I am stronger than that weak impulse. I have to be.
I also can’t afford to ignore Broderick reaching out a hand, no matter how reluctantly.
With a sigh, I drag the sheet back up to cover myself and am saint enough to ignore the way his skin goes red in response. Still, I can’t help poking at him, just a little. “One would think you’d be grateful someone else was willing to get rid of me. It’d take care of your little problem so you don’t have to.”
“I don’t want you dead.” The words are so soft, I almost convince myself I imagined them.
“Why not?” Maybe I’m not that smart, after all. This conversation stings in ways I’m not prepared to examine, but I can’t stop prodding the wound. “I’m a pain in your ass. When you’re around me, you constantly act in ways you claim aren’t normal for you, and you hate that. I seduced the woman you’re in love with right under your nose and then flaunted it in your face.”
He clenches his jaw like he’s biting down on a bunch of words that would send us spiraling. Finally, he grinds out. “I don’t like you overmuch, but it took two of us to get to this place. I’m not blameless and you don’t deserve to die just because you’re a pain in my ass.”
Of course he doesn’t like me. I don’t like him overmuch, either. No reason for that to worm beneath my skin and eat away at me. I clear my throat. “Okay, I’ll bite. What’s your plan?”
“We spend some time together.” He catches my look. “We don’t have to keep sleeping together, but—”
“Broderick.”
“Yeah?”
I smother the strange fluttering in my throat. “I like fucking you. I don’t think I’m overstating things saying that you like fucking me, too.”
He stares at me, hard. “No, you’re not overstating things.”
“Then there’s no reason to stop.” I don’t mention Shiloh, but the possibility of her is between us all the same. Did he get off even harder last night because we were working together to get her off? I’m suddenly afraid to ask, afraid it was all in my head. It felt so good to team up with him. So good it scares me a little bit. I’ve seen this man as an opponent for so long, I don’t know how to work with him as a partner. At least outside the bedroom.
Broderick is silent for a long moment. Finally, he says, “No, there’s no reason to stop.”
I don’t breathe a sigh of relief. I have too much control for that. But… I want to. “Okay.”
“Okay.”
We sit for a long moment, long enough that things begin to feel awkward. I clear my throat. “Now that that’s out of the way, I suppose you want us to be seen together in public?”
“Yeah.”
I think about my plan last night, how well it worked. How much all three of us enjoyed ourselves. Shiloh might have rabbited out of here the first chance she got, but that doesn’t mean we have to backslide. Especially if Broderick and I are on the same page. That is such a strange concept, I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around it. I tap my fingers to my bottom lip. “Can I ask you a question?”
Some of the tension that bled out of his shoulders previously courses back in. “I might not answer. But sure, go ahead and ask.”
Oh, I think he will answer. I hold his gaze, searching those pretty, blue eyes. “We both know you want Shiloh.”
I can see the exact moment he decides to stop attempting to lie to me about it. He relaxes back against the bed next to me. “I guess there’s no point in denying it. You had my number down within an hour of meeting me.”
I smile a little. “Only part of it. You’re just so obvious when you look at her. I’m honestly surprised you don’t have literal hearts in your eyes. It’s cute.”
“Uh huh.” He nudges me with his elbow. “And you don’t? You go all soft and sugary sweet with her. You’re not like that with anyone else.”
He’s right. I might provoke Shiloh a bit, but she brings out a softer side of me. I grin down at him. It strikes me that we’re having yet another civil conversation, but this time I don’t point it out. “She’s been with you, what, seven years? How have you not gotten drunk and tried to kiss her even once? I don’t understand that level of restraint.”
Broderick shrugs. “We’re friends. I value that more than anything. I might have been fucking things up since we got back to Sabine Valley, but she’s too important to me to mess things up with sex.” His expression clouds. “It doesn’t matter what I want. She’s obviously not on the same page. I don’t want to make her uncomfortable.”
That draws a laugh from me before I can stifle the sound. “Broderick, she was coming all over your fingers a few hours ago. She might pretend that it was me causing that, but we both know the truth.”
“Do we?”
The vulnerability in his tone is a pressure point I should leap to exploit. Shiloh has always been Broderick’s weakness; it’s why I zeroed in on her from the beginning. My mother might not have tasked me with destabilizing the Paine brothers in whatever way I can safely manage, but it’s the smart thing to do. Broderick is Abel’s second-in-command. He’s softer than some of his brothers, but that doesn’t make him less formidable. If not for Shiloh, I doubt I’d have gotten to him so quickly.
But a selfish part of me wants what we had last night. I want more of it. I want the high of us working together and putting both our formidable wills toward one goal.
Not to mention…I’m hesitant to do anything that might hurt Shiloh or put her in harm’s way.
Destabilizing the Paine brothers—and
