Page 78 of Three to Fall

I put my lips to her ear and kissed the spot just below it. “I don’t think you were. I’m buying this. And after all of this is over, I’m going to buy at least three more and tie you to the first bed I can get you on.”

Despite her protests, there was a quickening of her breath. “I shouldn’t find you this attractive in the middle of a run-down gas station.”

And I shouldn’t have been thinking about sitting her up on the counter, spreading her thick thighs, and sinking my cock into the warm, wet heat in between. But I was.

The tension between us rose thick in the air, despite the setting. It was the same gut-wrenching pull I always felt when she was around. An attraction I could never explain with words because I was sure no one had ever felt so strongly about another person.

A horn honking from out by the pumps caught my attention, and Grayson waved us over from the driver’s seat, clearly anxious to get moving.

The moment shattered. I put my arm around her neck and hauled her in tight. “I’m down for sharing you, you know I am. But did you have to pick a doctor who clearly likes to run on a schedule?”

Kara smiled gently, staring out at Grayson who had methodically checked the tire pressure, fuel levels, and windshield wiper fluid at each stop. He’d mapped out the route we were taking with notes that had been emailed to all of us the night before.

Not that half the guys had bothered to read it. Grayson stuck out amongst the rest of us like a sore thumb, and we all knew it.

Despite that, I liked the guy. He’d saved Kara’s life, and that had earned him my respect.

But it was the way Kara looked at him that had really cemented his place here. The way she laughed at his stupid jokes and balloon animals. The way her gaze lingered on him instead of her textbooks when they were studying. The way she might not have been willing to admit to herself she was in love with him, but she lit up every time those words fell from his lips.

I opened the passenger door for her, and she got herself up into the van, Grayson leaning over the center console to kiss her.

I got in the back with Hawk who was sprawled out across the back bench seat. I debated taking the row in front of him, but then he moved his leg, making room for me, and so I took up the seat at the opposite end of his bench, leaving one free in the middle of us so we both had a bit of space.

Grayson started the van and turned up the music, singing along with the radio. He was in an oddly good mood that I suspected was fake and an attempt to lighten the vibe that had been darkening with every mile we passed.

Kara joined in, and Hawk nodded at them approvingly but kept his voice low enough only for me to hear. “He’s keeping her distracted. That’s good.”

I wholeheartedly agreed. “Whatever keeps her from scratching her arms raw.”

“You like the guy?” he asked after we’d both watched them for a while longer.

“Are you asking if I like him as a friend or if I like him for Kara?”

He shrugged.

He didn’t need to answer. All Hawk ever did was consider what was good for Kara and Hayley Jade. He stared at Grayson and Kara singing along in the front seat, happy smiles on their faces, and being silly in a way I couldn’t imagine her being with either me or Hawk. We weren’t built like that. Maybe we’d seen too much to ever be that carefree or maybe we just weren’t wired that way.

But there was no doubt in my mind that Grayson gave Kara something Hawk and I couldn’t. That was why her being with the three of us worked. Each of us providing something different to her, not one of us trying to fulfill her every need and failing because it was impossible for anyone to be everything.

We all needed a village. I’d spent my whole life searching for that. My mom had been amazing, but my brother had been ripped from my life when I was a kid and my father had never been around. I’d joined gangs, looking for that sense of community my mom, great as she was, hadn’t been able to give me alone.

I’d finally found it here, with Kara and Hawk, and I wasn’t arrogant enough to think we were all she needed. She needed Grayson too. Hawk and I were too intense. Gray was the one who made her laugh.

I nudged Hawk with my knee. “He’s about to walk into a war with us with about as much experience in this sort of thing as a chipmunk.”

“He’s a weak link.”

I stared at the way he kept looking at Kara, sneaking little glances of pure adoration from the driver’s seat in between watching the road and checking his map. The side of his neck still held the faint tinge of purple from the bruises he’d developed after being strangled half to death. I shook my head. “He’s not. He might not have spent half his life running with gangs, but he’s willing to die for her, just the same as we are. That makes him just as deadly, even if he doesn’t have as much experience with a gun.”

Grayson had proved himself once. I wasn’t going to make him keep doing it over and over, and I really hoped Hawk wasn’t either. That was the sort of thing that would distract us and tear us apart. The exact opposite of the united front we needed to be right now.

To my relief, Hawk settled back against the seat and blew out a long breath. But his shoulders were stiff, and we had hours more on the road. His agitation was contagious, practically palpable in the air. I could feel it seeping through my clothes, sinking into my skin, infecting me as much as it was him.

I didn’t want Kara sensing it. Didn’t want her to think we were anything but one-hundred-percent confident about how this was going down.

Hawk needed to chill the fuck out and get out of his head.

I reached over and undid the button on his jeans.

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