That voice, gravelly, rough and most definitely not belonging to Finn, broke into the moment. Her eyes flew open and she turned, turned to see Gage standing there. And he was, regrettably, not a hallucination.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, still holding on to Finn, who looked more amused than angry.
“I came looking for you. Since you took off from my place like a bat out of hell.”
“You were at his place?” Finn asked.
“It’s not like that,” she said.
“You wanted it to be.”
She all but snarled at Gage. “What? You hadn’t humiliated me enough? So, you figured you would come down here and finish me off?”
“I figured I would come make sure you weren’t doing anything stupid.”
Finn shrugged. “She hasn’t done anything stupid yet, but I have a feeling she’s about to.”
She wasn’t even sure which of them he meant, all she knew was that it was really annoying to be in between two posturing alpha males. Annoying, because they were acting like she wasn’t even there. And annoying, because part of her actually got some kind of strange satisfaction out of the deal.
“Stop it,” she said, extricating herself from Finn’s hold. If there was one thing she knew for certain, it was that the mood was dead.
There was never a mood. And you know it.
There should have been. Because seriously, any woman should be excited by the attentions of a man like Finn. He was ridiculously good-looking. And yet, she was staring down her enemy, anger and arousal pouring through her blood in equal measure, and she could feel inevitability pounding between them like a drum.
“Why don’t we have a talk, Rebecca?” Gage asked, his tone even, conciliatory even. She wasn’t fooled.
“It may have escaped your notice, but I wasn’t looking for a conversation.”
“You’re coming with me,” he said, his tone hard. “If I have to carry you out of this bar, then I will.”
“I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Finn said, taking a step back from her and crossing his arms over his broad chest. “I’m not letting you carry her out of here.”
She really was grateful to Finn, because he had to be aware that sex was completely off the table at this point, and he was still playing the part of protector.
“Rebecca and I have unfinished business,” Gage said.
“It’s finished if she wants it to be,” Finn responded.
Gage turned to her. “You want this jackass fighting on your behalf? Or are you gonna come deal with me yourself? I didn’t think you were a coward.”
She bristled, but still, she took a step back. Because she wasn’t stupid enough to think that if she went with him this was going to end in another fight. She knew exactly where this was headed. She could stay here with Finn, and whatever happened happened. Maybe she would go to bed with him, maybe she would finally lose her virginity. Or maybe they would just dance. But it wouldn’t shake up her life either way. It wouldn’t rattle her down to her very core.
But if she went with Gage, she knew exactly what would happen. She could see it. In the heat in his eyes, and she could feel it in the answering heat in her own body.
Rebecca had always been practical. It was the hazard of growing up with just enough. And sometimes not enough. You made do with what you had, and you learned very quickly what you could do without. You knew what necessity was, and what it wasn’t.
Gage was a necessity. She knew it. Looking at him, she knew. If it wasn’t him, it would never be quite right. It didn’t matter if he was first, but it would be him eventually. And if it wasn’t... She would always feel it. Feel a bit of unfinished business deep inside of her, an itch that would never be scratched.
And it was all tangled up. In her scars, in his part in them. In her anger at him, and in the way that anger had always driven her. Had always driven her to chase people out of her life, to keep men at an arm’s length. It was so many things. Just so many things.
Settling it with Finn really was just a Band-Aid, like she’d been thinking earlier. But, different than she’d been thinking. It would be covering the wound up, not taking any steps to get rid of it.