Page 15 of Sinful Seduction

She was in her chair by the fire when the men came inside a few hours later.

Beau looked her over.“Whose are those?”he said, curious, and pointed to the hemmed sweatpants.

Jayla shrugged.“In one of the drawers.”

Diego stepped forward and frowned.“You took something that didn’t belong to you?”

Jayla turned in the chair, trying hard to hide her pain.“Yes.I think if the owner of these sweats were here, they would gladly let me borrow them.”

Diego grunted.“Borrow.You ruined them.”

“I just hemmed them.The stitches come out very easily.”

“I just th...”

Jayla interrupted Diego by standing and walking silently past them.She shocked them by dropping the sweats, folding them carefully, and setting them back in the drawer.She raised the few bills she’d put there.“I’ll leave these here for the damage I did to them.He can buy several new ones with the money.”

She walked to her bag, got a pair of jeans out, and slipped them on.Both men caught the flinches she did when the harsh fabric rubbed against her abrasions.

For some reason, her jeans looked really small, and she finally gave up the struggle and left the zipper and button undone.She was a little surprised she’d gained weight.She hadn’t had an appetite for a while.

She calmly walked back to the chair and sat with her back to the guys and read from one of the many books on the shelves on either side of the fireplace.

Beau and Diego looked at each other.Beau felt helpless.He felt Diego’s frustration, and it added it to his own.Fuck.She was now sitting in jeans he knew were extremely uncomfortable because of them.

The tension rose as the men looked at the back of her head and she ignored them.Fuck.Diego’s hands curled into fists.He had an overwhelming need to go outside and hit something until he bled.Because of his past, this little woman was paying the price, and he couldn’t seem to stop it.

He sniffed the air.“What is that smell?”

Jayla stiffened.The aroma of the roast had kept her hungry all day.“I put a roast and vegetables in the Crock-Pot I found.”

“You did that without asking?”

Beau grabbed onto his hand.“Why don’t you go outside and cool down?This is getting out of hand,” he whispered to him under his breath.

Diego jerked his arm from Beau’s grip.“No.She needs to learn she can’t just do what she wants when she wants.”

The men turned when they heard her sigh and stand.They watched in fascination as she went to her bag and grabbed a few twenties.She threw them at Diego when she walked past.“That’s for the roast and potatoes.”She proceeded to unplug the Crock-Pot, took a few towels to lift it, and walked out the side door.

The men followed and watched as she threw the food into the weeds on the side of the house.Beau opened the door for her, still uncertain of what he had just seen.

She softly set the pot on the counter and started walking out of the kitchen, only to stop beside Diego.She looked straight ahead.“Is there anything else you’d like to hurt me with?”

When he didn’t say anything, she moved back to the chair and grabbed her book and blanket.The bathroom door closed quietly behind her, and then nothing.

Diego looked around.How could one little woman bring so much life into a room that it made it feel like an empty abyss when she moved to another place?

Beau stood across the kitchen, his eyes on him.

Diego wiped a hand down his face.“I know, I know.”Anger at himself pushed at him.He growled and slammed his hand through the wall.He wanted to do it again and again, hoping it would help with the guilt running through him.He flexed his fingers.Besides some abrasions, there were no breaks.

“Why don’t you cool off?What the hell is going through your head right now, because I’ve never seen you like this?”

Diego pinched the bridge of his nose, ignoring the trickle of blood that ran down his hand.“I want her.I want her so bad I feel like I’ll go crazy if I don’t have her.”

“You are.I would never have thought you’d treat a woman like you’re treating her.”

Diego slammed the flat of his hand against the wall with the hole he’d just made.“Don’t you think I fucking know that?”