Page 42 of Playing with Desire
Rick swore beneath his breath. Declan sounded angry, bitter even, and Rick couldn’t blame him. As dangerous as it was being a sniper in the Special Forces, Rick knew how much Declan loved what he did. It had been his identity in the military for the past ten years, and now he was being stripped of the position.
“What are your options?” Rick asked, certain this was thefigure some shit outpart of Declan being home.
Declan opened and closed his right hand into a fist, as if making sure he still had feeling in his fingers. “They said they could switch me over to an administrative position for the rest of my term,” he said, resentment infusing his voice. “But I’d rather take another bullet than deal with bureaucratic bullshit. That’s not what I signed up for.”
Yeah, Rick couldn’t imagine Declan riding a desk all day, pushing paperwork. The one thing that drew his stepbrother to the Special Forces was the unpredictability of the assignments. The element of danger and the adrenaline rush and satisfaction of completing a mission as planned. He enjoyed the energy, the intensity, and even the close camaraderie with the soldiers in his unit. And now, all that was gone.
“Did they offer you any other alternatives?” Rick asked.
“Sure,” he drawled, the sound laced with more frustration and animosity. “I can take a medical discharge and early retirement.”
Rick’s stomach gave a hard twist for his stepbrother’s dilemma, knowing this was Declan’s chosen career and undoubtedly a huge blow for him. Neither option was a good one for a man who’d made the army and Special Forces his life. Was it any wonder Declan was distant and withdrawn?
“What are you going to do?” Rick asked as he turned into their neighborhood, another kind of dread settling in his gut at what awaited Declan once they arrived home.
“I don’t know.” His jaw clenched, a troubled look on his face. “That’s what I’m home to figure out. I need to give my commander my decision in two weeks.”
Rick nodded, realizing such a huge decision like this one would take time and space, and it was a choice that only Declan could make for himself.
Reaching their house, Rick pulled into the garage, and before Declan could get out of the vehicle, he stopped him.
“There’s something I need to tell you.” Rick hated that he was about to add to Declan’s turmoil. “About Summer.”
There was no mistaking the flash of emotion in Declan’s eyes, the concern and something more deeply sentimental that Rick had never seen before, which told him that his stepbrother still had strong feelings for Summer.
“Is she okay?”
He chose his words carefully. “Yes, she’s fine. Her landlord didn’t renew her lease, and she needed a place to live until she found another apartment. I offered her the spare bedroom.”
“So she’s here?” he asked, exhilaration mingling with apprehension. “Now?”
Rick nodded, swallowing around the huge knot gathering in his throat. “And there’s something else...”
The hesitant note in his voice had Declan’s features going stone cold with intuition. “Are you sleeping with her?”
“I haven’t touched her since she moved in over a week ago.” It was the truth, but there was no denying the guilt currently laying heavily on his chest.
Declan narrowed his gaze. “But?”
“We had one night together at The Players Club.” As soon as the words came out of Rick’s mouth, Declan’s nostrils flared with fury. “She went there on her own and was going to hook up with some guy she didn’t know, and I intercepted.”
Declan’s stare was hot enough to burn through Rick. “Fucker,” he muttered.
“I suppose I am, but don’t you dare walk into that house and give Summer any shit about it,” Rick said, his sole concern to protect her from Declan’s wrath, which he had no right to display. “You’re the one who made the decision to end things. You’re the one who told her to move on with her life, and she’stried. When I saw her at The Players Club, I didn’t want her to find another man to play with, and it’s not like you and I haven’t shared her before.”
Declan’s mouth twisted sardonically. “Clearly, you want her for yourself.”
“That night, I did,” he said honestly. “But it’s not me she wants. She and I might have been intimate, but I figure it was better if it was with someone she trusted and already knew, rather than some other man coming along and sweeping her off her feet.”
Declan’s hands clenched against his thighs, this time for another reason, as if he was holding back the urge to deck Rick. “So, am I supposed to thank you for fucking her?”
His stepbrother’s crass attitude sparked Rick’s own ire. “No. You need to realize that you can’t have it both ways—wanting Summer to have a life without you but being a possessive asshole if she tries to make a life for herself. You need to pull your head out of your ass and realize that maybe you made a fucking mistake by letting her go and walking away. She wouldn’t have been at The Players Club had you not told her to move on with her life. You and I introduced her to that D/s lifestyle, and it’s clearly something she needs.”
“And the fucking hits keep coming,” Declan sneered.
This time when his stepbrother opened the passenger-side door to get out, Rick let him go, praying that Declan’s initial face-to-face with Summer went better than the heated conversationthey’djust had.
As soon asSummer heard the outside garage door roll open, she jumped up from where she’d been sitting on the couch, a mix of excitement and trepidation running through her veins. Excitement because, after nearly five months apart, she was dying to see Declan again, to witness for herself that he was fine, healthy, and whole after taking a bullet. And trepidation because she knew Rick intended to tell Declan about what had happened between the two of them at The Players Club, and she wasn’t sure how he was going to react.
