Maya Banks - Colters’ Woman

“Sounds yummy,” she replied.

She took position on the couch while Ethan and Ryan both sat on the floor at either ends of the coffee table. She cupped the mug in her palms and sipped at the cocoa. Anything not to think of where Adam was and who he was with.

“I hate to see you so upset,” Ethan said in a low voice.

She jerked her glance sideways, startled from her own thoughts. Her jealous thoughts.

She sighed and set her mug down. She rubbed tiredly at her temple. “I’m being unreasonable.”

Ryan muttered something under his breath.

She turned to him, sensing an ally. “Why don’t you like her?”

“She’s a manipulative bitch.”

Holly laughed. “Thanks. I needed that, I think. She doesn’t seem to like me, that’s for sure.”

Ryan grunted. “She’s pissed because she set her sights on Adam, and he never took the bait.”

“Never?” she asked softly. “It seemed to me that you and Ethan were all that stood between Adam seeking a deeper relationship with her.”

Ethan fixed Ryan with a hard stare.

“Is he sleeping with her?”

She meant the question to sound casual, but instead it came across as fearful.

Ethan swore. “Look, sweetheart, I don’t know if he ever slept with her. I know that he isn’t now. Not after you.”

Somehow the idea that Adam had slept with Lacey didn’t make her feel any better. It wasn’t as though Holly had been here any length of time.

“We’re not saints, Holly. We’ve had our share of women, but we’re not faithless jerks. Adam wouldn’t screw around with another woman. Not after committing himself to you.”

Ryan nodded in agreement.

“Then why is he going to her?” Holly strained out.

“He can’t stand the idea of not helping a woman in need,” Ryan said. “He has a weakness for damsels in distress.”

Holly felt the blood drain from her face. Was that what she was? God, she certainly fit the mold. Tears swam in her vision, and she blinked hard to keep them back. She didn’t want to make an ass of herself. More than she already had.

Ethan threw one of the dice at Ryan, hitting him in the head. “You’re not the brightest bulb are you?”

Holly got up. She wasn’t going to bother keeping the pretense up any longer. She was far too upset to act like nothing was wrong.

“I’d like to go to bed,” she said. “Is there a room I can use?” She hoped her meaning came across. She wanted a room to herself.

“Use Adam’s,” Ethan said. “He can take the couch when he comes in.”

“Thanks,” she mumbled as she headed toward the hall.

As soon as she was out of sight, she bolted toward Adam’s bedroom. When she was inside, she locked the door and leaned against it.

The tears she’d tried so hard to hold back spilled down her cheeks. All the pent-up emotion from the last several years came roaring to the surface. The disappointment and the sense of betrayal, her humiliation over the horrible lack of judgment she’d demonstrated. It was enough to make her cringe.

She didn’t bother undressing. She jerked back the covers and crawled underneath, pulling them tightly around her as she curled into a ball.

Adam stepped inside the cabin and hung his Stetson and his coat on the hook by the door. He glanced around but only saw the dying embers of the fire. Everyone else must have gone to bed already.

His groin tightened. Would he find Holly in bed with his brothers? He knew Ethan and Ryan had both fucked her separately, and the truth of the matter was, he looked forward to doing the same.

He walked quietly down the hall and frowned when he saw his door closed. None of them ever slept with a closed door. He tried the knob and found it locked. What the hell? Locked out of his own bedroom?

He spun around and walked a door down to Ethan’s room to see if he was there. The door was ajar. Adam nudged it further open and peered inside. Ethan was asleep amidst rumpled sheets. Alone.

He walked over and shook Ethan’s shoulder. Ethan came awake instantly.

“What the hell time is it?” Ethan demanded in a groggy voice.

“Three A.M.”

Ethan sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Where the fuck you been?”

“Helping Lacey find the Turner boy. Where’s Holly?”

“In your room,” Ethan replied.

“Why’s the door locked?”

Ethan reached over and flipped on the lamp beside the bed. He pinned Adam with a disgusted stare. “She’s hurting, Adam.”

Adam’s heart lurched. He didn’t like to think of Holly hurting. She’d been upset before he left, but he’d hoped Ethan and Ryan would have soothed any worries she had.

“Why didn’t you and Ryan solve the problem?” Adam demanded.

“You’re hurting her, Adam. Not us.”

“Me? What the fuck did I do?”

Adam felt his anger rising. He wasn’t into playing stupid mind games, and Ethan was fast pissing him off.

Ethan sighed and slid his legs over the side of the bed. “Look, Adam, she’s having a rough time, and you running off at Lacey’s calling isn’t helping matters. She’s insecure and who can blame her with what that fuckhead of a husband did to her?”

“She’s upset because I went to help Lacey?”

“Maybe if you had explained the nature of your relationship with Lacey, Holly wouldn’t feel as she does, but she knows something is between you two, and she knows Lacey doesn’t like her one bit. Lacey’s acted like a jealous bitch at every turn. Much like a woman scorned. Holly isn’t stupid, Adam. Neither am I. Something went on between you two.”

The muscles in Adam’s face twitched, and he pressed his lips together. “What did or didn’t happen between us isn’t any of your business.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Ethan said evenly. “Dead wrong. It is very much my business. I love Holly. And I think you do too, Adam. I think Ryan probably does as well although he may have a hell of a time admitting it to himself. Anything you do that hurts Holly is my business. She’s as much mine as she is yours and Ryan’s. If this relationship is going to work, you’re going to have to pull your head out of your ass.”

Adam blew out his breath in one long sigh. “Christ. Nothing happened between me and Lacey tonight, Ethan. I wouldn’t do that to Holly.”

“I know,” Ethan said quietly. “But she doesn’t know that. Not yet. We haven’t earned her trust. She’s not going to offer that lightly after what she’s gone through.”

“And in the meantime, I’m locked out of my fucking bedroom.”

Ethan chuckled. “I guess you get the couch. I wonder if we’ll have a steady rotation when one of us pisses her off.”

“Good night. Sorry I woke you,” Adam said as he turned to leave.

He eased the door shut behind him and stared down the hall at his locked door. It was nothing a screwdriver wouldn’t fix. Maybe it was time he and Holly had a little time alone.

A few minutes later, he quietly slipped into his bedroom. Holly had left the lamp by the bed on and the soft glow poured over the bed. He set the screwdriver down on the dresser and shrugged out of his clothing.

He walked to the bed and looked down at Holly’s curled up body. Only her face peeked out from underneath the covers. A face that was red and blotchy. His chest tightened at the evidence of her tears.

He gently pulled back the covers and climbed in beside her. He pulled her tightly into his arms, liking the way her soft curves melted into his hard body.

She stirred and opened bleary eyes. They flared in surprise when she saw him.

“How did you get in here?”

“Quite easily actually. Why did you lock me out?”

She looked away. He trailed a finger over a lock of her hair that rested on her neck.

“I just needed some time alone,” she said softly.

“That’s understandable, but you don’t have to lock the door to get your point across.”

She looked back at him again, her eyes troubled, uncertainty lurking in their depths.

He sighed. Ethan was right. He should have just explained his involvement with Lacey from the get-go. Then maybe he’d be sliding his dick into Holly’s pussy instead of lying here with a raging hard-on about to become embroiled in sensitive talk.

He checked his impatience and cupped her cheek in his palm. “Listen to me, baby. There is nothing going on between me and Lacey. I’m sorry if you got the wrong impression.”

Holly shifted and pulled the sheets up higher around her. The gesture looked protective in nature but instead of making her look stronger, it only made her seem more vulnerable.

“I don’t understand.”

Her voice came out soft and breathy, the kind that would make a man instantly hard. If he wasn’t already. She was everything soft and feminine, what a woman should be.

“What don’t you understand, baby?”

She looked away again. “Why didn’t you choose her?”

Adam frowned. That wasn’t what he expected her to say.

“She’s everything I’m not,” Holly continued. “She’s strong, tall, pretty. I bet she doesn’t need anyone.”

Adam leaned back against the pillows, taking Holly with him. He cradled her against his chest, and she laid her cheek on his shoulder. He stroked his hand up and down her arm.

“I won’t lie to you. There was a time when I was attracted to Lacey. I even went as far as to bring her home, introduce her to Ryan and Ethan. But I knew immediately that she wasn’t the one. I didn’t feel a connection with her. Not like I did with you, and it was obvious the others didn’t either. Ryan outright despised her on sight. I still haven’t figured out why. Ethan, well, he was indifferent. I stopped seeing her directly after that.”