too much. My lingering fear of him had all but faded away to nothing, so I just rolled my eyes and stepped over the spilled milk.
"Move aside, Max Steele," I told the wannabe barista. "You were torturing that poor milk."
He gave me a tight smile, getting down onto his hands and knees to clean the mess up while I started fresh.
I lost myself to the process for a few minutes, letting my body go through the motions on autopilot and letting my mind go blissfully blank. Only when four perfect flat whites sat on their saucers did I let all the noise of my inner thoughts come crashing back into my mind.
"Thanks," Steele muttered, not meeting my gaze as he took one of the coffees, then just... walked away. He left the kitchen without another word and left me a bit stunned as Archer walked in.
"See." Archer smirked at me, looking after Steele's retreating back. "You're already out of his system. Based on the way Kody's eye fucking you right now, I expect everything will be back to normal in about twenty-four hours."
He swiped one of the coffees, gulping half of it before I could stop him.
"Hey!" I shouted. "That one was for Bree."
"She doesn't need one," he told me, downing the rest of the coffee in three quick gulps. "I told her we'd be driving you to SGU from now on."
"What? Why?" Anger was making me trip over my words and get tongue-tied, which Archer used to his advantage.
He dropped his empty cup in the sink and clapped Kody on the shoulder as he left the kitchen. "Use protection, bro. No one likes an STD."
I was fucking fuming by the time he was gone from the room, my hands balled into fists at my sides like I wanted to hit him. Again. My knee was feeling the itch of needing to nail some balls.
"What," Kody drawled, casually sipping his coffee and actually savouring it, "was that all about?"
I turned my scowl on him, then gave a defeated sigh. I wanted to maintain that anger, that burning hatred that had fueled me for the first six weeks I'd lived with the three of them. But all that was left was fumes. At least when it came to Kody, anyway.
"He told me that Steele..." I trailed off, feeling stupid as hell saying it out loud—especially to Kody, who I was still attracted to. I cleared my throat and took a sip of my coffee. "He said that I just need to fuck you once so you can get me out of your system... like Steele has."
Kody's brows rose, and I held my breath while waiting for his reaction.
Then he started laughing.
"I'm sorry, MK," he finally said when his laughter died down. "It's just funny 'cause Arch is a bigger moron than I'd given him credit for."
I frowned. "How so?"
Kody shook his head, still chuckling as he drank more coffee. "For one thing, Steele is nowhere near 'over' you. He's been a fucking mess since Halloween. He's blaming himself for not stopping you before you drove away that night."
I frowned harder.
"And for another..." Kody snickered again, giving me a broad smile. "Have I ever told you how much we love to play games around here?"
I nodded slowly, my eyes narrowed with suspicion. "It's been mentioned once or twice. Why?"
His smile turned evil. "What would you say to calling Archer's bluff?"
I froze. "Um. Is that how you proposition a girl for sex, Kody? I thought you had more game than that."
He sighed like I was being deliberately obtuse. "I wasn't asking you to fuck me, MK. I mean, I'm all for that, don't read me wrong. But I meant..." He trailed off, running a hand through that platinum hair of his. "Will you go out with me? On an actual date, not a forced one where you get slapped by my crazy ex?"
I smiled at the memory, then gave Kody a cautious look. "I know why it'll piss Archer off—he hates being proven wrong. But what's in this for you? Sex?"
Kody shrugged, rolling those hard muscles of his shoulders in the most delicious way. "Hopefully. But I'll also just do it to spend time with you, MK. In case you have missed all the really obvious signals, I like you. I want to date you." He came around the island to where I stood and placed his hands to either side of me on the counter top, boxing me in. "So, how about