Becoming A Vincent (The Wild Ones 1)

“What were you doing out in the woods without a gun?” Benson asks, a little bit of an edge to his tone.

I cast him a sidelong glance, but he’s practically glaring at me. All you can see on his face are his eyes, most of his nose and a little of his forehead, because…black beard. A lot of black beard.

“I was in the woods with my brothers, who both had a gun.”

“Brothers?” Liam asks, and Benson grunts like he’s irritated with the interruption.

I face Pretty Boy. “I have two brothers. We’re Triplets. I’m the only one who survived the womb with a sense of self-preservation and common sense. Or maybe it’s because I was the only one of the three who was blessed with a vagina.”

To this, the entire table laughs, except for my aunt, who is groaning and covering her face, shaking her head as though she’s embarrassed.

“Are they here?” Liam asks so innocently, bypassing the whole vagina remark.

Idly, I wonder if he’s embarrassed to talk about the female anatomy, and grin to myself, filing away that information for future use.

When no one answers him, he asks the question again. “Seriously, are they here?” He looks around the table like he’s searching them out.

More laughter ensues, but not from Aunt Penny. “Those heathens aren’t allowed over here anymore when I entertain,” she tells him, passing a plate along. “Not for a long while. Hopefully they’ll grow up.”

Aunt Penny will lift the ban soon. She always does. My brothers will be back over here in no time and she knows it. She can’t help herself, because she loves them.

I scoop out more of the yams and pass the plate along to Liam.

“We went into the woods looking for the right tree. Those jerks broke my bed—”

“Broke your bed?” Liam interrupts, arching an eyebrow.

I really don’t like what he’s insinuating, but since he’s doing it with a playful smirk that I can see because there’s no beard on his pretty face, I let it pass.

“They were standing on my bed to try and steal my ceiling fan after they broke theirs. Our cabins are side by side. They break in. All the time. No boundaries, those two. So, the bed broke under their combined weight, and I planned to make them build me a new one with a tree or two of my choosing.”

He blinks at me. But Benson is the one to chuckle, drawing my attention back to him.

“Your bed wasn’t strong enough to support two people?” the bearded man asks me, eyes twinkling with humor.

I narrow my eyes on him. “Do you think any guy would make it to the bedroom with my brothers next door?”

He cocks his head like he’s thinking about it. “Good point,” he concedes.

“I have to travel when I want to get mine.”

The humor leaves his eyes, and I grin while tugging his beard a little. He grunts, and I turn back to see Liam smiling broadly at me. Oh, yeah. I probably shouldn’t be talking so openly in front of him.

Plates finally stop being passed, and I start eating mine, leaning a little on Benson since I don’t know Liam and don’t like brushing up against strangers over and over. Plus, I’m really tired. And Benson never minds being leaned on.

Liam’s eyes flick between us, probably getting the wrong idea, but I don’t really care. I have no desire to pop out little Liam babies.

He glances around at all the beards—literally. Then he reaches up and touches the side of his baby smooth face. I’ll be honest, I am tempted to do that too. I can’t remember the last time I saw a smooth face on a full grown man.

Well, I can. Three years ago, which was the last time I had sex. The guy was passing through, and I decided to pass through his cabin rental. He didn’t mind. It was a really great night.

Sigh.

If I had known it’d be three years’ worth of drought after that, it would have been even more fun.

“So, how’d you end up with the cougar if your brothers were out there?” Benson asks, even as Liam continues to glance around, probably wondering if they’re in a bearded cult.

“Those pricks left me out there before I realized it. Next thing I know, there was a cub, and a likely momma cougar, and gunshots, and I climbed the nearest tree.”

Benson tenses, but the rest of the table snickers. Well, not Aunt Penny.

“I’ve told you to stop going out into the woods with those two!” she snaps.

They wouldn’t have left me alone if they’d known there was a cougar, but I sure as hell don’t defend them. They were just trying to get out of sawing a tree down for me.

The chainsaw is messed up, so it was going to have to be done the hard way. No one in this town is stupid enough to lend them anything of theirs, so borrowing a chainsaw was out of the question.