“Oh goodie, you didn’t try to assault me. I’m honored,” I said dryly.
His eyes went wide. “What…no! I would never!”
“Good, then we’ll chalk this up to a misunderstanding,” I said with a shrug. “You misunderstood my signs, and Cade misunderstood your intentions. No point bringing anyone else into this mess.”
Logan might be an arrogant asshole with boundary issues, but I could see he wasn’t completely stupid. I wasn’t sorry that I was trapping him into not reporting Cade with fear of mutual destruction. In truth, Cade’s reaction had been overblown because I hadn’t felt Logan was going to do anything but annoy me, but if it meant keeping Cade out of trouble, I would lie without hesitating, and that went double for exaggerating the truth.
Logan turned away, muttering to himself, still grumbling under his breath but willing to leave well enough alone. Cade and I watched him march off, listening for the sound of thelocker room door closing before I let out a breath of relief. That could have gone a lot worse, and I was glad it hadn’t.
“Cade,” I began gently now the worst had passed.
“I ain’t apologizin’,” he muttered, glaring in the direction Logan had disappeared.
I stared at him; his back was to me and his attention was distracted. I couldn’t help but look over his body now half of it was on full display. He had appeared out of nowhere, and neither Logan nor I had heard him coming, despite the normal heavy thumping of his metal leg. He had acted with an immediacy and decisiveness that wasn’t unattractive, and while I hadn’t wanted the situation to devolve into violence…I couldn’t claim the mild violence there had been was a turn-off.
Now he was standing there, without a stitch of clothing, still dripping from the shower. When he’d taken hold of Logan, I had been distracted, but now I could look back and see the way his back muscles had rippled as he’d jerked Logan around. Those muscles were mostly still now, but they were taut; his shoulders broad, and my eyes slid down his back to his tapered waist. Scars shot up from his hip, one of which went all the way to the middle of his back, almost to one of his shoulder blades. It hurt to know where those scars had come from, to know what he’d gone through, and yet I felt the sudden urge to trace my fingers over them. To learn their paths and the shape of them, until I reached the curve of his ass, which while not bouncing with every movement, was firm and round enough to bounce a?—
“I mean it,” he said, turning toward me and thankfully distracting me from my wandering thoughts…and eyes.
“I’m not asking you to apologize,” I scoffed. “Though I should probably point out that you didn’t need to interfere. He was being pushy, not a threat.”
“I don’t care,” he said in a low, rumbling voice that my already tempted brain latched onto eagerly.
Now was not the time to get turned on.
“And,” I said, hitting the word hard and crossing my arms over my middle, “I’m not some fragile figurine. I’ll remind you I was given as much training as you, and I’m no stranger to violence,ordefending myself.”
“Walker—”
“No,” I pushed, trying not to put too much anger into my voice. He had come to help me, and I wasn’t going to spit in the face of that, especially when I had already stepped all over his feelings today. “I’m serious. I can take care of myself.”
“I know that,” he snapped and twisted to face me, his jaw tight, eyes blazing, and his hands balled up at his sides again. “Alright? I know ya can take care of yourself. I’m probably the only person who can remember just how much you can take care of yourself. Ya weren’t some pretty nurse there to kiss our boo boos. I saw what you could do when you fought with us, and I know ya can fight just fine. That don’t mean some asshole gets to come along and treat ya like some piece of fuckin’ meat, alright? That fuckin’ creep was treatin’ ya like that from the start.”
Oh Lord, this wasnotthe time to notice that his front was just as stacked as his back. His stomach was just as flat, the dark red hair dripping with water, and his waist had the same mess of scars as his back. I had to work to keep my eyes on his face rather than drifting south. I had glimpsed enough, though, to remember that even soft Cade had enough to bounce heavily just below my line of sight.
Wait—
I squinted at him. “From the start? Just how long were you listening?”
The anger on his face disappeared in a flash, replaced by a sheepish look. “Uh…long enough?”
I cocked my head. “And just why would you stand there listening to the whole thing?”
Now he was definitely embarrassed, looking away just long enough that temptation won out and I glanced down. It wasn’t as if it was my first time seeing his dick, but considering how hard I had worked at not noticing it in the past, it still had an effect on me. He might have been soft, but I noticed he’d trimmed himself since the last time I saw him, not that surprising considering we weren’t out in the field anymore and grooming supplies were more readily available. I didn’t know whether he was a growing or showing type, but if he was the former, he still put on a good accidental show, and I wondered how much growing there was left to do with how much was already showing.
Great, here I was standing in my underwear, getting hard from the reminder that Cade was still gorgeous, definitely hung, and that the scars he had accumulated since the last time I’d seen his naked body only added to his appeal.
Perfect.
“I mean,” he said, and I was grateful he was too embarrassed and too straight to realize I was filling out my underwear a lot more than before. “I just…I knew Logan was, ya know…into guys. I mean, he wasn’t really tryin’ anything like Clay said he’d tried with Isaac, so I thought he was…okay. I didn’t wanna?—”
“Ah,” I said in a flash of understanding, ducking my head. “You were listening in out of concern, but you didn’t want to get in the way if I decided Logan’s offer was appealing.”
He grunted. “Yeah.”
“I should have let you be my wingman,” I told him with a smirk. “You’re clearly willing to play the part.”
He glanced at me, wary but hopeful. “I could.”
