Oncology.Cancer. I suppressed a shudder. I didn’t know Folk’s entire life story, but I’d learned this part, that we were lucky to have ever known him, and I kept it as close to my heart as I did the scars the rest of my brothers carried.
The room settled again, but with a layer of angst that hadn’t been there before.
I cleared the plates. Nash helped, even though he hadn’t eaten yet.
We wound up alone in the kitchen. Nash took the dishes from my hands and backed me against the fridge. “I missed you.”
“Come home more then.”
“Can’t.”
He didn’t say why.
I didn’t ask. That was the life. Only difference now was I didn’t spend every night he was gone in a big empty bed by myself.No, you spend it wishing Nash got to bask in Locke’s expert attention as much as you do.It was a sad fact that I was getting the most out of the sexual dynamic that hadexplodedbetween us over the past month. I’d never been so thoroughly fucked in my life. And I wasn’t complaining, hell no. But it was such aNashthing to do to give me so much of Locke when he needed everything Locke had to offer so much more. “Are you staying home tonight?”
Nash kept his face buried in my neck, his favourite place, though it was vying for legitimacy with Locke’s strong chest. “I’m riding out later.”
“With who?”
“Saint and Ranger.”
“You just got back.”
“We’re not done.”
With what? I tangled my fingers in his hair and forced him to look at me. “Is this about the idiots who came at me? It’s been weeks and nothing’s happened.”
Nash’s eyes darkened. He peeled my hand from his neck. “That doesn’t mean it won’t.”
“Doesn’t mean it will either. Someone else might take them out before you get to them. Pricks like that always have more than one enemy.”
“Wealways have more than one enemy, Orls. That’s why we need to know who they all are.”
“At what cost?” I slid my hands down his chest, digging my nails into his ribs. “And why does it have to be you all the time?”
Nash didn’t answer me with words. He kissed me instead, his attempt to shut me up more successful than I was proud of. That was the thing aboutus. We’d spent so long resisting each other that now we didn’t have to, we were insatiable.
Locke’s words, not mine, and of course I thought of him as Nash kissed me senseless. Nash was enough for me. He always had been. But there was a yearning in my soul for Locke that never left me, and I knew Nash felt it too.
He broke away, resting his forehead against mine. “I’m fucking starving, but all I want is to take you both home and stay there for a week.”
“Have you told him that?”
“Later. He’s busy right now.”
“You’re not going to be here later.”
“Ouch. You’re brutal, O’Brian.”
“Only when you need it, McGovern.”
Nash rumbled a deep laugh and the weariness in his gaze faded a little, which made me less inclined to march back into the chapel and rip Cam’s head off for letting Nash run himself ragged. “I love you.”
“Love you more. Now eat your dinner before I get really cross.”
Nash grinned. “But you’re so sexy when you’re angry.”
“Really?” My tone dripped with sarcasm.
