Page 86 of Wild Bliss

“That would be a mistake,” Rafe advised.

“Rookie mistake,” Max added.

“Women are more than capable of making their own decisions,”Henry counseled sagely while Poppy drooled on his shirt. “Nell was scared thefirst time I had to kill a couple of assassins in front of her, but we talkedabout it and she handled it. Our women are stronger than we think.”

Rye’s eyes rolled. “Dude, you had to sleep on the couch forthree whole seasons.”

“Guest room,” Henry corrected. “She needed some time tothink, but the point is I didn’t walk away in shame. Sawyer, I know you wouldnever admit it, but I suspect you’re actually quite sensitive.”

“I’m not.” He wasn’t in any way. Well, his dick wassensitive to Sabrina walking in a room, but that was about it.

Henry ignored him entirely. “So you’re probably feelingshame at having to expose a woman like Sabrina to such male brutality. You haveto talk to her. You have to let her know this isn’t who you are in your normallife, but the need to protect her brings out your inner beast from time totime.”

Sawyer looked to Wright, who was sitting back. He was injeans and a T-shirt today, a smirk on his face.

“You didn’t tell them?” These men were under somemisconceptions.

Wright shrugged. “I thought it was your story to tell.They’re worried you’ll think Sabrina’s too delicate to handle all the violenceshe saw last night.”

“I didn’t touch any of those men,” Sawyer admitted. “I wasway too busy trying to get Sabrina out of the line of fire. She’s slippery,though. She got away and used a stun gun on two of them. Also, she bashed oneof them with the tequila I use to make Jen’s margaritas when she and Stefdecide to pretend she’s a hooker or something.”

“Uh, sex worker, thank you,” Stef argued losing his smoothtones and sounding more like the Stef Sawyer knew. “It’s a little role play,and you have to admit your bar is on the seedy side. It doesn’t work at Triobecause Zane is impossible. My wife has some specific fantasies, and gettingpaid is one of them. I’ll replace the tequila.”

“Wait. So Sawyer didn’t beat the shit out of those guys?”Rye asked.

“Nope. Wyatt and Sabrina did all the damage,” Wrightexplained. “By the time Elisa and I got there, Sabrina was talking Wyatt down.Alexei’s got his hands full with that one. There’s some Hulk in there, if youknow what I mean.”

Henry nodded as though taking it in and processing thestory. “Women can often keep a cool head in the middle of a crisis, but Sawyermight be the one dealing with the ramifications of seeing the woman he…I’mgoing to stay away from that word…he is seeing because he has eyes and she’soften in the line of his vision…in danger.”

All right, he kind of liked Henry. But Henry was wrong.“Nah, I was annoyed at first because she’s shitty at following directions andapparently loves to throw herself into potential harm, but then she showed meher boobs and I didn’t care as much anymore. Y’all are acting like the sheriffleft and we all sat around and talked. We didn’t. We had a ton of sex on thepool table, and then we went back to the cabin and fucked some more. I think weall feel better today.” He winced because he’d forgotten about Mel. “Sorry. Iknow she’s like your daughter now.”

Mel stared at him. “Did she enjoy herself?”

“Like five or six times,” Sawyer said with a nod.

“Then good for you.” Mel sat back. “As the father figure inher life, I have to ask if you are seeing her only because you have eyes andshe’s around a lot.”

Damn. He was happier talking about the pool table. This wasa weird metaphor. How to explain without saying too much or using the word hewas avoiding even thinking about? “I…I often look around for her so I can seeher. Because I have eyes.”

“It’s a metaphor,” Max whispered to his twin. “I think he’stalking about having a heart, but he’s Sawyer so he doesn’t want us to thinkhe’s got one of those. So when he says he’s looking for her with his eyes, he’sreally looking for her with his heart.”

Rye’s eyes rolled.

Max was an idiot.

“I’m just saying I don’t run away when she gets close.” Letthat be the end.

“Like you did last Christmas?” Rafe asked.

“Look, last Christmas I took one look at her and thought shewas sweet and fragile and I knew I couldn’t handle her. Or she couldn’t handleme,” Sawyer began.

“You were right the first time,” Henry said. “You were theone who couldn’t handle her.”

Sawyer would ignore the interruptions. He needed to get outof here. No. He was done lying to himself. He needed to make these menunderstand. Because if he was going to be with Sabrina, he couldn’t be thetroll under the bridge anymore. She was a social person. She would want to havefriends and go to parties and be part of the town and he would… Could he sendWyatt to all those things?

There were serious advantages to having a partner.

Of course if he wasn’t careful, he might not have a partnerbecause his partner was going to be an idiot.

---