Page 16 of Bound

Fuck.

That’s enough.

To remind me, to slap me back into place.

This team takes care of each other.Ineed to do the same.

Which means keeping my fucking hands to myself when she looks at me like that—softened on the edges, open and vulnerable. I could take from her. I could find a way to have her.

To have everything from her.

But that’s not good forher.

I’mnot good for her.

I need to erase that softness, need to make it go away and never come back. Need to make sure she stays the fuck away from me—which she should fucking know because sheknowsbut?—

Just like Smitty, Claire would give anything for the team.

Long hours, overtime, road trips, going above and beyond constantly?—

And bending over backward for a man who doesn’t fucking deserve it.

Which is why I know Ihaveto do it.

Be a fucking dick so she stays the fuck away.

“Hey,” she says quietly.

I grunt, move toward her, ignoring the gentle in her eyes, stifling the urge to touch, to inhale deeply, to bind the scent of her to my soul.

“How are?—?”

I step deliberately in front of her to reach into the fridge, cutting off her words. I grab a cold bottled drink—cold because she always rotates the bottles, making sure the warm shit’s in the back—and turn away.

But not before fucking with the bottles, messing them up.

Because I’m a fucking dick.

Her outraged inhale slices no more deeply than I deserve.

“Are you kidding me?”

I shrug, nudge the plastic bin with my foot, knocking over the bottles in there for good measure.

Dick 2.0.

“Seriously?”she snaps.

I just crack the bottle open, drop the lid onto the counter—and not in the trash can.

“Are you really acting like this?” she grinds out.

“What do you think?”

“I think,” she drawls, “that you’re a prickly manchild who was nice to me for a second and then panicked that you might have actually acted like a human being and let someone in for a second.”

Dread gathers between my shoulder blades.

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