by Anne Rainey
Catherine pulled out a chair and sat, but she was too interested in the conversation to care about the food. He was opening up a little. She decided to see it as a good sign. “I’m sorry. How did he die?”
He placed a napkin and spoon on the table next to her bowl. “Heart attack. None of us saw it coming.”
“When it’s sudden, comes out of nowhere, it makes you feel as if you’ve been cheated. There’s no chance to say good-bye.”
“Yeah,” he growled as he turned back to the stove to ladle up a helping for himself. As he moved to sit in the seat across from her and picked up his spoon, his dark chocolate gaze caught and held hers. “So, did you come here to talk about the death of a loved one?”
She squinted at him. “You like to get right to the point, don’t you?”
“Usually, yeah. And right now you’re stalling.”
She watched him eat. He didn’t wolf down the food, but ate each bite slowly, as if he wanted to savor it. “I thought we were having a nice conversation,” she said, distracted by the way his tongue darted out to lick up a bit of broth. “You know, two adults enjoying each other’s company.”
He placed the spoon on the table and swiped a napkin over his mouth. “Here’s the thing,” he said. “I don’t trust you. That’s not likely to change just because you want it to. So, if that’s the reason you’re here, then you might as well leave.”
She dropped her spoon, and it hit the bowl with a clang, bounced off, and landed on the table. “What’s your deal?” she shouted as she lost her grip on her temper. “Everyone else seems okay with my presence here. Everyone except you. Why?”
“You came out of nowhere and insinuated yourself into Gracie’s life. Maybe all you want is some bonding time with her, but I can’t help but feel there’s more to it than that.”
She threw her hands up in the air. “What more could there possibly be?”
“You tell me, Catherine.”
“All I want is to spend time with her. I didn’t have the luxury you had growing up.”
He sat back and crossed his arms over his chest. “And what luxury might that be?”
“The luxury of growing up with your siblings. You got to see Wade graduate from high school. You watched Deanna go from a little girl to a beautiful, intelligent woman.” Her throat closed up for a second and she had to swallow hard before she could say the rest. “Gracie’s childhood was stolen from me, Dean. We never got to talk about boys late into the night. She and I never swapped clothes and makeup. Even arguing over whose turn it is to do the dishes was lost to us. All the things sisters do, she and I missed out on that.”
He cocked his head to the side, his expression as unreadable as ever. “And that’s all there is to it?”
“Oh, my Lord, what is it with you?” she said, her voice rising even more as anger began to take the place of common sense. “Do you think I’m after her money? Because I can tell you that I have plenty of my own. Not only did my parents have a nice-sized insurance policy, but I’m a website designer. I do just fine, trust me.”
“See? That’s just it, Catherine, I don’t trust you. I thought we already established that.”
Frustrated and ready to commit cold-blooded murder, Catherine shot out of her chair. “Obviously this was a huge mistake. I never should have come here. I’m sorry I bothered you.” But before she could take more than a few steps, Dean was there, holding her still with one arm wrapped around her middle from behind. She stiffened. “Let me go,” she bit out from between clenched teeth.
He tsked. “Nope, I’m not through with you yet.”
“I don’t give a damn.” She tried to pry him loose, but he wouldn’t budge. “Let me go, or I start screaming.”
He chuckled and whispered close to her ear, “You’re awfully damn naive, do you know that?”
She grasped onto his hand and tried to remove it, but the man must have been made of steel. “What do you mean by that?”
“You’re in a strange man’s home, sweetheart. I’m bigger, stronger, and I could do anything I wanted to you right now. Screaming wouldn’t do a damn bit of good, because the nearest neighbor is half an acre away.”
Yeah, okay, that was a scary thought. “B-but Gracie trusts you.”
He pulled his arm away, but before she could run to the front door he was spinning her around to face him. “And that’s enough for you? How do you know that I’m not some rapist or murderer?”
His brown eyes weren’t filled with menace. In fact, unless she missed her guess, Dean looked concerned. “You wouldn’t hurt me,” she shot right back. It was a leap of faith, but Catherine had always had good instincts. She had no reason to stop trusting them now.
“If you hurt my family, I’ll do that and more,” he murmured. “Make no mistake, Catherine, I protect my own.”
“Gracie is my family too, Dean.” She swatted his chest. “Get that through your thick head.”
“She’s your biological half sister. Practically a stranger to you.”
“I know what she is, thank you very much.” Her eyes narrowed. “Boy, you don’t have any faith in your brother’s opinion or his abilities, do you?”
His head shot back as if he’d been slapped. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Your brother trusts me. He ran a check on me. Don’t you think he knows what he’s doing? He is a private investigator, after all.”
“Of course Wade’s good at his job, but his first priority is to see Gracie happy. Finding out about you sent her over the moon. Love is clouding his judgment of you right now.”
It hurt to think that Wade was only being kind to her for Gracie’s sake. She’d thought his feelings toward her were genuine. “I see,” she said in a low voice as she looked down at the hardwood floor. “I didn’t realize.”
Dean took her chin in his palm and tugged until she was looking into his gaze once more. “Look, Wade does like you. Hell, everyone thinks you’re terrific. I’m the only paranoid one in this outfit. Okay?”
She nodded. “The thing you need to remember is that I know how Gracie grew up. We’ve talked about her dad. His alcoholism and neglect. She had it rough. I don’t want to add to Gracie’s pain, Dean. I only want to get to know her. To be a part of her life. Is that so bad?”
He was quiet for several seconds, but finally he released her and stated, “I can live with that.”
Catherine couldn’t believe her own ears. “So you trust me?” She held her breath, afraid of his answer.
He shoved his hands in his front pockets. “Let’s just say I’m willing to play nice and leave it at that, shall we?”
It was more than she’d had when she’d come over here, but it still hurt to think he didn’t trust her. It shouldn’t bother her so much, but instead of letting her disappointment show, she nodded. “Works for me.”
“Now, since you didn’t get to finish your lunch, how about we skip right to dessert.”
The fact that he wasn’t shoving her out the door sent a little thrill through her bloodstream. “Dessert?”
He bobbed his eyebrows. “Mom made chocolate cake. You in?”
Catherine forgot everything else at the mention of chocolate. It was her one guilty pleasure in life. “Oh, I’m definitely in.”
6
Dean was having a very hard time keeping a straight face. He really didn’t want to offend Catherine now that they’d reached some sort of understanding, but it was downright comical the way she dug into her dessert. It was as if she’d never had cake before. Each bite got special attention. He was beginning to get a little jealous of her devotion to the damn thing. He could leave and she wouldn’t even notice. “You really like cake, huh?”
The fork stopped midway between the plate and her mouth. She glanced across the table at him. “Am I making a spectacle of myself?”
He winked and pushed his plate away, content to watch her. “Not really.”
She gently placed the fork back on the plate. “You’re lying. I
am making a spectacle of myself.” She closed her eyes tight and muttered, “Oh wow, now I’m embarrassed.”
“Don’t be,” he whispered, pissed at himself for saying anything. She’d let down her guard for a minute and he’d blown it. “I appreciate a woman with a healthy appetite. Hell, you should see Deanna go to town.”
She rolled her eyes. “Your sister is tall and thin and as pretty as a model. I don’t believe for one second that she puts cake away like it’s her last day on earth.”
Dean placed his elbows on the table and leaned closer. “Didn’t you notice when she ate Wade’s chicken parmesan last night?”
She frowned. “No, I guess I didn’t. I was on sensory overload, I think. Meeting and getting to know everyone, it was a lot to take in. I don’t know if you know this, but the Harrison bunch can be pretty overwhelming to a girl who grew up as an only child.”
“Finish your cake and I’ll tell you a secret about Deanna.”
She looked down at her plate and shrugged. “Heck, who am I kidding? I’m not about to let good chocolate go to waste.”
As she picked up the fork, Dean said, “Good, because I don’t really have any secrets to tell.”
As Dean watched her, he became all too aware of how close they were—a few feet of oak was all that separated them. With her preoccupied, Dean let himself look her over. He’d already noticed the way her hair spilled down her back, the softness beckoning him to reach out and smooth his palm down the length. The sweater she wore today was tight. The V-neck hinted at a delicious amount of cleavage, and the dark green shade suited her green eyes. Catherine had the prettiest emerald-green eyes he had ever seen. Almond shaped, like a cat’s eyes. No doubt about it, she was beautiful. But could he trust her? The jury was still out on that one.
“You’re staring at me,” Catherine said as she finished off the last of her cake.
“Men tend to stare at pretty women.”
Her head shot up and her eyes went wide. “Did you just pay me a compliment?”
He chuckled. “Don’t let it go to your head.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” She wiped her mouth on a napkin, then stood and brought her plate to the sink. Dean sat back, content to stare at the sway of her hips. The jeans she wore today weren’t quite as tight as the others had been, but they were no less sexy. He watched her bend over to pick up the fork she’d dropped, and Dean nearly drooled at the view he was provided of her ass. When she placed the utensil in the sink and turned to lean against the counter, Dean was afforded a lovely view from the front.
“So tell me, Dean, do you often serve cake to strange women, or is this a unique experience?”
She was digging into his personal life. Dean was content to play along because he sure as hell intended to dig into hers. “With so many pretty ladies in the world?” he replied. “It’d be downright selfish of me to give all my chocolate cake to just one, don’t you think?”
Her lips kicked up at the corners. “I see your point, but is there a special one in the bunch?”
He quirked a brow. Subtlety wasn’t Catherine’s strong suit. “Are you trying to find out if I’m single, Catherine?”
Her nose shot up in the air. “Well, yeah.”
He liked how blunt she could be when the need called for it. “Yes, I’m unattached and plan to stay that way.” Linda’s deceitful face clouded his vision for a second before he managed to snuff it out. “I’ll leave marriage and babies up to my brother and sister.” No way would he ever consider going down that road again.
She moved to sit back in her chair, then leaned her arms on the table and asked, “Why? You don’t want to be a father someday?”
Red flags went up in Dean’s head. Too damn personal. He decided it was time to flip the spotlight back onto her, the way he liked it. “What about you? Do you have a man back in Atlanta?”
She shook her head, and Dean felt all the blood in his body go south at the knowledge that she wasn’t already claimed. “I haven’t had much luck in the dating department.”
“That’s hard to believe. How is it that a guy hasn’t caught you and wiggled a ring onto your dainty finger?”
She glanced down and began tapping out a rhythm on the table. “Eh, I’ve dated,” she answered, “but nothing too serious. And lately all my concentration has been on dealing with my parents’ estate.”
“Why do you do that?”
She stopped and looked up at him. “Huh?”
He pointed to her fingers. “You tap whenever you’re thinking about something or nervous.”
“Oh, that. It’s so automatic sometimes that I don’t realize I’m doing it. I’m sorry. My friend Mary says it’s annoying.”
“Not at all.” He shrugged. “I only brought it up because I was curious.”
There was a lull in the conversation, and Dean wondered where Catherine’s mind had drifted off to. It was a unique experience, sitting across the table with a woman on a Saturday afternoon and chatting. Usually if he wasn’t in bed with a woman, then he had little use for them. It was a callous attitude and he knew it, but it was one he’d been content with, until now. Somewhere over the years he’d become a complete ass.
“I took piano lessons when I was little,” she explained, yanking him out of his depressing thoughts. “My piano teacher, Mrs. Clover, wasn’t a very nice woman. I can still hear her angry voice scolding me for not hitting the proper keys. I didn’t take more than a few lessons, but that’s when I developed the tapping thing. Like a nervous tick, I suppose.”
Dean could easily picture Catherine as a young girl. Cute red pigtails and light brown freckles dotting her nose and cheeks. It pissed him off when he imagined her being reprimanded by some incompetent teacher. “Sounds like your teacher had no business being around kids.”
“Mama said pretty much the same thing at the time.” She propped her head on her fist and said, “I suppose for the most part Mrs. Clover was a decent-enough teacher, but she always made me so nervous.”
“Are you nervous with me, Catherine?”
“No.” She hesitated a moment before saying, “Yes.”
He didn’t want that. He wanted her at ease. “You don’t need to be nervous around me, sweetheart.”
She snorted. “You don’t like me very much. You’ve admitted as much. That tends to make a person nervous.”
He shook his head. “No, I never said I didn’t like you. I said I don’t trust you. There’s a difference.”
She rolled her eyes and sat back in her chair. “That doesn’t make me feel loads better.”
“I’m sorry.” Dean wanted to reassure her, to tell her something that would put her mind to rest, but it’d be a lie.
She pointed to him. “Time,” she said. “That’s what you need. Time to see that I’m not the devil you think I am.”
She captivated him. Sitting across his table so determined to prove him wrong. He hoped she did, because then he’d be able to do more than look at her delectable siren’s body. The little green-eyed beauty had no idea how tempted he was in that moment. His bed wasn’t all that far away. Within seconds he could have her in it. But nothing had changed since the moment he’d met her. She was still a stranger attempting to insinuate herself into his family, and he still didn’t know if that was a good thing or not.
Dean decided it was time to change the subject. “So, what do you and Gracie have planned while you’re in town?”
She turned her head and looked at the time on the stove before answering. “We’re meeting later today to do some shopping. She wants to show me around the area a bit.”
“That sounds like fun.”
“It’ll be my first time to shop with my sister.” Her voice shook a little. “It’s a little surreal still.”
“I can imagine.” He paused before adding, “And if I know Gracie I bet she has a whole list of things in store for the two of you. She’ll run you ragged if you aren’t careful.”
She laughed, and Dean’s cock stiffen
ed. God, she had a cute laugh. “Yeah, she’s already mentioned taking me to some nightclub tonight.”
Every muscle in Dean’s body went rigid. “A nightclub?”
She nodded. “The Pit, she called it. Gracie says it just opened recently.” She cocked a brow at him. “Have you heard of it?”
For some reason the thought of Catherine at a nightclub bothered him. She’d be surrounded by men, and they’d all want to get in her pants. To hell with that. “Yeah, it’s a nice place, but are you sure that’s such a good idea?” he asked. “Two women alone and all?”
“Oh, Wade is going with us. I think he likes to make sure Gracie’s safe. Gracie says he’s not quite over the stalker thing yet.” She swiped a stray crumb off her sweater. “I can’t blame him really. I wouldn’t be either.”
Dean recalled the ugly incident several months ago. “They both landed in the hospital. It’s not something any of us will soon forget.”
All the color left her face. “Oh, God. Gracie told me about some of it, but not that part. I suspect she glossed over the uglier details.”
“What did she say?”
“Only that some sicko had been stalking her.” Her brows scrunched together. “The creep broke into her apartment and trashed it. And before Wade could catch him, the guy kidnapped her. But Wade and Jonas saved her.”
“They did save her, but not before Wade got shot and Gracie got cut up. Scared the daylights out of all of us.”
She slapped a hand over her heart. “God, that’s awful! Gracie must have been so scared.”
“Yeah,” he muttered. “So be careful at the club tonight. Like I said, it’s a nice place, but there are drunken assholes in the nice clubs too.”
She cocked her head to the side. “Are you worried about me?”
Dean narrowed his eyes. “I’m worried about Gracie,” he answered, which wasn’t quite the truth. “She’d be upset if something happened to you.”
“Oh,” she said in a faraway voice, “of course.”
He’d made her sad. Well, hell. Great going, asshole. Seeing her sad made him uncomfortable. “Catherine?”