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When I joined Gwen and Gia’s book club, I’d only started dipping my toes into the romance genre. I was curious about why it was so popular, and after my first one, I was hooked. It felt like I got to experience the joy of a loving relationship despite the abysmal state of my own love life. The spicy scenes were a bonus.

Now, they might be the bane of my existence if Kylie continues attending our meetings and talking about how hot the sex scenes are in our books. All I can fucking think about is if she might’ve taken the edge off while she was reading it. Did those scenes make her wet? Was she able to take care of her needs, or are her fingers becoming inadequate?

She was right down the hallway from my bedroom. I’ve never heard her make a noise, but she could muffle them. Or maybe she’s silent when she comes. I have to stop fucking thinking about this. It’s only going to make things harder. In more ways than one.

“What did you think, Gray? It’s okay if you didn’t like it.” Gwen’s question startles me from my inappropriate thoughts.

“Oh…I liked it,” I squeak.

Gia raises an eyebrow at me, a smirk fighting to lift the corner of her mouth.

I quickly try to find a reason why that has nothing to do with sex. “The suspense was a good addition to the plot. I was totally wrong about the ending.”

Willa jumps in, “Same! I thought it was going to be the sister the whole time.”

“I did too, until I realized she was out of town for the first murder. There was no way she could’ve done it,” Kylie says.

“I didn’t think about that.” Willa gasps.

“How did we feel about the scenes with the guys?” Gia asks in a gentle tone. This was the first book we read with sex scenes featuring two guys together instead of just a guy and a girl. We agreed that if anyone wasn’t a fan, we wouldn’t read another one.

“I was good with it.” I was hesitant when they first suggested it, but I actually really enjoyed diving deeper into the guys’ relationship too.

“Anyone not cool? No judgment if you weren’t,” Gia says. No one in the group says anything to the contrary, so Gia nods. “Okay then. Recs with MM scenes are officially approved.”

Gwen translates for us as her sibling, Charlie, signs, “Did anyone else think the side plot about the turkey was weird?”

I should ask Luddy if she’d be interested in learning a second language. It never occurred to me how beneficial it would be for her to have that kind of exposure to another culture or viewpoint. That has me feeling a little small-minded, so I make a mental note to make sure we start expanding our knowledge on other cultures. It would be good for both of us to learn.

“It was super weird.” Kylie laughs.

“Hilarious though,” Gia points out.

Charlie grins. “Definitely funny, but also very ridiculous for a mafia book.”

The rest of our meeting is spent putting next month’s book options into a hat. From there, we randomly draw which one we’ll read. It’s a great system to keep from going in circles about which book we’ll pick next.

Willa’s suggestion is the one chosen, and once we’ve picked our next meeting date, we start going our separate ways.

Except Kylie and I now have to ride home together. When we left the house, I didn’t think she’d had time to read our book. Now that I know she’ll be reading these books in the same house as me at night, I’m not going to be able to think about anything else.

I’m like a feral teenager who has no idea how to control his boners. A stiff breeze was enough to stir things up then, and it seems it doesn’t take much more than a thought now.

“You ready to go, Ladybug?”

She looks up at me with her whiskey-brown eyes. Her cheeks are flushed in a way that gets me every time. I would love to know what she’s thinking about when she looks at me like that. “Whenever you are.”

We say a quick goodbye to everyone before walking out to my truck. The cool breeze makes Kylie shiver. I pull my hoodie off, leaving me only in a long-sleeved T-shirt, and help Kylie into it. She tries to protest, but I don’t really give her a chance. It’s over her head before she can finish her sentence.

“We’re not going that far,” she points out.

“I know. I still don’t want you to be cold.”

“But you’ll be cold.”

“We’re not going that far.”

Kylie scoffs, and I laugh. I help her into my truck and then jump into the driver’s seat.