I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, oh.”
“Who?” Gus asked again.
“Kaitlyn Leary,” I said, my voice lacking the enthusiasm his had.
“Kaitlyn Le… oh shit.” Gus’s arms fell to his sides, his quick grin slipping. He’d expected a tale of a wild night, but he realized he wasn’t going to get it.
“So you fucked her,” T commented with a shrug, then settled back into the couch. “Fine, then you got that pussy out of your system. Not the smartest lay, but if you didn’t know who she was…”
I stood up so I loomed over him, my hands going into fists. “Don’t say that shit about her. And I didn’t fuck her.”
I wouldn’t have, not then. Not in Jed’s office. I’d wanted to make her feel good, to have her come so she knew what it would be like between us. Just a taste of it. I’d had no plan to let my dick out of my pants because I’d wanted more from her than a quick fuck, but then she’d pressed her palms against our dicks and we’d been powerless to say no to her sexy hand job.
10
DUKE
Gus stepped in front of me, thinking I was going to jump T. I wouldn’t if he stopped talking shit about Kaitlyn, but I looked around Gus and glared anyway.
T held his hands up in front of him. “Whoa. You like her. I mean, really like her.”
“I’ve never heard you say that before,” Gus added, his voice quiet, perhaps because he was within punching distance and didn’t want to rile me. We’d beaten each other up before, more times than any of us could count. We were too big, too strong now, and we’d all end up with concussions, broken noses or worse. And we weren’t dumb enough to fight it out right before my mother showed up. “Where’s Jed in all this?”
“He was right there with me. As for today? Sleeping, like usual. Dad was right,” I said on a sigh. “I saw her and I thought she was The One. It was like I’d been hit by a fucking two-by-four. Jed, too.”
They smiled at me. Grinned like idiots, actually. “That’s great,” Gus said, slapping me on the shoulder.
“Not great,” I countered, dropping back in my chair. “She’s Kaitlyn Leary. Her father almost killed Mom and Dad.”
“Um, duh?” T countered.
Gus sat on the coffee table, remaining between the two of us.
“Doesn’t that bother you?” I was surprised I had to ask.
“Jesus, Duke, you know I hate that man.” T stood, went into the kitchen and grabbed a soda. Or three, as I saw he had one for each of us when he came back.
“Me, too,” Gus murmured, taking two of them and handing one to me. He twisted off the top of his and took a swig. “But you don’t have the hots for that asshole.”
“Wait a second,” T said, holding up his hand. “You said you didn’t know who she was when you met her last night. But you do now. Meaning you saw her again. You’re leaving stuff out.”
Gus nodded in agreement.
“Fine. It’s like this.” I told them about following her to her car—leaving out the finer details of what we did with her in Jed’s office—and how she’d freaked out and bolted.
“At the time, she didn’t know who you were either,” Gus said, taking another slug of soda.
“Are you kidding? She thought I was part of the male revue,” I replied, smiling as I remembered how surprised I’d been.
They stared at me for a second, then started laughing.
“She thought you were a stripper? Classic,” T commented, grinning. “Yeah, she had no fucking idea who you were.”
“What? I could pull it off,” I countered, only slightly offended.
That only made them laugh louder.
I rolled my eyes. “Anyway, when I told her my name, it was like I told her I had leprosy or something,” I replied, moving away from the idea of me as a stripper. “She bolted faster than a fucking rabbit.”