The Men with the Golden Cuffs (Masters and Mercenaries #2)(56)

Jake couldn’t help it. He rolled his eyes. “You set this up. You pushed us together. Fuck, man, you dressed her yourself. I am sorry that I didn’t wait, but it just happened, and guess what, I’m crazy about her.”

“Yeah. I got that. And she’s yours. I f*cking got that, too.”

“It was the heat of the moment. Goddamn it, Adam. You’re acting like a child.”

Adam threw up his hands. “Well, I guess that’s just my f*cking place, isn’t it? It’s my place to be the dumbass f*ck up. It’s my place to hang on to you and hope that the woman wants to lower herself to the f*cking beta guy. You’re in charge. I’m the metro douchebag who hangs on to your alpha-male coattails.”

God, Adam’s father had done a number on him. “She’s crazy about you. If you’d been the one walking her around tonight, you would have been the one in bed with her.”

He shook his head. “No. I wouldn’t have. I would have waited for you. I could have had her in the elevator, and I didn’t.”

And that was the heart of the matter. Adam would have waited. “I’m sorry. I can’t say more than that. But you set her back tonight. I had her in a good place. If you had taken two seconds to think about her, you would have talked this out. Now her only sexual experience in years is coated in guilt.”

He went ashen. “I wasn’t mad at her. I was mad at you.”

“She doesn’t get that. Her husband had her thinking she f*cked everything up, and you reinforced that tonight.”

Adam stopped, that brilliant mind of his finally working through the problem. “But she said she was yours. I heard it. I know what I saw. I don’t blame her. I didn’t really get a chance, did I?”

He was like a two-year-old when he got this way. “No. You didn’t take your chance. Did it occur to you to jump in bed with us?”

“No. It didn’t.” Adam took a long drink of the Scotch in front of him. “I understand rules and boundaries. When your best friend’s girl tells him she belongs to him and only him, a decent man steps aside.”

“Really? Have you told that to Sean?” Adam had spent plenty of time chasing after Grace even after she’d gotten together with Sean.

“That was different.”

“Sure, it was different. That was Grace. This is Serena.”

“You were in love with Grace?” A familiar voice broke through their argument.

Jake closed his eyes and wished he hadn’t brought that up at all. Fuck. Serena had spoken the words. And she’d gotten ready far faster than he would have given her credit for. He turned and saw she was back in her frumpy clothes, her hair pulled up in a ponytail. She’d dragged her armor back on, and like a knight who didn’t procrastinate, she’d come out for battle.

Adam flushed. “I was attracted to her. I was going through kind of a crappy time. I made a mistake. She’s in love with Sean. She always was. She didn’t want me.”

Serena took a moment. Jake could see her mind working, and he was pretty sure he wouldn’t like what she was thinking. “Grace is very beautiful. I can see where you would be interested. Can we go home now, Jake? Or do we have to wait for Liam?”

Jake gritted his teeth. Serena was the freaking author. Adam was the charming one. Neither one of them had a problem with communication. So why the f*ck were they relying on him? He didn’t even like to talk. He liked being the silent type because he never really had anything to say, but now the two people who meant the most to him were clamming up.

The two people. Serena had become important, maybe even necessary. Adam had f*cking done this to him, and he wasn’t about to let Adam screw this up now. If Jake let Serena walk away, it could be days before they hashed this out. Jake didn’t want to wait days. He looked down at his sub. She was the weak link. She was the one behaving unlike herself.

“Ask him. You don’t have any trouble asking people the weirdest most awkward questions that can pop out of your mouth. Ask him. Be brave. Be Serena.”

She stopped, her eyes widening. “Be Serena? That’s rich, Jake. Serena is a little mouse.”

Jake scrubbed a hand through his hair. “No, she isn’t. She’s a fighter. She’s a woman who didn’t quit because her jerk of a husband told her to. She’s a woman who fights for her damn place. She’s a woman who doesn’t stop looking for what she needs just because she finds some douchebags along the way. Damn it, Serena, I’m not cut out for this shit. I don’t know how to argue. I would rather just punch things, but I’m asking you to be the woman I’ve spent days getting to know. That woman wouldn’t let him off the hook. That woman wouldn’t walk away. That woman would make him explain himself.”

Adam stared at him. “That’s the most words I’ve ever heard you use at one time.”

Serena smiled up at him like he was a toddler who’d just done something good. “You are very good with words, Jacob.” She went on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss, then turned to Adam. Jake was a little happy to see Adam had earned a frown. “Explain yourself, Adam.”

Adam’s face turned mulishly stubborn. “I don’t think there’s all that much to explain.”

“I think there is,” Serena shot back. “You put me in this position. You’re the one who talked endlessly about how you and Jake are trying to find one woman to share. You knew how I would feel about that. Were you lying? Were you just playing up to my fantasies? Did you find out I wrote about ménage and decide it was a way to control me?”