Shifters with Secrets (An MMF Bisexual Threesome)(15)

Then she paused for a moment in her ranting, and turned to look at Thomas.

“It was those girls who were all over you last night.”

Thomas’s jaw flexed beneath his skin, just slightly.

“Janelle and Monica? They wouldn’t do this,” Thomas said, though he didn’t make eye contact.

“Are you sure?” she said, getting angry again. “They could barely wait until I left to hop right on your dick last night.”

Then she clapped one hand over her mouth, her eyes going wide.

“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice muffled by her hand.

“They’re just friends,” Thomas said, a little lamely. “I swear, I’m not interested in them.”

Sofia said nothing, but dropped her hand and took a deep breath. Besides being confused and upset, she still felt a little nauseous from the hangover.

“It’s none of my business,” she said. “Look, thanks for the coffee, but I’m going to take the day off, try to figure out what I should do, okay?”

She turned and closed her laptop, starting to pack up the power cable, when Thomas reached over and grabbed her wrist.

“I’m not interested in them,” he said, pulling her closer to him.

Sofia stumbled a little, her shins hitting the chair.

“What are you doing,” she whispered.

“Things are... complicated,” he said. “But those girls have been throwing themselves at us since high school, and they’re still unsuccessful.”

“Who’s ‘us’?”

“Gavin and me.”

Sofia took another deep breath, fighting down a little wave of hangover nausea.

I shouldn’t have drunk that coffee, she thought.

“How long have you and Gavin known each other?” she asked, trying to buy herself time. Even if Thomas did have sexy intentions just then, she knew that puking wasn’t a great move.

“Most of our lives,” he said, and his eyes narrowed, something in his manner shifting. “Why?”

“You guys just seem... close,” Sofia said.

Suddenly, she remembered the way they’d been flirting at the bar the night before, and between that and the sudden change in Thomas’s attitude, she put two and two together.


“You guys are together and it’s a secret,” she said.

Thomas let her go and stood up.

“Not exactly,” he said.

Sofia knew she’d a hit nerve.

“Something, though,” she went on, pressing the issue.

It changed everything if Thomas was gay — now he was just a friendly guy who brought her coffee.

Well, and almost kissed her for some reason.

Neither of them said anything, the awkward silence stretching out in front of Sofia, the power cord to her laptop still in her bag.

She shook her head to clear it, another quick wave of nausea hitting her before it receded.

“I’m going home,” she said. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Sure,” Thomas said. “This thing’s almost fixed.”

Sofia left the library, making up some excuse for Francis at the desk, and stopped at the corner market for gatorade before she went back to her tiny sublet.

She had to think some things over.

Mostly, she needed to figure out whether she could stay in Placerville or not. Signs were pointing more and more toward no.





Chapter Nine





As soon as the door to the California History Room shut behind Sofia, Thomas grabbed the envelope with the card in it again, pressed it to his nose, and inhaled, deeply.

Humans had a shitty sense of smell, but it was a good thing he wasn’t exactly human. Sofia couldn’t smell it, but the person who’d sent it had a scent that was as unique to Thomas as a fingerprint.

Clearly, the sender hadn’t stopped to think that Thomas might be nearby, that he might get his paws on the envelope. That was the problem with so many shifters around Placerville — they couldn’t think beyond their own experience, or imagine that anything out of the ordinary might ever happen.

Carefully, Thomas put the card back in the envelope, squaring the edges neatly on the table. Then he picked up his phone and called Gavin.





***





Thirty minutes later, Gavin’s SUV pulled up to the back entrance of the library, and Thomas got in. Silently, he handed the fancy card to the other man, who read it, then held it to his nose.

“Gretchen?” he said, sounding surprised.

Thomas just nodded.

“You think she took the books, too?” he asked.

“Probably,” he said. “You know how desperate they are to get their daughters mated.”

Gavin sat for a moment, his hands on the wheel, thinking. His muscles flexed beneath his bear tattoo.

“Sofia’s quite a lady,” he said.

Thomas just exhaled, loudly.

“She knows,” he said. “She thinks we’re together.”

“She’s not wrong,” said Gavin. “She’s not right, but she’s not wrong.”

It had been a long time since Thomas tried to pin a label on his and Gavin’s relationship, but “friends with benefits” had been the last one that he’d been able to make stick, at least in his mind.