Who We Are (The Seafare Chronicles 2)

“I’m fine,” I say as I glower at David, who’s now paying for Otter’s beer. They don’t seem to be walking back toward the table, obviously content to talk about memories past and how much they miss each other and how they just want to go fuck in the seedy back room.

“You want me to go run interference for you?” Isaiah asks. “David’s pretty hot, I gotta say. I wouldn’t mind helping you out with that one.”

“You’re so selfless.”

He grins. “Don’t I know it. This David guy causing you trouble?”

I shake my head. “I trust Otter. It’s the other guys I have a hard time with.”

“Well, if Walrus’s little fit is to be believed, you don’t have anything to worry about,” he says. “That man is obviously head over heels for you. It’s sickening, really.”

“Yeah, something like that,” I say, my voice hardening as David rocks his head back, laughing way too loudly at something Otter has said. Otter’s not that funny. I should know. I fucking live with him, I see him every day, and I’m about to stand and rush over to David and ask him what part of Otter’s introduction to Isaiah did he not understand and did he really think that just because Isaiah had kissed me briefly once that Otter would really just fall right back into his stupidly muscled arms like nothing else mattered?

“Now, there’s the claws I wondered about,” Isaiah says, laughing as he pulls me back down before I can rip David’s pretty little face off. “Walrus isn’t stupid, so there’s no need for you to be. Besides,” he says, leaning in, his lips near my ear. “I’ve got a better idea. Walrus already doesn’t like me, so may as well use that instead of you making a scene.”

“I’m not going to fuck you,” I tell him.

His eyes go comically wide. “Not what I had in mind, but I like the way you think. You sure about that?”

I think for a moment, but only a moment. “I’m sure,” I say.

Isaiah watches me knowingly. “Well, why don’t we just leave it at that, then? You know how to dance?”

“Uh… not really. I’m more of the… not-dancing type, if you know what I mean.”

“Well, you’re in luck, because I make anyone who dances with me look good, so get ready for the ride of your life, baby. Walrus won’t know what hit him, and trust me, he’ll never even remember the name David. You ready?”

“I don’t know….”

“Hey,” he says.

“Hey, yourself,” I say back, unable to stop myself.

“You trust me?”

“Not even a little bit.”

“I’ll take it,” he says with a grin as he grabs my arm and pulls me to the dance floor.

I bump into a few other guys and apologize profusely but am promptly ignored in favor of the deep bass that thrums from the speakers overhead, causing my teeth to vibrate in their sockets. The lights are bright and shoot across my vision, and I’m blinded, if only for a moment. It’s in this blindness that Isaiah presses up against my back, his body liquid smooth as his hips begin to move against mine. I don’t know what I’m doing, and it shows. I’m stiff against him, my body unable to move with the fluid grace that he seems to have. “Just relax,” he shouts in my ear. “Let me lead.”

What have I got to lose?

So I let go, as much as I can. Isaiah puts his hands on my hips and pushes one way and then the other, causing me to rock with him and against him. It’s dirty, this grinding, and I know I look ridiculous, but then Isaiah whispers in my ear to look, to look over at Otter, and I do, and I find his heated gaze on me, David left forgotten at the bar with a surprised look on his face as Otter prowls the edge of the dance floor, the gold-green almost gone to black, popping his knuckles as his lips twist in a sneer. Isaiah does this neat little roll with his body and slides up and down my back and breathes against the back of my head. “You so owe me after this,” he says, and I can finally feel his dick against my ass. “But you’re lucky I don’t want my favor right now.” He lets me go and walks toward Otter, who looks like he’d have no problem murdering Isaiah in front of everyone. Isaiah stops in front of him and says something, causing Otter to snarl in his face. Isaiah looks back at me and winks before walking off to the bar.

Otter’s in front of me before I even see him move. “What the fuck was that all about?” he snaps at me, pressing up against me.

“Have a nice conversation with David?” I growl right back. “Don’t allow me to interrupt. He sure had a good hold on you. Rumor is that he’s not completely over you. But I think you know that.”

“Don’t be a dick, Bear. It’s not a good look for you.”

“Don’t be an asshole, Otter. Same thing applies.”

We stare at each other for a moment before I see the corner of his mouth start to move, and I try to stay mad at him for something, anything, but I can’t. It’s Otter. He still breaks first and laughs loudly and cups my face and kisses me. I breathe him in as I kiss him back, and his tongue finds mine, and there’s something oh so weird and oh so hot about making out in front of all these people, even though no one cares and I doubt anyone is watching. That thought is immediately put to rest when I hear catcalls coming from our table, and Beer Me shouts something indecipherable that causes them to laugh. Otter smiles again

st my lips, and I allow myself to think that maybe, just maybe, this will be for the rest of my life, that I’ll have this man with me for the rest of my life, that nothing, not Jonah, not my mother, not fucking David or Isaiah could take us apart. The gold-green is back as he watches me, and it’s like I’m all he sees. It’s like I’m all there is to him.

“What’d Isaiah say to you?” I ask.