Wild Like the Wind (Chaos #5)(41)
“The bad boy,” she told him. “The alpha. The biker. She goes for a hint of goof because Boz had that and it was cute, if you’re into that kind of thing, which I’m not, but she is so it worked for them. But, you know, the badass, half a step up from caveman has to be tempered.”
Since she was lying on top of him, meaning spending time with him, so he was catching her drift and he didn’t know whether to start laughing again or start getting ticked.
“Half a step up from caveman?” he asked.
“Shep, honey, you drink beer with brookies.”
“That makes me half a step up from caveman?”
“And your pans are made of tin and the last time they were used was by hobos displaced in Oklahoma during the dust bowl crisis.”
That settled it.
He started laughing again.
“And it can’t be lost on you that you have a dominant personality,” she went on.
No, that wasn’t lost on him.
“For a woman who is not a pushover, this could go bad if things aren’t balanced the other way,” she declared.
“And what’s the other way?”
“If her man isn’t protective, like you. And thoughtful, like you. And sweet, like you. And funny, like you. And especially if he doesn’t have a gorgeous cock and knows how to use it, like you do.”
Hound now wasn’t finding anything amusing.
He was finding it something a lot better.
“You think I’m all that shit?”
“Babe, the first bite you take of food I make you, every time you give me a look that tells me how much you like it that immediately makes it worth the effort of buying the food and cooking it for you.”
“Just to say, not to take anything away from the food you cook for me, which I like and appreciate you make that effort, but before you started doin’ that, Keekee, all I ate was fast food so pretty much anything would be better.”
“I’m sure, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that you don’t act like you expect me to serve up good food as your due because you have a penis. Like you said, you appreciate it and you make that known. That’s the difference. Now I can continue to blow sunshine up your ass but that would not be me talking you into having a word with Boz about getting his head out of his ass.”
“Keely, it sucks Bev is gonna settle for this guy but it isn’t my business, or yours, and since they split years ago, it isn’t Boz’s.”
“And from what you know about their split, he doesn’t care Bev moves on?”
He couldn’t say that.
What he said was, “From what I know about the brotherhood, I don’t get involved.”
“Hound—”
He gave her a firm squeeze to cut her off.
“No, babe, it’s not gonna happen.”
She gave him a stubborn look.
He kept his mouth shut and took it.
Her look vanished and a concerned one took its place.
That was harder to withstand.
“I want her to be happy,” she said.
“This guy doesn’t make her happy?”
“He pays attention to her, and if they settle in, he’ll help her pay the bills. That’s what this guy does for her.”
He liked Bev. That sucked for her. She deserved more.
It still wasn’t his problem.
Or Keely’s.
He didn’t have to say that again.
Keely got it.
“Right,” Keely muttered. “We’ll quit talking about this because it’s making me sad.”
He rolled her and gave her some of his weight, getting all of her attention.
“Just talk to her,” he advised. “Tell her she should hold out for what she wants.”
“She isn’t twenty-two anymore, honey.”
“No. But she is a good woman and she shouldn’t give up.”
She slid a hand up his back, did it light and did it sweet.
“You sure you won’t talk to him?”
He shook his head, liking the touch but not giving in to it.
“You know how it goes, Keekee.”
Her eyes drifted away from him and something moved over her face that disturbed him more than the subject of their current conversation merited, even as tight as she was with Beverly and as obvious as it was this was bothering her, as she answered, “I know how it is.”
“Babe,” he called.
She came back to him and it didn’t make him feel better that it looked like she wiped her expression clean, like she’d lost track of it, knew what she’d exposed and was hiding it from him.
“Wanna tell me what’s in your head?” he asked.
“Just that this is one of the bad parts that you have to balance with the good.”
He could get that.
“Sorry, Keekee,” he whispered.
“It is what it is, baby,” she whispered back.
It was definitely that.
He touched his mouth to hers and left it there when he asked, “You want more?”
“Do you seriously have to ask that question?”
He grinned against her mouth and when he went in again, it wasn’t a touch.
“What d’you think?” Hound asked Jean.
She’d taken a rare shuffle down the hall because all of Keely’s furniture had shown up, Jean had heard the commotion over the last six days, and she was curious.