Smug Bastard - Stacey Marie Brown Page 0,29
I tapped on the door.
“Go away,” she muttered. Hearing her voice poured relief through me, easing my shoulders down.
“You okay?”
“I’m fin—” A dry heave broke off her statement. It sounded like her guts were trying to come up her throat.
Ah.
She moaned lowly and spit.
“Kins, open the door.” My knuckles struck the door again.
“Go away, Smith. I’m fine,” she croaked.
“Yeah, you sound like it.” I snorted. “Open this door, Nettles.” The nickname made her groan louder, a tiny whimper following. “If you don’t, I will.”
She exhaled loudly, the door unlatching. I shoved it open. Pale and sweaty, she fell against the wall, her knees pulled up to her chest, her hand running through the hair she had knotted on top of her head.
“Stop gloating.” She tipped her head back.
A grin wobbled on my lips. “Didn’t say anything.”
“Didn’t have to.”
“Haven’t learned the lesson about mixing beer with hard alcohol yet?”
“Chalk it up to me being a baby still in diapers.” Her lids parted to glare up at me. “Can you at least let me die alone?”
“And take all my fun away?” I chuckled, leaning over her. “Doesn’t sound like you got anything left.” My hands wrapped around her biceps. “Come on.”
She grumbled as I lifted her up. She wobbled on her feet, her head falling forward into my chest.
“I’m never drinking again.”
“Until next time.” I wasn’t that old, but I felt like my time for doing stuff like that was centuries ago. Drinking, being young and stupid.
Free.
We moved out of the stall. Her muscles trembled, so I kept my arm tight around her as we walked out.
Goat whined, leaping exuberantly onto Kinsley the moment we stepped out.
“Come on, little man, Mom’s not feeling too well.” I kept moving, opening up the back doors of the RV and lifting her up onto the bed. She flopped down on her pillow, Goat jumping up next to her. Going to the front to get her water and painkillers, I came back and stopped in my tracks.
In less than one minute, Kinsley had stripped off her pants. Lying on her stomach, her ass was scarcely covered in some strip of black fabric. The tank top rode high up her back.
“Shit,” I muttered under my breath, watching her barely clothed body squirm deeper into her sheets. My teeth crunched together as I shoved the desire to run my palms up the back of her legs, tracing every inch of her skin.
My Adam’s apple bobbed as I swallowed. “Kins?”
“Hmmmm?”
“You need to take these.” I climbed up onto the bed, holding out the water and drugs.
Half lidded, she turned to me, taking them from my hands and downing the pills before falling back into her pillow. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” I set the glass down near her, rubbing Goat’s head. “Night.”
“Night,” she muttered.
Sliding out to the ground, I stood there for a moment, everything in me feeling like a tug of war. Exhausted but restless. Irritated but calm. Appalled but horny as hell.
Savior and villain.
Sighing, I rubbed my chin, kicking off my boots, ready to climb down on the blanket.
“Smith?” Her voice was soft.
“Yeah?”
“Thank. You.” I could hear the genuine sincerity in her tone. And in my head, I wanted to believe it was for more than helping her back to bed.
“You’re welcome. Now go to sleep.” Please. Before I do something stupid.
She went quiet, and I unbuttoned my jeans, peeling them off to my boxer-briefs, crawling back on the blanket. My gaze drifted back to her, thinking she’d passed out.
Through the shadows, the light from the restroom glinted over her dark brown eyes as they stared straight at me. Air caught in my lungs as mine met hers, neither of us looking away. Her gaze seemed to cut through me. No emotion showed on her face telling me what she was thinking or feeling, but the intensity gripped my chest and wrapped around my cock like a boa constrictor, twisting every nerve till it hurt.
We didn’t look away. Not a word was spoken, not a hint of emotion showed, but I could feel the change in the air, the shifting of roles, putting us on an even plane. I was not an older brother type, she was not the little sister of an ex. No Baby K or Smug Bastard. It was just us.
But still very much forbidden.
The air grew thinner, the tension plucking at a string connecting us. The world hazed out and became so taut it strangled me. Her eyes were calling me to her like a