Page 17 of Gather the Storm

I’d just been nervous when they first got to the house, thrown off by their good looks and the way they seemed to fill up every room in the giant house even though we were standing in just one of them.

I was almost glad Jace was such an asshole. It forced me to stand up for myself. Forced me to remember what I suspected, what I knew: returning to their old lives wasn’t going to be easy.

Silence descended on the room, thick and heavy.

Then Wolf shook his head. “Damn, sunshine. You really went for the jugular on that one.”

I looked from Wolf to Otis to Jace, who was staring at me like he wanted to murder me on the spot.

It sent a shiver up my spine — if he’d killed Blake, he was capable of murder, even capable of murdering someone he loved, let alone someone he hated like me.

But also, if I was honest with myself (and I usually wasn’t when it came to my brother’s three best friends), his anger made me hot in ways that freaked me out.

Because what modern woman was turned on by a guy’s rage?

I forced myself not to look away as Jace stared me down, the fury on his face slowly turning to a smile that made me ten times more scared than his anger.

“Ever hear the phrase ‘be careful what you wish for’?” he asked.

I folded my arms over my chest like that might protect me from whatever Jace would say — whatever he’ddo— next. “Once or twice.”

“You should probably take that to heart,” he said. “Princess.”

Chapter 8

Wolf

This was bad. Really fucking bad.

We shouldnotbe agreeing to live with Daisy.

We hadn’t talked about this. We’d agreed to keep our distance, had only agreed to see what Daisy had to say, make sure she was okay.

Now I could see what was happening like a traffic accident unfolding in slow motion. The cars were sliding into each other, skidding on ice or loose gravel, headed for a collision I couldn’t stop.

Jace and Daisy were the cars in this scenario. Daisy pushing all of Jace’s buttons, goading him into accepting her proposition even when it was the last thing he wanted to do.

Actually, that wasn’t right. Jace wanted to be around Daisy. He’d always wanted to be around her. When we were kids, he’d stared at her like a little freak. Then we’d all gone to high school and he’d stopped looking at her at all, like that might hide the fact that he wanted her.

But I knew better because I knew Jace. Knew him as well as I knew myself.

If he didn’t want to live with Daisy, it wasn’t because he didn’t want her — it was because he did. Because he wanted her so bad he didn’t trust himself not to take her.

And now he was about to get us all in the shit, because Jace wasn’t the only one who wanted Daisy so bad it hurt.

Goddammit.

“So you’ll do it?” Daisy finally said, her chest rising and falling under a white blouse that would have been virginal if not for the sexy-as-fuck cleavage barely visible between the swell of her tits.

Jace flashed her an evil grin I recognized all too well. “Under one condition.”

I didn’t even bother pointing out that Otis and I hadn’t agreed, that the three of us hadn’t voted, hadn’t talked about Daisy’s proposition at all. It didn’t matter. Where one of us went, the other two followed.

It was like the eleventh fucking commandment.

Daisy looked relieved but I wanted to shout a warning. Jace’s condition — whatever it was — wasn’t going to be cause for celebration.

Because Jace was a sadistic fuck.

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