Adler (The Henchmen MC 14)

I didn't miss that.

Pretty constantly.

So not all the time.

Meaning, what?

That he had a job he was out of town on? That he was chasing down leads to find his president's daughter? That he had come back to his apartment?

The thought made my stomach twist painfully.

Ugh.

He was making me be someone, act like someone, I was not.

Or - and this was an even more unacceptable possibility - he was showing me parts of myself that had always been there, but never uncovered.

Maybe I had always been cursed with the ability to be weak, needy, jealous, suspicious. Maybe I simply had never allowed someone close enough to expose those parts.

"So, Lou, what do you do?" Peyton asked, hauling herself up onto the bar since there were no available bar seats.

"I'm a bounty hunter."

"No shit? Like Domino?" she asked, eyes lit up. "Is Adler your very own Choco?" she added, hand going to her heart as she fluttered her eyelashes.

"Adler is my neighbor," I said carefully, making sure no bitterness or desire slipped into my words.

"He bought you a dog," Lenny butted in.

"It was my birthday."

"How is he in the sack?" Peyton asked, eyes bright. "He walks like he tucks it into his sock," she added, making Lenny snort, then choke on her drink. "Come on, we're all slutty little sex-lovers here. Spill!"

"I wouldn't know," I admitted, actually feeling my neck heat at the words, embarrassed for reasons I didn't understand. "But, ah, I don't think you're wrong," I added, remembering the feel of his cock against me, making my poor, undersexed system cry out desperately in need.

"Wait," Lenny said, lips parting for a second. "You haven't slept together yet? Seriously?"

"I mean short of having some lady-business issue, I don't see why not," Peyton added.

"No lady-business issues," I told her with a small smile. Unless chronic horniness for a man I hadn't even seen in weeks counted as an issue. And, well, maybe it did.

"You're not one of those no-sex-before-marriage religious people are you?" she asked, lip curling at the very idea that I had gotten to thirty without getting laid.

And, quite frankly, my own lip curled as well. "No."

"Then why the ever-loving fuck have you not ridden that sexy accent having ride?"

"Stubbornness, mostly," I admitted, making Peyton make an agreeing sound, nodding her head. "We were, ah, getting there. When he got the call."

"The call?" Lenny asked.

"About Ferryn," I clarified.

They fell silent for a moment before Peyton put her glass down on the bar beside her thigh. "When she comes back and is a grown ass woman who has known the delight of a good dick herself, you have to tell her how big of a cockblock she was," she declared. With certainty. Something I most certainly did not feel given the circumstances.

"If I am around then," I grumbled into my drink, pissed that my mood was making my booze turn me sour instead of fun, a chance you always took when you decided to drink about your feelings instead of face them up and deal with them.

"Len here knows Adler better than anyone except maybe Ward," Peyton started, making me perk up, wondering what kind of connection Adler had with an underground fighting bigwig. "So, I'm thinking that if she thinks something is different about how Adler responds to you, then I think we can trust she's right."

"We barely know each other."

"Honestly, I barely knew Sugar when something in me seemed to recognize there was more than just some epic sex and movie dinner dates going on. I think Len had a similar situation with Edison too. Though we were both pretty good at fighting it. Just saying. Maybe it will just be epic sex. Or maybe it will be something different. And as much as I was terrified of different, it turns out it is actually pretty nice too."

"I think that's enough girl talk," Lenny declared, seeming to pick up on my discomfort, my uncertainty. "How's the dog? Rey wanted you to know that if you need help training, or a dog sitter, or a dog park buddy, she is game. The lockdown is over now. She will be back at her little zoo. She'd be happy to have you. And force fruits and veggies down your throat."

"Why didn't she come out tonight?"

"Reeve stayed back at the compound to keep an eye with Roan. Just because one threat is over doesn't mean there might not be new ones. These Henchmen have some crazy stories. From what I hear, you do too."

So then things went to easier topics, my jobs, Peyton's life antics, Lenny's past.

By the time we were booted out, my face was numb, and everything seemed unnaturally funny.

"Alright, mami," Roderick said, slinging an arm around my lower back, hauling me into his side, the momentary lack of equilibrium making the world spin on its axis. "We gotta get out of here."