Free Loving the Tigers by Tianna Xander

all, that might just start to worry you.”
     

Chapter Sixteen
     
     
    What kind of shopping could they possibly need to do? Kelly clamped her mouth shut as the two walked through her door and, most likely, out of her life. They’d gotten what they’d come for, hadn’t they?
    She’d slept with both of them. Well, she’d slept, anyway. She wasn’t sure what they’d done after they had each fucked her into a stupor. Hell, they could have climbed out of bed and headed to a hotel room, for all she knew.
    “Stop it. They love you. They said so.” She wanted to believe that so much it hurt.
    But how many other men had said those very words to her throughout the years? None of them had ever meant it. It had always been to get into her bed or her panties. Sometimes they never made it to a bed. God, she’d been such an ignorant slut.
    She pressed her lips together, almost afraid of what the guys would do if they found out what she’d been thinking. They really didn’t like her berating herself.
    Her mind raced as she thought about the implications of that. If they didn’t care about her, would they give a damn if she called herself names?
    “Probably not.”
    She twisted her fingers as she paced from one end of her apartment to the other. It could all have been an act, couldn’t it?
    Why couldn’t she decide what to do? Why couldn’t she see what they were up to, what they really felt? Was she still so gullible that she could believe them if they weren’t sincere. Had she been so horny that she would have fallen for that ruse again?
    “God, I hope not.”
    She continued to pace the apartment, her thoughts in turmoil as her mind kept turning back to the men and what possible shopping they would have to do. She had plenty of food, though it seemed as though she had more vegetables than they’d care to eat.
    “Tough.” She frowned. “I’m cooking and if they don’t like it, they can just go buy themselves something to eat. I’m not making something special for them.”
    Liar. She frowned at the inner voice that knew she would if it meant pleasing them. She’d always been a people pleaser and she wouldn’t be able to help herself if either or both of them acted as though they didn’t like what she’d cooked.
    “Hell, Kelly,” she said, glancing at her watch with a frown. It had been an hour and forty-five minutes and still no sign of them. “They aren’t coming back. You cut up all that broccoli for nothing.”
    The sound of her doorbell made her jump. Her heart raced as she hurried over to open the door. She swallowed her disappointment when she saw it wasn’t Zach or Derek but a delivery man with a huge bouquet of flowers.
    “You’ve got the wrong house. Marlo Stevens lives two doors down and across the hall.”
    Everyone sent Marlo flowers. The woman was the town’s new weather girl. Everyone loved her and she was gorgeous. Some girls just had all the luck.
    The man glanced down at his clipboard with a frown. These aren’t for Ms. Stevens. These are for Kelly Williams. Are you she?”
    He shoved the flowers toward her when she nodded mutely, her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth.
    “Flowers?” She took the bunch reverently and rubbed one red velvety petal. “Someone sent me flowers?”
    No one had ever sent her roses before in her life. She paused on her way to the table. No, that wasn’t true. Zach and Derek had sent her flowers when they and their friends had taken Jessi and her to dinner all those months ago.
    She set them in the center of the table and pulled the card from the holder with shaking fingers.
    We love you. Love, Us, it read. She pressed the back of her hand to her mouth to contain the sob choking her.
    “Where do you want the rest of this?” The delivery man asked as he carried a huge, stuffed red and black striped tiger through the door. Another man followed carrying another. The tigers, one with gray eyes, the other blue stared at her as though they knew a secret.