Ensnared (Brutes of Bristlebrook, #1)(29)

“That will take days,” I grind out.

“Three, probably. Maybe four.” Dom picks my hand off him, then shrugs. “But that’s no problem, right? After all, you’re not mad.”

He smirks, and I press my tongue against my teeth so hard I reckon I might pop one out. Days. Eden is skittish. In days, she could be gone.

A breeze swirls around us like it’s trying to cool us down before we get too hot.

“I’m fine,” I reply automatically, but the words come out stiff . . . and tasting slightly of sour bubbles. My mama would have rinsed my mouth with soap for telling such a bald-faced lie.

Dom rubs a hand over his face. “Fine?”

“And dandy,” I assure him tightly.

“Oh, sure. Sounds like it.”

We stare at one another for a moment, and I work to stifle the words pushing at my lips. Dom sighs again, then turns like he’s about to keep on, and it all just comes bursting out.

“Look, I just think it’s real funny how—”

Dom’s head drops back. “Here we go.”

“How,” I repeat, ignoring him, “you managed to find a reason to drag both of us out of Bristlebrook the second she got there. Because me myself? I was planning on seeing what our pretty new houseguest looked like all tangled up in her sheets.

Help her get settled in. Make her some breakfast. You know, actually make her feel welcome instead of dumping her on the others and bailing.”

“You planning to wipe her ass for her too?”

I grind my teeth. I didn’t even get a chance to see her last night before she ducked off to bed—and I’d wanted nothing more than to crawl in beside her. Instead, he had me out here at the ass crack of dawn like he can’t bear to be in the same house with her.

I sling my weapon over my shoulder before I’m tempted to use it on him. “You had no right to drag me out here on some useless exercise because you can’t bear that she makes you tingle in your happy places.”

Dom shoots me a warning look. “Don’t start on that shit with me, Beau. I need your head in this—so pull it out of your ass.

We have bigger things to worry about than some girl. Move west; the clearing was that way.”

He turns to stalk off, and I pick up the pace so I’m stalking beside him. We’re not going to avoid this conversation like we do all the others. It’s past time we talked through our shit.

“You’re keeping me away from Eden, so I’m gonna go ahead and say you started this one,” I bite back. “She’s most comfortable with me; it was a dick move to drag me off before she’s even settled.”

Dom doesn’t even look my way, every inch the stern CO, utterly unfazed by my irritation. He steps over a log, checks the compass on his kit and keeps moving. “We need to do recon. There are others still out here, I’m sure of it, and there could be trouble. I’m not compromising our security because you want to get your dick wet.”

Dick wet?

“You trying to piss me off?” I ask between gritted teeth. “Kiss my ass, Dom. You need someone out here, fine, maybe you’re even right about that, but there’s no reason that had to be me. I brought her in. I convinced her to stay. She’s—”

“Yours?” The calm breaks, and Dom snaps his own golden glare my way. “She’s not yours, Beau. She’s everyone’s. She’s no one. She’s just some girl we picked up. Two days ago. What is with this insta-love shit?”

“She’s ours, Dom,” I bite out. “Maybe you don’t remember what that’s like, but I sure do. And for the record, you don’t have to be in love with someone to show them a little good old-fashioned hospitality.”

“For the record, I don’t think your mama would agree with your idea of ‘old-fashioned hospitality.’” Dom rolls his eyes.

Rolls. His. Eyes.

Is he really trying to pretend this doesn’t even faze him?

“If she’s just some girl, then how come you can’t bear to be in the same room with her?” We pass the stream where I tended to Eden. Where she kissed me like she wanted to drown in my arms. I drag him to a stop at the lip of the forest. “If she’s just some girl, it should’ve been real easy for you to work her over with me yesterday, burn off some of that tension from the last three years.”

Dom snorts. “You’re not going to bait me into fucking her, idiot.”

“Like I need to. You might take your own sweet time about it, but you’ll snap sooner or later—you always do.”

He glowers at me, and I glare back, trying to figure out how to get through to him. I want to ask if this is about Heather, but if I do, this conversation will be over. I’d just about need to pull out the cuffs and catch him by surprise to get him to go there.

And anyway, I don’t want to be making this about her when it should be all about Eden.

“You got no interest whatsoever in pinning that girl between us and seeing how many times we can make her come? You don’t want to watch those pretty eyes beg for more? You really saying that you don’t miss waking up with a warm, pretty girl snuggled between us?” A muscle ticks in his jaw, and I press on. “You know how alone she’s been. You telling me you don’t want to give her a friend she can count on? You really want me to do this without you?”