Page 119 of More than Need

“I didn’t know how to,” Dawson said honestly. “I felt like shit that I couldn’t keep away. That one kiss scrambled my brain, and I just…”I couldn’t stay away.

Sadie softened. “The first time I saw him, sitting there in his office, I realised that my life would never be the same,” she said, tipping her head upwards and leaning back, swinging lightly, hands twisting around the metal, her knuckles going white. “He was nice to me, sort of, to start with, until I told him who I was. You know I always wanted a sibling.”

“I know.”

“Then I found you, and I thought, ‘Nah, this sucks.’”

Dawson nudged her knee, and she laughed. Hearing the sound sent relief pouring through him. It gave him hope that they could get through it, and that things wouldn’t change so muchthat who they were would be lost under the weight of their new reality.

“He was nothing like what I thought he would be. Less, but also so much more at the same time, even during that first conversation. Cold. A total asshole.”

It was Dawson’s turn to laugh. “I hate to break it to you, but only some of that had to do with your sibling bomb. He’s kind of an asshole in general.” Blunt, direct, and refreshing. Dawson never had to wonder where he stood with either of his men, because they told him. Honest, reliable, ridiculously decent men.

“I don’t know how to feel about the fact that you know that about him already. That you know so much more about him than I do.”

“I think there are things about him that I know that I’d prefer not to share with you.” Like just what he could do with that tongue and his skills in bed. Not to mention his filthy mouth. Good for so much more than just pissing people off.

Sadie grimaced. “Yeah, you can keep those dirty thoughts to yourself.” She turned her head to the side to finally look at him, cheek against the chain. Seeing the blue didn’t hurt anymore, not the way it had before. He loved both of the siblings, so damn much. In different ways but no less powerful. He considered her a sister. And he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Riley and Gideon.

“How did you even meet him?” Sadie asked.

Dawson hesitated, and she narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “I… might have showed up drunk at his work to give him a piece of my mind.”

Her jaw dropped. “Oh my God,that’swhere you went that night? I thought you were sleeping in the shower.”

“I already said that I didn’t, and you and Marshall need to get over the sleeping in the shower thing.” He’d done it three times,max. Maybe four if he counted that one other time. Not all that regular an occurrence and only when he’d been drinking.

“Do they know about your shower-sleeping habits?”

“That’s not what we do in the shower,” Dawson shot back.

“Gross, that’s my brother, Dawson.” She exhaled abruptly. “Damn, it sounds so weird to say that.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Please tell me you didn’t drive there. You were so fucking drunk, Dawson. I thought you might die.”

“You thought I might die, so you went to sleep?”

“I was tired, okay?”

“Yeah, well, I was drunk because a witch kept pouring me shots and insisting I drink them.”

“Can’t waste a good shot.”

“They werenotgood shots,” he argued. Straight vodka shots weren’t his favourite. He preferred the ones that tasted like berry and kicked him in the face after a few. “Anyway, no I did not drive, thank you. I might have puked in the bushes in front of the station—in front of Gideon—and yelled at him because I thought he was Riley at first. And then when Riley came out it… got worse.”

“I’m sorry, let me get this straight. Youthrew upin front of him?”

“Well, no, it was before he came out.”

“But you did throw up in the bushes at thepolice station?”

“Yes.” Why did she need to clarify the details? He didn’t particularly want to relive it.

“And then he decided, ‘Damn, I want to sleep with that’?”

“That’s… not quite how it happened.” But mostly, yeah. Good thing for Dawson that his behaviour hadn’t put Riley off. He’d have missed out on so much.

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