“You would be so easy to hurt,” he whispered.
When Torren sucked hard on her neck, Candace moaned, completely lost in the moment. She reached behind her and gripped the leg of his jeans, begging him to come closer. And he did. He shoved her against the counter and ground his erection against her ass so hard, she thirsted for him. Rough silverback, he would make her feel good and forget about the bad parts of her life for a little while. He could offer her a beautiful escape.
He moved faster, grinding on her through their clothes, and when he slid his fingers through hers and pinned her hand onto the counter, she wanted to beg him to take her somewhere private so he could finish them both.
But he backed off of her so fast, she startled. One second he was there with her, connecting, touching her, warming her, and the next…he was across the kitchen, grabbing two glasses of water off the counter. Without a single look back at her, he disappeared down the short hallway to the back porch. The door slammed so hard she jumped.
What the ever-lovin’ hell just happened?
Her body was still on fire from his touch and, dumbly, she tried to recall what Nevada had asked her to get. Plates? Okay. Mayo? Yes. Good, she wasn’t completely useless right now.
But when she stumbled out onto the porch, Nevada frowned at the plates and murmured, “Strawberries, napkins, and a knife. That’s not even close.” And then she arched her gaze over to Torren, who was shoving himself into the small space between Vyr and Nox.
“Sorry,” Candace murmured. She spun around and made her way back into the kitchen, gathered the stuff she was supposed to bring, and hurried back outside.
The others were already seated, and the only empty chair was one next to Nevada with silver duct tape on the leg. Torren was squished between Nox and Vyr, and both of them were giving him matching what-the-fuck looks.
Dumb boy. He was making Candace feel like she had cooties. It’s not like she needed to sit by him anyway, especially if he was going to act weird.
She sat down beside Nevada and scooped strawberries onto her plate and then onto the fox shifter’s plate. She shoved the bowl over to the boys’ side without making eye contact with Torren. Her cheeks were on fire. It wasn’t her way to be embarrassed, but he’d bolted so fast it had to be her…right? But it was good they hadn’t taken the little romp in the kitchen any further because they were supposed to have three dates before she made a decision on the benefits part of this friendship. She couldn’t afford to just jump into a bad decision with a man. She wanted to get to know him a little first, figure out if he was a D-bag and would bail.
They ate in silence for a few minutes before Candace reached for a conversation starter. “Why have a mansion with old couches and paper plates?”
Vyr and Torren ignored her, but Nox pulled out a little book from his back pocket with bent, worn pages and a title on the front cover that read Manners & Shit.
He flipped through a few pages, popped a strawberry into his maw, and read aloud. “When you have a dinner guest, you should answer their questions with politeness and honesty. Huh.” He scooted his chair back loudly and stood, clinking a plastic knife against his beer bottle. Clunk, clunk, clunk. “Okay, I’ll go. Vyr was rich, but the government froze his accounts when he burned Covington and ate like a dozen gorillas and lions. Torren is greedy with his money, I’m between bounty hunting jobs, and Nevada hasn’t been paid but once by her library job, so…paper plates. And no heat. And we all pitch in to keep the lights on and keep this fine cuisine on the table.”
Vyr and Torren were chewing their burgers and glaring at Nox.
“What?” Nox asked, sitting back down.
“Why do you have a book on manners?” Vyr asked around a bite of food.
“I don’t know this shit, and I’m trying to be a good crew member because Nevada gets horny when I’m polite.” Nox kicked Torren under the table.
Torren yelped a curse, then shoved Nox so hard the plastic leg of his chair broke and he went down hard.
“Idiots,” Vyr muttered. “We’re out of duct tape. Now you get to stand.”
“I hate you,” Nox whispered.
“I hate you more,” Torren whispered back.
They glared at each other another few seconds before Nox whispered, “You’re my best friend.”
“Stop.” Torren shook his head and rolled his eyes and looked so mad that Candace had to purse her lips against a smile.
“It’s not funny,” Torren said, glaring at her.
“I know. I’m not laughing.”
“Well,” Torren growled, “you look like you’re laughing.”
“You two have a very cute bromance.”
“See?” Nox crowed from where he was eating his burger on the ground now. “Even she sees our chemistry.”
“Well, she’s a stripper, so—”
Splat.
Candace gasped and clapped her hand over her mouth. She couldn’t believe she’d just thrown a mayo-covered tomato slice at him. It was sliding slowly down his cheek, and when he turned a wild, green-eyed gaze on her, he looked enraged.
Beside her, Nevada was giggling as quietly as she could, which was making Candace have the giggles, too.
“Stop bringing up that I’m a stripper. If you have to call me something, call me a dancer.”
“Well, you dance for money, soooo…”
“Whoa, judgey judgerton,” Nox said from somewhere on the other side of the table. “Manners and Shit, page fourteen. ‘Try to be open minded with dinner guests to make them feel more comfortable in your space.’ And besides, you can’t say anything. So she dances for money? You fight— Oooow!” Nox howled when Torren kicked at him.
Vyr sat up straighter and stopped chewing. “What were you about to say?”
“Nothing,” Nox ground out.
“No, you said something about fighting. T, are you fighting?”
“Manners and Shit, page fifteen,” Torren rumbled. “‘Give the guest a tour of the house.’”
“I don’t see that on page fifteen,” Nox said over the sound of rustling pages.
Torren was already carrying his empty paper plate inside, though.
“Am I supposed to follow him?” Candace asked, confused.
“Uh, I think so,” Nevada answered.
Vyr was glaring at the ground where Nox was eating his dinner.
“What?” Nox asked around a full mouth.
“I hate this crew,” Vyr muttered.
“You lied!” Nevada sounded so happy right now.
Everything was confusing. Candace grabbed her empty plate and followed Torren inside for some mansion tour she was pretty sure he used as an excuse to escape Vyr’s questions.