From Sanctum with Love (Masters and Mercenaries #10) - Lexi Blake Page 0,56

“You shouldn’t bug her at work.”

Jared’s eyes widened. “You can’t honestly tell me that’s your reason. I was bugging her at work.”

He didn’t want to go into the real one. The real reason would lead to a family counseling session and while he was willing to talk to his brother about his career goals, he wasn’t willing to go there. “I owe it to her to provide her with a workplace where no one harasses her.”

“I wasn’t harassing her. I was talking to her and you went twelve kinds of possessive. Come on, Kai. We both know why you did that, and I’m worried it’s the very reason you kept your distance from a woman you obviously wanted.” Jared wasn’t letting up. He started to follow Kai out of the locker room.

“You just got here. You haven’t seen me in years. Don’t act like you know what’s going through my head.” He wasn’t ready for this conversation.

“You’re still angry with me for what happened. I get that. Don’t take it out on Kori. She’s not Hannah.” Jared was hot on his heels.

“I never said she was and you shut the fuck up. You think you know me so well? Then you remember that I don’t air my dirty laundry in public. You’re making a scene.” He couldn’t stand it. He wasn’t the guy who posted his every fucking feeling on social media. Some things were private, needed to be dealt with in quiet and thoughtful fashions, but his brother had never met a public argument he didn’t love. He would throw down in front of anyone.

Jared stopped as they walked into the lobby. Up ahead, Kai could see his entourage was waiting for him. And look, his assistant had shown up. Lena was dressed for clubbing in a way-too-short skirt that would very likely show off all her assets as she got out of the limo they would surely take.

“Fine,” Jared said, his voice hushed. “But since I’m living with you for the next couple of weeks, don’t think this conversation is over. Maybe I’ll make an appearance at this club and then call it an early night because I think we should talk about this.”

He turned and joined his group. High-fives all around. Jared smiled like they hadn’t just gone from being fairly cool with each other to nearly having a public knock-down, drag-out, but then that was how his brother rolled.

“Hey, Kai, you coming with?” Squirrel had traded his leathers for the equally awkward jeans that seemed painted on his body and a V-neck shirt that proved he was way less serious about working out than Jared.

Brad or was it Tad? He couldn’t remember. They were dressed in the same douchebag outfits as the rest of the crew, as though they were all trying so hard to be Jared. One of the “_ads” gave him a nod. “The more the merrier. We’ve got plenty of room in the limo. Come with us. You’ve never gotten trim the way you get it when you’re with this guy.”

The asshole was patting Jared on the back like it was his duty to ensure every guy got laid by some chick who really wanted Jared but would take whatever they could get to be in a star’s orbit.

The other “_ad” nodded and got a wolfish leer on his face. “Yeah, these chicks will do the craziest shit to get near him. And the drunk ones are easy pickings.”

“Ah, date rape. It’s the call of the lesser, more criminal male.” Yeah, his brother needed to find another way to cope. “You’ll excuse me if I choose better company.”

He walked off toward the bar where he saw Vince hanging out with Mistress Jackie. Hanging out was a euphemism. He was actually curled up at her feet, his cheek against the leather of her boots that had come straight from Dominatrix or wherever Jackie was buying her outrageous getups these days. She looked lovely, but he couldn’t imagine having to be stuffed into a corset. Some days he genuinely thanked the universe he’d been born with a dick. And now that he thought about it, his dick wasn’t that much smaller than his brother’s. It was simply that his dick had some humility, some modesty and refinement.

“I thought you would be in a privacy room by now,” Jackie said, a knowing smile on her scarlet lips.

With Kori. How was Kori going to deal with the fact that everyone would think they had moved their relationship