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probably spellbound by all that dusky skin and ink barely concealed by his boxers.
    It shouldn’t twist my guts up. It shouldn’t make me want to pull all of her fabulous auburn hair from
    her head and knee Nash in the balls so hard his future grandchildren would walk with a limp, but it did and
    that was something I absolutely didn’t want to think about. Not now, not ever.
    CHAPTER 3
    Nash
    It took me another full day and a half to pull my head out of my ass and stop acting like a lunatic. I was
    a mess. Torn up about kissing Saint, mostly because I didn’t regret it for a second but also because I knew
    better. In the haze of tequila and sorrow, I could still taste her, feel her pressed up against me, and it was the
    only good thing I could seem to recall in the last few weeks.
    I would love to be able to say that Saint’s surprise visit had smacked me across the face with some
    much-needed clarity, but that wasn’t the case. After her hasty departure because I mauled her like a uncouth
    jackass, I finished off the bottle of tequila I’d been steadily working my way through before she interrupted
    me and passed out on the living room floor. The next day was more of the same, only at some point I had
    made my way to the couch and had managed to doze off using the pizza box as a pillow. Oh yeah, I was
    totally behaving like a responsible adult.
    I cracked open an eye when the front door to the apartment swung open and heavy footfalls made their
    way over to where I was straight up wallowing in my own piss-poor choices and inconsolability. The only
    person who still had a key to the apartment was Rule. Obviously he was done letting me have a pity party
    for one and was tired of me ignoring all his phone calls. My head felt like it was stuffed with cotton and it
    took more than a minute for my hazy gaze to clear enough to meet his angry, pale blue eyes.
    Rule knew me better than anyone. We were best friends for a reason. There was no judgment, no
    censure, and no disappointment from either of us, even when the situation sometimes called for it, like right
    now. We were a team no matter what, and the role we played in each other’s life was that of rock-solid
    support and more often than not official ass kicker of the other one when they needed it, which was clearly
    what he was thinking as he crossed his arms over his chest and lifted his pierced eyebrow at me.
    “You look like crap.”
    “Well, that’s accurate since I feel like crap.”
    “It’s been a week. That’s as long as I’m putting up with this shit from you. Take a shower, go brush
    your goddamn teeth, put some fucking pants on, and we’re going to see Phil. Enough, dude. Yeah, that was
    a pretty nasty bomb you got dropped on you, but it doesn’t change the fact we all owe Phil more than we’re
    ever going to be able to repay in one lifetime. So get over yourself and let’s go.”
    I grunted up at him and peeled myself up off the greasy cardboard. Yeah, I was a winner. I rubbed my
    hands over the shorn surface of my hair and waited for the room to stop tilting sideways. I didn’t know
    what to say to the man who had raised me. I had walked into his hospital room that night, taken one look
    into eyes that were the exact same color as mine, listened to him call me son in a voice that had no strength
    behind it, and turned around and walked right back out. It was a cowardly move, not to mention insensitive
    and shallow, but my head was spinning all around and I couldn’t find any solid ground to balance on. Phil
    did deserve more than that from me no matter who exactly he was in my life now; he had always been there
    for me, supported me when no one else would.
    I shoved to my feet and promptly fell back on my ass. Rule reached out and put the hand that had the
    cobra head and his name inked across the knuckles on my shoulder to steady me. He shook his head, his
    spiky blue hair, making it sort of hard to take his look of reproach