Page 13 of Hidden Desires
Marcus shrugged his shoulders. “Hey, I’m not going to apologize for protecting my little bro. And if that means I have to shoot every guy in the face who so much as kisses you, so be it.”
Ace huffed out a breath and turned to his best friend.
“You’re so lucky that you don’t have an older brother.”
Lucas laughed. He had a sister and parents with whom he really wasn’t close.
“He does it because he cares,” Lucas offered, shrugging his shoulders and taking a sip of his drink.
He was currently enjoying his drink in a reclining lounge chair that had been propped up just enough for him to be able to enjoy it and get a bit of sun. His boyfriend, Caden, couldn’t stop staring down at Lucas’s exposed thighs like a hungry lion waiting for his moment to pounce.
Ace wanted to have a guy look at him that way. So far, only lust-filled, horny men gave him that look when they needed his ass to bust a load after a night of drinking.
“Want me to follow them, boss?” Blade asked, suddenly kicking into protective biker dude mode.
Ace’s mouth dropped open. He turned to glare at his brother and mentally threw daggers his way.
“No. I think we’ll just wait at the house. You know, just in case Ace decides to bring his date home for a little dessert,” Marcus replied with a sly look on his face.
“Why waste time coming back here when the restaurant bathrooms are so much closer?” Ace noted, loving the growl that slipped out of his brother and, surprisingly, Blade.
Was the man… jealous?
No. It had to be some power, dominating thing. Ace was used to his brother and the guys all treating him like their younger brother, even though he was a fucking adult.
Ace took another sip of his sangria as he tried to study the beefcake’s face. The man was wearing aviator sunglasses, so all he could see was Blade’s tight lips and sun-kissed nose. Thanks to Blade’s reddish-brown beard, he couldn’t even tell if the dude was clenching his jaw.
This was fucking pointless.
“Shall we finish up these bikes?” Cade asked, giving Lucas a kiss on the cheek before walking back over to Marcus’s.
Blade stood where he was for a moment, arms folded across his massive chest, presumably staring down at Ace. It was hard to tell where the man’s eyes were looking when hidden behind those stupid sunglasses.
The dude gave a huff as if he were pissed, then turned and stomped back over to his bike.
Well, that was weird.
5
BLADE
“You’re such an idiot. What are you doing?” Blade asked himself as he slowly pulled into the restaurant parking lot. He stopped his bike between two parked SUVs and hoped that they provided enough cover.
He turned off his Harley and watched as Ace and his date got out of their car and walked smiling into the restaurant—hand in hand, of course.
Against his better judgment, Blade had decided that he needed to follow his boss’s little brother—just to make sure he was alright and that his date didn’t do anything… inappropriate.
Ace is going to murder you if he finds out.
Yeah, but Marcus will explain to him that this is what brothers do. We look out for each other and make sure that they are safe, and that no pig does anything inappropriate to them.
And which biker bro followed you on your last date?
Blade stopped to think about that one. He couldn’t remember ever being on an actual date. Sex dates, yes. Orgies, plenty. But an actual “sit down at a restaurant and talk tosomeone” date? He wasn’t sure if he had ever actually been on one.
Killing the engine, he pulled his phone out of his leather jacket pocket and checked the time.
It was nine thirty.
