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A wry smile curled his lips as he stared back at her.
“We’re not exactly a close family,” he admitted. “Nadine Grace and Dayle Mackay are thorns in my side, not to mention Natches’s and Rowdy’s. If they could destroy Uncle Ray, they’d do it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately for them, Ray figured out how to protect himself early from them. They were snake mean even as kids, from what I understand. ”
“Except Ray. ” Crista had heard that herself. Of all the older Mackays, Ray was the only one spoken of kindly.
“Except Uncle Ray. ” Dawg nodded, his expression flickering with affection. “Ray raised Rowdy right, and Rowdy helped raise Natches and me until Ray could get his hooks into us. Neither one of them gave up on us. Rowdy held us together. ”
“Even to the point of drawing you into the sharing?” she asked.
A bark of laughter left his throat then. “Come on, we’ll talk while we walk. ”
Dawg held his hand out to her, waiting, watching as she gazed at it a second before lifting her smaller, more delicate hand to his. Dawg twined his fingers with hers, watching as her paler, softer hand meshed with his.
It looked right. It felt damned right. Damn her. She had his guts and his heart twisted in so many knots he knew he would never be free of her.
As he led her from the house and into the tree-shaded backyard, Dawg found himself feeling emotions he hadn’t expected. Aside from the protectiveness he felt, there was a well of heated hunger, fierce possessiveness, and a gentleness he had never felt toward another woman.
“You and Alex are pretty close,” he said as he let her spread the tablecloth on the thick, well-cut grass at the edge of the small clearing that looked out onto a private natural cove the land created for the lake.
“We had to be,” she said as she tucked a thick strand of hair behind her ear and smoothed out the tablecloth.
Dawg set the basket in the center before lowering himself on the cloth and leaning back. Crista seemed more hesitant, sitting rather than stretching out, but at least she sat close enough to him to assure him that she wasn’t running from him.
“Your parents were pretty distant around people,” he said as she set out the small covered platter of still-warm chicken and began unpacking the side dishes.
“They were like that with Alex and me as well. ” A little frown pulled at her forehead as she spoke.
“They planned Alex’s birth, but I was kind of a surprise. ” The curve of her lips was tipped with an expression of subtle bitterness. “They didn’t want me. They gave me to Alex to raise pretty much. Mom was only concerned with pleasing Dad, and he was only concerned with her and his moneymaking schemes. ”
Chester Jansen had always been certain a fortune awaited him just around the corner. He had searched for gold, for artifacts. He had nearly destroyed his small business playing the stock market, and he had constantly been taken in with fly-by-night moneymaking schemes.
“Alex did a good job raising you,” he pointed out.
“He did. Alex was already ten when I was born. He had learned to take care of himself, and he applied it to taking care of me. ” She nodded as she arranged the chicken and side dishes before setting two china plates between them and pulling out the glass carafe of sweet iced tea and unscrewing the lid that covered it before pouring the dark liquid into drinking glasses.
“Neither one of you turned out too bad. ” He accepted the glass she handed him, then watched as she began opening the food and placing the serving spoons into it.
“We survived. ” She shrugged, glancing at him warily again. “He warned me about you when I was sixteen, you know. ”
“Really?” Dawg drawled. “I’ll have to discuss that with him. What warning did he give you?”
“To stay away from the Mackay cousins. ” She flashed him a teasing smile. “He said the lot of you were bad news to any girl who wanted love rather than nasty games. ”
“And you didn’t want nasty games?” He smiled back at her wickedly. He h
ad a feeling that some of those games she would have taken to like a natural once she had gotten older. She sure as hell took to them now.
She ducked her head for a long second before lifting it slowly and staring back at him in determination. “I didn’t want to be one of the Nauti Boys’ Toys. That’s what your women were called. ”
“But you wanted to be my woman?” He needed to know. He needed to hear her say it.
Crista dragged her gaze away from Dawg’s and stared across the clearing to the serenity of the small cove they faced. Water lapped against the rocky shore with a soothing rhythm.
She had wanted to be Dawg’s woman. Even then, ten years before, at a time when she had no concept what it meant to be anyone’s woman. Her fascination for him had been soul-deep, and it had culminated in one heated night that had threatened to destroy her soul.
“I wanted to be your woman,” she admitted on a sigh. She hadn’t lied to him to this point. Lying was something she hated. She had hated it as a child, and as an adult, she hated it even more.
“What changed that, Crista?” he asked her then, his voice insidiously soft, gentle. “We had one night together, and instead of slapping me with a frying pan the next morning, you ran. ”
