Badd Motherf*cker(52)

Yeah, argued some other, stupider part of me, but he’s not Michael. Don’t punish him for that. And he IS sexy as fuck.

But he’s still an asshole.

Granted.

Now that both parts of me were in agreement—sort of—I waited for Sebastian to come up with whatever it was he was trying to say.

“Because…?” I prompted.

“Because I feel things,” he concluded, somewhat lamely, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand.

I rolled my eyes at him. “Wow. That was deep, Sebastian. You feel things? Could you maybe be just a little more specific?”

He growled again, turned away to glare at another man standing a hundred or so yards away, then back to me. “Tryin’ here, sweet thing, but this shit don’t come naturally.” He let out another breath. “I feel things for you, Dru. I shouldn’t’ve let you leave like that. I should’ve…I dunno. Done a lot of shit differently.”

I sighed and shook my head. “As far as proclamations of love go, this one is rather…unique.”

He didn’t like that. “Maybe I don’t know a bunch of fancy twenty-dollar words. You want that shit, go talk to Brock back there, he’s full of ’em. All I got is what I got.” He stepped closer, and I couldn’t back away or I’d be swimming. I could only hold my ground and stare up at him, and god, even his scowl was sexy. Scary, but sexy. “And it’s not a proclamation of love, because we just fuckin’ met. I’m just sayin’…I feel shit for you, and maybe if we were to play this out, it could be. Meaning, I could feel that way for you. I know that’s not some fairy tale poetry about my feelings or whatever, but it’s the best I can do. It wasn’t just fuckin’, what we had earlier. I see that. I know that. I know you do too, and…I’d really like to see what that’s like, long-term. I’m not promising I’d be any better at this feelings bullshit than I am now, because I haven’t really had much practice with listenin’ to what my heart has to say or however you wanna put it, but…I’d try. That’s what I could promise you.”

I blinked up at him, absorbing everything he’d just said to me. Which, despite the roughness of it, was incredibly sweet, and as honest and upfront as you could ask for. If he’d declared his undying love, I’d have laughed in his face, but that wasn’t what he was offering. He wasn’t saying he’d be able to change his nature, but he was willing to try. Because he “felt shit for me.” Was that enough for me? Was it even what I wanted?

I didn’t get a chance to reply, though.

“Now, what are the chances of you coming back home with me so we can continue this somewhere a little drier?” He jerked his head back toward the bar.

Apparently I didn’t reply quickly enough, because he scooped me up in his arms and started walking back down the dock. I laughed and slapped him on the shoulder. “Put me down, you big idiot. I can walk.”

“Will you be goin’ in the right direction, though?” he asked.

“Yes, yes, I’ll go with you. Just put me down. I’m not a fucking invalid.”

“I’m wet and getting cold and you weren’t answering,” he muttered, setting me on my feet. “And I just put myself out there and you haven’t said dick about it in return, so I’m getting a little antsy, here, you know?”

We’d reached the man whom Sebastian had said was Brock—one of his brothers, I assumed—and he heard Sebastian’s last statement.

“Give the girl a minute to process, would you?” He extended his hand to me. “I’m Brock.”

“Dru,” I responded, shaking his hand, and hated how stunned I sounded.

Because holy mother of shit, if I thought Sebastian and Zane were hot? Brock was…Jesus. The man was gorgeous, in a neat, classical, lean-and-wiry sort of way. Similar features as Zane and Sebastian, the same rich brown hair and liquid, expressive brown eyes, but where Sebastian was rough and wild and rugged and Zane was cold and dangerous and brutal-looking in a scary sexy way, Brock was just…beautiful. Male, definitely, not at all effeminate, just truly beautiful. I had no idea what Brock did for a living, but if he said he was a model, I wouldn’t have been surprised.

Which only made me wonder what the other five looked like. Holy hell, five more Badd brothers?

I elbowed Sebastian. “Are all your brothers this good-looking?”

He grinned down at me. “Nah. The rest are ugly.”

I frowned. “That’s what you said about Zane, and I wouldn’t classify him as ugly by any stretch of the imagination.”