17
Joy held her breath as Walker leaned in and very softly brushed his lips against Dane’s.It wasn’t anything like she’d been expecting.He didn’t smash their mouths together and ravish his best friend, though she suspected that’s how they came together most times.
It might have been because of his split lip, but honestly she thought it was actually because of their wounded egos and the damage they’d done to each other’s insides.As much as she’d hated watching them fight, she adored seeing them build each other back up.
Dane moaned, then put his hands on Walker’s shoulders.He parted them just far enough and long enough to whisper, “That will never happen again.I really am sorry.”
“No need,” Walker answered before putting his arms around Dane and holding him close for a few seconds before he sealed their mouths more completely the second time.
What started as a gentle homecoming didn’t stay that way for long.
Surprisingly, it was Dane who blinked first, grabbing the back of Walker’s shirt in his hands as if he was afraid the other man might fly away or vanish from beneath his touch.How could Walker not realize that cutting himself out of the picture also meant tearing himself out of Dane’s soul?
Dane would never recover from a loss like that.Joy knew it and accepted it.She acknowledged them and whatever it was they had grown into.She had no intentions of giving Walker the boot so that she and Dane could enjoy some sort of selfish, isolated relationship.After all, she planned to be less like her own mother, who’d always taken the easy way out and favored convenience over true emotions in her marriage.
Walker should understand that considering he fought so hard to be nothing like Angus.
Even more important, seeing them still together after all this time, terrified of losing each other, proved to her they were capable of commitment and loyalty to their partner.It eased the part of her that still worried they would abandon her again.
They had it in them to go the distance with each other and…hopefully…with her.
So she was willing to give them everything she had in the hopes that she could claim even some of them in return.It would be more than enough to fill her heart.
The guys inched closer to each other until they were standing chest to chest and dick to dick.Their hands and arms roamed across each other’s backs and shoulders.Joy didn’t dare blink, so she saw the effect it had on Dane when Walker grabbed his ass and used the hold to press them more tightly together.
If she was the type of woman to be triggered easily, she might not have been able to handle seeing them so into each other that they appeared to forget she was even standing there, mere inches from them.At least until Walker cast his gaze to the side and caught her ogling them like some extra invasive Peeping Tom.
He cast his attention back to Dane and practically hummed, “She likes it, Dane.She’s into this.Us.And what we can do to each other.”
Dane made a low sound in his throat and shivered, pouring himself into the kiss as frantically as he’d thrown himself at Walker in the garage minutes earlier.
If they didn’t love each other intensely, there wouldn’t be any way they could get so upset at each other.If they didn’t care, it would be easy to say fuck it and walk away.They couldn’t and neither could she allow it.
No matter what else happened, Joy could never live with herself if she was the reason they lost each other.No way.
If she was the wedge driving them apart, she’d pack up and leave.
Except, wasn’t that exactly what Walker had tried to do to preserve her relationship with Dane?Shit, yes.The only solution was to stand and fight.For each other.
And that’s what she planned to do.
As soon as the guys finished apologizing to each other by way of a lot of tongue and grinding action.Damn.
Joy squeezed her thighs together, trying to soothe the ache developing between them as she watched Walker and Dane make out.They were so damn handsome, masculine, and still exposed.Open to emotion, unlike so many of the guys she’d spent her formative years around at Wildfire.
Nothing could have been more appealing to her.
She took a tiny step closer, tempted to put her hands on them and join in their exchange.If they didn’t do something about the molten desire bubbling up within her, more furiously by the second, she was going to erupt.Did they even realize how fucking hot they were making her?
And when they broke apart, she could see the passion shining from their eyes equally as brightly as it must be from her own.They turned to her as if they were one person.
Walker said, “So?What do you think?”
“I think I need you to take me to bed,” Joy demanded.“Both of you.”
“Joy, we just…” Dane flicked his gaze toward the room they’d shared earlier.She was well aware of what they’d done there, and she couldn’t wait to do it again.He certainly wasn’t having any issues getting revved up again either.“You should probably take a long bath and let me give you a massage instead.”
Walker took one look at her face and said, “Now you did it.”