Claiming the Enemy: Dustin (Porter Brothers Trilogy 3)

“You be real. I didn’t think I’d see the day you’d get jealous over a woman. You didn’t give a horse’s ass when you’d see Sam riding around with The Last Riders. Jessie gives Rider googly eyes, and you took a beating from her cousins just to get her to stop looking at him.”

“She looks at him that way again, pretty boy isn’t going to be so pretty, not when I’m done with him.”

“You have to catch him first.” Tate tilted his head to the side. “Your woman is here, and she looks good. I wonder if she’s expecting Rider to be here?”

Tate took off when Dustin rose to walk to the long table that Holly had set out for everyone to place their food.

She was carrying a covered casserole dish that she sat down on the table. Then she turned and took a large kettle from Asher, who gave her a glower. It took her two attempts to take it from him before he released it. She shot him a dirty look before he went to the ice chest to get a beer.

Holt wasn’t any happier to hand over the pretty cake carrier. His look would have killed Dustin on the spot if it were a loaded gun.

Asher was already holding a beer for him as Jessie finickily adjusted her food.

Dustin’s stomach rolled at the thought of how many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches he would have to eat. Mentally, he started counting how many sandwiches he was going to be able to get Tate and Drake to eat. He could also guilt Bliss into one. Logan was always hungry. The boy was going to eat two, whether he ….

A gust of wind blew past as Jessie opened the casserole dish. Gaping, he took a step toward the table at the sight of the perfectly brown biscuits as she removed the top of the kettle, showing the golden-crusted chicken breasts sitting on top. It was so fucking beautiful it looked like it had a little halo hovering on top. When she took the chocolate cake out, he wanted to snatch it off the table and run inside before anyone could cut it.

He wanted to fill another three plates, but he had been to too many potlucks to be fooled by the way food looked. No, this country boy was no one’s fool. He would take a small taste plate, then come back for more if it was good.

“It looks good.”

“Thank you. Your eye looks like it’s even more swollen.”

“It’s fine,” he said absently, his attention on the food.

Taking a plate, Dustin took the breast on top. Like he said, he was no fool. He had fucked pretty girls who had the brain of a pea; that didn’t mean he didn’t enjoy it. And that chicken breast was too pretty to pass up.

Picking one of the biscuits, he surreptitiously took a quick bite when she turned to greet Holly and Greer. As soon it hit his tongue, he put four more on his plate.

Raising his shoulder, he blocked Greer from trying to look over to see what Jessie brought.

Taking a knife that Jessie had lain down by the cake, he took a small slice, nearly dropping his plate when Greer muscled his way next to him.

Dustin sneakily grabbed a plastic fork to take a bite of the cake as Greer started loading his own plate.

“Those biscuits canned or homemade?” Greer asked rudely.

“Hmm …?” Jessie was texting someone on her phone. “They’re from scratch.”

Dustin took the chance to take a bite of the chicken while she was staring down at her phone. He had died and gone to fucking heaven.

While Greer was picking a chicken breast out of the kettle, Dustin moved to the cake pan, cutting himself a bigger slice and putting it on his plate. When he was about to cut another slice, Greer tried to take the knife from him.

“Save some for me.”

Dustin wouldn’t give up easily. “It isn’t good. Save your calories.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.”

Dustin sheepishly gave it up when Jessie held her imperious hand out. He had to watch mulishly as Greer unashamedly grabbed a fork and stabbed a bite from his plate.

“Goddamn, woman! What kind of cake is this?”

“I really don’t have a name for it. It’s kinda like a hillbilly upside down cake.”

“It sure as shit rocks my world,” Greer said, taking another bite. “I thought you said it wasn’t any good.”

Dustin could feel Jessie giving him a mocking face. He would make it up to her once he had the cake locked inside. “I was just trying to save Logan a piece. I knew you wouldn’t share.”

“You’re the one who doesn’t want to share. You want Logan to have a piece, give him that big honking piece of yours.”

Dustin decided to try the same look on Jessie that worked for Logan. Pouting, he tried to turn her sympathy to his plight. “I only lied because Greer has eaten four platefuls. All that food isn’t good for him. Knox told him he has to go on a diet.”