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“I’m fine by the fire,” Drake says, and I want to growl at the man.
Doesn’t he know that arguing will only bring suspicion?
“It’s fine,” I say in his direction, somehow managing not to look directly at him. “There’s no sense in being uncomfortable if you don’t have to. There’s plenty of room in my tent.”
Kincaid nods before walking across the campground to his tent. My eyes dart in Ugly’s direction, and I still think there’s a chance, now that the crowd is thinner, to pop him in the nose before being stopped.
I sweep my eyes over the sea of tents, noticing everyone has spread out, making it less obvious the distance that I placed my tent. Further investigation reveals that the people who have partners with them have strategically kept their tents quite a distance from the others. Legacy, Ugly, and Bishop have corralled closer together. From the looks of it, others could speculate that I might have predicted that Drake would end up sleeping in my tent, that we could have done this on purpose. I narrow my eyes in his direction, wondering if part of that is true. He couldn’t predict where I’d set my tent, but the other half could be part of his plan.
I hate that the man is making me read deeper into every decision he makes, but after what happened in the bar, I don’t know that I could ever trust him fully.
After another hour and a half, I consider the possibility of these guys staying up drinking until the sun comes up, despite being completely exhausted. If they keep chatting and laughing, then I won’t have to crawl into a tent with Drake. I’m still so very angry at the man, but I know what the scent of him in the enclosed tent will do to my body. It’s already been proven that I can’t control myself where he’s concerned.
My heart is racing at just the thought of touching him again, and I sort of hate myself for it. It’s not the guilt or idea of sin that makes me want to run from camp until my lungs make me topple over into the trees. I don’t think I’ve considered my eternal damnation once in the last week. My anger for him went even deeper than that. I stopped myself from considering how perfect that man and I could be together, but somewhere in my subconsciousness, it still festered. I feel the loss of something I didn’t even have yet, the loss of possibility, something I never wanted to consider with him.
He ruined all of it.
Stubbornly, I continue to sit by the fire, my anger keeping me awake. It’s not like I’d ever be able to fall asleep inside the damn tent with him mere feet away.
There’s no way I could last an hour much less the rest of the night and tomorrow night for that matter.
Legacy looks over at me in confusion when I groan my annoyance out of nowhere. I ignore his eyes on me, praying everyone else still up and chatting is focused on Ugly as he tells another story about his college days before quitting and joining the Marine Corps.
“What about you?” Ugly asks, and I lift my head, thinking I’ll need to tell some kind of story since I’ve been silent all night, but my teammate’s attention is on Drake.
Drake laughs, a humorless sound. “I never went to college.”
It’s one more thing we have in common. The trouble I went through to get into the Marine Corps after turning up at the recruiting office without a birth certificate or social security card was hard enough. I vowed then I’d never attempt anything that required any type of application process. Thankfully, Cerberus knew everything they needed to know before they even reached out and made contact with me.
“But you have to have stories,” Legacy prods. “You’re a bartender. I’m sure you’ve heard all sorts of things.”
I look up at Drake, finding his eyes locked on me rather than Legacy.
“I’d never break a confidence. They tell me things they’d never tell anyone else.” He pulls his eyes from mine back to Legacy. “I’d never share someone’s secret.”
Chapter 34
Drake
It’s clear Alex is stalling. He doesn’t want to end up in that fucking tent alone with me.
It stings in a way I didn’t expect, much like the way he can’t seem to look at me without his top lip twitching in irritation.
Maybe I’m stalling too because even after working all night last night and getting up super early to pack for this trip, I still haven’t headed in that direction. I could probably lean up against a tree and pass out right now, but then there’s no telling what Kincaid would have to say about it in the morning.
Alex looked more pissed that I said I’d sleep by the fire a second time.
