“Tell me about it.” He pulled away and gently nudged me upstairs. “Lead the way, Pixie, before this happens in the stairwell.”

The tingling between my legs intensified at the image of us going at it here, and I found I rather got off on the idea of Aidan and I having risqué sex. Hmm. I filed the thought for later and hurried up the stairs. We couldn’t even speak we were so focused on getting to my apartment and to my bed. And I couldn’t even care he was going to see where I lived. I only cared about getting this man inside me. Finally!

I practically skittered around the corner into my hall and then stumbled to a halt at the sight of a person sitting outside my door.

What?

Shit.

Seonaid looked up at me, her eyes red-rimmed, her cheeks pale. I felt Aidan’s heat at my back, along with the press of a possessive hand above my ass. Seonaid’s eyes grew wide as they flew to him, and she quickly got on her feet. She gave me a shaky smile. “I can leave.”

“No,” I said immediately. My friend looked like she hadn’t slept for days. “What’s going on?”

She ran a hand over her messy ponytail, looking uncomfortable and embarrassed. “I’ll come back.”

Realizing how rude I was being, I turned to Aidan, who looked confused, frustrated, but also a little concerned. “Aidan, this is Seonaid.” I’d talked about her with him and his eyes lit with recognition. “Seonaid, this Aidan.” I’d only confessed to Seonaid last weekend about Aidan after realizing I needed to borrow something to wear for my date. I’d tried to play it down and would’ve been successful too if her appearance here was anything to go by. Seonaid would never have come here if she thought I was sleeping with Aidan, since she was such a huge advocate for me moving on. But her witnessing Aidan and I panting down the hall had blown that evasion out of the water.

Right now, I didn’t care.

Something was up with my friend.

“Nice to meet you.” Aidan held out a hand to her.

She took it, giving him a tremulous smile. “You too.”

“Look,” he put his hand on my shoulder, drawing my attention back to him, “I’m going to head home, let you catch up with your friend. Call me?”

Feeling guilty for getting him all hot and bothered, I gave him an apologetic smile. “You sure?”

“Of course.” He leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to my mouth and when he pulled back, he murmured against my lips, “But we pick up where we left off, Pixie.”

I grinned. “Agreed.”

He gave me one more quick kiss, like he couldn’t help himself, gave Seonaid a nod of goodbye, and walked away.

I stared after him, regretting we’d been interrupted, even though I was worried about Seonaid. When I looked back at her, she winced apologetically. “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be.” I grabbed her arm and led her to my door, fumbling in my purse for the key. I let us in, locking it behind us. “Now, what’s going on?”

“Oh fuck, Nora,” she groaned, her hands on her head in despair. “I had sex with Roddy.”

“You what?”

Seonaid groaned at my expression and slumped down onto my sofa. “Oh, I’ve fucked up, haven’t I?”

Stunned and confused, and still trying to come down from sexual frustration, I moved into the kitchen to put the kettle on. “Why don’t you start from the beginning?” How the hell had this happened?

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

“Seonaid.”

“I don’t know… Fuck!”

I waited patiently for her to speak. The kettle started to boil and whine loudly, so she waited, likely using the time to gather her thoughts. We looked at each other across the small space. At the fear darkening her blue eyes, I felt anxious. What did this mean for our friendship? If Seonaid and Roddy started avoiding each other, would that mean our threesome would crumble over time? Would Roddy and I eventually stop talking altogether if he no longer spoke with Seonaid? And how would Angie react to that?

As difficult as it was at first, I’d started to feel like I was getting my friends back and was able to do so without the grief or pain constantly attacking me. More than that, however, Roddy and Seonaid needed each other. I hope they hadn’t screwed that up.

She waited while I made us tea and brought it over. She clasped her mug tightly in her hands, shivering as heat rushed into her.

The apartment was cold and would be while the central heating booted up. We kept our coats on, looking at each over our hot mugs of tea. “Well?”

Seonaid gave me a grim look. “A man came into the salon yesterday with his girlfriend and I swear to God, Nora, he was Jim’s spitting image. I’ve been trying,” her lips trembled as tears filled her eyes, “I’ve been trying so hard to keep it together for you and Mum, but something happened when I saw that guy … I felt haunted for the rest of the day. And I really wanted to be around someone who loved him as much as I did, someone who could handle my sadness. So I went to Roddy.” She shot me a teary, apologetic look, and I felt guilty that she felt I couldn’t handle her grief. “I told him what happened and he … he held me while I cried. And then we had a few beers together and …” She shook her head, disbelief written all over her face. “We’d been talking together on the couch and then somehow, we were all over each other.”

Engrossed, I urged, “What happened next?”

“We had sex on the couch and before I could even think about what the hell we’d done, he picked me up and took me to his bed.” She said it like she was horrified but her expression conveyed anything but horror. “And we went at it again. Like animals.” She shivered and bit her lip and I had to stop myself from laughing.

Clearly, Seonaid had enjoyed herself.

So, what was the problem?

“Afterward, I couldn’t believe what the hell we’d done!” She threw her hands up and stood, spilling tea over her mug without realizing. “How the hell could we have done this? We’re Roddy and Seonaid! Friends! My little brother’s best friend.”

“You’ve slept with men younger than Roddy,” I reminded her.

“Not the point.” She whirled around, eyes blazing. “We screwed up one of the most important relationships in our lives.”

“Does Roddy feel that way?” Somehow, I doubted it.

“Look, I’m not stupid, okay. Roddy has fancied me his entire life so it was obvious he was pretty fucking satisfied with himself.” She made a face. “But I can see what he can’t.”

“And what’s that?”

“That sex between us only messes things up. I can’t have casual sex with Roddy.”

“What if he doesn’t want to have casual sex?” He definitely didn’t.

“Of course it’s casual sex. It’s Roddy.”

Oh dear God, how could she be so blind? “I’m pretty sure Roddy sees you as more than casual sex.”

“Exactly. He cares about me. Like I care about him. So being fuck buddies—no matter how amazing the sex was, and oh my God, it was annoyingly amazing—will only damage how we feel for each other. He’s a bloke, so he can’t see that far ahead, but I can.”

“Maybe it would turn into something more?”

“Nora,” she huffed my name in exasperation, “it won’t. That’s what I’m trying to say. But Roddy … he doesn’t get it.” Slumping down again, her eyes watered. “He’s really mad at me right now. I think I may have acted like what we’d done was disgusting and somehow managed to hurt his feelings. You know … the ones he pretends he doesn’t have.”

My chest ached for Roddy because I knew she’d more than hurt his feelings. She’d given him everything he’d ever wanted and then taken it away, as if what they’d done was shameful. I knew Seonaid hadn’t meant it and I could see how remorseful she felt, but I was still hurt on Roddy’s behalf. “He cares about you, Seonaid. You need to tell him everything you told me.”

“I want to sweep it under the rug and hope that things return to normal. I can’t lose his friendship, Nora.”