“I’m well aware of who Stella’s mother is,” Nate replies with a chuckle. “And you’re right. She’s gorgeous, so it makes sense that I’ll have my hands full with Stella.”
“This family is good at producing beautiful babies,” Isaac agrees.
“I find it a bit disturbing that there are no women around and we’re talking about babies,” Will says. “Shouldn’t we be talking about sex and cars and football?”
“If you talk about sex,” Leo begins, “you’ll be talking about my sister, and that’s not okay.”
“How are things with Meredith?” I ask Mark, steering the conversation away from sex and babies.
“Great.” He grins and passes a board to Isaac for cutting.
“And how are you feeling?” Caleb asks him. We all sober as we wait for his response. Mark was hit by a car while on the job more than a month ago, and while the injuries weren’t serious, it was a scary time for the family.
“I’m good as new,” he replies. “But I don’t mind having Meredith around to coddle me now and then.”
“And how are all your beautiful girls?” I ask. The guys all nod and grin, thinking of their women. I can’t help but think of my woman and smile myself.
“My woman is gonna love this,” Will says, as he gestures to the wood lying in a heap on the ground. “She has no idea. And it’s going to mean more to her because you all made it for her.” Will’s face sobers as he looks at each of us. “No one’s ever needed family more than my Megan.”
“Well, she has it in spades now,” Caleb replies and strips his sweaty shirt off, tossing it aside.
“Okay, boards are cut,” Isaac announces and then begins giving us all instructions on the most efficient way to assemble it, and we break off into teams.
“You’re quiet today,” Caleb comments as he, Matt and myself work on the top of the arbor.
“I’m quiet every day,” I reply. “Besides, you’re one to talk.”
Caleb shrugs and passes me a handful of nails.
“Who is she?” Matt asks quietly.
“Who is who?”
“The woman that put that shit-eating smile on your face earlier.”
“That’s an unfortunate turn of phrase,” I reply.
“It’s a woman,” Caleb confirms. “He’s evading.”
“I’m not evading.”
They both stop what they’re doing and stare at me, then bust up laughing.
“I’ve just started seeing Alecia.”
“Holy shit! You talked her into it?” Matt asks.
“Wore her down is more like it,” Caleb replies, then bumps fists with Matt.
“She’s an interesting woman,” I reply, rather than take the bait to get angry. I may not have grown up with brothers, but I did grow up with cousins. I know baiting when I see it.
“Interesting how?” Nate asks from a few feet away. I glance around to find that everyone has gone quiet, listening to me.
These men are worse than a bunch of gossiping women.
I shake my head and hammer a nail.
“She’s sexy as fuck, but she doesn’t know it,” I begin, then tap another nail in place. “She’s feminine, but tough as nails.”
“I wouldn’t want to take her on,” Luke adds. “I’ve seen others try, and she tramples them under one of her gorgeous heels without breaking a sweat.”
I nod. “She’s excellent at her job, but she doesn’t believe in love.”
“Hold up.” Caleb stands and turns to me. “What the fuck does that mean? She plans weddings for a living.”
I shake my head, just as confused as the rest of them. “And she loves it, but says she doesn’t believe in happily ever after.”
The guys frown, and I swear under my breath. “That doesn’t mean you should fire her from planning family events. She does an excellent job—”
“No one’s firing her from anything,” Nate replies calmly, as the others shake their heads in agreement. “But it’s a definite surprise.”
“Just shows she’s professional,” Mark says.
“True,” Leo says with a shrug and tugs his Metallica tank over his head. “I mean, I don’t always love all the music out there, but I have a passion for mine. She’s good at the organization of it, and she gets results.”
“She’s bossy,” Will adds with a grin. “And she’s sexy while she’s doing it.”
“I think we can all agree that we’re all attracted to strong women, since that’s what we all have,” Luke agrees with a smirk.
“Meg’s not bossy,” Will says with a scowl.
“That’s what she’s let you believe,” Caleb says and slaps Will’s shoulder.
“Well, she’s not bossy in the bedroom.”
“I don’t imagine any of us would let them take control in the bedroom,” I say with a smile.
“Are you going to talk her into giving love a try, or are you just in it for a piece of ass?” Nate asks.
My eyes narrow on his and my hands flex into fists.
“He’s been waiting too long for her for it to just be about the sex,” Isaac says. Nate doesn’t answer; he just continues to watch me with calm grey eyes.
“I’m not just fucking her.”
“Okay then.”
“What if I was?” I ask out of curiosity.
“Well, that’s your business,” Nate replies, and turns back to hammer more nails. “But I think that Alecia is worth more than that.”
“She’s worth everything,” I mutter under my breath before taking a long drink of water.
“We’re going to the Mariner’s game the week after the wedding, right?” Mark asks.
“Yes, we have tickets,” Matt replies. “And I might need your help with something that day.”
“Don’t do it like that, man,” Caleb says with a roll of the eyes. “It’s cheesy as fuck.”
“Not the way I’m thinking of doing it,” Matt replies with a scowl.
“Is he going to propose at a baseball game?” Will asks. “Dude, you should have done it at the fucking Super Bowl. We won, for Godsake.”
“I wasn’t ready,” Matt replies.
“Don’t do it in public,” Luke says, and runs his hand over the plank of wood that has Meg and Will’s names and the date of their wedding carved into it. “Make it more special than that.”
“Oh! I know! Since Nic owns the cupcake place, bake her some cupcakes and put the ring in one of them and she’ll find it when she eats it.” Mark looks pleased with his idea, but Caleb clocks him in the back of the head.
“That’s ridiculous,” Leo says. “She’ll choke on it.”
“Trust me, I have an idea.” Just as Matt begins to outline his brilliant idea for his proposal to Nic, my phone vibrates in my pocket.
Blake.
I walk away from the brothers and answer the phone.
“Hello.”
“Hey, man, is this a bad time?”
“This is fine. What’s up?”
Blake sighs heavily on the other end of the line and then curses ripely.
“No, I don’t believe I’m interested in fucking you sideways,” I reply with a smirk.
“I shouldn’t be calling you.”
Something in his voice has the hair on the back of my neck standing up.
“What’s wrong?”
He swears again, and now I’m just pissed.
“Blake, what the fuck?”
“First, let me say this: everything Leash ever tells me is in confidence, and I don’t make a habit of breaking that confidence.”
“Understood.” I turn to watch my brothers, not really seeing them, and narrow my eyes. “What’s going on?”
“I just got off the phone with her. Have you spoken to her?”
“I saw her just this morning. She left for some work that she needed to take care of.”
“That’s bullshit,” Blake says grimly. “She ran, man.”
“What exactly do you mean, she ran?”
“She�
�s not working, she’s at her apartment over-thinking the fact that she slept with you. She’s scared. She has her reasons, and they’re her reasons to tell you, but intimacy scares the fuck out of her.”
“I figured that out,” I reply, and feel my blood heat. It has nothing to do with the heat of summer.
“Yeah, well, I thought you should know.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why are you telling me this?” I turn my back on my brothers again and pace away.
“Because I think you’ll be good for her, and because when I got off the phone with her a little while ago, she sounded regretful that she left, and I know she won’t fix it on her own.”
I push my hand through my hair and shake my head in exasperation. “I’m on my way to her place.”
“I think she was going to go help out with a wedding tonight, but you might catch her if you leave now.”
“Thanks, man.”
I hang up and return, just as Matt scowls at Caleb and shouts, “Are you just going to stand around all fucking afternoon?”
“No,” Caleb replies sarcastically, “I’m gonna fuckin’ riverdance, asshole.”
The guys laugh at Caleb’s witty response as I slip my phone in my pocket.
“I have to go, guys.”
“Everything okay?” Will asks.
“No, but it will be. If you need anything, Celeste is just inside.”
“We’re fine,” Isaac says. “We’ll have this done in an hour, tops.”
“Is she okay?” Caleb asks.
“I don’t know.” I shove my hands through my hair again. “I’m going to go figure it out.”
“Let us know if you need anything,” Matt says.
“Good luck,” Luke says with a grin, as the others wave. I run through the house, grab my keys and wallet, and set off to Alecia’s apartment.
She fucking ran.
***
I take the stairs up to Alecia’s floor, rather than wait for the elevator. Just as I burst through the stairwell doors, Alecia is stepping out of her apartment and her eyes go wide when she sees me stalking toward her.
“What are you doing here?”
“That’s my question,” I reply, and stop a few feet away from her.
“I live here,” she replies and props her hands on her hips, pulling her pink blouse tight over her full breasts, and making my cock take notice. “But I’m about to go to work—”
“No, you’re not.”
Her jaw drops at the hard tone in my voice.
“Yes, I believe I am.”
“You’re going to invite me in your place so we can work out all the reasons why you ran from the villa today.”
Her eyes narrow on my face. “I didn’t run anywhere.”
“Like hell.” I step forward and cage her in against her door, my hands on either side of her face, and lean in, but don’t touch her. Not yet. She takes a deep breath and lays a hand on my chest to push me away, but instead swallows hard and stares at my mouth.
“I couldn’t stay there,” she whispers before catching herself. She grips my shirt in her fist and scowls up at me with bright, angry brown eyes. “And it’s none of your business if I decided to come home for the day.”
“It’s my business, tesoro, to make sure you’re okay, and you clearly weren’t if you felt that you couldn’t stay in my home after I’d just spent the better part of last night and this morning inside you.” Unable to resist touching her for one more moment, I drag my knuckles down her cheek, and feel the flare of satisfaction when her eyes close and she leans into my touch. “Invite me in, please.”
“I told Emily I’d help her tonight.”
“You can un-tell her.”
“You’re not going to leave, are you?”
“No, cara, I’m not leaving.”
She opens the door at her back and motions for me to follow her into her apartment, closes and locks the door and pulls her phone out of her bra.
“Emily, I’m sorry, something’s come up, and I won’t be able to help you after all.” She smiles as she watches me lean my hips back against her kitchen counter. “I know you didn’t really need me in the first place. But you know where to find me if you do need anything. Good luck.” She clicks off and sets the phone and her handbag on the table by the front door. “Happy?”
“No.” I sigh and cross my arms over my chest. “No, I don’t think happy is the right word to describe how I feel.”
“How do you feel?”
“Frustrated. Concerned. Baffled. To start.”
She nods slowly and walks past me to the kitchen, pours us each a glass of Merlot, then passes one to me.
“This isn’t one of mine,” I comment wryly and take a sip.
“No, but it’s nice.” She walks out of the kitchen toward the living room and I can smell her citrusy shampoo as she passes by.
“Hmm.” The wine is nice, and I have a feeling she needs it to bolster her courage.
“Have a seat,” she says, motioning to the couch, and I have to take a breath to rein in my temper. This morning, she was writhing beneath me and now she’s speaking to me like I’m a business associate.
So, I sit right next to her and brace my arm on the back of the couch behind her head and pull the pins out of her hair, letting it spill into my fingers.
“That took me a while to put up,” she says.
“I like it down.”
“I’ve noticed.”
“Talk to me, cara.”
“What do you want me to say?”
“Fuck this.” I take her glass and set them both on the coffee table, then cradle her face in my hands and kiss the hell out of her. She gasps and grips my shirt in her fists at my sides and holds on tight as I take the kiss from hot and hard to soft and lazy and back again, before pulling away and staring into her eyes. They’ve gone soft and glassy, making me feel satisfied. “That’s better.”
“You’re good at that,” she whispers with a sigh.
“As are you. I don’t want you to pull away from me, tesoro. Not now. Not after last night.”
She tries to look down, but I catch her chin with my thumb and finger and keep her gaze locked on mine. “If you get scared, or nervous, or have doubts, you run to me, not from me, do you understand?”
“This is so far outside my comfort zone, I don’t know what to do.”
“I think that’s the most honest thing you’ve ever said to me,” I murmur and kiss her forehead. “I’m not letting you slip through my fingers, Alecia. I’m not going anywhere, today or any other day. But I can’t understand if you don’t talk to me.”
She shakes her head and closes her eyes, but not before I see the pain there, and my own heart cracks for her.
“Being naked with you is easy compared to talking to you about my past.”
“I love it when you’re naked with me,” I murmur with a smile. She opens her eyes and grins back at me. “But I need you to talk to me. Let’s start with what we were talking about the other night. I believe you said something about not believing in happily ever after.” She squirms and finally pushes me away, and then stands.
And just when I think she’s going to throw me out of her apartment, she surprises me with, “Let’s take a bath.”
Chapter Ten
She doesn’t stop to see if I’m following her as she walks purposefully into the bathroom, wine in hand, and turns on the taps of the garden tub.
“Nice bathroom,” I comment calmly as I lean a shoulder against the doorjamb, watching her as she bustles about, keeping her hands busy pinning her hair back on her head and setting out towels.
“It sold me on the place,” she replies with a grin. “I haven’t used the tub yet. No time.”
She kicks out of her sexy black heels and begins stripping off her clothes as the tub fills and the room heats up, and I can only stand here and watch her. She’s not trying to tease me, she’s not trying to be enticing.
And yet I w
ant to rush to her, strip her bare and fuck her against the bathroom vanity more than I’ve ever wanted anything.
Except to hear what she has to say. She won’t make eye contact, and I let her take her time to get comfortable. She pours something into the water that makes the room smell like jasmine. Turning her back from me, and this will be the last fucking time she ever does that, she strips bare and sinks down into the water.
“Are you just going to stand there and look at me?” she asks testily.
“Was that an invitation?”
She exhales deeply and closes her eyes, then offers me a shy smile. “I’m sorry. Yes, please join me.”
I push away from the doorway and unbutton my shirt, slip it off my shoulders and hang it on the hook behind the door. I don’t take my eyes off of her as I undress, and can’t help the smile that comes as her eyes follow my hands, gliding down my body. She licks her bottom lip as her eyes widen and her breathing picks up. I walk toward her, but rather than sit behind her, I sink into the water opposite her, pick her foot up and begin to dig my thumb into the sole, earning a low moan from her sweet lips.
“Oh, God, that’s good.”
I’m not sure what to do for her, and this is a first for me. So I simply sit and wait, letting the hot water work its magic, relaxing us both, and finally, after long minutes of me rubbing her feet and calves, she leans her head back on the edge of the tub, closes her eyes, and begins to talk.
“I’m not a particularly lovable person, Dominic.”
And pisses me off from the first words out of her gorgeous mouth.
“My mother never made it a secret that she didn’t want children.”
“Are you an only child?” I ask quietly, casually.
“Yes. My parents didn’t plan to have kids, and I was a mistake.”
You’re not a motherfucking mistake.
“From the time I was small, it was clear that I was an interruption. They loved each other, very much, and intended to always be a couple.” She pauses and bites her lip, a small frown between her eyebrows, as though she’s choosing her words carefully. “It wasn’t that they didn’t love me, in their way, they just weren’t interested in me.”
I rub my hands up her calves, massaging the muscles in her slender legs and concentrate on keeping my breathing even and face calm.
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