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15
Priest
The dog stares at me,and I stare right back at it, not moving an inch. There’s no hostility, and it’s not growling or raising its hackles like it wants to attack me.
It’s just… staring.
I walked into the kitchen to get a snack and accidentally kicked the dog bowl that appeared on the floor sometime between now and this morning, startling the dog and catching its attention.
Animals don’t really take to me, and that’s fine. I don’t get them either. They look at me like I’m an oddity. Like they don’t understand what’s going on in my head. I throw their instincts off or something, and that doesn’t work to make it easy for me to be around them.
This fucking mutt that the girl brought with her is no exception, and he already seems to have taken up residence here like he owns the place.
I can’t take the fucking thing staring at me, in my own home no less, so I get up, planning to head back upstairs.
Knox will be busy down in the basement for who knows how long, and it’s nice to have the house quiet. Gage is at the club, I’m sure, and I don’t know where the girl is. River.
Almost as if thinking her name made her appear, she comes up from the basement, shutting the door behind her.
She looks a mess, and I’ve lived with Ash for long enough that it’s not hard to tell what she’s been up to down there.
She’s tousled and flushed and smells like sex. She’s topless, which makes sense considering she’s holding the shreds of her shirt to her chest, barely covering her breasts. There’s a thin trickle of blood running down her back as well, but she doesn’t seem to care.
When she sees me, she stops, but there’s no shame on her face, just surprise.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I demand.
River just smirks, not bothered. “I know you don’t have sex, but you’ve still got to know what a freshly fucked woman looks like. Ash clearly bangs enough women that you must know all about the birds and the bees.”
I don’t react to her taunts about me not having sex. I can guess where she heard that, and I keep my mouth shut and my face impassive on that subject.
All those worries I had about her before are right there, staring me in the face. I knew she was going to be trouble from the second I laid eyes on her, defiantly telling Gage she wasn’t going to give him any information.
I don’t want her here. I don’t want her causing trouble, and it’s clear that’s just what she intends to do.
“Don’t fuck with my brothers,” I tell her in a hard voice, trying to make sure the warning sticks. “We have business to take care of, and we don’t need you being a distraction.”
That doesn’t do anything to dim her smirk. If anything, it just turns even more smug. “Knox didn’t seem to have an issue with being distracted for a little bit,” she tells me with a shrug. “But maybe that’s the issue.”
She steps closer to me, but I hold my ground, not giving her the satisfaction of letting her see me react to it at all.
“Would you rather I fuck with you?” she asks. “Are you jealous?”
River closes even more of the distance between us, lifting a hand to trail it down my chest and stomach, heading straight for my crotch.
I grab her wrist before she can get too far, not caring to be gentle with her when I push her away from me.
“Fuck off. I’m not playing this game with you.”
“Who said it was a game?” she fires back. “And even if it was, you look like you could stand to remember how to have fun.”
I can feel my anger rising, and I want to lash out at her, to tell her she’s nothing and no one. She doesn’t matter, and she’s not going to push my buttons. But even doing that would be admitting she’s getting under my skin. It would give her too much power. She stands there looking smug and defiant, as if she’s above everything and everyone. As if she’s untouchable.
“Drop it,” I snap.
“Are youscared?” She cocks her head, that twisted smirk growing on her face. “About what? That you don’t… measure up?” Her eyes dart down to my crotch and then back up to my face. “Must be hard. I mean, Knox is clearly proportional. Gage didn’t feel like he was a slouch either. And women seem to be throwing themselves at Ash left and right, so he’s either got a big cock or knows what to do with his mouth. Probably both, from what I can tell. That just leaves you.”
I don’t give her the benefit of a response, just watching her with the same expression on my face. River wants a reaction. That’s the kind of person she is. She wants me to lash out so she can tell herself that she won. But she’s not used to me, and she doesn’t know that I don’t play that game. I don’t give in to childish shit like this.
