Can't Help Loving You

by Nika Rhone

  Saturday night seemed to have resolved that dilemma.

  So, rather than returning home disgraced and unemployed, he was instead cautiously optimistic that pending his next physical evaluation, it wouldn’t be too much longer before he’d be returning to the job he loved.

  Too bad he wasn’t having the same kind of luck with the woman he loved.

  Grimacing at that reminder, he got out and headed into the house. Larger and grander than the tiny three-bedroom ranch he and his four brothers and sisters had grown up in, it was still way too small when the entire family was home at the same time. At least, it felt that way to him. It had only been two days, and he was already feeling the walls closing in.

  It was like when he’d been recuperating from his injuries all over again. Freaked out by the fire and the shooting, his mother and sisters were all hovering and fetching and helping every chance they got. Not just for him, but for Cris as well. His brother might be eating it up for the moment, but they were going to drive Rafe right into the loony bin if they didn’t give him a little breathing room.

  Of course, his cranky-ass attitude had nothing to do with the fact the one woman he wouldn’t mind cooing over and coddling him, wasn’t. He hadn’t talked to her since everything had gone to shit the other night. By the time he’d gotten to the hospital after giving his statements to first the detectives, then IAB, and then the arson investigators, she’d already been sent home. And when he’d gone to her parents’ house to see her later that day, he hadn’t made it past the front gates.

  Since neither of them had grabbed their phones on the way out of the burning apartment, he called Peter to ask for the number to his parents’ house. Nothing had shocked him more than when his so-called friend had said no. Except maybe when Peter also refused to give Lillian his parents’ number so she could at least call him if and when she was ready.

  Things had only gotten nastier from there.

  But no matter what shit her brothers spewed, Rafe knew it wasn’t coming from Lillian. He’d been expecting this since the night of Theo’s party. Her brothers were closing ranks, protecting their little sister. Hell, they were doing everything but pissing in a circle around her to warn him off. He got it. He didn’t like it, but he got it.

  What he didn’t get was why she still hadn’t called. Even if she couldn’t find his parents’ number on her own—thanks for shit, Pete old pal—she could always leave a message at the restaurant. But Sunday had come and gone without a word, then Monday, and today was half over with the same disappointing and disturbing silence. He hated to admit it, but his confidence in those words of love she’d given him was getting a little shaky.

  The smell of something delicious drew him into the kitchen where his youngest sister, Bella, was sliding a tray of cookies out of the oven. He took a deep breath. “Mmm, chocolate chip. My favorite.”

  Smiling, she used a spatula to slide the cookies onto a cooling rack, and then to smack his hand as he tried to take one. “¡Espere! They’re hot.”

  “That’s when they’re the best.” He waited until she was busy scooping more dough onto the tray to try again. Juggling the too-hot treat hand-to-hand, he responded to his sister’s exasperated eye-roll with a kiss on her cheek before taking a bite. The melting chocolate nearly blistered his tongue, but it didn’t stop him from devouring the entire thing.

  “And everyone says I’m the child.” Shaking her head, Bella poured him a glass of milk, which he drank down in a few quick gulps.

  “Gracias.” He wiped the back of his hand across his mouth, eyeing another cookie.

  “Ah!” Bella swatted at him again. “If you’re that hungry, I’ll make you a sandwich.”

  He might complain about his sisters coddling him, but he’d never say no to one of them offering to make him food. They were driving him crazy, not stupid.

  Dropping another kiss on her cheek, he said, “You were always my favorite sister.”

  She snorted. “Sure. Until you want something from Bria.” Rafe grabbed his chest and gave her a wounded look, making her laugh. “Go. Out of the kitchen and away from my cookies. I’ll bring you your sandwich.”

  “You’re too good to me.”

  “Eres mi hermano y te amo,” she replied with a shrug. “I’d do anything for you.”

  Suddenly, being annoyed about all the care and attention he’d been getting made him feel like an ungrateful shit. “Love you too, Bella.” As he started out of the room, his gaze fell on the telephone sitting on the counter. A big red zero taunted him from the message window. “Oh, um, I didn’t get any calls while I was out, did I? Any messages, or…anything?”

  Bella hesitated, then yanked open the refrigerator. “Nope. Sorry.”

  Something about that small hesitation set off his radar, but Rafe shrugged it aside as he went out to the large stone patio off the back of the house. Bella probably felt bad about giving him news she knew would make him unhappy.

  Sinking into one of the chairs that faced the manicured back yard, Rafe considered his options. He could take another run at getting in touch with Lillian by showing up at the gallery, the one place he knew she’d eventually be. Or he could cut his losses and admit that everything they’d shared had been just heat-of-the-moment stuff. Nothing more than sex.

  Hot, incendiary, mind-blowing sex.

  So hot that just thinking about what they’d done in Lillian’s bed after coming home from the art showing had him swelling to half-wood in three seconds flat. And so mind-blowing that he knew there was no way he could chalk it all up to great sex and walk away. Not without a fight. She was worth more than that. They were worth more than that.

  “Rafe?”

  His head whipped around, wondering if he had imagined her voice because he was thinking about her. But no, it was really Lillian, standing at the edge of the patio with an expression that said she wasn’t sure of her welcome.

  Fair enough. Neither was he.

  But then she squared her shoulders and walked toward him. More curious than her sudden appearance was the hand she had wrapped around Cris’s arm as she tugged him along with her. What the fuck was that about?

  “Before you say anything, like how you don’t want to talk to me and I should turn my skanky ass around and leave, I need to tell you that I just found out my oh-so helpful brothers have been keeping you from getting in touch with me, not to mention telling you all kinds of shitty lies I swear to God I never once even thought, much less said, so please, please believe me.”

  “Wow. All in one breath. Impressive.” Rafe fought, but couldn’t control, a grin as he stood up. “Skanky ass?”

  She threw her free hand in the air. “That’s the part you heard? Seriously?”

  “No, I heard the whole thing.”

  “And?”

  “And I already figured most of that out already.” Her face morphed through several expressions before settling on disgruntled. Probably that he’d stolen the impact of what she expected to be a huge bombshell.

  Then she narrowed her eyes. “Did you also happen to figure out that all of the noses getting stuck into our business don’t belong to just my family?”

  “The hell you say!”

  She looked smug. “Guess not.” She gave Cris a little push. “Go ahead. Tell him.”

  Cris looked about as miserable as he had when he came home from the hospital. Rafe pushed aside the guilt of that and focused on the implication of what Lillian was saying. “Cris?”

  “It’s not like we did anything,” Cris muttered, refusing to meet Rafe’s eyes.

  “No, it was more like what they didn’t do,” Lillian said, scowling. “Like tell me the truth about whether or not you were home when I called, or give you any of the messages I left.”

  “You called?”

  There was a flash of hurt in her eyes. “You really thought I didn’t?”

  “Did you think I hadn’t called you?” He nodded when she looked away. “It’s okay. We both had people we trusted li
e and make us doubt ourselves, and each other. Why that is, I’m still trying to figure out,” he added, giving Cris a look that made him squirm. “But believe me, I’m planning to get to the bottom of it.”

  His brother closed his eyes and uttered a heartfelt curse. “We wanted to stop her from making your life miserable.”

  “Miserable?” Lillian exchanged a confused look with Rafe. “And how was I doing that?”

  “I heard what your brother said to him on the phone,” Cris said, getting angry. “He was Rafe’s friend, but because of you, he treated him like shit. Like he wasn’t good enough for you. The precious little heiress.” His lip curled on the sarcastic words.

  Lillian winced and threw Rafe an apologetic look before saying to Cris, “Yeah, well, sometimes brothers can be morons.”

  Seeing the exact moment Cris realized she wasn’t just referring to her own brothers, Rafe stepped in before things got nasty. “Hermano, while I appreciate that you were trying to help, you should have come to me first and found out what I wanted. Didn’t you think the fact I was always asking if anyone called might mean that I wanted to talk to her?”

  “Maybe,” Cris muttered, staring at his feet.

  The door to the kitchen opened. Bella breezed through holding a plate with a sandwich the size of Manhattan. “I wasn’t sure if you wanted turkey or—” She came to an abrupt halt. “What is that puta doing here?”

  The vulgarity from his normally sweet sister took Rafe by surprise. But maybe it shouldn’t have. That slight hesitation in answering his question made perfect sense now. Rafe crossed his arms, his level of pissed going up a few notches. “Watch your mouth when you’re talking about my girlfriend.”

  Bella gasped. “Your girlfriend? Rafael, you can’t be—”

  “Did you or did you not lie right to my face a few minutes ago when I asked if anyone had called for me?”

  “But…you don’t…it wasn’t like that.”

  “No? Then how was it?”

  Bella sputtered for a few seconds. “She almost got you killed. You and Cristiano both!”

  “I know,” Lillian said. “And I’ll never be able to forgive myself for that.”

  “Oh, please. Poor you.” Bella rolled her eyes. “If you’d cared at all, you never would have asked him to get involved in the first place.”

  “It was never supposed to be dangerous,” Lillian said.

  “And she didn’t ask,” Rafe said, clarifying what Lillian didn’t. “I had to convince her to let me help.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure she put up a real fight about it.”

  “Enough.” Holding onto his temper by the very edges, Rafe gave his siblings a hard look. “I get that you both did what you did because you were under some misguided impression I needed protecting from this horrible, wicked woman who somehow managed to Svengali me into doing something entirely against my will.” He shot Lillian a quick look and caught her rolling her lips together to contain a grin. That eased the raw ache in his chest just a little. “But don’t make the mistake of thinking I either need or want your interference in my personal life. You both crossed the line. The meddling stops right here, right now. Got it?”

  Cris muttered an agreement, refusing to meet Rafe’s angry gaze, but Isabella tossed her head back, fire in her eyes. “You would pick her? Over family?”

  “It shouldn’t have to be a choice, Bella. You’re the one making it that way.”

  Her nostrils flared. In Spanish she said, “You’re making a big mistake, Rafael. Can’t you see she’s using you? Do you really think she won’t drop you like yesterday’s garbage the second her fancy-assed parents decide it’s time for her to marry one of her own kind and start the next generation of little lily-white billionaires?”

  There was too deep a vein of pain in her words for them not to have some personal meaning to her. Rafe wondered how he’d managed to miss something as important as a love affair that had failed badly enough to leave the wounds he could see in her eyes. The fact he’d been too absorbed in his own personal drama these past months to be there to protect his baby sister hurt. Which was why his voice was gentle when he replied, “Not everyone sees things through those kinds of colored lenses. Please don’t judge Lillian by someone else’s mistake.”

  Bella bit her lip. “She’ll hurt you. Just wait.”

  “No, she won’t.” He switched to English again. “I love her.”

  Blinking back tears, Bella said, “That only makes it hurt worse.” She turned and disappeared into the house, not sparing Lillian a glance.

  Looking between Rafe and Lillian, Cris hooked his thumb toward the house. “Yeah, I think I’m gonna…” He escaped the same way his sister had gone.

  Leaving the two of them staring at each other with far too much distance between them.

  “She looked kind of upset.” Lillian’s fingers twisted together in anxious knots. “Shouldn’t you go after her?”

  Rafe shook his head. “I think I’d make things worse if I did.” But the fact she’d thought of his sister after everything Bella had said and done made him love her that much more. “I’m sorry my siblings meddled.”

  “Me too. I mean, I’m sorry mine did too.”

  And still neither of them moved closer.

  “So.” More finger-twisting. “What happens now?”

  “How about now you kiss me?”

  Lillian responded to the almost-dare the way he’d hoped, putting her chin up and saying, “How about you kiss me?”

  Then they were both in motion, meeting somewhere in the middle, arms wrapping around each other, mouths seeking, devouring, conquering, until the need for air made them pull apart, gasping and hungry for more.

  “God, I missed you,” Lillian groaned as he laid tiny kisses along her cheek and down to her chin, before circling back to her mouth again.

  “I missed you, too. I want you,” he growled against her lips, “naked and wet for me.”

  “Well, we’re already halfway there.” She kissed his chin when he groaned. “Where can we go to take care of the other half?”

  His pants felt two sizes too small for the erection her throaty words caused. “Bruja, you’re killing me.” He took her hand and started towing her toward the house. Remembering his sister and brother, he changed course and started down the path around the house to the driveway. For what he had planned, they needed a lot more privacy than his bedroom walls could provide.

  She was so quiet once he got the truck moving, he had a moment of worry he’d pushed too far, too fast. But a quick glance showed she was watching him with a hungry look of barely restrained desire. The quiet was the calm before the storm that would be unleashed once they were behind closed and locked doors somewhere.

  His foot pressed harder on the gas. For that look on her face, he’d risk a ticket.

  Pulling into the lot behind the all-suites hotel on the edge of town, Rafe helped Lillian out of the truck, stealing a kiss before leading her inside. He headed straight to the elevator, taking them to the second floor. It wasn’t until he pulled the key card out of his wallet when they reached his room that he realized Lillian was looking at him with a question in her eyes.

  “Your father booked rooms for everyone the fire displaced,” he explained. “I hadn’t gotten around to moving into it yet.” Because he wanted to be someplace she could find him if—when—she came looking. Not that he would have admitted it to anyone but her. From the look on her face, he didn’t need to. But a sliver of awkwardness made him ask, “Is this too weird? Being here, I mean, in a room your father is paying for? We can go someplace else. There’s another hotel a couple of blocks over.”

  She plucked the key card from his hand and inserted it in the lock. Pushing the door open, she went in first, sending him a challenging glance over her shoulder. He caught the door just before it slammed shut and followed. By the time he turned the privacy lock and slid the security bolt home, Lillian managed to discard every bit of clothing she wore except the silky bla
ck panties and matching bra that did more to frame her magnificent breasts than hide them.

  She teased one strap off her shoulder as she wet her bottom lip. “Is this naked enough?”

  The predator instinct she aroused in him with her teasing snapped its leash and had him stalking toward her in long, rangy strides. “Not even close. Take it all off. Now.”

  Tucking her thumb under the other strap, she pushed out her chest. “Or what?”

  “Or I’m going to spank that pretty pink ass of yours until you beg me to take you.” He couldn’t take his gaze off of the creamy delights that all but spilled out into view. His voice turned raspy. “And then I will.”

  He loved the flush that streaked over her skin. His little pixie was as turned on by that idea as he was even though she pursed her lips like she was unsure.

  “One.”

  She put a finger to her mouth as though in deep thought.

  “Two.”

  Her lips closed around the tip of her finger while her eyes sparkled with a challenge he couldn’t ignore any more than the jerk of his cock.

  The hell with three.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Lillian saw the exact instant when Rafe’s restraint shattered.

  Not that she hadn’t expected it, or wanted it. But the sight of that magnificent wild streak he kept so tightly bottled inside breaking free was worth any effort it took to achieve. The man might be sexy as hell, but Rafe unleashed?

  That was the stuff of erotic fantasies.

  Hers, anyway.

  Watching him stalk toward her like a panther on the prowl for its next meal, she barely had time to gasp in surprise as he scooped her up. He carried her to the bedroom, deposited her on the bed and went down on top of her as he sealed his mouth to hers. She groaned into his mouth as he picked up right where they left off in his parents’ backyard, driving her crazy with his wicked and oh-so talented tongue.

  With other men, kissing had been something that went along with sex. With Rafe, it was a sex act all on its own. The man knew how to drive her wild, then back off just enough to have her close to weeping with want until he came back to give her more. And that didn’t even take into account all of the naughty, oh-so tantalizing things he was doing with his hands.