Or rather Mia. They’d watched Mia in her corset and leather boy shorts. Yeah, that bugged him. It wouldn’t if she was his, but their relationship was brand spanking new—as in he hadn’t even spanked her yet, much less put a collar around her throat.
Did he want that? He needed time with her. She was the most luscious thing he’d ever seen. And yet that wasn’t what had made him want to throw her over his shoulder and carry her off. It was her smile and how the world seemed a little lighter when she walked into a room. It was how easily she made friends. Kori and Sarah seemed to adore her and he knew it wasn’t easy getting into that tight-knit group. He hadn’t wanted to return her to them. He’d wanted to sit there with her, talking about his brother and stroking her hair. He could have sat there with her until dawn.
“She’s more than a piece of ass.”
Michael immediately backed off. “Whoa, sorry, man. I didn’t realize you were serious about her.”
Was he? Damn it. These were the kinds of things he would talk about with Theo. He wouldn’t even have to call him because Theo would be standing beside him. Theo would have been telling him how to deal with someone like Mia. Someone sweet and soft and kind.
Theo would have been standing there telling him that Mia was nothing at all like Courtney. Mia wouldn’t care that he didn’t have any damn money. He’d stood there like an idiot explaining he’d spent everything he had to make life easier on Erin because Theo was gone and it was all his responsibility now. So much fucking responsibility because his brother was dead and Theo’s girl was pregnant and that left Case to make things right.
He couldn’t go into any relationship without the woman understanding he had to take care of his brother’s almost wife and kid, though he hadn’t mentioned the pregnancy. That was a surprise for another time. Until Erin actually acknowledged her condition, he wasn’t mentioning it to anyone outside the family. Mia hadn’t blinked. She’d told him he was doing the right thing and why the hell would he even question it.
Mia might be the one. The silly, stupid, romantic movie one.
One good fucking thing in his life.
“I don’t know if I’m serious about her yet.” He definitely needed time. Time to get used to the fact that he was kind of serious about this woman. Way more serious than he’d been in forever.
He needed to know more about her. The couple of times they’d talked, she’d managed to turn everything around to him. It had been such a change from his usual girl that he was kind of in a fog when she was around. She seemed so interested in who he was as an actual person.
“So you’re cool if I ask her out?” Michael asked.
He felt his whole body swell in response. Like a caveman who’d been challenged.
Michael grinned at him in the mirror. “Message received.”
Case started for his locker. “You’re an ass.”
Michael followed after him. With the exception of Theo, Michael was his closest friend. Michael had been on the CIA black ops team with him. Ten’s Men, as they’d called themselves. Now they were Tag’s. “Maybe, but you’re completely delusional if you think you’re not crazy about that chick.”
“She’s cool.” And hot as hell. When he’d kissed her he’d damn near shoved her up against a wall and taken her right then and there. He could practically feel her legs winding around him. That was the moment he’d known he couldn’t do it. It would have been quick and a little violent, and he wanted to be tender with her. He wanted to be different with her.
Michael opened the locker next to his, shrugging out of his vest. “You need to be more self-aware because if you’re not you’ll lose that girl the minute she hits the dungeon floor. Boomer kind of drooled over her and I’m going to warn you that JT is talking about getting a membership here and she’s exactly his type. He’ll play dirty, too.”
He could play dirty. He could snipe that rich motherfucker from a mile away. “Tell your brother to stay away from my…”
Fuck. He’d almost called her his sub.
He was saved from that completely embarrassing mistake by his eldest brother’s deep voice. “Case, I need to talk to you.”
He looked back and Ian was staring at him, his face set in serious lines, though it was always kind of set that way these days. Even when he was holding his daughters there was a seriousness that had been absent in the days before Theo died.
It was how Case measured time now. There was BTD and ATD. Before Theo Died and After Theo Died. Mostly the ATD sucked ass and was marked with grim reality.