Edge of Midnight (McClouds & Friends #4)(23)

“Yeah, tell me about it. Ever since then it’s like I can’t breathe.” He swallowed, audibly. “I close my eyes, and I see blood.”

Sean whistled. “Ouch. I can see as how that might put a crimp in a guy’s boner.”

“This is not a joke,” Davy growled.

“Do I look like I’m laughing?” Sean touched his brother’s shoulder. It was rigid as steel cable, vibrating with a charge that was approaching lethal. The guy had to chill, before he hurt himself.

Or worse, wrecked something irreplaceable.

It had been such a relief, to see his tight-assed brother finally loosen up and get happy. He was so in love with Margot, he was goofy with it. He was having fun for the first time in his more or less grim life.

No way in hell was he going to let Davy f*ck that up.

He folded his arms over his chest, considering his options.

“I don’t know why it threw me.” Davy sounded lost. “Considering how much we get it on, it’s amazing it hasn’t happened sooner.”

“Got it on, that is,” Sean corrected. “Past tense. That’s all over for you, buddy. Kiss your dick goodbye. You’re never having sex again.”

Davy glared at his brother, slit-eyed. “Do not f*ck with me, Sean.”

“Oh, I won’t,” he assured his brother. “Neither will Margot. Nobody will, being as how Mr. Big-n-Friendly’s gone south, leaving your bride to shrivel alone, sexually unfulfilled. What a waste. Poor Margot.”

“Keep your trash mouth away from Margot, punk.”

“What an *, letting that sexy lady sleep alone,” Sean mused. “But she’ll land on her feet. Just looking at Margot makes a guy want to procreate. Being as how you’re giving her all this breathing room, it shouldn’t take her long to find someone capable of—nngh!”

Bam, he was clamped to the wall, Davy’s forearm pressing his trachea. Good. He struggled to breathe. It worked. He’d goaded the grizzly out of its cave. Now all he had to do was not get killed.

“You know what your problem is?” Davy spat. “You never know when to shut up. You’re going to learn. So shut…the f*ck…up.”

Sean gave him a big, unrepentant grin. “Make me, meathead,” he wheezed. “Let’s take it outside. I don’t want to trash the kitchen any more than you already have.”

Davy jerked his hand away. Sean’s feet hit the floor.

He massaged his throat as he followed Davy out, and barely got into guard before Davy’s boot swooshed past his face, displacing air.

Woo-hah. Yes. Savage joy jolted through him. A no-rules fight with somebody as dangerous as he was, damn. Better than sex.

Maybe. He’d withhold judgment on that, since he’d never done the wild thing with the princess. Davy came at him like a Mack truck. His mind retreated while he ducked, punched, parried. Davy was a berserker, face contracted into a furious grimace. He didn’t seem to feel the blows Sean landed. He drove Davy backwards with a series of flying kicks, and his brother stumbled into the irrigation ditch their father had dug decades ago to feed the garden, and that split second while Davy fought for balance left him wide open for a kick to the groin.

Sean pulled it, not wanting to rupture his brother’s balls.

Davy hooked his legs and jerked him to the ground. “What the f*ck was that?” Davy snarled. “You arrogant little shit! You choke on another one of your kicks, and I’ll cave in your skull.”

“And maim the golden gonads?” Sean dug an elbow into Davy’s ribs. “Castrate the great Inseminator? I couldn’t do that to Margot.”

Davy snarled like a wild animal, and they were at it again, grappling and flailing. Davy wrenched him into a hammerlock, gaining ascendancy by dint of sheer muscle mass. Sean had plenty of muscle, but Davy had him beat by twenty pounds. Goddamn buffalo.

Sean struggled for breath, face shoved into the dusty grass. “I mean, the woman was born to breed.” He gasped as Davy yanked his arms higher. “Look up the word fertile in the dictionary, and you’ll find her picture. Just look at her, for Christ’s sake. She’s a walking advertisement for the joys of procreation. Those pillowy tits, those wide hips. Yum. Make way for the next generation.”

Yank. Oh, f*ck, that hurt. “I told you to shut up,” Davy said.

“Can’t,” Sean said, spitting out grass and dirt. “It’s not in my nature. Hey, what if she’s pregnant with twins? Doesn’t it run in the family?”

Yank. Agony. He tried not to shriek.

“Bite your tongue, jerkwad,” Davy growled. “Monozygotic twins are a random freak of nature. No hereditary component whatsoever.”

“Huh,” Sean grunted, coughing. “So you can have the other kind of twins. That would keep you too busy to pitch stupid-ass fits like this.”

Davy’s body started to vibrate, racked by silent, helpless shudders. Sean held his breath, and slowly relaxed. The worst was over.

Davy’s grip slackened. Sean wrenched his arms free, and with a heave and a grunt, shoved Davy’s weight off of himself.

Davy rolled over onto his back, covering his face with his hand. Sean discreetly turned his back and waited. God forbid that he inhibit his super-macho idiot brother from working out his bad ju-ju.

When Davy finally sat up, he still wouldn’t look Sean in the face. He just sat there, breathing hard, big shoulders slumped. “Gotta hand it to him,” he muttered. “Can you believe the sheer balls of the guy?”