“Well, no, but—”
“You know how that’s gonna have to go, right?” As he stepped closer, all deadly intent, I wondered where the hell the boy who’d spent all those hours studying with me had gone. “Like, I can pull my dick all day—”
“And he does,” Ryan said with a snicker.
“As if you’re any different, especially since we got to town,” Colt shot back. “Is there a clean sock in the whole house right now?” There was silence in response to that. “But I can’t engage my own knot—”
“Only I can,” I finished for him. “Blake gave me a little lesson about that this morning.”
“Little lesson, big fella?” Haze cackled. “Aw, is that what we felt down the bond with Riley? A whole lot of disappointment when she worked out you’re not proportionate?”
And that, of course, started a virtual torrent of ribbing about dick size, because if men are given the opportunity to discuss it, they will, ad nauseum, and I was the one feeling the nausea. I was fairly sure there was a big—or not so big—juicy study for a team of psychiatrists to undertake, but thankfully, that was outside my wheelhouse.
“If we could stop talking about penises for five minutes while I finish taking the samples,” I said. “I want to get this over and done with. Spider has a bucket full of gin big enough for me to plunge my head into, waiting for me at the pub.”
“About that,” Fen said, and everyone went quiet. He jerked his head to Haze, ousting him from his seat, and then rolled up his own sleeves, revealing an even more muscular arm. I went to work, taking his blood as he spoke. “We want you with us this weekend.”
“What?”
I nearly pulled away, which wasn’t smart when you were on the business end of a needle.
“We’ve got a house. It’s a big place. If you really aren’t feeling us, we set up a room for you. It’s got a huge bed, with its own TV and en suite. You could sprawl out there, watch movies until your eyes roll out of your socket, and just relax. You gotta admit, you’re wound pretty tight.”
“I wasn’t until you lot rolled into town,” I muttered to myself.
“Just hang out with us,” Colt said. “Honestly, we could just sit and read and I’d call that the best fucking weekend I’d had since high school.”
“Pfft…” Haze said, “I figure we could go for a long walk on the beach—”
“Or we could go for a drive up into the hills,” Ryan said.
“Guys—” I started to say.
“I could cook.”
Blake’s comment was short, sweet, but as I removed the needle from Fen’s arm, having got everything I needed, his input was what had me turning around.
“That’s what gets her attention?” Ryan asked in a hushed tone. “Damn, Blake, you bloody dark horse.”
But it was the slow flush of his cheeks, that small secret smile that felt like it was just for me, that snagged at me, but I wasn’t about to confess that to the others. I turned back to Fen, ready to tape his arm up, when he rose to his feet, towering over me.
“You didn’t hear what I had planned.”
“OK.”
The word escaped me without thought because I might have been just a teeny tiny bit intimidated by Fen. Back then, the Vanguard boys had been heirs apparent, ready to take over their dads’ thrones, but Fen was the king. He always moved like he did now, with absolute confidence. He stepped away from the chair, forcing me to back up, the others rumbling in response.
“You’re too tight, Red.” And as if to illustrate this, he put a hand on my shoulder and I jumped. Those iron hard fingers dug into my muscles, forcing them to unclench and go loose. “I figure we put on one of those bloody awful rom-coms you always liked, you can sprawl out on the floor, and I’ll work every muscle in your body until you’re all soft and relaxed. Would you like that?”
Would I like that?
Would I like that!
I was fairly sure every straight woman and gay man in the near vicinity would’ve liked to pick up what he was laying down.
“That won’t be necessary,” I said, my voice sounding ridiculously prim, and the guys chuckled in response. “I’ll get my chill on in the usual way—through dysfunctional drinking, followed by lashings of carbs, fat, and salt.”
“You want to get drunk, baby?” Haze asked with a cock of his head. “There won’t be any goon this time and no little beta boys with big crushes.”