Raising the Stakes: Three of a Kind, Book 2 Read Online Free PDF Page A

right? “Des is my closest friend. He’s one of the most important people in my life. But that’s where our relationship ends. He is not, nor has he ever been, my lover.”
    Which wasn’t to say she hadn’t spent four years wishing he was.
    Therein lay the essential problem. No matter how much she loved Alex—and she did, she loved him immeasurably—she loved Des too. She had for years.
    When she’d met Alex, she’d given up on her dreams of Des. If Alex had never entered the scene, she’d probably still be pining for the carefree, beautiful blond man who’d owned her heart for so long. But Alex had interfered, and now everything was different. Everything. So beautifully, wonderfully different.
    She needed to explain all of this to him. She had to help him understand why she’d made that god-awful blunder.
    Alex’s gaze was hard, unrelenting.
    “Des and I have never fought. Last night was a first. It threw me.”
    Her world had tipped off-kilter. Nothing had felt right for those few moments she and Des were at odds. She bit her lip. Whatever he was going through must be huge, or he’d never have been so disrespectful of her. So disinterested.
    “Even when we met, he didn’t lose his cool with me, and he should have, considering I drove into the back of his brand-new car.”
    Finally Alex spoke. “He must have been charmed.”
    Alex obviously wasn’t.
    Her heart constricted.
    “Not charmed, no. But charming.” It had been her shock that had garnered Des’s empathy. She’d been both stunned and distressed by the crash. Distraught at the idea she might have hurt him and contrite that she’d crumpled his bumper. “Instead of blasting me to hell for my negligence, he laughed it off. He wasn’t pleased with me. But he never lost his temper once. Not even when my insurance gave him a hard time about paying out.”
    Instead of getting irritated and blaming her for the accident, he’d worked with her to sort out the whole mess. The day he’d gotten his car back from the panel beaters, all expenses paid compliments of insurance, he’d taken her for dinner to celebrate. They’d been friends ever since.
    “Great story.” Alex rolled his eyes. “Any reason you chose to share it with me?”
    “I need you to understand why I was so upset with him last night. Why he was on my mind. We fought. Des and I don’t fight. Ever. We made up in the end, but it left me…unsettled. I must have been thinking about him subconsciously. Going through what happened and sorting it out in my mind.” Oh God, she was babbling. Trying too hard. Talking too much about Des.
    Alex’s mouth tightened. He put his foot on the floor and stared steadily at her.
    She babbled right on, her cheek ticking away. “Des doesn’t get mad. We don’t fight. We never have, until last night. It shook me to my bones, Al. I didn’t know how to deal with it.”
    “So you called me Desmond. Did it help you sort things out in your own mind?”
    His sarcasm cut her. “No.”
    When it came to Des, nothing helped her sort through her feelings.
    The muscle in her cheek throbbed madly. Heat rushed her face. She had to tell Alex everything. “Calling you Des was a stupid, heartless, cruel mistake I wish to God I’d never made.”
    This time, Alex was the one who prompted her. “But…”
    Her heart lodged in her throat. God, she couldn’t tell him. Couldn’t hurt him like this. But how could she not? How could she keep such a big secret from the man she loved? “But…there’s something I haven’t told you.”
    Alex went rigid. He didn’t breathe, he didn’t blink.
    Megan launched herself off the bed and across the room, dropping to her knees at his feet. “I do love him.”
    “Fucking hell!” His face turned scarlet.
    “I’m sorry,” Megan cried. Her heart twisted in four different directions at once, the pain excruciating. She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. God, she hated hurting Alex. What kind of a selfish bitch was she,