Page 4 of Dirty Dancer

They’d made Rome take a beating by threatening me. “I stabbed that guy.”

“Yes, you did,” Liam said, his smile growing, the pride evident in his expression. “Just like you shot the guy who had the drop on me. Or went after that bastard at the hospital who was trying to hurt you. You’re a fighter, Hellspawn. I’ve known that from day one. So… you can be pissed that someone targeted you to distract us so they could get to Lainey. I’m pretty fucking annoyed by it too. But none of us are going to regret putting you first.”

“And that’s that?” I tilted my head back to study him and he slid his hands down to cup my elbows and tugged me forward.

“Not the answer you wanted?” He pressed his lips to my forehead and I closed my eyes, drinking in his nearness.

“It’s not about the answers I want,” I said. “It’s about the ones I can live with…” But I slid my arms up around his neck and he lifted me right up and hugged me close. “I just want to keep you guys safe.”

“Same,” he reminded me. I buried my face against his throat, and took a deep breath of him. He had that crispiness of fresh autumn leaves, sunshine, and amber. I could just detect the notes of his coffee from earlier too. The rest was just him, gunpowder, and the smell of the range. “That’s why we practice, so we know you can protect yourself if we just don’t happen to be there.”

“And so I can protect you too,” I reminded him and he chuckled. I pulled back to eye him, but he had me lifted clean off the ground, which was fine. I liked being nose to nose with him. “What’s so funny?”

“Just how fierce you are, Hellspawn. I will never make the mistake of thinking you can’t handle something or you can’t protect us. You do a damn good job of it.”

“But?” I prompted, not quite trusting the devilish little twinkle in his eyes.

“This ass of yours is just fine,” he teased me, squeezing one cheek playfully. “No other buts about it.”

A real laugh escaped me and his expression softened.

“Better?” That question was packed with so much meaning. Was I feeling better about what happened? Could I handle that their answers weren’t likely to change? Did I know how much I meant to him?

“Yes,” I said, dipping my head to press my lips to his. The connection was instantaneous. It had been from the beginning, even when he irritated me. Or I irritated him. I couldn’t help my smile as I lifted my head. “So does that mean we can call practice finished and go actually spend our time doing something else fun?”

Liam didn’t spend as much time on the tour. He couldn’t, but he visited every chance he got. I understood the absences from him, from Jasper and Kellan. Even Mickey had to go back periodically. Didn’t mean I didn’t miss them, and I went back to Braxton Harbor so we could all be there together as often as possible.

“Nope,” he told me, his smile growing. “Need at least another thirty minutes, so I can tell Kellan honestly that you’re getting your practice in.”

I groaned and let my head fall back as I stared up at the ceiling. “So mean to me.”

He nipped my throat. “I can be meaner, Hellspawn. We haven’t had a good sparring session in a few months.”

Lips pursed, I eyed him. He was onlypartiallykidding.

“Fine, we can wrestle when we’re done as long as you have to be naked.”

“If I’m naked,” he informed me. “You will be too, whether you start out that way or not.”

“I’m not really hearing a downside here.” I bit my lower lip as he groaned. The heat flashed into his eyes and he landed a slap against my ass that was all sting and a little heat. Another wave of laughter burst out of me. I really wasn’t hearing a downside. I mean, I got why he wanted to practice. “Promise you don’t have to leave tonight?”

He’d just gotten in this morning in the very early hours after taking a red eye flight.

“I can stay for a couple of days,” he promised, then set me on my feet before he reached back and got the gun reloaded. “So, show me what you got…”

The temptation to take off my shirt to tease him was right there, but I decided to save it for later. He didn’t offer me the gun until I put the ear protection back on. Then he put on his own.

He got the new target set up and it was back ten feet from where the other had been. Right… thirty minutes and then we could “play.” I braced myself and used both hands this time to steady my arm.

I didn’t need to be perfect, I just needed to be accurate.

The next six shots went center mass and I caught Liam’s wild smile of approval.

“Next?”

CHAPTER 2

FREDDIE

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