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“He was,” Jack said, the loud screech of his bar stool sliding across the floor as he stood.
And there I stood, between two tall, hard men.
“Do you two know each other?” I glanced between Jack and Cal, both of whom were wearing expressions I couldn’t determine.
“He’s my best friend,” Cal said. “More like a brother, except for the biological part.”
And my jaw was on the floor again.
It took one look of Jack’s dark eyes darting between Cal and me, and he’d figured it out.
“This is the man you kissed, isn’t it?”
“Kissing and telling now?” Cal asked, smiling at me. He then stood a little taller and stared at Jack, as if some kind of pride had washed over him. The two matched each other in alpha manliness and strength, but that strength was built differently.
On the brink of panic mode, I tried to explain. “I didn’t tell him we kissed, well I sort of did.” I looked at Cal. “But when we kissed, Jack and I weren’t together, not at the time at least—or now—”
“Now,” he said, cutting off my rambling, “is what I care to discuss. And now this woman is mine.”
Cal raised a brow. “Is she?”
I looked at Jack and whispered. “We’re together?”
“We certainly seemed together yesterday in my home.” His tone was even and steady—and Cal didn’t miss the insinuation.
“We’re going on first-come, first-serve I take it?” Cal said to Jack. “Because I want her. I was pretty clear about that the other weekend. Especially since you were nowhere to be seen when her lush little mouth was on mine.”
A low rumble broke in Jack’s throat, and he looked directly at me. “Did you kiss him? Or did he kiss you?”
My blood pressure was rising like a fricking African sunrise. Hot and steady and ready to burn me up. “I, ah…” I looked between Cal and Jack. The truth hadn’t failed so far, so I went with that.
“He kissed me,” I whispered. “But I kissed him back.”
Cal smiled and rolled on his toes. “She claws a little too,” he said to Jack.
This was not the time or place for…whatever was happening right now. The two men didn’t seem to be fighting. They didn’t look to hate each other. It was like they were brothers messing with one another. I just didn’t want to be the new shiny toy they were bickering over. Mostly because I had no clue where Cal stood in all this. He had said he wanted me? He had made that clear?
Not really, buddy.
“It doesn’t matter how your little kiss happened,” Jack said with a slow steady tone. He adjusted his cuffs and said, “Because it is first-come, first-serve. Especially since I made her come first.” I gasped, Cal growled, and Jack continued. “I was out of town the past couple weeks, and expectations weren’t yet set. They are now.”
“We were both there,” Cal said.
Jack just held his stare. I, however, finally found my voice.
“Both where?” I asked. But neither of them looked at me. I never thought telepathy existed until that moment. Because whatever was silently being said between Jack and Cal was intense.
“What about when you disappear ‘out of town again?’” Cal challenged Jack, ignoring my question. My mind and confusion leapt into overdrive.
“You’re not one to talk about disappearing, Callum.”
Cal took a step toward Jack, which meant it was also toward me, crowding me between their two massive frames. While part of me was overwhelmed, and trying hard to figure how I’d gotten in this mess, I didn’t feel scared. I felt…protected. As if being between them was like having my own personal walls to shield me.
Just like the first night when Jack had swooped in and blocked out the world for me when I needed it most.
Wait.
Cal had said they were both there. Did he mean that first night at the bar? When the fight broke out and water spilled all over me, was Cal there too?
