Page 18 of At Last

6.

Duke

“Alright, Doc. Let’s get you some coffee.” I give her arm a little squeeze to get her moving. She wants to argue, can see it written all over her gorgeous face.

Though she don’t argue. She opens her mouth then closes it. Opens then closes it. Opens then closes it before giving up. “There’s no good coffee in town,” she finally settles on.

“Thought we were headed for Nashville?”

“Um…” Her heart-shaped lips press together.

Is it bad how much I get off stumping her?

“Tommy,” I call out. “We need Peaches’ booster in the back of my truck. Gotta get my girls something cold to drink.”

Her feet stop abruptly as she turns her head to glare at me. “Your girls?”

Tommy, the son of a bitch, just about busts a gut laughing, but he does it while walking the booster over to my truck. I can see why he’d find it funny and give him that play. Hell, if I wasn’t sitting in the middle of it, if it was one of the other brothers, I’d find the whole thing fucking hilarious.

“Duke—Chief, when um… when did we become your girls?” she whispers.

I set a drowsy Jade into the backseat and secure the seatbelt around her. I don’t bother to answer until her door is shut, and Tommy’s left us for his cruiser, out of earshot. Only then do I lay it out for the good doctor.

“You crawl into any man’s lap at the hospital when your girl’s sick, and sleep there all night? Let ’em give your girl a nickname?” I ask, pulling a cigarette from the pack I keep in my front vest pocket and light it. Won’t be smoking while we drive, so I take the opportunity while I got it. Plus, it gives me something to do with my damn hands.

“No,” she answers.

“You let just any man come over and cook dinner for you and your girl? Watch movies?”

“No.” She repeats herself, stronger this time.

“You kiss any man the way you kissed me?”

She throws silent attitude at me by folding her arms under her tits, but refuses to answer.

So that’s when I go in for the death blow. “You letany maneat you out ’til you come so hard he could drown from your juices?”

That got her. Those stunning jade green eyes of hers go wide. “I did not come that hard.” She protests.

Yeah, she protests, but those wide eyes got heat behind ’em, and I stare, almost mesmerized by her chest raising and lowering from the shallow breaths she struggles to take. Caitlin knows what we shared that day, how wild she went that day. And from the hungry look she tries to hide, I know she remembers I’m the one who made her wild.

“Doc,you did. And that’s what makes youmy girls.”

“But you left. No goodbye. You just left.”

Why did I even bother to hope she’d let that slide, at least for now? I know I owe her an answer, an honest answer. “Listen honey, after what we did, what you gave me, had a lot to think about.”

“You didn’t bother to say hi to me when I showed up here today. You didn’t say word one until Sly showed interest. Then you decide to piss in my corner?”

“No, told you. Had a lot to think about. Sly sniffing around made me realize if I don’t claim what’s mine, someone else might try. And I can’t have that because I’ll kill any fucker who sniffs around you.”

“Come on, Chief, be reasonable. You can’t—”

“You let me in, Doc.” I tell her something she already damn well knows, take a long drag on my cigarette and blow the smoke away from her and the car. “You gave me the green light, which means we’re a go. Both know we been dancing around this shit for close to a year. You could’ve been a bitch when Jade got hurt, pushed me away. You didn’t. So yeah, I can and I will.” Then to drive my point home, I motion between her and Jade in the backseat. “My.Girls.”

She swallows hard as her features soften. Those green gemstones focus solely on my tired eyes. “I have to admit,” she says, breaking out that damn sweet, shy disposition, which does all kinds ’a shit to my insides, cheeks blushing strawberry. “I like thinking of us as your girls. We haven’t been anyone’s girls in so long.”

“You gonna keep staring at me or you gonna kiss your man?” Because I really need to feel those soft lips against mine.Now.

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