The fist to the jaw shouldn’t have surprised Border, but it did. His head shot back, and he winced, rubbing a hand over his chin where Jake had punched him.
“Feel better?” Border asked. He ran his tongue over his teeth to check if any had come loose. The damn man could hit hard.
Jake shook out his hand. “No. Your jaw is like granite.”
Border snorted. “Not so much, but thanks.”
“I don’t know what the hell I’m doing here,” Jake said after a moment. “And you being here isn’t helping.”
Something kicked Border in the chest, but he did his best not to show it. “You want me to go? I can. But I’m not leaving the city. We need to talk.”
“I thought we just did,” Jake snapped. “What the hell do you want, Border?”
“You,” he bit out then wanted to hit himself. Well, now there was no going back, even if he’d fucked it all up. “I want you, Jake.”
Jake went pale for a moment, and Border held back a sigh. Not the best reaction he could have hoped for when he told the man he wanted his feelings.
“I don’t know what I want, Border,” Jake whispered. “I…it’s been a long time.”
Border stood straight and moved toward the edge of the counter so he could give Jake some space. “I see.” And he did. He’d been gone too long, and he’d fucked up.
Jake reached out and gripped Border’s forearm. “No, you don’t see. I’m messing this up. You came back out of nowhere, but that’s not really the case, is it? You’ve always been here in some ways. You’ve been calling me off and on since you left.” Jake met Border’s eyes. “And I’ve needed those calls, Border. Even if they killed me.”
Border swallowed hard. “I needed them, too.” He closed his eyes. “But you need Maya, too.”
Jake pressed his lips together. “We’re friends.”
“So were we,” Border countered. “Don’t lose out on her because you’re scared.”
“And what about you?” Jake asked, his voice low.
Border’s pulse beat in his ears, and he took a deep breath to try and control himself. That tingling thought in the back of his head came full center, and he wanted to call himself crazy. He hadn’t even met Maya yet, but he was about to do something monumentally stupid anyway.
“What about both of us?”
Jake froze, and Border didn’t know what to say next.
“What about both of us, what?” a voice asked from the living room.
Border turned at the woman’s words, and Jake cursed. The woman was drop-dead gorgeous. Sexy curves and an even sexier glare. Her black hair reached past her shoulders, and her bangs were cut across her forehead. She had a piercing in her brow, and ink all over her arms. Those blue eyes looked just like Storm’s.
“Maya,” Jake said softly. “How much did you hear?”
Maya Montgomery. This was the woman who held Jake’s heart, at least part of it. And Border had never felt so damn lucky or scared in his life.
“I don’t know what I heard, so why don’t you two enlighten me?”
Border sighed when Jake stood silent, his face stony as he tried to figure out what to say. “I’m Border,” he said finally. “You must be Maya Montgomery.”
Maya met Border’s gaze, and they both let out a little breath. “Good to meet you. I guess.”
He couldn’t help the smile on his face at her words. “I guess it’s good to meet you, too.”
“What are you doing here, Maya?” Jake asked finally and then cursed again. “I mean, fuck.” He moved toward her then, and brought her into a hug, surprising Border and, apparently, Maya as well.
She patted him on the back awkwardly and frowned around his shoulder at Border. “Hi, there,” she said softly. “What’s going on, Jake?”
He shook his head, and Border leaned into the counter as he watched the two’s dynamics.
“I’m fucking everything up as usual,” Jake answered. “How are things with you?”
She blinked a couple of times before meeting Border’s gaze. “What is he talking about?”
Border shrugged. “He should be the one to talk about it with you.”
Maya turned to Jake expectedly.
Jake ran a hand over his face as he pulled back from Maya. “Border and I were just talking about what happened in the past.”
“You mean between you two and the fact that he left?” she asked, and it was then that Border knew Maya knew everything about him while he only knew some about her. Jake was a damn lucky man for having her in his life if she didn’t run away from what Border had done.
“That would be it,” Border replied. His phone buzzed, and he looked down at the incoming text. Alarm crawled up his spine, and he gritted his teeth. “I need to go.”
Jake frowned at him. “What do you mean? Don’t you think we need to talk?”
Border put his phone away and nodded. “I know we do, and we will when I get back, but it’s a work thing I can’t get out of.”
“What do you do for work?” Maya asked.
He met the woman’s eyes and felt a connection immediately. The type of connection he’d only felt with one other person in his life—Jake.
What the hell?