“Mm, the more the merrier,” I said with a decided effort to project an I don’t give a shit attitude.
“How’s Darci?” West asked as he began to pull down the long gravel lane to the road. “She still staying up at the cabin with you?”
I noticed Nico’s eyes flick back toward me, confirming he knew I gave a shit. And he was right. I gave plenty of shits. It was fine for Nico to think I had a little crush on his brother-in-law as long as he didn’t discover I knew what the man looked like naked.
When Hudson responded, he acted like I wasn’t even there.
“Yeah. She’s still there. She’s staying with me until she finds a new apartment.”
I couldn’t help but butt in. “She doesn’t mind you’re going out with us?”
Hudson’s brows furrowed. “No, why would she mind?”
I shrugged. “Some girlfriends don’t like when their man goes clubbing without them, I guess.”
My nonchalance act was for shit. I’d never been any good at fishing.
Hudson’s eyebrow lifted, and the side of his mouth curved up. “Who said she was my girlfriend?”
I felt my cheeks fire up. No telling how red my pale skin was turning. I leaned forward to let my hair fall over my cheeks. If that hid my blushing, it was a pleasant side effect of my studying the very interesting interior fittings of West’s vehicle.
“She’s not?” I asked. “It seemed like she was hoping otherwise.”
Blasé. I am all ease and detachment. Watch me not care about your answer. La-la-la.
“No, definitely not,” Hudson said
Thank bloody Christ.
“Oh. Shame. She’s a nice woman.”
I looked out the window at the farmland rushing past before closing my eyes and taking a deep breath. Suddenly, it was a bit hard to swallow, and I was sure it was from the dry air of the vehicle’s heating vents.
Irritating dry air.
“What about you?” Hudson asked. “You didn’t want to invite Stevie to join us tonight?”
“Stevie?” I asked, turning to him in confusion. “Oh, right. Stevie.”
Play it cool. You have options. All sorts of men want to be with you. No need to look desperate for him.
“I asked him this morning at breakfast, but he said he had to work,” I replied. If he assumed breakfast was a Morning After thing as opposed to a stop in at Sugar Britches for coffee and a croissant, then who was I to correct him?
“Oh.”
He was jealous of Stevie. Well, what do you know?
My heart beat triple time.
Nico turned to West in the front seat. “Why is Stevie working so much these days? I give him as many hours as I can at the shop, but I know he’s working the hospital coffee cart and feeding animals for Doc and Grandpa for extra money. Stevie feeding animals in a barn is a cry for help, don’t you think? Could he be in some kind of trouble?”
West shrugged. “Maybe you should talk to him. Ask him about it. I thought you guys were close.”
“We are, that’s just it. If he’s not talking to me about it, it must be really personal.”
They continued discussing it while I tried my hardest not to sniff Hudson.
It was a long couple of hours.
Maybe I’d made a mistake when I’d declined Hudson’s offer to dance with him, but I was still annoyed at him for being so hot and cold around me. Keeping my distance was probably the right plan. However, watching Hudson grind against strangers made me want to simultaneously vomit and beat some fuckers to death.
I wondered if my teeth might crack from how tightly clamped my jaw was.
“You’re going to break that glass if you don’t ease up,” Nico yelled over the house music. He gently unclenched my fingers from the glass I held and moved it to the center of the table. “What’s wrong? Guys have been trying to pick you up all night, and you’ve only danced a couple of times.”
How could I explain to the tattooed man that his brother-in-law was all I could see? That every man who’d come up to me that night looked like the arse end of a wheelie bin compared to Hudson Wilde?
I caught the subject of my peevish thoughts glancing across the table at me as he returned to take his seat, so I made a big production out of throwing back the rest of my drink and standing up. Many of the men in the club had their shirts off, so I peeled mine off and tossed it to Nico. His eyes widened and his grin flashed.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about,” he whooped. West leaned over and covered Nico’s eyes, shooting me a wink.
I ran my hands down my chest to my stomach and then shifted my cock as if no one was watching.
Everyone was watching.
I flicked my hair back over my shoulder and sauntered into the center of the dancing mob. Within moments, I was surrounded by men reaching out to touch me and pull me against them, using the deep beat of the bass as an excuse to grope and feel.