“No.”
“No?” Open interest in his expression.
“It’s because my mother would always say ‘Have mercy on my nerves, baby!’ after I pulled one stunt or another,” she said, not sure why she’d shared that childhood memory. “It stuck.”
“Your poor mother.” He stepped out of the shadows. “What stunts did you pull?”
“Why don’t you tell me what stuntsyoupulled.”
He gave her a pensive look. “Sorry. I was a pretty good kid.”
She knew he’d helped raise Brenna and Andrew, but his parents had been alive till he was ten. “What, you behaved even when you were seven or eight?”
“Yes.” He watched her, so intent it was almost a physical touch. “My mother used to say I’d been born old.”
“Do you agree?”
“I am who I am.”
It was such a Riley answer that she smiled. “What you are is a pain in the ass when you want to be.” Especially to her.
“Never said I didn’t pull stunts as an adult.”
Clever, clever. Her cat liked clever. “What’re you doing here, Kincaid?”
“Looking for a cat to play with.”
“Hmm.” She put a hand on her hip. “I think I saw a nice tame tabby over thataway.” She pointed over his shoulder, in the opposite direction from her home.
“Still mad, huh?”
“You could say that.”
He reached up to rub the back of his neck, and it was a nervous gesture . . . from a man who didn’t seem to know the meaning of the word. “You confuse me, Mercy.” Not said as an excuse, but as a frank truth. “I don’t know what I’m doing around you half the time.”
“New experience?” she asked, leaning against a tree opposite him.
“A little.” Dropping the hand from his neck, he shoved both hands into his pockets. “Actually, a lot.”
“Big brother and lieutenant,” she said. “Both positions that require you to lead.”
“It comes naturally.”
But it had been honed by his position in his family, in the pack. “Ever tried letting go of the reins?”
“No.”
There it was again, that blunt honesty that hit her in the gut every time. “Never?”
“Not that I can remember.” A drawing in of breath that sounded painful. “Hawke’s sometimes been able to push me back—like when I wanted to rip Judd to pieces after he and Brenna first got involved, but I’ve never submitted in my life.” A pause. “Is that what you want?”
CHAPTER 37
“What?” She blinked. “Submission? From you?” The idea was so extraordinary her mouth fell open. “What do you think?”
“That’s just it—I don’t know.” It sounded like he was having teeth pulled.
“Knock it off, Riley.” His discomfort was cute, but that’s not what she wanted from him. “You know the answer.”