Free Sunset Tryst by Kristin Daniels Page B

direction of their table. Only it never made it all the way there. It
stopped on two people working their way through the crowd toward him—the only
two people in the world he didn’t ever want to see again.
    They hadn’t caught sight of him yet, and hell, he wanted to
move. Goddamn it, he wanted to fucking disappear. But he couldn’t. He was
frozen in place. So he did what he did best. He sucked it up, stiffened his
spine and held his ground.
    His gaze shot over to Riley and Garrett, who were sipping
their beers and watching the band, and then back to Shannon and Brad, who were
still making their way toward him. He prepared himself for the suffocating
pain, for the ache to spear his chest as if his heart was being ripped in two.
The same ache that had been there for the better part of the last six months.
    Seeing his ex-lovers like this wasn’t something he thought
he’d ever be ready for. It hadn’t so much been the fact they’d fallen in love
with each other and left him out in the cold, but more the shitty way they’d
handled the entire situation. Sneaking around behind his back to be together
hurt worse than them being upfront and telling him the truth—their ménage a
trois relationship was over. Shannon and Brad were going to be together, just
the two of them.
    Every threesome held its own risk, Evan knew that. But he
was drawn to them, and to the people who wanted them, so much that he wasn’t
sure a traditional relationship would ever give him the satisfaction he
craved—his ridiculous promise to himself that he’d never get involved in
another ménage again be damned.
    For so long he thought he’d found what he wanted with
Shannon and Brad. But as he watched them come nearer, as he waited for the hurt
to once again rear its ugly head and claim him, he realized the signs were
there all along—there was no way they could’ve given him what he needed. In the
end, he’d simply been a toy to them. Nothing more.
    Instead of any sort of pain consuming him, all he felt now
was used and sad. He hated the combination. Hated how it brought him down,
especially when such promise awaited him. Promise in the form of two beautiful
people at the picnic table not fifty feet away.
    It was then that Riley peered over her shoulder and snuck
him a smile. God, he needed that. He needed to see the light—no, wait—the hope in her eyes. She was so beautiful, and sexy, and… Damn. Just different from any
other woman he’d ever met. And as Garrett turned and followed her gaze, as he
matched her smile, Evan couldn’t help but think that maybe Garrett was a little
different too—only in a very good way.
    He spun away from Garrett and Riley at the last second,
before Shannon and Brad had the chance to notice him. Call his avoidance
wimping out or whatever, he didn’t really care. He didn’t want to see them, or
be forced to make insincere conversation with them. It’d all be bullshit
anyway, he knew, just like their entire relationship had been. What would be
the point of making nice when it was clear that none of them remotely felt that
way?
    So instead of rehashing the crappy events of the last year,
he watched the woman behind the counter put his order together as his old
lovers strolled on unaware behind him.
    With their passing, he felt cleansed in a way. Out with the
old, and all that. In with something that wouldn’t be so heartbreaking. In with
a defined timeframe.
    A week. He could so handle a week of hot and heavy,
guilt-free threesome sex with two incredible people, and then say goodbye to
start his new life back home in Texas.
    At least that’s what he told himself as he stacked their
food baskets one on top of the other and made his way back to the picnic table.
    Sex. Incredible people. Goodbye.
    Yep, this was going to be a total piece of cake.

Chapter Seven
     
    Riley’s stomach growled when she spotted Evan heading back
to their table. It seemed like forever since she’d last had a fresh