Tied Up, Tied Down(20)
tried—”
“Whoa whoa whoa.” Kane held up a gloved hand. “You said she made the bed? As in—you’re sharin’ a bed with her?”
“Uh. Yeah.”
“So, man, why are you worried about talkin’ if you’re already nailin’ her?”
“Because I’m not.”
“Not what?”
“I’m not nailin’ her, okay?”
A stunned look crossed Kane’s face and then he laughed so hard he fell over on the ground.
When Kade suffered enough of his brother’s hysterics, he said, “It ain’t funny.”
“Yeah, it is. Jesus, Kade. The last year turned you into a Wyoming monk? You’ve been sleepin’ in the same damn bed with Skylar, the woman you have a child with, the woman you’ve been crazy in love with for over a year, and you haven’t tried to get busy with her? Not even once?”
“No.”
“Does the thought of screwin’ her with the baby in the room…give you performance anxiety or something?”
“What the fuck do you mean, performance anxiety? No. I don’t have any problem gettin’ it up.”
“Does havin’ the baby listenin’ to you squeakin’ the bedframe freak her out?”
“I don’t know!”
“That is just plain sad, man. Sad.”
“No shit.”
“I’m assumin’ you still want her?”
“Like you wouldn’t fuckin’ believe.”
“So why would you throw in the towel so soon?”
“I haven’t.” Kade kicked a clod of dirt into the ditch. “I promised Sky I’d be a gentleman. At first I needed to be in her room to learn how to take care of Eliza. I thought maybe after Sky got used to me bein’ around and I rebuilt her trust, things might change. We’d use the bed for more than sleepin’. Nothin’s changed. I’m waitin’ on her to give me some kinda damn sign.”
“There’s your problem. Waitin’ on her. Actin’ like a lap dog, happy for scraps.” Kane stood and jammed the wire cutters in his back pocket. “See, women tell you they want a gentleman, when in reality, they want a man to take charge. Sexually speakin’.”
“What?”
“Hear me out. A woman wants a man who can’t keep their hands offa them. A man who can make them feel feminine, sexy and needed. Desired, but not in a way that diminishes their independence outside the bedroom.”
He stared at Kane with his mouth hanging open. What’d gotten into his brother? Kane was worse than him when it came to talking about touchy-feely relationship crap. Kane never thought about man/woman shit beyond the locker room trash-talking of, “I fucked her” or, “I wanna fuck her” or, “Is she any good with her mouth?”
Now Kane was channeling Dr. Phil? It shocked Kade to the point of speechlessness, leaving him no choice but to take note of his brother’s opinion.
“Take a woman like Skylar, who’s used to callin’ all the shots in her life,” Kane continued, oblivious to Kade’s shock. “She’s ambitious. She’s convinced herself she always has to be in charge—of her business, of her family, and probably of her sexuality.”
A strange sense of déjà vu surfaced. That described Skylar to a T.
“Maybe she’s secretly lookin’ for man to render decisions in the bedroom. So, by you doin’ nothin’, she don’t see you as a real man. She sees you as another person in her life she has to be responsible for.”
Lord. He had a point. Sky’d been teaching him how to care for Eliza, much like how she’d taught her employees to do their jobs. Did she see him as just another project to finish? Get him up to speed in the parenting department and then merrily skip on to the next task?
Like hell.
“I think the only way you can combat Skylar’s way of thinkin’ is to prove to her otherwise.”
“Who are you?”
Kane actually blushed. “What? Everybody in this family wants me to change and then when I do, I’m told I ain’t allowed to? Or they don’t believe I can?”
“Shit. Sorry. I just can’t believe that Skylar would…” Want the man Kade used to be. That idea was just beyond bizarre.
But worth a shot since nothing else seemed to be working.
“Where did you pick all this up, Kane?”
“I’ve had a lot of time to reflect in the last year about what a first-class prick I’ve been to women.” He bristled as if the admission stung. “Besides. It ain’t all my fault. Blame my roommate.”
“What’s Colt got to do with it?”