Page 17 of Beautiful Dark Temptation

Fox started forward but I caught his arm.“We don’t need this shit right now.”

He pulled away from my grasp, glared atTomás, and headed to the dressing room.

“You’re going to want to watch that mouth ofyours,” I said and regretted it when my eyes lowered to hisperfect, plump lips. He took that same moment to swipe his tonguealong his bottom lip, leaving them wet. I snapped my attention backto his eyes. Not that it made me feel much better. That beautifulsmile he wore made him so much more tempting. And the fuckermust’ve known it. “I’m not going to always be here to protectyou.”

Tomás snorted. “Whatever,” he said andheaded to the group waiting for him including Ashlee andAshton.

Son of a bitch.

I headed to the dressing room with a painfulerection behind my pants and the need to pump Tomás full ofbullets. Real bullets.

Chapter Nine

Tomás

I caught sight of Dasher on the quad. Thatguy was a firecracker with them crutches. Moved as if he’d beenwith them forever. He still refused to talk about the car accidentthat landed him in crutches, but I kept asking anyway.

“Hey,” I said, catching up to him and takinghis cup of coffee from his hand as we both headed to the theatreroom.

He glared at me. Dasher didn’t like beinghelped, but I didn’t care. Being his friend had its perks. It uppedmy game with the ladies. He was like the puppy everyone wanted togush over and I the handsome handler. He despised it.

“Hey,” he grumbled back.

I gave him my perfect smile. “Watch andlearn my young, single padawan,” I said as we came up on thedoor.

“Oh, fuck off,” he mumbled.

“Cora,” I said to a fine second yearentering the building. She had a thick head of curls, brown eyes,and a cute heart shaped face. “You mind holding the door for us?” Igestured to my coffee and the books in my hand. Actually, it wasjust a notebook.

She gave us a beaming smile. “Of course,”she said.

“You’re pathetic,” Dasher said as he slippedinside before me.

“Bro, I don’t know why you don’t milk thisfor what it’s worth.” I whispered behind him so only he heard.“Thank you, precious,” I said to Cora, a little louder andhuskier.

She giggled.

I could hear Dasher’s eye roll in front ofme.

“I’ll see you later,” she said and took offwith a group of girls.

“She’s cute.” I nudged him with my elbow. “Ihaven’t gotten laid in … shit. A long time. How about you?”

“What about me?”

“Girlfriend, boyfriend,” I teased.

“You’re ridiculous.”

“I do not judge. My brother’s actuallygay.”

Dasher narrowed his eyes at me. Oops. I’dbeen chipping away at the no talk about family rule with Dasher. Iwasn’t good at keeping secrets to begin with. Sure, I couldbullshit, but lying made me itchy and I couldn’t scratch until Iblurted what I knew. Nick always asked me shit about stuff becausehe knew if I knew the answer I’d eventually tell him within a fewminutes after he asked. “Yeah, I have a brother. So what? This ruleabout not talking about family is stupid.”

“It’s for our protection.”

I snorted. “Did you forget that Fox wants toput a cap in my ass?”

Dasher laughed.

---