The ‘jealous lover’ part stuck in me a moment, before I snapped to my senses, turning Quinn to face me.
“Did they, try to . . ..” I say, feeling the furrows in my brow at some sort of sexual assault being the reason for his injury. I hadn’t even checked the rest of his body for that,and he did have torn clothing.The blood on his face had distracted me.
“No, no, nothing like that, P,” Quinn assured me. “They tried to shut him up, get him to quit asking me questions, andwell;I got in the way of their fists. So much for trying to keep the peace.”
I nodded, finished with his face now but I wanted to clean the scrapes and cuts on his hands. I looked to Jack. “Any chance of a clean shirt?”
Jack nodded and left the room to go get one.
Matt laughed, “Sorry, Q,” he said. “Jack’s going to feel bad about this for weeks, though.”
I couldn’t help it, “Bryan was in a relationship with Jack, I’mguessing?” I asked, rolling my eyes at myself as I did. I probably couldn’t be more obvious if I tried, but what the hell, every attractive brother I met just made me realize how attracted I was to Jack.
Matt and Quinn both laughed this time. “Relationship? Well, whatever it was lasted way too long, if you ask me,” Quinn explained.
“Which Jackdidn’t, but you told him anyway,” Matt said. “Thing is, Jack’s a good judge of dick but not always a great judge of men,” Matt added. “Bryan is an asshole that was all wrong for him, but knew Jack would try and make it work. Jack always feels guilty about that shit, even if Bryan did him wrong in the end.”
Quinn laughed. “We just need the right combination of dick and man andboom, Jack’s forever man. Maybe he will quit being so damned moody.”
“I see,” I said with a laugh, about the time Jack came back in with a shirt for Quinn. I stand up to let them help him out of it and into the fresh shirt, taking the opportunity to put everything with blood in the bag I left on the floor and switch out my gloves one more time.
I used the light to look at Quinn’s face, satisfying myself that it was mostly cosmetic,andthat infection was the biggest hurdle here. He has some oddly nasty cuts for a club fight.
I treated his hands, cleaning the cuts, but only a few needed bandaging.
“Thanks, man,” Quinn said, pulling me into a typical bro-hug when I was done, hands clasped at the chest and arms around each other. “Good to have you around, P.”
“Come on, I’ll get you home, Quinn,” Matt said, and I told him I would clean up.
It didn’t take me long to find some bleach-based cleaner at the hostess stand, and I was wiping everything down when Jack joined me.
“Don’t have to do that,” he said, moving to take the cleaner from my hands.
“Used to it; cleaning up blood is part of the job,” I said as I finished.
“Come on, it’s late,” he said, watching me with soft eyes as we put everything back in order, and followed him out of the dining area and back into the main lobby of the Inn.
“Thanks, Jack. Never a dull moment with you, guys, I guess,” I said, laughing. Not how I anticipated the night going, but I am glad I had more time with Jack.
“Definitely not,” he agreed, and it lookedlike he wantedto say something. His gaze dips to my lips and lingers.
That isexactlythe look I want on his face. I thought about what Matt and Quinn had said, about another guy trying to pull Jack into something he didn’t want, and realize that while I knew I wanted to be in Jack Mann’s bed,heneeded to know it.
There is a whole lot to Jack Mann, and I wantedto get to know all of it.
“See you around, Jack,” I said, resting a hand on his shoulder, and giving him a gaze that I hope conveyed exactly how much I wanted him to make that move and do it soon.
Jack
Two days ago I had watched Perrin give me the sultriest, most pants-dropping look anyone had ever given me. Right as he walked away and went back to his room, and I went back to my apartment.
In the middle of the night.
Under the same roof.
The attraction I feltto Perrin was strong, maybepotentwas a better word, and gettingmorepotentthe more I came to know him. I thought I would sort out what I had done wrong in my last relationship before I found someone I wanted to try things with again, before it would matter. But I was just stuck lusting after a guy and all up in my head about where I wanted it to go.
I was pacing in my office, firing off directives and notes to my assistant. I think my mood was about to drive us both crazy. Normally I would get on the mountainand clear my head, but between work and the wind closing the lifts, it had been a few days. Thankfully, about mid-morning, Quinn called the main line to my office.
