Helpless (Steel Demons MC #5) - Crystal Ash Page 0,77
remained untouched on the side table. I avoided looking at the bed, well, beds pushed together, as I sat in the armchair and lit up. The nights had been too fucking long. Too fucking lonely without her in it.
Gunner leaned against the windowsill while Jandro grabbed Mari’s assorted bags and started laying her medical items out on the bed.
“All right, talk. Mari and Shadow, really?” Gun crossed his arms, looking more agitated by the minute. It didn’t entirely surprise me. He was the new guy to our arrangement.
“Yes, really.” Jandro pulled out the list and laid it next to the items on the bed. “You can’t tell me you’ve missed all the time they’ve spent together. He pretty much admitted to splitting up her tattoo sessions so he could see her more.”
“What makes you think she likes him?”
“She hasn’t really said anything about it, but it’s not like she’s avoiding his attention either.”
“She was bringing him into the conversation the night before they all left,” I pointed out. “Not quite flirting, but getting there. They’re more comfortable with each other than they ever have been.”
Gunner turned to me, his brow pinched. “What do you think of this?”
“What do you think?” I countered. “You’re part of this too, Gun. What are your instincts telling you about them being together? I don’t mean your knee jerk reaction, like when you first thought about sharing her. I’m talking deep, gut instinct.”
He paused, stroking his chin as he thought about it. “I’m not against it, per se. I just have a lot of questions. Basically, why him? What does she see in him? I mean I like the guy, of course, he’s a Demon through and through. But he is different. Is he going to be good for her?”
“Those are good questions to have,” I nodded at him. “It’s our responsibility to look out for her. Sometimes women see things through rose-colored glasses and miss red flags. It’s up to us to see those clearly.” I looked to Jandro. “You know him best. Your thoughts?”
He had been placing Mari’s needed items in a small pile at the foot of the bed, and paused when I addressed him.
“I was worried at first,” he admitted. “Like, I love the guy. He’s my brother, and he’s done so much better since she’s been around. But I could tell he was still really attracted to her, and spending more time with her after, you know.”
Of course we knew. That time they fucked, early on in our relationship. Shadow had misread the situation, and Mari felt a whole storm of confusing things. What she made abundantly clear from that situation though, was her loyalty to me. Once she was calm and reassured, that incident was able to show her that sexual fidelity was not a requirement of mine. She even admitted to enjoying it with him, despite acting only out of self-preservation at first.
“I was worried about his lack of life experience, mainly,” Jandro continued. “He doesn’t know what to do with a woman besides stick his dick in her when it’s offered. I’m damn certain he’s never been in love before, probably never even had a crush before Mari.”
“I think that’s what’s bugging me,” Gunner said. “He doesn’t know how to treat her. Or the subtleties of giving and taking in a relationship. Is he gonna act like us at sixteen years old and just expect to get his dick sucked all the time?”
“See, that’s what I thought.” Jandro pointed across the bed at him. “But is that really true? He’s been through shit the three of us could probably never fathom. When he’s not working out or drawing, he’s reading history and psychology shit constantly. He’s desperate to understand people, and he’s fully aware that he’s different. He doesn’t act entitled or immature in any other way, so why assume he’s gonna be that way with her?”
“Mari makes him feel normal,” I pointed out. “Because she treats him like anyone else.”
“Okay, but how does he make her feel?” Gunner argued. “What is she getting out of this, is what I want to know. And furthermore, what’s she lacking with us that she’s seeking out with him?”
“Careful with that line of thinking,” I warned him. “You’ll go in a downward spiral real quick.”
“So explain it to me, then. Since you’re the expert.”
“Mari hasn’t come to me about this yet, so I don’t know what’s going on in her head. But all people are different. Everyone has something that