Page 29 of Worlds Collide

“Tacos from my favorite food truck. It’s right around the corner from the hospital.”

“Did you bring enough for me?” I ask, just wanting to make sure.

“I bought a dozen.”

“Good little rich boy,” I tease and he swats at my ass.

“Shut up,” he grumbles, but when I raise my torso to see him, he damn near blinds me with his smile.

NINE

CJ

“Good, right?”I ask with a nod after Wolf swallows the first bite.

“S’good,” he agrees and goes for the second—and last bite—of his taco. He reaches for another one right away and I know I could be just letting my overactive imagination get away from me here, but it feels like he’s avoiding looking at me—and it looks so too, so he more than likely is.

There was a second, maybe less than a second, when his eyes were softer than I’d ever seen them. The weight of his body lifted off me and he saw me. I felt like he really saw me.

For that fraction of a second I let myself believe that we’d turned a new leaf, that the way we act with each other would be different.

But then, like steel doors falling to the ground between us, he shut down. He looked between us, at my spent dick and at his own that was still inside me. Without looking at me, he slipped out carefully and that was it.

I actually thought he might kick me out right then and there—though I know he would’ve given me time to at least shower if I’d asked—but he didn’t. He went into the bathroom for a few minutes, which I spent overthinking and coming up with a strategy to get him to open up to me. To at least not think of me as the enemy.

“All yours,” is all he’d said in a new, subdued voice, before walking out of the bedroom. I didn’t hear the room door open so at least I knew he hadn’t actually left.

Then I found him in the little kitchen of what I now realized was a pretty sizable suite, and he was heating up the tacos.

I’m enjoying the company, I swear I am, but I can’t help but want to talk to him. To hear him speak. Maybe I want him to tell me that the sex was as good for him as it was for me, I don’t know but...

“Why are you attracted to me?” he blurts out of the blue.

“The usual reasons apply,” I answer slowly and look down at my food.

“Bullshit,” he snaps. He’s finally looking at me in the eyes again, in that unrelenting, direct way he has, so at least that’s something. “I’m a surly bastard, a grumpy asshole, and a million other things Birdie’s always complaining about. You didn’t just give up your virgin ass because I’m hot.”

I take my time swallowing my bite and wiping my mouth. Mostly it’s to hide the smile that always wants to come out when I hear him say the word “Birdie.” It’s so out of character for someone so, yes, surly to say such an adorable word. And don’t even get me started on the way his shoulders always drop in defeat when Hawk calls him Wolfie.

That picture could be in the dictionary to describe the word adorable.

The Storm brothers are something special. I think I knew it from the moment Adam told me he’d heard a song from them when we were like twelve, but getting to know them has made it very clear to me.

They have magic in them, and an endless well of love to give.

Wolf is just . . . closed off.

And maybe that’s what he wants to hear, so I settle back in my chair and get ready to either piss him off even more or get him to relax and open up to me.

“I’ve been around shitty people my entire life so I know for a fact that you’re not a bad person. I can tell that you’re surly, or a grumpy asshole as you said, on purpose. To keep people out and away. I can tell you don’t like yourself very much, and I could make a million guesses as to why that is, but I’ve just never seen it. You’re probably the best brother I’ve ever met, your talent is otherworldly, and you’re clearly not full of yourself when you very well could be. Also, I think you look pretty when you’re scowling at everyone.”

The two lines between his eyebrows get deeper the longer I talk and his scowl turns confused after the second sentence.

He stays silent for so long that I fear he won’t talk again at all, but then he says probably the most socially unacceptable thing in this situation.

“Your ass was awesome.”

I throw my head back and laugh until my belly aches. He’s such a fucking character.

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