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He looked down at his arm with a frown. “It’s not that I don’t want one. I’ve just never had anything I wanted to get.”
“Then don’t take the bet,” I said with a shrug. “No one deserves to take any part of you that you’re not willing to give them.”
For a moment, his eyes were so utterly devastated that I wanted to take back what I’d said, until he reeled me in and kissed me. “I love you.”
“Love you too.”
When he smiled again, it was the real deal, and when he looked at Dominic, I saw the gratitude. “I trust you.”
Grey laughed. “With this, I probably wouldn’t.”
“Rude.” Dominic turned back to Nate with an admittedly feral grin. “Best two out of three.”
“Deal.”
Greyson was unanimously voted to be the judge as he could be trusted to stay neutral, whereas I, apparently, would be easily swayed. My obvious offense, and threat to shoot Dominic for even suggesting it, was another point in their favor.
Before the boys started their competition, we decided to just relax and shoot. Our version of a warm-up. It was only fair since who knew how long it had been since Nate had actually shot a gun. Dominic grumbled about giving him another advantage on top of his training, but he agreed when I reminded him that he was the one who’d decided on a competition with a sharpshooter in the first place.
Hard to argue with that logic.
For a while, there was no conversation, just the muted sounds of our shots behind the earplugs I wore. Every shot, I pictured Cash’s face on the target. The man who had taken my brother and cousin from me, who had threatened my home, my livelihood, my safety, and everyone I loved. Who’d ripped the one ally I’d thought was unreachable from my grasp.
I let myself imagine killing him over and over and over, and even though it wasn’t real, it helped. The ball of anger wound tight in my gut unraveled just a touch, and by the time I was out of ammo, I felt lighter than before. It wasn’t much, but even the smallest change made a big difference.
When we were all warmed up, Greyson walked off to set up the targets for the competition, while Dominic badgered him about making them perfectly even. Meanwhile, Nate pulled me between his legs so we could watch them bicker.
“You okay?” he asked, kissing the side of my neck before laying his head on my shoulder. I liked the ease in it, how right it felt for our bodies to be so close. Leaning in, I let myself just be with him.
No pretenses, no life or death, no trouble around us. Just me and my man.
God, it felt good.
“Yes.”
Nate’s hands, which had been loose on my hips, tightened and pulled me back farther until I could feel every part of him.
“How do you feel?” I asked, grinning when his huffed laugh sounded deliciously pained.
“I think you can feel it for yourself. I’m hard as a rock from watching you,” he admitted. “I’ve thought it since the day we met, but you look so good with a weapon in your hand.”
I admit it, I preened. Compliments were not something I had to work for often, but compliments from my men just hit somewhere different. Namely, between my legs.
As subtly as I could, I ground myself into Nate, and he groaned deep in his throat. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” I said innocently.
“Am I supposed to believe that?”
Dominic whistled, gathering our attention, and I gave Nate’s cock one more rub before jumping up. “Believe whatever you want, baby. Don’t you have a competition to win?”
I gave him a flutter of my oh-so-innocent eyelashes. When Nate stood, he moved carefully around me like I was about to explode. “Why do I feel like you’re up to something?”
Because you’re not an idiot.
“I would never.” I didn’t even try for innocent, just grinned and watched that suspicion bloom thick in his eyes.
“Right.”
