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Dante checked behind him and cursed under his breath. “You have got to be kidding. You want to leave Jeri undefended so Shyla can make up all kinds of crap about him and there’s no one to counteract her claims? I don’t think so.”
Lazarus shook his head and looked at Dante in disgust. “There you go again. Have you listened to yourself? Shyla is not the enemy. But you’re fast making one of her, the way you’re blaming her for stuff she’s never done. Seriously, you should just get out of here.”
Dante bristled “I’m not leaving either of you here on your own.” He didn’t add ‘with her’ but the words still hung between them as if he’d said them out loud.
“Fine, then you’d better damn well chill! Because right now, the only person causing a problem here is you.” Lazarus warned before stalking off to join Jeri and Shyla.
He didn’t know what had gotten into Dante. Sure, he’d been affected by what had happened to his friend, but he wasn’t usually unreasonable about it. Not to this extent.
If Lazarus didn’t know better, he might think his little brother was jealous. But that really was ridiculous. While he and Jeri often shared women, Dante had never been interested in joining them, even though they’d offered enough times.
Maybe that was the problem. Perhaps he wanted Shyla for himself. God knows his current behavior didn’t make much sense.
But aggravating Shyla sure as hell wasn’t going to ingratiate him to her, so he really did need to just back off.
* * *
Dante triedto rein in his irritation. In all honesty he wasn’t sure what was making him act like such a dick. He knew Shyla wasn’t responsible for what happened to Theo, and truly he didn’t blame her for it.
Sure, he’d been mindful when they’d picked her up and had to get a bit too hands on for his liking in order to take care of her, but she seemed to appreciate the necessity, and he didn’t really think she was going to cry foul.
He wasn’t going to lie to himself and pretend he wouldn’t like to fuck her brains out. But that was just a physical reaction. He thought the same about a lot of women. It didn’t mean he was going to act on those instincts.
It wasn’t like he was even a stranger to one-night stands; he’d had his share of those. Although not as many as his brothers, who liked to share, but never seemed to be interested in taking things any further than a bit of fun.
Perhaps that was the issue. He was attracted to Shyla. Not just her looks, it went way deeper than that. He liked her sensible, down to earth attitude, her resilience, and her willingness to make the best out of a bad situation.
Being stuck in an environment like this said a lot about a person. It was like you could get a fast-track insight to their true character. The layers of… he didn’t want to call them deception; it was more the societal norms that people clothed themselves with through peer pressure and general expectation. But those things, the things it normally took weeks or months, or sometimes even years to peel away in order to reveal the true persona underneath; those things were stripped away quickly in life-or-death situations and all that was left was the unvarnished reality with all its truths and flaws.
Thatwas what drew him to Shyla. Here she was in a difficult situation, with a bunch of strangers, and yet she proved herself to be thoughtful, accepting, generous and organized.
She’d even been concerned about the jerk who had left her, injured, on the side of a mountain, with a snowstorm about to hit. He wasn’t sure he’d have been so magnanimous.
Dante sighed. If the circumstances showed her in such a good light, what did they say about him? It’s true, he wasn’t in the same life or death situation, he wasn’t injured, and he could have walked out of here - he still could - but where Shyla shone his own reactions left a lot to be desired.
Even he knew he was being a jerk!
He just couldn’t seem to help himself. The way he felt about Shyla was confusing. He admired her and was attracted to her. He liked the core person adversity had proven her to be. And when he’d heard his brothers pleasuring her last night, he’d been hard as a rock and so turned on it was painful. He’d wanted to roll over and join in the action… and that really wasn’t him.
He had an ‘almost’ girlfriend. Someone with whom he’d been softly exploring the possibility of taking things to another level. He’d thought he was ready for that. Had been planning to take that step when he returned from this trip. But his reaction and response to Shyla had tipped all that on its head so that now he was reassessing his relationship with Heather.
He was also reassessing his relationship with Lazarus and Jeri. He’d never been interested in sharing. He considered himself to be far too jealous and selfish for something like that to ever have a positive outcome, so he’d given it a wide berth, for his brother’s sake as well as his own, and that of the woman involved.
With Shyla, he could imagine it, though. More than imagine it. It was like he craved it. He’d almost kissed her earlier, despite his brothers having already staked their claim.
Perhaps that was why he was so out of sorts. He hated when his well-structured life and careful plans were messed up. He hated feeling out of control.
And out of control - or at least just grasping onto the threads of it - was exactly how Shyla made him feel.
And he didn’t like it. Didn’t like it one little bit.
To cover his discomfort and the awkwardness that had developed, Dante strode over to the hearth where Shyla’s lentils were soaking and gave them a prod to see if they were soft. “What do you want to do with these now, Shyla? Should I fetch more ingredients or take them to the kitchen?”
It wasn’t really meant as an olive branch, but he saw her eyes widen in confusion and a pleased little smile. Just the bare upturn at the side of her lips, but he realized, right there and then, that he would do a lot more to see a smile on her face. Especially one directed at him.
“Actually, I was really hoping I could boil some water to clean myself up first, and um… maybe wash my undies.” She dipped her head like she was embarrassed, or maybe she thought he’d have a go at her again.
“Good idea,” he replied, ignoring her look of surprise. “I’ll grab the big container and fill it so we can set it to boil, then we can deal with your soup while we wait for it, if you like?”
He left then, to fetch the snow, but suddenly he felt much lighter. Lazarus was right. If the four of them made an effort to get along then everything really was that much more palatable.
Even the uncharacteristic animosity he’d been feeling towards his brothers suddenly felt like it had shrunk away to nothing.
Maybe this wasn’t so bad after all.
When he came back with the pailful of snow, he was humming under his breath, happy with his decision, and content with the situation.
He even ignored the nonplussed stares Lazarus, Jeri and Shyla gave him.
