Yes, Masters (Book 2 of Desire's Den)

Chapter 46 - Emma

My phone had been hacked.

I hadn't seen this coming, though maybe I should have figured out that someone had hacked my phone given how he'd somehow always known where I was, but it hadn't crossed my mind. I was angry at myself for not having thought about it sooner—maybe then, things wouldn't have gone this far.

For some reason, this, more than most of what he had done, made me feel truly violated. Not only had he entered my life and turned it upside down, but he'd infiltrated it and made it a mental warzone.

Who could've done this?

Wait...

I blinked in shock as Gideon's words finally caught up with me.

And you need to write down a list over everyone who might've had access to your phone. And I mean everyone, even that best friend of yours.

Why on earth made Gideon suggest Kevin?

"No." I shook my head. "Kevin never would have done anything like that to me. I trust him."

If there was someone I could fully trust in this world, it was him. Since we'd become friends, he had been the person who stood by me when the going got tough. He helped me with my social anxiety; made me laugh when I'd wanted to cry; made me look forward to work even though school had taken most of my energy.

He was my person. And that Gideon even hinted at him maybe being the one who had tormented me made my stomach roll with nausea.

Gideons eyes narrowed. "Do you truly trust him, without a shadow of doubt?"

"Yes," I answered without any hesitation. "He's the kindest person I've ever met. There's not a single mean bone in his body. Besides...what possible reason could he have to do something like this?"

"Well," Callan cut in, his tone contemplating. "You'd say he's the closest friend you have, right?"

"Yeah?" My voice tinged with confusion, unsure where he was going with this.

"Can't it stand to reason that he was jealous when he no longer had your undivided attention?"

"I mean...everyone could be jealous of losing the attention from someone they cared about, but Kevin would've never acted on it, if he even felt jealous, which I'm pretty sure he didn't. He even urged me to give you guys a second chance. Anyways, he got his own boyfriend, so he wouldn't worry about mine—ah...he wouldn't worry about our past arrangement." I didn't want to look at the guys, sure they had caught my little slip.

Was my blush spreading? It felt like it was spreading. My chest was kind of burning a little, and my neck was hot. I hadn't meant to apply that they were my boyfriends. I didn't really think of them as that. Nope, not my boyfriends. We were just...shit, what even were we? Former dominants and submissive? I mean, we were, but it wasn't all we were either. Friends? No, that seemed wrong somehow, it felt like we were more than that. There was too much tension between us to dwindle down our relationship to just friends. But what was more than friends, but less than boyfriends and girlfriend?

Complicated.

We were complicated.

At last, I glanced back up at them, only to find them all looking at me, wearing a level of heat in their eyes that sent delightful shivers down my body.

Safe to say they'd caught it, and honestly...it didn't look like they minded me almost calling them my boyfriends. Not at all.

Fuck, Emma, don't even go there. You've just moved in with them, no need to make it more complicated. Just...I don't know, focus on getting everything else back in order before you try dating more than one man.