“You’re gonna keep her?”
Nash shrugged, rinsing shampoo out of his curly hair. “Folk said we need to teach the kids how to be around a dog before she can be on the compound too much, and Saint has that cat, so... fuck it. She seems pretty chill.”
Couldn’t argue with that. I checked in with Lida again. She was asleep like Nash needed to be. LikeIneeded to be, but I’d discovered it was the hardest fuckin’ thing to fall asleep in Orla’s bed without him.
I hadn’t fucked her without him either, though I couldn’t deny I’d put my hands on her.
My mouth.
Fuck, I wanted to put my mouth on him too.
“I need to tell you something.”
I blinked back to reality as Nash turned the shower off, and I handed him a towel, already bracing myself. Historically, conversations that started with that sentence hadn’t been easy for us. “Is it something shitty that can wait till the morning?”
“It’s not shitty.” Nash rubbed the towel over his face, muffling his next words.
I waited for him to drop it. “The fuck was that?”
“I said Ranger’s coming in for a bit.”
“Coming in?”
“Down. Whatever. We’re calling him off the northern wars.”
“Why?”
Nash gave me his back, hanging the towel on the rail. “Just something Saint needs help with.”
A frown creased my face. Nash was an honest man, but the tight set of his shoulders screamed untruth. It screamedlie, and that bothered me more than I could take. “If it’s not my business, just say it.”
“It’s not that.” Nash fiddled with the towel, straightening the corners as if Alexei was coming by for an inspection. “It’s more that it’s shit you don’t need to know about. That I don’twantyou to know about.”
Because he didn’t trust me? No. That wasn’t it. He trusted me in bed with his girl while he wasn’t here. Fuck. He’d trusted me with herlifelong before that. So this? It was something else, and if I knew Nash at all—and by now I knew as much of him as I could get my hands on, I knew every facet of his life—every fuckin’ step he took was for the sake of anyone but him.
He’s protecting me.
But from what?
I stepped towards him at the same moment he turned around. This bathroom was small, just a cubicle and a sink installed so any brother putting the hours in at Orla’s flat didn’t mess up her space. Those rules didn’t apply to Nash, or even to me, but somehow here we were, crammed between these four walls with nothing but half-truth and heat between us.
My hand found a home on Nash’s jaw, and I gripped him harder than was probably comfortable, searching his gaze. Those fuckin’ baby blues. What I was looking for, I couldn’t say, but what I found was the open heart that had drawn me to him in the first place. The easy way he’d let himself love me, even if he couldn’t always show it with his body.
Cos he did love me. In my weakest moments, I didn’t believe it, but I didn’t feel weak right now. I felthim, everywhere, despite the fact we were only joined by my rough hand cupping his chin. “Put some clothes on.” My voice was nothing but a growl. “Before I bang you against the wall.”
I released him and left the room, drawn to where Orla lay sleeping in her bed but unable to be that far away from Nash. He wouldn’t come to bed yet—he rarely did after a long ride, needing more than a shower to decompress.
There was a guitar propped against the couch. Willow’s had already found its way back to her, good as new, and she’d sent me a video of her playing it a few hours ago. I sat on the couch, pulled out my phone, and fired it to Nash.
In the bathroom, I heard the buzz of its arrival. Then a different phone rang, the telltale beep of a burner, and I heard him speak.
It was habit to tune out club business that didn’t concern me, but as my affection for Nash had grown, it had become harder to do that.
I had to walk away. Check in on Orla.
She was asleep, knocked out by the strong painkillers she only took when she was safe at home. I’d kept her company while she’d waited for them to kick in. Given her space once she was settled. Orla wasn’t a woman who liked fuss, however much she probably needed it.
She’d knocked a pillow on the floor. I picked it up, but claws on the hardwood floor distracted me before I could set it back where it belonged.
