Page 30 of When The Dust Settles

He’d reached under the elastic band of my briefs and drawn out my cock, hence the momentary loss of my words.

“Every time I see you and those blue-green eyes of yours settle on me and my heart goes up in my throat, I know that you’re supposed to belong to me.”

But how could he have his life figured out when I had no idea what had been happening?

“You’re so confused about things,” he said, leaning sideways to reach into his pack and retrieve the lube. “Everything that you face, all your issues, are in your head.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I know, honey,” he soothed, sitting up, reaching for my briefs and sliding them down and off my legs, leaving me as naked as him. “Damn.”

“Keep talking.”

I got a flashing grin in response. “Sorry. Your skin is very distracting.”

Mine? “It is?”

He scowled at me, but instead of it being irritating, I found it ridiculously hot. “I just realized something crazy. All that swagger and bravado I see all the time, that’s all fake. You have no idea what you look like at all.”

“Are you kidding?”

“Do I look like I am?”

He didn’t, no. “C’mon. I look like my father and Rand and Zach and my Uncle—”

“No. You don’t.”

“Maclain, I—”

“Rand and the rest of the Holloway men are big, scary alpha-dog type guys, and you are not that.”

But I was.

“Maybe you were, maybe you used to be when you were shooting poison into your body and—”

“How did you know about the steroids?”

He rose and sat up, and I had Mac where I never thought I ever would—straddling my thighs.

I immediately moved my hands to touch him, stroke his skin, and map the contours of roping muscle that made up his legs.

“Look at me.”

But I was savoring the feel of him.

“Hey.”

I lifted my eyes to his.

“I knew you didn’t lose weight. You just lost all that bulky ’roid-rage muscle that was never you but was probably more about fitting in on the ranch than anything else.”

“I don’t belong on a ranch,” I told him.

“Not as a cowboy, no,” he agreed. “But that’s not what Rand needs, anyway. He needs you because you’re a member of his family, and he wants you around him and Stef and Wyatt, and he needs your skills with people because he has none.”

I chuckled.

“Don’t get me wrong, the man inspires lifelong loyalty from his men, but that ain’t what I’m speakin’ of.”