“We’ve noticed the tits,” Kane pointed out.
“Can you? Can you really take care of yourself?” Evan ignored everyone but her.
Kane watched as Evan stalked her, marched in front of her and slapped his hand against the siding of the house. “Well, Miss Big Girl, let me tell you about your friend in there.”
Kane sat down on the stoop. “This should be interesting.”
“I’ll tell him to leave,” Braden said as he put his hand on the doorframe.
“No, I’ll tell him.” Peyton started to move.
“You’re not going back in there.” Evan grabbed her waist and held her in place. His eyes were heavy with lust. That much Kane saw and he also saw something else but he tried to avoid gawking. He’d let Evan explain himself later and he would. Braden glanced down and saw it too so explaining would be par for the course, and expected.
“Let me go,” she said in a shaky voice.
“Let you go? Huh? How about I tie you up and make you beg for cock?”
“Evan!” Kane stood. “You’ve gone too far.”
Braden held his arm out and watched as the flicker of knowledge danced over Peyton’s pretty face. Oh yeah, this kept getting more and more interesting. Braden seemed curious enough to see where this led.
Peyton’s hands flew to Evan’s chest, and she stared down at his erection. “I bet you’d like that, wouldn’t you? You’d like to see my back arching up, begging you to take me, wouldn’t you?”
Tears spilled.
Damn.
“You can almost see it now, can’t you? All of you can!” She spat her words and then turned back to Evan choking back a few sobs. “He’s…not…leaving. He’s going to tutor me or else I’ll fail my test tomorrow. Now he can tutor me here or he can tutor me at his place. He offered you know. Either way, he’s not leaving or I will.”
“Shit!” Kane blew out hot air and walked off the porch studying the man’s car. He wanted to remember the license plates, the make and model, every scratch.
If the tutor laid one hand on Peyton, trouble would pay him a visit. Since Kane liked the clubs well enough and knew practically everyone, he wouldn’t have a problem finding him. One wrong move and Mr. Dom would know what it was like to beg like a submissive, only pleasure and pain wouldn’t mix. He’d break a few bones for Mr. Cool, and he might consider tutoring something other than anatomy.
Peyton fidgeted. “What is wrong with you guys?”
“Peyton, we’re trying to look out for you,” Braden held a voice of authority.
“No! No, you aren’t. You want to own me. You want to-”
“Own you?” Evan’s sarcasm reached new heights. “Honey, if you think we want to own you, then just you wait. The man in there, in our kitchen, will dominate you in ways you can’t even imagine. Worse still, he’s a novice at it. He thinks it’s owed to him. He doesn’t earn respect. He takes women and makes them think he deserves it. It’s a power play and he does it well, so well in fact, you’ll strip down to your thong and crawl on your knees-”
“That’s it.” Braden walked back inside and slammed the door. Evan jerked her around as soon as Braden’s eyes weren’t around to see it.
“Let me go.”
“Let her go, Evan,” Kane said.
Gaining some measure of composure, he complied. Reluctantly, he moved away from her and jumped over the banister cursing as he made his way to the barn.
“That went well.” Kane watched Evan until he disappeared.
“You have no right to do this,” she whispered.
“You’re right. We don’t.”
He stepped off the porch, tugged the keys from his pocket and walked over to the truck without looking back. He had to get out of there, because if he laid eyes on Neely now, he’d probably kill him. They’d made Peyton cry because of Neely’s sorry ass and such an act was unpardonable.
He heard her car and immediately dialed Braden. “She’s here, just pulled in.”
Braden told him he sent Neely home without any issues but she tore out of the driveway right behind him. Evan tried to follow her and thought she might go to Neely’s place so he’d parked nearby to see if she showed up at his apartment. She didn’t, of course.
“Call Evan and let him know she’s out here safe and sound. Then, tell him to leave the man alone. Just because he knows what the guy does in his bed doesn’t mean Peyton is interested in fucking him.”
“Oh yeah, I’ll make sure to pass your thoughts along, Kane. I think it will go over well.”
Kane laughed. “Yeah, kind of ruins his macho image when you put it to him like that, huh?”
Braden’s chuckling stopped abruptly. “Kane, don’t do anything to hurt her, okay?”
His warning came just like Kane suspected. It pissed him off to hear it one more time. He wondered if Braden ever got tired of telling them to stay away from her.
“Look, if you want to come out here and stay with her, you’re welcome to come right on. Otherwise, I’m going to tuck her in bed, turn on a ballgame if I find one worth watching, and get some shuteye myself. I’m not driving. I’ve had too much to drink.”
Her key jiggled against the lock, and she walked right on in with too many mixed emotions for a cowboy to decipher.
“I gotta go.” He snapped the phone shut and tossed it to the couch.
“Great. Where’s your truck?”
“Outside. You must’ve missed it.” Maybe because he parked it half-a-mile down the road.
She slammed her keys on the counter and then tossed her duffel bag in the bunk area. Tears streamed down her face and from the looks of the black mascara under her eyes, she’d cried plenty.
“Shit.” He held out his arms, and she flew right into them, bawling as she sniffed and cried into his shirt.
He held her to his chest and stroked her head as she sobbed. He wanted her to let it all out. All of it. The tears they said she never cried when her mother died. The tears she cried because of uncertainty. The ones she cried because of fear, loneliness, and maybe even a little heartache. The latter he knew something about. He understood it because he believed he might be reason for it, or at least one-third of the problem.
He backed up against the recliner and held her closer as he rocked her back and forth. She shook and sniffed as she clung to him like a last hope. He had a world of trouble curled up in his lap.
If he didn’t do something to stop where they headed before they started there, they’d both end up sorry in the morning or maybe one of them would. He felt pretty certain he’d feel a lot of things, guilt refusing to weigh in as one of them.
About ten minutes later, she stopped crying, and he held her there until she quit trembling too. “How about I fix us something to eat?” he offered.
She somehow managed to choke out two words. “Not hungry.”
“You probably haven’t had anything to eat,” he said.
She wiped her face with the palms of her hands and stood up. She walked into the bathroom and turned the faucet on, leaving the door wide open while she dabbed at her face.
Standing in the doorway, she made a statement. “I’m not going home. Not tonight.”
“Suits me.” He turned up his beer, hit the button on the side of the recliner and leaned back to relax.
She shut the bathroom door, and his body damn near bolted from the chair. He immediately pecked on the door when he heard the creaking sound of the door underneath the sink.
Shit! Shit! Shit!
“Uh, Peyton? Can you open up for a second?”
“No, I… can’t.” Impishness now replaced the sobs he heard earlier.
Damn it! He mouthed the words and threw a punch at thin air while gritting his teeth. He heard the zipper. The damned-ass zipper hung in the middle so there was little doubt of what she’d found again with ease.
He grabbed the doorframe with both hands and leaned his forehead on the panels. “Peyton, let me in, hon so I can check on you for a second. I’m uh…worried about you.”