“No.”
She noticed he didn’t ask her in turn. Probably didn’t care.
“Me, either.”
Deke grunted and sipped his coffee. He avoided looking at her.
Damn, she had to get this off her chest. Stewing in selfdoubt wasn’t her style.
Taking a fortifying sip of her own coffee, she sank into the chair across from him.
“You didn’t sleep with us last night.”
“So?”
“Why?”
“We covered why last night.” A muscle in his jaw ticced.
“And your insomnia is the only reason?”
He paused, and those deep blue eyes flashed with something—anger?—but he dropped his gaze to his half-full coffee cup before she could be sure.
“Kitten, don’t dig into my psyche on this. You won’t like the answer.” That, she didn’t doubt. If she dug, she’d probably find out that he’d once wanted her but realized last night that she was nothing like whatever feminine fantasy woman he’d conjured up in his head. And now he wanted her gone because he didn’t want to repeat last night. His honor, along with Luc, had bullied him into letting her stay.
Fine. Just fine. She could live with that. Revel in it, in fact. All she cared about was what he and his cousin could teach her. Deke didn’t have to actually desire her. It was probably better if he didn’t, since she was responding to him more than physically.
But she couldn’t just leave it. Not her style. “I probably won’t like the answer, but if it’s going to effect your ability to live up to your end of the bargain to teach me—
”
“I’ll keep up my end. You’ll learn everything you need and probably more than you want.”
“Good.”
But Kimber’s relief was both uneasy and short-lived.
“Don’t be too happy.” Deke picked up his coffee cup and stared at her over the rim. “Luc has this f**ked-up notion that you’re going to fall in love with us and want to ditch your pop star boyfriend to marry us and have our babies.” Marriage? Babies? Kimber gasped. She did want those things someday, but she was set on Jesse. He’d known the real her for years, accepted her as is. That wasn’t true of Deke or Luc.
“Seriously?”
Deke nodded sharply. “I don’t want to encourage that notion. You shouldn’t want to, either. So that means, unless there’s something sexual going on at the moment, stay the f**k away from me.”
No one would ever fault Deke for beating around the bush.
Kimber had known from the start that he was anti-relationship. Not that she wanted one with him, but if she was going to allow him incredible intimacies with her body, touch him skin to skin and live under his roof, shouldn’t they at least be able to talk?
“Is Luc here now?”
“No.”
Kimber frowned. “He can’t get the wrong idea if we talk while he’s gone.”
“I don’t want to talk. You came to learn all about ménage. We’re going to teach you. But we’re not best friends, I don’t give a shit what you think about, and I’ve got nothing to say.”
Defensive and closed. Those were the best words to describe Deke. Oh, the offense came through, but that was his defense. He wasn’t just morning crabby; she knew him well enough to know that he liked mornings. He hadn’t been troubled by anything last night. He hadn’t been troubled until he’d gotten a firsthand taste of how feminine she wasn’t.
His instinct had been to refuse her request. Now he was probably kicking himself for letting her and Luc manipulate him into this arrangement. He was probably thinking it was going to be the longest two weeks of his life. Her brothers often congratulated her on being one of the few females they knew who could contain their emotions, but the unruly things snapped up and bit her now. And she felt wretched. Hurt. She hated it.