Harlequin Desire February 2013 - Bundle 1 of 2: The King Next DoorMarriage With BenefitsA Real Cowboy (Kings of California)

by Maureen Child

  “Ego’s not pride,” Griffin countered.

  “And sometimes pride is all some of us have to hold on to,” Nicole countered, and plucked Connor from Griffin’s arms. With her little boy tucked against her, she stared up into the blue eyes that were now so familiar to her.

  She looked into them every night as they made love and found them watching her every morning when she woke up. She knew Griffin’s moods now and could practically read what he was thinking in his eyes. And right now, she thought, he was irritated and barely bothering to conceal it.

  This little conversation had started out as just another of their ploys to keep people from guessing what was going on between them, but somehow it had taken a turn toward truth. Fine, she wasn’t really angry at him anymore for the kitchen fire. But he had yet to admit that it had happened simply because he hadn’t believed her capable of doing something on her own. Pride? That was the one thing about her he should understand.

  Nicole had known the Kings for more than a year now, and a more prideful bunch didn’t exist. She would be willing to bet a fortune she didn’t even have that there wasn’t one of them that would willingly let go of his pride.

  Well, she wasn’t a King, but her pride was just as important to her as theirs was to them. And it didn’t hurt to remind Griffin of that.

  Turning to Lucas, she asked, “Did you ever hear from my insurance company?”

  He glanced at Griffin, then looked back at her. Responding to the glint in her eye, he straightened up and said, “Yeah. I did. We’re good to go with the remodel, except,” he added with an uncomfortable wince, “for the deductible.”

  “I know.” Nicole wanted to wince, too. She really hated raiding her already-small savings account to pay for a remodel that hadn’t been in her budget at all. But the upside, she reminded herself, was that once the deductible was met and the work done, she’d have a lovely kitchen where everything worked. Best to hold on to that thought.

  “I’ll take care of the deductible,” she said, lifting her chin. “I’ll have a check for you tomorrow.”

  “Nicole—”

  “My house, my problem.” She faced Griffin and met his gaze squarely, not flinching at all from the banked anger she saw there.

  “Fine,” he ground out. “You want to be stubborn, go ahead.”

  “Wow, so gracious of you to allow me to pay my bills and meet my responsibilities,” Nicole said. “Thanks so much.”

  “Play ball?” Connor asked.

  “Not now, sweetie,” Nicole said at the same time that Griffin answered, “Sure.”

  Lucas rolled his eyes.

  Nicole narrowed her gaze on Griffin. “It’s Connor’s naptime.”

  “Doesn’t look tired.”

  “My son,” she said. “My call.”

  A long, humming second passed before Griffin scowled and nodded. “Fine.”

  Still holding Connor tight, Nicole headed out of the room. She paused in the doorway to look back at the men watching her. Lucas looked wary, but Griffin’s expression was a mixture of disgust and tightly reined anger. Well, he’d have to get used to the fact that Nicole ran her own life. She didn’t need a big, strong man making her decisions or paying her way. She didn’t need his help to raise her son, either. She’d gotten along fine on her own before he swept into her life, and she’d do just fine again once he was gone.

  Although she didn’t like the sound of the word gone.

  They were playing a strange game. Lovers at night, friendly enemies by day. He’d become a part of her routine, the two of them sharing everything from kitchen duties to time spent with Connor. They were building a relationship on a foundation that didn’t exist.

  This was the craziest thing she’d ever done, yet she couldn’t bring herself to regret it.

  Lovers or enemies?

  Nicole wasn’t sure which was the truth anymore. Or if either was.

  * * *

  “Okay,” Lucas said when she was gone. “That was awkward.”

  “Yeah.” Griffin walked to the fridge, opened it and grabbed two beers. He straightened up and tossed one of them to his cousin. “Welcome to my world.”

  “She’s still completely pissed at you over the kitchen.”

  “Seems that way,” Griffin mused, tossing a glance at the empty doorway. A sizzle of irritation buzzed inside him. Damn woman had a head like a rock. Hell, she should have been born a King. She would have fit right in with the rest of them.

  But if she’d been a King, he wouldn’t be having her now, and that he couldn’t imagine. Still, the game they were playing was getting harder to put up with.

  Yeah, most of what had just passed between them had been an act. Keep up the tension between them in front of other people so no one would suspect what was really going on. But, Griffin thought, what she had said also carried enough truth to be convincing.

  Her damn pride was almost as tough as his. Objectively, he could understand that and respect it. But right now it was getting in his way and that was unacceptable.

  Like the damn deductible for her insurance payout. He knew she didn’t have that kind of money to spend, but would she ask for help? No. She blamed him for the fire, but would refuse to allow him to pay for the blasted deductible. What the hell kind of sense did that make?

  Lucas laughed and brought Griffin out of his thoughts.

  “Damn, cuz, you’re living a rough life here, aren’t you?” He shuddered dramatically. “She’s riding you every day, isn’t she?”

  “As often as possible,” Griffin muttered, his mind providing images of Nicole rising up over him in the night, holding his body in hers, riding him to an explosive—

  “Look,” Lucas said agreeably, unknowingly shattering Griffin’s thoughts, “I know what life is like when you’re living with a woman who’s mad at you for some damn thing or other. How about I help you out? We had a job wrap up last night. So I can put an extra crew on Nicole’s job, wrap it up faster.”

  Faster. Get Nicole back into her own home that much sooner. In theory, a good thing. In reality, not. When she was back home, whatever was between them would end. That was their new agreement. If she was back in her familiar world, it would reset their relationship—or whatever the hell it was—and there’d be no more nights with her.

  Their summer affair would be over.

  His hand fisted around the bottle of beer. Griffin wasn’t ready for it to be over. On the heels of that realization came a quick mental disclaimer: it wasn’t that he wanted a permanent thing with Nicole. Nothing like that. But he did want more than a measly few days.

  “No,” he heard himself say. Lucas looked at him with surprise.

  “Seriously? Why the hell not?”

  Good question. “Because there’s no hurry,” he muttered, “that’s why not.”

  “Uh-huh.” Lucas took a drink of his beer and leaned against the kitchen counter. “Sell that to somebody else, because I’m not buying it.”

  Griffin gave his cousin the nearly legendary King freezing stare, designed to shake anyone who dared cross a King. Problem was, it didn’t work on the family. Lucas merely shook his head in pity.

  “Fine. You don’t have to buy it, Lucas.”

  “Right.” He snorted. “You’re trying to freeze me out, and it’s not working.”

  “What will?” Griffin asked.

  “Nothing,” Lucas assured him unnecessarily. “So, the thing is, you’re in no hurry to get Nicole out of here, even though she’s making you miserable.”

  Miserable?

  Hell, she was making him nuts.

  He looked away from his cousin and let his gaze slide across Rafe and Katie’s sun-washed kitchen. This place had become a second home to him over the past week or more. And memories were crashing over him. Nicole and him
here, in this kitchen, having ice cream at midnight and laughing like a couple of kids. Him, plopping a naked Nicole down on the edge of the counter and her legs coming around his waist, pulling him deep into her heat until neither of them could have said where one of them ended and the other began.

  Yeah, she was making him crazy.

  And he didn’t want it to end.

  At least not yet.

  Frowning at his cousin, Griffin told him, “Don’t make anything out of this.”

  “Oh, it’s already been made, and I’m not the one who did it,” his cousin said with a smirk. “You think I can’t read your face? Poker was never your game, Griff. Garrett’s the one with the unreadable expression. Yours is an open book.”

  Irritation flooded him. He was a damn security expert, for God’s sake. He made a living by being hard to read. What the hell was Nicole doing to him? “Well, quit reading it.”

  “Too late now,” Lucas said, hooting with laughter. “Damn, cuz. With Katie’s best friend?”

  Some of the King family brawls were legendary. Once Adam and Travis had a knock-down, drag-out fight that went on for nearly eight hours. It had started at a family picnic, when Travis told Adam he had no skill for horse breeding. A lie of course. Adam had a string of some of the best horses in California—hell, anywhere. But Travis liked to get a dig in, and once Adam cut loose, the two of them battled while the rest of the cousins at the picnic made a damn fortune in bets.

  It didn’t take much to set off guys with too much pride and too little temper control. Plus, it was just plain fun to get into a good fight once in a while. Usually Griffin and his twin could blow off some steam with a friendly fistfight. But since Garrett was off being a damn prince now, it had been a while since Griffin had had anyone to scuffle with. So if Lucas didn’t lay off fast, there was going to be a fight.

  “Let it go, Lucas.”

  “Sure,” Lucas said, laughing. He held up both hands. One empty, one still clutching his beer. “That’ll happen.” He took a hard look at Griffin’s expression. “Hey, hey, not looking for a fight. After the last time Rafe and I got into it, Rose told me she’d kick my ass if I came home battered again.”

  “Hiding behind your wife?”

  “Damn straight. She’s scarier than you,” Lucas said, still laughing, damn his eyes. “You do know that when Katie gets back, if she finds out what you’re up to, you’re dead meat.”

  “Yeah,” Griffin said, taking a long sip of his beer. “I know.”

  Katie wouldn’t hit him, but he’d never get another cookie in his whole, miserable life. And siding with his wife might cause Rafe to go all fury and fists on him, but Griffin wasn’t too worried about that. He could take Rafe.

  Still, he didn’t like the idea of creating trouble in the family. And Nicole was seriously trouble. But if he had a choice between keeping things in the King family on an even keel or having Nicole, then the choice was a simple one. The family would get over a shakeup. He wasn’t ready to let Nicole go yet.

  “You’re either in really deep,” Lucas said with a shake of his head, “or you’re nuts. Not sure which.”

  “Might be both, I’m not thinking about it.”

  “Not a good sign, cuz.”

  “Tell me about it,” Griffin muttered darkly. He was a man who always knew what was next. The man with a plan. Always. He didn’t do a damn thing without knowing the consequences and what his response would be. In the security business, you’d better have a backup plan—and a plan for when that one went bottom up, too.

  Only one other time in his life had he just gone with his heart instead of thinking things through logically, and that had turned to crap in a microsecond. So what were the chances this thing with Nicole wouldn’t go south in a big way someday soon?

  Zip.

  And wouldn’t you just know Lucas would pick up on what was going on? Most of his cousins would have been oblivious, too concerned with what was going on in their own lives to be working out someone else’s secrets. Figured he had to be dealing with one who noticed more than the job at hand.

  “Seriously, man,” Lucas said with a slow shake of his head, “hope it’s worth the trouble.”

  “Me, too,” Griffin muttered. The icy cool of the beer bottle in his hand was no match for the heat that streamed through him at the mere thought of Nicole.

  So that was his answer. She was worth family trouble. She was worth the fight he and she would be having as soon as Nicole realized he’d already paid her deductible on the fire insurance. And worth the battle they’d have the second she found out he’d authorized upgrades she hadn’t approved for her kitchen.

  Yeah. She was worth it.

  And that worried him.

  “Okay, it’s your funeral,” Lucas told him and pushed away from the counter.

  “Thanks for the support.”

  “Hey, I’m supportive,” Lucas argued. “I’m just not an idiot.”

  “Thanks again.”

  Lucas grinned and shot a glance at the doorway through which Nicole had disappeared. “So while she’s busy with Connor, you want to talk about the upgrades for Nicole’s kitchen?”

  Nodding, Griffin said, “Let’s take our beers next door to talk about it, though. Don’t want to chance her overhearing.”

  “Yeah,” Lucas agreed, already heading for the back door. “Me neither. I’m doing these changes on your authorization, not hers. Hell, if she wanted to, she could sue King Construction.”

  “She won’t sue you.”

  “I’m gonna hold you to that.”

  “Go ahead. Nicole won’t sue.” She’d be mad as hell, but her fury would be aimed at Griffin, not Lucas. Griffin followed him out the door, then just to be mean, added, “She’ll turn your wife on you.”

  “Oh, man.” Lucas looked back at him. “That’s cold.”

  “Women are dangerous people, cousin,” Griffin said, looking over his shoulder at the empty room behind him.

  “You can say that again, cuz,” Lucas was saying, walking toward the gate in the fence and Nicole’s house beyond. “But what would we do without them?”

  “That’s the question,” Griffin murmured.

  Too bad he didn’t have an answer.

  Seven

  The following day, Connor was at preschool, and Nicole was back at Sandy’s place with a question about that week’s billing. Not that she’d had a chance to ask it yet.

  “So how’s the kitchen coming along?” Sandy asked.

  “I’m not sure.” Nicole flipped through her friend’s business file, looking for one page in particular. “I haven’t actually seen it since the first day Lucas had his crew in.”

  “What?” Sandy peeled the paper off her lemon cupcake and took a bite. As she chewed, she asked, “Are you nuts? It’s your kitchen. How can you not be curious about what they’re doing in there?”

  Nicole found the paper she was looking for and slid it across the table to Sandy. “I was there when they were using sledgehammers to take out my grandmother’s cupboards and the ceiling. I saw a gigantic hole in the floor and looked straight down at the dirt.” She shuddered. “Way more than I wanted to see, so no thanks. I don’t want to see any more destruction in there.”

  “But it’s construction now. They’re fixing it all up.”

  “And it’ll be great when they’re finished. Meanwhile, Griffin’s keeping an eye on what they’re doing and he tells me it looks terrific.”

  “A guy?” Sandy shook her head as if she was hearing things. “You’re taking a guy’s word for what your remodel looks like?”

  “Griffin’s there every day. He’s been working with the crew and—” And it was too hard to keep up the pretense of disinterest around others, Nicole thought.

  Just yesterday, sniping at Griffin in
front of Lucas had started as part of their game, but had gone off on a tangent that had felt all too real. And she didn’t want real at the moment. She wanted her fantasy to continue.

  When Lucas was gone, she and Griffin hadn’t talked at all about the pseudo-argument, but she knew he was still thinking about it, just as she was. She couldn’t help it if he thought she was being stubborn. Nicole took care of her own bills. She stood on her own two feet. She wasn’t about to start looking around for a man to sweep in and rescue her.

  Even if the fire had been his fault.

  Sandy tapped her fingernails against the tabletop. “This makes no sense to me...unless this isn’t about avoiding your kitchen at all.”

  Nicole glanced at her. “What else would it be?”

  “You said Griffin’s over there every day. Maybe you’re trying to avoid him.”

  She laughed. “I’m living with him, Sandy. Hard to avoid.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “What?”

  “Oh, nothing. Just that you haven’t touched your double-fudge cupcake. Every time you say the name Griffin you look away. And you look like a woman who’s been having regular sex.”

  This time her laugh sounded nervous, even to herself. “Excuse me?”

  “Oh, come on. I know that wow-am-I-a-lucky-woman look.” She winked. “I see it every time I look in the mirror.”

  “You’re way too perceptive.”

  “It’s a gift.”

  “You should return it,” Nicole told her, grabbing up her cupcake for a deliberate bite. Flavor exploded in her mouth and she nearly groaned. Sandy might be irritating, but she was a hell of a good baker.

  “Okay,” her friend demanded, “so give me details. You never did tell me how the night of magic orgasms went.”

  “Why should I?”

  “Because it was my idea for you to have this fling.”

  True. If Sandy hadn’t suggested it, Nicole might never have made that move out in the hot tub. And then she would have missed...a lot.

  “It was a good idea,” she admitted with a sigh.

  “How good?”