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The men gathered in the living room. Dawg stood at the sliding glass doors that led to the deck, while Natches watched the back, and Rowdy kept a check on the bank along the side of the river.
Their eyes were narrowed, bodies tense and prepared, and all Kelly could do was worry. And try to stem the butterflies rising in her stomach.
She knew the plan was to make her stalker believe she was playing with all the Nauti Boys at once while protecting her from the three of them. They believed he was unbalanced enough, angry enough to show himself. But there was more. She could feel the tension between the three men, the knowledge that they were waiting on her. Wondering if she would give to the three of them together as she had given to Rowdy.
“You’re too quiet, baby. ” Rowdy’s voice was soft, filled with hidden depths as he glanced back at where she sat on the couch, staring back at him.
“There doesn
’t seem to be much to say,” she responded quietly, seeing the shadows that filled his eyes.
She wished he wasn’t so handsome, wished he wasn’t so male. And she wished his cousins didn’t draw her almost as much as Rowdy himself did. It was one of the issues she had struggled with since the attack. Her rapist had called her a good girl, but she knew she wasn’t, not really, and that scared her. No woman had ever held even one of the Mackay cousins’ hearts—what made her think she could? What made her think she could hold all three?
“I told you, Kelly, whatever happens, it will be just you and me. ”
Yes, he had. On the way to the marina, his voice quiet and throbbing with lust, but she had heard the tinge of regret as well. As though he were torn in his needs, in his wants.
She was aware of Dawg listening, his back to them, his body tense.
“The Nauti Boys playing separately. ” She arched her brow at the comment. “That’s just about unheard of, Rowdy. ”
Dawg snorted. Rowdy shook his head, his green eyes chastising.
“Your tongue has grown sharper over the years, darlin’,” he growled. “I’m a hungry man right now. It’s not nice to tempt hungry men. ”
She settled into the corner of the couch, lifting her legs to the cushions and stretching them to the side. Rowdy’s gaze followed the movement with a spark of interest.
“My tongue has always been sharp, you just haven’t been around enough to notice. ” She shrugged. “Dawg and Natches should have warned you of that. Wasn’t that part of their job description?”
Knowing they had been watching her and running off potential lovers hadn’t suited her well. It was a damned good thing she hadn’t known before Rowdy came home.
“The job was hard enough as it was, brat. ” Dawg turned his head, flashing her a mock frown over his shoulder. “There was no sense in making it more complicated. ”
Rowdy chuckled as Kelly glanced back at Dawg archly. He winked with a slow, sensual lowering of one thickly lashed eyelid. And she knew that move shouldn’t have affected her; unfortunately, it always did. Dawg was a natural-born flirt.
“You make it sound like I was hard to watch. ” The pretend pout was aimed at Rowdy. “And here I thought I was being a…” The words trailed off as she caught what she was about to say.
She thought she had been a good girl.
She jerked from the couch, ignoring Rowdy’s soft protest as she stalked through the cabin of the houseboat to the back deck.
For a moment, she wasn’t certain she could keep her dinner in her stomach as fear lurched through her. A cold sweat covered her skin and she felt naked, exposed in the tiny bathing suit she had managed to let Rowdy convince her to wear.
Ignoring Natches, she moved to the rail, staring down at the water churning at the hull, and swallowed tightly. She had been a good girl. She had waited for Rowdy, instinctively knowing she belonged to him. She may have moments of insecurity in holding his heart, but she had always known she loved him. Always known that he would be her first. She gripped the rail, forcing back her fears as the remembered sound of her own screams echoed through her head.
“He’s won. ”
The sound of Natches’s voice had her breathing in roughly as she shook her head.
“I bet you feel like you’re naked, on display,” he continued.
“Don’t, Natches. ” She fought back the fears rolling through her. “Please. ”
“Is your skin crawling, Kelly?”
It was. The feel of him behind her, knowing he could see her bare skin, that he wanted to touch her, was suddenly terrifying.
This was Natches. He was almost an extension of Rowdy, a protector, a friend.
