Page 46 of Eagle

“You couldn’t have walked to your house?”

She giggled as she stepped into the water. “It was an emergency.”

“Meat is done!” I called out loudly enough for everyone to hear. Snake and I set our platters down onto the picnic table where there were several side dishes covered in wrap to keep the flies away, buns, and bags of chips, plus condiments.

It was as if I’d rung the dinner bell. Everyone made their way in, and once their feet hit dry land they sprinted toward the table like a herd of hungry cattle. The women were much more dignified, laughing as the guys pushed past them and came on ahead.

“Leave some food for the ladies!” Wolfe ordered as he fixed himself two hamburgers. Ella was right beside him, filling her own plate.

I fixed a plate for myself and decided to go sit beneath the tree next to the grills. No sooner had I gotten comfortable when I glanced up to see Leo walking toward me.

“Mind if I sit with you?” She didn’t wait for my response and sat down, crisscrossing her legs.

I grinned around the food I was chewing. “What if I’d said no?”

She’d been about to take a bite of potato salad, her fork freezing in mid-air. “Are you saying no?”

I shook my head, amused at the bewilderment in her eyes.

“I thought maybe we could, um, get to know each other a little better.”

I watched her lips close over the fork, taking a nervous breath. “Why would we want to do that?”

“Um...to be friends?”

I snorted loudly, grinning. “Baby, I don’t want to be your friend.”

Her mouth turned down. “Then what do you want from me? Besides the obvious.”

I studied her quietly for a minute, chewing on a bite of hamburger and tomato. “Good question.” I studied Leo. She deserved an answer. She deserved the truth. I wanted her, but the things I wanted went well beyond friendship. I swallowed. “Don’t you think we’ve kind of bypassed the friendship stage?”

She shrugged. “That happens occasionally.” She sipped her drink and then looked me straight in the eye and asked, “Are we going to continue fucking?”

I almost spit my food out at her brazen question. I would have thought that what I’d said to her after our steamy kiss would have clarified what my intentions were. Hell yes, I was going to fuck her again. I wanted to fuck her right now. But what did Leo want?

“I could ask you the same question.”

She huffed, clearly annoyed with me. “You’re infuriating sometimes!”

I grinned knowing it was true.

“Okay, let’s be honest with each other. I’m attracted to you, Eagle. I don’t know why, but there’s something about you that makes me feel reckless and, ah, wild, and I lose all control and common sense when you’re around. I’ve had one-night stands but if we’re going to continue fucking it’s only natural that I’d want to get to know you.”

I took in what Leo was saying, took another bite of burger to digest it. I wasn’t opposed to getting to know her better, but I was worried about the implication. You didn’t get to know someone who you had no intention of getting into a long-term relationship with. I knew telling her that would be a contradiction of what I’d been hoping for with Jillian, but the reality was that I’d been there, done that, and if there was anything I’d learned from being with Mandy, it was that you couldn’t judge a book by its cover. She’d had the whole package, too, and I’d nearly lost everything because of her.

To be fair to Leo, though, she deserved an explanation. “You turn me hard with a fucking look.” I needed her to know that she wasn’t alone in her feelings. No way was I going to admit that I’d never let a woman get to me so fast and hard, though. “All I think about when you’re close is stripping you bare and sinking my dick inside you. So I guess you can say the attraction is mutual, darlin’.”

She blushed profusely at that and picked at her chicken.

“I was in a serious relationship a few years ago. Her name was Mandy. A sweet, friendly little schoolteacher that dressed classy and won me over with her cooking and her sexy body. I found out she had a Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personality once she moved into my house. She almost cost me everything, including my freedom.”

“That’s awful,” Leo acknowledged, and I could hear the sincerity in her voice. “What happened?”

I leaned back against the tree and rested my arm over my raised knee. “She was a drinker. Went crazy one night and started breaking shit. Got cut in the face when she broke a vase, and then tried to blame it on me after I kicked her ass to the curb. What she didn’t know was that I’d been videotaping her the whole time. She knew she’d lose her reputation, her job, and more if it was made public, so she dropped the charges.”

“That was smart, videotaping her.”

I nodded. “Took a few months to get her out of my life. She couldn’t seem to accept that I didn’t want her back. Still shows up to make my life hell every once in a while.”

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