Chapter 17 Making It Clear

Magnum

Several hours later, I'd discovered she'd never had cable television and had a long list of shows she'd always wanted to see. So we had Chinese food delivered and watched Captain America. We then suffered through two Lord of the Rings flicks. She'd finally fallen asleep during a documentary about bird migration.

I eagerly turned that shit off and lay back on the couch. Her little body was tucked in front of me, and we'd created a scorching layer of heat between us. It was nice to see her relaxed and sleeping instead of hurting herself and plotting murders.

She did some mind-numbingly erotic but also very innocent cat-like squirming and ended up with her face in my chest. My hand landed on her hip, and her eyes fluttered open.

"Stella's been blowing up my phone." I sent her another text that Wren was safe with me. She was sending all kinds of warnings to me about hurting her and she was a sweet girl. Like I didn't fucking know that. Jesus. I'd also texted Celeste that she was safe with me.

"Mmm. Missed you," Wren mumbled back.

Ah, there it was. She'd missed me too. We both knew she was safer with me. I rubbed her back, and my fingers tangled in her long, thick hair. "You wanna stay here?"

"Mmm-hmm. "

A risky proposition, but she was already sleeping. I'd been hard all night but managed to keep my hands in appropriate areas. I'd slept in a bed with her twice and hadn't fucked her. That was a goddamn miracle in my world. Tonight, she was suffering with her memories. I was just doing what any good brother-in-law would do. Right?

I climbed off the couch and scooped her languid body up into my arms.

"No kissy kissy," she murmured as I carried her to my room. Her ponytail hanging down brushed my thigh.

"You telling yourself that?" I asked her.

"No. You with your sexy lips were all over my neck last time."

"Bullshit." Wait. Did I do that? I didn't remember. She thought my lips were sexy? Well, then. Alright. Couldn't say that didn't make me stand a little taller.

"You said something about wanting me to sleep without underwear."

We reached my bed, and I balanced her with one arm while pulling down the covers. She weighed almost nothing as I placed her head on the spare pillow. "You lie." This girl needed to never be naked anywhere near me or I'd be plundering her without remorse.

I sat down next to her with my back up against the headboard, my hands covering my hard dick. "There's a myriad of reasons I'm not going to kiss you or be anywhere near you without underwear."

She smiled and grinned up at me. "And what are those, great wizard?" God, she was cute as fuck when she was sleepy.

"You're married to my brother. "

"Pfffttt." She waved her hand in the air.

"Knight Security has a rule we can't fuck married women."

Her eyes popped fully open. "Really? Why?"

"Holdover from the military. KS doesn't adopt a lot of the old school rules, but that one the brothers decided to keep. Have to ask them why, but I've seen some ugly brawls go down when another man's wife is involved."

"What do they do if you break it?"

"Don't know." I shrugged. "Probably a fine or you get fired. I ain't gonna find out. The money's too good to blow it on a rule like that. Besides, I don't have sex with married women or virgins."

She laughed. "Well, I'm both."

I groaned and angled away from her as I lay down fully on my back. "That you are. Goodnight, my little rebel." At least this bed was a California king. The other beds I'd slept in with her were tiny compared to this.

"I'm not a rebel." She crossed her arms under her chest and puffed up her boobs as she stared up at the ceiling.

"Sure you're not." I turned out the light, so I couldn't see how hot she looked in the new outfit she was wearing. It was simple jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, but something about the way Stella had hooked her up made her even hotter than she was in her little white panties and argyle sweaters.

"I'm not."

I chuckled and kept quiet. Talking in bed with Wren was dangerous. I needed all my focus on ignoring my boner and creating space between us. Cute pouting and a debate on her virtue, I did not need to see or hear .

"I need to brush my teeth," she said.

"Go ahead."

"How?"

"Use mine," I threw out. I had no issues with germs.

"I can't do that."

"Then finger brush it. I don't give a shit."

"Why does that sound dirty?" She scowled at me.

"I mean just brush your teeth with your finger and some toothpaste."

"Oh." She climbed out of the bed, and I kept my eyes closed while she scuttled her feet over to the bathroom. Okay, maybe I peeked at her ass as she wandered in and turned on the light.

I groaned as I imagined her in there checking out my toiletries. A razor on the counter, a bar of soap in the shower, some hair gel maybe, my frayed toothbrush. Lots of condoms if she looked in a drawer. What did she think of this place? It was a dump to me, gear piled up in the corners. She probably thought it was fancy if she thought the Six Sands was an appropriate honeymoon destination.

"Magnum!"

"What?"

"There's a gun in here!"

Oh yeah, and that. "Stop snoopin' around. It ain't loaded anyway."

I heard the water running and her rushing around like she was in a hurry to get away from the scary gun monster. The girl wanted to kill someone but couldn't handle five minutes alone with a weapon .

She came out and stood stiffly by the bathroom door. I chuckled at her wide-eyed expression. "You survive your trip to my bathroom?"

"That was an experience." Her chest heaved, and she clung to the doorway a little too tight.

Damn, she was fine. Probably one of the most beautiful women I'd ever seen. The kind that gets more stunning with each year and you can't help but stare at her.

But... my brother's girl. Married to him. Virgin. Clearly entrenched in the do-not-fuck column. For real, though. Gavin was a lucky sonofabitch if she took him back.

"I need something to sleep in," she said.

"Sleep in that." Arms and legs fully covered. Bottom half protected by denim and brass buttons. Ideal situation.

"Maybe you should take me back to Stella's." She wrung her hands together in front of her.

"You wanna go?"

"Well, I can't sleep in this."

"I can give you a tee." It would drive me nuts, but I could do it.

"That'll work."

"Unless you wanna go?" One last chance to save my sanity and make the right choice.

"I wanna stay," she said innocently, but my ears didn't hear it that way at all.

"Fuck me." I got up and gave her a large camo tee that would hopefully cover her to her ankles. "Here ya go." I gave her a pair of Navy sweats that she would swim in too.

She went into the bathroom again, and I returned to my spot sitting at the top of the bed. She came out wearing the tee, no sweats, her clothes folded in a neat pile that she set on the nightstand. She'd loosened her hair and brushed it, letting it hang down her back like a veil to the top of her ass.

"Fuck me."

"What?" The bed barely shook as she delicately climbed under the sheets on her side.

"Nothin'." I kept my hands firmly tucked between my legs.

"Night." She said quietly and sighed as she did her torturous stretchy, curly cat thing that was oh so unintentionally sexy.

"Night, Little Bird." I turned out the light and lay flat on my back, trying my best to keep my eyes off her.

She was quiet for a few minutes but I could feel something brewing in her head. Then she sputtered like she was holding back a giggle.

"What?" I couldn't pretend not to be interested because all her thoughts interested me.

"Nothing," she said, with a smile in her voice.

"It's not nothing. I can feel your brain overthinking, and you can barely contain your mirth, so spill."

"Fine. Do women... Like when you were half-asleep you said something very interesting." She chortled, and my whole body got tight.

"I don't remember what I said. Why you laughin'?"

"Okay. Okay." She struggled to get her chuckles under control. "Do you really have sex with women in their back door?"

Jesus. "Dear God, help me." I growled and fisted my hands at my side. "I did not say that. "

"You did, and now I want to know about it."

"I don't want to be the one who tells you that." I smashed my palms to my eyes. This woman was torture. Pure torture.

"Who else is gonna tell me?" It was dark, but I could feel her turn toward me.

"Google."

"I don't want to look it up. I want to know about you, specifically. I mean I know people do that, but like do all the girls you're with, they just let you do that whenever? Like even if you're sleeping and you wake up, you can just do whatever you want?" Her shyness had worn off and now that the question was out there, she seemed like she really wanted to talk about this subject.

How the fuck did I answer her very honest inquiry? I chewed my lip trying to ignore my raging boner and find a way to respond that wouldn't scar her for life.

"First of all, I don't sleep with any women. I'm gone before that happens."

"Gone?"

"But if I did want to do that to someone, and she'd made it clear she's open to it." God, this was difficult to discuss with her. "Yeah, I'd take it."

She gasped, and I heard her squirming around on her side of the bed. My dick throbbed at the thought of taking her that way. I rolled on my stomach to press it into the mattress. Hopefully, she was gasping and writhing in disgust, and this topic would never come up again.

"How would she make it clear?" she asked timidly.

I groaned into the pillow for a long time which set off another round of uncomfortable giggles from her. "The right answer is you have a nice long talk about it and get consent and prepare for it and all that. The truth is, she feels my dick there and she don't tilt her hips away, it's a sign. I test it out with my fingers, she still doesn't flinch, maybe she moans a little..."

Wren let out a stifled mewl that I felt in my balls.

"That answer your curiosity?" I asked her.

"Do they like it?" she asked quietly.

"Yes, I make sure they like it," I answered, reluctantly.

She let out a high-pitched strangled sound.

"Now, go to sleep, Rebel."

"Okay," she quipped.

Shit. Maybe she shouldn't have asked questions like that if she wasn't prepared for the answers. It took me an hour of thinking about spoiled rations and rotten corpses before my boner waned and I finally caught some shuteye.