Dave’s laughter bounced around the room. “Fern is no girl.”
“Hey!” I grabbed a worm from the bait bucket and hurled it at him. “Take that back!”
He threw his arm in the air. “Forgive me. I meant Fern isn’t the girly-girl type. She’s perfect, despises drama, and can give any dude a run for their money in most areas. I think Wolkowski’s face can attest to that.” He held up his hand and high-fived me.
“That’s not fair.” Gabe whipped around as some wine bounced out of the bottle in his hand. “I told you, I accidently scared her. She didn’t beat me up.”
Dave slapped Gabe on the back. “Whatever helps you sleep at night, bro.”
Visions swept through my mind of last night and the complete lack of sleeping. My stomach did a summersault at the memory of Gabe’s breath on my stomach, thighs, and being all wrapped up with him.
That’s when the hook I was putting Katie’s worm on, and not paying attention to, suddenly went into my thumb. “Damn it!” Clearly, the visions of a naked Gabe doing naughty things to me disconnected my fishing brain. “Anyone have paper towels?”
Dave pushed Gabe aside and nearly through the wall and grabbed my hand. I tried to pull out of his grip. “No, Dave! I’m bleeding!”
The blood was starting to run down my finger, and at that moment my hulk of a brother dropped like a fly, hitting the ice with a thud. Liv knelt down by his side. “What’s happening?”
“He can’t do blood, but he’ll wake up in a few seconds.” I pushed her gently aside and checked his pupils.
Ed knelt down next to Liv. “What are you talking about? He’s a hockey player and sees all sorts of blood and never passes out.”
All eyes shot to me for the answer. “It’s not all blood. You see, ever since we were kids, if he sees my blood, he goes down like a bag of bricks.”
Pam put her hand over her heart. “Aw, it’s a brother-sister thing. That’s so sweet.”
Dave opened his eyes and let out a yelp as he looked at all of the faces leaning over him. “What the fuck happened?”
Gabe quickly grabbed a paper towel and handed it to me.
“It’s okay, I’m bleeding, and you saw it.”
Andrew held out his hand, and Dave hopped up. “I remember. Am I ever going to outgrow this shit?”
“OMG Dave, I didn’t know you were a softie.” Katie handed him a bottle of water from the table. “You have a special bond with Fern, and it’s so sweet.”
“I’m a little pathetic when it comes to my sister. Sorry y’all had to witness me being a puss.”
I looked at Gabe to see his wheels turning. I could not let Dave take Gabe or the weekend pass from me. When I told Gabe I might be addicted to him earlier, it was true, and my skin crawled at the thought of what I’d do if I couldn’t get my fix. I had to get him away from my brother so no bro-code loyalty would take root. “Gabe, do you have any Bandaids?”
“Yes, let’s go to the house, and I’ll get them.”
I looked around and was thrilled that everyone seemed to think this was a good and normal response. I would finally get to be alone with Gabe, and if bleeding made that possible, I was prepared to hook myself as frequently as necessary.
We sprung out of the fishing shack and nearly sprinted to the door and inside the cabin. We stepped out of our shoes before he threw me over his shoulder and took the stairs two steps at a time. “Okay, I think eight minutes is an appropriate amount of time to fix an injury. Right?”
I slapped his ass below me. “Yes, eight seems good. and I’m a nurse so I would know.”
He ran through his bedroom and into his bathroom before plopping my feet on the floor. He took off the blood-soaked paper towel and pulled me to the sink. “I’ll fix you up.” He ran my finger under warm water and dried it with a towel.
“It stings.” I muttered, trying not to sound wimpy.
My breath caught as he put my finger in his mouth and sucked while his green eyes bore into mine. My chest fluttered as the warmth of his tongue seemed to make all hook injury pain vanish and light something inside that I didn’t think could be resolved in eight minutes. Or could it?
I used my foot to kick the door closed, and he pushed in the little lock button. I took my finger back, pulled a washcloth from the hook on the wall, and shoved it on my finger before throwing myself into him.
His mouth ravished mine, and I couldn’t even believe how we connected. I pulled his perfect backside closer and felt as sexy as I ever had when he pressed against me. I realized what I was doing to him.
He spun me around, and my hands rested on the vanity while I looked at his hot reflection in the mirror before me. One hand held onto my waist as the other traveled lower. He found me, and I tried to turn toward him, but his body held me firmly against the counter as I saw my fingers turning white while I pressed down on the marble in front of me.
