't going to let his grief get in the way of his anger.
"Because I know what Fox wants from you. I know what he'll demand from you. And I'm more than used to watching him get his own way every fucking time. Don't get me wrong - I love the bones of that man, but as much as he might be my brother, he's also my fucking boss and he's made that clear to me time and again ever since the day we were initiated into this fucking gang."
"Fox might control you, but he doesn't control me," I growled.
"Sure. Not now. Maybe. But I know how this goes. I remember how he was with you when we were all kids. He used to scare off every and any guy who even thought about trying to get close to you. And he might have been okay with the three of us hanging out with you alongside him, but he always made it more than clear that the future he saw was one with you and him together. You're his end game, Rogue and you always have been. So where does that leave me?"
"Do you think I don't know that that's what Fox wants from me?" I demanded. "I get it. He's told me. And I've told him that I'm not ready for that. That I'm not looking for monogamy or any of that bullshit yet and-"
"See, there it is," JJ snapped, shoving to his feet. "Yet. You're not ready for that yet. Which means eventually you will be. You'll be ready to pick and settle down and have a fuck ton of kids and that one little word tells me you already know that it'll be with him whether you've admitted that to yourself or not."
"No it doesn't," I snapped angrily. "I didn't mean that. I don't want that. Haven't I proven to you enough times how much I care about you?"
"By spreading your legs and showing me just how much you enjoy my cock? Yeah, sweetheart, you're real good at showing me that. And I'm fully aware that I'm a damn good lay. But fucking me and loving me are two different things, aren't they?"
My lips popped open at the slap of those words and I just stared at him for several seconds. "JJ, you know I love you," I said in a low voice but he snorted derisively.
"Yeah, you love me," he agreed scathingly. "You love the boy who used to find seashells for you down on the beach. The asshole who made you that fucking bracelet you keep on your wrist. The kid who stole doughnuts with you and laughed with you and surfed with you every morning at dawn as often as he could. But you're not in love with me, are you?"
"JJ," I breathed, my heart thrashing in my chest as I stared at the cold, hard look on his face and tried to hunt for the boy beneath the Harlequin who stood before me with his muscles bunching and a coldness in his eyes which bit right down into my heart. "You know why I can't tell you that. You know that I-"
"I love you,