Kai lowered his bottle. “What?”
In the dim light of the bar, her siren eyes were more an aqua green than blue, he noticed.
“Since running with you he's been exhausted. He didn’t even react when the kittens arrived today. He’s too tired to move.”
“He needs more exercise,” Kai replied, not even remotely fazed.
Pippa looked horrified. “We have kittens now?” she wailed. “Dammit, Fee, that’s the second bomb you’ve dropped on me tonight!”
Flick wrinkled her nose at her friend. “They’re just babies, Pips. They’re thin and scared—”
“They always are,” Pippa sighed. “Don’t we have enough to deal with without two kittens, Flick?”
Flick pointed to a guy standing behind them. “It’s Kevin’s fault. He found them and dropped them off.”
“But you were the sucker who didn’t say no,” Kai said quietly. He realized that he’d made an error when her eyes re-focused on him. yep, she was irritated, and, dammit, she wasn’t done with him yet.
“Getting back to what I was saying, my dog is a train wreck! How far did you run him?”
Kai just shrugged. The less he said, the less trouble he’d be in.
“Isn’t Rufus being tired a good thing?” Jack asked from his side of the bar. “No digging up flowerbeds, humping anything that moves, eating the bumper of your car.”
Kai winced and Flick hastened to defend her baby. “He only did that once—“
“Four times,” Sawyer corrected.
“Three, technically. The fourth time he chomped her side mirror,” Jack interjected.
“Oh, shut up!” Flick said. She pointed a finger at Kai. “You are not off the hook, mister!”
Maybe not, but he would be soon. Distract and evade—SEALS were particularly good at that. Kai hid his smile and looked at Sawyer, then Jack. “Do you know that she’s thinking about having him de-balled?” he said.
Sawyer winced. “Aw, the poor guy.”
Jack turned to Flick and frowned. “Is that necessary? I mean, he was abandoned on a highway, hit by a car, left there to die, and now you want to punish him further by taking his manhood?”
“He’s a dog!” Flick pointed out. “Adog! He won’t know the difference.”
“Don’t bet on it,” Kai said.
Jack sighed. “Only a woman could make such a heartless statement.”
Flick pointed an irritated finger at him. “I am tired of seeing him hump anything that moves, from dogs to furniture to my leg! I’m terrified because I think he’s impregnated a few of the neighborhood dogs, including a highly-bred poodle. And stop trying to change the subject! We were talking about Kai breaking my dog.”
Kai didn’t bother to respond, knowing that his look suggested that she was whining. Flick’s responding look threatened to blister his skin. “Stay away from my dog,” she told him.
Kai was old enough and smart enough to hear her warning and knew that it had nothing to do with her dog. She’d realized, as he did, that if they found themselves alone again they'd be back to square one; naked and screwing their brains out.
Sawyer drained his glass and waved it in the air, looking at Jack. “Any chance of getting served here?”
Jack peeled his folded arms off the bar and glanced over their glasses. Without asking who wanted what, he proceeded to refill their drinks, listening to their conversation while simultaneously flirting with a group of women sitting next to them. He looked calm and lazy but his eyes, Kai noticed, missed nothing. Like Jack, he was also currently monitoring an argument between a man and a woman in the far corner of the bar and keeping an eye on a very competitive pool match. Jack shared Flick’s eye shape and color, but his were darker, more cynical.
Subdued strength, Kai thought. Both physical and mental. Smart and sneaky. The kind of guy you wanted at your back in a fight. Like Sawyer, he was also extremely protective of Flick and Pippa. He hadn’t missed the glares they’d both sent the guys who’d tried to approach the girls to chat them up; one look from either of them was enough to shrivel the balls of most men.
Kai doubted he could restrain himself to a look if he had to watch some random dude hit on Flick. Actually, he could practically guarantee that the guy’s chances of making sperm would be severely compromised.
Not your girl, not your fight...not your anything, he reminded himself sternly. Would he ever get that through his thick skull?