Where was a hole to crawl into when she needed one?
Darien slipped his phone into the back pocket of his jeans. “Let’s go for one more round, Lola.” He didn’t need to say that he was going to leave after that round—to go and see whoeverJessawas. To strip off her clothes until she was stark naked on her knees before him.
“Actually.” Loren set down the rifle. “I’m good.”
Darien stared at her in bewilderment as she pushed out from the stall and made a beeline to the staircase. She didn’t care that everyone had stopped shooting and was now watching her. And she didn’t care when Dallas and Sabrine called her name in concern.
She was halfway up the stairs when Darien voiced a question, the words floating to her above the quiet that had swept through the range. “What did I say?”
The crack of bullets resumed. Loren pushed open the door at the top of the stairs, the warmth of the ground floor wrapping around her limbs. Jack whooped in delight as he presumably hit a bull’s-eye, the Hob cackling again.
Ivyana sighed. “You know, for someone so smart, you sure can be dumb, Darien.”
Loren didn’t hear anything else after that. She didn’t exactly understand what she was feeling, nor what she’d expected to happen from crushing on someone like Darien.
But she supposed she’d simply hoped it wouldn’t have been this.
—
“Where do you think you’re going?”
At the sound of his sister’s voice, Darien froze near the base of the broad staircase in the entrance hall. He turned around to see Ivyana watching him—arms crossed, weight tipped to one leg. An eyebrow lifted as she looked him over.
He threw his hands up in a hell-if-I-know gesture. “I’m going to talk to Loren.”
Ivyana’s frown deepened. “You’d better not make it worse, Darien.” He was far from clueless when it came to women, but for some time he’d been ignoring all signs that pointed to Loren having feelings for him beyond simple attraction. It couldn’t happen; he wouldn’t let it. Not because he didn’t want it to, but because it wasn’t safe—forher.
Hewasn’t safe for her.
As if reading his mind, Ivy said, “I always thought you knew what you were doing when it comes to women, but if you couldn’t even tell that Loren is majorly crushing on you, then you truly are hopeless, Darien.” When Darien didn’t say anything, understanding washed across Ivy’s face, and her slender shoulders slumped. “Gods of the Star. Youknew,didn’t you? You were trying to push her away.”
Darien still wouldn’t say anything.
“That is a new low for you, brother—”
“She can’t fall for me, Ivy,” Darien cut in. “She can’t.” It was part of the reason he’d been in touch with Jessa today; why he’d been the one to contact the copper-haired Viper for once, instead of the other way around. He’d hoped Loren would’ve been so turned off after hearing about his booty-call that she would stop looking at him the way she did. The only problem was that helikedthe way she looked at him—as if he was worth something. He liked it a little too much.
Ivyana looked like she’d expected Darien to say as much and was more than a little disappointed by it. “And why is that?” She was always the rational one; the twin who knew how to handle problems that couldn’t be solved by hitting things. Even in the days when their mother was alive, Darien was known by friends of the family as theproblem twin.
He could still hear those whispers as if they’d been uttered only yesterday, things like, “That boy’s going to be trouble one day,” and, “Looks like Emberley’s had herself a little devilish child.”To be fair, their father had sunk his claws into Darien a lot faster than he had Ivyana.
Darien had made damn sure of that.
“Because…” His hands curled into fists. “You saw what happened with Mom and Dad. I won’t do that to her. I refuse to ruin her the way Dad ruined Mom.”
Ivy’s gaze softened. With every day that passed, she looked more like the face tattooed on his forearm—like Emberley Cassel. “You’re not our father, Darien. You’renotDad.” She looked him over. “You can’t deny yourself happiness forever—”
“Yes, I can,” he interrupted softly. “I can and I will. If my happiness involves the possibility of hurting someone like Loren, then I willhappilybe miserable forever.”
Seeing the look on his face that brooked no contestation, she blew out a sigh. But her expression was soon hardening again. “Why Jessa?” she demanded. “What’s going on with that? You haven’t seen her in, like, a year.”
He shrugged. Ran a hand through his undercut, smoothing the strands back. “I just wanted to forget,” he whispered. “Even for one night.” It was the truth: Loren made him feel things he’d never felt before. And truth be told, it scared him. And even though his plan involving Jessa was mostly to push Loren away, he was hoping that by meeting up with the Viper, it would smother the emotions out of him, even for a few hours. Would force him to remember why, until Loren had come along, all he’d needed was cold, hard no-strings-attached-sex.
Reading his mind, Ivy said, “You thought you could forget about Loren by making some meaningless booty call to one of your groupies?”
He snorted a humorless laugh at how filthy that sounded—and how filthy it made him feel. Another strange and foreign emotion for him. “I know—stupid, right? But it’s what I do best.” Fucking, killing, fighting—those were the things he was good at. “I’m not good with…” He waved a hand. “Whatever this is.”
Ivy fought a smile.“Feelings,brother?”
