AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We don’t keep secrets, the guys and I,” Duncan explained simply. “It’s always been that way. Out on the battlefield, back at home — it’s all out in the open.”
There was an awkward pause, interrupted only by the scraping of his spackle-knife. “Oh,” was all I could think of to say.
“Liam, Julius and I are a team,” he went on. “We share everything. It’s best that way.”
I squinted back at him. “So you’re not even mad?”
“Why would I be mad?” Duncan shrugged. “You’re a grown woman. They’re grown men. You can do whatever you want.”
“Well I was very tired,” I explained, “they were buzzed. It was after midnight. Everyone was loopy, and it just sort of—”
He dropped a hand on my shoulder, adding a wry smile. “Delilah, it’s okay.”
I thought this morning might be awkward, especially since Liam and Julius were already in the kitchen — and of course fully worked out — by the time I dragged myself out of bed. I was already feeling guilty for a lack of willpower the night before, so it didn’t help that they were all pumped and glistening and just about stripped down for the shower.
But they made me coffee, and they even apologized for last night. I told them there was nothing to be sorry for. That I didn’t regret a single thing, which I really didn’t.
The conversation might’ve gotten even more interesting, but Courtney had chosen that moment to wake up. Her soft coos and cries began emanating from the baby monitor clipped to my hip.
“Did you think I’d be upset?” Duncan was asking. His dark eyes, which somehow perfectly matched his goatee, flashed dangerously as he awaited my answer.
“Not necessarily,” I said hastily. “But I didn’t want you to feel…”
“Left out?”
“Yes.”
He smiled again before moving a hand back to the ladder. Just before he turned to start climbing again, I crossed my arms.
“Youcan kiss me if you want to,” I said, as casually as if I were offering him another iced tea. “You know, to even the score.”
Duncan’s beautiful mouth twisted into a half-grin. “Really?”
My heart began a double-time rhythm. What the hell was I doing?
“It’s only fair,” I shrugged. “You did say the three of you shareeverything.Why not even things out?”
For a long moment he did nothing. Then, moving carefully, I watched him set the mud pan down on the covered piece of mystery furniture he’d been using as a work table.
“I’ve never kissed a girl just to even things out,” he said glibly.
He was toe to toe with me now, face to face. The heat coming off his naked skin was palpable. His shoulders were so big and wide, they seemed to eclipse everything else in the room.
“Well now’s your chance,” I told him.
His eyes were shrewd, and they regarded me carefully. At any moment his arms would reach out. His hands would grasp my shoulders, or maybe he’d pull me in by the hips…
“Do youwantto kiss me?” he asked.
I wasn’t ready for the question at all. I was too busy prepping for the kiss.
“I uh, I’m just offering. It’s up to you.”
His hands slid forward not toward me, but along his own massive forearms. He crossed them over his chest and shook his head.
“That’s not an answer.”
Once more my eyes crawled his shirtless body. I had the urge to reach out and rub my hands up his chest, then over his shoulders and down his arms. I could pretend I was scraping off all the pieces of hardened spackle. Shit, the gesture might even be plausible.
“Every time I’ve kissed a girl it’s because shewantedme to kiss her,” Duncan said matter-of-factly. “Not to even things out. Not to pay off some imaginary debt.”
I bit my lip in confusion. This wasn’t what I was expecting at all!
“I’m going to have to think about it,” he said, sweeping up his tools under one arm. Before I could say another word, he began climbing the ladder.
“You should think about it too,” he called down, before the scraping started up again.
