Battle It Out

me with Ethan and Oliver.”
“Or Holden,” he said.
“Nah, I think he wants Holden with Dillon.”
“Holden should be with me. I’m the odd man out right now.”
“True.” She kept her voice just as low as his to avoid being overheard.
“You didn’t hear anymore?”
“No, I only caught the tail end of that conversation before he slammed his door,” she admitted.
“We’re uneven without Isaac.”
“Sucks without him,” she agreed.
“Fury can pick up some slack,” he murmured.
With a nod of agreement, Pia’s gaze swept over Eagle and Link at the food table.
Lacy came back out of the house with her arms filled with chips and dip and Royce jumped up to help her.
“Hell yeah,” Dillon said. “Lacy, you can put those right here by me.”
He laughed along with the others, trying like hell to keep his eyes from the empty doorway.
“Do me a favor, ask Eagle if he’s into women,” Pia whispered beneath the sudden noise.
“What?” he blinked and then scowled.
“You heard me,” she hissed.
“No,” he snapped.
She snickered. “Chicken.”
“You want him, then make a fucking pass.” He lifted her legs from his lap.
“Spoil sport.”
“I’m not your fucking matchmaker,” he managed through his irritation.
She barked with laughter and shoved off the couch after pinching his side.
He jerked and rubbed at the offended skin with a low chuckle. He could never stay mad at her for long.
Pia waggled her brows at him, and then made her way over to where Link and Eagle were hovering around the food table. The two men were huge, like him, so the amount of food on their plates wasn’t a surprise.
Pia snatched up an empty plate and pointed to the rolls on the table. Both Eagle and Link gave her room, but when she pointed to the potato salad, Link beamed and hefted up a spoonful and plopped that on her plate. She smiled flirtatiously at Eagle and said something that Zane couldn’t hear, but the two men broke out in laughter. He had to hand it to her, when she wanted something, she went after it.
Which reminded him that he had some repairing to do himself.
Oliver yanked open the back patio screen and momentarily took his attention from his goal.
“Hey guys.” Oliver waved toward the couch area and Ethan gave him an up nod.
Zane waggled fingers at the two, Dillon jerked his chin, and Holden grunted.
They were a lively bunch, not. But he wouldn’t trade them for anything on the face of the earth.
“Better hurry, Eagle and Link are hoovering the food,” he told Oliver.
He chuckled when Oliver took off across the patio to elbow in and belly up to the table. For such a slender man, Oliver had a voracious appetite.
Seizing the opportunity, he stood and threaded his way through people to the back door. Stopping in the back doorway of the brightly lit kitchen, he found Isaac with Bart at the sink.
Zane clenched his teeth so hard his jaw ached when Isaac assured Bart he was welcome.
Didn’t Isaac see the way the boy hero-worshiped him? The desire in the gothic’s dark eyes? The fucker batted his lashes at Isaac and then disappeared into the den.
Locking his eyes back on Isaac, his jeans must have shrunk in the wash with the way they clung to his ass. Dragging his eyes upward, his attention was caught when the light from the window threaded through Isaac’s bright blond hair. Hands curling around the counter sent the muscles of Isaac’s forearms rippling.
It was hard not to notice, and he suddenly craved Isaac’s attention. He needed those cool blue eyes locked on him and not anyone else. He wanted that smart mouth teasing him again. He needed to repair whatever the fuck had happened to turn Isaac away from him.
With his gut rising in his throat, he stepped farther into the room and spoke, but what came out of his mouth was not what he intended.

Isaac
“Going to hide out in the kitchen at your own party?”
He let go of his death grip on the counter and made sure his scowl was firmly in place before he turned around. This he could do. Zane wanted to trade nasty insults, well, so be it.
Opening his mouth to blast Zane, nothing came out.
Screw this. The nearby hallway seemed to be a good place for a quick retreat and he stalked into it. A hard grip around his wrist stopped him from going too far.
“What?” he snapped, spinning around.
“Quit running.”
He wasn’t running from jack shit. “I have to use the fucking bathroom, do you mind?” He yanked against the hand holding his wrist.
Zane crowded closer instead of giving him his space, and Isaac lost it. He yanked Zane forward and used that momentum to slam him into the opposite wall. A satisfying grunt echoed in the hallway. Of course, the bastard had to one up him and he winced when his own back hit the wall.
Spun around before he could counter the move, he found his face pressed to the eggshell colored paint. Zane’s big body caged him in from behind with his crotch pressed snug into his ass. He got a faint whiff of beer and a hint of aftershave when Zane’s hot, ragged breath brushed against his ear.
“What the fuck?” he managed from between his teeth. Was Zane as hard as him? Testing that theory, he sent his ass into the man’s groin, but Zane quickly stepped away.
Isaac whirled around and pushed Zane again, his ears grew hot, and he dug his short nails into his palms.
“What do you want?” he hissed.
Zane shoved him back again and crowded closer, staring at his mouth. The man’s pupils were blown. Stupefied, Isaac froze in place while the air crackled around them.
His breath rushed out; Zane’s lips parted. He fisted the front of Zane’s shirt and locked his eyes on the man’s mouth. Their chests pressed tighter together. A few inches would close the distance between their lips. His gaze flew upward and his mouth grew dry.
Their gazes locked like magnets, but