Free Come to Me Quietly (Closer to You) by A. L. Jackson

was fucked up and wrong and misplaced, and I wanted to rip it from my consciousness. I owed Aly nothing, and she sure as hell didn’t owe me anything. But no matter how hard I tried to convince myself of that fact, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d done something wrong.
    Christopher got to his feet. “Let me help you with that.” He planted a quick kiss on her forehead. “You’re the best. I’ve worked up a ravenous appetite taking all of someone’s money over here.” He jerked his head in my direction as he took the boxes from Aly’s hands.
    Her eyes grew wide with feigned worry. “Oh, Jared, please tell me you aren’t falling for Christopher’s games. You know he never outgrew the whole cheating thing.”
    I laughed hard as I slammed my palm down on the table. “I knew it, you asshole!” I stretched my entire body over the table to retrieve
his
winnings, opening my arms wide to drag the pile of money back in front of me. “You’ve been cheating me this whole time, haven’t you?”
    “Hey, now, hey, now, let’s not get hasty. Aly has her own tricks, Jared. Don’t let her fool you.”
    His smile was all warm with the easy affection that swam between the two of them. It was odd, seeing how different they were and still so very much the same.
    She smacked him on the back of the head. “Watch yourself.”
    A short chuckle wobbled up my throat and I brought my bottle to my mouth, but I outright laughed when Christopher pointed at me. “Don’t you two start ganging up on me. It was always the two of you against me.”
    “What are you talking about?” Aly asked, her brow lifting in defense.
    “
Pah
. Are you kidding me? I couldn’t get you out of my hair for five minutes when we were kids. And you want to know why?” He lifted his chin in my direction. “Because this ass insisted you go everywhere with us.”
    “And was I all that bad?” Aly attempted a pout, which looked absolutely ridiculous on her because it was so obviously faked. The girl was too nice, too sweet. I kind of wanted to reach over and smooth it out.
    “Hell yeah, you were, just because you breathed.” He offered her this mocking smile that earned him another smack to the back of the head.
    “Whatever, you loved me, and you know it.”
    Aly laughed as she disappeared down the hall and into the bathroom. He turned around in his chair, shouting down the hall. “Hey, Aly, you want to join us for the next hand?”
    “Sure,” she called back from what sounded like her room. “Let’s eat first, though. I’m starving.”
    A few minutes later she returned. She’d changed out of her work clothes and into the same sleep shorts she chose to constantly taunt me with night after night.
    God, the girl had the best legs I’d ever seen.
    She was twisting her long hair up into a high ponytail as she walked barefoot into the kitchen. The mixture of her skin and the food she’d brought smelled like heaven.
    She cracked open the fridge. “Either of you want another beer?” she asked as she bent down to dig through the fridge.
    In my head I was screaming at myself to close my eyes or to look up or to look down or to just look the fuck away.
    I didn’t.
    Instead I watched.
    A curl of lust twisted my stomach into the tightest knot, so tight I had to struggle to get a breath of air into my lungs.
    Christopher’s voice broke my trance. “Yeah, I’ll take one.”
    I cut my attention in his direction, and eyes so much like Aly’s stared back at me.
    I dropped my gaze and mumbled, “Sure, I could use another.”
    Aly stood and knocked the door closed with her hip. She had three beers woven between her fingers, their caps pressed together. Maybe there was something inherently wrong with me, but I thought it had to be one of the sexiest moves I’d ever seen.
    She set them down on the table. “One for you.” She passed one to Christopher and grinned as she slid one across the table to me. “And one for you.”
    “Thanks,” I