His body jerks from my words, then mine jerks from the loud boom of the gun.
My heart pounds in my chest when something hard and intimidating touches my ass. But he doesn’t explain. Not truthfully, anyway.
Not the Riggs thing, and not his erection.
“Umm.” His voice cracks. “It’s just a joke, because we watched Lethal Weapon one time. Now take your second shot. And pay attention.”
* * *
Three hoursand an uncountable number of bullets later, Ang takes my hand and leads me up Kane’s driveway and through the front door.
Silly schoolgirl nerves flitter through my stomach; power, because I learned how to shoot a gun; independence, despite the fact I’m hardly competent yet; adrenaline, because I know for a damn fact Angelo feltsomethingwhile he helped me shoot; and giddiness, because it didn’t freak me out.
For months – years, even – I assumed for the rest of my life, men would repulse me. I’ve had more than my fair share, and I figured I could go the rest of my life and never want to touch one again.
Even this morning, I was on that train.
But now Ang likes to hold my hand. He holds my hips. He laughs at my jokes.
His erection touched my back, and suddenly, notallmen repulse me.
Could that be something?
Or is it like a rebound thing?
It’s Angelo-fricken-Alesi! My brother’s friend.
“Did you have a good time?”
“Yeah.” I allow him to lead me through the living room and pretend the hand holding isn’t weird. “It was fun, and Spence is cool. Scary as hell, but cool. What about you?”
“Yeah, it was– Ugh!” Convulsing, Ang spins and slams his eyes shut. I peek around him and laugh when I find Jess’ flushed face. She straddles Kane’s lap and buries her face in his neck.
I laugh and continue walking, and when Ang refuses to budge, I release his hand and tap Jessie on the back of the head.
I should be grossed out about the fact she’s in his lap. I should bemoregrossed out that she didn’t jump up, which means she’s helping him hide something that might be a little ‘pokey.’
But I’m not.
It’s cathartic seeing them together. Seeing the love they carry for each other.
So passionate.
So real.
Something I’ve never had.
When a woman reaches my age and has never felt that all-encompassing love, the least she deserves is to be witness to it.
I stop behind Jess and tug her hair back. “Hey, pretty girl.” I drop a kiss on her brow, and when Kane winks, I hardly even blush.
“Hey there, Twink.” He lifts his chin. “You have fun with Spence?”
I step away from the couple and go about pouring a couple glasses of juice. “How’d you know where we were?”
“One; you don’t have friends like Spence and not know what’s up. He was worried Jess was stepping out on me, so he sent a picture of you and Ang at the range. You looked sexy with that Glock, by the way. I’m partial to those.” Unapologetically, his hands massage Jess’ thighs. “You guys looked kinda comfortable in that booth, and since Spence isn’t the kinda guy that trusts easily,especiallynot when he can see the proof right in front of his eyes – you know, seeing as how you and the other hot blonde are identical – he refused to settle until I sent a picture back of me and Jess right here.”
I laugh and re-cap the juice. “He threatened Ang’s life, and told me he was disappointed. He’s a loyal friend.”