I went back to ignoring him as the coffee cup was full. I expertly switched out the cup for the pot, intent on my first sip all the while wondering why Lee still hadn’t moved.
Then he did, a hand disappeared and a second later I felt my hair being swept off my left shoulder, around my neck and over my right.
I jumped at this intimate gesture and so did other parts of my anatomy. I didn’t even try to ignore it. Any effort would have been futile.
Lee’s chin went to where my hair used to be just as his hand slid across my abdomen and pulled me to him.
My entire body went still.
“We need to talk,” he said into my ear.
I stood there, frozen, coffee cup aloft, nowhere near awake enough to process his extraordinary actions and also in kind of total shock.
I said the only thing I could think to say.
“I need milk.”
Without moving his body or head, his hand left my middle, I heard the fridge open and the glug of milk against plastic and then the fridge closed again.
Lee set the milk in front of me and his hand went back to the counter, keeping me where I was.
Real slick.
My stomach fluttered.
“Thank you,” I said politely, blinking a lot and wondering if I was still asleep and dreaming.
I poured some milk in my joe concentrating on not letting my body tremble. I was trying to be cool but I was confused. This kind of behavior from Lee had never happened before.
As in, ever.
I took a sip of coffee and tried to get my mind in gear.
“Do you want to explain to me why you have me pressed up against the counter?” I asked, using what I hoped was a questioning-yet-diplomatic tone rather than a freaked-out, ohmigod, hell-has-just-frozen-over tone.
This was hard for me. I needed to be alert and aware in any situation involving Lee in order not to snap and declare my undying love for him but I’d only had one sip of coffee.
And somehow, this was definitely a situation involving Lee, in fact, it was more like a dangerous situation involving Lee.
I took another sip, going for the gusto and burned my tongue.
“Yeow!”
While I was recovering, Lee turned me around and moved further into me.
He did this well, considering there wasn’t a lot of space to move and even less space to move into. Not to mention, I had the coffee cup between us. He settled his hands on the counter on either side of me again.
“Why have you been avoiding me?”
Yikes.
Direct shot.
He didn’t even lead into it.
Although his eyes and features were still gentle, it wasn’t from just waking up. I could tell Lee was as alert and aware as you could get. The gentleness was from something else.
Shit, shit, shit.
What in holy hell was going on?
I decided to play stupid.
“What?” I asked.
“You heard me,” he answered.
Then there are those times when honesty was not the best policy.
“I haven’t been avoiding you,” I took another sip thinking I should have put another scoop or two of coffee in the filter.
“You’re lying. The last time we were both at dinner, you got up in the middle of Mom’s fajita presentation and said you forgot to feed your cat.”
Uh-oh.
“So?”
“You don’t have a cat.”
“I was cat-sitting,” I lied.
He smiled.
He smiled The Smile.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Man, Lee could smile.
Then he said, “All right, I’m all out of patience with this one. You have two choices. Either you talk to me about what’s been botherin’ you for the last decade or I tell you how you’re gonna pay me back for this Rosie debacle.”
“Is there a choice number three?” I asked.
He shook his head.
I slid my eyes to the right, chewed the inside of my bottom lip and thought about my choices. I did my best to forget about the glimpse of hard, muscled chest and six-pack I’d seen in the weak moment I allowed myself to look down.
And, he was wearing faded jeans with the top button not done up.
Yikes.
Okay.
Focus.
Choices.
Firstly, I was never, never, never in a million years going to tell Lee Nightingale that I’d been in love with him since I was five and he sat next to me during my Mom’s memorial service and held my hand. I was never going to tell him it was a Bon Jovi-style shot through the heart when he told me he wasn’t interested in me because I was his little sister’s best friend. And I was never, never, never, ever going to tell him that something had changed in him and he scared the pants off me.
Secondly, no matter what he said, he was Lee and he was right all those years ago, in a way, we were family. We did all our holidays together as family and went to Broncos games with our Dads when we were kids. We had barbeques at each other’s houses nearly every Saturday during the summer, even now. Hell, it was mid-June and I’d just had the barbeque at my house two weeks ago and Lee had been there. Even though he’d changed, he would always be Lee. He probably wanted cheap maid service or something. Someone to do his laundry. Take his car to have the oil changed.
I could do that.
All this business with sleeping together and swiping at my hair and talking in my ear was just him trying to intimidate me. He probably wouldn’t let Ally sleep with Rosie or on the floor either.
“I’ll choose door number two,” I decided.
The smile widened and something happened to his eyes that made my nether regions quiver.
Uh-oh.
Clearly, I made the wrong choice.
“I was hopin’ you’d say that.”
I scrambled.
“Maybe I’ll rethink my choice.”
“Too late.”
I scrunched my nose and narrowed my eyes at him.
“Why can’t you just be a nice guy?”
“I’ve never been a nice guy.”
This was true, mostly.
“Yes you have. You used to come pick Ally and me up from parties so we wouldn’t get in trouble.”
“I hate to burst your bubble but that was for entertainment value. You and Ally were hilarious drunks. Once, you sang ‘My Favorite Things’ all the way home and got all the words wrong.”
I made a frustrated noise.
“There was that time when I was grounded and I was climbing out of my window so I could go to Darren Pilcher’s party and I got stuck between the tree and the house and you came over to get me down.”
“I could see up your skirt.”
I gasped.
Then I sighed.
Only I would try to climb out of a window in a skirt.
I knew better than to argue. The only time Lee could say for certain he was a good guy was when he was in the Army and during some of that time I was ignoring him and most of his missions were top secret so I had no examples to give.
I took another sip of coffee. “All right, what do I have to do to pay you back for Rosie? And I’ll warn you, I won’t clean your bathroom.”
“You sure that’s the only stipulation you wanna make?”
I thought about it for a second, wondering what else I should throw in when he said, “Time’s up.”
He was playing with me and I was losing my temper.
“Oh for goodness sake, just tell me!” I snapped.
No sooner had I got out the word “me”, he moved.
And he moved fast, faster than I think I’ve ever seen anyone move, especially at that hour of the morning.
My coffee cup was gone, he had his hands at my ass and then I was going up, my behind settled on the counter and Lee moved in. Both his arms went around my back, I had no choice but to spread my legs or I’d gouge his abs with my knees, his arms pulled me to him, my nether regions pressed to h
is crotch and he bent his head and kissed me.
The first time in my life that Lee kissed me.
Holy shit.
Holy, holy, shit, shit, shit.
He was a fine kisser.
In fact, just that one kiss blew the entire Joe Perry experience out of the water and that’s saying something.
When he lifted his head, I said (or kinda shouted, at this point I’d totally forgotten Rosie), “What the hell was that?”
I was covering and recovering. My mouth was the only thing that worked, every other part of my body had been reduced to Jell-o.
“Advance payment on services rendered.”
I stared at him, thrown.
He looked down, likely to further assess my reaction.
“Is this my shirt?” His hand came from around my back and lifted to touch the wife beater, very close to my breast. I slapped it away, feeling my nipple harden and thanking the Lord above for lightly padded bras that hid hard nipples.
“Yes, it’s your shirt, and what do you mean, advance payment on services rendered?”
His hand went to the side of my breast rather than to the actual breast which was only a relief for about five seconds as it then slid around my back, pulling me to him again.
This was not brother-sister behavior.
What was he playing at?
He told me.
And he told me bluntly.
“I do this thing for Rosie, you sleep with me.”
I stared at him, open-mouthed and in stunned silence.
I did, of course, understand what he meant but he explained further.
“Not like last night, we’ll both be naked and sexual acts will be performed.”
My expression didn’t change except maybe my mouth opened wider.
“I’ll expect your participation.”
Holy shit.
“Your avid participation.”
Dear Lord in Heaven.
Eventually, I whispered, “You must be joking.”
He shook his head and watched me.
I dropped my eyes, unable to hold his stare.
“I think I need more coffee,” I told his throat.
His hand went into my hair and with a gentle pull he tilted my head back again.
A light bulb clicked on.
A way out.
“You’re already involved. You made the calls last night, you said you would.”
Lee verbally waved it away because his hand was twisting in my hair.
“I know the principles, I can back out this morning. Rosie will be on his own.”
This, I thought, was not a bad thing, considering the expected payment.
“Okay then, Rosie will be fine, I’ll go with him.”
“Rosie will do this alone, you’re not going anywhere near these guys. You don’t exist to them and I’m gonna keep it that way.”
“There’s a flaw in your plan, Lee, they saw me last night.”
“Minor blip. During the call I told them you were mine and that’s why I’m getting involved. They’ll keep a distance.”
Holy shit! He was already telling other people! And I hadn’t even agreed!
“I’m not yours!”
“You will be tonight.”
Holy shit, shit, shit.
What was happening here?
Was I in an alternate universe?
“You can’t do this! We can’t do this!”
“Why not?”
He was calm and blasé, one of his hands was tangled in my hair and the other arm was wrapped around my back, the hand resting at my waist like we did this every morning of our lives.
Both my hands were pressed on the counter and I was about ready to shoot through the ceiling.
Lee was not just a Bad Boy, a Badass or a Badass Extraordinaire, he was a fucking crazy man.
I thought about it for a second, hard and partially hysterically, and then came up with something. It wasn’t original but it was something.
“You’re like my older brother.”
“Is that why you tried to stick your tongue down my throat when you were fifteen?”
Yikes.
“And sixteen?”
Crap.
“And seventeen?”
“Okay, okay, I get it. Jeez.” I broke into his trip down memory lane. “You said you thought of me like your younger sister.”
“I lied.”
My eyes bugged out at this piece of news.
“What?”
“I was into some serious shit back then, depending on the assignment, I didn’t know if I’d come home breathing and in one piece. You were twenty years old and hung up on me.”
Oh for fuck’s sake.
“I was not hung up on you.”
He grinned. “Yes you were.”
I was but I wasn’t going to admit it.
I narrowed my eyes and he kept talking.
“I didn’t need any entanglements. I didn’t need anything on my mind but what I was doing. I didn’t need to worry if I’d leave a girl at home brokenhearted because something happened to me.”
I had to admit, that made sense and it was kind of thoughtful.
I wasn’t going to acknowledge that to him either.
“By the time I got out, you backed off. You had a man then and I thought you were over me.”
He shrugged, nonchalant, like he didn’t care and that kinda pissed me off.
No wait, that really pissed me off.
“Then that guy was gone and you kept avoiding me. Guys came, guys went. I figured you had no trouble approaching me before, when you were ready, you’d come to me.”
I was no longer avoiding his eyes or him. I was staring daggers at him.
What an arrogant jerk!
He calmly returned my gaze. “I’m a bit tired of waiting and I’m definitely tired of your man parade.” His voice was slightly edgy and a little scary. “Fortunately, you’ve presented me with this golden opportunity.”
He could damn well wait until hell froze over.
He wasn’t going to keep me at arm’s length for ages and then just reel me in when he felt like it.
“Well, I’m not done avoiding you!” I said.
As he was talking, he’d moved slightly back.
He came in close again.
“Nope. No more waiting, no more games, no more avoiding and no more other guys. You want this and I want this and it’s going to happen.”
“I don’t want this,” I lied, self-protection and all that. He was an arrogant jerk. He was scary as hell. He was trying to force me to sleep with him and using my friend to do it. He was bad news. I wanted no part in Lee Nightingale.
And that was that.
He laughed softly. “Bullshit.”
He thought I was funny.
I saw red.
“Of all the –”
He kissed me again and this time, Joe Perry was a fleeting memory.
I gave into the kiss immediately.
What could I say? It was Lee.
It was getting good, his mouth was open and so was mine, his tongue was in my mouth and then mine was in his. My legs opened further and he got closer. His arms tightened and my breasts flattened against his chest. My arms went around his neck and I pressed against him.
Then his lips tore away from mine as his head shot up and twisted around, his entire body tensed, coiled, waiting.
Then Kitty Sue and Ally turned the corner from the entryway into the kitchen.
Kitty Sue’s hand went to her throat, her eyes widened and then, I swear, they filled with tears.
Ally started laughing.
I looked to the ceiling.
Shit.
Chapter Four
Do I Need to Kiss You Again?
My reaction was immediate.
“I’m gonna kill you,” I told Ally.
She walked in and dropped an overnight bag on the floor, chuckling.
She set me up. She knew Lee was coming home last night. Crazy bitch.
Lee got his eyes from Kitty Sue, and all the kids got their long, lean body from her. Kitty Sue was always a bundle of energy, the kind of Mom who held down a full-time job, made dinner every night, had home-baked cookies in the cookie jar and, every year, sewed all her kids’ Halloween costumes from scratch.
Lee moved to the side then jumped up and sat on the counter beside me.
I hastily closed my legs.
“Anyone want coffee?” Lee asked courteously.
I jumped down and took a step forward, escape on my mind. It was pretty clear to me that I’d slid through a tear between the worlds and I had to find my way back to my home world pretty damn quick.
Further, now that the Lee of this world was no longer kissing me, I had to get away from him or I was going to wrap my hands around his neck and squeeze.
Lee leaned forward, caught me by the waistband of my jeans and hauled me back between his legs.
“What’s going on here?” Kitty Sue repeated, her eyes taking in the cozy scene.
Far too cozy. Far too fast. Far too weird.
Shit.
I opened my mouth to speak but Lee beat me to it.
“Indy and I are together now.”
My entire body froze in disbelief, my mouth still open.
“Oh my God. Oh my God,” Kitty Sue chanted.
“Righteous!” Ally exclaimed.
I twisted around and glared at Lee. “You said one night of sex!”
Lee’s eyes held mine. “I didn’t say one night. We’ve been waitin’ a long time, one night won’t do it.” Then he paused and said, “But, if you want, we can try.”
My breasts swelled at the idea of trying to fit years of sex into one night with Lee.
I ignored my breasts and paid attention to my temper.
I figured it would be bad form to smack Lee in front of his mother.
And definitely strangulation was out.
Kitty Sue was in her little slice of heaven, so much so, she missed my “one night of sex” comment and Lee’s response.
“I can’t wait to tell your father,” she told me, “and your father,” she told Lee.
“I wouldn’t do that,” I said, beginning to panic.
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