From Sanctum with Love (Masters and Mercenaries #10)(43)

Jared didn’t turn. “Yes.”

Then the solution was simple. Careful inner awareness would bring about the proper conclusion, one Jared would be able to live with. He’d interned with a therapist in high school as part of a work program for inner city kids. It had set him on his path. Even back then, he tried to make careful decisions. “All right. We need to sit down and make a pros and cons list.”

When Jared’s head turned up, there was a little smirk on his face. “And then we’ll assign each item a variable weight.”

Had he really sounded so pretentious? He did believe in the practice, but over the last fifteen years he’d perfected a less technical explanation. “Not everything is even. You can’t look at five cons and two pros and decide to nix an idea if those two pros are deeply important. We can sit down and discuss it if you would like.”

“I would like.” Jared reached into his locker and grabbed his jacket. “Maybe we can talk about it tonight at the club.”

“I’m not going to the club.” He had something else he needed to do. He needed to get out of here and catch Kori. They had some serious talking to do. “It’s almost one in the morning. Why would you go to a club now?”

“We’re not all early risers, brother. Lots of fun things happen after midnight. I’m surprised you decided to hang it up so early. The rest of the club is still hopping.”

He’d overheard Kori telling Sarah she was ready to go home. He meant to stop her in the lobby. It would take her some time to get dressed and Sarah had been in full fet wear. That worked in his favor. “I need to talk to Kori.”

He’d taken his time untying the ropes that had bound her. He’d played with her along the way, pulling the rope taut and then smacking her with it. He’d loved the squeals and the way she’d squirmed. He’d loved running his hands over her pink flesh. But when it was over, he’d gone to get her a robe and she’d disappeared. He’d tracked her down to the bar where he’d heard her talking to Sarah and Mia and made the decision to talk to her outside the club.

They would sit down and discuss what had happened rationally and honestly. He would rationally and honestly explain to her that there was no f*cking way he was going to let her go.

Hell no.

“Are you going to talk to her? Or are you going to kiss her?”

“Are you five years old?”

Jared shrugged. “I can’t tease my big brother? Because from where I was sitting you were totally into that girl. Literally, at one point of the evening. I was surprised. I thought you were going to f*ck her. I would have.”

“Don’t even talk about it.”

“Sorry, she’s lovely. That Sarah is pretty, too. She’s got a mouth on her. Little brat.”

“Getting into character?” He grabbed his kit.

“Uhm, yeah. Definitely. So why haven’t you and Kori hooked up before?”

He’d thought about this question incessantly since the moment he touched her. “Because I don’t hook up with anyone. I have relationships. Some are shorter than others. My relationship with Kori has been platonic.”

“That didn’t look platonic.”

It hadn’t felt that way either. “It’s something we need to talk about.”

“You’ve liked her before tonight though, right?”

Why was he asking about this? “Like I said, we were friends.”

“Because you didn’t seem happy to find me talking to her,” Jared pointed out.

“Well, I have my reasons for that.” He wasn’t going to bring up his insane curiosity about how they knew one another. Thinking about it made his gut roll with jealousy, and he hated that feeling. There was no logic to it. Even if she’d slept with Jared, it had been long before she’d met him, worked for him, become his friend. It had been another lifetime, but the thought made him want to punch his brother in his perfectly symmetrical face. “You shouldn’t bug her at work.”

Jared’s eyes widened. “You can’t honestly tell me that’s your reason. I was bugging her at work.”

He didn’t want to go into the real one. The real reason would lead to a family counseling session and while he was willing to talk to his brother about his career goals, he wasn’t willing to go there. “I owe it to her to provide her with a workplace where no one harasses her.”

“I wasn’t harassing her. I was talking to her and you went twelve kinds of possessive. Come on, Kai. We both know why you did that, and I’m worried it’s the very reason you kept your distance from a woman you obviously wanted.” Jared wasn’t letting up. He started to follow Kai out of the locker room.

“You just got here. You haven’t seen me in years. Don’t act like you know what’s going through my head.” He wasn’t ready for this conversation.

“You’re still angry with me for what happened. I get that. Don’t take it out on Kori. She’s not Hannah.” Jared was hot on his heels.

“I never said she was and you shut the f*ck up. You think you know me so well? Then you remember that I don’t air my dirty laundry in public. You’re making a scene.” He couldn’t stand it. He wasn’t the guy who posted his every f*cking feeling on social media. Some things were private, needed to be dealt with in quiet and thoughtful fashions, but his brother had never met a public argument he didn’t love. He would throw down in front of anyone.