“Thank you.” Aspen’s smooth reply had me wanting to hold him closer and shove him onto his arse at the same time because he didn’t set that boy straight about our relationship. The fact that I wanted to have a hissy fit made me feel stupid. What was wrong with me?
Aspen hummed and the deep tone had me shivering. He planted a kiss under my left ear, and I elbowed him, connecting with his gut. It should’ve been harder, but the blow turned out more as a love tap. Aspen ruffled my hair and fecked it all up before he slid onto the stool on my right. He looked damned good in a gray Henley that stretched across his muscles in all the right ways and it matched the gray Mets cap on his head.
The look he gave me was neutral and maybe tinged with his brand of concern, and it had my anger popping off again. “Rowen told ye I was fucking around. He better not tell Vail and Fallon that shite. My dick has been in me trousers all night.”
Aspen shrugged. “He said that you said you weren’t.”
“I’mnot.”
A woman with long black hair and legs that went on for miles came over with her tits pushed up by her bra in her thin T-shirt until they nearly hit her chin. Aspen and I both looked because we weren’t blind, but we didn’t do what we usually did—send each other silent signals to decide if we wanted to share her. No, when he did glance at me, he still had that troubled gleam in his deep brown eyes, and I was both irritated and happy about it. I felt like I was stuck in a tornado and hated it.
“Give me a Guinness, if you have it on draft,” Aspen said.
“You got it!” She smiled and hustled off.
“Make it two,” I called after her, and she raised a hand to let me know she’d heard. Not long later she slid the drafts in front of us.
Aspen and I sipped our beers without a word until all that was left was a piddly centimeter at the bottom of the glasses. I’d barely tasted the thick, rich beer. For once, it hadn’t been stale. Normally Aspen wasn’t much for filling the silence, but I’d gotten used to him speaking more than this, and an awkwardness dragged on my limbs and breath and made my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth. Bloody fecking hell. I hated feeling this way with Aspen or thinking about howI was feelingat all, and I just wanted to hit something until this all went away.
Being with Aspen wasn’t simple like falling into bed with Vail, who was so open and accepting and uncomplicated. It wasn’t like Fallon, who needed me to pour attention on him.
Maybe the problem was that Aspen didn’tneed anythingfrom me at all. He held all the cards. I couldn’t imagine a reason he would want more than we already had, even if I’d started to wish for it.
“Christ on the cross, this is bullshite,” I snapped and slammed my glass down on the bar.
Aspen glanced at me as if I’d screamed the words and run around the bar naked with my sunburned arse hanging out. He leaned toward me. “Why do you think I’m here right now?”
It took me longer than I would’ve liked to look him in the eye. “To check up on me for Rowen. He mother henned ye into coming out.”
“Really?” Aspen didn’t get upset often, leastways not that I could notice, but his nostrils flared and he leaned closer with his eyebrows raised.
All at once, what I’d been angry about earlier slammed into my mind like a lightning bolt. I jammed my finger against his muscled chest. “I didn’t like that woman all over ye this morning.”
Aspen turned toward me, and I tolerated it when he grabbed my stool and spun me to face him. My hands clenched into fists on my thighs and I couldn’t stop it, not even when he glared pointedly at them. “I know that you wouldn’t be with anyone else. I trust you. You’re loyal to the core, Cillian. I’m not here because of Rowen’s crap.”
“Oh.”
Aspen covered my fists with his warm hands and rubbed, but my fingers wouldn’t unclench. “I know you don’t go back on your word once you give it. You wouldn’t hurt Vail, and I know you wouldn’t lie to me. You would flat-out tell me if you were finished with our little family.”
I swallowed hard. “So, ye know all that about me, do ye? Christ, ye have more faith in me than I do.”
He sighed and sat up tall on his stool. “I’m here because you’re here, and I want to spend time with you. I’m where I want to be.” He frowned as if he was irritated with me for making him say so much about something so stupid, and I cringed inside.
I jerked my hands out from under Aspen’s and scrubbed at the stubble on my cheeks. I wasn’t sure how I could feel both happy and idiotic at the same time. “This is suchshite.”
“I might clock a guy with his dick in you, if that makes you feel better. That I’d be jealous of.” He gave me a toothy grin.
I snorted and glanced up at him. “Why? Because he beat ye to the top of the mountain?”
He shrugged. “Why are you out here drinking alone?”
Maybe it was the booze getting to me, but I had to clear my throat before I could speak. “I miss them a lot.” My chest gave a pang. “I never expected this.”
“Me too.”
“We shouldn’t be sitting here talking about them. Look where we are.” I gestured around. There were other cages around the room full of people shaking their arses for money, and the dance floor was packed with drunks groping, laughing, and having a good time.
Aspen surprised me as he got off his stool and walked toward a part of the club I was familiar with from other trips.
