by Reina Torres
“So, I’m going to let myself step out on a limb and hope that I don’t break that branch with my-”
He stepped in and covered her mouth with his.
It wasn’t a hard kiss that pushed her back against the truck. It wasn’t a demand for anything.
It was a question, desiring of an answer, and when he lifted his lips from hers, she chased the kiss to his lips.
Yes. She pressed her lips against his a second time.
Yes. She tilted her head to rub her bottom lip against his.
“Yes,” she sighed and felt his hand cup against the nape of her neck.
“Ah-hem! Adam? I hope you didn’t ask me over to watch you suck face with- no!”
Adam reluctantly released Blake’s lips to turn his head and give his sister a look that told her how lucky she was that she was his blood. “Hello, Annalise.”
His sister didn’t even look at him when he said her name. She was staring, open-mouthed at Blake.
“You’re Blake Lennox!”
Well, great, he thought, does everyone know who she is except for me?
Blake smiled and reached out a hand to his sister. She probably would have done more if he didn’t still have one arm wrapped around her.
“Nice to meet you, Annalise, was it?”
“No,” his sister shook herself, “I’m mean yes. Right?” Annalise looked at him for help. “How do you know Blake Lennox?”
Adam stored this moment away in the back of his head so he could remind his sister of the time she totally lost it over meeting Blake and then he not-so-gently peeled Annalise’s hand off Blake’s.
His sister glared at him as if he’d just taken away her ice cream cone. “You were going to cut off the circulation in her hand.”
That got to her. “Oh my- I'm so sorry, Blake. I mean Miss Lennox.”
Blake had managed to wiggle free of him by that time and reached out again, cupping Annalise’s hand in both of hers. “Blake is just fine, Annalise. It’s nice to meet Adam’s sister.”
Annalise almost shrieked when she surged forward and wrapped her arms around Blake’s neck. “You’re so amazing!” His sister looked at him over Blake’s shoulder and mouthed. OH MY GOD ARE YOU DATING HER?
He hesitated for just a heartbeat, but that’s all it took.
Annalise pulled back just enough to get her hands on Blake’s shoulders. “The ladies at the diner are going to lose their minds when I tell them that my brother is-”
“Annalise, stop!”
He was glad he caught her before she could say something that he was going to regret. He wasn’t always so lucky.
Annalise had definitely gotten her personality from their mother’s side of the family, talkative to a fault. He’d gotten in a lot of trouble over the years because she would just get so excited that she’d blurt things out.
“You can’t tell the ladies about Blake being here.”
If he didn’t know her better, he would have thought he’d kicked her puppy by the way his sister was looking at him.
“If you’ll come upstairs, I’ll explain everything, but for the time being no one can know that Blake’s here in town and they certainly can’t know she’s going to be upstairs with me.”
Annalise touched one pointer finger to her nose and the other at him. “I knew it. I knew it! You’re totally shacking up with Blake Lennox.” With a shiver of excitement, Annalise pressed her hands against Blake’s cheeks and gave her a squeeze. “I’m going to be the best sister-in-law you’ve ever had.”
Adam barely resisted the urge to disown her right then and there. “Anna, focus.”
Snapping to attention, his sister made a mock bow and gave him a wink. “Focusing. What do you need? A wedding planner or-” She must have seen the murderous look in his eyes because she snapped her lips closed.
“I need you to remember all those secret agent games you made me play when we were kids.” He saw a spark of interest in her eyes. “Well, Blake needs to hide out for a while, just like I told you, but I want to change her appearance so that anyone looking for her wouldn’t see ‘her’ at a first glance.”
“Oh, I can do that.” Annalise looked at Blake and looked her over from head to toe. “Are we doing Jason Bourne’s girlfriend change or Mrs. Doubtfire change, because while I am killer on make-up technique, I don’t do prosthetics.”
Adam sucked in a breath trying to calm himself down, but Blake beat him to it.
“More like Jason Bourne’s girlfriend, but nothing too bright or eye catching. Subtle, blend in stuff.”
Annalise nodded as she settled down and looked Blake over again. “I can do subtle, no matter what my brother told you.”
He held up his hands in surrender. “I didn’t tell her much about you.”
“Why not?” His sister stared at him. “Are you ashamed of your blood, or something?”
“Actually, we’ve only known each other for a few hours.” Blake had stepped in again to settle things. “And your brother is being really sweet to help me. But you should know that one of the first things he told me when we met was how much he loved you and your daughter. He showed me the pictures on his phone.”
“Aww... he did?” Annalise turned to look at him and gave him a sappy smile. “You love me?”
“I love you and my niece. Speaking of Ada, where is she?”
Annalise gave him a warning stare. “I left her at the Blue Moose Tavern eating peanuts at the bar.”
Adam had to take a breath to steady himself, but before he could respond, he felt a warm touch on his chest. Looking down, he saw Blake’s hand high on his chest, patting him gently. She wasn’t looking at him, just Annalise. “It’s been a hard day for him. I’ve been dancing on his last nerve for the last few hours, maybe we can give him a little break?”
Adam saw the teeny-tiny little space that Blake had left between her thumb and forefinger a moment before Annalise pinched it closer.
“Okay,” his sister grudgingly agreed, “I’ll try, but just for you. And it’ll be totally worth it if you let me dye your hair.”
Panic rushed through Adam’s veins like the water pumped down a waterpark slide, but before he could say anything Blake replied.
“Deal!”
The two hugged like old friends before Annalise stuck her tongue out at him and flounced away toward the sidewalk.
When Blake turned to look at him, she had a bright smile on her face. “Wow,” she shook her head, “how are the two of you actually related?”
“Well,” he reached out a hand and threaded their fingers together, “one of us has to be the adult.” He gestured to the back stairs that led up to the second floor and she turned, catching his eye.
“So, what’s your role in the family, Adam?”
He shocked himself when he laughed. “I can see that between the two of you I’m going to be outnumbered.”
Adam saw her open her mouth and knew she was just going to point out the problem in his words and then close it again. He looked back at her. “Why stop now?”
She shrugged as they climbed the stairs beside each other. “Well you were already outnumbered by girls, Adam, but now you’re going to have to battle against a rising tide of estrogen. Be very, very careful.”
Hanging his head, Adam reached into his pocket for his keys. “This is certainly going to be an experience.”
Opening the door, he pushed it open and gestured for Blake to enter first. When she did, he saw her lift her gaze to his again. “It’s going to be an experience,” she agreed, “but it’s the first time in a long time that I’m looking forward to something.”
A voice in the back of his head reminded him that she was only there because she was in a potentially dangerous situation, but he didn’t need to say anything.
By the shadows that invaded the bright light of her eyes, he knew she had just remembered the same thing.
When he locked the door, he set the extra lock and the electronic security system that he didn’t use mo
st of the time. Now, he needed it to protect what was his.
Chapter 6
It wasn’t until Adam had given her the nickel tour of the apartment that she realized how little room they were going to share.
Oh, it wasn’t about the size of his apartment. It was a nice place, but the size she worried about was how she was going to avoid him.
Okay, maybe those weren’t exactly the right words. How was she going to stay out of his way? There, that sounded a little less like a chicken. A little more gracious.
A little less like she didn’t want to be caught staring at him.
Adam Masterson wasn’t model gorgeous or Hollywood leading man gorgeous, but she didn’t go for those guys anyway. Those guys were entirely too used to being admired for their physical perfection.
But even that was just some kind of veneer. Most of the hot chests and killer asses in Hollywood were more like Captain Kirk in the original Star Trek. An excellent tailor and perfectly discreet body shaping garments did wonders on camera and from there stunt men keep them looking rugged and body doubles kept them looking like gods in the public eye.
Adam reminded her of Harrison Ford in his Indy heyday. While he didn’t have that delicious little scar just under his lip, Adam had a scar just along his hairline near his left temple.
Sure, it wasn’t big and it didn’t have a lot of scar tissue, but she noticed it. And she liked it. A lot.
It said that he’d been in danger and walked away. The old Bonnie Tyler ‘Holding out for a Hero’ started up in her head right on cue and she almost had to cover her ears, worried that it might actually be audible in the open space of his living room.
He certainly fit the bill. He’d been in the military. She didn’t know a whole lot about what Sadie’s husband did beyond the basics, hiring ex-military guys to provide protection for people who needed it. She wasn’t sure about exactly what Adam had done in the military, but she’d seen a hint of photos on one of the walls, but it seemed a little odd to snoop.
He certainly didn’t brag about it, but she found that most guys who did the things weren’t the ones broadcasting about it.
Beyond that, she had a feeling there was something painful in the memories. When they walked past the photos on the wall he reached out and touched the corner of one of the largest of the frames, his hand lingering for just a moment.
It was almost as if she could feel the hesitation in his movements, a pang of sorrow that she felt echoing in her own chest, settling in beside her heart.
Adam cleared his throat and set down the glass of water on the coffee table in front of the couch. Staring down at it, he shook his head. “I have other things to drink. You must feel like a fish. We keep giving you water. Not exactly anything all that memorable.”
She really hoped he’d relax a little. Since they’d entered his apartment he hadn’t even sat down for a moment.
Then again, the only seat in the place beside the chairs at the table was right beside her on the couch. And it wasn’t so much a couch as it was a loveseat. Two cushions and the arm rests.
“I like water. Besides, when you look like I do in Hollywood, everyone’s always recommending these ‘healthy’ shakes or meal replacement drinks. After a while I really learned to appreciate unadulterated beverages.”
His smile, a little twitch at the corner of his mouth, made her blush. Yeah, come get me, Indiana. And that thought only served to deepen the color of her cheeks. She could feel the fire under her skin. “So, you take your beer straight from the bottle?”
Blake winced. “No thanks. I’m not much for beer. My dad cured me of that when I was a little girl.”
Adam sat down, but he chose to sit on the armrest on the other side of the loveseat. “Your dad let you drink beer?”
“He let me have a sip,” she clarified. “And that one sip tasted so bad that I ended up grabbing his handkerchief and rubbing it against my tongue trying to get the taste off.” Blake set a hand over her stomach and willed it to calm down. “To this day the thought of drinking a beer makes me ill.”
There was a knock at the front door and Adam stood. He kept a soft look on his face, but she noticed the tense set of his shoulders and his no-nonsense movements as he moved to the door. “I thought you and Sadie mentioned some scene you two had at an Octoberfest.”
She groaned and her stomach did too. “For that one they gave me apple juice mixed with something to make it bubble in my glass. Even as much as I liked apple juice before that movie, I barely tolerate it now.”
Standing to the side of the door he pushed the button on the console to turn on the screen with a view of the landing outside of his door.
Annalise was standing outside, her arms full.
Before Adam could even move, his sister had turned her face to look straight into the camera. “Hey! Let me in! If my arm breaks off from these shopping bags, I’m going to kick your-”
Adam opened the door. “Language!”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to say A.S.S. in front of Ada.”
The little girl heard her name and looked up from the little stuffed bunny she held in her hands. Her eyes filled with abject joy at the sight of Adam and she looked back at her mom before she shouted to the room in general. “Donkey!”
All three adults in the room turned to look at the child and thinking this was just the best thing ever, Ada laughed long and hard. “Donkey!”
Annalise gave her brother a narrowed stare. “What did you do?”
“Me?” Adam reached out and took the shopping bags off Annalise’s arms. “You started with that remember?”
Her response was a side-eye glance that had Ada looking back and forth between the two.
“You called me an A.S.S. using the real word and my most precious niece heard you and repeated the word before she asked you what it meant. And you,” he set the bags down on the small kitchen table, before pointing to the cell phone sticking halfway out of her back pocket, “looked up a picture and told her it meant donkey.”
“Donkey!” Ada repeated and clapped her hands together. Well, as much as you can clap with a stuffed animal in one hand. “Unca Donkey!”
Blake couldn’t help the way her jaw dropped and Adam, well, he looked like he wanted the floor to open up and swallow him whole.
Annalise couldn’t seem to decide how horrified she should look as she laughed in big silent shoulder-shaking gulps of air.
“That’s it,” Adam growled under his breath, “I can’t trust you with the baby.”
He moved closer and swept Ada out of his sister’s hands, pressing kisses on her face as the little girl’s peals of laughter flooded the room.
The sight of this man with his work-roughened hands wringing such joy out of a precious little girl did something to her deep down inside.
She’d heard the phrase before, read it in a number of romances, and in more than her share of memes, but she finally understood what it meant to feel her ovaries explode.
Dear Heaven above!
Adam Masterson didn’t just look like a blue-collar hero to her, or even the amazing Army Ranger he’d been as a soldier.
The man cuddling the sweet little girl before her looked like a father, the kind of family man she’d dreamed about for herself.
Oh no, she sighed and tried not to stare at him with hearts in her eyes. In a few short hours the man had turned her into a leading lady wannabe. The problem was, she was always going to be the quirky best friend and that would never change. When it came to Adam Masterson, she was in so much trouble.
Seth Coleman barely looked up when his office door opened and closed again moments later. “You better have some good news for me, Robert. You’re already late and I expected you to have company.”
He didn’t have to meet the other man’s eyes to know that he was going to be disappointed.
“Sir, we don’t know where Blake-”
“No names, Robert. You never know who’s listening.”
�
��We had a man at her home, but he hasn’t seen her since that night she took Z- they left together.”
Sitting back in his chair, Seth stretched one leg out and tipped the seat toward the wall. “Tell me something I don’t already know.
“If you don’t have her with you, then you missed her. It can’t possibly be that hard to find her. Phone?”
“It stopped transmitting in Las Vegas. I’d like to send someone.”
Seth let out a breath in a slow exhale that dried his lip to the point that he could feel the skin of his lower lip tighten. “When did you make that decision?”
Robert stammered aloud. “I’m… I’m sorry, sir. What are you-”
“You want to send someone, but you haven’t already done it. Are you asking my permission?”
“There’s a matter of transportation. On the road we can have someone there in under four hours and-”
The glass paperweight hit the wall and shattered sending shards of glass across Robert’s face.
Seth smiled as the man lifted his hand to his cheek and came away with blood on his fingertips.
“Send the jet. How much time have you wasted?”
He had to give the other man credit for glaring back at him. Oh, he was going to have his ass handed to him later, but it took some kind of grit to turn a defiant eye in his direction.
It was a quality that his father had encouraged in him when he was younger. Giving him a smiling nod before knocking him to the floor with the back of his hand. “At least you have balls, son.”
And even though he’d tasted blood in his mouth, Seth had enjoyed the grim satisfaction in making his father lose control.
Robert was too big of a man to fight toe to toe, but that wasn’t what he had planned for the former soldier. You didn’t punish men like him with pain, you take away their pride, chip away at their masculinity, make them bleed in ribbons not bullet holes. Big men fell by degrees.
And himself?