Page 29 of Welker

“It’s okay, Callie.” Moira chose her words carefully. “I get it. And you’re right. I’m not in the market. I did my share of experimenting in college, and even though I didn’t find that perfect person, I made a few connections for life. One in particular, Jory, lives in California.”

Welker’s face soured. “He’s your…boyfriend?”

If Moira didn’t know better, she’d say he was jealous. But that was ridiculous. He couldn’t be. Maybe his odd attitude was because she’d once had success in the dating department, and he…hadn’t? Perhaps, of all the women Welk had gone through, none had meant enough to him end up as a friend? That was kind of sad.

Moira put Welker’s green-eyed monster to rest.

“He was my boyfriend, but we found out we were really only destined to be buddies. Jory is happily married now, with his first child on the way.”

Welker looked…odd?

Her mind went back to his bedpost and its imaginary notches. His attitude—the way he was looking at her right now like she might just prove delicious—probably stemmed from him not getting laid in a while, and Moira’s new circumstances made her…handy. She’d like to read more into his interest, but despite his teasing, he’d never treated her as anything other than a normal and valued member of his squad. He’d never…

Damn.

Before the doorbell had rung, there had been something in Welker’s eyes. The way he’d stared at her lips… It had been different than anything she’d seen from him before, and she’d be lying to herself if she didn’t admit to having been thrilled at this unaccustomed attention. If Callie and Sabira hadn’t shown up, Moira and Welker might be, at this very moment, entangled on the floor, or engaged on the counter, or?—

Color moved up into her face, and she swung her hair forward to hide it as she scrubbed a dish, then rinsed it.

“You don’t have to wash those by hand, you know.”

Welker had moved sideways, gaining a better vantage point from which to see her face. “The hot water is making you red.”

Leave it to the asshole to call her on her embarrassment. It’s as if he knew where her mind had gone, but that was impossible, right? She needed to poke him back.

“Nope. It’s not the water,” she countered slyly, shaking her head. “I was just thinking of a few things Jory and I used to get up to.”

Lies. The pair of them had met as virgins, and ended as not much more with how they’d fumbled during sex, but Welker didn’t need to know that.

“Oooh,” Callie giggled. “Now we’ll have to go out for drinks some night and do girl talk.”

“Spare me,” Welker grunted.

Moira noted that his lips, normally lush and tipped up into a smile, were tightly clenched.

“That’s exactly what we’re doing,” Sabira put in. “Sparing you. Because I’m sure you don’t want to hear about Moira’s sex-capades. In detail,” she snickered.

“Detail?” he choked.

Callie scoffed. “You don’t for a minute think that the women you sleep with don’t discuss all your…finer attributes with their girlfriends, do you?”

Now it was Welker’s turn to color up.

Moira decided she liked having this girl-posse at her back. She’d never been the best at deflecting, or coming up with smart retorts, but this pair was taking care of business, and it felt awesome.

“You guys are terrible,” Welker grumbled as he walked to the door, then turned back to Moira. “I’ll be waiting outside for you, to head to your house.” He yanked the portal open, then slammed it shut behind him.

Moira looked at Callie, Sabira looked at Moira, and they all cracked up.

“That was so much fun,” Callie chortled. “It’s not often I get to see my big brother flustered.”

Moira’s laughter eventually wound down and turned into a hiccup as she smiled, widely. “You don’t tease him very much?”

“Oh, no. We do,” Callie corrected. “But it normally rolls off him like water.”

“So what was that about, then?” Moira asked, puzzled as she tipped her head and pointed a finger at the door.

“That, was because of you,” Sabira joined in.

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