Chapter 12
Kade
“I don’t know about you two, but I’ve never seen such good tits and ass. And did you see those nipples? They were the most perfect little nubs,” Adam said. He was leaning on the fence of the horse pen, Elijah and Benny next to him, all watching one of the newer horses prance, all with their backs to me.
“You gotta shut up about it before you get us in trouble,” Benny said.
“Just admit it. You know I’m right,” Adam said.
“She was pretty top tier. I’ll give you that,” Benny said.
“E? Fess up. You wanna hit that, too,” Adam said. “Admit it and I’ll shut up.”
“I’ve got a dick, so of course I do, but can we shut up about it now?” Elijah said.
They’d better not be talking about Leah . They couldn’t be. The way they were talking about her nipples—how the hell would they know that?
“Who you guys talking about?” I asked, strolling closer.
They all jerked, seeing me behind them. The guys all dropped their heads as I neared the pen. I’d seen less guilt on a mugger who was still holding a knife and a purse.
“They’ve got a new dancer down at Sinners Club,” Adam said. “I dragged the guys there a few nights ago.”
Not Leah. That was all that mattered.
“Elijah, check on the door on stall three in stables two when you get a chance. The lock felt loose.”
“Got it.”
“What’s going on?” I asked as I stopped beside Chuck, who was littler farther down, kicking a fence post that looked like it might be getting some rot.
“Nothing much. Going pretty smooth today,” he said, giving the post a little tug.
I turned back to watch as Benny said something to Elijah, who caught me watching and tried to causally nudge Benny in the ribs.
I turned back to Chuck. “When did the guys go down to Sinners with Adam?”
“They didn’t, not that I’ve heard.”
“Really? I heard them talking about a new dancer’s tits and ass.” And why was that bothering me so much? So what? I’d heard them talk about plenty of women.
Chuck tugged at another piece of wood. “Some of this needs to be replaced.”
I didn’t care about the fence. I cared that all my guys looked like they’d robbed a bank. “Chuck, what the fuck is going on with them?”
He finally stopped staring at the fence and took too long a breath before he spoke. “It was an accident, but some of the guys might’ve seen more of Leah than maybe was decent.”
I nodded, telling myself to let it go, to not go over and kill them all now. It was an accident. Why the hell did I care, anyway?
Let it go. Just walk away and let it go.
“Exactly how much more?” I asked in spite of myself.
“She was about to get in the shower and the lock to the bathroom is broken. They didn’t know she was in there,” Chuck said.
So in other words, everything .
I was not a jealous person. And I had no reason to be jealous, considering I didn’t even like Leah. It was just leftover protectiveness. Old feelings that had been dug up by her presence.
But damned if it didn’t feel like someone had hit my “go nuclear” button.
“Kade?” Chuck said. “Kade! Where the fuck you going?”
I stopped walking. “I’m not a psycho. I’m not beating anyone up over an accident.”
If it happened again? Things might be different. But that was not going to happen again, and not because I was jealous. She was my responsibility. I couldn’t have her in a position where people were walking in on her in the bathroom.
I barely slowed as I approached the guys and said, “Next person who doesn’t knock when there’s a closed bathroom door gets their nose broken. Is that understood?”
There was a flurry of nods before I kept walking to my target.
As luck would have it, she was walking across the field toward her cabin as I was making my way there.
“Come with me,” I said.
“Why? What did I do now?” Leah stopped beside her door, hands on her hips.
“Either pack your shit or I’ll pack it for you.” I opened her door and walked in, looking for her suitcase.
“Pack me for where?” she asked, following me.
I knelt down, trying to see if she’d hid it under the bed. This place wasn’t that big. It was here somewhere. Otherwise I’d toss all her shit on the comforter and move it. “I can’t have you flashing every hand I have, so I’m not having you stay here.”
There it was. I dragged the suitcase out from underneath her bed and unzipped it. I stood to go to her dresser and there she was.
“It wasn’t my fault,” she said.
There was a desperation in her voice that seemed to cut through my thoughts. I truly looked at her for the first time. She was pale and her hands were shaking. We’d fought before. Why was she so rattled this time? Never in her life had she ever been afraid of me, and to think she was made bile rise in my throat.
Then it hit me like a bat to the head.
“I’m moving you to the house.” I straightened, really taking her in. “Did you think I was going to kick you out? Have you go to prison?” I asked, my voice softer.
“No, obviously not,” she said, but with too much force. She’d really thought I was going to haul her off to prison, and it was like a sucker punch to my soul.
“Leah, I wasn’t coming here to?—”
“I know,” she snapped. “I just don’t want to go to the house.” She crossed her arms, as if that would stop me from seeing how unhinged she was.
“It’s an upgrade. You want to stay here?” I said, struggling to regain my composure.
“I’m not moving to the house,” she said, notching up her chin. “You said I couldn’t even walk into that place. I swear, you are completely unhinged. I’ve never met a crazier man in my life.” She might’ve been carrying on, but the color was coming back to her cheeks, even as I felt like I needed to sit.
“Look, I heard about the bathroom situation and I can’t have that happen again, so I’m willing to make a compromise.”
“What?” she asked, trying to cover up the obvious vulnerability we were both aware of. She was feeling so out of sorts that she wasn’t paying attention to how I rattled I was. I might’ve been more wrecked than she was right now. Lucky for me, she was oblivious.
“Since there are issues I wasn’t aware of with the bunkhouse, I’d prefer it if you at least showered up at the house so I don’t have to worry about any more incidents.” I’d seen the bathroom at the bunkhouse. If she turned me down on this, she officially hated me so much that she’d do anything to stay away from me.
I was knotted up waiting for her to accept the offer. If she didn’t, if she truly hated me? I wasn’t sure I could handle that.
“How would that work? What if you’re not home? Then what? I can’t shower?”
The fact that she’d already gotten to the technicalities let me breathe again. She hadn’t said no. She wasn’t that revolted by me. “I don’t lock the door to the house. Just go in when you want to shower.”
“You said?—”
“I know. I changed my mind.” I remembered all the things I’d said, even when I didn’t want to.
She shook her head and rolled her pretty blue eyes at me, as if that was supposed to annoy me. All it did was make me itch to pull her hair out of that ponytail and thread my hands through those beautiful locks. Even now, it was as if she were completely oblivious to how unbelievably sexy she was in just a pair of jeans and not an ounce of makeup.
“We have a deal?” I asked.
“Yes, I guess so if you’re going to be crazy about it. It wasn’t that big a––”
“I can’t have that happen again,” I said, for the sake of my sanity and the guys’ health. “Come up when you’re ready and I’ll show you around.”
She gave me a halfhearted nod.
I turned to leave but couldn’t until I said it again and knew she’d really heard it. “Just for the record, I wouldn’t just kick you out of here.”
“Not that I care, but how am I supposed to know what’s going to piss you off enough when just having a heartbeat seems to do it?”
“Because I wouldn’t do that to you.” I sounded harsh, but how could she even imagine I would let her get thrown in prison? Did she think I was so different from the man she’d known ten years ago? Whether either of us liked it, there was a history between us that was hard to walk away from, and I was finding it harder by the day.