Page 129 of Steel

I smile. “Hey. Steel said you’d be stopping by to sit with us until he gets back.”

Emmy Lou tilts her head, studying me. “You don’t mind, do you?”

“No, I actually don’t. You’re another set of eyes on that girl down the hall. I’d never say no to that, Em. Plus, I don’t have a reason to mind. Truthfully.”

Em reaches over and grasps my hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. She holds eye contact as if she’s trying to get me to understand something. “You really don’t, Bails.”

“I know.” I blow out a breath, opting for honesty. “I’ve known you too long to lie to you now. I struggle sometimes with your friendship. My heart is telling me I’m acting foolish, but it’s my head that keeps messing with me.”

“Dammit, Bailee. I don’t want to come—”

“No,” I interrupt her. “Don’t. This isn’t on you. It’s not even on Steel. I’ve got a lot of messed-up stuff going on in my head from my past.”

Emmy Lou snorts. “It doesn’t help that Steel put you through hell with his hot and cold bullshit.”

“That too.” I smile wanly. “That’s on me also. I let him get away with it.”

“It’s not like he doesn’t have a responsibility not to be a dick,” she says, shrugging.

“You’re right, but that’s not how Steel is. You know he wouldn’t be himself if he wasn’t at least a bit of a dick.”

I put something on television to watch as we wait for Steel. We laugh and talk about my brother and his arrogant friends, about Steel and Lyric, and even a little about what’s going on with Killer.

She fills me in on some things that could make telling the Dirty Mavericks go smoother when pipes scream outside the house. It’s probably Steel, but we’re cautious anyway and grab our guns.

Emmy Lou walks over to the window and moves the curtain minusculely to peer out. Her shoulders drop and she lowers the gun to her side, switching the safety back on. It’s her posture that has me dropping my guard. I put the safety on but continue to hold it loosely in my hand as we wait on him to make it inside.

When he comes through the door, his eyes scope the room quickly as he presses the code for the alarm. His eyes find mine, and whatever he sees must satisfy him because he turns his head to check on Emmy Lou too, giving her a nod before turning back to me and closing the distance between us.

As soon as he’s in front of me, Steel’s hand snaps out to cuff around my throat and then he brings my face to his. He shoves his tongue into my mouth, stealing my breath with the way he nearly inhales my face. A savage bite to my bottom lip ends the carnal kiss between us, and I’m left staring up at him with parted lips.

“Missed you, baby girl,” he mutters.

The bulge beneath his jeans rests heavy against my thigh that somehow ended up wedged between his legs.

“I can see that,” I remark with a snicker.

His lips twitch. “That too.”

“Look, I like porn as much as the next person, but I really don’t want to watch my best friend and his woman going at it hot and heavy,” Emmy Lou says, breaking the spell between us.

We laugh, and I pull away to start cleaning up the mess we made while those two talk about whatever they need to.

I’m coming back from tossing away a popcorn bag when I stop just inside the living room entrance and watch Steel and Emmy Lou together. My feet shuffle back and forth under me as I watch the way he reaches out to tenderly tug a piece of her hair that’s come loose. She smiles widely at him, and he flicks her nose.

There’s something about the gentle moment between them that has my chest burning.

I turn away from them, doing my best to shove my stupid jealousy away, but my brain latches on to the scene and begins to analyze it from a million different angles. And every theory it comes up with doesn’t feel right. It’s wrong, but my freaking heart doesn’t know that, even though my brain does.

Emmy Lou says goodbye to us, and Steel heads up to check on Lyric.

Let it go, Bailee. They’re just friends. You’re the one he wants, the one he’s falling in love with.

But is he? Or am I just convenient for him because he’s got so many things up in the air and he can’t be with the one person he’s wanted from the start?

When he walks into the kitchen and grabs a beer from the fridge, he twists off the cap and tosses it in the trash before glancing at me. He pauses in the middle of taking a drink as his eyes roam my face.

Steel closes his eyes and slams his drink down on the counter, gripping the edge of it and hanging his head. “Go ahead.”

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