Chapter 15
Rafe
Knox and Tracey both faced each other head to head. She had the frozen margarita in front of her and Knox had on a stupidkiss the chefapron on over his bare chest and swimming trunks. Jade watched them with a grim look on her face. She knew they wouldn’t back down from each other’s challenges and that worried her. Archer was shotgunning a beer while some girls watched him from the beach. It was rather secluded but every few hours a few people would walk by or choose this spot to sunbathe. Gabriel was laying out on the patio pretending to be asleep and Mav was watching the margarita showdown with a serious expression on his face.
“Are you going to drink that? It’s going to melt by the time you two stop staring at each other,” Mav whined. He was right. They had been at this for five minutes now. Neither one of them was going to back down. Finally, Mav slid his hand forward to grab the glass. Tracey was lightning fast as she stabbed the counter, right beside his hand, with a fork.
Jade’s mouth dropped open. I hadn’t seen her grab the fork. Knox’s lips twitched with amusement. Mav just slid his hand back toward himself while he tucked his bottom lip inside his mouth. It was getting intense. Sweat rolled down Tracey’s temple. Knox didn’t look phased but I knew better. They were evenly matched and if Knox hadn’t decided to be a Guardian, it would have been a hell of a showdown for when he was ready to take on the Beta position. Nothing like that had ever happened before.
“Will you two just sleep together already?” Archer moaned from the other side of the counter now. That was what did Tracey in. Her head snapped toward Archer and her eyes screamed murder. He pressed his lips together in a smile of fear. Jade fought a laugh and Mav just simply looked terrified. I guess a fork would do that to a man. She grabbed the glass in both hands and took a big swig from it.
We all practically exhaled together.Finally.
Tracey’s eyes watched Knox over the rim of the glass before she took it away from her face. She licked her lips. “Hmm, I guess you’ll do.” She didn’t bother with saying anything else as Knox’s eyes got big. She walked out of the beach house without looking back, with the glass between her hands. Somehow she shucked her cover-up and walked down the steps right to the sand without spilling a drop from the drink. Knox didn’t take his eyes off of her once. I would imagine it had something to do with her ass spilling out of her swimsuit bottoms but I wasn’t exactly sure. I didn’t look long enough to find out, but everyone else had.
Knox’s closed fists shot up into the sky with victory. He let out a roar and all the guys slapped him on the back. To get Tracey’s vote of approval was a big deal, especially after she had just lost the showdown. Besides victory and pride in the air, there was something else. Yes, arousal. But there was also another scent. It was deeper and more something but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Knox’s cheeks were pink when my eyes landed back on him.
Something was up and I wasn’t sure if it was my place to dig or not.
Jade shook her head as she followed Tracey out. She didn’t strip off of her cover-up, much to my disappointment. She hadn’t taken it off all day and I could tell it was starting to wear on her. She didn’t look comfortable at all but I didn’t know how to bring it up. Sleeping next to her had been torture, all I had wanted to do was ravish her but I knew she needed comfort or just someone to be there in case a nightmare threatened her again. I could do that forever if I needed to, but it was going to be extremely difficult to continue to keep my hands to myself. She needed me emotionally available and I didn’t have the slightest clue how to be that for her.
