She looked over at Jardin, who appeared to be the sane one. Although she didn’t know how sane it was to be standing there in a Texas summer dressed in a three-piece suit.
“Aren’t you hot?” she blurted out, without thinking first.
Alec Malone snorted out a laugh. Okay, the man was just plain rude.
Be nice, Mia. You need him.
She hated having to rely on other people. Hated creating this headache for her cousin. She rubbed at her forehead.
“I’m fine,” Jardin replied smoothly, shooting Alec a look he missed since his gaze was still on her. What was with that? Why did he keep staring at her? She was no great beauty. She wasn’t even interesting looking. She was plain. Most interesting thing about her was that someone was trying to put a bullet in her head. And she’d really rather not be that interesting.
“Do I have something on my face?” she muttered, scrubbing at her cheek.
“What?” Mike turned to look at her with a frown and she flushed. Drat. Hadn’t meant to say that out loud.
When she risked looking at Alec Malone, his eyes were dancing. He was laughing at her! She turned her gaze away before she said something totally inappropriate.
You need him. Play nice.
She let out a deep breath.
“Still not happy you’re only here part of the time,” Mike said to Jardin. “Thought I was giving her to you to protect.”
“Like Alec said, he’s better equipped to watch over her.”
“Yeah? How’s that? Who even is this guy? All I know about him is that he’s your cousin, he owns a ranch, has a lot of brothers and he likes to tie women up and whip them,” Mike snapped.
“Interesting that you know that.” Alec sent Jardin a look.
Jardin frowned. “Don’t look at me, I didn’t tell him.”
“Your brother did when he was going over my car with a bug detector. I asked him if he thought his brother could take care of my cousin. He said you were uptight, cautious and liked to be in charge. He also told me that you hardly ever leave the ranch so you could keep a close eye on her, except when you go to the BDSM club in town.”
She gaped up at him, she hadn’t heard any of that conversation, but her cousin wouldn’t look down at her. Instead his gaze was on Malone, who had his arms crossed over his chest and an amused look on his face.
“While I like to use the whip on occasion, it’s more Jardin’s preference than mine. I like a nice paddle. I have quite the collection.”
“Thanks very much, cousin.” Jardin glared at Malone. But his gaze was back on her. He couldn’t tell, could he? That her body had heated at his words? That her nipples had hardened? That she had to bite back the urge to ask to see that collection.
What was wrong with her? Sure, she liked to read books about that stuff, but she’d never gone to a club. She was pretty certain she never would. Because she was chicken shit. And with her luck, she’d walk in, trip over something and end up with her hoo-ha on display. Mind you in a place like that there was probably a lot of hoo-ha and cock on display. But knowing her, she’d make an absolute spectacle of herself, probably get herself kicked out and—
“Mia! Mia, you okay?”
She blinked, looking up into Mike’s concerned face.
“What?” she asked.
“She’s exhausted,” Alec said sharply. “She needs to rest. You done with your posturing yet?”
Mike scowled at him then Jardin. “You’re into that dominance bullshit as well?”
Jardin sighed. “Well, we don’t go around calling it bullshit. But if you’re asking if I’m a Dom, yes, I am.”
“You go to clubs and tie up girls then whip them?” Mike asked using the same tone of voice that one might ask someone if they had a shrine to Hitler in their basement. Disgust, horror, and anger.
“Mike, please,” she said quietly
“I won’t have my cousin exposed to any of that shit.”