“Gee I don’t know, maybe because she keeps hanging all over what is supposed to be mine. Always with those big eyes saying Alexander this and Alexander that. It’s pretty damned pathetic.”
“Are you jealous?” I ask in amazement. That was apparently the wrong thing to ask because a kitchen bowl comes sailing at my face. I dodge to the side just in time. The bowl was metal and falls against an end table with a loud clang. Gunner walks around me and hands Dani her shirt. She takes a sandwich bag filled with ice and wraps it in a kitchen towel putting it gently against his nose with a hiss, and bites her lip. She’s so concerned about him that I want to hit the son of a bitch again. Gunner has been hurt worse from throwing punches in the ring we keep when one of us wants to let off steam. So when the son of a bitch wiggles his eyebrows I make a note to kick his ass, when he can’t hide behind my woman. “Answer me, woman! Are you jealous?”
“Fuck you, Zander.” She growls, stomping out of the kitchen heading towards our bedroom.
I follow her, stopping beside Gunner to throw a fucking elbow into his side. “Get the fuck out of here before I kick your ass so hard they’ll find pieces of you on Highway 80 for the next fucking twenty years.” His laughter echoes behind me as I go find Dani.
“Shouldn’t have tried to keep you two a secret, Crush Man.”
“Fuck off.”
I slam our bedroom door against the wall when I come in. She’s searching through her closet and comes out with one of my faded t-shirts. It’s the one I let her sleep in, when I allow her to wear clothes to our bed. Which honestly, isn’t very damn often. Hell, even if I do, I always end up taking it off her in the middle of the night. I’m getting hard just thinking about it, and I need to have this out with her. Damn woman has me so messed up over her, I don’t know if I’m coming or going.
“Answer me, Dani. Are you jealous of Carrie?”
“See? That right there!”
“What?” I ask, completely clueless.
She goes into the bathroom for a second, coming back out without her jeans on and rubbing that face cream between her hands she always puts on her face before we crash. She stands in front of the mirror, rubbing her face and all I can think is, she is everything I have ever wanted. Everything.
“Carrie! See?”
“Woman, you need to start making more sense!”
She turns to me then, drying her hands on a towel she finds on the dresser.
“You call her Carrie! No one else does! Not one of them! They all call her Red, but not you, no way! You call her Carrie!”
“It’s her name!”
“And she’s sweet! She’s so damned sweet she makes my teeth hurt.”
I fall back on the bed, letting my elbows prop me up. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be here for a while. “Is there a problem with Carrie being sweet?”
“She calls you Alexander! You call her Carrie!”
“Sweet fucking mother of Hell! That’s our names!”
“Do you hear anyone else using them? No! Just you two! And she zeros in on you, no matter where we are or who is around! She sees you and it’s like a heat seeking missile or something. Bam! Zander’s here! Cue Carrie!”
“What the hell do you want from me? Do you want me to hurt her, just so you will feel better? Is that it?”
“No! She’s who you deserve!”
With those words, I’m not finding this so funny anymore. “What the fuck are you talking about, Hellcat?”
“She’s sweet, and kind, and good. She’s beautiful, innocent, and everything you should have!”
I look at her like she’s insane. Does she not look in the mirror? Does she not realize how she is with me when we’re alone?
“She’s also in love with Dance,” I try reasoning with her first, because other than fucking a woman or eating her pussy, I haven’t really dealt with this drama bullshit.
“That’s just because you don’t press it. If you did, the minute you had sex, she’d be yours.”
The way she says that, grates my nerves.
“You know Hellcat, I am more than just a cock.”
“I know that!”
“It sure doesn’t sound like it,” I grunt falling back on the bed. Jesus this relationship stuff is for the birds.
“I just meant with her you’d have someone who isn’t scarred and broken. She doesn’t know the ugly in the world. You could make her happy. She’d love you, and give you babies and the life you deserve.”
“Jesus, you got all this from her calling me by my first name?”
She’s got these big tears in her eyes and my gut twists yet again. I really need to kill the motherfucker who hurt her.
“You should go, Zander. This isn’t working.”
“The hell it isn’t!” I growl. “Get over here now, Dani,” I order.
“Zander…”