Page 61 of Enemies with Benefits
"What, like fighting?"
"How to defend himself."
"Sounds like fighting to me, just nicer."
"You have to pick at everything to make yourself right, don't you?"
"Look," I said, knowing that taking the bait would lead to another argument. Which would be fine, but Micah would be back at any moment, and I didn't need him picking up on the attitudes between us again. "If you want to try teaching him self-defense, be my guest. He never caught onto it before."
"You tried?"
"We tried a couple of classes."
"That's not the same thing as knowing how to fight."
"I thought it was self-defense?"
"Mason. Jesus fucking Christ."
I laughed because, really, it was too easy to get a rise out of him sometimes. "Look, I didn't teach him how to fight, no. Alright?"
Mostly because Moira had looked livid at the thought when I'd brought it up. As much as I was willing to occasionally skirt around my sister when it came to helping with Micah, there were still lines I wasn't willing to cross. Which left me with the option of warning him what kind of fallout he could be dealing with if he tried, but should I? It wouldn't hurt the kid to know, and if Jace taught him stuff without permission and without warning from anyone, then he could be safe within his ignorance.
"Then you teach him," I said with a shrug, briefly wondering if I was setting him up for failure. "Think of it as a bonding moment between you if that's what you want so bad."
Jace grunted. “Maybe I will...if he wants."
I snorted, glancing over as Micah appeared in a change of clothes and watching us expectantly. “Then do what you want. In the meantime, if you're thinking of exploring that curiosity you keep trying to deny, find me after you're done being dragged around as his personal escort. Maybe we can find another supply room."
"You're ridiculous," he growled with a roll of his eyes, which was an improvement from his normal criticism, generally involving far more fire and hostility. Maybe there really was something to be said about getting the man laid once in a while, even if it was with me.
Yeah, that was still weird.
"I might be," I admitted as I stood up to leave. "But you're still going to watch my ass as I walk off."
I paused long enough to whack the support holding Dom's chair at a comfortable angle. It wasn't like he fell far, but he still flailed from the unexpected motion. I kept moving, a little faster than was probably safe on the slick surface, but I knew full well my brother wouldn't hesitate to use his superior strength to chuck me in the pool.
Micah shook his head as I passed him on my way to the door, my laughter echoing among Dom's cursing and the clatter of his chair as he tried to get to his feet without taking the chair out in the process. And even among all that, I glanced back to find that Jace had in fact been watching my ass despite all the chaos.
God, we were in trouble if this kept going...which didn't stop me from giving him a wink as I disappeared out of sight.
JACE
"So, I have a question."
I suppressed a groan, knowing full well it would only encourage him. "You could always choose to leave that in your head instead. I would not argue with that choice."
"I'm sure," Kayden chuckled as he stripped out of his pants and hung them in his locker, without a care in the world for his absurdly small underwear that hid very little.
Which was normal for him, and I'd always given him shit for it because, seriously, they were only trunks in the most technical sense. They were an inch of fabric away from being considered briefs, and he always chose his underwear so they hugged him so tightly it was pretty much guaranteed that nothing was going to shift when he moved. He'd always given me shit back because why the hell would I even notice in the first place?
That had been perfectly fine once upon a time, but things had...changed. Maybe deep down, I had always known there was no real reason for me to pay that much attention to something he was wearing, it was a part of his body that I should not need to notice. Yet I'd always pushed the quiet voice away because, c'mon, there was no reason to wear what was almost skin-tight underwear and then show it off while getting dressed.
Now, though, I was aware that there was more to it than that. It wasn't like I wanted Kayden. Not in the same way that I wanted...well, I didn't want him. But it was a lot like how, once upon a time, I would have grumbled that it wasn't my fault if I noticed the way a tight dress hugged a woman's curves, or the way her too snug jeans outlined her ass. Except now I was dealing with noticing Kayden had an ass that bounced nicely and his thighs were actually impressive, both of which were showcased by the clothes he was fond of wearing. It wasn't like I fantasized about what he'd look like out of those clothes, stretched out and ready, but even noticing those details was enough to cause a stirring in my groin that I couldn't remember having before.
Or had it been there all along, just buried so deep that the only evidence of its existence was that I had noticed that sort of thing in the first place? I honestly didn't know the answer to that mystery, and maybe there wasn't a clear one. Maybe all I was going to have was constant questions and just... dealing with the reality. And noticing Kayden, which I could push away just like I could have pushed away a flare of lust at the flash of cleavage, was a sign that whatever had been going on with Mason wasn't a fluke, a simple crossing of wires that should never have met, and was a sign of something else.
Though the fact that it had started with Mason was definitely a sign ofsomethingdeeply and seriously wrong with me.
